Catopolis

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s split up, Coon. You go that way-over behind the Bleach & Ammonia House, there’s a garden where all the Inside cats go. Good mousing there, not to mention chipmunks and even some squirrels. I’ll take this side-nothing much here, but after I check it out I can catch up-”

The Coon’s great green eyes seemed to glow as they picked up the belly-lights of the thwoppers slowly dropping from the night sky. “I got an idea. We split up and you take the Bleach and Whatever, while I take Nothing Much.”

I sighed. “Okay. We stick together.”

Which was when, with a distant bang and a nearby swoosh, a streak of flame reached up from outside Knifewall, hit the incoming thwopper, and the whole world exploded.

I don’t remember much of what happened right after that. There were entirely too many explosions and gun shots and screaming people ru

When it finally got quiet enough that I could think again, I found myself crouched flat under one of the humans’ garbage boxes in the cul-de-sac. The garbage boxes had big wheels on them, which left plenty of room underneath one even for four pretty good-sized cats, of which I was one, the Coon was another, Hacky was one more…

And there was the Persian.

She was cowering next to Hacky, shivering, filthy with the rotting muck under the garbage box and stinking like week-old fish… and if it were up to me, I would have taken her by the scruff and done her right there in the muck, because she was just that hot. She really was. But it wasn’t up to me, and it never will be.

“What’s happening?” she moaned. “What is this?”

“That’s what I want to know,” the Coon growled, with a look at Hacky that made me really damn glad he wasn’t looking at me.

“Nothing, Coon!” Hacky squeaked. “Honest! I was just-I was just showing her where to get something to eat, that’s all.”

“He’s very sweet,” the Persian said. “Not like the other toms.”

“The other toms?” The Coon and I exchanged ear-flattened looks. Nobody likes finding himself pushed toward the back of a line.

“I’ve heard,” she said carelessly. “Ooh, my coat! What you must think of me, meeting me like this!”

The Coon grunted. “You think anybody cares what you look like?”

“You’re horrible!” She had already snaked away from Hacky, closer to him. “What a brute you are-you must be very strong-”

“You’ll find out,” he said, and I couldn’t watch any more. I crawled forward to check what was happening in the slice of the burning meadow I could see beyond the mouth of the cul-de-sac. There were still some gunshots, but they came slower now, in ones or one-twos.

And through the flames, I saw something that made me mostly forget about the Persian. “Shut up, all of you,” I said. “We have to get out of here.”

“Don’t think so,” the Coon said, thick and slow. He was flemming now himself. “That corner behind the box has room enough.”

“Ooh, you’re horrible!”

“You said that before.” He opened those massive jaws of his and reached for her scruff. “Didn’t sound like you meant it then, either.”

I reached over and whapped him, right on the end of the nose. I kept my claws in-because I didn’t want to die-but the gesture alone made his eyes pop round and flare like the flames from the wreckage in the meadow. “You back away right now, Drags, and I might just forget you did that.”

“Will you haul your brains back out of your ball-sack and look around?”

“I got everything I need to see right here.”

“Please don’t fight, toms. Not over me,” the Perisan purred, wrapping her tail down flat to hide a hint of wicked smile. “The last thing I want is for-”

“Rake yourself, sister. This is serious. We can’t stay here. Coon, Hacky, just come over here and look. Look at the light on the walls to either side-no shadows up above, only shadows down here.”

Hacky just shrugged. “So?”

“So aren’t you starting to feel a little warm?”

The Coon spat an obscenity. “The garbage is on fire. In this box, right over our backs.”

“It gets worse. Coon, look.”

He snarled something wordless, but crawled on over and peered out from under the garbage box. “So? Don’t see nothin’. Just some burning wheelers.”

“That’s right,” I said. “Do you understand that what you’re not seeing is Knifewall?”

He seemed to shrink into himself, then.

“The Calicoes must have exploded it. Or at least made a pretty good hole. Does anybody need me to explain what this means?”

What This Means came into view in the form of a long back-lit silhouette stalking across the mouth of the cul-de-sac. This silhouette was as tall at the withers as most cats can jump, and it had a barrel chest bigger around than most humans’ shoulders. Each of its paws was the size of my head, and the clack of its toenails sounded like distant gun shots. It stopped in front of the alley mouth and lifted its head, huffing to taste the air…

Then it turned toward us.

“Why, hello there, Draaaaags… fancy meeting you here…”

The Persian sniffed. “It’s just a dog.”

“Sure it is,” I said. “Strut on out there and rake his nose. Maybe he’ll run away.”

“Don’t do it,” the Coon said. “That’s not just a dog. That beast has killed more cats than a bucket of rat poison.”

“Hey, hey, hey, Drags.” Bullets sauntered on into the cul-de-sac and sat down, his vast mottled tongue lolling sideways, trailing a stretching loop of drool. “Is that you under the burning garbage? Getting a little warm, are we, Drags?”

“Why don’t you come on over and find out, Bullets? You’ve still got one good eye. Bring it within reach.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” he drawled. “Think I’ll just sit here and enjoy the smell of cooking cat.”

“Bullets?” the Persian said. “That’s the dog’s name?”

“It’s because he’s been shot so many times,” I said. “I mean, look at him.”

In the clearer light from the garbage above us, all the white scar patches showed clearly against his buff coat; he even had a pair on either side of his blackish dewlap. Bullets was bigger than any human I’ve ever seen, and probably tougher, too. “They say bullets can’t kill him. Maybe it’s true.”

“What’s a bullets?”

I stared at her. “Damn, sister, how sheltered are you?”

“Don’t snarl at me,” she sniffled. “I just-I don’t seem to quite understand how things work on the Outside…”

“Sniffed it out yet, Drags?” Bullets was laughing now. “Sniffed out what I already know?”

“You’d be surprised what I know.” I turned to the others. “All right. Get ready to move. I’ll go first and draw him off; I’m the one he wants, anyway. When he starts for me, run like hell for the hole in Knifewall.”

“We’ll all go at once. Every cat for himself,” Hacky said. “Maybe he only gets one of us, and maybe we all get away.”

“My tail how it is, I can’t leap very well any more. No balance. And I’d be clumsy enough scrambling over the rubble that he’ll probably take me anyway.” I sucked in a deep breath. “And he’s not the only one out there. You gotta look out for her, Hacky. You too, Coon. There’s other toms out there. You can all pitch in. It’s the only way.”

The Coon gave me a sidelong look. “Only way to what?”

“To survive, Coon. No more every cat for himself. We have to be more like humans.” More like dogs, I was thinking, but knew better than to say so. You have to walk before you can spring. “Make what I’m about to do count for something.”

“You’d-you’re doing this for me?” The Persian goggled at me. She sounded awed. “You’re so brave-! If only I could be brave!”

“There’s brave cats, and there’s live cats. Stick with the live ones,” I said, and went.

Bullets was so surprised to see me burst out from under the garbage box that I was past him before he even got his tail-stub off the ground. But he was fast, incredibly fast for a big dog, and I could feel the asphalt shake in time with the clatter of his toenails as he galloped after me. I zigged and sprang sideways, spi