Panther was not impressed. “Nice words, but they don’t mean spit.
We don’t live in the kind of world you keep talking about, River. Most of those creatures you want to help just want to see us dead! They’re nothing but frickin’ animals!”
Bear leaned in, his blunt, pale face dripping rain. “I don’t think we should stand out here like this.”
Hawk nodded and motioned them ahead once more. They spread out in the Wing-T without being told, disciplined enough to know what to do. Panther was still muttering to himself, but Hawk paid no attention, his mind on the dead Lizard. If there was something in the city that could take on and nearly kill a Lizard that size, then they needed to be extra careful. Up until now, there hadn’t been anything that dangerous to contend with, not counting Croaks and Pukes. He wondered suddenly if maybe a pack of one or the other had done this, but quickly dismissed the idea. Croaks and Pukes didn’t travel in packs and didn’t inflict that kind of damage. No, this was something else—something that had either crawled up out of the deeper parts of the underground or come into the city from another place.
He would ask Owl when they returned. Owl might be able to learn something from one of her books.
They reached the Hammering Man and paused for a quick look, just as they always did. The Hammering Man stood frozen in place, a flat black metal giant with one arm raised and the other outstretched in front of it. The raised hand held a hammer; the outstretched hand held a small anvil. It was a piece of art, Owl said. The building behind it had once been a museum. None of the Ghosts had ever seen a museum except in pictures. This one had long since been looted and trashed, the interior set afire and the windows broken out. The Hammering Man was really all that was left. Hawk drew them away and turned them uphill toward the city center. The streets were slick with mud and damp.
Climbing the sidewalks was slow and treacherous. Candle went down twice, and Bear once.
Panther frowned at them and kept going, above such failings. He had worn his hiking boots for better traction. Panther always wore what was needed.
He was always prepared.
In another place and time, he might have been leader of the Ghosts.
He was bigger and stronger than Hawk, and only two years younger. He was more daring, more willing to take on anything that threatened. But Hawk had the vision, and they all believed that without the vision, you were lost. Owl was wise, Candle blessed with infallible instincts, and Bear steady and strong.
Panther was brave. Chalk was talented, Sparrow fierce, and Fixit inventive. All the Ghosts had something that Hawk didn’t, but Hawk had the one thing they all needed, so they followed him.
Two streets up, they found the Cats waiting, ten strong, at the appointed meeting place at the intersection of University and Third. Their home was in one of the abandoned condo buildings somewhere on the north edge of the city, although Hawk was unsure which one. This was neutral territory, uninhabited by any of the other tribes, a gathering place for all wishing to do business.
Trades were how they all lived, each bringing something to the bargaining that the others needed. The Cats had a source for apples and plums.
Fresh food of any sort was rare, and the demand for all of it high. Where the Cats found such food was a mystery, although Owl said she thought they must have discovered a small rooftop garden with the apple and plum trees already in place and had simply taken advantage.
Whatever the case, you needed fresh fruit to stay healthy. Owl had studied up on it and told them so. Much of what had once been the diet of their civilization was gone—nearly everything that had been grown on the farms. The compounds still grew their own food, but they were having only mixed success, given the soil and water they had to work with. Most of what the street kids ate was prepackaged and made edible by adding water and heating. There were certain canned foods you could still eat and bottled liquids you could drink, but these were fast disappearing. Stores of all kinds had long since been raided and cleaned out, and only a few useful ones remained, their locations carefully guarded secrets. The Ghosts had discovered one a couple of years back, and still carried out and stockpiled what they needed from time to time.
What they had brought to trade at this meeting was as precious and as hard to come by as fresh food and was the sole reason the Cats might be willing to give up a portion of their own stash.
“You’re late, Hawk,” called out Tiger, the Cats’ big, muscular leader.