The Empty City by Erin Hunter

him in a huddle, seeking safety and protection in the warmth and numbers of a …
    â€¦ Pack , thought Lucky with a jolt.
    The ground felt so terribly disturbed beneath his paw pads. It shook and quivered still, as if it were trying to throw them off. Was the Earth-Dog afraid of the Big Growl, too? Or were the two of them part of each other? Lucky didn’t know. Please , he thought, please, Earth-Dog, keep us safe....
    Maybe the Earth-Dog listened to him, because the Big Growl didn’t return—not the way it had that terrible night. This could have been its smaller earth-brother, turning restlessly the way Bella had, but going back to sleep in its underground den. The ground stopped grumbling beneath his paws, and the crackling sensation left the air. For the first time in ages, Lucky breathed properly. Around him the other dogs, too, were shaking the fear out of their fur, standing up more confidently, looking around for the next danger. They weren’t assuming that all was well again, and they weren’t trotting straight back to their longpaw houses, but they weren’t panicking, and that made him absurdly proud of his whole …
    Don’t think it , he told himself. They’re not my Pack .
    Yes, he’d helped them, and maybe he’d found it reassuring to huddle together with other dogs. But that didn’t mean a thing! They wouldn’t have been much use to him if the danger had worsened.
    Time to strike out again , Lucky told himself. Alone . His fate was in his own paws and he’d better remember it. Warm flanks were one thing, but there was a lot more to Pack life than a bit of company. A lot more, and some of it he couldn’t bear to imagine....
    And then he stopped worrying, because a new, deadly rumble filled the air. There wasn’t time to huddle together and protect one another. The rumbling instantly became a tremendous crash, a chaos of stone and screeching metal, and the air filled with blinding dust.
    Lucky froze, crouching against the ground, and so did the others. He gazed ahead, his jaw hanging slack. Where a longpaw house had stood, right next to Bella’s, now there were only billowing clouds of smoke.
    The echoing thunder seemed to go on forever. No one moved until the dust began to thin and clear and settle. Sunshine whimpered uncertainly, and Mickey’s growl was a frightened one.
    Nothing had fallen on them; he’d gathered Bella’s friends in exactly the right place, he realized with pride.
    His sense of achievement was swept away as the hairs stood up on the back of his neck and shoulders. The sound that came from the ruins was horrible: an unearthly howl of terror and pain and desolation. For a few seconds he stood stock-still with the rest of them, uncomprehending, as chills ran through his belly; was the Earth-Dog herself mourning and whining at this further disaster? Was this the final straw: the destruction of all that was left?
    Then, at his side, Bella lifted her muzzle and gave a hysterical howl. Lucky watched in amazement as she stood there, trembling, the others joining in her cry of distress.
    â€œWhat?” he snapped desperately. “Bella! Tell me!”
    â€œAlfie!” she whined. “He’s trapped in that house!”

CHAPTER TEN
    â€œ Alfie! Alfieeeee!” Sunshine was running in frantic circles. “Lucky, do something! Pleeeease! ”
    Lucky turned from one dog to the other, nearly tripping over Daisy again. The others were all frozen to the spot. “Who’s Alfie?”
    Bella shook her head miserably. “A little, brave dog. He wasn’t with us when we found you. He’d stayed behind to guard his longpaws’ house!”
    â€œI knew we should never have left him,” Daisy muttered, her nose drooping into the dirt.
    â€œThere’s nothing we can do.” Mickey’s whine was bleak.
    â€œIf we go in there we might be killed.” Bella took a shivering step