In the Panther's Wake

Chapter 2

The sewers are very dark and we can barely see where we're going. We want to move quickly but we keep stopping to search for the chalk arrows. They can be hard to find in the dark. Eventually we have to spark a flare. There's only a very limited supply so we don't feel great about it but we have to. We stayed out too long and night is over us. We move forward by flare-light, the orange glow allows us to see the ground and we pick up our pace as the white arrows take us home. We move straight for a very long time, heading south. There are a couple of left turns and then a right. I immediately recognise where we are, familiar territory. The sewers are dry, our feet patter along, our worn boots kicking up dirt. Soon we reach an opening onto the main metro line that leads to the city's oldest station beneath the zoo. That's where we live.

We toss the flare; it's the home straight. I look at Markus and he's smiling. I smile back at him, but notice the blood dripping from his back-pack. He shrugs. As we stand still to rest I can hear the droplets landing on the stone. Beneath the stone we can hear the dripping of the water channels. Markus glances at me with a smile and then starts to run towards home. I follow him, catching up fast. The glow of the station is just ahead, a little further along the tracks.

**

We climb up onto the platform and I spot my mother immediately. I run to her and hug her.

"We were so worried!" she says, "Thank God you made it back. What happened?"

I hold her close, close my eyes and let her squeeze me, "We went farther this time, we wanted to come back with something good."

Her face turns sad for an instant, but she covers it with a smile, shaking her head, "You have to be careful. Don't worry about what you bring back. We don't care as long as you're safe."

She worries too much, and I can't contain my smile any more.

"What?" she asks.

I lean close and whisper to her, "We found horse meat."

Markus jumps in and joins the hug. Then I feel my father's strong hand on my back.

"Thank God you're both back. Most of the others returned hours ago. They couldn't find anything."

Markus looks at him proudly, "I've got a back-pack full of horse for you."

My father smiles at us both, "You know we don't care what you return with, as long as you return."

"We know," I reply, but I can see the joy inside my father. Rats and pigeons have been killing us all. He looks thin and hungry. Everyone does. He just doesn't want us to feel responsible for what we bring back. But we are responsible. Without us everyone would starve.

**

The station's ceiling is high above the ground. It's painted with bright colours, pictures of people and buildings and blue skies and trees and plants that twist over and under each other. A large fire burns in the centre of the platform. It burns there the whole time. It stays very cool down here even in the summer—even during the day. It's May now and on the surface it's getting hot, but down here the air still bites as if it were December. We follow our parents back to our little shack in the west corner of the station. It's built from wood and sheet metal. My father built it when we first came down here, back when the skies first turned black from the smoke and fire of The End. We've lived here ever since. There are three rooms in our shack; one for Markus and me, another for my parents, and a third with a table and chairs where we eat. We're surrounded by other shacks, all very similar. They line all the walls of the station, all four platforms.

There are almost two hundred people living in the metro station in around forty separate shacks. There are others hiding out elsewhere. I've seen others I don't recognise on the surface, doing the same thing we're doing. That's how I can be sure. We haven't actually made contact with them though. We keep to our task like we're told. We have our settlement in the metro station and we get by, keeping to ourselves. I'm sure the others do the same. Markus wants all the groups to join up and build an army to fight the soldiers above. My father says it would be too hard, not worth the risk. Most of the people here have families, and that's most important, family.