Page:Fantastic Volume 08 Number 01.djvu/127

 shrilly, the chuckles blending into maniac laughter. Deliberately he walked to the window and threw it open, laughing as a hunger maddened dog threw itself against the bars. He shot it and the others swarmed over their dead companion in an ecstasy of hunger,—and as they fed he laughed

Winter came and snow drifted in the streets, but somehow she managed to survive. There was still food in the city,—and she found it,—foraging through the looted stores along the waterfront. And with the snow the scavengers departed. Most of the food was gone and what remained was hard to get. Occasionally she killed a dog who invaded the half mile square she considered hers and left its body in the streets to be devoured. But that was poor tactics. Rather than being a deterrant, the dead proved an attraction for their cannibalistic fellows.

So she began to search for a new territory constantly widening her travels,—until she reached the hills surrounding the harbor.

And then she found a special street. A full dozen frozen carcasses of dogs barred its entrance, but she paid them no attention. She had seen dead dogs before, and they didn't bother her.

The street opened onto a broad avenue, white with snow and oddly clear of stranded cars. She looked down its length,—and stopped short,—shivering! For there, standing beside one of the tall buildings was a man,—a living man! A tall man who looked at her with the same astonished wonder that she looked at him

The dogs kept Falkland sane. His hatred of them was the bright point that focused his reason. And with the onset of winter he began to teach them the promised lesson. The cold had reduced their numbers enough for him to risk taking one of the hospital ambulances on a short reconnaissance through the nearly impassable streets. A mile away he found a sporting goods store with a generous and relatively untouched stock of the supplies he needed. There were rifles, ammunition,—and traps,—strong steel traps that would hold the fiercest dog.

And Falkland smiled.

It didn't take long before the starvelings who remained realized that man had returned to claim his own, NOTHING BUT TERROR