Solomon becomes a reluctant leader to the terrified group.
He tells everyone to run out of their cages while he distracts the dogs.
He tells them to get back into the cages so the kids are with an adult.
He attacks one of the mutant dogs and quickly realises he doesn’t want to get into a fight with one.
One of the adults is a man wearing a smart suit.
Solomon gets in the cage with the little girl. He is furious to see that Craven has even had meat fillets stapled to the children.
He does his best to comfort the little girl – who he names Tia, after a princess on a TV show he watched when he was a kid. Tia tells him that she has just watched the dogs eating her mother, who is dead in one of the other cages.
Solomon tells the group that he is going to look for an escape route. He says he is going to pull some of the steaks off himself to appease the dogs. He asks if anyone else is willing to contribute their steaks.
Only Tia offers to contribute.
Solomon promises her that he will get her out of the City of Dogs, even if it kills him.
As h runs from the cage, he is ambushed by one of the mutant dogs.
He puts one of his steaks under its collar and the other dogs begin to attack it.
He makes it back to the cages and uses the businessman’s belt to fasten his cage door shut.
The terror in Tia’s eyes makes him vow to punish Craven for subjecting her to this torture.
Solomon tells them that he saw a lift at the other end of the room.
In Solomon and Tia’s cage, an old man, who Solomon names Martin, is panicking so he takes some sedatives.
Solomon takes some of the tablets and crushes them into the steaks on his arm. He uses the drugged steaks to sedate the dogs.
Tia clings to Solomon as the group makes their way to the lift.
They all get in but the lift won’t go up.
They realise that the lift is over capacity.
Solomon doesn’t want to split the group, but he is outvoted.
He tries to fairly divide the group – keeping the same number of adults and kids, but the other adults band together.
Tia demands to go with Solomon as she knows he will keep her safe.
Another kid, a boy, waits with Solomon too.
The rest of the group leave them and go up in the lift.
The two kids look at him as their saviour and he hopes they are right.
Next chapter is here
Too Many Humans 