Darkness Falls is the third book in the Survivor Dogs series.
The book starts with a flashback of Yap (Lucky) and Squeak (Bella) as pups. During a thunderstorm, Yap and his siblings huddle with their Mother-Dog in fear. Their mother soothes them by telling them that there's nothing to fear; the Sky-Dogs are just playing with Lightning up in the sky. Yap wakes up from his nap to see his mother looking outdoors at the rainy night sky. Yap recognizes that the storm wasn't just play-fighting like his mother said. The Sky-Dogs almost seem angry at someone. Mother-Dog tells Yap that they could also be warning dogs, but she's only guessing. Either way, Yap's mother placates him by telling him that there's no use worrying and that the Spirit-Dogs will protect them from any harm.
The next chapter skips ahead to the final scene of the last book. Whine has betrayed Lucky and told the rest of the Wild Pack that he's been spying for the Leashed Dogs. Despite the betrayal, Sweet believes that Lucky has proven his worth as member of their pack. Alpha, however, is not as forgiving towards Lucky. The Leashed Dogs are let into the pack, but Lucky is lowered to Omega for his treachery. He is also to be permanently scarred on his flank so that every dog knows that he's a traitor. Sweet and even Bruno hold Lucky down as Alpha gets ready to bite him, but the marking ceremony is stopped when a sudden storm appears.
This storm isn't like anything the dogs have seen before. It's a loud storm coming from the city. Putrid smells flow through the air as the storm approaches, Not even Alpha knows what to do, but Lucky states that they should flee the territory. While fleeing. Twitch accidentally breaks his already-bad paw. After finding a safe territory, the dogs settle down. Mickey, however, thinks that the longpaws were trying to point them back to the city and ventures back home to see if they are, In the middle of the night, Twitch also suddenly runs away from the pack.
Alpha believes that Lucky is the reason for all the chaos. He kicks him out of the pack. Not even his sister Bella tries to stop Alpha from exiling Lucky. Betrayed, Lucky decides to run to the city and see if he can survive as a lone City Dog again. While on his way to the city he sees Twitch, who obviously wants to be left alone. When Lucky arrives near the city, it's obviously still abandoned. While running past the Dog-Garden, Lucky notices the tangy smell of blood and smells a wounded Fierce Dog, but he's too scared to help the dog and leaves it be.
At the city, Lucky finds Mickey near his old house. He's protecting it from burglars. Lucky notes that these longpaws who have been left behind seem more savage and sickly than normal longpaws. Mickey and Lucky scare off the longpaws, but the house falls apart anyway. Mickey and Lucky decide to return to the forest together. They have a strange encounter with longpaws before they continue past the Dog-Garden. While passing, they hear the sound of pups whimpering and decide to investigate.
At the Dog-Garden, Mickey and Lucky come across three young Fierce Dog pups and their dead mother. Two of the pups take easily to the offer of food and safety, but the largest male is more resistant. After getting the pups to all agree to leave with them, Lucky and Mickey bury their Mother-Dog. After the burial they notice another dead dog, a Fierce Dog pup who isn't a littermate of the triplets. They bury him and move on.
The triplets are named Grunt, Wiggle, and Lick, after characteristics they display. The trek back to the Wild Pack doesn't go easily as the dogs come across pup-hungry coyotes along the way. When the group returns to the Wild Pack's territory, they find it abandoned. However, Daisy is nearby and reunites them with the pack.
The Wild Pack is not so keen on allowing Fierce Dog pups in. There are worries that the Fierce Dogs will come for the pups or, even if they don't, the pups are a danger to the pack. The pups are reluctantly allowed in as long as Lucky can keep them in check,
Martha takes a special liking to the pups and acts as their surrogate mother. Moon, however, doesn't like the Fierce Dog pups around hers. As they grow older, the pups become stronger. While play-fighting with her daughter Squirm, Grunt accidentally injures her. This results in Alpha making the pups go on a test to show their loyalty. The pups go on a journey through the forest with Daisy that almost ends in disaster when Grunt antagonizes a black bear.
After returning home from the test, the Fierce Dogs arrive at the pack's territory. They want their pups back. Or more precisely, Blade wants her pups back. The pups aren't Blade's but most of the pack don't care and end up giving them to her anyway. Afterwards, Lucky challenges Snap but looses and keeps his rank as Omega.
A few hours later, an injured pup stumbles into the territory. It's the female Fierce Dog pup, Lick. It turns out that Blade realized the pups weren't her own and attacked them. She killed Wiggle but let Grunt live after he declared loyalty to her. Lick narrowly escaped due to a sudden burst of fog. The book ends when Alpha decides that their territory is not safe from the Fierce Dogs and that they need to move soon.
This book provides examples of:
- Automobiles Are Alien: None of the dogs understand how aircrafts work. They see longpaws trapped inside the stomachs of weird "birds" but don't understand why or how. After seeing an injured longpaws taken into one of the loudbirds, Mickey mistakes it for some sort of Human Sacrifice.
- Bears Are Bad News: Double subverted. The black bear is intimidating looking but is only interested in honey... until Grunt tries to attack it. Then it turns into a straight example and tries to attack the dogs.
- Deadly Euphemism: Alpha asks whether they should "end" the Fierce Dogs:Alpha: "Do we move on and leave them in the wild, or do we end this?"
- Death Is a Sad Thing: The Fierce Dog pups have death explained to them by Lucky when he buries their mother.
- Death of a Child:
- Lucky and Mickey find a murdered Fierce Dog pup in the Dog-Garden. It's heavily implied that he's Blade's son and that she killed him.
- Wiggle is killed by Blade shortly after leaving with the Fierce Dogs.
- Distinguishing Mark:
- Wiggle has an unusually tufty neck.
- The unnamed deceased Fierce Dog pup has a white, fang-shaped fur marking. He shares this trait with his mother Blade.
- Alpha attempts to give Lucky one as a reminder of his sins, but a storm stops this before it happens.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: The Fierce Dog pups face this problem as they grow. Even before their adult teeth grow in, they're already strong enough to make Lucky nervous.
- Fantastic Racism:
- The hatred towards Fierce Dogs is so pervasive that most of the Wild Pack are frightened of barely-weaned pups. There are calls to either kick them out or outright kill them, but the pups are allowed in the pack as long as they're not aggressive.
- The Fierce Dogs think themselves better than other dogs. Even Grunt displays this pride despite his young age. The Fierce Dogs also insult others as "mongrels" and "mutts", implying Half-Breed Discrimination or the dog equivalent of classism.
- Alpha continues to look down upon Lucky for being a City Dog.
- Fear of Thunder: The prologue shows that Yap and his siblings were afraid of storms as young pups.
- Ironic Name: Alpha calls Lucky's name a "cruel joke" when exiling him.
- Kill the Cutie: Wiggle, the most innocent and shyest Fierce Dog pup, is the one who gets killed by Blade.
- The Load: Subverted. When Spring calls Sunshine (a Maltese) and Whine (a Pug) burdens on the pack, Sweet notes that they can be of use. They can be patrol dogs who keep the pack safe.
- Mark of Shame: It's tradition to mark traitors with permanent scars. They even call it a "marking ceremony". Alpha attempts this on Lucky but is stopped before he can bite him.
- Meaningful Name: The Fierce Dog pups are named this way: Wiggle gets his name from his wiggly rump, Lick gets her name from her affectionate nature, and Grunt gets his name for his moodiness.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The book begins with Lucky as a pup talking to his Mother-Dog about the Sky-Dogs.
- Never Given a Name: The Fierce Dog pups are only a few weeks old and haven't been named yet. Lucky names them.
- Offing the Offspring: Blade killed her own young son.
- Parental Abandonment: The Fierce Dog pups have a deceased mother. Their father's whereabouts are unknown.
- Parental Substitute: Martha acts as surrogate mother to the Fierce Dog pups. Lucky acts similarly to a father or older brother.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Lampshaded when the Fierce Dog pups question the logic of the Forest-Dog: If he protects all forest animals, then why is he "gifting" good dogs prey by allowing animals to be hunted?
- Secret Test of Character: Alpha orders the Fierce Dog pups on a journey through the forest to test their loyalty to the Wild Pack.
- Sins of Our Fathers: The Fierce Dog pups are looked down upon and scorned because their birth pack consists of vicious murderers. The pups have never harmed anyone, but their mother's sins are their own too.
- A Storm Is Coming: While escaping their territory, the black cloud coming from the city briefly turns into a shape. Alpha thinks it's dog-shaped and deems it an evil Sky-Dog, while Mickey thinks it's a human hand pointing to the city.
- Those Wily Coyotes: Lucky comes across coyotes during his trip back to the Wild Pack with Mickey and the pups. He specifically notes that coyotes are known for being fierce and sneaky.
- Too Dumb to Live: Grunt is a headstrong puppy who antagonizes a black bear. Notably, the black bear wasn't interested in him until Grunt tried to fight it. Grunt's idiocy nearly gets him and the other dogs killed.
- Tragic Keepsake: Mickey gives up his boy's baseball glove in chapter seven. It's become clear that he can't hang onto the past anymore.
- You No Take Candle: For whatever reason, coyotes speak like this. They speak in fragmented, grammatically incorrect sentences.
