The Dog Read Online Free PDF Page A

here, I have to stay close and be ready to defend him in case anything tries to attack us. After all, there's blood in the building, and blood means danger.
    “We've been here for a while now,” he says, stepping over toward the edge of the road again. “It's Saturday afternoon, we're not that far from the city. This road should be...”
    His voice trails off as he stands in silence for a moment.
    “Someone should have gone past by now,” he continues. “I don't know what's going on, but whatever it is, someone should have driven past.” He turns to me. “Unless there's something seriously, seriously wrong.”
    He turns and looks along the road again, but suddenly I realize I'm starting to pick up a new scent. Sniffing the air, I can tell that there's another person not that far from here. Jon doesn't seem to have noticed, but I turn and make my way back around the car, only to find myself staring at the vast pine forest that spreads away from the edge of the parking lot. I can't see anyone, and the scent is clearly coming from at least a mile off, but I swear someone is coming this way. Still sniffing, I realize the scent also seems slightly wrong somehow, although I can't quite work out what it is that I don't like.
    I can't help letting out a faint snarl, however, followed by a bark to alert Jon.
    “What is it?” he asks, coming over to join me. “There's nothing there, Harry.”
    I bark again. He must trust me enough to know that I wouldn't be doing this if I hadn't picked up some kind of scent.
    “I don't see anything,” he continues. “Is that the direction the guy from the gas station went? Or have you just found the scent of another rabbit?”
    Hurrying forward, I start sniffing the ground as I realize I'm starting to pick up a faint trace of blood. By the time I get to the edge of the forest, I can see a couple of dark patches ahead, and I'm certain it's the same blood that we found inside. Whoever got hurt, they seem to have headed off in this direction.
    “Is that blood?” Jon asks, as I stop and sniff another patch.
    Looking at the forest again, I realize I can definitely smell someone. I might be wrong, the wind might be tricking me, but I feel as if whoever's out there, they're less than a mile away and they're coming this way.
    “You really know how to freak me out,” Jon says, reaching down and rubbing the fur on the back of my neck. “You know that, right?” He pauses. “Then again, I'm already pretty freaked out as things stand. Maybe we should head into the city, just to make sure that everything's okay. I don't want to cut our cabin week short, but we can come back up here as soon as we know there's nothing wrong.”
    He heads back over to the car and starts the engine, and suddenly I hear the tires starting to turn. Filled with a sense of panic, I turn and see that he's starting to drive away. I start barking as I rush after him, but he stops again just a few meters ahead, next to one of the tall metal machines in the parking lot.
    “Relax,” he says as he switches the engine off and climbs out, taking a moment to pat the top of my head. “I just need to fill up the gas tank. You didn't think I was going anywhere without you, did you? Hell, if this really is the end of the world, I need my trust little Jack Russell more than ever.”
    I watch as he unhooks a piece from the nearest machine, and then he pulls out a long hose and attaches the section to the side of the car. He fiddles with the machine for a moment, muttering something under his breath, and then finally he steps back.
    “Of course, electricity would be useful,” he says with a sigh. “No electricity, no pump. No pump, no gas.”
    He pulls the hose out of the car and turns to me.
    “Confession time, Harry. I was planning to fill her up on the way back to the city. I know I should have done it on the way to the cabin, but I didn't think it'd be a big deal. Still...”
    He turns and looks back toward the main