The X-Files: Antibodies Read Online Free PDF Page A

go see the Devil’s Churn, where waves from the ocean shot up like a geyser through a hole in the rock, and then they would head up to the Columbia River Gorge and see waterfall after waterfall.
    Now, though, he just wanted to find a place to spend the night.
    “Dog!” his wife cried. “A dog! Watch out!”
    For a frozen instant, Richard thought she was playing some bizarre variant of the Silo game, but then he spotted the black four-legged form hesitating in the middle of the road, its liquid eyes like pools of quicksilver that reflected the headlights.
    He slammed on the brakes, and the new tires on the rental Subaru skiied across the slick coating of fallen leaves. The car slewed, slowed, but continued forward like a locomotive, barely under control.
    In the back, the kids screamed. The brakes and tires screamed even louder.
    The dog tried to leap away at the last instant, but the Subaru bumper struck it with a horrible muffled thump. The black Lab flew onto the hood, into the windshield, then caromed off the side into the weed-filled ditch.
    The car screeched to a halt, spewing wet gravel from the road’s shoulder. “Jesus Christ!” Richard shouted, slamming the gearshift into park so quickly the entire vehicle rocked.
    He grabbed at his seatbelt, fumbling, punching, struggling, until the buckle finally popped free of the catch. Megan and Rory huddled in stunned silence in 24
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    the back, but Richard popped the door open and sprang out. He looked from side to side, belatedly thinking to check if another car or truck might be bearing down on them.
    Nothing. No traffic, just the night. In the deep forest, even the nocturnal insects had fallen silent, as if watching.
    He walked around the front of the car with a sick dread. He saw the dent in the bumper, a smashed headlight, a scrape in the hood of the rental car. He remembered too vividly the offhanded and cheerful manner in which he had declined insurance coverage from the rental agent. He stared down now, wondering how much the repairs would cost.
    The back door opened a crack, and a very pale-looking Megan eased out. “Daddy? Is he all right?” She peered around, blinking in the darkness. “Is the dog going to be okay?”
    He swallowed hard, then crunched around the front of the car into the wet weeds. “Just a second, honey. I’m still looking.”
    The dog lay sprawled and twitching, a big black Labrador with a smashed skull. He could see the skid marks where it had tumbled across the underbrush. It still moved, attempting to drag itself into the brambles toward a barbed-wire fence and denser foliage beyond. But its body was too broken to let it move.
    The dog wheezed through broken ribs. Blood trickled from its black nose. Christ, why couldn’t the thing have just been killed outright? A mercy.
    “Better take him to a doctor,” Rory said, startling him. He hadn’t heard the boy climb out of the car.
    Sharon stood up at the passenger side. She looked at him wide-eyed, and he gave a slight shake of his head.
    “I don’t think a doctor will be able to help him, sport,” he said to his son.

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    “We can’t just leave him here,” Megan said, indignant. “We gotta take him to a vet.”
    He looked down at the broken dog, the dented rental car, and felt absolutely helpless. His wife hung on the open door. “Richard, there’s a blanket in the back. We can move the suitcases between the kids, clear a spot. We’ll take the dog to the nearest veterinary clinic. The next town up the road should have one.”
    Richard looked at the kids, his wife, and the dog.
    He had absolutely no choice. Swallowing bile, knowing it would do no good, he went to get the blanket while Sharon worked to rearrange their suitcases.
    The next reasonably sized town up the road, Lincoln City, turned out to be all the way to the coast. The lights had been doused except for dim illumination through window shades in back rooms where the locals watched