The Dog Read Online Free Page B

room ahead. I can't make out very much, but I can see a patch on the floor now and I'm certain we've found the blood.
    “Maybe this place got robbed,” Jon says cautiously, before peering through into the next room. “Hello? Is anyone here? Is anyone hurt?”
    He pulls the black device from his pocket and glances at it, before putting it away again. Turning, he heads over to a white device on the wall and he pulls part of it away, listening to it for a moment before putting it back.
    “Landlines are down too,” he mutters, stepping back over toward the door.
    I bark again.
    “Easy, boy,” he continues, “it's okay. There's no-one here now. I think something might have happened, though. Something bad.”
    He taps at the black device, and suddenly the front becomes very bright. Turning it toward the door, he lights the way as he steps forward into the darkness. I can tell his heart is pounding, and he seems scared, so I hurry after him and peer through into the next room, ready to fight in case anything tries to attack us.
    “I was right,” he says after a moment. “There's definitely no-one here now.”
    Reaching the patch of blood on the ground, I lean closer and take a sniff. It's human blood, that's for sure, and although it's not completely fresh, it's not old either. Just a day at most.
    “What have you got there?” Jon asks, coming over to me and crouching down. “Hell, is that blood?”
    I look up at him, hoping against hope that now he'll finally realize that we need to get out of here. There's no need for us to be here, or for us to start poking about in darkened rooms. We should simply go back to the cabin and wait for everything to go back to normal. When he doesn't say anything, and simply continues to stare in shock at the blood, I use my paw to nudge his knee, and I let out a faint whimper.
    “It's okay,” he replies, rubbing my head as he gets up. “Something definitely happened here, though. I think the place got robbed, and then...”
    He steps back through into the first room, and I quickly follow.
    “And then someone got hurt,” he continues, “and ran. Maybe that's what caused those gunshots we heard the other night. This gas station is open all-night, so obviously there was a robbery, but why has no-one been back since? Unless...”
    He pauses, before glancing down at me again.
    “Unless whoever got shot... Maybe they didn't make it very far, but still...”
    I follow as he heads back over to the main door and pulls it open. Relieved to be back outside again, I hurry across the parking lot until we reach the edge of the main road, where Jon stops and looks both ways.
    “Why are there no cars?” he asks, turning to look down at me. “We've been here at least ten minutes now, and this is usually a busy highway. So where the hell did everybody go?”

Chapter Six
     
    With the car's engine still running, Jon continues to turn the little round dials next to the steering wheel, but the only noise that comes from the speakers is a kind of whirling static that hurts my ears.
    “There's no radio,” he mutters, finally cutting the engine and stopping the horrible noise. “Nobody's broadcasting anything. That seems weird. Hell, it's more than weird. This must be the first time the airwaves have been silent since... Hell, since radio was invented.”
    I'm sitting on the seat next to him, and after a moment he looks back over toward the gas station's main building. I can tell that he's worried, but I don't understand why we're still here. We should go back up to the cabin and make sure that we're safe. Everything will be okay if we just go back up there and wait. Whatever's going on here is none of our business.
    “This isn't right,” he says suddenly, climbing back out of the car. “I don't like it.”
    Although I don't want to follow, I jump down and head around to join him. I don't understand why we haven't left yet, but I trust Jon and I'm sure he's got his reasons. And while we're