The Dog Read Free Page A

and he doesn't seem to have noticed just how still and quiet the world seems right now.
    “Picking up any fun scents?” he asks, tossing another stick into the distance.
    I ignore the stick.
    “Harry? Don't you don't feel like playing this morning?”
    I keep my nose close to the ground. There are scents out here, but they all seem a little stale. Usually I love coming to the forest early in the morning, when I can pick up on the trails of all the animals that have been through during the night, but this time it seems that the forest stayed completely empty after the sun set. It's hard to believe that Jon hasn't noticed the change. I know he's not very good at picking up scents, but even he should surely have noticed by now that the forest around us is not only empty, but also completely quiet.
    Sometimes I think humans can barely smell anything at all.
    “Still no signal,” he mutters, checking the black device he pulled from his pocket a moment ago. “That's over twenty-four hours now. I can't remember the last time phone coverage was out for that long.”
    He fiddles with the device some more.
    “I wish there was some way of contacting Julie, just to find out what the hell's going on,” he continues. “I'm not worried, but I'd still like to know for sure.” He turns to me. “Have you noticed anything weird, buddy? Anything tickling that super-strength nose of yours?”
    Ahead, the forest-floor drops down a shallow incline, and I can see the light of a field in the distance. Glancing over my shoulder, I look back the way we just came, and I can't sake the feeling that the entire forest seems completely lifeless. There's no strong, local scent of blood, so it's not as if there was some kind of incident here. Nothing died in the forest. Instead, all the rabbits and mice and other animals simply seem to have cleared out, preferring to go somewhere else, perhaps further away from the city.
    Maybe they smelled the blood too, as its scent drifted between the trees.
    We stop at the edge of the forest. The lake is spread out in the distance, and the city is even further off. The wind is blowing the wrong way for me to pick up any strong scents, so I can't tell if the city still smells of blood, but I can tell that the whole world still seems strangely silent. I'd usually be able to hear a distant rumble from the roads, and an electrical buzz in the air, yet for the second day running there doesn't seem to be anything at all.
    “Have you noticed any planes?” Jon says suddenly.
    I turn to him and see that he's shielding his eyes from the sun as he looks up into the sky.
    “Remember last time we were up here?” he continues. “Remember how I was bitching about planes going over, on their way to the airport?”
    He pauses for a moment, before turning and looking the other way.
    “I only just realized,” he adds finally, “but I don't think I've seen or heard any sign of a plane since a couple of days ago. I would've thought the airport'd have its own generators, but I guess not.”
    He looks back toward the city.
    “Hell, it's almost as if the power outage is still going on. What's going on down there? How can the city be out of power for this long?”
    He takes the black device from his pocket and checks it again, although after a moment he lets out a faint sigh.
    “This is going on for a little too long for my liking,” he mutters, clearly concerned. “Harry, I'm not gonna start panicking, but if we don't hear from anyone by tomorrow morning, how about we take the car down to the main road? I know we were supposed to stay up here the whole time and get away from the crazy world, but I'd like to just make sure that nothing too bad has happened. Does that sound good to you?”
    Again, he forces a smile, but again he seems more worried than he's letting on. His heart-rate is faster, his breathing is shallower, and his voice sounds more clipped.
    “Maybe there's been a terrorist attack or something,” he adds,