The Dog (10 page)
I pause for a moment longer. I want to go through the door and sit with Jon, to maybe check if there's anything I can do to bring him back, but the stench of death is too strong and I can't bring myself to take a step forward. Instead, I walk over to Julie and sit next to her. I curl into a tight ball, hoping that maybe if I close my eyes for a while I might wake up and find that Jon is back.
Deep down, however, I know that he's gone forever.
Finally Julie gets to her feet. Her legs are shaking and she grabs hold of the railing as she stumbles back along the porch. When she reaches the far end, she hesitates for a moment before leaning over the side and vomiting. Then, she makes her way around to the front of the cabin, disappearing from view. A moment later, I hear her sobbing again, wailing this time as if she's in actual, physical pain.
And then she falls silent.
For the next few minutes, I simply rest on the porch and stare through the door, watching Jon's lifeless body in case there's any chance he might stand up.
Eventually, however, I hear Julie coming back this way, and I turn to see her carrying a metal can along the porch.
“I have to do this,” she tells me, sniffing back more tears. “One of the things we learned at the hospital, before everything fell apart, was that fire...”
Her voice trails off, and then she turns and shakes the can, spraying the inside of the cabin with the same foul-smelling liquid that Jon used on the dead bodies earlier. Some of the liquid lands on Jon, and I get to my feet as I realize that Julie suddenly seems more determined, as if she has a plan.
A moment later, I hear a scratching sound, and I look up to see that Julie is holding a small piece of wood that's burning at one end. She hesitates, watching as the flame burns, and then she tosses it through the doorway, causing the interior of the cabin to immediately start burning.
“Come on,” she says, picking me up and carrying me along the porch, away from the flames. “He's gone, buddy.”
I pull back, trying to slip free.
“He's gone!” she says firmly, keeping hold and trying to drag me along. “Harry -”
Turning suddenly, I look over her shoulder, only to see flames roaring out from the door and already sending thick plumes of smoke into the sky.
“Please don't hate me, Harry,” Julie says, sounding a little breathless. “If you'd seen what people become when they get this sickness, you'd know that I did the only thing I could. That wasn't Jon, not anymore. I couldn't leave his body stumbling about like that. It would've been obscene.”
She carries me all the way to her car and then sets me down, keeping hold of my collar while holding some more meat toward my mouth.
“You need to eat,” she continues. “Harry, food! Dinner! I'm sorry I shouted at you just now, but seriously, you need food.”
I turn away, looking back toward the cabin as the flames spread all the way through to the front door.
“Harry -”
Pulling away, I slip free and run away from her car, but I stop when I get to the bottom of the steps. Staring up at the door, I can see smoke escaping from the interior of the cabin, and I realize that there's no way Jon is going to get out of there. I step forward, but a wall of heat pushes me back and finally I settle on the grass, placing my chin between my front legs and watching as the cabin continues to burn. Even if there's no chance of Jon ever coming back, I've spent my entire life with him and I don't know what to do next.
So I'll wait right here.
Maybe something will happen, something I don't understand right now, and he'll suddenly appear.
“Harry!” Julie calls out. “I have to get out of here! Come on, I'll take you with me!”
I barely even hear her voice. Instead, I focus on the sound of the flames, and I listen in case there's any hint of Jon's voice. Julie is still calling for me, but I can't go with her. I belong here, in the spot where I last saw Jon, because I know that he'll come back if he can.
Suddenly I feel Julie's hands on my sides, and she picks me up again. I try to jump free, but she's holding me too firmly as she turns and carries me toward the car.
“I can't leave you here,” she says, putting me onto the back seat before slamming the door shut. “Jon wouldn't want that.”
Everything about her car smells unfamiliar. I've never been in here before, although after a moment I realize that maybe there's
one
scent that I recognize. Jon has been in here, not recently but maybe a week ago or even longer, but it's the first time in several days that I've picked up on his pure scent.
As Julie gets into the front of the car, I lean my head through the gap between the seats and try to get closer to Jon's scent. My heart leaps at the thought that he might be here, even though I know that the scent isn't fresh. Still, just the fact that I can smell him again without there being a hint of death mixed in with the scent is enough to make me feel happy again, even though there's no sign of him.
“I did what I had to,” Julie says, watching as the cabin continues to burn. “I'm a doctor, Harry. I did the sensible, logical thing. It was right for Jon, and it was right for everyone else too. If I'd left him trapped in there, someone else might have stumbled up here and...”
Her voice trails off.
“We have to get to the rendezvous point,” she continues after a moment. “That's the last thing I heard, anyway, before everything went dead. It's only only chance. They said survivors should head to a rendezvous point in the Rarrah Valley, and that we could start turning things around. Maybe I can help, they must need medical staff. I know it might not be a good idea for so many people to gather together when there's still a chance of this sickness spreading, but they'll have precautions in place. They have to. This can't be the end of the world.”
She pauses, before turning to me. There are still tears running down her face.
“You're lucky the disease only seems to affect humans. Dogs aren't even a carrier.”
Reaching out, she strokes the side of my face. She tries to smile, but the effort seems to be too much and she bursts into tears, leaning closer and pressing her face against mine.
“I didn't want to do it,” she sobs finally, sitting back. “I swear, if there'd been any other way, if there'd been even a chance to save him...”
She stares at me for a moment, before starting the engine and backing the car away from the cabin. As she turns the wheel and drives back to the dirt-road, I look through the rear window and watch the burning cabin as it gets further and further away. Even once we're a fair way along the road, I can still see smoke rising into the blue sky, and I let out a faint whimper as I remember the last time I drove this way with Jon.
A few minutes later, Julie stops the car at the side of the road and starts sobbing again. This time she's really weeping, and she seems barely able to catch her breath as she leans forward and rests her head on the steering wheel.
PART TWO
“Okay, calm down,” Julie says firmly, as the girl continues to scream. “Just try to stay calm and we'll fix this.”
Still sitting on the car's back seat, I watch out the window as she kneels next to an injured man, whose lower body is covered in blood. His legs are crooked somehow, as if they both go the wrong way at the knee, and there are several dark patches on the tarmac. There's a girl next to him, still shrieking and crying as she continues to panic.
“What's his name?” Julie asks the girl. “I'm a doctor. Tell me his name, and tell me what happened.”
The girl yells something back at her.
“Tell me what happened!” Julie says firmly. “I need to -”
Suddenly the girl reaches out and grabs her by the throat.
“Stop that!” Julie hisses, shoving her back before slapping the side of her face, which at least gets her to stop screaming. “I'm a doctor. I need to know what happened before I can help him!”
As she continues to talk to this new girl, I turn and look out at the deserted town. Ever since leaving the cabin, we've just been driving and driving for hours on end, and I'd begun to sleep on the car's back seat. I kept hoping I'd wake up and find that Jon had returned, but each time I opened my eyes I simply found that I was still in the car, with Julie still driving. And then, just a couple of minutes ago, I was woken by the sound of the car coming to a screeching halt, and by the sound of screams outside. I don't know where we are, but I don't like it and I want us to get going again.
“He was hit by a car,” the girl sobs. “We were trying to flag down a ride, we just wanted to get out of here but some asshole kept on speeding and hit him and...”
Her voice breaks down and she starts letting out a series of whimpered cries.
Meanwhile, Julie is kneeling next to the injured man, and she's started touching his bloodied face and gently tapping him, as if she's trying to make him wake up.
“What's his name?” she asks finally.
“Scott,” the girl stammers. “Please, you have to save him.” She leans closer to the injured man. “Scott, it's me! Say something!”
“Can you hear me, Scott?” Julie continues. She uses her fingers to open the man's eyelids, although they quickly slip shut again. “What's
your
name?” she asks, turning to the girl.
“Melissa,” she replies, “but please, that doesn't matter right now. You have to save Scott!”
“Was he showing any signs of sickness before he was hit?”
“What?”
“Sickness!” Julie continues, her voice filled with frustration. “Any fever or aches, any -”
“No!”
“Absolutely nothing at all? No flu-like symptoms?”
“No!” the girl hisses. “Why aren't you listening to me? He was hit by a car, you dumb bitch! He needs help!”
Hearing a scratching sound, I turn and look the other way, just in time to see some garbage getting blown along the dusty street. There are buildings lining the road, but they all look empty and abandoned, with broken windows and doors that have been left hanging open, while tire marks criss-cross the sidewalks as if cars left here in a hurry. I pause for a moment, filtering out the girl's continued screams, and I realize that the rest of the town seems completely still and quiet, as if there's no-one else around. A moment later I hear footsteps coming toward the car, and I turn again just as Julie leans into the back and reaches for a bag on the floor.
“He's not going to make it,” she whispers to me. “We'll be out of here soon, just... Stay in the car, Harry. Be a good dog.”
She checks the contents of the bag. Her hands are trembling.
“I need an ER room, not a First Aid kit,” she mutters, glancing at me again. “There's not much I can do for him, but I've got to try. The girl's the only one I can help here.”
With that, she's off again, taking the bag around the side of the car and over to the bleeding man on the ground. I watch for a moment, and although I want to jump down and go to see what's happening, I'm put off by the fact that the girl is constantly letting out these horrified, pained cries. She seems completely consumed by panic, and her whole body is shuddering as she yells at Julie. Meanwhile, Julie has already opened the bag and is taking out some items. I don't know what she's doing, exactly, but she seems calmer than before, as if finding these people has somehow re-focused her attention after everything that happened at the cabin.
For the first time, Julie is actually making me feel a littler better.
Still, all I can think about is Jon. After watching Julie work for a moment longer, I turn around on the car's back seat and settle down again, curling up tight and resting my head next to my paws. I still think that if I can just sleep for a while, I might wake up and find that Jon is back. In fact, I'm sure that's exactly what will happen, so I close my eyes and try to ignore the girl's continued shouts and shrieks. All I have to do is sleep, and everything will be okay again. I'll be with Jon, back at the cabin.
Opening my eyes, I realize that although I've managed to sleep for a while, nothing seems to have changed. I'm still in the car, and there's still no sign of Jon. All I want is to get him back, so maybe I just need to sleep again. Eventually he
has
to return. He can't be gone forever.
Still, at least the girl has stopped screaming.
Lifting my head, I realize I can smell Julie's scent, which means she's still nearby. I could go back to sleep, but I want to know what's happening, so instead I get to my feet and make my way cautiously to the car's open door. I sniff the air again, to make sure that there's no sign of danger, and then I jump down onto the cool tarmac and carefully walk around the car, stopping when I see that Julie and the girl are still sitting with the bloodied man, and that Julie still seems to be doing something with the items she took from her bag.
I sniff the air again, and then I head over to them, while making sure not to get too close to either the man or the girl. The only person I trust here is Julie.
I smell blood.
Fresh blood.
And fear.
“He's a little more stable now,” Julie's saying to the girl as I reach them, “but there's not much more I can do for him out here. He needs to get to a hospital.”
“He's going to be okay, isn't he?” the girl sobs, as she runs a hand across the side of the man's face. “Scott, can you hear me? This lady's a doctor and she says you're going to be just fine.”
“He needs surgery,” Julie tells her.
“Then we have to get him to a hospital, like you said.”
“It's not that easy.”
“We have to!”
“Moving him would be a huge risk,” Julie continues, as she pours some kind of clear, strong-smelling liquid onto her hands. “I don't think he'd survive even being moved to a car right now.”
“But you said he -”
“If we had an ambulance, that'd be different. If we had proper equipment...” She pauses, and for a moment she seems lost for words. “All I've got is a couple of bags with me. That's not nearly enough to...”
Her voice trails off.
“But he's going to be okay,” the girl continues after a moment. “You said that, you said he'll be fine. You're a doctor, so you save people, that's what you do.”
“That's not quite what I -”
“You'll be up and about in no time,” the girl adds, forcing a smile as she continues to stroke the man's face. “This lady's a doctor and she's going to make you all better again.”
Julie turns to her.
“If you need to operate on him,” the girl sneers, “then fucking operate on him!”
“We're on the side of a road,” Julie points out.
“So? I've seen movies! Doctors can, like, improvise!”
“His legs are shattered,” Julie continues, with a hint of desperation in her voice. “His pelvis, hips...”
As I reach Julie, she continues to work on the man's injuries. Her hands are covered in blood, but it's fresh, bright blood, and it doesn't smell rotten at all. I can tell she's sad, but it's a different kind of sad to how she seemed in the car before we stopped. Now her sadness seems focused on the blood-covered man, and when she glances at me I can immediately tell that she's worried. Even worse, her heart is pounding and her scent has changed a little; she's scared, as if she's expecting something bad to happen at any moment.
“Is it safe to have that
thing
here?” the girl asks.
Turning, I see that she's eyeing me with a hint of suspicion.
“Dogs aren't carriers of the sickness,” Julie tells her.
“You don't know that for sure.”
“Actually, I do. It's one of the first things that was determined when this thing struck. Dogs and other animals don't seem affected at all, and they don't even carry it. The virus seems to die very quickly outside the human body, so it more or less requires person-to-person contact.”
“Dogs are still dirty,” the girl continues. “You should chase him off.”
Julie runs her hand along my back. “It's okay, Harry, you just -”
“Shoo!” the girl shouts suddenly, clapping her hands at me. “Get out of here!”
Startled, I take a step back.
“Run, you little fucker!”
Suddenly the girl kicks me hard, hitting my flank, and I let out a faint whimper as I run around to the other side of Julie.
“Don't do that to him!” Julie says firmly. “He's not dangerous! Leave him alone!”
“What kind of dog is he, anyway?” the girl asks as tears run down her face. “He's just this stupid little runt.”
“He's a Jack Russell, and he's staying!”
“But you can't take the risk,” the girl continues. “Even if there's a chance -”
“Do you want to talk about taking risks?” Julie asks, interrupting her and sounding a little annoyed now. “I just stopped my car and came to help your bleeding, dying boyfriend, even though as far as I knew he could have been infected with the sickness. I only had your word to go on that he was fine before he got hurt, but I took the risk because I couldn't just drive on and leave the two of you like this. So if anyone here is taking a risk, it's me. Or do you want me to take the dog, get back in the car and leave you two here?”
The girl stares at her, clearly shocked, before looking at the man again.
“I just want Scott to be okay,” she whimpers finally. “We were camping when all of this shit came down, so we weren't in town for the start. By the time we got home...”
Her voice trails off.
“So we packed up and started driving,” she continues, choking back tears as Julie gets back to work, “but we ran out of gas. Then we started walking, and we got to this place, wherever the hell it is.” She looks around at the abandoned buildings, and once again her eyes are filled with a sense of hatred. “Some backwater little hick town, I don't even know its name. Probably full of inbred fucking assholes before everything went to shit. And then we saw a car headed this way, coming real fast, and Scott wanted to try flagging it down so we could get a ride.”
She runs her hands through the man's hair.
“And the driver hit him?” Julie asks.
“He didn't even slow down. I think he actually sped up and...” She pauses, with fresh tears filling her eyes. “Scott wasn't even in the middle of the road. He was being careful, but at the last moment the driver swerved and... I think he hit him on purpose. He slammed into him so hard, he spun him through the air and sent him crashing into the wall of that store, and then...”
She bursts into tears, sobbing hysterically as she places the side of her face against the man's chest.
“And then the asshole just kept on driving,” she whimpers finally. “He knocked Scott down like a goddamn bowling pin and then he sped off into the distance. That was about two hours before you showed up. Ever since then, I've been trying to keep him alive but I don't know how. I'm not a fucking doctor.”
“He lost a lot of blood,” Julie replies.
“But he's going to be okay,” the girl continues, sniffing back more tears. “You said it yourself, he's going to be fine.”
“He lost at least -”
“That doesn't matter now you're here.”
“There's also a head injury. It looks like his skull -”
“But he'll be fine!” the girl hisses.
Julie hesitates. “I didn't quite say that he -”
“I know he will,” the girl adds, her voice trembling with fear. “I just know it. Scott isn't going anywhere. He's strong, he's healthy, he's young, and he's gonna get better real fast. Give it a few more hours and he'll start waking up, and then he'll be able to stand again, and then it'll be like none of this ever happened.” She turns to Julie. “You have to stay. You have to make sure he's okay.”
Julie hesitates for a moment. “I'm on my way to -”
“You have to stay!” the girl hisses, as if she's starting to panic again. “You're a doctor! You, like, legally have to stay until you know he's fine!”
Again Julie pauses, while still working on the man's injuries. She seems torn for a moment, as if she's not quite sure what to do next. After a moment, she turns and looks around, as if she half expects to see someone in one of the streets.
“There are none of those fucking monsters here,” the girl tells her. “If that's what you're scared of. We've been here for a few hours, we'd have seen them by now. All we've seen are rotten corpses.”
“Do you know if there's a pharmacy anywhere in this town?” Julie asks, turning to her. “Somewhere I might be able to get some better medical supplies?”