The Dogs

The Dogs

by Allan Stratton
The Dogs

The Dogs

by Allan Stratton

eBook

$9.99  $11.27 Save 11% Current price is $9.99, Original price is $11.27. You Save 11%.

Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

Cameron and his mom have been on the run for five years. His father is hunting them. At least, that’s what Cameron’s been told.
When they settle in an isolated farmhouse, Cameron starts to see and hear things that aren’t possible. Soon he’s questioning everything he thought he knew and even his sanity.

‘It’s about ghosts and terrifying danger and going mad all at once. I didn’t know what was real and what was imagined until the very last page. I loved it!’ Melvin Burgess

‘Brilliant, page-turning and eerie. Had me guessing to the very end’ Joseph Delaney


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781448187522
Publisher: Andersen Press, Limited
Publication date: 02/05/2015
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 304
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Allan Stratton is the internationally bestselling and awarded author of Chanda’s Secrets, which was made into the Cannes Festival hit Life, Above All. Awards include the Printz Honour Book, two Junior Library Guild selections (US), two Canadian Library Association Best Book Awards, inclusion on the inaugural Pearson Foundation/Writers' Trust Read-for-Your-School list, and a Times Book of the Week. His work has been published in fifteen countries. For more information, please visit his website at www.allanstratton.com

Read an Excerpt

1

It's ten p.m. Mom's at the living room window staring at the car across the street. She's been there for an hour. Our lights are out so no one can see her.

I'm downstairs in the rec room playing Zombie Attack. No sound. I don't want Mom to know, although I'm pretty sure she guesses. The longer we're quiet in the dark, the creepier it gets.

Mom's imagining things.

But what if she isn't? I focus on the zombies. More silence.

"It's probably nothing," I call up.

"Shh. Keep it down."

"I'm in the basement, Mom. You think someone outside can hear me?"

"Stop it, Cameron. Turn off that game and go to bed."

"Aw, Mom—"

"Cameron."

A zombie jumps from behind a tree and rips my head off. Thanks, Mom. Way to help me concentrate. I turn off the game and head up to the living room.

Mom's squeezing her phone. "I'm calling the police."

"Why?" I try to sound normal. "They won't come for hours. By the time they do, whoever's there will be gone."

"It's not ‘whoever.' It's him. I know it." She dials.

"Mom, it's a street. People park there."

"Not in neighborhoods where they don't belong. Not opposite the same house three nights in a row. And they don't stay in their car either. It's only a matter of time before he does something. Hello, police?"

I can't breathe. I go upstairs and brush my teeth while Mom gives her name and address to someone who's apparently deaf. The more they tell her to calm down, the angrier she gets.

Go to bed. Everything's fine.

Mom's room is at the front of the house. I sneak to her window and peek down at the car. It's out of the light, in the shadow of the trees on the other side of the street. Is there really someone inside?

Even if there is, so what? They could be waiting for a friend.

All night?

It's not against the law to sit in a car.

That's not the point.

Stop it. Don't be like her.

The car drives off like it did last night and the night before that. I go to my room and crawl under the covers. Two hours later the cops arrive.

Mom's ballistic. "I called hours ago. We could be dead."

"Sorry, ma'am. It's been a busy night. Did you get the license number?"

"No, I didn't get the license number. He parks in the shadows. You want me to go out and check with him sitting there waiting for me?"

The cops ask more stupid questions. I stick my fingers in my ears and pray for everything to be over.

The cops leave. Mom slams the door. Next thing I know, she's sitting on the side of my bed, holding my hand. "Cameron, honey. We have to go. Get your things."

"Go? What? Now?"

"I don't know how long we've got." She gets up and heads to her room. "He could be anywhere...around the block, who knows. But he'll be back. You can count on it. And the police will be too late."

"Mom—"

"There are things you don't understand, Cameron."

Oh yeah? I understand lots, Mom. I understand I'm scared, for starters. But why? Because he's tracked us down? Or because you're crazy?

My clothes are already in a suitcase under my bed; Mom made me pack two days ago, just in case. There's room in the car for our bags, some coats, a box of dishes, some sheets and towels, and the little TV. My grandparents will store the rest of our stuff in their basement. There isn't much, since the places we rent come furnished. I wish we could go to Grandma and Grandpa's. Mom says we can't. She says that's the first place he'd look.

He—him—the guy in the car: Dad.

Mom backs the car onto the street. I look at the house. After a year, I was getting used to the place. This city too. I'd actually started making friends at school. So much for that.

We drive away slowly with the headlights off.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews