Heckel Casey Read Online Free PDF Page A

referred to it, The Bug . My first thought was gas. I bet there's no gas. That's why no one has driven off with it.
    "Any chance there's fuel in it?" I asked with a hint of hope laced in my tone. "It's probably turned to shellac by now anyway."
    Leonard shouted, "It says there's a quarter of a tank."
    "Yeah, but I'm sure that gauge has to be broken, not to mention the battery is most likely dead."
    "Nothing that a good strong back can't fix. Here, you push and I'll pop the clutch," he said excitedly as he got into the old faded red car. "Maybe we'll be lucky."
    Just as I started pushing, Jerky came running across the warehouse floor with a mouse in her jaws. She hopped into the car through an open window.
    I pushed, grumbling my doubts.
    "Faster," Leonard yelled as he turned the key and shifted into first gear.
    Suddenly, it felt like I was eighteen years old. All my muscles seemed to get a burst of power. My legs felt like well-oiled pistons. The old VW picked up speed. Leonard yelled for it to go faster.
    "Wow, you've almost got us up to twenty-five miles an hour," he exclaimed. "That's incredible."
    "Pop the clutch," I yelled as my legs gained more momentum.
    "Just a bit more," Leonard screamed.
    "Now!" I demanded.
    He popped the clutch. The rusty, dented old classic lurched forward. Black smoke came out the tailpipe, hitting me in the face. The engine sputtered as Leonard gave it more gas. It coughed once more like an old man just waking up. The car took off. I could hear hollering from Leonard and he slapped the steering wheel excitedly. Jerky looked out the window with the mouse's tail dangling from her mouth.
    A cold wind swept past me. I sensed something approaching and it made me very afraid. I stood out in the street, looking in all directions. "Leonard," I shouted. "Something's not right. I'm getting a bad vibe."
    Leonard had turned around and pulled up next to me. "Get in. I felt it too. We've got to get the hell out of here pronto."
    I jumped in the passenger seat and before I could even shut the door, Leonard sped away from the warehouse.
    The most difficult part of driving was finding passable routes. The highways were littered with wrecks and debris. At times, he had to drive off the road to get around a huge car pileup.
    "Remember all the road rage?" I said as he navigated around a large overturned 18-wheeler.
    "Yes, I do. That's one event that is most memorable among many," Leonard recounted.
    "I'm not sure, but it might be a close second to that first event. Do you remember that one?"
    "Do you mean Bloody Super Bowl Sunday?" Leonard asked as he shifted gears.
    I thought back to that January in 2015. It started out as your typical media-hyped event, but soon escalated into what seemed out of control. "I remember people appeared to get especially agitated and worked up about the game about a week before it took place. There were numerous Super Bowl parties all over the place. I must have gotten invited to about a dozen of them. At the time, I didn't think anything of it, but I'm sure glad I decided to stay home by myself."
    "Yeah, I remember people I was working with just went nuts over their favorite team," Leonard added.
    "That Super Bowl game seemed to act as a catalyst for violence erupting in people," I said. "It was a trigger that started the killings and the beginning of the end."
    Leonard stared out at the road. After an awkward silence, he said softly, "Madeline planted those seeds of violence to sprout on that Super Bowl Sunday. I'm sure of it."
    "It was about the third quarter when all hell broke loose if I remember correctly. People in the stadium just went berserk. They were punching, strangling each other. People were literally kicked to death," I said clutching the front dash.
    "They used anything they could find to kill each other. News commentators even began punching each other. Eventually, the TV station went black. People in my neighborhood were shooting each other. I got in my car and got