Heckel Casey (5 page)

Jerky bit my nose and woke me up.

"What the hell?" I yelled, looking cross-eyed at Jerky who was standing on my chest an inch away from my face.

"You must have been having a bad dream and Jerky sensed it. Amazing," Leonard commented softly as he stretched.

"Ya got that right. It was one of those nightmares where you can't move and there was…wait. Did you hear that?"

Leonard wiped the condensation from the side window and looked out at the deserted interstate. It was still very dark from the storm. Sheets of paper and dead leaves raced past us. He fiddled with the knob on the wiper blades, hoping that somehow they had miraculously healed themselves to start working.

"Don't see anything," he whispered.

"Maybe we should get going. The rain seems to have let up," I suggested. Jerky leaped over my shoulder into the backseat.

A large rock hit the side of the driver's window, making us both shout a string of obscenities. The glass shattered, but didn't break apart. Leonard turned the key. Nothing. The look on his face revealed sheer terror.

"Try it again," I hollered. Nothing.

"You up for a little running?" Leonard asked with a heavy dose of pleading.

Another rock slammed down on to the hood of the car, very close to the front windshield.

Jerky hissed, jumping into my lap. I reached over, placed my hand on Leonard's fingers and turned the key. The engine started up immediately.

"Okay…what the fu..?" Leonard asked incredulously. He looked at me as if I were a side dish that he hadn't ordered.

"Put it in gear and get the hell out of here." More rocks pelted the car and I could see several large men approaching.

Leonard punched it and the little Bug roared onto the freeway as one last rock found its mark, hitting the engine.

"Crap. That hit didn't sound good," I commented looking out the back window.

"At least we got away," he said as he looked over at me. "I'm beginning to think you have some special…um…powers.

I frowned, rolled my eyes and tried to dismiss the whole business. However, in the back of my mind, something gnawed at my down-to-earth way of thinking. Okay, now there were two things that seemed out of the ordinary. The sudden, new-found sense of strength while pushing the car and now this little incident of the laying of my hand on Leonard's fingers to help start the vehicle. Dumb luck? That must be it. I couldn't have any superhuman powers. That's just nonsense.

As we drove down the interstate away from our attackers, it wasn't long before the engine started to make noises as if it were fighting for its life.

"That last rock must have done some damage to the engine. It probably won't be long before we are walking again. Unless, of course, you can lay your hands on it and do a miracle," Leonard said, snickering.

"Surely, you jest," I replied.

"Don't call me, Shirley," Leonard remarked.

"Huh?"

"
Naked Gun
? Remember? Leslie Nielsen?" Leonard prompted.

"Before my time I guess."

For the next few minutes, I got the Cliff's notes version of the old movie from Leonard. Gradually, his recounting of the comedy was accompanied by the grinding of metal. The old VW Bug pitched forward violently a few times and like a dying patient with lung cancer, the rusty bucket of bolts ceased moving.

"Rest in peace," I said as I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, it was nice while it lasted. Back to walking."

As soon as I opened the door, Jerky dashed out into the wet grass. I looked over at Leonard. He was hunched over the steering wheel. "You all right?" I asked.

"I'm tired of all this shit. I'm too old," he mumbled.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. You should be enjoying your retirement at a nice golf course in Florida with plenty of warm sun, having a happy-hour cocktail about now."

He nodded his head in agreement and smiled. "I was a horrible golfer, but you're right about the happy hour. It sounds wonderful. A good vodka tonic would taste heavenly about now."

I got out of the car, reached into the back seat and grabbed my pack. Leonard opened his door and followed suit. He slammed his door and walked to the front. "Thanks for the ride, old girl."

"Ditto," I said, walking over to Leonard. "Ready?"

He just nodded. I put my arm on his shoulder and we both started walking down the interstate. The cold wind had softened to occasional swirls.

Jerky was a few paces behind us. After a few minutes, I turned to see the big cat stop, and turn toward the old car. She hunched her back, raised her hairs and hissed. Something or someone was still following us.

Chapter 5

A cold, misty rain returned, toying with us on and off as we walked down the interstate. We must have been following the storm. Gusts of wind increased, pushing at us as we walked. Slowly, our clothes got saturated, sending that wet sensation straight to our bones. I found myself shivering and knew that we needed to find a place to make a fire and dry out. Being in Iowa, the countryside only offered field after field after field. Years ago, they would have been covered with either corn or pigs.

Off in the distance, I could see what looked like a small town's water tower.

"Looks like there's something up ahead. It might provide us a place for the night," I said. "We need to get warm and dry these clothes out."

Leonard nodded, mumbled something and just kept walking. Jerky came out of a ditch ahead of us and waited. She jumped behind me as we passed and followed close on my heels. Her hair was matted and soaking wet. She was covered with twigs and dead leaves.

I could tell Leonard wasn't in a talking mood. So, my thoughts went through an inventory of memories. Most of them were very unpleasant accounts of Madeline and what her agenda was. By now, there was no doubt that she was the originator and orchestrator to the collapse of…well just about everything. Those seeds she planted in God knows how many kids years ago became the catalyst for the mass insanity worldwide.

I realized the insanity began to manifest itself before the first psychotic event in subtle and some not-so-subtle ways. As a society, people gradually forgot or disregarded simple common courtesies. Expressions like
please
and
thank you
became nonexistent. Everyone became distrustful. Paranoia grew. If you took one aspect of our society, put it under a microscope and examined it, you could see how it became affected by Madeline's evil.

Take for example everyone's favorite topic…politics. As I was growing up, the whole political process became highly corrupted, and I mean way more vile and nefarious than previous episodes in our American history. It seemed that every two years we'd go through incredible mudslinging, negative campaigning from candidates. All the television commercials were vicious attack ads. Most of the time the facts that a candidate was professing were flat-out lies. There was never any substance or information from candidates on how they would address issues and bring about positive new ideas. My TV remote mute button would get worn out during the campaign season. I'd have to go buy a new one. Once a new administration became elected, anything that was promised would soon be forgotten and scandal after scandal would be all that you'd hear about or see on the front page.

Very little governing was taking place and the world, which once looked to the great United States as a role model, lost faith in us and laughed at us. So, it was a natural decline, leading into anarchy. Once Madeline got her claws into our government, it was only a matter of time before chaos set in and that infection she spread made its way around the world.

As I walked down the deserted interstate, I was awed by how easy it was that we lost everything. What took centuries to build was destroyed in a less than a decade.

"You look deep in thought," Leonard said as he shifted his pack.

"Yeah, I was. I don't know if it was very deep. I just keep rehashing all the events and reasons why we are in this mess now."

"You might go insane if you think about it too much," Leonard muttered.

"If I haven't gone insane by now, I don't know what would cause me to lose my sanity."

I mentioned some of the things I had been mulling over and he offered his take on the whole political area. That line of thought and discussion made the time pass more quickly. At one point, I looked up and noticed that the sun was peeking through some clouds on the far horizon.

"Looks like maybe this storm front is finally passing by or switching direction. Tomorrow should be a good day," I remarked, kicking a stone.

"That would feel wonderful. Amazing how the sun can lift one's spirits, not to mention warm the old bones."

We changed the subject of the collapse and focused on the weather. Leonard pointed out again that we'd never make the coast before bad weather settled in. Crossing the Rockies during the winter would be just too risky. We discussed possible places to stay for the season and agreed that we should head on down to southern Texas.

As we got closer to the small town, I could see that it was officially a ghost town. There were no signs of life…human that is.

"I wonder if we could catch us a rabbit or something. Hell, I'd settle for a large rat. Cooked meat sounds so good," Leonard contemplated.

"Just as long as it isn't the feline type," I said picking up Jerky. The smell of wet fur was a tad overwhelming. "Whew, Jerky where have you been?"

Leonard ruffled Jerky's coat and said he'd never think of hurting our traveling companion. As I put Jerky down, the cat hunched its back and hissed. She was looking straight ahead at the town.

"What's got into her?" Leonard asked.

"I don't know, but maybe we should reconsider going into…"

Leonard looked both ways down the road. "I don't see much choice unless we go traipsing across a field, getting more wet than we are, and getting lost or something. We'll be fine. Jerky is probably just being a bit dramatic." He patted me on the back as if to reassure me that all was just peachy.

Jerky stayed close to my leg, almost tripping me a couple of times. I finally picked her up again. She climbed onto my shoulder. All I needed was an eye patch and a wooden leg and I could pass for some demented pirate that couldn't afford a parrot.

All the main streets in America pretty much looked like the one we were walking down. I figured that most of the streets in the world probably looked the same—deserted, litter strewn—maybe having a decomposing body of a human or dog. Speaking of dogs, many of them resorted back to their primal state and ran in packs. I hadn't seen a domesticated one in months. You just couldn't trust them. They were as hungry as we were. Jerky was the first pet that I'd seen in a very long time.

"I suppose it doesn't matter what building we go into," Leonard said quietly.

"I guess not."

"Don't suppose there's a Wal-Mart here. Sometimes you can find stuff in them. One time, I found some baby food that had rolled under the shelf. It's always good to look for stuff like that on the floor," Leonard commented.

"Good info. I'll have to remember that one. However, the size of this little berg probably didn't warrant a Wal-Mart."

We walked farther down the Norman Rockwell-looking street. I half expected to see a few freckle-faced kids coming out of the local candy store. All of a sudden, Jerky flew off my shoulder, landed squarely on her paws and hunched her back. She looked like she was posing for a Halloween commercial. Her hissing was loud and made me shiver.

"Hold on, Leonard," I whispered. "Something's not right." The late afternoon light had dwindled down, making it hard to see much past a block or so. A few steps farther and we both stopped dead. Jerky ran off down a side street. "Oh crap. Jerky, come back," I said in my best stage-whisper voice. The look on Leonard's face turned aggressive and determined as he stared straight ahead. Standing in the middle of the street was the little girl with the face of Madeline Blackwell.

"What do you want? Why are you following me?" Leonard yelled with his best adult authoritative voice. Madeline started walking slowly toward us.

"I want you to die," she said softly. Her voice sounded like it was angelic and it should be singing solo in a children's choir. A slight giggle drifted down the street. "And we intend to destroy Mr. Casey as well…before he gets too powerful."

Now my insides churned. My empty belly felt like the acid inside was slowly eating holes into the lining of my stomach. "Great. How can a little girl do us any harm? I don't see anyone else," I said to Leonard, as I got closer.

Leonard didn't respond. He stood there with feet firmly planted. His hands balled up into fists. I could see how tight he held them as his veins were next to exploding.

Slowly, I heard the sound of growling. Emerging in the shadows behind Madeline, one by one, a pack of dogs inched their way to follow closely on her heels. The dogs were of various breeds—mostly dogs with attack or guard reputations like German shepherds, Doberman pinschers and Chows. I spotted that kind of dog that was in that movie
Omen
—a Rottweiler. Of course, there were no Dachshunds or Chihuahuas that I could see.