mirror of https://github.com/nealey/Horrors2
72 lines
2.2 KiB
TeX
72 lines
2.2 KiB
TeX
\chapauth{Helmet}
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\chapter{Kindness of Strangers}
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Luke Bavarious was driving his squad car on Old Pine Road. A little
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while ago, he had given an important lecture on drug abuse at the
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local Middle School. Then he saw it: a black car parked in a field
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where cars had no business being. He stopped. He walked over to
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investigate. The black car had crashed into a huge, unforgiving
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pine tree! Pine cones littered the ground like corpses after a
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massacre. From the shadowy wreckage emitted a small voice. A
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child's voice. ``Help me-e,'' it begged.
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Under his bullet-proof vest, Luke felt his guts tie in a series of
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knots, each more complicated and painful than the last. ``Dear
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God, not a child,'' he whispered. Around the car a moat was
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forming of gasoline, battery acid and blood. Luke Bavarious blinked
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back tears and inched forward.
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Inside the car was a man, dead at the wheel. An empty whiskey
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bottle sat in the cup holder. Blood was everywhere. During impact,
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the steering wheel had pushed through the man's mouth,
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decapitated his tongue and snapped his spine like a \#2 pencil. Luke
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looked away to keep from vomiting forth the complimentary meal he
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had received in the school cafeteria.
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That's when Luke noticed the boy buckled in the back seat.
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Possibly a seventh-grader, judging by his size. ``Dad, are you
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okay? I told you not to drive drunk,'' the boy said.
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Luke stared. Perspiration sweated from his face. The boy's
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eyes were gone, long gone, having catapulted from their sockets by
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the car's sudden stop and the tendency of objects in motion
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to stay in motion. The boy wept tears of blood from his disfigured
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face. Luke now observed two splattered milky blobs oozing down the
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front windshield like two unholy eggs from the bowels of
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Hell.
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Afflicted with overwhelming instant insanity, Luke placed his
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Beretta to his own temple and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened!
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He looked at his firearm and realized the safety was on. Bavarious
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giggled madly and flicked the safety off, then common sense
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returned to his disturbed mind. ``Poor little fella,'' he
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muttered between clenched teeth.
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``Is somebody there?'' the boy asked. ``Will you
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h-help me?''
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Luke fired one bullet, doing the job.
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