horrors2

Helmet.Kindness_o.tex

 1\chapauth{Helmet}
 2\chapter{Kindness of Strangers}
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 5Luke Bavarious was driving his squad car on Old Pine Road. A little
 6while ago, he had given an important lecture on drug abuse at the
 7local Middle School. Then he saw it: a black car parked in a field
 8where cars had no business being. He stopped. He walked over to
 9investigate. The black car had crashed into a huge, unforgiving
10pine tree! Pine cones littered the ground like corpses after a
11massacre. From the shadowy wreckage emitted a small voice. A
12child's voice. ``Help me-e,'' it begged.
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16Under his bullet-proof vest, Luke felt his guts tie in a series of
17knots, each more complicated and painful than the last. ``Dear
18God, not a child,'' he whispered. Around the car a moat was
19forming of gasoline, battery acid and blood. Luke Bavarious blinked
20back tears and inched forward.
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24Inside the car was a man, dead at the wheel. An empty whiskey
25bottle sat in the cup holder. Blood was everywhere. During impact,
26the steering wheel had pushed through the man's mouth,
27decapitated his tongue and snapped his spine like a \#2 pencil. Luke
28looked away to keep from vomiting forth the complimentary meal he
29had received in the school cafeteria.
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33That's when Luke noticed the boy buckled in the back seat.
34Possibly a seventh-grader, judging by his size. ``Dad, are you
35okay? I told you not to drive drunk,'' the boy said.
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39Luke stared. Perspiration sweated from his face. The boy's
40eyes were gone, long gone, having catapulted from their sockets by
41the car's sudden stop and the tendency of objects in motion
42to stay in motion. The boy wept tears of blood from his disfigured
43face. Luke now observed two splattered milky blobs oozing down the
44front windshield like two unholy eggs from the bowels of
45Hell.
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49Afflicted with overwhelming instant insanity, Luke placed his
50Beretta to his own temple and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened!
51He looked at his firearm and realized the safety was on. Bavarious
52giggled madly and flicked the safety off, then common sense
53returned to his disturbed mind. ``Poor little fella,'' he
54muttered between clenched teeth.
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58``Is somebody there?'' the boy asked. ``Will you
59h-help me?''
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63Luke fired one bullet, doing the job. 
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