by James Hoch
Heckel Casey
James Hoch
James Hoch
Heckel Casey
There are some qualities-some incorporate things,
That have a double life, which thus is made?
A type of that twin entity which springs?
From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.
There is a two-fold Silence-sea and shore-?
Body and soul. One dwells in lonely places,
Newly with grass o'ergrown; some solemn graces,
Some human memories and tearful lore,
Render him terrorless: his name's "No More."?
He is the corporate Silence: dread him not!
No power hath he of evil in himself;
But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!)?
Bring thee to meet his shadow (nameless elf,
That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod
No foot of man,) commend thyself to God!
— Edgar Allan Poe
Prologue
It wasn't a nuclear bomb.
It wasn't a pandemic.
It wasn't a plague.
It wasn't another world war.
It wasn't even global warming or a new Ice Age.
No, the end of civilization, our beloved society as we know it, came on gradually; and I remember when it started. Better yet, I know who was responsible.
In the year 2000, I was in the seventh grade at a small junior high school in Decorah, Iowa, when I first encountered unadulterated, pure evil, and it was in the ISS room. At that time in my life, I rarely got into trouble, unlike now. Trouble has a way of finding me now big time. Back then, however, I was pretty shy and introverted. I would usually panic when the teacher called on me; I'd stammer or mumble and look like a complete idiot. However, I guess I did pretty well on tests because I'd usually bring home straight 'A's. My parents were very proud and supportive.
So, what got me sent to ISS? Oh, wait. For those of you who were good kids in school, you probably don't remember what those three initials stand for. Let me refresh your memory. They stand for-In School Suspension. The ISS room, which served as the holding pen for troublemakers, deviants and the Future Criminals of America Club, had no windows and was in the basement of the school. The dreaded room was right next to the boiler room, so it was usually very hot, stuffy and dusty.
There was an old hag of a woman who was the supervisor. I'm sorry to portray her with such an unkind description, but she was really mean and made us sit with our hands folded all day, staring at the front wall. We actually did call her "The Hag." I remember seeing her each morning when she would have this horrendous scowl on her face and grumbled as she descended the stairs to the ISS room. One time I passed her and she smelled really bad. It was that old-people smell ramped up a few notches on the stink meter. Someone once told me she had been at that school since she graduated from it back in the Stone Age.
I sure won't forget the day and the event that landed me in a bucketful of trouble. It all centered on the class asshole and resident goof-off-Timmy Carlson. What Timmy lacked in brains, he made up for in class pranks, which usually involved something gross and most likely sexually oriented. One day Timmy brought in a condom. He filled it up with vanilla pudding and made it squirt out the front. He was showing some of the girls in the back of the room. Wendy…um…I can't remember her last name, screamed when he showed her.
As the teacher walked to the crime scene, Timmy panicked and shoved the condom onto my desk. I grabbed it to toss back to him and inadvertently squeezed it all over Miss Stewart. The class howled, and I turned beet red. She yanked the condom out of my hand and asked me to explain. Well, I stammered and mumbled as usual. No one in the class spoke up and Timmy Carlson had his head in a book, giggling. I think it was the first time I ever saw a teacher pull a student up by his ear and drag him to the principal's office-and it was me!
Needless to say, I raked in a week's worth of detention in ISS. My parents believed me that I had nothing to do with it, but I told them I was not a rat and wouldn't snitch on Timmy. So I figured I'd get in some reading or drawing while I sat in ISS. Little did I know that the supervisor from the Gestapo would browbeat me. The first two days of ISS were pure torture. Of course, I couldn't explain to my parents or friends how bad it was. No one would have believed me anyway.
On the third day, Evil entered the room, and I don't mean this metaphorically. Ms. Madeline Blackwell seemed to almost float into the room. All the students stared at her with mouths open. To say she was drop-dead gorgeous would be a huge understatement. Each boy immediately sprouted a large wooden bulge in the center of his pants. All the girls went gaga over her bright-red lips and her jet-black hair, pinned up. She wore a long red woolen skirt with a wide black belt. After pulling my eyes off her face and breasts, I slid my gaze down to the belt's shiny silver buckle. Something about that buckle caught my eye. I can still see it in my mind as clear as if it had just appeared yesterday. Etched ornate symbols surrounded a large honey-colored cat's eye gemstone. One time, I swear it blinked. I know that sounds outrageous.
When Ms. Blackwell relieved The Hag, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. The Hag didn't go gracefully at first. She was argumentative and unwilling to go. Ms. Blackwell simply put her hand on The Hag's shoulder and bam, The Hag turned and walked out of the room. We never saw her again. There were rumors that The Hag had hung herself from the rafters in her basement. Apparently, they didn't discover the body for something like six months. Rats had devoured much of her flesh and the stench was so bad they had to burn the house down.
On my fourth day of ISS, I walked into the room and took my assigned seat. It was a few minutes before the bell rang. Everyone was quiet and in their seats. The door opened slowly as if by unknown forces and Ms. Blackwell stood in the frame. Immediately, it felt as if the temperature had gone up about twenty degrees. I felt faint, as did several other students. One small kid named Jimmy actually passed out. I wanted to look over at him, but I found myself riveted to her. She smiled this sardonic, sickly sweet grin that made my skin crawl. Everyone was fixated on her as she entered the room. Finally, as she turned toward her desk, I looked over at Jimmy, who had his head up and sported a wet chin from drool.
Then Evil spoke. I looked behind me and saw everyone's eyes roll back up into their heads. All my fellow detainees balled up their fists so tight I could see veins coming to the surface of their hands. Ms. Blackwell held their attention for the longest time. I was so scared and held my breath what seemed forever that I was on the verge of blacking out. Because I had turned my head to look at my classmates, I didn't see Ms. Blackwell appear at my desk.
"Young man, what is your name?" Ms. Blackwell asked with a voice that immediately elicited the fight-or-flight response. I felt trapped. My legs felt as if they had turned to silly putty.
"Heckel Casey," I mumbled with my head down.
"What an interesting name," she said.
Just as she was about to touch me, the principal came into the room.
"Ms. Blackwell, I need to have Heckel Casey come with me. His parents are here for him," Principal Edwards ordered.
Ms. Blackwell turned away from me and nodded her head. "Of course." She looked down at me with a sneer. For just a moment, I thought I had seen a slight tinge of blue wash over her eyes.
Before getting up, I looked over at everyone in the room and they all grinned like a Cheshire cat, including Ms. Blackwell.
Principal Edwards waited for me in the hall. I felt like I had just received a reprieve from the guillotine. I rubbed my throat for some reason. Was it because I held my breath for so long watching the control Ms. Blackwell had over all my classmates? Was Evil about to strangle me or totally stop my breathin
g? As I walked down the hall, I wondered what Ms. Blackwell had done to all the kids in ISS.
As I got older, I discovered what she had done and the evil seeds that she planted.
Chapter 1
As I approached a burned-out city, the sun advanced closer to the horizon. Shadows were lengthening and the temperature was dropping slightly. I figured I was still in Iowa. Maybe Des Moines. Humidity still hung in the air. I debated whether I should just walk around this deserted ghost of a city. The last time I went through a major city I didn't fair too well, and I have several nasty scars as reminders.
Off to the side of the road and caught in a roll of razor wire, a tattered American flag with singed edges fluttered in the wind. Lying in the rubble in front of the flag was an old Schwinn with fat tires, the back one twisted and flat. The paint on the bike was faded, and ragged blue streamers remained on one of the handle bars.
Sitting on the hood of a burned-up old Ford and trying to decide which way to go, I paused in the middle of stifling a yawn. Out of the corner of my eye, something caught my attention. I turned my head slowly, not sure what to expect. The swishing motion revealed a tail. Looking closer into the bush, I spotted the large gray tabby cat.
"You've been following me, haven't you?" I whispered. "Are you friend or foe?"
The cat stepped back.
"I won't hurt you. I'm not partial to eating domesticated animals." I snickered lightly as I held out my hand and tried to coax the cat over. It hissed and took another step backward. I reached into my pack and pulled out a small leather pouch. "How about a little snack?" I asked, retrieving a small bite of beef jerky. It was one of the few food sources that one could find every so often from some deserted convenience store.
The cat immediately perked up at the sight of the food. "I know it's not Tender Vittles or Fancy Feast, but it tastes pretty good. Personally, I am craving a big juicy cheeseburger. You know those burgers like you'd get at Burger King with lots of cheese, pickles, lettuce? It's been so long since I held one of those Big Whoppers. Yum." I held out the morsel and the cat, still cautious, slithered over to me hugging the ground. The cat stood on its hind legs in front of the car's grill and took the food. It kept one eye on me as it devoured the jerky.
"Guess you approve. Glad you like it. Care for another?" I said reaching into the pouch to pull out more jerky.
I tossed the cat another chunk and gnawed on a piece myself.
"Do you have a name?"
The cat leered at me as if to question my sanity.
"My name is Heckel. Heckel Casey. It's a pleasure to meet you. Yeah, I know I have a funny name. What should I call you? Hmm…seeing how much you like beef jerky, how does Jerky sound? I think it's got a good ring to it."
The cat stared at me deeper as if to question my sanity further and nonchalantly started to groom its behind.
"Okay then, Jerky it is. You want to come with me? I could use the company," I slid off the hood.
Jerky worked undistracted at cleaning her head and ears. She seemed to not even notice I was there. As soon as I started walking, she spun around and followed closely on my heels. I looked back every now and then to check on her progress. Occasionally, she would stalk a mouse or a bird for a short while, but would always come back to follow.
"It's getting dark. We need to hunker down for the night somewhere. You got any ideas?" I whispered to Jerky. With a quick sprint, my new friend took off into an abandoned building.
"Where you going?" I shouted as I ran after her.
Inside the building, the last rays of sunlight streamed in from a broken window. I looked around what appeared to have been some sort of specialty food store, maybe Mexican. Most of the shelves were bare and torn down. Broken boards, smashed glass and other debris littered the floor.
"Jerky? Jerky," I half whispered and half shouted, trying not to draw any attention. "Yeah, like the dumb cat is going to respond to her name after I just gave it to her half an hour ago. Sheesh, Heck, get a grip."
The cat came out from behind a counter with a mouse in its mouth.
"Well, looks like someone found dinner. Anything back there for me?" I asked as I went around the counter. Nope…nothing…nada. Most places had been picked over for food shortly after the final days of the collapse. However, sometimes if people looked hard enough, they could find some old can stuffed far back in the corner or under a cabinet. I pulled out a small LED flashlight that only had a dim light. It needed new batteries that were about as hard to find these days as…well, just about anything. I checked each cabinet to see if there was something salvageable.
With my head crammed in a cabinet, I felt Jerky crawl on my back and go into the cabinet above me. Without any notice, she let out the loudest meow I had ever heard. I slammed my head into the board above my head.
"Son of a bitch," I yelled pulling my head out of the cabinet. A large knot formed on the back of my head in response to contact with the shelf. I rubbed it, trying to keep the swelling down. Jerky sat at the front of the cabinet and almost appeared to be smiling. She leaned forward and licked the top of my head.
"What the hell was that blood curdling meow for? Man, you got one hell of a set of lungs for someone so small."
Jerky purred and walked back into the cabinet. I shoved the feeble flashlight into the dark, cobwebbed enclosure. I couldn't believe it. Way back in the far corner, the cat sat next to a dusty old can. She looked as if she had just found King Tut's tomb.
"Well, well…what do we have here?" I sniggered and reached to retrieve the can. "Hmm, a can of refried beans. Do you like refried beans?" I asked Jerky as she jumped up onto the facing counter.
"Too bad we don't have any cheese and some tortillas," I said stroking the cat on the head. Immediately, she ran off to a back room.
"You don't really think we are going to find the remaining ingredients," I said, following the cat. I stopped abruptly at the doorframe. The scene was an all-too-familiar one. The faint glow from my LED flashlight washed over the two people lying on the floor. Their clothes were covered with dried blood. Parts of their bodies had been gnawed at from various rodents who had been dining on their flesh for who knows how long. Jerky hissed and arched her back.
"It's okay. They've been dead for a very long time." I picked up Jerky and petted her, trying to soothe the cat. Jerky continued to hiss and alternate with a horrible mewling sound.
Like a shot, someone sprang from the dark corner. The figure was holding a long filet knife. It lashed out at me. I ducked; the blade missed me. Jerky lunged at the attacker's leg, sinking all her claws and teeth into flesh, causing the knife to go flying. A loud scream, followed by a litany of cursing, came from the assailant.
"Get this mangy, fucking beast off my leg!" an old man begged.
"Okay, Jerky…let him go!" I yelled at the cat.
With her hair still spiked on her back, the cat retreated, still getting in one last hiss.
"Good girl," I said. "And she isn't a mangy beast, you asshole. Why'd you attack me?"
"These days it's attack or be killed," the old man said rubbing his leg. "I figured you were about to kill me."
"Not everyone is out to kill you," I said. "There still are a few good people left."
"Really. What crap have you been smoking?" the old man replied as he shuffled out into the next room.
I picked up Jerky and petted her head. The old man found some old boxes and padded cushions in one corner, probably left over from some other wanderer. He sat down and continued to rub his leg.
"I certainly hope I don't get an infection from that little shit. That's the last thing I need."
I found a cushion opposite the old man and set Jerky down. I turned off my feeble flashlight just as I saw him lighting a small candle. The soft glow showed more of the room. It had the characteristic lively festive colors of a Mexican restaurant.
"I'm sorry I attacked you. I've been a little touchy lately. I think people are following me," the old man said w
ith a nervous tone.
"No harm done. You just nearly made me piss my pants."
"The name is Leonard. At one time, it was Dr. Leonard Wilson."
"Heckel. Heckel Casey."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, yeah…I know. Weird name."
"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Casey," the doctor said, extending his liver-spotted hand.
"Call me Heck. The time for formalities left a few years back. We are all in this mess together," I said, shaking Leonard's hand.
"You got that right. What a mess indeed," Leonard said as he groaned, and moved the candle to be more protected from a breeze streaming in from the front door. "How long you been traveling?"
I stared out the broken window, thinking about when I started walking. I noticed that the last hint of light was fading rapidly. "Hmm, let's see…um…I guess it's been about a year ago or so. I've really sort of lost track of time."
Leonard grunted an understanding. He rummaged around inside his pack and slowly moved it closer to the candle. "Me too. I can't seem to keep track of what month it is. I think it's been about a year since I started walking as well. I stayed down south during that first winter. Most of the time, I'm looking for food."
I brought out the can of refried beans. "Jerky just found this over in one of those cabinets. I'd be happy to share it with you. Unfortunately, I don't have any tortillas or other fixin's."
"Yeah, well I found this a few days ago," Leonard said, holding up a bag of saltine crackers. "I bet those beans might taste pretty good on them and I have a jar of artichokes to give us a side dish of vegetables. We need a good balanced diet," he said laughing.
I dipped into my backpack farther, bringing out a dented can of Vienna sausage. "These might complement our little feast. What do you think?"
"I love Vienna sausage. Wow, what a find," Leonard answered enthusiastically. "Can you believe it…we're getting excited over Vienna sausage as though it were an expensive filet or something?"