Breathing hard, I scanned the cars parked along the curb. I saw the one I wanted right away. A blue Mustang. It looked new. It looked fast.
I took one furtive glance up and down the street. No one near. I stepped quickly to the car. By the time I reached the driver’s door, I had the Buster in my hand. I pulled the car tool out. Worked it in the window the way Harry Mac had taught me.
A few seconds later I was inside the car. My heart was hammering in my chest. My eyes were wide—because I was shocked at what I was doing. I was stealing a car! But what else could I do? No one believed me. No one understood. The killing was going to start in minutes. I had to get there. I had to stop it.
I needed to use a second tool in the Buster to get through the steering column and free up the wheel. That took a little longer than the door. I felt the time ticking away, felt every second go by as I worked. Then the column was broken; the wheel was free.
I went to work on the ignition. And as I did, I heard the sirens start. The cops. Sims and his patrolmen. Looking for me. Coming after me.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” I told the Mustang as sweat poured down the sides of my face.
The next second, the engine coughed and the car came to life.
My heart was going nuts in my chest now. My head was reeling, the world spiraling around me. I tried not to think about what I was doing, what was going to happen next. I just said a prayer and did what I had to do.
I put the car in gear. I twisted the wheel. I edged out of the parking space onto the street.
I had my learner’s permit, like I said. I knew how to drive. At least, I’d driven my dad’s Passat a few times. My dad, as you would guess, was a careful driver and was teaching me to be the same. Always under the speed limit. Full stops at every sign. Look both ways. Then start again.
And so help me, after this, that was how I was going to drive every day for the rest of my life.
But for now—well, this was going to be different.
I stomped down on the gas pedal and the Mustang took off like a bullet.
A lightning bolt of pure fear went through me as the car shot forward, throwing me back against the driver’s seat. I gripped the wheel with white-knuckled hands. The lane of houses rushed by the windows on either side of me, a surrounding blur. I watched openmouthed as the front fender rocketed toward the corner.
I didn’t stop at the stop sign at all. I didn’t touch the brakes. I just raced right through the intersection—and as I did, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the spinning red lights of a police cruiser charging toward me from the right.
Then I was through the intersection and gone. And as the Mustang kept hammering its way down the street, I glanced up in my rearview mirror. I saw the cop car come screeching to a halt at the corner behind me. It hesitated there. I think the cops weren’t sure it was me in the speeding car.
I didn’t wait around for them to come to a decision. I reached the next corner, hit the brakes, and wrenched the wheel to the left. The Mustang’s tires screamed as the car went into a mad, looping turn.
Then I stomped the gas again and shot down the next street.
The highway. I had to get to the highway. That was the fastest way to reach the stadium. I knew where the on-ramp was and I headed that way. I was still on residential backroads. I saw one or two people getting their newspapers, walking their dogs, freezing to gape at me as I went flashing past. But I still hadn’t seen another car. Then I did.
Up ahead . . . a great big lumbering SUV . . . just slowing for a stop sign at the next corner. It was looming in my windshield as I raced toward it at full speed.
“Get out of the way!” I screamed, my voice breaking.
I hit the horn with the heel of my palm. The Mustang let out a trumpeting blast. I saw the SUV jolt to a stop, rocking on its back tires. Terror seemed to freeze my brain. I didn’t slow down at all. I just swung the wheel, and the Mustang pulled out into the oncoming traffic lane. I could’ve been hit head-on by anything coming that way—but nothing was there. I shot past the SUV and through the corner—risking a broadside collision now. I got lucky again: no traffic crossed me. And then I was gone, with the SUV’s horn screaming angrily behind me and my mind only just beginning to work again, only just beginning to grasp how close I’d come to a blood-drenched disaster.
I drove on. Above the roar of the Mustang’s engine, I heard the police sirens again. They were distant now. A small spark of hope lit up in me. Maybe I was getting away from them.
But still—still—how was I going to get to the stadium in time?
I turned a corner. Up ahead, I saw the highway ramp. A Volkswagen Beetle was just turning onto it. I cut him off, speeding up the ramp toward the highway as the Beetle beeped behind me.
“Oh no!” I said aloud.
Because I saw the traffic—the traffic on the highway. It was moving fast enough, but there sure was an awful lot of it. Of course there was—everyone was heading for the stadium. Everyone was going to the big meet.
I glanced at the clock on the dashboard: 9:06. Nine minutes to get there. To warn people. To stop the killing.
I’d never make it. Never.
But I had to try. I couldn’t slow down.
My sweaty hands held the wheel. My wide eyes stared through the windshield as I raced through the traffic, dodging this way and that. I saw the rear fender of the car in front of me come slamming toward me like a fist to the face. A scream caught in my throat. At the last minute I saw an opening to my left. I jerked the steering wheel. I dodged through the open space—and instantly, another fender came shooting at the windshield full speed. Now the scream burst out of me. I wrenched the wheel to the right to get around.
Miraculously, I was through, still rolling, stitching through the traffic like the needle on a sewing machine—that fast. Horns started screaming all around me. I heard the sirens again, getting louder behind me now. I couldn’t tell how close the police were. I didn’t dare look up at the rearview mirror. I didn’t dare take my eyes off the road ahead even for a second. I just kept dodging through the traffic, so scared I was practically choking on it, practically strangling on my own fear.
And every second that ticked away made the stranglehold grow tighter.
Then—there it was—the sign: Sawnee Stadium, Home of the Lions.
One more time I spun the wheel, cutting in front of a stately Cadillac. I heard the Caddy’s tires screech. My own tires screeched back as the Mustang skidded sideways across the lane to the exit. The car plunged off the freeway without slowing.
And there in front of me, rushing toward me uncontrollably: a line of cars, stopped cold. The traffic for the stadium had thickened here, stopped by the stop sign at the end of the ramp. No way to get around. And the traffic on the cross street was too thick to get through. The rear end of the pickup at the end of the line was growing larger in the windshield, closer and closer. I had to stop before I smashed into it.
I hit the brakes as hard as I could.
The Mustang’s tires let out a humongous screech. I let out a screech myself. Smoke—carrying the stench of burning rubber—went up around the windows. I was thrown forward and felt the rear end of the Mustang fishtail, swinging back and forth, as the car threatened to spin out. My blood seemed to freeze inside. I gripped the wheel for dear life. I saw the pickup grow huge in the windshield.
Inches from collision, the Mustang lurched to a stop. I gasped. Breathless, I looked at the dashboard clock: 9:10. Five minutes. Five short minutes. I threw the car into park, jumped out the door, and ran like a madman.
All around me, the traffic erupted with horns and shouts. I had left the Mustang blocking everyone.
But that, I realized, was good for me. Because the police were stuck back there on the highway. I heard the sirens screaming helplessly. I heard the police shouting over their loudspeakers: “Move out of the way! Move to the side!” Their voices nearly lost over the angry horns.
I didn’t look back. I ran. As fast as I could. Faster.
I felt every second inside me as it ticked away.