The Keeper
By
Clifford Barr
Text copyright owner © Cameron Bain 2020
All rights reserved
Published through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
This is a work of fiction.
All character names are fictional, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Acknowledgements
Prologue
I’ve been able to isolate the NaU to a part of a body. Once the NaU is latched within a person, it is impossible to extract. Through the use of MRI and Cat scans, the NaUs can be led to one part of the body. The RNA decay and cell damage are limited to that one spot. Only the exposure to oxygen and the blood around the isolated pocket of the NaU can cause it to once again warm through the veins and arteries of the infected.
The patient seems to maintain the same nuanced level of health that the NaU gave them in the first place, but it is not a permanent solution. Death is still happening. It is only slower.
I doubt that Matt and his friends would understand, but then again, I don’t think I should expect them to. I doomed them, after all.
Robbie (Research Notes 17, Page 4)
The man awoke with a jolt.
Snow fell above him. He was inside a snowbank in the middle of an empty field. There was something that happened, but he couldn’t remember what. There were lights in the distance.
It was dark, and the air smelled like ozone.
His skin glowed in the night.
He stood up or tried to. Once he did, his vision went dark and blurry. He fell to his knees and threw up blood. There were bright purple flecks in it as he did so, looking at him in an almost accusatory manner.
Bright purple veins crawled around his hands. Words flickered through his mind; cell decay, molecular disentanglement, RNA failings, the substance within him leaking into his cells, and killing them. His body might be shining with light at the moment, but it wasn’t with health. He hacked up another few drops of blood with a bright purple glow.
In the distance, he could see the car wreck. It was far away, a mile or two.
Green and orange light moved around the area. A little bit further back, there was an explosion of blue light as well. Then it all blended into one and disappeared.
A form moved next to him. His daughter, Becca, he remembered, though parts of his mind were still a little bit blurry. They were after both of them, though it was really her that they wanted, needed.
She walked up beside him, the snow crackling under her feet as she did. It was eerily silent as the snow fell around them.
“They’ll be here soon,” she said.
“Yes,” he said, his voice sounding older than he would have liked.
“Don’t worry, Dad,” she said. “I’ll do it.”
At least it’ll be quick, Robbie thought, wondering if he might deserve worse. He cleared his throat, a calm spreading over him like a warm blanket.
“Once you do so, I need you to find shelter somewhere,” he said. “My power should be able to protect you. It might look intimidating, but it’s straightforward once you get used to it. Stay away from anything close to a radio or television. They’ll find you through it. Hide well and get away from them. When you do that, just . . ..”
What could he say? Their last option had been to get to the Westford airfield and then go from there. The guys up in Toronto said that they had a way of extracting the power that didn’t lead to death, but that was miles away.
Becca looked so much like her mother had before cancer. He wished he could give her something else.
A dim white light emitted from his daughter. Rather than taking up her entire body like the power of her parents, the white veins reached up from her right hand. They ended with what looked like a blade, created out of nothing, coming out of her hand. It was made of pure light. The air around it wavered and shimmered, the way wind does on a hot day. It wasn’t bio-mechanical. It was pure energy condensed into a tangible form to cut through things.
He looked up at her. A parent was supposed to protect their child, no matter what. And yet, all he had done was make the lives of everyone else around him miserable. He wanted to ask for forgiveness, perhaps say that he was sorry that he couldn’t give her a better life, that he should have let Carol die, that he never should have tried to mess around with the NaU. There wasn’t a rulebook for what a father was supposed to say when he died before his children.
“It’s all right,” she said. “You don’t have to say anything.”
He raised his head up. He didn’t want her to miss.
“Do it.”
A few snowflakes landed on his face. He enjoyed their cold feeling.
His daughter cut off his head, and everything grew mercifully dark.
Chapter One
From Annabelle and Jack, notes from fifth grade
My Daddy works on the powerlines. He makes the lights go on. He is really important. He lets me and my brother go sledding. I love my father.
I just wish he was around more. Mom wishes to, but she tells us not to bother him about it. His face is red a lot, and he always seems thirsty for the “adult drink.”
He seems happy, but my Mom doesn’t like it.
Jack and Annabelle Davis
Walter Davis woke up the same time he
