All of what, that you’re all nothing but good for nothing pieces of dirt out here? God, if my parents hadn’t been so stupid as to move here, I could be living in a suburb down south, or somewhere else, where the IQ of everyone was in the triple instead of single digits.
Was he saying this out loud? Peter’s throat felt odd. It was warm, though he couldn’t remember speaking. Had he just spoken?
Before he could finish, he found himself on the other side of the field. The frozen dirt felt hard on his back, especially his ribs. Some of them were protruding out of him and into the dirt, like claws. Yellow light shined out of his body as they were brought back together.
The sky looked so peaceful.
Danni walked over toward him.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her face looking scared. “You were just saying some awful things. I know you can’t mean them, or at least if you do, you wouldn’t be stupid enough or cruel enough to share them.”
Stupid thoughts, what the hell did this girl know about my thoughts? Peter might be in a bad way at the moment with how he talked, but he was just as smart as he had been before the incident, before the NaU had latched themselves to his body.
“Why don’t you stop?” she said.
“I’m not talking to you, stupid hick,” Peter said. “God, I can’t believe I actually thought I cared about you. You were so easy to fool truly. Peter and Danni, two peas in a pod. Give me a break. You were a temporary thing, a way of punishing myself. Every moment I spent with you was a waste of time, and I was holding my breath, waiting for the time when it was over.”
The night around them grew red.
Peter didn’t know what was happening at first.
The fists came hard and fast. Bones turning to gravel. His mouth was shattered, his skull broken in half, but re-growing all the same.
Peter looked up at Danni before two thumbs entered his vision, and things grew dark.
They started to grow back, but not fast enough, the fists came harder and faster.
Peter had never been so happy in his entire life. All of it felt so good. God, it probably felt good for Danni as well. She couldn’t be happy with how their relationship was going either. It must feel great to let the frustration out. The two of them would have a good laugh when this was done.
And hey, maybe Peter was wrong.
Maybe there was some redeeming quality in Danni somehow, deep down, buried in the rough. And maybe Dr. McCarthy could come up with a cure, and then all of them could have a good laugh about it and go about their lives.
And then Danni ripped Peter’s head off.
****
Danni threw her head into the force field one more time. She didn’t feel it, or rather she did for only a second. She liked the pain, though. It made sense to her, and she sought it. Her mind was shot, though she didn’t know that. She didn’t know much of anything anymore.
She remembered a man, perhaps someone she loved. His name might have been Peter.
Danni shoved her head into the field once more.
She wasn’t smart, but she could say something the rest of them couldn’t. If Matt took a second, he might be able to feel it.
Every time her face grew back, her NaU had to do a little bit less healing.
The force field was weakening.
Danni shoved her head into the field once more, smiling through broken teeth.
Chapter Thirteen
Carol knocked on the bathroom door.
After Robbie told all of them that they were going to die, the majority of the parties departed. Danni and Peter went out to their car, Nigel and Robbie were getting into it again.
Matt rose to walk with Jolie, but the girl had locked herself in the bathroom instead. He waited a moment before Carol told him to give the girl a moment.
She knocked on the door again.
Jolie opened the door slightly. It always struck Carol just how tall Jolie was. She had known the Blasseys for close to her entire life, and none of them were quite as tall as Jolie herself became. She looked down at Carol.
“May I come in?” Carol said.
Jolie nodded and allowed the woman to walk in.
Jolie and Matt had been best friends when they were younger, and it was only natural that the two of them would end up together. They had started dating a few months before Carol’s brain tumor. She saw their relationship through the lens of a dying woman, trying to soak up as much as she could before death overtook her.
She remembered all of it, though, somehow. When she came to after the NaUs had done their due diligence on her system, she told Robbie and everyone else that it all seemed like a dream. She stayed inside during that time to prevent people from getting suspicious about the miracle cure that overtook her.
But she remembered every second of it, the mindless drooling, the endless TV shows, the inability to talk. That was the biggest one there, the inability to communicate and tell other people what she thought or felt.
Robbie and everyone, save for Jolie, hadn’t even bothered to talk to her during that time, thinking it a useless exercise.
Whether or not Jolie thought it was a waste of her time, she still managed to always stop by and tell Carol about her day or her experiences with Matt. They were cherished memories, and Carol always looked forward to someone treating her like an actual human being.
The girl looked stricken. So much potential, so many plans she had probably made that were now in question. She had been crying, her face red and her eyes having a distinct glazed look to them.
All because of her.
Of course, that was absurd. Carol had no more control over Robbie’s actions that night than anyone else who had been around when
