The field in front of him rippled some more. The air around him grew still, stopping all the snowflakes from falling.
“I have gone through things you could never even imagine, Walter,” Matt said. “I didn’t want to kill anyone, ever. I don’t even like hurting animals.”
“Yet you would kill your sister, or suggest killing your sister, if the need arose.”
“Oh, let’s not stand on some grandiose higher mortal platitude here, Walter,” Kent said. “It won’t get you any points. You’re currently protecting the daughter of the man who ruined my life and the lives of my mother, along with the lives of everyone else you see around this circle right now.”
“Correct,” Walter said. “The daughter, not the man himself. That man is dead, so your quest for revenge isn’t going to lead you anywhere.”
“Something is better than nothing,” Kent said.
“Look,” Jolie said. “We don’t want to hurt anyone; I don’t want to hurt anyone. Killing Carol was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”
“And yet you did it all the same,” Walter said. “I’m sorry if you think my words are harsh, but I’ve met plenty of murderers in my days, and the last thing your kind deserve is a slap on the back telling you that it’s all right.”
“We know it’s not all right,” Matt said. “But it had to be done. What about you, Walter, if your life was like ours, if the NaU was running through your system, what would you do?”
Die, Walter thought, but he kept his mouth shut. He couldn’t imagine himself with the NaU with the godlike power that makes someone as desperate as the children in front of him. He’d not do much with it. His time as a young man, like a John Wayne or a Michael Landon, was all in the past. Powers at his age would be more of a burden than anything else. And besides, Walter thought, looking over at Danni, who was shoving her head into the field, would it even be worth it?
“It doesn’t matter what I’d do,” Walter said. “I’m not the one with the powers.”
“Oh, Walter,” Kent said. “You have the most power here out of anyone. You don’t see it.”
“He doesn’t need to be involved in any of this,” Rebecca said. “He’s a good man.”
“Who you’ve brought into hell?” Matt said.
“We’re not going to hurt him,” Jolie said. “That’s what we’ve been saying this entire time. No one else needs to get hurt.”
“Except for me,” Rebecca said. “Just ’cause you don’t want to do it, doesn’t mean that you won’t.”
Kent laughed at that.
Walter thought he could see a plow in the distance, but it seemed too far away to help. Even if it was close by, there wouldn’t be much for it to do anyhow.
Matt’s face looked conflicted, the same sort of conflict that Walter had seen on many a face over the years. He knew what he was going to do already; he knew that he wasn’t going to kill his sister or Walter for that matter, but he still held on to the possibility of it happening. It was an involuntary response, in which the person could feel both the pleasure of doing and not doing an act. That in-between was often better than standing firmly on either side, at least for the one person involved that is.
That was also why neither side had moved, why Matt and his gang hadn’t moved on to die quietly in the night. Sure, they might not die this night, but their desperation meant that the end was close, at least for some of them. Danni was still shoving her head into the field, but Walter didn’t even bother thinking about it. From what Becca had told him, the girl’s mind was mush, the mush beyond what Peter’s NaU could heal. No matter how many times that brain was reconstructed, it would still have the same poor motor function and angry tendencies that had led the girl to kill the boy she loved. Walter almost felt sorry for her.
He felt sorry for all of them, truth be told. Kids with their expiration dates moved up front and center. They were all so young, all of their lives ahead of them, the possibilities completely endless. Maybe one of them was going to change the world for the better, or maybe the worse.
It didn’t much matter though, now. They were all going to die.
Jolie rose to speak, but Kent interrupted her.
“Oh, I know what you’re going to say,” he said. “And I’d much prefer you didn’t.”
“But Kent—”
“Oh, don’t ‘but Kent’ me,” Kent said. “We all know who the NaU is going to go to, should Becca feel confident and moral enough to come across to the other side of this field, and it’s not going to be me.”
“We haven’t decided on that yet,” Matt said.
“Oh yes, you have,” Kent said. “You decided on it the minute you heard that your sister might be able to save Jolie and your child. Not once did you think of me.”
“That’s not fair,” Jolie said.
“I have no arms, legs, or eyes, sweetheart,” Kent said. “Fair is the last thing on my mind.”
“She’s still your sister, Matt,” Walter said.
“And Jolie is pregnant,” Matt said, “and from what I can tell, Jolie’s NaU has mixed with the child within. Should Becca’s NaU get inside of her, the two lives can be spared instead of one.”
“You were always good at math,” Kent said to Becca. “Even you must be able to see the equation isn’t in your favor at the moment.”
The plow went by the rest stop, throwing snow here and there. If the plow driver saw anything, they didn’t stop. Instead, the thirty-ton truck kept on going past the stop.
“And besides,” Kent said. “For all, you know, maybe there’s a way for the NaUs to be duplicated through Jolie’s child. That seems like
