He looked up and didn’t see God. Matt believed that God existed, of course, but the Holy Father hadn’t exactly shown him anything much in the camp of compassion and respect. Sure, he was alive, and sure he was almost as strong as a God himself, but what did it mean? He’d give it all up again, all of it, just to go back to that night at the Washington County Fair. He’d take having bedsores all around his backside and not being able to move his legs if it meant that he could have it all back; every seizure, every attack, every second of having to look at his mother’s cancer-stricken face. If Danni had just let him stay over at his house that night, then there wouldn’t have been a problem. Sure, Robbie still might have tried to use the NaU on Carol, but there wouldn’t have been any extra bodies around for the NaU to latch to. They’d all be dead, sure, but Jolie and the baby would still be alive.
It wasn’t hatred that collected in his heart and body then. It wasn’t love either. It was the same emptiness he had felt earlier, only slightly different. He felt the power inside of him, his body pulsing in the night. He had four NaUs inside of him; while they were killing him quirkily, then that meant they also allowed him tremendous amounts of power. It would be a shame for that power to go away, to go and latch itself just to someone else. Becca and Walter's problem was that didn’t even think of that; they were all too eager to wash their hands of the entire affair. They thought it was over.
Matt smiled. It wasn’t over, not even close. There was no right or wrong in this world. It was the jungle, and all things were permitted. The strongest would win, and then they would be The Keeper. His mistake was to put all of his faith and power in his friends to be weak and hesitant. Who’s to say that he should die that night?
What was it Kent had said before he died? That humor kept him warm. Well, Matt would have to find the humor in this. It didn’t matter that Rebecca was a good person or that Walter was innocent. All that mattered was what happened in the next hour, and whether or not Matt would have the strength to keep going and take what he needed. He might feel something when Becca died, or maybe he wouldn’t.
Only one way to find out, he thought, smiling. He activated Jolie’s NaU; green light arced all around him, shooting down from the sky. So much power. He flipped on Kent’s NaU and was inside every radio for miles.
He screamed.
Chapter Twenty
Every NaU came into being inside different people, reacting to different DNA. That makes every NaU unique. However, if someone else were to harness the NaU of a different DNA, would that make them stronger or weaker?
-Robbie’s Journal
Walter walked out of his house. Becca walked behind him.
Matt looked down at them.
His skin was a collection of colors, pink, green, blue, and orange. His chest was stained a dark brown, much the same as Walter’s flannel. There were holes in it, some of which were still simmering slightly. His skin radiated from the empty holes. He didn’t look happy to see them.
Down the street, every single window or glass fixture had been shattered. The bar at the end of the street had grown dark, and Walter hoped that everyone was all right. People were milling out of the bar in droves, only to run back inside when the cold wind hit them.
“It’s good to see you two,” Matt said. “You didn’t run as far as I imagined you would. This your house?”
He made a sweeping motion. Walter felt the boy’s touch on him. It seemed firmer than it had been back at the rest stop. He could break Walter’s neck at any moment he wished, rip his head off his shoulders. He was strong now, but if his head were to be separated from his body, well, then that meant that he could wish his newfound NaUs goodbye.
“Yes,” Walter said. “I’ve lived here for close to fifty years.”
“Alone, I sense,” Matt said. “I can’t feel anyone else in the house, nor any indication that anyone else had lived there beside you for quite some time.”
“Yes,” Walter said. “My wife and children are long dead.”
“So, you know how it feels?” Matt said, smiling slightly.
“No, Matt, I don’t know what you’re going through right now.”
“At least you’re still partially honest,” Matt said. “I would have preferred if that honesty had stayed intact earlier, and you could have just gotten Becca to come out.”
“You make it sound like I had any power—”
“Oh, Walter,” Matt said. “You had the most power back at that rest stop. See, I could have ripped the ground open underneath the force field and swarmed right in. I could have destroyed your truck, not allowing you any vestige of escape.
“Instead, I waited. I allowed you the time and space to do what I needed you to do, which you didn’t end up doing. It would have been easier if you had just kept to your word.”
“You make it sound like I could have gotten her to come out,” Walter said. “To lower the field. The NaU must be getting to your head if you’re crazy enough to think that. Now, you saved me, Matt, so you don’t want me dead.”
“Didn’t,” Matt said, “but I’m sure as you can imagine, the Matt before you is a tad bit different than the Matt that you last saw at the rest stop. I’m a little short on time at the moment.”
“So, come with us,” Walter said. “Come with us to Toronto, and then we can see what we can do.”
“Oh, Walter,” Matt said. “I won’t survive the night without Becca’s NaU.”
“She’s your sister, Matt! You don’t want
