Her ears started to bleed a little, the warm liquid seeping through her hands.
Matt lifted her up and started to bring her toward him. Every time she tried to activate her father’s NaU, her ears would distract her. Matt looked down at her.
“Don’t worry, Becca. I still love you like a sister,” Matt said. “I think I care more about you than even you care about me. I still view you as a member of my family, and I love you. I remember all those times when we were kids like I’m sure you do as well.
“But you’re in my way. It’s you or me right now. You killed Nigel, you had to kill Robbie. I won’t want to burden you with having to kill me as well. I’ll make it quick.”
His NaU tightened around her neck. All it took was one quick pull, and then darkness would envelop her. All in all, Becca hadn’t really thought about her death. Somehow over the last couple of days, or rather, ever since she had killed Nigel, things had moved oh so fast.
It was hard to keep up with it sometimes, the way her life had changed forever. At the time, it seemed like the best thing to do was keep pushing forward. Kill Nigel, then abandon Matt, then watch her parents die, then kill Robbie herself, and then break into the rest stop and threaten Walter, then fight Danni, then build a force field and just let Walter decide what would happen. If the man had wanted to, he could have convinced her to do it, to go out outside the force field, and allow herself to be taken by Matt and his gang. She just didn’t want to make the decision, and now, looking at Matt’s eyes, she figured he didn’t want to make that decision either. So much of their lives had been determined by other people that when they finally had free autonomy for themselves, the first thing they did was surrender it to the first father figure who came into their path.
But not anymore. Matt didn’t want to kill her, but he would. She saw something in his eyes, and she almost felt an urge to reach out and rub his face or hair.
She closed her eyes and waited for it. Maybe she’d see her mother again. She would like that very much.
And then she fell.
The snowbank muffled her fall, but it still hurt.
Down the street, Walter was on top of Matt, holding him down.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The NaU is more like a parasite than anything else. It takes away everything from you but gives you powers at the same time. A more literary-minded person might suggest that I have created myself in my invention.
-Robbie’s Journal
Matt almost did it.
He had climbed up to the giant cliff of possibilities and had decided forthrightly to just jump and finally do it, like one might think about jumping in a pool or a cold lake. They’d wait a while, not wanting to just go right ahead and do it, but eventually, call it desperation, they would jump, and Matt increased his grip against Becca’s neck. He didn’t feel her fight anymore, didn’t feel anything. If there was any clearer indication of an invitation on her part, then that was in Matt’s mind. He wanted to do it before she changed her mind, or her mind got too full of doubt at her coming death that she acted up. In a way, it was almost beautiful. She was finally willing to sacrifice herself for him, to allow him to live instead of her. He wanted to honor her wish and get this business done before things got too hairy.
He meant it, too. He loved Becca; he really did. He didn’t want any of this to happen.
And then he was moving.
He crashed into the ground. He was able to redirect his touch enough so that it didn’t hurt. Walter’s body crinkled above him, healing in an instant.
They were down the street. Becca was still out in front of Walter’s house; she had landed in a snowbank. He hoped she was alright.
Walter, on the other hand, didn’t hold much weight for Matt anymore. He threw the man down the road.
“I’m not interested in fighting you, Walter,” Matt said, reorienting himself above the ground. “You are a good man and didn’t deserve any of this to happen to you. When this is all said and done, and Becca’s NaU is mine, I’ll let you live out your last couple of weeks. You should have lived a few more years, but Jolie accidentally shot you with her blast. I’m sorry about that, and I’m sorry that I had to give you the NaU. But I figured it would be better if you lived for two more weeks then to just die out there.”
Walter rose to a standing position. He was probably an intimidating figure when he was younger. However, the NaU can save you from almost every injury, but it can’t reverse the effects of age. He was gifted and hindered by the years he had experienced before coming to that rest stop that night.
He was a good man too, something that also lent itself to Matt’s hesitation to hurt him. He might regrow anything, but he still felt pain with all of it. He had hoped that Walter would have stayed out of the fight, but the old man seemed hell-bent on participating.
“You don’t have to do this, Matt,” Walter said, a cut on his face healing as he did so. “Just talk to Becca, try and enjoy the time you have left. We all die, Matt, and we all make mistakes. The worst thing you can do in that scenario is to make more mistakes and make the lives of those around you harder.”
“Spoken
