The boy sighed and lifted his head back. Snowflakes landed on his face.
“You welcome death so easily,” he said, not looking down. “And yet you protect the life of someone you hardly even know.”
“I’ve learned a lot about you all today,” Walter said. “I wouldn’t exactly classify any of you as being strangers to me.”
“And yet you have your preferences,” Matt said. “You would prefer Becca to live over me.”
“She’s not trying to kill anyone,” Walter said.
“She doesn’t have to,” Matt said. “That’s the whole point.”
“You don’t know what Robbie was thinking,” Walter said. “Hell, based on everything I’ve heard today, I’m not even sure he himself knew what he was thinking.”
“And that’s how we find ourselves here,” Matt said. “Isn’t it, Walter? Well, if it eases your mind, I’ve put a lot of thought into what I’m doing.”
“Killing someone,” Walter said.
“With good reason,” Matt said.
“In your view,” Walter said.
“In anyone’s view, that would be in the same situation as me,” Matt said. “Don’t even try to play the emotion card here, Walter. You won’t gain any traction. I know Becca is my sister. I know that I love her, and I’m sure that that love is reciprocated, somewhat. I know that you don’t want to hurt me, anymore then you want to see my sister get hurt. You won’t be able to save both of us here, Walter. You’re going to have to pick a side.”
He had chosen his side. Becca was the one that deserved to live . . . but why? Why really, down into the deep confides and fibers of the matter, had he decided to go with Becca? She had tried to threaten him, have him drive her up to the border.
But the girl had done something that Matt hadn’t, at least not in Walter’s view. She still felt.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Becca leaned up against the side of a house in Atkins.
The men had taken the fight out of town, which was probably for the best. Already the NaUs were attracting too much attention. She gripped her side.
Her father’s NaU had been perfect at protecting her from her brother, but it wasn’t a failsafe for everything. While trying to protect from her front, Matt had been able to send a piece of metal, a nail perhaps, into her side. Her guard had fallen, and then Walter came in and took the boy out of town.
Down the street, cop cars were flying about. A couple of them must’ve seen what was going on since they were driving up the street to Walter’s house. Becca was a couple of houses down, and she figured she’d be alright if she could try and go to the ambulance down the road and ask for help, saying that she too had been in the bar when all of the windows had shattered. The paramedic would take one look at her, and then think to themselves about what exactly a thirteen-year-old was doing at a bar, and there would be a plethora of questions more than help.
She leaned up against the side of the house. Walter and Matt were down the street. She could flee then, run off, and try to hide from Matt. But with all of those NaUs inside of him, the boy would be able to find her instantly, and then it wouldn’t have mattered. There was no running from this.
In a way, Becca almost admired Matt, in an off-putting sort of way. She left a bloody handprint on the side of the house. Inside, a family was watching television, a Christmas movie, most likely trying to wait out the storm. Becca knew she’d never be able to watch a Christmas movie with her family, even if she did survive this night. Her father was dead, her mother also died, and either she or her brother would die this night. As much as Walter thought he could see something in Matt, Becca saw something else. It was the same thing that had been present in herself a few hours prior when she had threatened Walter.
When she had been hiding out in the rest stop, she hadn’t planned on anyone arriving. She had slashed all of the radios, turned off the power, and waited out the storm. Her body was resilient and warm enough to survive the cold, but it was hard traveling and would make her an easy target for Matt and his gang. She had planned on waiting there until the next morning, perhaps getting onto a plow and heading north herself. The lab up in Toronto would have been her best bet, even if Robbie wasn’t there.
But then Walter appeared.
The truck pulled up to the rest stop parking lot and turned off.
Go back, Becca had thought, hoping that whoever was inside would take a look at all of the snow and decide to call it an early day. Why the hell would there even be someone out here on a night like this, with the snow falling and temperatures well below a comfortable level?
But no.
An old man walked out of the truck and walked up toward the rest stop entrance. He noticed it was open (Becca could have done a better job at trying to hide that) and stumbled inside. He looked around, while Becca hid on the roof. She’d let him do whatever he needed to do, walk this and that, and then when he was satisfied, she would let him leave. It would be like their paths had never even crossed.
But something changed. She didn’t know what it was, only that she imagined that Walter would be able to help her; if she made him, that was. Her father might have doomed all of them, but he usually just did whatever came to mind, and that worked for the majority of his life until the last couple of months, so who’s to say that sort of behavior was unreasonable? She slipped back in and confronted the man.
He was old
