The Keeper

by Barr, Clifford

  “And what then?” Kent said. “When they tell us that your NaU is restricted to your DNA only and that they can’t remove it, what are we supposed to do then? All die peacefully.”

  “At least, you won’t have to kill anyone else,” Walter said.

  “You still don’t get it, either one of you,” Matt said. “You still view us as terrible people. I can see it in your eyes, the judgment, the anger directed toward me.”

  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 a much more promising cure then hoping that the doctors will be able to take your NaU off of your DNA and then share it with us.”

  “She doesn’t want to share any of it with us,” Matt said.

  “With good reason,” Walter said. “You killed her parents.”

  “Technically,” Kent said, “Jolie killed Mrs. McCarthy, and Becca killed her own father.”

  “Like she killed mine,” Matt said.

  “Oh, you can’t still be hung up on that,” Becca said. “You know I didn’t want to do it. He was going to kill Mom and Dad.”

  “Robbie wasn’t my father,” Matt said. “So don’t say he was. My father might have been an asshole, but at least he didn’t condemn six people to die so he could give a dying woman a couple more months of life.”

  “He loved you like a son.”

  “He resented me,” Matt said. “Just like our mother did. Oh, I’m sure there were a few twinges of love mixed in, but that still didn’t stop her from leaving.”

  “She was afraid of you.”

  “That’s not fair,” Matt said.

  The field in front of him rippled again, and the snow around him blew in all directions.

  “How dare she be afraid of me?” Matt said. “How dare she so quickly go from loving me to looking at me as though I was some kind of wild animal? How the hell was I supposed to react to my half-sister killing my father? Was I supposed to sit down and take it, or did you all really think I would be grateful and would bow down to kiss your knees and say ‘Thank you, oh God, thank you for killing my father?’ Is that what you seriously expected? Should I have stopped at the local CVS on the way home and gotten you a thank you card for killing him? My father was an asshole, but don’t you dare say he didn’t care about me!”

  The ground shook slightly. Matt’s friends looked at him, apprehensive faces all around. In Walter’s view, her parents had a reason to be worried. The boy was on
edge, and it was only a matter of time until he fell off it.

  And then Kent’s jaw fell off.

  The boy’s tongue hung in the air out of his mouth, swinging slightly like a pendulum.

  His jaw fell into the snow, making a small sound as it did so.

  Kent still seemed to be trying to talk, but nothing was coming out.

  “Matt,” Jolie said.

  “I know,” Matt said.

  The boy levitated over toward his friend. The body dropped into the snow next to its jaw, chest up. Orange light surrounded his neck.

  “You don’t have to fight anymore,” Matt said.

  His face was wet with tears. He shot a glance at Rebecca.

  Walter could hear someone screaming from the radio inside the rest stop, but he made no move to stop what was happening.

  Matt looked around, as though perhaps waiting for some divine intervention to come in and stop him, for something, anything to stop what he had to do, what he didn’t want to do.

  But nothing came.

  Matt brought his NaU around the boy’s head.

  Kent’s neck snapped like a gunshot in the quiet night.

  The light faded from the boy’s face and body. Pink light traveled out of the armless and legless body and over toward Matt. It went into his skin.

  Matt fell to his side and threw up. Blood with orange, pink, and blue lights came out of him, shimmering in the snow around all of them.

  The radio grew silent in the distance.

  Matt was in the snow, lying down. Jolie was over him.

  They could have left then. Maybe if Walter and Rebecca were silent enough, they could make it to his truck and drive off. Perhaps no one would follow them; the fire and thirst for more violence ended.

  The force field disappeared.

  Walter flew into the snow to his right. Rebecca had her blades out. Danni was jumping right toward her.

  The girl looked like a wild animal, her body bright red. She pounced and grabbed for Rebecca.

  Walter got to his knees.

  His chest hurt, and his ankle felt off, but other than that, he was fine.

  Becca stabbed Danni through the chest and threw her back over into the snow. She tried to bring the field back up, but Danni was on her again, her wounds healing in yellow light in an instant.

  Matt was still on the ground. The boy didn’t look like he’d be able to do much at the moment.

  “Stop them,” Matt said. Jolie activated her NaU.

  Green light radiated around her, striking out and hitting the snowflakes as they fell. She brought her arms forward at the two kids fighting.

  A green light shot out of her hands and arced across the snow and ground at them. Rebecca dodged to the right, and Danni took them.

  As Becca was getting up from her dodge, Danni was on her, her hand on Becca’s throat. Rebecca cut off her hands, causing blood and steam to radiate through the night. Her arms grew back in an instant, and they were around Becca’s chest. The girl turned and pointed her at Jolie.

  Jolie hesitated for a moment, but it was only for a moment. Green light flew through the air.

  Walter jumped forward.

  His chest burned, and he felt weak.

  He was on his knees, looking at Jolie.

  The girl had her hands around her mouth.

  Warm blood started to seep through his clothes. He couldn’t hear anything. The air smelled like burned meat. Matt looked like he had seen a ghost.

  Walter looked down.

  There were holes in his chest. Cold air flowed through them, mixing with the steam and heat coming out of each of them. The blood was comforting as it seeped through his flannel. He tried to say something, but words failed him.

  Even Danni seemed at a loss.

  Becca turned her father’s NaU on and shot the two of them back to the side of the rest stop. Danni’s grip loosened on her for a moment. A white blade shot out of her hand. She turned around and sliced off her head.

  All of that didn’t seem to register for Walter, though. Instead, he felt cold, very cold indeed. He had always wondered what death felt like, and now he must’ve figured it out.

  What about Frank? And Janice—how would she going to get his house if he didn’t sign the papers over to her? Who would look over the rest stops? Who would?

  His knees felt weak. He fell to his side into the snow.

  Jolie cried in front of him. Tears streamed down her face. She was saying something that looked close to “I’m sorry,” but Walter couldn’t hear to make sure.

  The snow felt cold on his face as he lay there in the snow. The snow around him hungrily sucked up his blood. He felt so cold, but that would last only for a little while longer. Then there would be peace.

  All of his life didn’t flash in front of him, but one moment did.

  He and Beth were taking the kids sledding at the same hill that Annabelle and Jack would die on years later.

  Beth was in a good mood, and Walter had gone two weeks without drinking, so his spirits for once looked almost good. He was able to fit all four of them on one of the larger sleds, and they all went down it together.

  Of course, when they got to the bottom of the hill, gravity took the wheel, and they all crashed into the snow.

  But no one was hurt. All of them laughed, and for that brief stint of time, Walter thought he would be able to get a handle on his life. He saw a future full of life and merriment. He hadn’t smoked or drank for quite some time, and he thought at that moment that he might never partake in those sort of actions again. They all laughed, and the future was bright.

  It was a good thought, and considering it was going to be Walter’s last, he took it willingly. He’d made a lot of mistakes in his life, lived in an empty home, satisfying his desires without the wherewithal to stop. But none of that mattered now. As he felt the coming cold, the dimming lights, he felt peace for once in quite a long while.

  “I’m sorry,” Matt said.

  Walter’s body was picked up with orange light and thrown over to the other side of the rest stop. His body was latched to Danni’s.

  Yellow and red light filled his vision, and things grew dark.

  ****

  Walter awoke with a jump.

  He was at the rest stop, as he remembered. But he wasn’t dead.

  His clothes were still damp and sticky from the blood that had come out of his chest, but he found no holes. He felt great, in fact.

  Red and yellow light moved under the surface of his skin.

  Becca was over him. To their right was Danni’s head, her open eyes glazed upward at the clouds above them.

  “What?” Walter started, before doubling over.

  He threw up, something he hadn’t done since his last bender thirty years prior. Only instead of smelling like alcohol and mucus, his current throw up tasted like aluminum and copper.

  Red and yellow lights drifted here and there around the small pool of blood, steaming in the cold night.

  His body felt great. He felt as though he could lift a truck with his bare hands or bend steel beams.

  Matt and Jolie were still over by where they were before, as though the field was still active. Matt was slowly levitating back into a standing potion.

  “What did he do?” Walter said.

  “He made Danni’s NaU go into you?” Rebecca said. “I tried to stop it, but he made it impossible.”

  “Why would he?”

  “They told you, Walter, they didn’t want anyone else dying from this.”

  The rest stop looked lighter than it should have been, and Walter thought he could make out every detail around him, every individual snowflake.

  “Why did you do it?” Rebecca said.

  “Huh?”

  “Why did you go in front of Jolie’s blasts?”

  “Because maybe I don’t want anyone else to die right now, either.”

  He tried to stand, but his vision turned black, and he found himself kneeling in the snow again.
<
br />   “Don’t exert yourself too much,” Rebecca said. “It takes a while for the NaU to give you full control again.”

  He had a headache, one of which he would usually have associated with a late-night bender. His mouth felt dry and the back of his throat burned.

  Matt levitated toward them.

  “I didn’t want to have to do that,” he said, “but you gave me no choice. I’m sorry about this, Walter, I really am. It seems like now you understand how we feel. You won’t start to feel the degeneration for some time, but you’ll feel it all the same.”

  “He wouldn’t have ever been in this situation,” Rebecca said, “if you had let me go.”

  “True,” Matt said.

  Jolie flew up next to him.

  “I’m sorry, Walter,” she said, “I never meant to do that to you. I didn’t want to have to kill anyone else.”

  “Well, what’s going to happen now, then?” he said. “You’ve doomed one more to your fate. What is it that you’re all planning?”

  “We still need Becca’s NaU,” Matt said, “And now you have it as well. Please, Becca, let it happen. I don’t want to have to bury anyone else tonight.”

  “Their deaths are not my fault. Danni attacked me.”

  Rebecca drew her blades.

  “Let me and Walter go,” she said, “and then you won’t have anything to worry about. You two can enjoy yourself. Go home. Jolie, I’m sure your parents are worried sick about you. And Matt, go home. When I’m done out in Canada, I will come back to you, I promise.”

  “By the time you come back,” Matt said, “me, Jolie, and our child might be dead, and that’s even if you come back at all. Don’t expect me to be so confident that you’re going to be jumping at the gills to come back to your murdering brother and the woman who killed your mother.”

  “Look,” Walter started, before darkness came over his eyes, and he felt dizzy again.

  “And look what you made me do!” Matt said. The snow around him grew still. Orange light shot out in all directions Walter could feel Matt’s touch on him.

  “I didn’t want to do this,” Matt said. “I didn’t want to do any of this. I didn’t want my family to be afraid of me. I didn’t want all of my friends to die. I didn’t want my father to die, I didn’t want to kill you, Becca. But your father started all of this.”