But she didn’t call the cops.
With her knees bleeding, her head dizzy, and her eyes wet, she reached for her phone in her purse. She wanted to call her kids, even if what she was experiencing wasn’t real or wasn’t going to happen. She wanted to hear the reaction at least since that would be genuine and would fill her soul to the brim with happiness.
She called her kids’ school and waited for their voices to be on the other line.
Chapter Thirty
Becca looked up at the night sky.
Walter and she had walked through the woods until it grew dark. Both of their bodies repelled the cold and kept them warm. They stayed beneath separate trees in the woods, waiting for sunrise, when they would make their way to the lab. Becca knew where they were, and knew the lab was ahead. She had flown using Jolie’s NaU earlier to check and see if they were close. They were but a mile or so from the site and would head there in the morning. What they would find, Becca could only guess. Her father had trusted them, though, and perhaps that would have to be enough. There was no guarantee that they would be able to fix it.
Did Becca even want them to fix it? Feeling all of the NaUs inside of her, each with their own powers, she felt almost godlike. She could flatten buildings, destroy roads, cause mayhem, and chaos. She could do whatever she wanted.
Well, not everything she wanted.
She couldn’t bring her family back, even how broken it might have been. She couldn’t bring back her school, her friends, her house, her life. All of those things were beyond her reach. What good was it to have powers if you didn’t have anyone to go home to at night, no one to care about and be cared for?
She would end up like Walt had been, along with an experience that only she could relate to, and everyone else would be viewed as foreign and not equal. She would slowly die of isolation, all alone.
But perhaps not. Maybe if they could cure Becca, cure her, then there would be some sort of life for her at the end of this tunnel. A person could only be a keeper for so long before things started to grow rough.
Becca frowned and looked up at the stars. It was a cloudless night, and the stars twinkled all above her. She remembered a melody her mother used to hum to her as a child. She hummed it then to herself, enjoying the warmth of the memory more than the warmth of the NaU. She closed her eyes, and she could almost picture how her life had been.
It was a nice thought.
Chapter Thirty-One
Am I a fraud?
I don’t know. I understand the most of the NaU, as unbelievable as that might seem because of current events, but there were things about it that never made sense to me. The nanites are strong and can change the genes of their hosts, but there is a missing link I don’t quite understand. The power seems unnatural, and I can’t explain it. A few small machines in someone’s blood shouldn’t be able to cause a regeneration that we’ve seen in Peter, nor the power of Matt either. There’s something I’m missing. When I talked to the researchers up north about it, they dismissed my concerns, citing I was falling victim to imposter syndrome. Well, I looked around in their files. I don’t know what or who the “Three-Skull King” but they seem to have a large role in this.
I’m afraid I have doomed everyone in more ways than one, and have invited untold misery onto all of their lives.
-Robbie’s Journal
Walter looked down the hill.
The lab looked like a bunker more than anything. Metal fences surrounded it, along with a guard tower in the front.
He had almost thought that the lab would be fictional. Robbie McCarthy might have loved his daughter more than anything, but that didn’t mean he always told the girl the entire truth. The “lab up north” could very well have just been fictional, and an excuse to get away from Matt and his gang of misfits.
But right as rain, the lab was in front of them. The two of them hadn’t spoken much that day, just getting up and walking. Becca had scouted ahead with Jolie and Matt’s respective NaUs. The girl was almost god-like.
He himself was powerful, sure, but he felt something that Becca couldn’t feel. His ticker had been activated. Only a few more days now.
Walter had accepted his death long ago. When Beth had died, everything had come into focus. He wouldn’t kill himself, no. just live out his days as best as he could, trying not to be a bother to anyone. He got up with his routine, did the same thing every day, and then went to bed knowing he’d do the same thing the following day. The meetings were the only variation, but even those had gotten a sort of routine and outline to them, as though they were different than anything else, but still felt the same.
This little trip into the macabre world of the NaUs was simply a diversion. Even if the scientists down in that lab could cure him, he wouldn’t think much on the NaUs. It was a lifetime experience, but Walter had already lived a pretty full life. No need to clutter it more.
Becca emerged next to him. Purple light blurred on the snow around them.
“That the place?” Walter said.
Becca nodded.
“That’s the lab my father was talking about.”
It seemed almost anticlimactic, in a way. Walter rose to his feet.
“No point in making them wait.”
“They’re expecting us,” she said. “I can hear them over their radios. Well, they’re expecting me, not really you, but they’ll still be able to help.”
“If they don’t, then that’s still fine.”
Becca frowned and looked around.
“I’m sorry about this, Walter,” she said. “I really am. If I had known that all of this would have happened, then I never would have brought you into this.”
Walter shrugged.
“My life is one of a keeper,” Walter said. “I keep things nice and neat for when other more important people arrive. I’m not the hero here. This isn’t my story.”
And it wasn’t. There was a relief in that vein of thinking, and Walter cherished it. His story was at an end soon, but something told him that Rebecca’s was just beginning.
“C’mon,” he said, walking down the hill. He could see movement at the lab, armed guards moving to and fro. After a moment, he turned.
Becca was still standing up on the hill looking down. She didn’t need to be here, as the NaU wouldn’t hurt her. And if she wanted to keep her powers, know for a full fact that there would be no chance of losing them, then she could just leave, activate her NaUs, and fly away.
But Becca turned and walked down with him. The two of them walked down to the approaching officers, their hands raised, and spirits high.
The End
Thank you for reading and hopefully, you’ll read something else I write in the future.
Please leave a review if you feel like it.
Thank you.
Clifford Barr
Clifford Barr is a pen name for Cameron Bain. If Clifford was real, he would live in upstate New York, like wearing flannel, enjoy a nice Empire apple while watching the leaves change color during the fall. He’s a boring guy, but that doesn’t bother him. Cliff’s got some stories to tell and is very appreciative that people would read his books.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Jacob and everyone else who read this book in its early iteration back in 2018. Thank you to the team at EBook Launch for copy editing, proofreading, and formatting this book.
And of course, thank you to whoever finds their way to this book and makes it to this page.
Thank you.
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