Will looked around at the trees, which were gently swaying in the night wind. The area looked secure, at least for now. And he couldn’t risk Natalie following through on her threat. These two seemed relatively harmless and he didn’t have to really show them much, just enough to get them off his back. Part of him wanted to show them, wanted to let them in on his secrets. He couldn’t, of course, but surely them seeing a few things wouldn’t hurt. He’d take them down and put on a little dog-and-pony show and be done with it. Shaking his head, he motioned for Natalie and Rudy to follow.
“All right, come with me.”
Entering Will’s house they ran smack into April, whose face lit up with delight. Rudy’s jaw dropped. This woman was so retro, she looked like June Cleaver from that old black-and-white show Leave It to Beaver. She wasn’t wearing pearls or anything, but she did have on a cotton dress and the way she smiled made him think of old-fashioned moms, not modern ones like his own mom, who wore workout clothes most of the time. Rudy smiled right back at Will’s mom as she spoke.
“I see you’ve already made friends. How wonderful. I’m April, Will’s mother, and that’s Gerald.”
Gerald was in the adjacent room, wearing the world’s ugliest mismatched terry cloth shorts and shirt outfit, complete with ketchup stains. He was glued to the TV, watching the golf channel and chugging his homemade beer, and didn’t even bother grunting in their direction. He did, however, treat them to one of his fire-cracker farts, which delighted Rudy to no end.
“I’m Natalie,” said Natalie, hiding her wound and extending her other hand, which April took. She was about to go on when Rudy butted in.
“I’m Rudy, and your son, Will, I mean, he really stepped up to the plate and saved my butt today, let me tell you!”
“Oh, he helped you with your schoolwork?” asked April.
“No, I was practically in the jaws of death when he—”
Will saw Gerald’s head bob up like he couldn’t wait to hear what a screw-up Will had been on his first day as the New Kid. Will cut Rudy off.
“Yeah, Mom, schoolwork, something like that. Listen, I’m gonna show them my darkroom real quick and then they’re gonna leave.”
“I can bring you some—”
“We don’t need any milk and cookies,” said Will.
Rudy frowned.
“We don’t?”
They clomped down the basement stairs and then Will led them through his maze of black plastic and into his secret chamber where they were visibly impressed. Rudy let out a low whistle.
“Something tells me this isn’t just some science project. Whoa, your computers, your database, it’s all so . . . massive!” Rudy marveled at the bank of flat panel LCD displays and the whirring servers and modems twinkling with dozens of lights. “Hey, that’s Demon Hunter! But what version is it? I haven’t seen this one yet!” Rudy was just about jumping out of his skin with excitement as he stared at a game loop going on one of Will’s monitors.
“It’s an old version,” he said.
“No way, I have them all and I haven’t seen that one.” Then Rudy’s eyes went way wide with shock. “Six hundred and forty-two kills? Are you KIDDING me?”
“It’s just a glitch in the program.”
“I WANT that glitch, dude! How’d you do it? Come on, tell me!”
Sometimes not saying anything at all was the best way to deal with inquiring minds and Will just simply dumped the subject, ignoring Rudy and turning his attention to Natalie.
“Let’s have a look at that arm.” He touched Natalie’s hand gently, without thinking, and they both blushed. He ignored that and focused on her injury. Her wound was minor, just a scrape, and he knew he would have to do a little sleight of hand here so she wouldn’t freak out watching the rapid healing process. He applied some of the ointment and then looked into her eyes and asked her to do the same.
“Who do you think you are, Count Dracula? Why should I look in your eyes?”
“Because I want to check your pupils, this is very important.”
“You can be one very intense guy, you know that?” she said.
“I get that a lot. The eyes? Look into my eyes?”
Natalie obeyed him and they locked eyes. It was instinct for any animal, including the human animal, to want to examine its wounds; and Will just had to keep her distracted long enough to put a bandage over the already healing scrape. Once he’d succeeded, it finally occurred to him the position he’d put himself in. He was standing right in front of Natalie, their faces close together, as he held lightly onto her arm. His face burned again. They quickly looked away from each other.
“Keep it totally covered and don’t take the bandage off for at least three days.”
Will was so distracted he didn’t even notice Rudy picking up the boltdriver that he had set down on the workbench earlier. KABLAM! The shot rang out like a thunderbolt, which of course it was, albeit a mini one. All three of them stared at the smoking hole in the wall.
“Give me that!” Will snatched the boltdriver out of Rudy’s shaking hands.
“Whoa! That is soooo cool! Fire that sucker again!”
“I’m not going to fire anything! And please don’t ever touch anything in here again.”
“What IS that thing?” demanded Rudy.
“It’s just a little electro-magnetic voltage stimulator, a stun gun I made some minor modifications on.”
“Minor modifications?” asked Natalie, waving away the smoke from the smoldering hole in the wall. She stared hard at Will. “Hunter, isn’t it? Will Hunter?”
“Congratulations, you got my name right.”
“Well, Mister Will Hunter, who exactly are you and what are you doing in Harrisburg?”
“What do you mean? My mom got a new job, so we moved here. I’m just a guy, a junior in high school, the New Kid. That’s about it.”
Will caught an image on one of his huge plasma screens behind Natalie and Rudy, an unmarked grid of Harrisburg. A yellow glow emanated from one of the sectors. Will cleared his throat and purposefully knocked over a canister.
“Whoops!” He bent down to pick it up and secretly hit a switch for his equipment. Everything went dim and on standby. Will smiled a friendly guy smile, his best “Hey, I’m just a normal kid like you” smile, and began to herd the two snoops out of his domain. “If you don’t mind, I’m like totally slammed with homework and could use some me time.”
He escorted them out and stood watching them walk down the street, Natalie shooting wary looks back over her shoulder at him and Rudy weaving down the sidewalk, engaged in some game of chase happening entirely in his own mind. Will couldn’t help but smile. He liked the kid.
