Chapter 53 Shepherd and the Truth

Chapter 53 Shepherd and the Truth


Deep into the thick forests that have taken over New York, Trigger knelt at a stream and washed her hands. Upstream, a five-eyed stag watched her with wary eyes. They stared at each other between ferns, two animals on the bottom of the food chain, and seemed to understand one another. She stood, and the creature bolted right into Shepherd, who jumped out of the foliage and tackled it, ripping out its throat with his teeth.

“Are you going to drag it back to camp in your jaws, too?” Trigger snarled in disgust as the water she was just washing in turned red.

Shepherd laughed and threw the stag over his shoulders like it weighed nothing. “We eat tonight because of this kill, you’re welcome.”

“Do you need your portion cooked, or do you just gnaw on flesh and bones like your pets?” She bit back.

He turned and faced her, walking backwards as he passed her, and grinned with his bloody mouth dripping, “I prefer my meat rare.”

“Disgusting!” Trigger scoffed, following him. 

At the camp, Cue sat stirring the coals of the fire while Gunner patrolled the perimeter. 

“They are returning,” Gunner said from somewhere to her right.

Trigger had insisted on going hunting with Shepherd, so he couldn’t sneak off and call his horde down on them.

Shepherd came through the ferns first, dropping the stag far from the camp. He pulled out a knife and spun it in his hand while he smiled at Cue over the fire. 

“Good catch,” Cue said, nodding toward the deer. 

“All for you,” he said with his grin getting impossibly wider.

“Oh please,” Trigger barked, stumbling out of the ferns as she tried to slap them out of her way. “He took that thing down like a zombie, by the way. Full on gnashing teeth and all.”

“Bullets would have told others we are here. But I suppose your voice will do that regardless.” Shep laughed, giving Cue a wink.

“What are you talking about?” Trigger demanded.

“You’re too loud, that’s what I’m talking about! If Cue hadn’t been keeping zombies away from you, you’d be dead!”

Trigger flapped her hand open and closed, mocking him.

“Trigger!” Cue rolled her eyes. “Shouldn’t we try to get along?”

Shepherd gutted the deer in one quick swish and yank of his knife, reaching in and pulling the guts out with his bare hands.

“I can't do this!” Trigger gagged and stormed away toward Gunner.

“Thank you for the deer,” Cue said quietly, wincing as he ripped the fur and skin off.

“You’re mine now, I have to provide for you,” Shepherd said as id it was the most normal phrase he’d ever spoken.

“I’m not yours, Shepherd,” Cue said seriously, staring at him.

“It’s my fault you were alone. My fault, you became a Cretin when he scratched you. My fault, my responsibility, my Cue.” he brooked no nonsense when he stared at her.

Cue stiffened. “Why did you do it, then? Why did you bite my boyfriend?”

Shepherd sighed, his eyes closing slowly. He didn't speak again until he was placing the deer on a spit over the fire. “I saw him with his brother and those men. He offered to share you with them. Something in me snapped when I heard that. I waited for him to go off on his own, and I bit him. He was supposed to go back to those men, but he didn’t. Everything would have been fine if he had gone back home, but he went to you.”

Cue stared into the fire, not quite believing that if he had just gone back home, her parents would be alive and the man who raped her would have been dead long before that day.

Shepherd sat on the other side of the fire from her and stared at her through the flames.

“I’ve followed your family for a long time, watching to see if they would survive. There’s something in you guys that just never stops fighting. Something that refuses to give up. It’s astonishing to watch it, and I’ve seen many generations behave exactly the same.

“But you, you’re the last, because of me. I will make it my personal duty to make sure you live because of that. I don’t want to lose the last line of your family that I have.”

“If I’m a cretin, that means I’ll live a long life like you, right?” she asked.

Shepherd grinned; he seemed to smile a lot for someone she had been so afraid of.

“Yes, it does,” he scooted a little closer around the fire so he could sit facing her. “You and I will live a very long time, together or apart. But I do hope you choose forever.”

She stayed silent, not even blinking.

“I’ll protect you forever either way.”

“You can just come into my life with words like forever when I wasn’t even counting on tomorrow. You can’t just tell me I’m basically immortal when I’m in love with a mortal.”

“The facts don't change just because we want them to, Cue. I’m sorry.” 

His bluntness made her wince, her eyes beginning to burn as tears built up. She tried to hold them back, tried to be brave, but they spilled over her lashes all the same.

“I was alone for so long, and now that I’ve finally found someone, you show up and say you’ve been here the whole time? Why didn’t you come to me? Why didn’t you say anything? You let me be alone, and now that I have someone to love again, you come into my life and tell me I’m going to have to watch her die because I’m immortal? This isn’t fair! None of this is fair!”

She stood up and walked away from the fire, sobbing silently and wiping away her tears in shame. She needed to be stronger. Had to be stronger. If all this were true, then she had no choice in the matter.

He came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders hesitantly. “I wanted to come to you. Time after time I tried, but I couldn’t get over the fact that you were more likely to hate me than to want to hear what I had to say. You’ve been trained to think Cretins are the bad guys, but we’re just out here keeping order. Well, most of us are.

“Most of you?” She turned to face him, looking up with wide, sad eyes.

“There are a few, like your people, who think we are the next evolution and attack any human they see. They hunt them, in fact. I’ve been able to stake my territory here, so you have not seen them, but someday, the further we go looking for a doctor, they will find us.”

Cue looked off into the woods where she saw Trigger’s red hair flashing between the bushes as she trailed Gunner. 

“We can't let that happen,” Cue said solemnly. She looked up at Shepherd again, determination in her eyes. “You will protect Trigger with me, or you will leave me right now.”

“I’ll follow wherever you lead. If you wish to protect her line now, we will. Together.”

“The four of us, together,” Cue corrected.

Shepherd took a deep breath, “Yes, the four of us,” he said with a discontented sigh.