Chapter 56 Shepherd and the Bridge pt 2

Chapter 56 Shepherd and the Bridge pt 2
“You both know I wasn’t kidnapped,” Cue said coldly. “I left because of what you did!”

“And two of us have died trying to find and rescue you! You have no idea what I gave up to just get on this side of the bridge!” Barrow snapped.

“I think I do, we found the bodies. Tell me, Barrow, did they die before you made a deal, or was their death part of it?” She flicked her glare to Zero. 

There was nothing in that man’s eyes that she recognized anymore.

“They killed them before we even landed, told us the only way we would live is as their slaves. What choice did we have?” Barrow asked, false sorrow in his voice. “I didn’t expect a chance for revenge so quickly!” He barked a laugh.

“And what now? You’ve killed their what, leader? Do you think that’s going to stop them from killing you?”

“Of course not,” Barrow said, giving Shepherd the side eye. “But that's what you guys are for now! We can be a team!”

“Not in your wildest dreams,” Shepherd whispered fiercely, taking a step forward. “Just say the word, Cue, and I’ll do it?”

“Do what?” Barrow asked, puffing up and trying to look bigger next to the larger man. “How did you team up with a cretin anyway?” He asked Cue, his eyes never leaving Shepherd.

“I know what you did!” Shepherd growled, at the same time as Cue said;

“That’s none of your business.”

“Can't we just kill him?” Trigger asked, popping out the top of the tank and aiming a sniper rifle at his head. The barrel of the tank even moved and aimed.

“Kill me? For what? Breeding?” Barrow laughed. “Haven’t you learned yet what’s out there? I was the least of all evils, wasn’t I?”

“You knew there were more people out there?” Cue said, her voice small.

“Of course, we knew! We knew about them all! Hell, I hear there's a bunch of women holed up in the Statue of Liberty!" he laughed, his hands on his hips. “Keeping the people from finding out you exist, now that was the hard part.”

“You mother fucker!” Trigger cocked the rifle, teeth bared. 

“As if we’d give up access to our very own woman?” He laughed again, and this time Zero joined him. “Didn’t matter who fathered the kids, they’d all have one of four dads, right, Z?”

“That’s right, and I got sick and tired of playing nice and getting nothing for it!” Zero snarled, aiming his gun at Cue. “Stingy bitch.”

Tears pricked Cue’s eyes, and Shepherd stepped closer.

“Can I kill them now?” he whispered.

“Would you shut the fuck up?” The pistol was up and fired before anyone could blink, Barrow putting a bullet through Shepherd's skull.

Shepherd went down like a rag doll, just crumpled right then and there.

Cue screamed and fell to her knees, hands on Shepherd, but her scream was drowned out by the crowd of zombies behind her. Pnce again, without Shepherd to control them, they marched forward. But instead of a slow, quiet walk, they screamed and flailed and ran forward like the crazed beasts they were.

“Fuck!” Barrow screamed, turning and running with Zero right behind him.

Cue ducked over Shepherd, and the zombies moved around her like water around a rock. Trigger opened fire, taking out zombie after zombie.

“Cue!” Trigger screamed, “Get in the tank!”

Cue stayed motionless, tears spilling out of too wide eyes. She stared at the motionless Shepherd, her guardian all this time, and couldn’t think straight. 

Blood poured out of the side of his head, covering her hands and arms.

She slowly stood, Zombies bumping into her, but still moving around her. She turned to face the way Barrow went.

“They won't hurt you,” she said over her shoulder. “You are mine.”

She stepped forward, over dead bodies of men and monsters, and chased Barrow. At first, at a walk, but she slowly started moving faster, faster, until she was running.

“Catch him!” She screamed, and the zombies roared.

Something inside Cue had snapped into place when Shepherd went down. Something long lost but still somehow always there. Suddenly, she could feel them all, like she could feel goosebumps rise on her skin in the cold. 

They moved like an extension of her, her rage moving through all of them.

She knew when they caught him, she knew when they killed Zero. She felt only the tiniest moment of grief that she hadn’t sent any clear intentions about him, that all her rage had been directed at catching Barrow. 

She ran across the bridge with the Zombies, their pace matching hers, until she was leading them. There, at the end of the bridge, crawling backwards towards her and away from the zombies. As she ran, she began to feel stronger, her teeth to feel sharper. She ran, broken cars reclaimed by nature passing in a blur.

Her vision seemed to go red, as if to avenge all that was going through her mind.

She slid to a stop behind Barrow, panting hard with every breath, “You raped me,” she said, walking around him slowly, “You killed Shepherd,” she stopped in front of him. “You were keeping me like a brood mare!” She kicked him in the face, smiling as he fell hard to the side and cracked his head on the concrete. 

“Get up!” She screamed.

In the distance, she could hear the tank coming. All around her, the zombies ran, getting to the other side of the bridge and dispersing into the city. Cue didn’t know where the other men had all gone, but she hoped they had gone far for their sake. Good people or not, she didn’t know, but they’d done her no wrong, so she would wish no wrong on them.

Barrow, on the other hand.

She glared down her nose as he rose to his feet, holding his bleeding head.

“You’re a Cretin,” he said accusingly.

“Ever since your brother attacked and killed my family,” she told him.
“That explains a few things,” he chuckled darkly. “What are you going to do now? Kill me?” he laughed again, the sound growing louder and louder until it echoed.

“Yes,” Cue said.

She watched the tank pull up as the rest of the zombies filtered off the bridge and into Brooklynn. She smiled at Trigger once, with tears in her eyes. She seemed to say she was sorry for what she was.

Cue lunged, her mouth wide, and bit Barrow on the neck. She climbed him, all four limbs wrapped around him, as she bit and ripped and tore every sinew and bone in his neck until his head lulled backwards and fell off.  His body still standing, Cue licked her lips and then dug her face into the stump of his neck, drinking and gorging herself on his flesh and blood until the body finally collapsed.

She picked herself up then, using her arms to wipe blood from her mouth. She looked up into Trigger’s terrified eyes. She was holding Shepherd on the tank, her hands on a chest that still rose and fell.

Shepherd’s dark eyes were on her too, but not in fear, in a type of prideful lust that burned through Cue like wildfire.