Chapter 3
Sheperd's Thoughts
Yugi showedSheperd to his room.
"Here, unfortunately, it's the only room we have left," Yugi apologized.
The room was in the attic. Grandpa had changed it into a guest room, the only guest room in the house. It had a bed, couch, small boom box, and it's own little sink. It had a hard wood floor and a single, oval rug in the middle of the floor. It was small, but homey.
"It's just fine," Sheperd told Yugi.
"I'm glad you approve, and I'm glad Grandpa agreed," Yugi told Sheperd.
The tension between the two had disappeared after Sheperd had given him an explanation. Yugi still felt a little jumpy around Sheperd, but he was actually beginning to like the victim of circumstance.
"Yugi, Sheperd, dinner's ready," Grandpa called.
Yugi and Sheperd went down the stairs and sat down for dinner. Yugi noticed that Sheperd barely even touched his food. He finished maybe one fourth, if he was lucky.
"Sheperd, aren't you hungry?" Yugi asked.
"Not really, I've got things on my mind," Sheperd replied.
Actually, Sheperd didn't eat that much anyway. But his stomach was in knot right now as he thought of what might happen to Eric. After dinner, Sheperd disappeared into the attic room.
I've got to come up with a plan, thought Sheperd I've got to find a way to get Eric back, without putting myself in danger.
Sheperd lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling as he thought. There had to be a way. But how? How could he get Eric back?
He knew what they wanted. They wanted to get him back and hook him up to all those machines and inject medicines and poisons, you name it, and they wanted to put it into Sheperd's body. And why? For their own cruel enjoyment, for their stupid experiments. They wanted to find out his body works. Sheperd was hardly ever sick, a genius, very strong despite his tall, lanky body, and he had reflexes like a cat, eyes like a hawk, and ears like a dog. His sense of smell wasn't that great, and his sense of taste wasn't very good either, but everything else, including his sense of touch, was very keen. His only fault was that he had depression lapses. Basically, they wanted to find out his mind worked. They wanted to study Sheperd to try and enhance the senses of others, but probably at the cost of Sheperd's life. They had just started testing Sheperd when he had escaped. It wasn't high tech, Sheperd didn't have the money to buy a high tech laptop, or even the parts to make one, not that he didn't have the knowledge. No, he simply found the air duct, reprogrammed the security so that it wouldn't detect him. He fooled the security using one of their own computers, one that didn't even have the latest software on it, it was still using Windows '98, but he pulled it off. Then he crawled out through the air duct. He laid low for a couple of days and returned to his apartment to find, to his horror, his brother missing. And a note on his chair.
Sheperd pulled out the note from his pocket. He looked at it.
Yep, he thought, that is defiantly Masuka's hand writing.
The note said that if he wanted to see his brother alive and well again, he best return to the lab. Sheperd had told himself that there is no way that he is going to let them stick another needle in his body. But he had to get his brother back.
Sheperd had been on the run for two weeks strait now, he guessed, therefore he hadn't gotten much rest. He had been to twelve towns and cities in fourteen days. The only sleep he had gotten was in cars that let him hitch-hike, but that was usually only a couple of mintues. Sheperd hoped that Domino would buy him enough time to devise a plan. But with only himself, he didn't stand a chance. He needed a new tactic, something else. Something he hadn't thought of.
Sheperd had nearly fallen asleep, unintentionally, when a knock at the trap door that lead to the attic interrupted Sheperd's dozy thoughts.
"Yes?" he answered irratably.
"I was just wondering if you had any stuff," came Yugi's reply as he stuck his head through the trap door.
"Nope, I don't have anything but what's on my back and what's in my pockets, which is ten dollars in one dollar bills, two dollars in change, a picture of my brother, and one other personal item," Sheperd replied.
"How'd you get a school uniform if you just got here?" Yugi asked.
"Take away the tie and school crest and my school uniform looks just yours," Sheperd replied as if it was obvious.
"Oh," Yugi replied.
Yugi crawled out of the entrance to the attic and sat on the floor. Sheperd looked back at the ceiling and closed his eyes. Yugi studied Sheperd carefully before speaking again.
"Are you okay? You seem quiet, even for a quiet person," Yugi stated.
Sheperd opened his eyes and looked at Yugi.
"I'm just thinking about a whole lot of stuff," Sheperd said. "By the way, what do you have in the line of music?"
"I've got some rock CDs, soundtracks, and instrumentals," Yugi replied.
"Can you bring up one of your instrumentals?" Sheperd asked.
"Sure," Yugi replied.
He went to his room to get one of his favorites, but when he came back he found Sheperd asleep. Yugi smiled slightly. Sheperd looked his age when he was asleep.
Yugi left the CD on the table by the boom box and queitly left the room.
Good call Yugi Yami's voice told Yugi.
/About what?/ Yugi asked.
Letting him sleep, I sense that he will need his strength. Of course, I also sense that he doesn't have much left
/I would guess so too, the time's only 7:30/
Very early Yami agreed.
Yugi went to his room to read.
You still going to help him?
/Yep/