SHEPERD

The Voice

Walking back to the white truck they had arrived in, Joseph stopped dead in his tracks as he felt the familiar sudden pull in his mind. The same pull he had felt before, the same pull he felt before his mind was opened to reveal The Voice that spoke to him.

As John fumbled with the car keys in his hand and began to open the truck door, he noticed his brother wasn't following, but only that he had stopped a few feet behind him. He had seen that look before.

The Voice was speaking to him.

He watched curiously as he saw Joseph turn back towards the Church and stare at the young girl, they had met just moments ago. She was still standing in a close circle with Mary May, Pastor Jerome and Daniel Woodson.

As Joseph stared credulously at the girl, the familiar pull soon turned into The Voice - the same Voice which had once told him that the collapse would come.

'The first seal has been opened, The Protector has come.'

He shivered hearing The Voice once again after it being silenced for so long. He had wondered when he would hear it again. The moment he laid eyes on the girl, he knew something was different with her. The Voice had confirmed it.

She will take a huge part in the protection of their people during the collapse.

He knew then,

She would be the one to save them all.

"Is everything alright, brother?" John spoke, pulling Joseph from his thoughts.

Joseph looked to his younger brother as John approached him. A ghost of a smile appearing on his lips, looking at his brother once, before looking past his head to the girl. . . the savior beyond.

"Brother?"

"Everything will be okay." Joseph spoke suddenly, still staring at the girl beyond his brother's shoulder.

"Everything is falling into place, according to God's plan. We will be saved." He spoke, looking into John's eyes and placing his hands on his shoulders.

"Come now, the word must be spread."

***

As Hope drove home, she couldn't get the words of what the Pastor had told her out of her head;

'It's too late for Marcus. . .'

She didn't understand. She couldn't understand. Something about those men she met today, they had a hold on her brother that she didn't understand.

As Pastor Jerome told her, they were dangerous, but the strange thing was . . . she didn't feel she was in any sort of danger around them. She felt at home, she felt in peace. She felt the opposite of what Pastor Jerome was feeling, of what the young man was feeling and of what Mary had been feeling as soon as she laid eyes on them outside the Church.

She figured it was only because she didn't know them. It was impossible to get a proper read on someone after only a sentence spoken to one another.

Her mind was racing, it seemed to do nothing but that during her short time back home.

Hope suddenly realized she had arrived back at the ranch. She put the car in park and sat still in the seat, staring up at the front door of her childhood home.