Seed Compound, Hope County, Montana, may 24, 2018.
I stared down coldly and kept my gun trained on the disgusting excuse for a human being who was slowly crawling away from me.
The sick fucker that was currently on his knees looking defeated is named Joseph Seed-former leader of a now destroyed cult named Project at Eden's gate.
I thought in relief while letting out a shaky sigh, "It's finally over." I was feeling exhausted and mentally broken over what I've experienced for the past two months.
For those of you who are wondering who I am, my name is Nathan Pierce, former law enforcement officer turned Resistance leader of Hope county. The things I've seen and done have scarred me not only physically but mentally.
When I graduated the police academy and was transferred to the Hope County Sheriff's Department, I thought I could make a difference and I wanted to be recognized for my efforts as a good cop. Like any other rookie greenhorn I had no idea how dangerous things could be.
For my first three months on the force I did my job well. I arrested bar-brawling drunks and wrote my reports I even impressed my training Officer when I de-escalated a situation by talking down a man with a knife who was threatening his wife for cheating on him. Sure, I did okay but I wanted to do something bigger. So when a U.S Marshal named Cameron Burke showed up one day and presented an arrest warrant for a man named Joseph Seed, I knew this was my chance to prove myself big time.
When I noticed my coworkers getting nervous and it took some convincing to take a helicopter to Josephs compound, I knew something very bad was going to happen and it did.
We flew to the compound, landed, and approached the sentry posted at the front gate. When he challenged us, we presented the arrest warrant for Joseph Seed. The sentry consulted with someone on his radio and came back to tell us that we had to go to the church and let us in.
When I saw all the cult members armed to the fucking teeth glaring at us with open hostility, I realized that this wasn't going to end well for us. We approached the church and Burke, Whitehorse, and I carefully entered, while leaving Hudson outside to cover the front doors. Joseph was delivering a sermon to a few dozen members but stopped when we entered and asked us what our business was. We presented the warrant and as he stepped down from the podium the members erupted in an outrage and it got really ugly fast.
I was escorting Joseph Seed to the helicopter while the Marshal and my coworkers were covering me. Burke had his service weapon out and was aiming it at any cult member that got too close ordering them to step back, Joseph's followers were shouting and protesting at seeing their beloved savior being carried away in handcuffs.
"Fucking Peggies." Hudson growled out while gripping her shotgun.
"Peggies? What the hell does that mean?" I asked in confusion.
"Peggies is what the locals call the cult members, rookie." Hudson explained,"It's short for Project at Eden's Gate..." She broke off and aimed her gun at a Peggie that got too close.
Rocks and trash were being chucked at us as we were approaching the helicopter. One stone clocked the Marshal in the head causing him to stumble and fire his gun in the air. All hell broke loose as everyone drew their weapons and tried to shout down the other side. My coworkers desperately tried to keep control of the angry mob as I hustled Seed to the helicopter.
"Oh shit!" I thought in terror and shoved Joseph inside, frantically climbing inside the helicopter with my coworkers and Burke right behind me. As the chopper started to lift off, from out of nowhere a few of Joseph's followers leaped onto the helicopter. As one psycho jumped onto the windshield, two of the others grabbed the Marshal and me and tried to yank us out while the pilot Pratt was trying to stabilize the chopper as it raised up into the air.
"Get..the..fuck..off me." I grunted at the deranged woman clinging to me. I shook her loose and shoved her out the door. She fell a few feet to the ground and immediately jumped up and continued screaming at me as the helicopter took off into the air. Burke was leaning outside trying to get the crazy bastard to let go of the arm without letting go of his service weapon.
I scrambled over to Burke, pulling the taser from my belt and fired it at the nut job dangling from Burke's arm. As he seized up and let go, falling to the ground, I hauled Burke backwards by his Kevlar vest to make sure he didn't fall out. Looking up I saw Joseph Seed singing without a care in the world.
"Is that Amazing Grace? What the fuck is wrong with that man?" I thought in disbelief, seeing him looking so calm.
Suddenly the man that was still holding onto the windshield lost his grip and was sucked up into the blades causing blood and gore to spray everywhere. The chopper started spinning out of control and fell back to the ground.
Burke, Whitehorse, Hudson, Pratt, and I started screaming in fear while frantically strapping in and bracing for impact.
"Ohh fuck me!?" I yelled out in horror when I saw the the ground rapidly approaching, then we crashed and everything went black.
Somehow by some miracle we all survived but things got worse from there. Joseph's followers had found us and grabbed my coworkers, dragging them away while Burke and I barely escaped with our lives. We fled the crash site but got separated when they started shooting at us.
Feeling afraid of getting killed or being taken and having God knows what done to me, I snuck past patrols and found a gun in one of the log cabins. Continuing to move through the forest I eventually met up with Burke and we hunkered down in a trailer. He gave me an assault rifle and told me not to hesitate to use it.
We searched through the trailer, hoping to find something useful. We heard voices outside and realized that the Peggies had found us. They started firing at us, forcing me and the Marshal to shoot back in self defense.
Burke spotted a pick up truck that was parked in the garage and yelled at me to cover him while he made a break for the truck and tried to get it started. I fired full auto at the cult members forcing them into cover. Just when I thought it would never end I heard the truck start and Burke honked the horn which motivated me to jump out the window. I booked it in a panic to the truck while keeping my head down to avoid the barrage of gunfire.
Burke opened the passenger door, I dived in and slammed it shut. I shouted at the Marshal to get us the fuck out of here. Burke slammed his foot on the gas and we took off to the highway, keeping our heads low.
We started heading to Missoula, hoping to contact the National Guard and come back to drop the hammer on these nut jobs before anyone else got hurt or worse.
We had to go off road a few times because Peggies had the roads blocked. I found some dynamite in the back of the truck I started lighting and tossing them at the psychopaths out of desperation. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, a plane dropped bombs on a bridge we were speeding over, sending Burke and me flying into the river. I started to black out a few times while we frantically swam to shore. When I finally dragged myself out of the water, I passed out from exhaustion on the shoreline.
I faintly remembered waking up and being carried by someone while I was half conscious before passing out again.
Next thing I knew I woke up zip-tied to a bed with a man staring down at me. He was contemplating handing me over to the Peggies but changed his mind and freed me when I started begging him to spare me from a terrible fate.
The man left me alone but not before telling me to change my clothes cause I stuck out like a sore thumb. Changing my clothes and tossing my uniform into the trash, I went to see the stranger feeling afraid of not knowing what the future held for me. I met up with the man who introduced himself as Dutch. He told me that the Marshal and my coworkers were being held captive by the members of the Seed family and that the way to save them was to form a resistance against the cult.
Little did I know what the next few months held for me.
After two months of fighting through hell, I finally saved my coworkers and killed Jacob, John, and Faith Seed, Joseph's top three lieutenants. I freed most of Hope County from the tyranny of Seed and his followers, but not without a cost. Burke was dead-while under the influence of a drug called Bliss, he had killed the leader of a faction of the resistance called the cougars and then committed suicide. I saw the whole thing and it caused me to fly into a rage and brutally kill Faith Seed in cold blood. I didn't feel anything when Faith died-the only thought I had when I saw her bloody corpse sinking into the river was 'good riddance.'
I was captured by Jacob Seed a few times and the things he did to me changed me for the worse. He starved and psychologically tortured me for days, attempting to brainwash me into carrying out his orders. When it worked, the first thing he had me do was kill someone I had befriended, the leader of the Whitetails Militia named Eli Palmer. When I realized what I'd done, I felt myself snap out of it and proceeded to hunt down Jacob and slaughter him.
John Seed lured me to a small town called Falls End with threats of killing hostages he had captured. As I went in to save the prisoners I was ambushed by Peggies who took me to John Seed. While his men held my comrades at gunpoint, Seed exacted revenge against me by holding me down and forcibly tattooing the word "wrath" across my chest. I broke free and grabbed a gun that Pastor Jerome had hidden in a fake bible. I tried to shoot John but one of his men grabbed my arm away and the shot went wild. In the chaos, the hostages broke free and began fighting against their captors. Nick Rye a good friend of mine, now freed and fighting back handed me a shotgun and some ammo he had taken from one of the Peggies. We saw John, the sick fucker, fleeing to his airstrip and we pursued him. At the airstrip John and his pilot jumped into a plane. As they taxied down the runway, Nick and I jumped into another plane that was parked nearby and followed them into the air. After a dog fight in the air with help from Nick Rye, I finally shot the bastard down and saw John eject from his plane and parachute to safety. I grabbed an emergency parachute and jumped out of the plane, landing in the woods near where I saw Seed go down.
When I finally caught up to him, I shot him in the leg to slow him down. As John writhed on the ground screaming in agony, I emptied my shotgun into him, turning John into a gory mess. When my gun ran dry, I dropped it and looked at my hands in disbelief. I was trembling, feeling disturbed and horrified at what I was becoming. I was realizing that the person I used to be was gone and that I was never going to be the same again.
Some time later, my coworkers, members of the resistance, and I met up to regroup and figure out what to do next. With the three Seed family members dead and most of the county freed, I knew it was time for Joseph Seed to pay for his crimes. So we began planning to storm the Seed compound, ready to lay out righteous fury against the one that has caused so much suffering and carnage for the past two months.
The doors to the church opened and Joseph Seed walked out and stopped next to two open barrels full of bliss. I kept my assault rifle trained on him while he looked up at the sky.
"And the lamb broke the fifth seal, and I saw under the altar the souls of the martyrs, slain because of the word of God..." The deranged Cult leader said before lowering his eyes from the heavens to glare at me.
"You've made martyrs of my family... and I am prepared to do the same to yours." Joseph said, pointing at me. My glare at him intensified at his gall for threatening my friends.
I was about to pull the trigger and finish this when I heard sounds of a struggle. Turning around in confusion, my eyes widened at seeing members of the resistance forcing Whitehorse, Hudson, and Pratt onto their knees at gunpoint with a glazed look in their eyes. Seeing their vacant expressions made me realize that they had been exposed to Bliss and wouldn't hesitate to shoot my coworkers on Joseph's command. Joseph walked into my line of sight and I felt extreme hatred for that disgusting excuse of a man.
"But, God is watching us. And He will judge us on what we choose in this moment." Joseph said looking at me.
"Where every slight... every injustice... where every choice reveals our sins. And where have those sins led us? Where have those sins led you?" He asked me, looking at the scars that I had gained in the past two months.
"Your friends have been taken and tortured and it's your fault. Countless people have been killed, and it is your fault. The world is on fire and it's your fault. Was it worth it? Was it? When are you gonna realize that every problem cannot be solved with a bullet?" the cult leader said through clenched teeth. He walked back to the front of the church and turned to look back at me while I stared coldly.
"When you first came here, I gave you the choice to walk away. You chose not to. In the face of God I am making you that offer one last time... Put down your guns. And you take your friends. You leave me my flock... and you go in peace," he said, giving me and my coworkers a chance to walk away from all this madness.
"Go in peace? You're fucking insane." Hudson growled looking at Joseph with murder in her eyes.
"Is he? We never should have been here in the first place," Pratt argued with a broken expression on his face. Whitehorse looked up at me and said, "You know what to do Rook..."
I turned around and stared back at Joseph who was walking to me. He stopped a few feet away and raised his arms before speaking to me.
"Remember...God is watching," he said, warning me that whatever choice I make will have consequences.
My eyes widened in fury for him putting blame for all of this on me. Seed and his family had tortured, killed and torn families apart, and he had the gall to not only blame me for all of this madness, but was giving me the choice to walk away like a coward. I was pissed-no I was downright fucking livid. I wanted to make him pay for everything he had done.
"Okay, I thought about your proposal and I've decided to decline, so here's my counter offer. You are going to let my friends go and we are going to put the cuffs on you and take you to court where you'll be sentenced and locked up for your crimes. Oh and please resist. It'll make it all the more satisfying to put a fucking bullet in your head," I said mockingly with a sinister grin. Joseph closed his eyes and slowly shook his head in disappointment.
"Every slight, every injustice, and every choice reveals our sin! John was wrong. Your sin is not wrath. You would rather watch the world suffer and burn than swallow your pride! And the lamb broke the sixth seal and lo, there was a great earthquake...And the sun became black and the moon turned to blood!" Joseph growled before shoving the barrels to the ground, I could feel the effects of the bliss hitting me again. My vision went green and all hell broke loose.
Next thing I knew, my vision cleared up and I saw Hudson, Pratt, and Whitehorse getting up off the ground with glazed looks on their faces. I heard Joseph rambling insanely and could see my coworkers, along with members of the Resistance, aiming guns at me. I could see Joseph holding an large machine gun, looking completely deranged.
I gave a feral grin and started aiming my rifle, ready to unleash hell.
And that leads us to where we are now. It wasn't easy getting everyone to come back to their senses but I successfully managed to snap my comrades out of it. After I did that we all turned our guns at Joseph and immediately opened fire, forcing him to take cover. I signaled that I was flanking and Pastor Jerome nodded, then kept the sick fucker busy with a barrage of gunfire while I approached from the side.
I stealthily made my way over to Joseph and took out my collapsible baton, flicking it open. Then I took out a white handkerchief and waved it above my head to signal everybody to stop firing. In the sudden silence, Joseph heard me moving behind him and turned around just in time to catch my baton across his face, knocking his sunglasses off. He dropped his weapon as he fell to the ground clutching his face.
I immediately grabbed his sidearm and tossed it away before kicking him in the chest to add insult to injury. Finally, the effects of the bliss wore off and I could think more clearly again that's when I heard Joseph speaking, as he got up to his knees.
"Forgive them Father...they know not what they do...And when the lamb opened the seventh seal...there was silence in Heaven...and the seven angels before God were given seven trumpets... And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake." Joseph babbled on while Pastor Jerome and the others cautiously approached, I was looking at birds flying by in a panic. Suddenly I heard sirens blaring out and I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"Joseph Seed, you're under arrest." Whitehorse said sternly. Holstering his revolver, he hauled Joseph up to his feet before cuffing him.
"And I heard a great voice from the temple say to the angels go your ways and pour from the vials, the wrath of God upon the Earth." Joseph said looking at me.
"Jesus Christ, does this asshole ever shut up?" I thought, glaring at Joseph in irritation. I was about to yell at him to be quiet when suddenly there was a giant flash of light and what sounded like an explosion. I raised my arms to my face to block out what ever the light was and slammed my eyes shut. I opened them a few seconds later and what I saw horrified me beyond belief.
There was a mushroom cloud in the distance. Seeing it made me put my hand over my mouth in shock.
"Oh my fucking God." I whimpered in horror, my eyes welling up at seeing the devastation. Joseph leaned close to me and whispered, "It is finished child." Then he started singing Amazing Grace.
"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" Pratt exclaimed in pure horror and disbelief before we were knocked off balance by the force of the shockwave and scrambled desperately to avoid the flying dust and debris.
"The truck! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" Whitehorse shouted in alarm as we frantically fled towards the nearest vehicle. I reached the back door and opened it. Hudson, Pratt, and Joseph went in the back seat while Whitehorse and I jumped in the front seats and slammed the doors shut.
"He was right! He was right! I knew it...I fucking knew it. Shit! Jesus help us!" Pratt babbled with tears running down his face.
"Rook, get us the fuck out of here! Drive! Drive! Drive!." Hudson yelled, motivating me to slam my foot on the gas as we took off to Dutch's bunker.
"Jesus fucking Christ, kid! You seeing this shit? Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, get to the Goddamn bunker now!" Dutch's voice bellowed out of my radio.
"Drive! Get us to that bunker now!" Whitehorse yelled in fear. Suddenly there were two more explosions going off in the distance. Two more mushroom clouds were producing shockwaves that I knew would hit us any second. I realize that our country was under attack.
"This isn't happening. This isn't happening. God help us all," I thought in terror and despair, tears streaming down my face.
I saw animals, trees, cars, and people on fire. I even saw a woman and a child pinned under a car, screaming in agony while they were being burned alive.
"We're going to burn to death for our sins! We're going to burn in hell for everything we've done!" Pratt screamed and began reciting the Hail Mary while Hudson and Whitehorse kept trying to shut him up.
I turned on to a dirt road and realized we were running out of road and were about to go flying.
"Oh fuck! Hang on everyone!" I shouted and we went airborne and landed roughly on a path that led to the bunker.
"We're not gonna make it... We're not gonna make it!" Pratt sobbed out, leaning forward and grabbing Whitehorse and me, momentarily distracting me.
"Pratt! Sit back and shut the fuck up! I can't concentrate!" I roared out in frustration.
"Look out! Tree!" Hudson yelled in panic. Whipping my head forward, I saw a tree falling onto the road.
"Oh shit!" I yelled, frantically slamming on the brakes, but it was too late. We crashed and I smashed my head into the steering wheel, and blacked out.
The Black Forest, The Hesse, The Homelands, date unknown.
"Oh my head, what happened?" I thought while regaining consciousness. From what I can tell I was laying on my side feeling pain all over.
"The others-I need to make sure they're okay." I immediately got up on my feet and instantly fell back down.
"Ow, what the fuck?" I thought in confusion, that's when I noticed something was wrong. My whole body felt completely different. My joints were backwards, my face was longer and I felt what appeared to be an extra appendage attached to my rear. Carefully getting up, I stayed up on all fours which, oddly, felt completely natural. I also noticed everything looked smaller and completely untouched, as if the nuclear explosions never happened.
Suddenly I realized I could smell a bird flying overhead and hear the sound of its wings whooshing through the air.
"Okay, What the fuck is going on?" I asked out loud. My jaw dropped at hearing the deep and gravely sound of my voice. I looked down and instead of seeing my hands I saw giant paws.
"What in Gods name!? What the fuck happened to me!?" I thought in a panic and looked around for a reflective surface so I could see myself. I saw a lake nearby and quickly headed to it, stumbling from time to time. When I looked down and saw my reflection, I was stunned.
An eight foot tall timber wolf with grey fur stared back, it's golden eyes holding an expression of disbelief. Somewhere in my mind I knew that this wasn't a hallucination caused by the bliss because my head felt clear. I tried to reason with what I was seeing.
"I'm dead. That's right, I died in the crash and I'm in Heaven or in a coma," I rationalized, convincing myself that everything I could see and feel was nothing more than some form of purgatory or a fucked up coma dream.
I sat back and let out a large sigh. A huge burst of wind came rushing out of my muzzle, ripping trees apart and knocking debris to the ground, causing me to recoil in shock.
"Holy fucking shit! Did I do that?!" I yelped out in disbelief.
Then I narrowed my eyes and realized that this might be real. I needed to test whatever I just did. Lifting my head up I breathed in slowly and started blowing the breath out. An enormous gust of wind with the force of a hurricane came flying out of my muzzle and destroyed the ground in front of me, leaving nothing more then a huge trench behind. I stopped and stared at the devastation, feeling awe at what I just did.
"Did I just huff and puff and blow the fucking trees down?!" I thought incredulously.
I somehow have the ability to create huge gusts of wind with my breath alone.
What's the name of the wolf in that fairy tale? Damn, It's been a long time. Okay, from what I can recall his name starts with a B...so what's his name?" I thought, feeling frustrated at my lack of memory.
While I was wracking my brain, I looked at my refection in the water again and started chuckling at seeing how large I was.
"Man do I look big and bad. If Joseph Seed saw me now, he would be pissing himself and begging for me not to kill him." I said with a wolfish grin. Then my eyes widened and I remembered the fable's name.
"The Big Bad Wolf! That's his name. God, do I feel like an idiot," I thought with a grumble, wanting to hit my head against a tree out of sheer embarrassment for not remembering a famous fairy tale character.
Suddenly, I heard something approaching my location behind me and I tensed up. Slowly turning around, I saw an Arctic wolf walking toward me. I concluded from her slender but powerful form that she was female. She stopped and sat down, looking up at me in awe.
We stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. The wolf seemed to regain some of her composure and started speaking to me.
"Who are you? Are you a god?" She softly asked while still looking up at me in amazement.
I was shocked that a wolf was speaking to me in English but then I decided not to question it and accept the fact that I was probably going to see and hear some pretty unbelievable things.
I gave a chuckle and answered politely with a calm smile."No, I am not a god, and my name's Nathan."
"It is a pleasure to meet you Nathan, my name is Winter." She said with a kind smile, I was surprised that she was calm considering the fact that an eight foot tall wolf was in her territory.
Then fatigue set in and I gave an impressive yawn, causing Winter to giggle at me. I felt completely exhausted by everything I had been through.
"Tired Nathan? How about I take you back to my den so you can get some rest," Winter proposed, "You look like you have been through a long journey." I widened my eyes in surprise. I wanted to know why she decided to take such a risk for a stranger.
"Winter, I want to know something. Why are you not afraid of me? I could be planning to kill you and take your territory for myself, so why are you being so kind to me? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for your offer, but why are you doing this? You don't know who I am, so why would you go out of your way to help a complete stranger? " I questioned in confusion, wondering why she was doing this for me.
"Because I can tell that you don't have evil intentions. If you did, you wouldn't be speaking to me and would have just attacked me on sight. And I can see pain in your eyes, which tells me that you're a kind soul that has seen much horror and tragedy. I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do," Winter confessed with a warm smile.
I didn't say anything and just laid down, the haunted expression on my face showing just how broken I was.
Winter approached me, put her head on my massive shoulder and compassionately nuzzled my neck. I immediately broke down and started sobbing, letting out all the trauma I had seen and experienced. Horrific flashbacks ran through my mind while Winter was consoling me and I knew everything was going to be alright.
Little did I know just how wrong I was.
A/n: Just in case you guys were wondering who Winter is, she is the mother of Bigby Wolf. I wanted to give her more of a role since we barely know anything about her other than the fact that she was abandoned by North Wind and she died heartbroken and alone. Based on what little I do know about her, I decided to give her a kind and compassionate personality.
Well let me know what you guys think. Leave me a review if you like or PM me.