"She Was Not the First…"
By Dante Alighieri1308
Part I: The Idealist
Lana Evergreen – Faith I
A single stream of light shown through the bullet hole into the trunk where she lay. She didn't know what time it was. She didn't know what car she was in. But she knew who had placed her in the trunk. Who had ripped her from her bed in the attic of the Welcome Center.
And she knew what was coming next.
Lana Evergreen knew. An unmarked grave awaited her. Where it would be located, Lana couldn't even guess. Even after being in Hope County for seven months, Lana was still unsure of the layout and all the nooks and crannies the County held. For the most part, she was stuck with the recruitment and then her special project. She was the smile for the new comers and their therapist. Joseph had been so proud of her.
"Through you, through your love, the people will have Faith." He whispered softly to her, his calm eyes hidden behind the orange tinted sunglasses he had taken to wearing. "Through you, we all know the beauty that is Faith."
That "beauty" wouldn't save her now. Lana's "love" didn't give her strength. Her life was over, over too soon. Before she could truly begin to preach God's word. Before she could heal others. Now, this would be her end. Eyes puffy, tears streaming down her face, sweat soaking her plaid pjs, and, yes, some urine running down her thigh.
"God… why have you let this happen?" Lana choked out. They hadn't bothered to gag her. Hope County was massive with only one major town and a few homesteads spread out. No one would hear her. It didn't seem that God would either. "I was only doing your word. Please… Please…" she begged, throat sore from her earlier wailing. "Not now, I'm not ready."
She truly wasn't. Lana wasn't scared of what came after life, but she thought she'd have more time. She knew Heaven awaited her. She had done much to redeem herself, to save others, and follow God's word. Now, she only hoped God could forgive her for following her own Golden Cow, Joseph Seed.
Fresh waterworks began again as Lana remembered her last conversation with her brother. Derek had been furious, mocking her and her belief in Joseph and his message. For taking the name Faith. Lana, ever so patient, smiled and proudly told her older brother of the true path. Derek had to be escorted off of the church ground while the others, her fellow followers in Georgia, watched on. Joseph had laid a hand on her shoulder, taking his other to raise her face up to his.
"The Path is hard and filled with sorrows. Yet we carry on, for Eden is in front of us."
Suddenly, the car came to a heavy stop, causing Lana to roll into the trunk wall with a heavy thud. She scooted forward, trying to see out of the bullet hole, trying to see if there was a way to escape, only to have her view obscured by a figure, who opened the trunk and forced her out by the black hair, dragging her out into the cold night.
It was a rough, unceremonious start to her end, and much like the start of her own life, Lana went kicking and screaming. She hadn't had a bad childhood, but as the sixth and final child of her parents, Lana was often overlooked. Never mistreated, but not held up to any high standard. Her parents dumped her when she was old enough to go to preschool. After that, it was hard to get their attention. By the sixth kid, how could they get excited about a child's first play?
All those feelings of abandonment should have turned into teenage rebellion, but instead manifested itself as religious fervor. She turned to prayer, comforted by its solemn and humble message. Derek would sometimes join, but he too, as the fifth child, felt their parents sting but turned his attention to partying, cheap beer, and weed. By the end of high school, Lana had a scholarship to college for achievements in science and a bright future ahead of her.
"Hit her head, god damn it!" someone shouted. A swift movement to Lana's right and she saw stars. The night was cold and air prickly against her exposed skin. She was only wearing a tank top and boxer shorts when they grabbed her. Through the haze, Lana couldn't make out who they were. She had a good eye for faces. Must be some of Jacob's men. She always feared them.
"S-Stop!" she muttered, powerless. They were dragging her somewhere. Dirt underneath her, cool to her limp limbs as they ran through it. "You can't do this! Can't do this to me!"
"Weak." Someone replied, disgust in his tone.
"I am Faith!" She attempted to shout, but her voice cracked, losing its effect. Still, she tried. "I was chosen by our Father! You have no right to defy him!"
"We aren't."
At that, she began to whimper again.
The Father. Joseph Seed. The first time they met was at the Rec Center in Rome, Georgia. She hadn't thought much of him. He looked like a hipster Jesus, someone you'd see in Brooklyn, not Georgia. He had his "flock" of recovering addicts and society's outcasts with him. Lana had been joined by other members of the methadone clinic she worked at while in grad school to observe. Of all their patients, those that came to Joseph were those that had the lowest relapse rate. While the other doctors had scoffed at the recovering addicts in prayer, Joseph sense her respect for them and spoke with her alone.
"Are you one of the faithful?" he asked.
"I believe in God." Lana replied, her eyes looking at the tattoos on his arms. He sensed this and chuckled, though made no attempt to hide them.
"Do they not?" He asked, gesturing to her coworkers behind them. They were eying their conversation intently, judgment on their faces. Lana hated that.
"I don't think so."
"That's a shame, though unsurprising. Are you a doctor?"
"No. I'm a chemist. Or, I will be. Still two more years in my grad program."
Joseph blinked for the first time, though he didn't have any expression otherwise. "What do you plan to do afterwards?"
"I don't know." Lana answered honestly. "Join a pharmaceutical company maybe. Make some money there and then try and do good afterwards when I'm set."
That seemed to have annoyed him, his brow furrowing slightly. "How Godly." He replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. In that moment, Lana felt an intense shame, and was grateful when when he offered an alternative. "Perhaps you should join us instead. We meet biweekly here at the Rec Center."
Lana looked over the pamphlet Joseph then extended to her. It was cheaply made, but oddly welcoming. It offered a chance to "walk the path to Eden" and to find one's own joy through God.
"Why don't you stop by for our next meeting?" Joseph pressed, gently.
"Oh, that's very kind. But I don't imagine-"
Joseph's hand extended out and grasped her wrist, very gently, accompanied by a sweet smile and those eyes that never left hers. "Come for the next meeting. You'll find your true calling through God."
"Get up, heretic!"
It wasn't a request from her captor. They dragged her up, shakily, onto her feet and lead her into a cave. The air inside was hot and humid, causing her skin to lightly steam due to the temperature change. She had no idea where she was. Once more, in between her internal cries of fear, she cursed herself for not learning the geography of her region, yes her region thanks to the Fath- Joseph! Joseph's word. It made no difference now. Such knowledge wouldn't help her even if she could escape.
"You're doing such good for the flock."
Lana smiled at the Father's compliment. Two months after joining, Lana had found herself a staple in the Father's flock. She had ended up going to the meetings, finding comfort in the support group. People's fears and anxieties were discussed openly and without judgment. Promises to the Lord were made, friendships blossomed, and the community grew in size.
As it grew, the Father had begun to divide up responsibilities to those he trusted. His brother John, so charismatic and intelligent, handled a large portion of the group. He had an odd way to sussing out people's pain and suffering, bringing it out into the open and finding ways to heal them. Joseph's older brother, Jacob, would take some and "make them strong". Whatever that meant.
Faith was the intermediary. She taught them, both parties, about God's love. How they could heal through it and feel comfort in each other and God. Sometimes, only some, she would offer pills she swiped form the clinic. Only to help though.
Always only to help.
Joseph would often sit in on her sessions, adding his two cents to the proceedings. Joseph would sit in on his brothers' sessions as well. Attention would quickly shift from Lana to Joseph, with many of the group feeling a greater connection to Joseph than to God. It made Lana uncomfortable to consider that, but Joseph never seem to drive them down a darker path or abuse his position.
But at the session before they were forced out of Georgia, Joseph mentioned hearing God's voice. Before when he mentioned such things, he always sounded metaphorical. But that time, it seemed literal. It was after that session that he approached her.
"I have news." He began.
"Oh?" Lana had replied, keeping a smile on her face, hiding her concern behind a mask of friendliness.
"I plan to move the flock to Montana."
Montana. That was so far off the radar that Lana did not know how to properly reply. "Oh…" she weakly managed. "I'm sorry to hear that."
"Why are you sorry?" Joseph replied, eyes passive, not breaking contact with her own. She couldn't' break contact with his eyes either.
"Because you'll be leaving Rome. Because I'll lose the group. You know."
He was silent for a few seconds, before sighing deeply. Like her father when she had misbehaved. "Lana," he began, "What did I tell you when I asked you to lead a part of the group?"
Without hesitating, Lana responded. "That you needed me. That the flock needed me." Saying it out loud was intoxicating. It was intoxicating in a way that she didn't like to admit to herself.
"No." Joseph said harshly. His voice was firm, not hostile. Lana had never seen him yell or raise his voice unless he was in the throes of passion while preaching. It was comforting. "I told you that people have faith in you. That the flock needed a visualization of it. Something they can't deny. And that's what you've done. You have become a manifestation of Faith."
It hadn't escaped her ears that the past few years that members of Joseph's flock had begun calling her "Faith." Lana thought it was a gag, but it had become more frequent and fervent and, overtime, Lana didn't try to correct them.
It gave her a confidence, though now, with her end in sight, Lana realized it was pride. A pride to help her deal as a woman of faith in an increasingly secular world and profession. When Lana explained that she viewed science as a way to understand God, her research partners laughed and asked what movie she got that line from. It was similar events such as that, along with Derek's anger at her involvement with Joseph that pushed Lana to agree to move with the flock. She could do more good with them than she could laboring in a lab, pretending to accomplish something with the researchers.
Besides, before they left, Joseph had promised her something special.
"I have a special project that only you can accomplish for the flock, Faith."
Once more, Lana was pushed to the floor again, coughing due to the heaviness in the air. It smelled like burning tires in the cavern. Looking up, Lana could see a ledge in front of her, a murky haze rising up from beyond it. She couldn't see anything else, only a few streams of moonlight shown into the cavern from cracks in the ceiling. Instinctively, Lana struggled against the ropes around her wrist. She could no longer hide the desperation in her voice. Fresh tears started to form again as the ropes did not budge.
"Hello, Faith."
Lana froze when she heard his voice. It had now become painfully clear why she was there. Why she was about to die. This wasn't Jacob's doing. Hands grabbed her again and forced her to her feet near the ledge. Snot was dripping from Lana's nose, and the first few tears had begun to fall. She didn't feel a need to be brave for her death.
"Faith. Oh, Faith. Why have you led us here?"
Lana was momentarily blinded as flash lights clicked on. When her sight returned, she saw him. The Father. No… Joseph. Joseph, bathed in light that reflected off the corners of his aviator glasses. He had taken to wearing them as soon as they arrived in Hope County. Behind him, Lana can make out the shadowy outlines of men and women she did not recognize. They were probably from John and Jacob's regions. They had started to recruit on their own, even bringing in people from outside the county they had contacted on the internet. Lost souls, though not all of them hungered for God's love.
"Don't do this. Please…" She begged. Lana realized that begging was useless. She didn't care though. "Just let me go and I promise, I promise, I won't do or say anything!"
Her desperate tone echoes through the cavern, falling on deaf ears. "You've betrayed us, Faith." Joseph continues, not acknowledging Lana's pleas. "Betrayed your brothers and sisters. You would deny them the Bliss. A Bliss only you, Faith, can provide."
"Get Peter to do it! I didn't need to work on it anymore!" She screamed, voice hoarse.
"Oh, he will have the Bliss completed soon. Despite your attempts to lead him astray."
Lana cried out in anguish and shock. How did Peter figure it out? Her partner on that "special project" Joseph had promised had been less than ideal. He was a chemist, in the sense he had cooked meth for some low level dealers on the outskirts of Atlanta. Still, he had known more than the basics and Lana had provided some tutoring. She had been taken with the idea of having a student, someone to study under her and who hanged on her every word for wisdom. It made her feel powerful and needed.
It only feed her pride further as Joseph abandoned her name of Lana, referring to her simply as "Faith." Soon, the people of Joseph's flock followed suit and she was the Faith of the flock.
Joseph had tasked her with what he must have known she wanted all along: a drug to help people forget their trauma. She called it Bliss as a joke at first, but the name quickly stuck among the flock. Montana was not the best place for a lab though, so Lana had to get creative with the components. Jacob had contacts on the dark web who provided the initial lab equipment, most of it used but still sanitary enough. He also managed to secure for Lana the base material for the Bliss, Datura Stramonium and Scopolamine. Both were recognized prescriptions used world wide as stress reducers, which Lana had combined with distilled moonflower.
The final touch was from the henebe nightshade, a flower found in the very region Joseph had tasked Lana with overseeing. It was potent, and tricky to get down to usable dosage, but Lana had finally cracked it after months of work. The work had consumed her, and by the time she had completed the Bliss and gone to Joseph's compound to present it to him, she was stunned by Joseph's new message.
"YOU USED ME!" Lana screamed, saliva flying from her mouth. "You want the Bliss to subjugate the flock!"
"No one is being forced." Joseph replied calmly.
"But they will be! People are fleeing!" Lana retorted, a vindictive smile emerging as she realized she struck a nerve. People were drifting from Joseph's words, turned off by his now apocalyptic message.
"No, they are not fleeing. They have merely become lost."
"Bullshit!" Lana spat. "They are running for their lives! They fear you and your bullshit about a Collapse! You're nothing more than a Jim Jones-"
A swift gut punch and Lana's moment of fury was over. Peter had figured out her notes, her attempts to mislead him having failed. She had only needed another two days. Another two days and she'd have had a truck and could have left. She could have driven back to Georgia. Back to Derek.
Oh God… Derek. He was right. Lana screamed to herself. 'I never got a chance to write back to him. To tell him, I don't know…'
"You've failed us." Joseph continued, now standing over her. "All of us. And all of humanity." The whole time, Josephs' voice had not deviated from a monotone, but there was an edge as he announced what followed. "The Collapse is coming. And for that, we still need Faith."
A glimmer of hope. Tears were staining the black floor beneath her. Lana could see Joseph's boots in front of her. Perhaps mercy…
"But not your faith."
A scream, a raised hand, a click, and a single shot. Blood splattered, a figure fell backwards, dead, her shiny black hair covered with her own blood and skull.
"Throw her in." The Father declared, to which two of his loyal children did. As the tar from the pits seeps into the women's body, the procession leaves.
Leaving behind their Faith with no ceremony or love or misgivings.
Part One of Three. Far Cry 5 implies that there are 3 different Lanas, and I'll be addressing them all with different personalities and motivations. Review and subscribe if you'd like more :)
Next Up: Selena