Soon after they had restocked in supplies they departed the cabin, setting off towards the main road leading away from the Hope County Jail. They still kept to the treeline for fear of being caught. A wolve, snake, even a bear he could deal with. Over a thousand angry people? No.
Thankfully it was still early morning, around 9 AM, which gave them enough time start their walk without the sun beating down on the too much
They walked in silence which gave Nathan ample time to reflect on past events up to this point. From Junior Deputy to wanted criminal. Oh how the mighty have fallen… He thought bitterly. He went from being praised by everyone to having a .44 aimed at his head for simply doing his fucking job!
Arrest Joseph and his siblings, that's what this whole ordeal was about. Now it was "arrest the Seeds, shoot Rook for harboring a criminal". It didn't make any sense! For God's sake he captured Faith Seed! Maybe that was why… Faith had caused so much damage to most living in the Henbane Region that keeping that specific Seed alive seemed crazy. Nathan didn't need to wonder how the other regions would've reacted to him keeping John or Jacob alive. Faith was a good enough answer...
What was so difficult for these people to understand? The whole point of him keeping Faith alive was to eventually arrest her; he didn't originally plan on letting her walk away with her hands clean. She was gonna face jailtime for all her crimes, but the people of Hope County weren't having it.
And thanks to his strict adherence to the "law", It took less than a month for his life to go spiraling downhill
It originally started off fine. The Cougars voiced their discomfort but Whitehorse and the others kept them at bay. Soon they began to see his friendliness and protective attitude towards Faith as a sign of conversion, manipulation on Faith's part or as Jess put it: Joseph's flower whore at work. He'd come back from liberating outposts to find usually cowered in fear, asking him to stay a bit longer with her, till she fell asleep at least.
It didn't stop there though, soon both of Faith's daily food rations were being either misplaced, eaten by someone else or thrown so he had to resort to hunting his own food and smuggling it in for Faith to eat. Day after day, cruel and crude comments involving Nathan and Faith were whispered throughout the jail. He did his best to ignore them, focusing on liberating the county, but some did manage to anger him specifically the "From Joseph's whore to the Deputy's plaything". One that spread like wildfire being silenced only after he confronted the originator, but more followed. Of course he was the only one that heard them, she spent her time in her cell reading books, playing board games with him or just talking amongst each other about menial things. He knew she wasn't a bad person, she'd been manipulated by the failed hipster looking fuck Joseph into believing his every word
He wanted to get her out of there but couldn't just yet, and that was his mistake
Even in other areas of Hope County people became less trusting of him. The Whitetail Mountains, thanks to Tammy's already distrustful attitude towards him, now monitored Nathan at all times making him constantly feel watched. Falls End also, although to a lesser extent, seemed to have done a complete 180 regarding their reception of deputy. Mary May and Pastor Jerome still regarded him in a friendly manner though he could easily sense their discomfort around him, like they were afraid he'd start preaching the word of Joseph or something.
The only people he could seem to trust were a few of his guns for hire like Nick, Adelaide, Hurk and Sharky. Jess was the first to stop helping him claiming "She wasn't helping anyone that was friends with the peggie bitch" and Grace who just refused to even acknowledge he even existed.
It all only got progressive worse as time went on.
All those accusations that couldn't be any farther from the truth. He just wanted her to be comfortable in an environment where everyone was openly hostile towards her. Didn't take long for said hostility to drift over to him though.
He remembered waking up that fateful day to a lot of commotion in one of the nearby cells. Slight annoyance in being awoken turned to bone chilling dread in a fraction of a second as he remembered who exactly was in said nearby cell. He requested to the Sheriff that Faith be given a room to sleep in the second, unused floor of the Hope County Jail to keep her safe. He bolted from his room over to Faith's when he saw just what was happening.
"Times up now Rachel" He heard Tracey as he reached the cell.
He turned to see that Faith was cornered up against the wall of her cell, tears falling and breathing rapidly. Just outside her celldoor were about twenty Cougars all armed with weapons demanding Tracey open the door. He ran to shove Tracey away from the door and snatched the keyring from the lock. He turned to face the mob who looked none to happy to see him. Tracey stood up and glared at the deputy.
"What the fuck is going on? What are you doing here!?" Nathan shouted at everyone. Had this been before everyone started hating his guts, they all would've scurried away pissing their pants. Deputy Nathan Rook wasn't one to kid around much and he held authority and respect. Most certainly not a man to be trifled with. Now everyone ignored his words and instead focused on Faith behind him all except for Tracey, Jess and a few others.
"This is none of your business deputy so I suggest you back the fuck off." Tracey told him angrily. Did she fucking snap already?
"This is very much so my business Tracey, she's my prisoner ergo she's my responsibility. I don't appreciate you bringing a mob to do god knows what to her." Nathan told the shorter woman. She looked angry then her scowl turned to a sneer
"What's going on between the both of you deputy? You seemed to have harbored a liking to the little flower whore behind you. It's like you two are best friends and you suddenly forgot that you had a mission: Defeat the Seed's." Tracy spat. The crowd seemed to agree but Nathan could only think of one thing: Where the hell was Whitehorse?
"Ok first off, we are all part of this mission, not just me. Secondly, do you honestly think I kept her alive for my personal gain?" This was so incredibly stupid! He kept her alive to arrest her. They were seriously angry because he treated her like a human being?
"What does Whitehorse have to say about this?" Nathan asked knowing his boss wouldn't let something like this slide.
"Earl's at Falls End, meeting up with your other co-workers to help take down the Father." Shit! Nathan cursed internally, without Whitehorse they were at the mercy of these people
"None of that matters Rook cause now you have a choice. You hand over Faith willingly or you turn every single member in this Resistance against you. We've had enough of your slacking off to tend to her every need knowing full well she deserves nothing more than death for the damage she's caused." His eyes locked with Tracey's. He wasn't going to let her hurt Faith, he wasn't gonna let anyone hurt her anymore.
The others were getting impatient and shouted things like "Shoot the fucker and get the girl!" "I knew we couldn't trust no pig!" And " Just shoot both of them now!"
"So, what's it gonna be deputy" Tracey asked, knowing that if he didn't to give Faith up, he'd loose his position and support.
Nathan felt betrayed, he felt angry for allowing himself to think that these people were his allies. He was just a weapon for them, means to an end. He was getting Faith out of here.
There was no need for a verbal response, his hand moving subconsciously towards his holster was all the answer they needed.
Junior Deputy Nathan Rook was now an enemy
They had been walking for close to two hours already when suddenly Nathan's thoughts were interrupted by Faith fearful whispering.
"Nathan look!" She pointed at two Resistance members, Cougars as they were still in the Henbane Region, chatting idly near the entrance to the McCallough's Garage. Nathan knew there was at least one more inside as evidenced by the out of key singing he heard from inside along to music blaring on a radio. Quickly scanning the area he noticed two more members up on the roof sharing a cigarette. That made five maybe six.
"Let's go around and maybe they won't see us or maybe through the riverbank behind." Faith suggested. He could hear the slight panic in her voice. He contemplated her idea before remembering.
"We couldn't go anywhere near the main road without being spotted and going behind the Garage was out of the question as the river was next to it and that was heavily patrolled by Resistance boats attempting to remove all Bliss containers." Nathan told her as he crouched down, urging her to do the same. He noticed her frown at him
"Listen, there's no other alternative alright. I'm just gonna go in and out and we're done."
"Fine just be safe. I can't really help you much if you get shot" She ment to say it as a joke but there was no humor in her tone. Faith was scared for his safety and knew very well if he got hurt it would hinder their escape long enough for the Resistance to find them. As he began to walk away she grabbed the sleeve of his shirt forcing him to turn around.
Nathan looked at her confused before being met with a tight hug, which he gladly returned. She pulled away after a bit, much to his disappointment, and looked at him with a stern face.
"You better come back unharmed Nathan" she told him.
"Yes ma'am!" Nathan said jokingly mock saluting her. He hugged her one last time before departing
He took his M1911 out of its holster, mentally thanking Sharky for his insistence in him buying a suppressor all those months back. Now that he thought about it, Why the fuck would shotgun touting Boshaw of all people recommend suppressors?
He told Faith to stay low as he crouched his way over to the side entrance near where the music was playing. Nathan heard a quite obviously drunk man slurring along to the lyrics of "Bad Moon Rising", very off key and jumbled.
Slightly opening the door gave Nathan a good enough view of the garage. He saw the man holding a beer in one hand and a Cheeseburger plush doll puking his guts out on the sink next to the radio. Taking a deep breath and… fire. The man collapsed to the ground gripping his throat as blood spewed out, he withered around gurgling and gasping for air, but went unnoticed by the others.
Nathan recognized the man as Lance Nesmith, a night shift guard from the Jailhouse. Ignoring the guilt building in him he made his way over to the ladder behind the garage. Doing his best to quietly climb it he could hear the two men. Then he heard his name...
Nathan stood absolutely still listening to the radio and the conversation the two men on the roof were having
"So it's true, the deputy turned on the Cougars?" A gruff voice asked. He could hear the disbelief in the man's voice. Another soon voice responded
"Yeah, he took Faith Seed with him, can you fucking believe that son of a bitch? She and her family of lunatics ruined our lives and he still expected us to welcome her with open arms. Bastard was probably sleeping with her, no other reason he'd be spending so much time in her cell." The other man could only muster a "huh.." in response.
Not waiting for them to continue their conversation Nathan quickly finished climbing the ladder. He saw both men sitting in chairs overlooking the entrance and, without hesitation this time, shot both of them. Two rounds entered the gruff voiced man's skull and one in the other man's heart. Dropping himself back to the ground Nathan made his way to the last two men in the entrance. He ran past where Faith was hiding and taking a quick glance he saw her sitting down next to a tree starting at him with a blank expression.
He turned his head back to the two men a few feet ahead of him. Two shots whizzed silently through the air and both men collapsed, pools of blood already forming.
Contempt with his work (Not really, he felt like a terrible human being for killing them) Nathan called Faith over to him. She made her way over grimacing at the dead bodies making him feel even worse. He pulled her over to the actual garage where the red sports car used to be as a way to both shield themselves from the sun and to avoid looking at the bodies
"Always hated the sight of blood…" Faith muttered standing close to him. She grabbed the collar of his shirt and started playing with it to distract her. Nathan looked down at her "Yeah, never liked it either. It got easier to stand over time here fighting. When I first exited Dutch's bunker I couldn't even look at blood without feeling like I was gonna throw up." He remembered the first time he shot a Peggie, it wasn't pretty. His shot went through the enemies throat causing blood to spray everywhere.
Nathan had to empty his previous night's dinner at the lake for a while.
"There's gonna be more right?" Faith asked him. He wasn't sure what exactly she ment more Resistance members or blood? She seemed to have noticed his confusion "Resistance people" she clarified.
"Literally every single person in this county not affiliated with Joseph is part of the Resistance so definitely, but it'll be alright just as we stick to the woods and avoid any major outposts." He tried reassuring her
"So we just gotta keep moving till we find shelter. Shouldn't be long, I know of a few more empty cabins in the nearby area." They had originally planned on staying at their previous refuge a little longer but ultimately decided not to in order to get farther away from Cougar territory.
Faith laced her fingers with his and smiled. God, he loved the way she smiled. Nathan loved everything about her, he just hoped these feelings weren't one-sided. With how close they werehe had a feeling they weren't. Hopefully he'd get to tell her how he truly felt, but all in due time.
Picking up their backpacks they exited the garage and continued their journey accross Hope County.