As they drove away from the execution ground turned crater, Nomad thought about the past few days. They'd completed part of their mission: John Seed was dead. Not just dead, he'd died slowly, which is exactly what he deserved. Despite this, Nomad felt glum. Before he left his home he had promised his wife that he'd come back. Less than an hour ago, he'd come within an inch of breaking that promise. Nomad had seen good men die. Men who left behind families. His train of thought was interrupted when Holt spoke up.

"Hey, that near death experience got me thinking. I haven't gotten my will together. Now, I don't have anyone to leave anything to, but uh, I've got a request for you guys."

Good, I need to think about something else anyway.

"If I die here, do me a favor and burn my hard drive okay? Oh, and my journals. And in my garage there's a box of old videos that need to be torched. Oh, there's also a bunch of folders that I want- Come to think of it, just burn my house down."

What the fuck?

Weaver was in the back, bandaging Midas's wound. As it turned out, the .50 cal bullet from the plane hadn't actually hit him, rather, it had fragmented upon hitting the dash board and a piece had been deflected into Midas's leg. It was incredibly lucky. Had Midas actually taken the bullet in his leg he'd be unlikely to walk again. The Ghosts were fortunate in that the Research department of the CIA had come up with a little concoction that boosted coagulation, killed some pain, and topped the user off with a touch of stimulant. Within a couple hours Midas would be up and ready again.

"Nomad, where are we going next?" Weaver piped up.

"Somewhere we can get a radio signal. We need to let command know that John Seed has been dealt with."

"What about that radio tower near Falls End?" Holt suggested.

"Too risky. Plus, I'm sure the local fanatics have thought of that and found a way to fuck it up. Nomad answered.

"Good point." Holt admitted. "What about the Whitetail mountains? Should be a ledge up there we can use."

Later...

It was almost sundown when Nomad and his team finally reached a suitable cliff to send out a signal. Between avoiding Peggy patrols and ensuring they didn't leave any traces of themselves, the trek up the mountain took a lot longer than anyone was expecting.

"Alright. I think this should be high enough. Set up the transmitter Holt."

While Holt began the process of unfolding their portable radio booster, Nomad looked out over the valley. Despite being the center-point of a miniature civil war, Hope County really was a beautiful place.

I could almost see myself settling down here... He thought.

*Snap*

Nomad's daydreaming was interrupted by the loud disruption.

"Circle! Weapons out!" He hissed. He remembered signs at a summer camp he'd been to at age twelve that warned of cougars prowling around in the evenings. But that wasn't what he was worried about now. Cougars almost never attacked groups of people unless a cub was directly threatened. Were it not for the fact that he'd nearly been executed that same day, he might've passed it off as a bird. But it never hurt to be too careful, especially in these woods. His caution paid off.

From the bushes around them, a howling, animalistic shriek pierced his ears, and before he could process what it was, a human of some form came tearing out of the bush at full speed heading for Holt. It was on him before he could get a shot off.

"What the fuck?! Get off of me!" The technician shouted as he wrestled against the attacker. Kicking out with his legs, he managed to put enough space between himself and the frantic humanoid for Midas to get a shot off. The bullet hit the person in gut, sending it spinning off of Holt and onto the ground. It should've been writhing in pain. But instead, it scrambled up on all fours to lunge again at Holt. Fortunately, the distraction had given Holt a chance to draw his sidearm and shoot the thing point blank in the head, causing its face to explode in a gory paste.

"Crazy BITCH!" Holt snarled as he kicked the corpse.

"What. The fuck. WAS that thing?" Midas asked in astonishment. It didn't look like any cultist they'd seen so far. And it barely looked human. Hairless all over its body, the only remotely "Human" about it was that it had camoflage makeup smeared haphazardly on its body.

"That thing, took a gut shot. NOTHING that walks on two legs should be able to take a gut shot and keep coming like that." Weaver said as he pointed at the gaping abdomen wound."

"No shit." Nomad said. "We need to report this thing. Maybe intelligence will have something on... whatever that is."

Finishing the setup process for their signal booster, Nomad opened a channel to Langley.

"This is Nomad."

"Nomad! Aw Jesus, we thought we'd lost you there." came Dunn's reply.

"You almost did. Whoever fired that AGM deserves a medal. John Seed is dead."

Dunn sighed in relief. "One down, three to go. Who are you going after next?" he asked.

"Well, we're in the Whitetails now, so we're gonna start cracking down on Jacob's operation. Anything we should know?"

Dunn dug through a file cabinet until he found a folder labeled 'Jacob Seed'. "Okay, he's in charge of training and equipping the cult's militia force. Some locals have also reported being attacked by large wolves with 'Crosses' dyed into their fur. And, like the rest of Hope County there've been reports of kidnappings, so watch yourselves. Is there anything else you have to report?" Dunn finished.

"Uh, yeah, we just got attacked by a naked woman. She came at us from the bush, and was more like an animal than anything else. She was able to take a gut shot and still going, so I'm not sure what to think about that." Nomad replied.

"That's... odd. Um, I haven't seen anything like that, but I'll check in with some of our agents and see what we can dig up. Good luck and good hunting." Dunn finished before ending the conversation.

Nomad sighed and looked at the corpse in front of them. No identifying paraphenelia was visible.

Better to let sleeping dogs lie. Nomad thought.

"Okay, we're going to start hitting Jacob Seed's lieutenants and see if we can glean some information from them." Nomad said. "Move out!"