Rook angrily stomped up and down the length of his living room, bitterly mumbling under his breath as he did, he had migrated to the inside of his home minutes ago to do so in peace as Boomer lazed in the corner of the room, watching the Junior Deputy pace back and forth.
He wasn't sure how else to let out the anger inside of him, he had never been this angry before, he didn't know he could get this angry, he had always been so passive whenever it was ok to be, it was his normal, but day after day he was starting to feel that the sheer amount of passiveness and willingness to help was allowing people to trick him into doing all the work for them.
Before he could ponder the idea any further, a series knocks of various volumes reverberated off the front door.
The noise made both Deputy and canine look at the source of the noise, the latter's ears perked and at the ready at the promise of visitors. But Rook believed it to be Mary or Jerome coming to attempt to smooth everything over, or worse yet, they sent Nick or Hurk to do they're dirty work and talk to him on their behalf. With a groan and a long eye roll, he resigned himself from his back and forth and forced himself to the front door, he didn't want to open the door but he knew he wouldn't be left alone until he faced whoever was at the door, ready to tell whoever it was to go away, he pulled open the door, fully expecting Jerome or Mary, but to his relative surprise, it was Jess.
But the second he laid eyes upon her, he could tell something seemed off about her, usually she seemed to keep to herself in terms of body language, what he saw before him was something different, she stood at the door with a single arm outstretched and pressed against the edge of the door frame, her whole body slightly on an angle as her arm held her balance, a mischievous grin stretched across her face.
"I heard you're a little grumpy" she smirked, her voice cool and composed.
A faint skunk like odor wafted off her, since Rook knew her too just about live in the forest, he would have ignored it entirely, but his deputy instincts told him what he could be smelling could also be marijuana.
"What… Jess, are you high?" Rook asked.
Jess was silent for a few beats before speaking.
"Yeah well... That's what you get when you make me talk about my dumb brother" Jess said absentmindedly while she brought her free hand up so she could examine her nails.
"So come on, lay it on me, what's you all hot and bothered?" She asked, her cantankerous smirk returning, her hand dropping down to her side.
Rook stared at her for a moment, a deep anger still burned within him, he considering just dumping everything on her, out in the open for the whole town to see, at the risk of his anger rising even further. But the better side of him told her otherwise, see didn't deserve any of the fury that he struggled to keep down, she wasn't the one working him like a dog, she was a friend, nor could he turn her away or shut the door on her.
With a sigh, he stepped to the side and revealed the inside of his home.
"Do you wanna come in?" Rook pined.
"Don't mind if I do" Jess said, marching inside confidentially.
Rook watched her as she sauntered over into the living room where he was furiously pacing moments before, he hoped she didn't come over explicitly to mock him for getting so angry, he wasn't sure if he could kick her out even if he tried. But then again, she was high, so he had no idea what to expect.
With Jess in the house, Rook closed the front door and turned to look at her once more just in time to see her remove her bow and quiver and dropped it next to the reclining chair before dropping into it herself.
"So Boy Scout, what seems to be troubling you?" She asked expectantly as she propped her boots up on the table in front of her, lacing her fingers together.
Rook stared at her for a few beats, trying to formulate a sentence that would get across how frustrated he was with both Eden's Gate and the Resistance, specifically John, Mary and Jerome.
"It's uhh…" Rook grumbled as he stepped back into the living room, dragging a hand across his chin.
"It's Mary and Jerome, their like super pushy these past few days" Rook said, his entering the room transformed into him slowly pacing once more.
"Go on" Jess mused.
"Sure I know I said I wanted to really push in the effort to get John but now…" Rook said as the anger slowly crept back into his voice as to did his pacing.
"But that doesn't mean I want to just do constant work all day everyday but myself in most case, like I'm not your damn work horse" Rook hissed.
"Hallelujah, fight the power!" Jess cheered.
"Ok sure, there are a lot of resistance members all over the Valley and Henbane, doing their thing, keeping our land safe, but come on, I rarely see anyone out there actually fighting and I feel like I'm the only one doing anything, if there really are so many people joining up where are they, what is so much more important then helping the guy doing all the high priority stuff?!" Rook bit, his anger reappearing again.
"Fuck 'em, you don't need anyone, just keep killing, your doing a good job already!" Jess cheered again, but all she was doing was fueling the fires that was his anger, and it let him keep the ball rolling.
"I'm so sick of being outnumbered, just once I would like to get a bunch of resistance members and outnumber the peggies for once, so I don't have to have like, two panic attacks a day!" Rook spat as his pacing quickened.
"And I don't want just keep going from dangerous mission to dangerous mission, you don't need me to keep the heat on John, maybe I want to take a break and go fishing, maybe I want to hunt animals, put no, everything has to keep going, can't stop, wont stop, don't know how to stop!" Rook cried in frustration, almost stomping as he paced.
"You're your own man, do what you want!" Jess preached.
She enjoyed watching the Boy Scout actually showing some kind of rebellion towards those who ordered him around all day, sure it wasn't to their faces but she was just so sick and tired of his yes sir, no sir, can do sir attitude, he had murdered way more peggies then any other asshole in the valley, if anyone rivaled her kill count, it was him. And if he actually snapped and decided enough was enough and cut ties with the resistance, then the two of them could devote their time to hunting down every piece of shit peggie in the whole county.
"Just because I get a pat on the back every now and again doesn't just make me feel better about every I've seen and done, and don't even get me started on John, I really want to arrest that son of a bitch, but I also hope he makes it difficult so I can get rough and teach him a lesson or something, I probably would have gotten him by now, but he just has these endless hordes of people willing to die for his brother!"
"There's your problem, Bitch" Jess said, interrupting his irate tangent, causing him to stop pacing and turn to face her.
"You need a new approach to your bullshit" Jess proposed.
"Hey are you even listening to me? I'm sick of constantly throwing myself into the fire" Rook groused.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just shut up for a little bit and let me talk… Your going off and doin' shit with your guns like your a fuckin' action hero or whatever, you need to keep a lid on your shit, be sneaky, like me, they won't see you coming if they don't know your there… Hey what the fuck happened to that bow I made you?" Jess spoke.
He remained silent for a few seconds, scratching his chin, contemplating her idea and what she had asked him.
"hmm… Yeah, uh I'm not entirely sure" Rook finally muttered, the anger fleeting from his voice.
"Augh! come on dude, fuckin' seriously!?" She groaned as she lightly wiggled in her seat before standing up and marching right up the Junior Deputy.
"How could you fuckin' lose that thing, do you know how long it took me to make that thing, that shit ain't easy y'know, now how you supposed to be a silent killer?!" Jess loudly demanded as she poked a finger into his chest.
"I'm sorry ok" Rook said gruffly as he swatted away her prodding finger.
"Yeah, yeah I know, I screwed up can we just move past it and continue please" Rook groaned, annoyed.
Jess crossed her arms and intently stared at Rook, making a small noise of exasperation.
"What the fuck did Fairgrave and Jeffries want you to do anyways, your never this pouty" Jess asked, giving Rook a stern look.
"Friggin' Mary wanted me to go track down her dead father's old big rig that's stashed away somewhere in the valley and steal it back from the peggies" Rook explained with great disinterest.
"What, that old thing is still in one piece?" Jess said, now giving Rook a weird look.
"Wait you actually know of it?" Rook asked, actually surprised she knew of the vehicle.
"Course I do Dude, old man Fairgrave chased peggies out of town for years with that thing, old fucker blew that big ass horn every time he ran someone out, Dude, everyone knows that thing" Jess explained.
"Is it really that big of a thing, why is the truck so important?" Rook asked.
"Crazy old fuck actually attached so machine guns to the grill once the peggies bought out the local police, nothing says shit yourself scary like a fucking big rig speeding down the road at you with machine guns on it, its almost as big as a Bogeyman as me, can you imagine what we could do if we have it" Jess smirked.
Rook gave Jess a look.
"Jess, I get what your trying to do, but come on, I've said, time and time again, I'm sick of the constant work and near-death experiences" Rook stated.
"Ok fine, Dude" Jess sighed impatiently.
"You can stay here if you want and be grumpy fuck, brooding in the dark, or I can show you how to really get shit done, quiet as a mouse, again" Jess said.
Rook regarded Jess once more, he knew what she was trying to do, to push him into action with spite rather then pleas. But he was curious, he had seen Jess work countless times and wanted to see what she was willing to teach him, it could very well prove useful in the long run.
"Alright fine, but honestly, how the hell are we supposed to find the truck anyways, it could be anywhere" Rook groaned.
"Hold on to your shorts Boy Scout, I'm gonna blow your fuckin' mind" Jess said, smirking as she leaned towards Rook slightly.
"When you got grabbed by John a few days ago, I went around looking for you, I hit up a few places peggies usually go to hide and I may have actually seen it as I fucked dudes up, looking for you" Jess explained.
"Ok then where it is it?" Rook asked.
"Well like I said, it was days ago and I hit up like, a lot of places so I'm not really sure where it is" Jess said, shrugging as she broke eye contact with Rook.
"So we could be at this all afternoon" Rook sighed as he turned to look out the window, at the late afternoon sun, soon to be setting.
"Who gives a shit, the truck is not what's important, it's about showing you the quiet approach, remember?" Jess replied, rolling her eyes.
"Right… so why are we even after the truck then?" Rook asked, losing interest in Jess's antics.
"Well if we give those chucklefucks what they want then they won't be on your back for a bit, then you can fuck off and do whatever, they can't say you didn't do shit" Jess explained.
Rook was seriously debating whether or not to agree with Jess in his head, her logic made sense to a degree but he wasn't sure if it was worth it, he wasn't to interested in wandering around the Valley, quietly killing people for who knows how long, but then again maybe it wouldn't be as bad as he thought as he would be doing it with Jess, a welcome change to his day. And besides, it wasn't like he could just call it a day and watch some tv or something, and Nick was getting his leg treated somewhere, he was sure he wouldn't mind if his truck was taken or not.
"Alright, I got some wheels, so let's go" Rook sighed, pulling out Nick's key.
"Oh no, this is my shit, we do this my, no vehicles" Jess declared, hands on her hips.
"What they what are we going to do then, walk?" Rook asked, giving his companion a weird look.
"Well yeah duh, you plannin' on growing some wings or something?" Jess groaned.
"So what, you just want to walk all around the Valley looking for a truck that may or not be on once piece, all the while killing anyone that looks like a cultist?" Rook asked in disbelief.
"Yes Captain Obvious, thank you for paraphrasing, so you wanna go or what?" Jess groaned again, massaging her brow.
With a small groan, he flicked through his options and everything they would entail; walking for who knows how long and killing dudes with the silence of a ghost, or sitting in a house with nothing of note to do.
"Alright, fine I'm in let's go" rook resigned.
"Alright fuck yeah, let's go" Jess said as she quickly rose from her seat and grabbed her gear before marching for the front door.
He picked up the shotgun off the coffee table and followed his friend, despite what he was walking into maybe it wouldn't be so bad if it was with Jess, why would he regret his decision.
Rook was regretting his decision, the first hour or two was enjoyable, strolling around the many forests with a good friend; bantering about this and that, poking fun at each other but as a few more hours ticked by, Rook was really missing air conditioning among other things, his feet were starting to hurt from the long walks from place to place, wandering the Valley just as Jess had said, visiting a few less then few safe looking places, they journeyed from small little trailers with campfires out front which Jess silently dispatched to full out large buildings converted into compounds, they did their best skirting the edges of the locations, searching for anything that implicated the big rig resided within, but there was nothing in every peggie holdout, not even whispers between cultists. With the sun in mid set, painting the sky a bright orange, even Jess was starting to get fed up as they closed in on yet another possible location as they traversed through a small forest.
"Urrr, where is this fucking thing?" Jess growled to herself, losing patients.
"If you really want to show me how to take guys out without raising any alarms that badly, we can just circle back to one of the big places and just take them out, then we can go home" Rook offered.
"No! that defeats the purpose of why we are out here" Jess moped.
"What do you mean, I thought you wanted to show me how to kill guys without the whole valley knowing about it?" Rook asked.
"No, we need to find the truck first, trust me I know a few more places" Jess said before picking up the pace, hurrying ahead of Rook by a few feet.
"We should count our blessings at least" Rook said, hurrying up and catching up with Jess.
"I have a feeling John didn't have it destroyed, I think he likes keeping trophies, maybe it's being held somewhere to ward off people looking to do some damage" Rook offered.
Jess was unusually silent for a few seconds, for once in this rare instance, he she was taking what he had said to heart.
"I guess, it could be a whole lot worse, I wouldn't wander around like this if we were up in the mountains, Jacob's a whole other breed" Jess sighed.
"Oh yeah?" Rook replied.
"Yeah, he's really good at strategy and warfare, he's in charge of raising his chunk of the cult as Joseph's army, and fuck man their dangerous, if you ever go up there, you have to be real quiet about it, these guys are nothing like the fuckers we deal with here, so pay the fuck attention to what I'm going to show you, it will save your life" Jess implored.
"I will admit, I don't really know anything about Jacob asides that, I only ever saw him once in person when I went to arrest Joseph, other then that it was all in police documents, nobody really talks about him, so I don't really know what he's capable of" Rook said.
"Well Boy Scout all you need to know is the whole fucking Seed family are horrible fucking scumbags, even that bitch; Faith, god I hate her I'm so enlightened because I believe attitude, fuck it's so annoying, just that alone puts her near the top of my shit list, along with the rest of her family" Jess seethed.
"Well I don't know about that..." Rook sighed, running a hand through his sweaty hair.
"The fuck does that mean?" Jess suspected, glaring at Rook.
"What if she's like... Not bad or whatever" Rook said carefully.
He wanted to be careful with what he said, especially around Jess, she may not look it, but she was pretty smart, one to many words and she might put together what was going. And there would be no way he could just tell her he was talking to Faith in secret every now and again, aside from the religious mumbo jumbo, she was different from her brother's by leaps and bounds, it may have been a while ago but he still remembered his face to face confrontation with her on the lookout tower, how she told him about her life and how she ended up where she was now, but still after all that and how she stood on the opposite side of the law, she had been nothing but friendly to him, some would even say soft on him, she was probably one of the few people who legitimately cared about him as a person and not a tool to win a fight. Being a police officer as long as Rook has gave one a good grasp on getting a read on someone, and Rook could tell there wasn't a bad bone in Faith's body, she only followed Joseph was because he pulled her out of the dirt and cleaned her up, gave her a home and a family, sure she may not have come from a stable home before, but she had to have noticed something is wrong with how Joseph runs things, maybe if he could get rid of the Seed's besides Faith, then maybe she could get the help she needs.
Perhaps she could be saved.
"Fuck yourself she's not bad" Jess seethed, refocusing Rook's attention.
"Did you not see the fuckin' angel fuckers when we were in the Henbane, how she commanded her goons to attack the prison, the same goons that try to kill us" Jess argued.
"Ok yeah those are really bad but what if... I don't know, does she actually do stuff besides make bliss, John is like a psycho and Jacob is a for real military dude then what's Faith, what if she's a hostage with Stockholm Syndrome or something like that, I mean you remember Tracey right, back at the prison, she was in the cult in the beginning with a friend that happened to look a lot like Faith and well, Tracey jumped ship a while later, but the friend stayed" Rook offered, hoping to shed some light on the truth of the matter.
"Naah fuck that, that's such bullshit Tracey would say to get you on her side, Faith's a fucking dead woman first chance I get, you remember that next you see a drug addled, brain dead person wandering around the Henbane" Jess grumbled.
"But she's just following Joseph's orders, it's either that or who knows what he'll do to her" Rook retorted.
"Well I hope she get's in shit then, maybe Joseph will take care of her for us, but what the fuck are you doing, defending a Seed, you trying to get shot or something" Jess asked suspiciously, giving Rook a less then playful punch in the shoulder.
"I'm just trying to take the path of least resistance, if the safest and or quickest way to take her out of the picture is non lethal then so be it, all the more easier for us" Rook shrugged.
"Uh huh, I bet you do" Jess said, coldly.
"So how much further till the next place?" Rook asked, trying to change the subject.
Jess was silent for two beats.
"It's just up ahead, we're almost there" She replied, sounding a little off.
"Ok but what is the place?" Rook asked.
"I think it's some dingy old grain making place" Jess shrugged.
"You mean a farm?" Rook questioned again.
"No after you harvest it, you take it to a place to make it edible" Jess explained.
"I think your talking about a grain elevator" Rook said.
"A what?" Jess replied.
"A grain elevator, it's like a silo but rectangular, it almost looks like an elevator" Rook explained.
"No that's stupid, you're just fucking with me" Jess accused.
"No, I'm serious, just you wait, you'll see it soon" Rook said, trying to reassure her.
"You're a fucking liar, come on, I'll prove you wrong" Jess declared before breaking out into a jog.
"Come on Boy Scout keep up so I can prove you wrong" she called out.
Rook also broke out into a sprint and chased after his friend, they moved at a quickened paced for a short time, occasionally spooking an animal or two, and as they went, the vastness of the trees of the forest they were in were steadily thinning out until they could see the woods end, causing them to slow their pace as they were about to properly exit the woods, as they did, they both crouched down so they could properly see the property Jess had led them to, across a asphalt road that split the landscape, was a chain link fence surrounded a large wooden, rectangular structure that stood four stories tall, it stood a dozen meters away from a large warehouse looking structure both emblazoned with multiple Eden's Gate logos.
"See, grain elevators look like that" Rook said, pointing at the elevator.
"Yeah, yeah, fuck you too, come on, let's do this song and dance again, follow me" Jess said before taking the lead again, and crept towards the fence.
Rook was silent as he followed, he kept the shotgun close to his chest, what they were about to do had been practiced a few times as they had done surface level searches on previous peggie holdouts, just a quick hop over the fence, a quick look into the center of the property then leave. Thankfully there wasn't as many peggies as other places did, making it quite easy to get close to the fence as the grain elevator obscured them as only a few meters were between the fence and elevator.
"Come on help me up" Jess said quietly, as they reached the foot of the fence.
Rook wordlessly placed his shotgun on the ground and laced his fingers together and held his hands close to his chest, creating a foothold for Jess to boost herself up so she could sit on top of the fence without creating a sound, once her balance was stable, she extended a hand towards Rook, he gladly took her hand and she pulled him upwards, allowing Rook to use that momentum to pull himself up onto the top of fence silently, then, they both dropped down on the other side, just as quietly.
Once in, the duo did a quick look around to make sure the coast was clear before moving deeper into the base, thankfully, no one thought patrolling the edge was a good idea, allowing Rook and Jess to sneak around the side of the grain elevator and peak into the compound proper.
From where they sat, crouched by the edge of the elevator they could see the warehouse looking building more clearly, it was a standard wooden warehouse with a large barn door on the front, it could be used to store many things, or even one large thing, around it was a few peggies that leaned against the side of the warehouse, idly chatting about something to wile away the hours until next shift change, Rook could only assume there were more on the sides they couldn't see.
"I bet that fuckin' truck is in there" Jess whispered, nodding to the warehouse.
"Or it could be full of grain or whatever" Rook retorted.
"Seems awfully guarded for grain" Jess stated.
"Do you think we should check it out or what?" Rook asked.
"Show some fuckin' initiative dude" Jess retorted.
"But this whole thing was your idea" Rook almost whined.
"I'm trying to te-" Jess hiss before sharply cutting herself off and began her sentence anew.
"Just fuckin' watch this and pay attention" she gripped.
"Watching" Rook whispered back.
Jess grumbled something under her breath and extended a hand into the dirt beneath her, grabbing a pebble on the ground and gestured over to the right of the compound, away from the warehouse, Rook followed her direction down the worn path that connected the warehouse's entrance to opening in the property's cabin link fence; presumably the front door, near it was a single peggie leaning against a concrete roadblock blocking the way from vehicles from speeding into the property, thirty feet away from the duo and a few meters from the entry way and aimlessly staring off into the horizon, clearly bored. The Junior Deputy and the huntress were comfortably positioned to the peggies immediate right, out of her vision but if she turned her head, they would be spotted.
Before Rook could ask what Jess was planning, Jess threw the rock at a high arc, sailing forward and over the peggie before bouncing off the ground, making a dull thump, the noise was just loud enough to startle the lax peggie, causing him to flinch before quickly pointing his rifle at the source of the noise, but as soon as the woman turned, Jess rose to a standing position and in one quick motion, loaded her bow and fired, sending a arrow through the air and buried itself into the back of the woman's neck, causing her to drop to the ground without a sound, her body concealed by the roadblock from anyone within the compound.
"Badabing, badaboom, dead peggie, quiet as the grave" Jess whispered, as proud as she was quiet.
"Nice shot" Rook whispered back.
"C'mon, let's get going, never stay in one place for to long" Jess whispered before moving out from the side of the elevator.
"Uh, ok" Rook stuttered as he pushed himself forward to follow after her.
He wasn't expecting her to just move forward like that, not with the peggies idling a thirty something feet to their left, leaning against the side of the warehouse, to him, it seemed to risky, but then again he probably would have been spotted by now. As the duo made their way across the space between the two buildings, the second they made it to the safety of the warehouse , Jess suddenly stood up and quickly crept towards the warehouse entrance, Rook, again wasn't expecting such a bold strategy, he certainly wouldn't do such if he was on point, he would be much more cautious, but Jess was anything but cautious, leaving Rook no option other then do as she did and hurry to the warehouse entrance.
As Rook quickly approached, he watched Jess reach the warehouse's door, and instead of opening it like he thought, she pressed up against the warehouse's front door, palms and chest pressed firmly against it.
Confused to what she was doing, Rook slowed down a little to try to figure out what was happening, but his reduced pace was short lived as Jess then motioned for him to join her.
Still unsure of what she was planning, Rook picked up his pace again and caught up with his friend, pressing up against the door right next to Jess, the two almost touching each other.
"What are we doing?" Rook whispered.
"I don't think anyone is inside" Jess whispered, somehow even quieter than before.
"So, what do we do?" Rook asked again.
"Very carefully, we open it" Jess replied.
"What about the guys around the corner?" Rook asked.
"What part of quiet don't you understand?" Jess responded.
"Ok, ok, ok, I'll do it just cover me" Rook whispered back quickly.
Jess took a few steps away from the door and loaded another arrow into her bow and prepared herself in case any peggies caught wind of what was going on, while she did this, Rook grabbed a hold of a door handle attached to one of the barn doors and gradually pulled open the door, thankfully the door was unlocked, but as the door slowly swung open, causing a soft light to leak out from within, as the door opened little by little, a long creak rang out from the hinges, causing Rook to momentarily stop, silencing the noise, then cautiously opened the door ever so slowly again.
Once the door was open just enough for a person to squeeze through, Rook looked over at Jess who still diligently guarded them.
"Hey, it's open" he uttered.
"Then get inside" Jess returned, flicking her head towards him.
Rook didn't need to be told twice, upon hearing that he swiftly turned around and pushed himself through the newly made opening in the door, and once he was through, he intently watched the ajar door, waiting for Jess and a moment later, her smaller frame, easily clambered on through. The second she made it through, Rook very meticulously shut the door behind them.
Now that they properly entered the building, it was quickly apparent that they were not standing in a food warehouse, but a vehicle warehouse as several tools, parts and tires littered the walls of the building, suspended by hooks and shelves. And in the house's center, sat a big rig.
To Rook, it was very obvious they were looking at the Widowmaker and it looked just as Rook expected from a man who once ran a bar and chased cultist out of town; the big rig in question was painted in a myriad of blue and purple, topped off with a bald eagle, American flag, paired with flames pouring off the hood, two big machine guns attached to the large grill.
"Told you it was here" Jess said in a low voice.
"Yeah, yeah, you win" Rook replied as he approached the driver side door.
"But all jokes aside, how do you wanna get this out of here?" Rook asked, looking at his friend.
"We could just drive it out of here" Jess shrugged, walking towards the front of the truck.
"But there's a roadblock in the way… and a dead body" rook replied.
"Well yeah, but look at this thing" Jess said, lightly kicking the front grill of the truck.
Rook examined the front grill; it was one solid block of polished steel that went across the width of the truck's front and bent upwards to form a barred nose piece, coupled with two large machine guns just beneath the headlights. The whole thing looked cared for and immaculate as if it was never stolen by cultists.
"Well I guess that could punch through the roadblock and the doors if we go fast enough" Rook said, looking up at the doors they had just entered from.
"But what about the whole being quiet bit, what your proposing is just going to let everyone know where here, I mean look at this thing" Rook said, pointing a hand at the truck.
"This thing looks brand new, if this thing starts up everyone will know about it, big rigs and stealth don't go together" Rook argued.
"Well yeah sure, but I mean come on this is the Widowmaker, this thing chased out fuck knows how many peggies, this thing scared the shit out of each and every one of them, if they see this thing rolling down the road again, after hearing it was stolen will fuck them up all over again, no one will be one the roads for awhile after we spring this thing" Jess retorted.
"Ok yeah, I can believe that, but if anything, we need to find a way to get this thing started, I doubt they leave the keys in the in the ignition" Rook offered.
Jess made a noise of discontent before speaking.
"Yeah I guess" she said indifferently before turning away from Rook and walked over to one of the few tables that lined the room, sifting through whatever sat atop them, trying not to create any noise.
With her doing that, rook looked around his surrounding also looking for a place to search as well, but his eyes couldn't help but keep resting upon the Widowmaker.
Despite saying what he did moments ago, Rook wanted to do a quick search of the truck's interior just in case. He turned to the truck and approached it, opening the driver side door and climbed into the bid rig, shutting the door behind him.
As he sat down in the seat, he saw that the truck's interior was not what he was expecting, the dashboard was lined with all sorts of buttons, LEDS and switches, most of which Rook could only assume were connected to the guns attached to the front. With the interior looking like a mess, there was no way the keys couldn't just be sitting on the dashboard, so why would they even be in the cabin. As Rook was about to leave the truck, his eyes glanced up to the sun visor above him, he had seen in countless movies where someone pulls it down and the keys come sliding out, it was a logical place to store the key's, they were inside after all so why open it?
With nothing to loss, he pulled down the sun visor; the second he did a small metal object slid from where it hid and fell into the Junior Deputy's lap; Rook looked down to see what the item was, and sure enough the item was a set of small key's presumably for the very truck they sat in.
Seeing it, Rook sighed in a weird mixture of joy and confusion over the sheer simplicity of the inner workings of the common peggie mind. With one hand he picked up the keys and with the other, rolled down the window next to him.
"Found them" he called out, just loud enough for Jess to hear.
As he raised the window back up, he heard Jess say something in a not to happy tone, before she turned away from where she was searching and joined the Boy Scout in the truck.
"Holy shit look at all this" Jess said, once she got comfy in her seat, grinning like a child at a candy store at all the switches in front of her.
"Now hold on a minute" Rook said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Let's curb the blood lust for a minute and think about what to do next" Rook stated.
"Fuckin' floor it, ram everything" Jess declared.
"But what about are stealth approach?" Rook asked again.
"Dude who cares, this thing is a war machine, it probably killed so many peggies, do you have any idea what we can do with this thing" Jess said whimsically as she slid a hand over an open space on the dashboard.
"I feel what your saying but, we can't lead them back to town, we can't have another slaughter, we should take out the remaining guys silently like you said we would" Rook argued.
"Dude" Jess groaned, turning to look at her friend.
"This thing is the peggie Bogeyman, more so then me, they ain't gonna chase after us, they'll try to stop us but nothing major" she stated.
Rook stared at Jess for a few seconds, he wasn't getting frustrated somewhat at her flippancy towards her goals since they entered the warehouse, he knew he should have said something when they cased the first few places they stumbled upon and Jess didn't show him anything, but now he wasn't sure what she was truly after, but whatever it was, hours have been wasted doing it.
And it pissed him off.
"Fine" Rook said gruffly, turning forward and inserting the keys into the ignition.
"Wait, really?" Jess asked, surprised he was actually going through with it.
"Uh huh" Rook grumbled as the engine roared to life.
"Aw fuck yeah" Jess grinned as she excitedly put on her seat belt.
With the engine rumbling, Rook slid the stick shift into drive before putting on his seat belt on.
"Holy shit this is going to be sweet!" Jess giggled as she held on tightly to the seat belt across his body, staring at the warehouse doors, the truck headlights illuminating them.
As Rook also stared at the doors, a part of him desperately begged him to stop, how what was a bad idea and all the ways it could go wrong, but the majority of him told him to go for, to do as Jess said and ride the Bogeyman on wheels all the way home, to take his pent up frustrations on a slim hunk of wood and concrete, but then again, he had been through much worse, making this not that big a deal in his perspective, and with Jess egging him on at his side, his foot felt heavy and allowed himself to slam on the gas.
The truck shot forward, slamming into the doors, slamming the open and against the sides of the building, the harsh slamming of wood on wood rang out like gun shots into the late evening.
The truck surged forward, bounding down the road towards the roadblock.
"Aw shit, here we go!" Jess grinned wildly.
But Rook remained silent, his whole body clenched up in anxiety, every fibre of his being told him to swerve away from the thin concrete barrier, to avoid it all together, but that small defiant part of him spoke up once more, it spoke of how Jess was right in her assessment of the truck's grill, he knew she was right, but it didn't make the whole thing any better, making him only step down and the gas even further, the truck closing in on the concrete barrier between him and freedom.
The second the truck connected with the roadblock both Rook and Jess lurched forward in their seats before being pulled back thanks to their seatbelts, the truck itself almost came to a stop for a moment as the roadblock cracked and shattered, before the truck sped up and powered through, a solid beat passed by before a wet squelch emanated from underneath the truck, Rook's skin crawled as he knew that noise was a body being run over. he did his best to push what the body might look like now as he passed through the fence opening and pulled the wheel hard to the left, forcing the vehicle onto the asphalt, making the truck lean hard in the process before regaining speed again and shooting down the road, as Rook could hear gunshots and the sound of bullets bounce off the truck's superior hull.
With the Grain Elevator slowly disappeared in one of the sideview mirrors, Rook could help but feel relieved, he didn't see anyone giving chase Just as Jess said, he could even see a few blurry peggies standing on the road, watching the truck speed away. He was glad to see none of them were stupid enough to engage the heavily armoured and armed vehicle. Without even looking at Jess he could tell she was bummed out she couldn't use any of the on board weapons, but Rook didn't care, he liked to think it was a little payback for her inconsistency with what she wanted done today.
And with that, Rook relaxed into his seat, he enjoyed it when things went off smoothly.
Then his walkie talkie crackled to life.
"Deputy! What the hell do you think your doing!" John Seed's yelled through Rook's walkie.
Rook wasn't one to use his cellphone while driving, but he felt it was ok, just this once, he ripped the walkie from his waist and brought it to his mouth.
"What's it sound like, you son of a bitch!" Rook cried into his walkie; he couldn't help but grin wildly as he did.
"Yeah, you tell 'em!" Jess cheered.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?! Deputy you are making it very hard for me to keep everything in line long enough for me to get you back in my gate, but wonton acts of defiance such as this is not going to go over well for you once I have you in my chair again!" John seethed, struggling to contain his anger.
"Listen John, I don't care about what you have to say, if your guy was smart, he would have delivered my message, and I intend to keep my promise, John; I am coming for you, so watch your back!" Rook said confidently.
"Fuck yeah!" Jess incited.
"Listen to yourself!" John snapped back.
"Where's that holier than thou, do no wrong bravado you once prided yourself on, you know, at one point I could almost see what the Father sees in you, but now look at you!" John spat, his anger slowly overtaking him.
"You've succumb to your wrath just as I told you when we last saw each other, your just like everyone else in this putrid county, you have fallen to your base desires and you do what you damn well please, killing and taking whatever you like, and to think Joseph actually believes you are to be the lynchpin to creating a world where Eden's Gate thrives!" John yelled through the walkie.
"But that's quite alright" John said, his voice dropping back down to that calm, eerie smoothness.
"Once I get you back in my hands… we'll have all the time in the world to… play around and find out all your… dirty little sins" John almost breathed.
"Watch yourself Deputy, we will meet sooner then you think" John said
"Yeah, yeah, do whatever you want, I'll take out whatever you throw at me then, I'm coming back for you and Hudson" Rook challenged.
"Oh, if that's how you want it then very well Benjamin Rook, I'll cook something very special for you" John said in that same calm voice but this time something sinister lurked within his words.
"Sounds good to me" Rook replied uninterested before clicking off the walkie and dropped it in his lap.
"Fuck that guy" Jess laughed, putting emphasise of the swear.
"I know right" Rook sighed in annoyance.
"I'm getting real sick of that guy" he said shaking his head.
"Then we should tell everything to fuck off and you and me go get him" Jess offered.
"I can't just abandon the rest of the valley, if I can save a life, then I'm going to save a life" Rook sighed.
"With how badass we are, we can kill John then you can go right back to your bullshit, we're that good, we can totally wrap him up before anything big happens" Jess stated.
"Jess, I can't, I'm not going to just run off, I need to help people, I want to keep people safe" Rook replied.
"Look what we did, you and me, no one knew what happened, in and out, we stole a fucking big rig, a big rig, could you have done this on your own, see, if you take yourself off your leash, you can do some hard shit, no one will fuck with you if you do what you want and not be dragged around by your friends in the bar, don't let them tell you what to do, they should be giving you the info to decide what you wanna do" Jess preached.
Rook was silent as he thought over what Jess told him, as much as he want to disagree, she had a point.
"Maybe it's time I say something to Mary and Jerome" Rook guessed.
"What no, not maybe, you should Dude, you're the one who stole this truck, you're the one making a chance around here, you're the one who scaring the shit out of the peggies, you're the one who will take out Joseph, you can do it, you just need to stop taking orders and follow your instincts, I've seen you do this shit over and over again, I believe in you, just believe in yourself and what you can do" Jess said passionately, trying to rouse something from Rook.
"I get what your trying to say Jess, not being on a constant schedule does sound nice but I don't want to crew things up with my relation to the resistance" Rook offered.
"Fucking listen to me" Jess growled, leaning over to Rook and grabbing a handful of his sleeve.
"All you should be focused on your foot's relation with Joseph's face, just think about it Benjamin, you can't save everyone so stop acting like you can, even the dead wouldn't want you running in circles like you are, if you want to stop the cult you need to think about what you need to get done and do it, don't let others order you around, you are the Deputy, act like one and deal with it in that gross, sickly sweet, goodie two shoes, boy scout way, you're the only one who can actually do something around here" Jess said, her voice losing it's bite as she went on before letting go of his sleeve and slumping back into her seat, falling silent.
Rook was stunned into silence for once, what Jess had said actually made sense, it was probably the most meaningful thing she had actually said to him.
And it made him really think, if Jess was capable of getting a message like that through to him then maybe it was time to actually say something to Mary and the rest of the gang. Rook wanted to reply to Jess for such a sterling response, but all he could muster was a quizzical hum, to conflicted with what was on his mind to conjure an actual response. Leaving a silence in the cabin for the rest of the ride home.
The Widowmaker rolled into Falls End, the headlights illuminating the dark streets as the moon was starting to rise once more, since night was beginning, it signified people were starting to call it a day and go to sleep, that made Rook reluctant to honk the horn of the truck, but he did it anyway as he needed Mary to come out and tell him where to park the large vehicle, as he honked on the horn a few times, he applying pressure on the to the brakes, causing the truck to a screeching halt in front of the bar, looking for a place to park the large vehicle.
But as he looked around, from the corner of his eye, he saw the front door of the bar slam open and a handful of people came pouring out of the bar door, guns in hand, probably thinking they were under attack again. Rook could now see Mary, Jerome and for some reason Sharky along with a few panicky bar regulars, ready to open fire on the vehicle parked in front of them. But any fear or adrenaline was quickly dissolved as they could the Junior Deputy sitting in the driver's seat, looking at them.
Not wanting to cause a panic or anything, Rook killed the engine and opened the door to climb out, and approached his friends, truck keys in hand, he was ready to hand them off to Mary then run off somewhere with Jess, but another voice in the distance grabbed his attention.
"Stop blasting that goddamn horn, I'm trying to do my business in piece!" the voice yelled angrily.
Everyone looked up to the source of the shouting, it was a very quiet evening, making it easy to locate the noise, it was coming form the second floor of the general store across the street, it was the one and only town grump; Mister Pracker, he was leaning out his open window, angrily shaking his fist at them.
A few impatient murmurs came from the bar regulars as Rook rolled his eyes, he really wasn't in the mood to deal with Pracker of all people, out everyone he had met in the county, he was the most antagonistic person that wasn't apart of the peggie troupe, he was always complaining about something, this time, it was the truck horn, after a few encounters, Rook learned there was no reasoning with him, the elderly man always believed himself to be right, at that point there was no reason to argue, all he could do was try to get him to leave on his own accord, Rook brought his hands up to his mouth to amplify his voice.
"Go back to bed, Old Man!" Rook yelled back defiantly at the elderly man.
"What the hell did you say to me punk?!" Mister Pracker yelled back.
"Dude just go back to bed, the noise is gone so just chill out" Rook replied, really not wanting to deal with the man.
"Don't tell me what to do you damn kid, when I was your age, I was captain of my boxing league, I'll show you a thing or two about respect!" Pracker shouted.
"Then how instead you use that to fight the peggies instead of leeching off the town!" Rook retorted, starting to get angry at the man and his gull to threaten him after everything he had been through for the sake of the town.
But before anyone could say anything else, Jess quickly stood next to Rook and raised her hands to her mouth.
"We'll fuck you up Old Man, we're your worst nightmare!" Jess yelled with a dangerous smirk on her face.
"What the hell is your problem, we are at war here in case you didn't notice, how about you focus on those damn cultists for once instead of bothering some hardworking old man!" Mister Pracker yelled back.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever Geezer!" Jess yelled back.
"What you call me!? Why you no good-!" Pracker hissed before retracting his torso back into his room and slamming the window closed.
"Ha! you see that, no one can stop us" Jess said with a shark tooth grin, looking at Rook.
"Yeah, screw him right" Rook sighed with irritation in his voice, he was starting to get tired of dealing with people who kept getting in his way, but with that line of thinking, he turned back to the still awestruck townsfolk who still watched and Mary, who stood a mere few feet from him, what Jess said to him, still fresh in his mind.
"Here's your keys" Rook stated as he limply tossed the keys towards Mary.
The second the keys went airborne, Mary's arm shot forward, grabbing it out of the air like her life depended on it, once it was firmly in her grasp, she held in close to her body and looked down at it, by the look on her face it was just as she remembered, once she got her fill, she looked back up at Rook with those same big eyes Rook was accustomed to whenever something big happened
Then, she threw herself at him, arm outstretched an embraced him in a hug.
"You have no idea how much this means to me" she muttered as she buried her face in his chest.
"Uh, sure" Rook said as he awkwardly wrapped his arms around her, now feeling a little about what he was going to say.
Something ugly rolled over in Jess's stomach when she saw Fairgrave throw herself at her Boy Scout, going for the hug, she had never cared before about who did what to him so the feeling caught her off guard, she wasn't sure what exactly made her detest Fairgrave hugging Rook, but one thing she knew for sure, she did not like that woman touching Rook like that again.
As Mary still clung to his torso, Rook couldn't help but look around at everyone one who was still gathered around the truck to see the spectacle; Mary, Jerome, Merle, Sharky and a few bar regulars, now was a good a time as ever to voice his proclamation.
"Since everyone is here, I have something I really need to say" Rook said, loud enough for everyone to hear as he pulled on Mary, hoping to let go.
And just as he hoped, Mary let go and took a few steps back to look at him.
"What's up, Ben?" she asked, looking a little concerned over what he had just said.
"Since y'all made it clear I'm the only one who can pull off the big stuff like this, then by that right, I should be calling the shots in regard to the high priority stuff!" Rook declared.
"I'm the one doing it, so I should make the rules when it comes to this sort of thing, besides, I am the Deputy here, I am the law, and I will use that law to relieve you from the duty of managing me!" he huffed.
"Now hang on a moment, Deputy let's talk about this" Jerome said nervously as he quickly maneuvered around the people listening.
"Let's not be hasty now, let's talk this through, hm?" Jerome said, trying to placate Rook.
"I'm sorry Jerome, but this is how I feel, Jess has reminded me that I'm the one doing all the shooting and work, I need to decide how I need to operate if I am to arrest the Seed's in a timely, respectable manner" Rook said confidently.
"Benjamin, please" Jerome tried to say but was cut off by Jess.
"Hey, you heard the man, he ain't your work horse, let him do his thing" Jess smirked.
"Ben, I think he's right, let's talk about it at least" Mary offered, trying to ignore what the rude hooded woman had said.
"Let's roll, dude, I got a place" Jess said as she held the shirt fabric that covered his elbow and not so subtly tried to pull Rook away.
"Mary, tomorrow just give a few things that need to be done, and I'll decide what I want to do" Rook declared.
"You Deputy Destruction, what's going on?" Sharky finally spoke up after watching silently for so long.
But nobody gave the pyromaniac the time of day as the conversation kept going as if he didn't speak.
"Ben this is a team effort" Mary tired to say as Rook began to step away from the crowd.
"Mary I would appreciate it if you would just stow it for now, unless you want to grab a gun and help then I think I'll make some changes on how we do things" Rook decided.
"Ben come on; we-" Mary tired to say but Jess spoke up once more.
"You heard the man, we're out of here!" Jess loudly declared as she tried to walk away, all the while pulling on Rook's sleeve, but Rook remained unmoving.
"Now again" Rook said, looking at Jerome and Mary.
"I'll come around sometime tomorrow, and we can figure something out then, ok?" Rook said.
Both Jerome and Mary were silent, they watched the Junior Deputy with worrisome looks on their faces as Jess continued to tug on his sleeve, it was fairly obvious to them Jess had played a part in Rook's behaviour and saw there was no point arguing further as Jess always hung around him like a moon orbiting the earth.
Seeing as they weren't going to speak, Rook finally began to move, obviously where Jess tried to pull him to. Jess, now seeing her Boy Scout moving now, see tightened her grip and pulled Rook down the street, towards his house, as they left they could hear Sharky trying to talk Mary into letting him drive the Widowmaker so he may fight the cult, but as they moved away, Rook didn't hear Mary's answer, instead he was curious to where Jess was taking him, they were moving down the street towards his house, but he had a sneaking suspicion that's not where they were going.
"So where are we going?" Rook asked.
"You'll see" Jess replied.
Rook couldn't see her face, but he could tell she was smirking.
"Can I at least have my arm back?" Rook asked.
"Ok fine, just don't fall behind" Jess instructed as she let go of his arm and picked up her speed.
With Jess hurrying away, Rook was left to just about chase after her again, leaving him to follow her, down what was reaming of the street around the auto shop and into the strip of land between the auto shop and his house. Before he could ask her why they came her, she quickly climbed up the ladder attached to the auto shop, curious to what she could be scheming and wanted to be sure she wasn't doing anything that would cause problems, he climbed the ladder to it's top and stood up on the roof and took in the sight before him; Jess was sitting in a lawn chair by the far edge of the roof, facing inwards, an empty chair identical to hers a few feet next to her. She used an upturned milk crate to prop her feet up, a second milkcrate sat in between the two chairs, a dozen or so small green apples rested inside, most likely apples he retrieved from the produce plant.
"Check it out Boy Scout; Fort Cash Money" Jess declared proudly as she held her arms out of either side of her to emphasize the glory of her little hideaway.
"Jess... This is cool and all but like... You can't just go making little campsites or whatever on top of other people's work places" Rook said, trying his best to recover from being thrown caught off guard by what she had made.
"Oh come the fuck on!" Jess groaned like a child who wasn't getting their way, tilting her head back against the back of the lawn chair.
"Just enjoy a sweet fuckin' spot when you see one" she moped.
Rook wasn't really enjoying the idea of Jess building an impromptu campsite on someone's place of business, but if he were to set aside the rules and regulations that were ingrained within him as an officer of the law, he would probably agree with her.
"I thought you would think this shit would be cool" She sighed indifferently before getting up and wandered over to the edge of the roof and leaned against low wall the ran along the edges of roof, looking over the town.
"With you all hot and bothered by that old fucker, I'd thought you'd overlook this" she continued to mope.
"Jess come on" Rook argued as he slowly approached her, but after a few steps, Jess spoke up again.
"Hey there's that old fucker now!" Jess cried, pointing over the side of the building.
Rook believed her, but yet he couldn't help but look, he marched right up next to her and peered over the edge of the building and looked down at the street below and sure enough he was, on the opposite side of the road, walking passed the general store and presumably towards the church, if Rook was a gambling me he'd bet Mister Pracker was still mumbling a one sided tirade over the truck horn that sounded earlier.
"Doing business my ass, look at him doing nothing, waddling around town like he owns the place, he just wanted to yell at you for the hell of it" Jess griped.
Just watching the man go down the sidewalk pissed Rook off to see that man still go on and on about how everything little thing that bothered him and how he did nothing while everyone else fought and bled for their home.
Rook already had enough people making things harder then they needed to be for him from the peggies, John and the rest of his monstrous family, Pracker might as well be working with them with how disrespectful and aggressive he is.
And it relit the deep fire within him.
In a fit of defiant anger, Rook stomped over to the milkcrate with the apples grabbed one before marching right back to where Jess was and threw it as hard as he could at the older man below, it felt good to watch to fruit sail through the air and directly towards Mister Pracker as Rook had a pretty good trajectory as he had ample practice from throwing grenades.
Then it hit him on the side of the head, causing him to stumble forward a few steps while bringing his hands over his head to shield the assaulted area, he curled inward slightly on protective instinct as he had no idea if he would be harmed any further, he stood like that for a few seconds before slowly uncoiling and stood up to full height, hand still on the afflicted spot, now turning a healthy shade of red,
He looked around his surroundings quickly, looking for his aggressor, but found nothing, angry and confused, he began shouting angrily at his surroundings, about how disrespectful they were and how he'd kick their asses given the chance.
Back on the roof, Rook looked down at the furious man angrily spitting his spiel, it was then he realized what he had just done and felt guilty for his actions, it had to have been a heat of the moment thing, this was something he wouldn't normally do, feeling bad, he quickly looked over at Jess, hoping for some sort of acknowledgement, hoping what he just don't was some sort of lucid dream but deep down he knew he was awake.
Jess was staring at him, wide eyed and mouth agape, she couldn't believe what he had just done, they stared at each other for a few seconds in shocked silence before Jess finally made the first move, instead of admonishing or congratulating him, she broke down into a fit of laughter, it wasn't a wicked cackle or the hideous laughter she let out when she found enjoyment in intimating the more timid members of the resistance or basking in the fear and lose of hope that she created when she picked off peggies.
It was a normal happy laugh that would come from a normal happy person, for once in her life, Jess sounded like she was genuinely happy, it made Rook happy.
Seeing her laugh the way she did, he couldn't help but laugh along with her.
He didn't know why he was laughing as he just did something awful but he just couldn't help but notice Jess, he couldn't help but look at her, not a casual glance at a friend, but for the first time he felt like he was really looking at her, as a woman as a valued partner in crime.
He couldn't help but notice the way she pulled off the same blue flannel shirt and green jacket she wore for presumably months, the way she was able to make herself laugh the way she did after every horrible thing she had been through, albeit what was making her laugh wasn't the nicest of things.
He couldn't help but notice how their clashing personalities would have put them at constant odds, but still they were able to push past it and stick together no matter how much they pissed each other off.
He also couldn't help but notice just how underneath the scars, anger problems and murder obsession, she was actually quite pretty.
The Grain Elevator work site was alight, the handful of peggies that were stationed there buzzed about making sure everything was alright. Of course once they understood everything was alright, the one in charge called John to inform him of what had happened, the truck being stolen, he was understandable furious with their lack of awareness and where the keys were stored, once he was done with tirade, he informed the survivors that he had just dispatched his three best to investigate the area in hopes of piecing together something that would lead the Sinner's downfall.
Some time passed and the trio arrived, it was clear who the leader of the trio was as he got straight to the point and began questioning everyone present with the same grit any of Jacob's men had, while he did so, it was blatant that the other two had no idea what they were looking for as they looked around the area, it angered the man heading the investigation.
Once the leader finished his interrogation, he turned to the only fatality on site, a dead woman, bifurcated at the waist, organs squished and leaking from their exposed housing, an arrow protruding from the back of her neck. He dropped down one knee to inspect the body closer, only to reveal the tire track that was imprinted into the ground and organs, obviously belonging to the only vehicle that was stolen.
Feeling that their investigation was done, the other two returned to the kneeling man.
"So uh, why are we 'ere, shouldn't we be aft'r th' Sinner?" Frank asked uncomfortably as he eyed the remains of his ally.
Then he turned his gaze to Gordon, who was still down on a knee to look over the body.
"To kill our enemy we must know him first, study and learn about him" Gordon responded as he studied the arrow protruding from the neck of the dead woman.
"Wait why are we killin' th' Deputy again?" Frank asked, earning a disappointed sigh from Emily.
"How many times must we go over this?!"Gordon exasperated as he stood up, facing his allies, pulling the arrow free from the corpse as he rose.
"God won't let us take him alive, he must come to the Father on his own accord, trying anything else will only get us killed, so we need to learn as much as we can about him and plan are attacks, we must show him that the only way he can truly be free of Eden's Gate is to kill all of us and become the sinner we believe him to be or, he joins us becomes part of our family, regardless, I don't care what happens I merely wish to secure a future for the Father and his visions of God" Gordon preached.
"But are you sure that's wise?" Emily spoke up, looking at truck tire tracks imprinted in the dirt and grain that littered the ground.
"To blindly follow the word of God and not the finer points that the prophet spoke of?" She asked.
"Look at this" Gordon demanded as he held out the arrow to his compatriots.
"The Sinner is not known for using arrows much less running over corpses, this isn't his usual M.O. if this was the Deputy, then something is off, he's either trying to throw us off his trail by sending others to do his work or he's showing his true colors" Gordon spoke.
"As he evolves, so to must we, to grow stagnant is to rot, and if we rot we may as well lay down our weapons and let the sinners walk over us, we need to be ready and alert, to set the example for the rest as the Father's army, so that's why I need both of you to be prepared for this, to be ready for a arrow in the dark, to be assassinated silently, as of this moment, no one goes of by themselves, use the buddy system" he declared.
Emily stared at Gordon, scrutinizing what she heard, she didn't trust him as he seemingly escaped the Deputy when had him hostage at the packing plant with no survivors, but John asked her to trust him, how could she say no of all words to him.
"So what should we do in terms of catching the Deputy?" She asked.
"Well" Gordon began.
"When John informed me of what happened here, he also told me he had a quick parlay with the Deputy and how he openly challenged John to take action against his sinful ways, John of course has taken this in kind, he has set in motion the wheels and progress, and by tomorrow, the Deputy will be tested, he will either surrender to John and save countless, sin filled lives, or have the town of Falls End razed to rubble, if he chooses to give up the town rather then himself..." Gordon trailed off.
Before he continued, he clenched the arrow in his hand, causing a soft crunch to emit from his palm, signalling it's shaft had been broken, then he opened his palm, allowing both halves to fall to the ground soundlessly.
"Then we will swoop in and grab him amidst the rubble and dead" he said grimly.
"Ok but uh..." Frank murmured unsurely.
"What is John going to do?" He asked.
Gordon looked Frank dead in the eye before responding.
"He's bring out a revelation"