When Rook came too, he could hear preaching, not the quite slow words he would usually hear in church, but the fiery, exclamations that religious evangelists preached so passionately.
As Rook stirred he found his body was stiffer and sorer then usual, his chest was very sore and pulsed in irritation and his head pounded like a drum, he wasn't how he ended up like this, and he wasn't to happy about having to deal with it, he had woken up without being able to remember what happened more times then he wanted, it terrified him.
He brought a hand up to his face and tiredly rubbed his eyes as he groaned from the headache that was incubating in him, it didn't help that he could hear someone nearby. His vision shifted and adjusted as he blinked away the dizziness, the sunlight stinging his eyes, but it clear enough to tell he was in Jerome's church, sitting in the front row of the right side pews, he still didn't remember how he got here, which he still disliked greatly.
A figure that stood in front the church's pedestal then caught Rook's attention, his preaching gave away his presence, Rook looked at the man, squinting as his spinning vision slowed down, the person was blurry and certainly did not look like Jerome, but the more he stared, the more his vision corrected itself.
The second his vision corrected itself, Rook saw that the man was John Seed, he wore a triumphant smirk on his face as he held an Eden's Gate bible high above his head, expounding something to whoever else was in the church , but once he finished, he looked down at the Junior Deputy.
"Ah, so good of you to join us, Deputy!" John cried enthusiastically with a crooked grin on his face.
Rook gasped as he shook in fear, recoiling in his seat as the bane of the valley, John Seed stood before him, gloating and preaching about what Rook could only assume was the Project's victory over the town. Everything that happened before he got knocked out hit him like a lightning bolt, returning to town, going to the church, who greeted him at the door.
"It's been a while, hm?" He offered as he took a few steps towards Rook, holding his bible out to his side for a few seconds before a peggie emerged from Rook's peripherals.
The peggie took the bible a disappeared again out of Rook's view. Rook couldn't believe what was going on around him, how could John and a peggies infiltrate the church, it terrified to him to think what could have happened in his time unconscious. With his vision fully returned, Rook looked around to discover that the church was a mess, bullet holes and Eden's Gate graffiti lined the walls with splashes of blood here and there, some of the pews were upturned if not outright broken, the few remaining pew had peggies sitting in them, all looking at him and smiling like they knew they were gossiping about him, there had to be a dozen of them, armed and watching him.
A half dozen corpses littered the perimeter of the room, Rook recognized them all as members of town, a few he didn't really know, but most were the regulars that hung around Mary's bar.
It sickened Rook as it was very evident before they died, they were on their knees and hands on their heads; these people were executed.
"No one will be coming to your rescue, I have all your friends here, see?" John grinned, raising a hand to the left side of the room.
There Rook saw Nick, standing in front of the left row of pews, desperately staring at him, silently begging him to somehow save the day once again as he was not doing well, he was shirtless and had several bruises along his face and body, he looked especially anguished as clear as day, the word GREED was crudely printed into his chest, droplets of blood sporadically dripped from the tattoo as no post work was done to keep away infection let alone and precautions before the work.
To Nick's immediate left stood Jerome, he was similarly as bad off as Nick, bruised and battered, he for some reason clung to the bible of his lord, and was shirtless but yet to be tattooed, instead a swath of skin from his left pectoral was missing, leaving a bloody gouge in it's place, and a peggie keeping a gun trained on the Pastor and Pilot.
Then a small movement in front of Rook pulled his attention to what was before him, to his surprise, Mary stood directly in front of him, she had her back pressed up against the church's wall with a hand gun held inches to her head by another peggie, Mary had also been roughed up, but clearly got it better than Nick and Jerome as she only sported a black eye and a scrap on her cheek, at least she was able to keep her shirt.
Mary and Rook looked into each others eyes, hoping one would somehow relay info that would bring solace, but all Mary could offer was a very subtle mouthing of words, her lips moved, but no sound came out, Rook could only assume she was shushing him.
He couldn't blame her for her choosing that message, death was all around them, no escape and no rescue, all they could do was submit to John's will.
He was trembling he was so afraid, and anyone who looked at him could tell, who could he not be, he could only guess at the depths on John's depravity, and by the look on the Seed's face, he was going to enjoy whatever he was going to do to the Falls End Resistance.
But underneath the terror was the all to familiar hate he had associated John with, everywhere that monster went, corpses followed, if Joseph truly was God's prophet then why would either let John run rampant, John was about to torture people in the house of God with a smile on his face, he was suppose to help save people not mutilate him, or order planes to shoot at anything that wasn't his men or tie them to the sides of a truck or order town wide executions.
How dare he call himself a servant of God.
Rook's hatred eventually gave way to shock, it hit him like a slap to the face. How could he just sit around and wait to die, if he was really going to die in this church, he was going to go out trying to snap John's neck.
"Ok John let's just be civil about this" Rook said trying to remain calm as he tried to slowly rise from his seat.
But was stopped halfway by a dull tugging his left wrist, Rook looked down to see his hand was handcuffed to a radiator, Rook recognized it as the radiator that heated the church, it was installed to the right side of the room, in disbelief that it was right next to him in the main isle, he looked over to where it should be, and sure enough, the peggies had ripped the ancient, rusty, radiator that looked like it was made in the fifties and dragged it next to the pew he sat in, large scuff marks trailed from the wall they got it from to Rook.
What was more he realized he was also shirtless, it scared him as he instantly but two and two together that he could have also been tattooed which terrified and infuriated him even further as this was not how he imagined getting his first tattoo, he craned his head down to stare at his bare chest and sure enough there was something imprinted on him it and was hard to make out as it was upside down, but after a few seconds, it clicked in Rook's head, John had crudely tattooed the word WRATH into his torso, just as he did to Nick.
He was going to Make John pay for desecrating his, Nick's and Jerome's bodies.
Rook sat back down and looked back up at John, prepared to spit some curse at him, but John beat him to it.
"And there it is" John as smugly, tilting his head back at Rook.
"My handiwork still rings true, hide it all you want, I can still see the hate in your eyes, reminds me of my parents actually" John taunted.
"But I know what your thinking" he continued.
"It's not my best work, I admit that but I needed to be quick about it, couldn't have you waking up half way through, you'd just squirm and thrash about, I wanted to spell wrath not rat with chicken scratches on either side" John admitted.
"So, you did all this to hand out a few tattoos?" Rook growled.
"There not just tattoos, I like to think of them as tickets to a new, better life, to a world beyond this one, a paradise, Eden" John replied mystically.
"But see how messy all this turned out to be?" John asked, holding his arms out in reference to how disheveled the church had become.
"If you just come to me in the first place this all could have been avoided... But it's quite alright now that you finally decided to stop by on your own accord" John said smugly.
"And what, let you do all this to me in the safety and comfort of your creepy torture dungeon?!" Rook cried.
"Well yes there's that" John said, looking at his finely trimmed nails before approaching the Junior Deputy.
He placed a hand on his bare shoulder and leaned down to Rook slightly and spoke in a vaguely lower tone.
"But think how much fun we'd have… just you and me… all the time in the world… nothing Joseph needs to know about" he said before removing his hand and returning to his post in front of the pedestal.
"Your lovely co-worker told me so much about you, I can only imagine what kind of things you will tell me after I pushed those buttons that What's-Her-Name told me about?" John almost teased.
Rook stared at the Seed, thinking about all the things he could have done to Hudson, or if she was even alive, he couldn't imagine what kind of state she was in, it made Rook sick with anger to think she was stuck with John for weeks on end, being his personal play thing.
"Maybe your right… Maybe I should have stopped by your bunker" Rook admitted
"Now that's the spirit, in no time flat you'll be going from maybe to yes!" John almost cheered at Rook's revelation.
"I mean… I trashed your bunker the first time, so who knows what I can do it a second visit" Rook taunted.
"Of course, I should have expected as much" John sighed in disgust.
"No matter, if Mohammed won't come to the mountain the let's bring the mountain to Mohammed, let's get this atonement going hm, we got a lot of people to go through" John said before clapping his hands twice.
As soon as John clapped his hands, the three guards that kept their guns in Jerome, Nick and Mary, pushed them forward with one hand on their shoulder's, towards John.
While this happened, a single peggie approached Rook's side with a small key in hand, he approached Rook and carefully brought the key to the handcuff and unlocked the clasp. The second the cuff unlocked, the rest of the peggies in the room seemed to raise their guard, they all straightened their backs and almost raised their guns to him. Before Rook could do anything, a rough pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him to his feet and pushed him towards John, the peggie that freed him was not going to allow the Junior Deputy to try anything. But Rook had no intention of fighting back yet, he was still surrounded and had his knows how many guns on him. On his feet again, Rook took a few tentative steps towards John, his muscles ached, and his joints cracked as he did, his chest still pulsated with pen from the needle work. Then the barrel of an assault rifle painfully buried itself into his back, pushing him forward, the push was accompanied by a swear and an impatient comment to hurry up from one of the peggies behind him.
Then that same peggie placed a firm hand on Rook's shoulder to push him forward as keep him in place as Rook felt a gun press against his back, ushering him to John, pushing him in place between Nick and Mary as Jerome stood next to the Seed.
Once in place, John grabbed the back of Jerome's neck and manipulated him forward, so he stood in front of Rook.
Rook stared at the pastor anxiously as he hoped the war vet would give him some subtle code for an attack plan, But Jerome looked just as scared as everyone else.
Then John smacked the Christian bible still clutched in Jerome's hands, causing it to slam against the hardwood floor, then he smacked Eden's Gate bible into Jerome's chest, making a grunt of fear emit from the pastor as he numbly took the book and held it out to Nick, Mary and Rook with trembling hands.
"I thought a friendly face would make this easier for you" John said to the crowd before leaning in behind Jerome and spoke gently into his ear, still applying a firm grip on his neck.
"Dearly devoted" John said, intending for Jerome to repeat after him.
But Jerome was silent, even after receiving not so subtle prodding from the peggie who had a gun trained on him.
Rook wasn't sure if he was trying to add a few seconds to their lives, or just wanted to make it as difficult as possible before he met his maker.
"We are gathered hear to bear witness" John continued, growing annoyed at Jerome's lack of participation.
But still Jerome remained silent, stoically staring forward.
With a quick look to the peggie holding Jerome, John silently ordered for some more encouragement.
And that encouragement came in the form of being bashed in the back of the head with a handgun, the sudden impact caused Jerome to tumble to the floor.
"You son of a bitch!" Mary shouted as she used the heat of the moment to shrug of her capture and stepped towards John, intending to punch him in the mouth.
Rook was completely on board with Mary's plan and was about to join her in the soon to be brawl, but before he could also shrug off his capture, the peggie that held Jerome quickly stepped in and smacked her in the face with his gun, causing her to fall back, yelping in pain.
"Mary!" Rook cried as she fell to the floor.
He tried to take a step towards her to assist her, but was swiftly stopped as his capture pulled him back and similarly hit him on the back of the head, making Rook also cry out in pain as his head hung low, his head throbbing even more as the hit added to his already building head trauma, with his head hung low, he watched Jerome, who still lay sprawled on the floor, as he eventually rose he looked at the tow bibles before him, both thrown to the ground, instead of grabbing the Eden's Gate bible, he subtly pushed it away and picked up a Christian bible that lay by Rook's feet.
Then John started laughing as if the whole thing was a big joke as a peggie yanked Mary back to her feet, tears dotting her cheeks, as the pain was to much for her.
"Let's try that again, huh?" he chuckled as he grabbed Jerome by the neck again and yanked him to his feet, but this time pointed him towards Nick.
Seeing Nick get the atonement first made Rook sick, he didn't know if he could handle seeing his friend be tortured before him, but all the same, it still infuriated him that he couldn't do anything but stand by as his friends were brutalized.
"Our devoted, we are gathered here to bear witness" John growled quickly, it was clear he was done playing around despite laughing a few moments ago.
And Jerome knew too, what little time they had left before the real pain came, was gone, this time he repeated what John said.
"To those willing to atone for the sins" John went on, this time with a smirk as everything was falling into place.
And sure enough, Jerome quickly repeated what the man said.
"Will you Nick Rye, place your hand upon the word of Joseph?"
But this time halfway through Jerome's verse, Nick spoke up after being silent for so long.
"You know what, fuck this, nah, I ain't ever giving into that psychopath, fuck 'em, never liked this rich city boy since he rolled in here like he owned the place with his inbred brothers" Nick spat, almost upset at Jerome for giving in to John's commands.
The second Nick finished speaking, John shoved the pastor out of his way, nearly knocking him back to the floor, with the pastor out of the way, John stepped towards Nick, the peggies moving around the confrontation to keep their guns on everyone else, two peggies now held Nick's arms.
Rook held his breath as John got close to his friend, he was very aware of John's rage when his "religious" rituals were repeatedly stalled, a part of him expected John to outright kill Nick for his interruptions, after all, Nick wasn't the main focus of this whole thing, John wanted Rook above all else.
"And there it is" John said sinisterly, stepping into Nick's personal space.
"Just like our Deputy here, your sins always bubble to the top… thanks to your greed, you're always thinking of yourself" John said grimly.
But John's self righteous monologue was cut short as Nick spat in his face.
Rook's heart skipped a beat as Nick might as well asked to be killed, it was evident John was about to blow his top as his face twitched in several place just as he did when Rook repeatedly interrupt John's atonement process within his bunker, but this time. John just stood there, silent and motionless, his eyes screwed shut, it was clear he was disgusted and was looking for some higher power to restrain himself as his facial twitches faded with his growing anger.
Then he opened his eyes and brought a hand up to wipe the spit from his cheek with a light chuckle. He then placed both hands on Nick's shoulders.
"I will have your wife and daughter dragged through the county for their transgressions after my flock and I have had our time with them, then executed" John said sinisterly, a light smirk on his face.
As John spoke, Nick's face dropped from angry rebellion to numb horror as his face went slack, his mouth slightly agape, no man should be faced with the possibility to outlive his child.
But Rook, off to the side, fought to keep himself from trying to break from the peggie and knocking out every single one of John's teeth, it was a struggle to still himself as John hurt Jerome, but this was something different, how dare he oh so casually threaten his godchild and the woman who trusted him to care for the child if anything were to happen, Carmina was a infant for Christ sakes, she couldn't even understand what was happening around her let alone object permanence, it just proved what Rook thought of the man, when the man couldn't get his way, he could only threaten and strong-arm.
"Nick?" John called, focusing the pilot's attention.
"Yes, yes I atone" Nick nodded numbly.
"That's the spirit" John smiled, lightly tapping Nick's cheek before taking a step back.
He held out a hand to one of the peggies that held Nick and was promptly given a knife.
John looked at the mirror polish of the blade before holding it up for Nick to view with a big grin, stepping towards him again.
"Can't say I haven't thought about doing this for a long time" John taunted.
Then the two peggies that restrained Nick suddenly kicked his feet out from under him and forced him onto his back as John still menacingly stalked forward, rolling the blade in his hands.
"W-wait no, no, hol' on!" Nick begged as he struggled to break free as he squirmed uselessly on the floor, realizing the depths of what he was about to go through.
Then John loomed over him for a few seconds before straddling his prone body, inserting the knife into Nick's chest.
Mary and Rook screamed and begged for John to stop as Nick screamed in agony, they tried to throw themselves at the Seed but couldn't as they were restrained by the peggies that kept their guns on them. Rook was entirely ready to beat John's head in, he didn't care if there were guns trained on him, he needed to save his friend, Nick would do the same for him.
Then after what felt like an eternity, John finally climbed off Nick and stood back up, holding something in his hands.
"That is the power of yes!" John cried happily as he held up the object in his hands.
Rook knew exactly what it was before John stood up, but it still horrified him, nonetheless.
"The power to take away your sins, the power to set you free!" John cried happily as he held the object over his head like a prize, allowing everyone to see what he had done.
In his hands, a strip of human flesh, the section of Nick's skin that had the GREED tattooed to had been cut from his body.
John's hands were slick with blood and ran down his forearm.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" John grinned as he lowered the strip of flesh and walked up to the nearest wall of the church and pinned the flesh to the wall with the knife.
Happy with his work, John casually walked over to the pedestal where a small towel waited, he scooped it up and thoroughly wiped his hands clean before tossing it back onto the pedestal.
As John cleaned himself, Rook watched Nick writhe in agony on the floor as one of Nick's restrainers sauntered up to Jerome and shove their gun to his head until John came back and grabbed the back off Jerome's neck and forced him forward again, this time, pointing him at Rook.
"Will you; Deputy Rook, place your hand upon the word of Joseph and renounce your sins and admit your transgressions?" John asked, a dark intensity in his eyes.
Rook stared at Jerome on John for a few seconds, unsure of what to actually say.
"Deputy please, say yes" Jerome begged Rook, a mumble under his breath.
"It's just one word" John said gently.
Rook stared at John, who hide behind Jerome with such vitriol, he wanted to push the pastor out of the way so he could wrap his hands around John's throat and squeeze until there was nothing left to squeeze, but yet the ever present peggies that John surrounded himself in had him and his friends at gun point, as much as he wanted to tell John no, among other things, he was going to say yes, as if John wanted to cut him up like Nick, he'd need to get really close to him, and Rook counted on it.
"Ok" Rook said quietly as he slowly extending a trembling hand.
As his hand reached for the book, Rook noticed how badly it was shaking, he also noticed that he wasn't sure if his hand was trembling from anger or fear, but he didn't care, he just wanted to get to John.
The second Rook's hand was inches from the bible, Jerome quickly opened the bible to reveal the pages inside had been hollowed out just enough to store a snub-nosed revolver rested inside.
The room almost exploded the second the revolver saw light.
One of the four peggies that held Nick down scream gun! As they pushed John out of the way as Rook grabbed the gun with lightning speed and pointed it at John, but right as he pulled the trigger, a peggie grabbed the barrel of the revolver and jerked it away from John, but still the round went off, causing John to yell in pain as the bullet wasn't an entire miss, the bullet was millimeters from his skull, instead it left a groove in his hair, just above the ear, but just close enough to hurt. But before Rook could get another round off, the peggie accosting him was able to push him off balance, trying to take the gun from him.
Instead of shooting Jerome, the peggie that kept a gun on him decided to tackle him to the floor, and wrestle him into submission, but what the peggie didn't know, Jerome was an army veteran, and was dispatched quickly.
The peggie that held Mary, let go over her to assist John's exit, pushing Mary to the floor. The peggie that prevented Rook from shooting John, fought Rook for the revolver all the while, finally ripped the gun from the Junior Deputy and pointed it at him, but before the man could pull the trigger, Mary tackled him to the ground, blindsiding him, she yelled as she slammed her fists in the man's face over and over again and until he went limp.
Rook ran over to help the woman, but by the time he got effectively close the peggie was unconscious, then with aching, trembling hands, Mary ripped the revolver from the unconscious man's hand and stood up, looming over him, then she pointed the gun at the man's head and fired. The gunshot echoing throughout the church.
"Can you uh, hold this for me?" Mary asked as she offered Rook the gun, sniffling and panting, not looking at Rook.
Rook gladly took the gun from her, but before he could find out if she was alright, Nick lumbered passed them, reeling down the isle and out the front door.
"Aw shit" Rook grumbled as he broke away from Mary and chased after his wounded friend.
"Shit, be careful, Ben!" Mary cried out as she saw Rook bolt after his friend.
"Make sure the town is safe, I'll be back with Nick and John!" Rook cried over his shoulder.
"Don't do anything needlessly dangerous" Jerome's voice rang out, sounding very winded.
Rook didn't respond, he didn't because he didn't think he could heed the pastor's words, he was willing to do whatever it took to nail John to the wall.
The second Rook stepped through the open doors, he fully expected multiple peggies to be waiting for him, but thankfully no peggies appeared to be hanging around the town, instead the town was still eerily empty, be it everyone still hiding or John did something nefarious to them. Not only that but Rook hazily remembered there being several trucks parked haphazardly in the intersection, but now there were only three and Nick was at one of the three trucks, yanking on doors, trying to open them, to no avail.
"Dude what are you doing?" Rook cried as he jumped down the steps and into the intersection, approaching his friend.
"We're going after him!" Nick yelled, pulling on another truck door as he pointed down the road and into the distance.
Rook followed Nick's finger down the road to see in the distance a single truck far away, moving at top speed away from town; John.
Then Rook's attention was brought back to Nick as he heard the sound of a car door opening, signaling Nick found a truck that was unlocked.
"Come on Partner, get in!" Nick cried as he hastily hobbled into the driver's seat and dug around for the spare key.
"Dude, you're not coming, get out, you can barely point a gun straight!" Rook cried.
"I ain't gonna let that son of a bitch get away!" Nick yelled back.
"That's why I'm going to get him, just hang back and let me deal with him" Rook countered.
"He's probably calling in every peggie in the valley to come carry him home, your going to need all the hep you can get" Nick yelled, stopping his search to look at his friend.
Rook hesitated when he met Nick's gaze, he could see a all to familiar fire burning in Nick's eyes, it felt like he was looking into Jess's eyes with all the hate and anger brewing in the pilot, a anger Rook did not want to push against, he was also not in the best of moods. But bringing Nick along could be to dangerous, he knew Nick and a grudge on John, but the flaying of skin made everything very personal, that wasn't the kind of head space he needed for what was to come. But he did have a point, John was probably yelling for every available peggie as they stood around arguing.
Rook stared at his friend for a few seconds, frantically weighing the pros and cons of bringing him along before making a decision. As much as he wanted for Nick to sit this one out, he knew arguing with the man would get them nowhere, both of their angers would get the best of them.
"Alright, let's go" Rook ordered sternly, before hurrying around the truck and climbed into the passenger seat that Nick quickly unlocked.
"Glad you're finally making some fucking sense, Partner!" Nick replied irritably as he found the key hidden under the floor mat and started up the truck.
"Just drive" Rook ordered as soon as he got comfortable in his seat
Without another word, Nick stomped down on the gas peddle as hard as he could, the truck shooting down the road at remarkable speed, far more then what Rook would seem safe in a normal situation. Thankfully the road both trucks stormed down, was a long stretch of asphalt with no turns, just what both drivers needed to gain even more speed. As the gap between the two trucks grew progressively small, the chase seemed to almost go on for hours, in that time, Rook regarded his friend again, to make sure he was still in shape to do whatever he would have to do to take down John, he looked well enough, his anger seemed to cool off but his chest was another story.
Nick's elevated heart rate made the large wound continue to bleed, and still looked raw and searing, the exposed muscle still looked very painful, even just to move around. It made Rook think of his own chest and how it was annoyingly sore, he looked down at his own bare chest, the upside-down wrath staring up at him, when Nick screamed as he had the flesh cut from his body, it sounded like he was screaming and wailing as loud as he could, that screaming wailing man could have very easily been him. Rook shuttered push down the bile at the thought of being flayed, it made him bring a hand to his own chest, lightly touching the edge of the W in Wrath, but even his light touch sent bolts of pain and aching shot through his pectorals, causing him to loudly wince.
"Fuckin' hurts right?" Nick spoke up gruffy, noticing his friend eyeing him.
"Uh yeah, my chest hasn't stopped throbbing since I woke up" Rook admitted.
"Yeah man that was crazy, when they hauled you into the church and sat you down in the seat I shat my pants, I thought they killed you and were dumping you there so we could see" Nick said curtly.
"Shit man, that must have been crazy, hell all day everyday is crazy" Rook shrugged.
Nick didn't respond, instead he was silent for a few seconds before he sighed deeply before speaking again.
"Sorry for freaking out at you dude, I just really, really wanna get this fucker, he hurt so many of our neighbors and no way in fuck will I let him go after threatening my family like that, this is the closest we'll probably get" Nick apologized grimly.
Rook could tell Nick was still angry, he was too, but still the pilot tried to make up for his earlier mistakes, and that was good enough for him.
"Don't worry man, things got pretty heated back in the church" Rook replied.
"Yeah" Nick muttered to himself.
By now Nick and Rook had miraculously caught up to John, the two trucks were thirty feet from each other.
"Ok, you ready to do your thing" Nick offered.
"Ready as I'll ever be" Rook muttered as he anxiously spun his revolver's cylinder.
"Hey, check the glove box for any ammo" Nick offered, pointing at said compartment.
Rook wordlessly reached forward and opened the compartment in front of him and sure enough, a simple pistol rested in the small compartment, one full clip next to it.
"Now that's what I'm talking about, fuckin' rednecks and their guns" Nick laughed.
"Hallelujah" Rook muttered to himself as he took the contents and tucked them into his person.
"Ok, now that you got what you need, get ready, Dude" Nick said as he got in line with the truck ahead of them.
Ready to go, Rook lowered his window and carefully leaned his body out so he could get a better shot, but as soon as he leaned out, the sharp, cold wind that blew from the high speeds greatly stung his non-consensual tattoo.
"Get ready!" Nick shouted as he matched his speed with the truck.
"Keep the truck steady!" Rook cried, trying to focus on the truck in front of them and not the pain in his chest.
"Just shoot!" Nick retorted.
Rook grumbled something under his breathe about Nick's patience as he leveled his gun, aiming for where the head should be, then fired twice, sending the shots right through the rear windshield.
The truck swerved as the bullets penetrated the rear windshield, it was clear the driver was fine as the truck didn't immediately fly off the road, instead an arm wielding a gun stuck out the passenger window and fired back a few times.
"Aw shit, God dammit!" Rook swore as he retreated back into the safety of the cabin.
"Come on man, you got this" Nick pressured him.
"Yeah, yeah" Rook waved off as he waited for the shooter to retract into their vehicle.
As he waited, he watched the shooter, or as much of the shooter he could see, which was just an arm, the arm and a familiar blue fabric that was their shirt sleeve, then, it clicked on Rook's mind. It was John shooting at them.
"That's John shooting at us" Rook grumbled.
"Then shoot that fucker a few times before the driver" Nick spat.
As much as Rook wanted to do so, John wasn't giving him an opportunity to do so, John refused to retract his shooting arm back into the vehicle, he just waited for Rook to poke his head out, he must have known who was tailing him, sick of playing the waiting game, Rook carefully poked his gun out the side of the truck, trying his best to freeball his next shot, but when he pulled the trigger again but the gun clicked empty, with a tired groan, Rook retracted and tossed the revolver into the back seats as it was now useless, and took the handgun off his person and resumed his partial aiming, putting two more bullets into the back of the truck.
"Come on man, you got this!" Nick said, sounding more annoyed then he should.
"You wanna trade jobs!?" Rook retorted back sarcastically.
Nick didn't respond, just grunted.
Rook continued to watch John's arm, he didn't know how, but John had contorted himself so he could shoot back without having to look out the window, that would have to take a lot of faith in your skills, but thinking that made Rook realize something, he wasn't fighting a peggie or even someone who was proficient with a gun, it was John, he was a yes man, a talker, a charmer, not a marksman.
"Screw it" Rook swore as he fully leaned out the window to get a bead on John's arm.
With the smoothness of someone who had done it thousands of times prior, Rook fluidly leaned out the window and fired once, sending the piece of metal into John's forearm, causing John to presumably yell as his arm to spasm as blood shot out of the new wound as he quickly retreated his arm back into the truck, surprisingly he did not drop his gun as he did.
"Take that you yes sayin' son of a bitch!" Nick shouted as he saw John get injured.
Rook couldn't help but silently agree, he knew he shouldn't've as he needed to be the example the county needed, but he also wished he could see John react to getting shot.
With John out of the way, Rook began shooting at the driver again, who in turn began swerving to protect themselves and John, after a few more shots, Nick spoke up again.
"Hey man, shoot the tires" Nick proffered.
"Now that's not a bad idea" Rook replied as he examined the truck's tires.
Much unlike the Revelator, the tire was unobstructed, and now that Rook stopped shooting so did the swerving, making lining up the shot easy, it let Rook take his time lining up the shot, then once he was comfortable, he fired, the bullet finding it's way into the tire, exploding it and flat-lining almost instantly.
As soon as the tire popped the truck began to swerve all over the road, the driver trying to find their equilibrium again, but doing such became harder and harder as the swerving became more and more severe, far to much to control at such a high speed, with each serve, the truck got closer and closer to the edge of the road until the vehicle finally veered off the road and into the forest that lined the side of the road, colliding head on with a tree, a cacophonous sound reverberating through the area.
"Fuck yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Nick cried excitedly as he pointed at the crashed truck, slowing the truck down.
"Let's not celebrate just yet, we don't know we'll walk into" Rook stated as Nick brought the truck to a stop, meters from the crashed one.
"No way man, John's fucked up after that, we got 'em!" Nick sneered.
"Please, let's just take this slow" Rook almost begged as the two men exited the truck.
"Ok, ok, fine, you can do your cop thing, just be quick" Nick sighed in anger.
Somewhat satisfied with his friend's response, Rook silently nodded before warily approaching the ruined truck, no life stirring inside, handgun clutched tightly in his hand and Nick close behind.
Rook and Nick slowly approached the driver's side of the crashed truck, fully ready to shoot the driver in the head and John in the knees, but as Rook got close enough to investigate, he saw on what was left of the truck's hood that wasn't wrapped around the tree was the driver, clearly dead, he didn't have his seat-belt on, and the crash sent him through the windshield, his body laid across the hood of the vehicle, but the passenger seat was another story; the passenger door was wide open, a bloody hand-print stained the door handle, dashboard and seat-belt plug, Rook looked up from the truck to see a few nearby trees, in line with the passenger seat to see a few bloody smears on the bark, going deeper into the woods.
"God, fuck!" Nick yelled in anger, kicking the side of the truck.
"Come on, calm down!" Rook ordered angrily.
"How the fuck can I calm down, this is serious shit!" Nick argued.
"And we'll deal with it together!" Rook countered.
"Then let's go!" Nick yelled, throwing his arms in the direction John ran off in.
"I can't have you running into a firefight like this, your going to get shot, you need to calm your shit first!" Rook ordered.
"Motherfucker do you have any idea where we are?!" Nick yelled, bringing his balled fists close to his chest.
"We're in the middle of nowhere!" Rook yelled, exasperated and tired of dealing with Nick's out of character demeanor.
"Not only are we near that fucking ranch but we're near my house!"
"Wait seriously?" Rook questioned, starting to understand Nick's position on the matter.
"My house is that way!" Nick yelled, pointing in the direction John presumably ran off in.
Rook thought about everything that could imply; not only could John lock himself away in his ranch and call for his planes, but if he so wanted he could very well stop by Nick's house and give Kim and Carmina a visit, and that was something neither Junior Deputy or Pilot could allow.
Before Rook could say anything, Nick leaned over what was left of the hood and ripped the handgun from the dead peggie's holster and briefly checked the clip count before reinserting it back into the gun.
"C'mon, we're wasting time we need to get to that son of a bitch before he gets away!" Nick cried angrily before storming off into the woods, disappearing into the thicket.
Rook called for his to come back, calling him irrational and needed to be sensible if he wished to be effective, but unsurprisingly Nick offered no response, making Rook growl in frustration as he had a feeling something like this would happen. Rook wanted to climb back into the truck and continue to drive around the forest and cut John off from either building, but he could hear something in the distance, and it sounded dangerously like an approaching aircraft, which made Rook's skin crawl, a airplane was the last thing he needed to deal with.
So instead of doing what was probably the better idea, Rook roughly ran a hand through his hear before charging into the woods after his friend.
The forest appeared to be so much bigger than what it looked like from the outside, it seemed so much more claustrophobic to a degree, there was thousands of trees all around him, all trees John could hide behind. It made Rook fight not to call out his friend's name as he didn't want to give away his position, instead he hurried forward through the forest, somehow, Nick had disappeared from view, he had a half minute lead and clearly used that time wisely to haul ass towards his house. If Rook wanted to catch up to his irrational friend or the fleeing cultist lieutenant, he needed to move just as fast as them, forcing him to break out into an intermediate jog, trying his best to keep his senses on high alert to keep himself from walking into a waiting John. After a few minutes of jogging, Rook went, he couldn't help but remember the last time he was in what he thought was this very forest was when he and Hurk chased a peggie before getting sidetracked by a wolf or something along those lines. He almost missed that time in his life, things were so much simpler back then, Jess's attitude towards him made sense, John wasn't firing in all cylinders to see him in his clutches, a hell of a lot more people were still alive, his head didn't feel the way it did all the time.
But before he could continue down that train of thought, five gunshots rang out through the forest, causing a small cluster of birds to take flight from the sudden noise.
The gunshots made Rook freeze in place so he could catch his breath and strain his ears for anything that would give away the location of either Seed or Rye but all he could hear was the distant possible airplane and his heart beating in his ears, giving him nothing to work with. But what he did know was by the way the gunshots echoed off the trees, it sounded like they were originating from two different points; Nick and John were having an exchange somewhere ahead of him, the distance was beyond him.
Rook cleared even more distance through the woods, with no sign of his friend, enemy or the other side of the woods, he wasn't sure how far away Nick's house or the ranch was, and he wasn't sure if that was good or not, then Nick's voice rang out once more.
"Fuck, he's over here, Ben!" Nick's voice echoed in the distance before a few more gunshots followed after.
"God dammit!" Rook cursed as he tried to chase down the source of Nick's voice, if he doesn't hurry, he to would be counted among the dead.
But as he ran further and further into the seemingly endless forest, he felt like he was losing ground, Nick was somehow clearing more distance then him, but that must have meant John was as well.
Completely out of breath, Rook let out a groan of frustration as he stopped to catch his breath and leaned up against a nearby tree, it pissed him off he was struggling to keep pace, Nick's mindset had been set to protecting his family, and he wasn't going to stop until John was dead, as much as he to wanted John taken care of, he needed to regroup with Nick and figure something out, he didn't care what, he just wanted to find his friend within the labyrinth of trees, as much as enjoyed John not knowing where he was, Rook threw caution to the wind and bellowed for his friend.
"Nick, where are you!?" Rook yelled as he cupped his mouth with his hands.
He scanned the endless treeline as he waited in silence for his friend to call back, without mistaking him for John, he told himself he would only wait for a few seconds, but those few seconds felt like minutes as Rook instincts screamed for him to move again as staying still was death, but with the snapping of a twig far away, Rook snapped to attention, ready to shot, but found that the pilot appeared in the distance, one hundred feet away at Rook's one o'clock and body glistening with sweat.
He stared down at Rook for a few seconds, ready to say something before something in the corner of his eye drew his attention.
"There he is!" Nick yelled as he pointed his gun and fired across Rook's vision before running off into the distance again.
Rook flinched as the gunshot rang out, he wasn't expecting Nick to be so brazen despite his earlier attitude, instead of yelling at Nick, who disappeared again, he turned to his eleven o'clock, a flash a blue streaked between two trees in the corner of his eye; John.
"Get back here!" Rook yelled as he impulsively shot a round into one of the trees where he'd seen the Seed.
"Why must you make everything so difficult, why can't you just say yes, one time?!" John yelled angrily as Rook watched the man sporadically bobbed and weaved through the endless trees.
Rook offered no reply as he resumed the chase again, sprinting after John, hoping Nick would head him off.
Thankfully, by now the trees became more and more spaced out, perhaps hinting that they were almost out of the forest, not only that but with the thinning of trees, every few seconds, Rook could see John running through the trees and Nick nowhere to be seen.
Feeling he was getting closer to the Seed, he raised his gun to the fleeing man and fired his gun, trying to hit the man in the legs, but both men running and Rook's heavy breathing threw off his aim, sending his bullets into nearby trees, frustrating him.
"You got nowhere to run!" Rook shouted as he gave up on shooting until he got closer.
But all John offered back was swearing and insults as he ran, but not before hastily looking back to fire off a few half-aimed shots, all missing by feet.
But as Rook ran, he could tell he was closing the distance from John as Rook had stopped to catch his breath while John did not. He hoped to hang on the edge of John's radar, close enough to make him empty his clip, but not close enough to make a hit, then he could move in for the arrest, he didn't have any handcuffs but he was more then willing to make it happen, and by the way he slowly lined himself behind John despite being almost fifty feet apart as the two men ran.
"Surrender and you won't be harmed!" Rook shouted.
"I will not allow you to ruin our chances of entering the Gates of Eden!" John screamed back as he twisted himself to fire off three half-aimed shots again.
The first bullet was nowhere near his target, disappearing into the forest, the second shot, was reasonably close, a few feet off, but after the third shot, Rook hissed in pain as he felt a line of fire shoot across his lower right thigh, forcing himself to come to a complete stop, almost falling face first into the dirt.
His leg burned like dull flame, shooting pain up and down his leg, making him grab a hold of a low hanging branch nearby for support and instinctively he brought a hand to the afflicted spot only to make it hurt more, he retracted his hand to see there was a light streak of blood across it, he didn't feel any hot metal in his leg and by the way the blood stained his hand, it was only a graze, enough to draw a fair amount of blood.
"Son of a bitch" Rook growled to himself as he looked at the blood that stained his hand.
John had effectively put a cap on how fast he could move now, it was obvious running was going suck, it hurt like hell to move that leg, but not as much as touching his chest, and that had to mean maybe his leg wasn't that bad. But Nick on the other hand had once again run ahead of him, and now with his wounded leg, he wasn't going to catch up until they stopped, all he could do was keep chugging alone until something happened.
Regardless of how much pain he felt, Rook pushed himself forward again, letting out a few grunts as he put weight on his bad leg, forcing himself into a slow jog, he could only hope Nick wouldn't do anything stupid until he caught up, but the anguish in his leg suggesting otherwise, after a few more minutes of jogging, his leg got so bad the only way he could keep himself going, was to think how great everything will be once he finally took out John and have him transferred to the jail in the Henbane River.
He would be a hero.
As Rook fantasized on how great it would be to take down the biggest threat in the whole valley, he failed to notice that the trees were slowly clearing as he had finally broken through the forest and made it to the other side, making him stumble and falter over the bushes and other overgrowth that lined the forest's edges, almost falling into the dirt in mud again, and barely recovered.
As he found his balance again and looked up at his new terrain, praying to God it wasn't John's ranch as Nick and John had to have come through here.
But instead of the ranch, a few hundred feet away from him was Rye and Son's Aviation.
Then Rook cursed loudly.
Rook warily crossed the large expanse that was the Rye residence front yard, he couldn't hear anything, not even the distant plane, which unnerved him as he had noting to go on, but that quickly changed as when he got closer to the house, to his horror he discovered the front door was wide open and he could hear both Kim and Carmina wailing inside which made a very chilling shiver run down his spine. As much as he wanted to rush in and help them, he knew he needed to take it slow in case it was a trap for him.
He moved a lot slower than he would have liked due to his leg, but once he got to the front porch. He carefully ascended the porch steps, the steps creaked as he went and trigger finger twitching ever so slightly, and once he made it to the open door, listening to Kim and Carmina wailing, rook took a deep unsteady breath and put his best leg forward, stepping through the yawning door.
He didn't have to venture to far inside to find Nick standing in the main hall of the house, facing into the living room, he was as motionless as a statute and his face the very meaning of the word carved into the junior Deputy's chest. None of this inspired anything good within Rook, instead of questioning Nick, Rook turned his attention to what he was looking at in the next room over; living room, expecting the worst.
And the worst he did find; John stood in the center of the living room, in between the couch and coffee table, Kim in his grip; in a state of extreme panic, an arm wrapped around her neck and a gun inches from her skull, in her arms was a wailing Carmina. As soon as Rook stepped into John's line of sight, he barked another order at him.
"Not another step closer, Deputy!" John shouted.
"Let her go you fucking monster!" Nick roared as he reaffirmed his gun at John.
Rook didn't move or say anything as the gears in his mind spun like the wheels on a F1 Racer, he never been in a hostage situation before, only simulated training procedures, the slightest misstep would have an infant or woman murdered before his eyes.
"Let her go, John!" Rook yelled as he raised his gun to get a bead on John, deciding to stick to what he was taught for now.
But John oddly ignored Rook's order, instead he maneuvered Kim around his person as Nick tried to get a line on him, making Kim obscure his shot, but did not acknowledge Rook's gun on him.
"I know your no going to shoot me Deputy, so put down your gun and let me be on my way!" John yelled as he pushed the gun into Kim's head.
"Oh, don't you worry you son of a bitch, I will!" Nick yelled back.
Kim continued to wail, it was clear she wasn't going to stop anytime soon, how could she, and it didn't help she was seeing her husband missing a chunk of his chest and his close friend with a garish tattoo that symbolized anger incarnate.
"You know I highly doubt that, Hay Seed!" John snarled angrily.
As John insulted and taunted Nick, Rook could see John's gun arm shaking, it was the arm he shot in the forest, the blood from his forearm stood out like a light in the dark as the crimson blood seeped into his silk blue shirt, a few drops dripped onto Kim's shoulder.
"You've been wrong before, don't push your luck!" Rook yelled.
"You're not going to harm me!" John spat almost sounded disgusted with Rook's statement.
"Why are you so sure that I'm not going to shoot you?" Rook asked, keeping his gun pointed at John face.
"I know your not going to shoot me because I know just what kind of man you are, I squeezed your bitch co-worker for every little thing about you and she sang, you're a pussy! You're a coward! You're trying to arrest me for fuck sakes, why would anyone let someone like me live when they could just kill me!" John screamed.
Something about the way John talked about Hudson rubbed Rook wrong, it still made him sick to his stomach that she was alone with John for weeks on end, who knows what state she was in right now.
"Now John listen, I really, really don't want to hurt you, but if you don't surrender, I'm going to blow out your kneecaps" Rook threatened as he wrestled his emotions back into place.
"You're not going to shoot me, you said so yourself so many times, you want to arrest me, so just put the gun down and go the fuck home!" John screamed as he tossed Kim around in his grip, Kim doing her best too hold onto her child.
"Hurt either of my girls and there will be nothing to arrest, you hear my you sick fuck, I'll make you wish you were never born!" Nick screamed angrily.
But John refused to acknowledge Nick and continued his dialogue with Rook.
"You should be the one who should surrenders Deputy, you have nowhere to go, I told Joseph everything about you, I told Jacob, I told that cunt; Faith, no matter what happens after today, you're fucked! You can't stop us, we have won just make it easy on yourself!" John screamed defiantly.
"That's not my problem right now, you are!" Rook yelled back.
"NO! our problem is we are trying to make a safe haven for the end of the goddamn world but all we need to finish is a dumbshit rookie police officer who is so dead set on tearing everything down like a toddler with his wooden block tower, for fuck sake's Benjamin, the end is coming, there is nothing you can do about it except to let me help you, help the project!" John screeched righteously as he kept getting angrier.
"There is nothing coming, your just another person who had the wool over your eyes, John your parent's hurt you, and you blamed yourself, I know that, and Joseph offered you a way to make you feel that what your parents did to you was wrong, you just wanted to feel like you belong, but you are still doing the wrong thing… there is no way out of this, just let Kim go and surrender peacefully!" Rook yelled back, finding his authoritative voice.
John stared at Rook for a few seconds in silent hatred before his eyelid spasmed and his shaking arm seemed to shake just a little more.
"Fuck you! you don't know anything about me, I don't need anybody to justify how I feel, I will do as I please and I will see Eden with my brothers, I don't have to take this from a middle of nowhere asshole who can't do his fucking job, stop trying to talk me down, its not going to work, so let me go Deputy!" John screamed as he removed the gun from Kim's head and pointed it at Rook.
Rook wanted to keep his cool, but John was making it very hard to maintain his composure, he was acting like cornered rat, lashing out recklessly in hopes of escaping, and it didn't help that Nick wasn't help aside from baseless threats. Rook swallowed the rising hate for the Seed and continued trying to save Nick's family.
"Maybe your right, I don't know you" Rook spat irritably.
"But what I do is your not getting out of here, Joseph isn't going to happy if something happens to you, think about it will reflect on your little project, I hear Joseph replaces Faith every now and again, will he do the same for you? How about you just chill the shit out!?" Rook yelled angrily.
Then John let out a small roar of frustrated rage, tired of Rook's stubbornness.
"If you don't cooperate you will die in the end with the rest of this disgusting country pigs, do I have to kill this fucking woman and her child to take your fucking blinders off so you can see the bigger picture?!" John yelled as he pulled Kim close to him again, this time holding the barrel inches from Carmina's skull.
Kim sobbed and begged John not to do it, to afraid to move lest she lose her child right then and there, Nick roared with anger once more but still stayed where he was, trying to get a clean shot on the man.
As much as Rook wanted to shoot the Seed, he knew he shouldn't, but watching John threaten Carmina and Kim for what felt like the twentieth time this afternoon, it did something to him, he was sure if it was blood loss from his leg, taking a bad hit to the head a little while ago or just his anger, but his head spun and his vision swam, a deep hate boiled in his core. That was his goddaughter that was being held hostage, her infant life was going to end because of his actions, just like Mary, Nick and Jerome were back in the church, just like the people trapped on the Revelator, just like every maimed, mutilated body left as a warning.
"For Christ sakes look at yourself, your threatening to kill a baby, a baby, what would Joseph say if he could see you know,this isn't what God want's, this is what you want, you just take and take, your so desperate to find out about other people's sins, but what about yours, what have you done? I know firsthand, I've seen time and time again, the disgusting shit that lurks under that fake smile of yours, your using something that isn't coming to manipulate the weak for your own sick desires, the collapse is not coming, it never will!" Rook vehemently admonished the man, almost screaming at John like he was screaming at them.
John was silent for a few seconds as again as he twitched and spasmed again, this time it was much more aggressive, it was like his whole body was shuttering, it was very clear John was being pushed to his limits, his time in high society had protected him from such confrontations and had no experience dealing with those as stubborn as him besides getting angrier and angrier, but just like everyone, John could only take so much.
And then John snapped.
"Fuck this! And fuck you! I'm so sick of having to drag you, kicking and screaming to Joseph, I'm done with you and everything you have done to me, I'm done with Joseph pining after you like an infatuated schoolgirl!" John screamed.
As soon as John finished speaking, he shoved Kim to his side so he could get a better aim on Rook to make up for his shaking, painful arm, intent on putting another piece of lead into him, but this time in his head, and then he pulled the trigger.
But it was to late for him, before he pulled the trigger, a single shot rang out.
Then a cold, painful feel quickly spread through his chest, causing his aim to falter and his shot flew right over Rook's shoulder.
John inhaled sharply in fear as he found Rook still stood, defiant as ever, but what but a bigger fear into him was when he inhaled, he could no pull in air, scared, John pushed Kim away from himself and looked down at his freezing, prickly chest as and a pool of blood began to form in center of his chest, he looked at it with such shock on his face as if he still couldn't believe what had happened, his body shuttered as he let out a few weak coughs, splashing a bit of blood on his bottom lip and chin, his legs shaking as his arms drooped, gun falling from his hand and clattered to the floor. He looked back at Rook as his ragged, pained breathing became labored and hoarse as his body was shutting down. Nick and Rook could see the fear in John's eyes, it was clear he was terrified of what was happening to him.
And with cracked, failing voice, John spoke one last time.
"But what if your wrong?"
Then John fell backwards, collapsing into the table, shattering it; dead.
Then Kim shrieked once more.
Nick suddenly swooped in, wrapping his arms around his wife and child, ushering them away from the corpse that was leaking onto the carpet and what was left of the table.
"Nick!? What the fuck happened to you?!" Kim wailed as she wrapped an arm around her husband, pulling him close.
"Everything is ok now, I'm ok, Ben saved us, we're ok, everything is going to be ok" Nick repeated as he tried to calm his family.
As Nick tended to his family, Rook remained motionless, he stared down at John's corpse, he knew he should feel bad for not arresting a key player in the cult's operations, but he couldn't bring himself to care, hate pumped through his veins as he had no sympathy for the man, he was a terrible, terrible monster that masqueraded as a man, if he didn't kill John, then he would have been transferred to the Henbane prison where someone who doesn't care for what Rook wants and kill the Seed themselves, besides, why waste the resources keeping him alive until they got to Joseph.
Then Nick entered his vision, he walked right up to John and crouched over his body and began patting him down, it looked like he was pillaging the body.
"What are you doing?" Rook asked grimly.
But Nick didn't respond, instead he yanked john's necklace off. Once he did, he stood back up, facing Rook, holding up what he had taken from the dead man, a small metal key.
"See this, this is the most important fuckin' thing in the whole valley, this is the key to his bunker, gate thing" Nick explained.
"Holy shit" Rook gasped.
With that, all the people trapped in John's bunker and Hudson could be rescued and the cult's foothold in the valley would be terminated.
"Dude we got to get that thing back to Falls End, and to make sure everyone is alright back there" Rook declared
"But I think we should get out of here, all of us, I don't what Kim and Mina around the body and we need some fuckin' medical attention" Nick sighed tiredly.
To Rook, thought of medical attention felt like a discovering a river in the middle of the desert, his body ached and whined, his whole day had been one of the most chaotic, death defying days of his life, and he was ready to take the rest of the day off, if he didn't his leaking leg would make him.
"Uh… yeah, sounds good to me man, I think I'm going to pass out when the adrenaline wears off" Rook muttered.
"Yeah I think me too" Nick said as he stepped away from John and held his family again, pocketing the bunker key.
"Come on everyone, let's get the fuck out of here" Nick said.
Rook silently agreed as he looked down at the now dead John and the pooling blood that stained Nick's floor, a strange emotion ignited within him that he just couldn't explain, so right before he turned to leave with the Rye's, he let out a single laugh over John's fate.