Far Cry 5: The Collapse
Chapter 12: A Single Moment...
Though it took less than 30 minutes for the first of the Resistance fighters to arrive at the bunker and only a few more minutes for Roger's parents to drive up in his truck leading the rest of the convoy it was just the start of a long over night affair.
There was in total about 200 prisoners in the bunker the bulk of them from the lowest levels of the bunker. Only 20 of those from the lower floor could move the rest were either dead from what Dr. Ferguson deduce was internal injuries from the beatings to just sheer blood loss in some, worst still were the ones that weren't dead yet but even with the glut of supplies and equipment from John's own medical facilities couldn't be saved. Only made comfortable until the end.
The rest of the prisoners were recent arrivals and overall were in at least mobile condition but everyone got thoroughly looked over and patched up where needed. Nick took charge of breaching and inventorying the vast armories that John had, it quickly became clear that the vast majority of the cults weapons were illegally bought and smuggled in before the firearm laws changed a few years earlier. They also noted the sheer variety of arms including some dating from even before WWI.
It had seemed that the cult had simply bought anything that they could readily get ammo for and didn't trouble themselves with spare parts or even cleaning most of their guns. Still potential maintenance and training issues aside the Resistance now had enough firearms to arm the entire county at least five times over.
During all of this within the depths of the control room Marcus along side the Grey's and the two weary Deputies poured over the cult computers making absolutely sure that the missile in the silo wouldn't launching anytime soon and to better ascertain what manner of warhead they were actually dealing with.
"Roger. If we get out of this alive I can tell you that we are going to witness probably half of the Department of Energy getting fired or arrested." Marcus said as he waved over his son to the control room's laptop.
"These files came from National Nuclear Security Administration from a pending decision concerning what model of nuclear warhead is to be used on the next generation of ICBMs. According to this the warhead design isn't even set to hit field use until 2030." Marcus said his temper rising.
Roger face palmed himself firmly. "So somehow the cult has managed not only to build a nuclear warhead but build one based off of a untested prototype that isn't even in production?"
"Actually the warhead is based off of a design that was most of the way through the design process back in the mid 90's but was shelved back then. Hence why the DoD was trying to figure out if they wanted to stick with the current W87 Mod 0 or modernize the W87 Mod 1 as the cult has done." Added one of the other Grey's.
Joey had been standing slightly off to the side feeling that given what was going on unless she wanted to be kicked out of the room she was best served by being seen and not heard, at least until now.
"We got to figure out some way to fly out of the valley and warn the feds." she said.
"Can't fly out of the valley Joey. Trust me that was Nick Rye's original plan for getting him and Kim out of the county, but Joseph has based off of multiple reports several dozen teams with man portable anti-air missiles with orders to shoot down anything trying to enter or leave the county air space. They are also under the direct orders of Joseph probably to make sure that any members that get cold feet can't fly out of here regardless of rank.
We do however have a confiscated CIA satellite uplink to some friends in Langley. We should get a message off ASAP."
Marcus got real quiet as he leaned back in the office chair, steepleing his fingers in front of him. "We no longer have contact with Langley. We are alone once again."
Roger looked at his father his face flying from shock to anger. "How?" he asked simply.
"Your 'friend' Jude tried to assassinate Mary May at breakfast this morning. I was there uploading the cult database we pulled from the Seed Ranch along with what Dmitri and I cooked up as a possibility given the technical make up of some of the cult. This very thing in fact though not to this advance degree. During his attack he tried to kill me with a snub nose Model 60 and manage to hit nothing except for the uplink. I'm sorry son." Marcus finished watching for his sons reaction.
Roger was finally at the end of his rope so to speak. Escaping old school chemical weapons, popping a cultist head manually, suddenly dealing with a nuclear weapon being in the hands of a doomsday cult along with the untouched possibility that the other two silos in the county could have their own missiles. Even he could only take so much in stride.
He tried to take deep calming breaths before quickly realizing that wasn't cutting it and threw a single full power punch into the top drawer of a nearby filing cabinet utterly caving in the sheet metal under hand. Joey and a few of the other Grey's jumped at the sound of caving metal but Marcus true to form looked on quietly.
"That fucking Muslim loving whore of a pastor. 'Hand of Mercy' my ass just like fucking 'Hearts & Minds'! Is Jerome still alive?" Roger asked angrily.
Marcus quietly nodded. "For now yes. I don't think I have ever seen Sunday service clear out so quickly. He has lost the trust of virtually the entire community and he is only leaving his church only if it absolutely can't be helped. I take it you accounted for that."
Roger now leaned against the damaged filing cabinet calming down now. "Yes that was part of the original calculations. If I had dismissed the idea outright then we could have seen the start of a fracture in the Resistance and that had to be absolutely avoided. But if his plan blew up in his face like it has then he will have lost face as he has thus he will have far less influence on any more decisions that need to be made. Naturally that means my own influence and probably to a slightly lesser degree you Dad as well are boosted considerably."
"Are you going to kill him Roger?" Joey asked with a touch of concern.
Roger closed his eyes and took a another actually calming breath before answering. "No. No, Joey I'm not. That is a big black line to cross and can work against me in light of my increased leadership position. If he were to be proven to be actively sabotaging the Resistance or God help us defect to the cult then I would have the all important cause needed to justify his death but right now I'm best served by letting his own inner demons chew at him." He laughed softly. "I wonder if he ever got around to reading Deuteronomy chapter 7?"
"Why that chapter?" Marcus now asked.
Roger smiled for the first time since hearing the bad news. "Verse 26: Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing."
Joey now smiled. Such a verse if Jerome had read it summed up Rogers opinion in such a way that Jerome would be more willing to read and ponder upon it.
"Well... we are back to square one. We are on our own and unable to contact the outside world thus the only thing we can do is keep killing peggies. I'll probably take tomorrow off to rest and better asses what our next course of action should be but my gut says we need to go after Faith next. All the times I was knocked out was because of this Bliss shit and I'll bet my entire gun collection that it plays heavily into multiple aspects of the cults ceremonies, training, and daily life to one degree or another. Cut off their main drug production and watch the cult start to tear itself apart from the inside because of the withdrawal." Roger said just as someone entered the room.
"You sure as hell won't be running off anytime soon. You too Hudson." Said the man who had entered the room. Everyone turned to him and saw that a disheveled and tired looking Dr. Ferguson was staring down mainly both deputies.
"Doc I just need a few good meals and a night or two of sleep..." Roger tried to say but was cut off by the Doctor's hard stare complete with twitching eyelid.
"No I saw the change in how you were moving after the first time you got drugged and now you expect me to ignore the second time on top of whatever John did to you on top of all that? And Joey I can see that you haven't gotten any better since John paraded you out for his damn TV commercial so you are not going to see combat until I say otherwise."
"You do realize Doc that pushing through pain is kinda my job description. Besides we have momentum now and we can't afford to loose it. " Roger tried one last ploy to get out of the restrictions.
Alas the Ferguson was unswayed. "I know full well Roger, I am your father's doctor after all. But even you are not invincible and you have been pushing hard for a week straight. At least let me do an basic exam at the clinic. Especially the blood work because by all accounts you have had more direct Bliss exposure then anyone else still alive and I need to see what it does to a human body that is still mostly alive."
Roger knew this was the best he could hope for and he did hurt even now. But he did have one last task that couldn't wait.
"Ok I'll swing by tomorrow afternoon and until then I will avoid combat unless necessary. I have a propaganda video to shoot that must be done before John's body decays too much for me to use and then I want some sleep and food. Is this acceptable Doc?" He questioned.
The overworked medical professional sighed happily and shook his head in agreement. He looked to Joey as if to ask her the same thing to which she replied. "I'll do whatever Roger is doing."
Having scored victories in this match the Doctor left to return to Fall's End with the last of the wounded. Marcus and the Grey's followed the two Deputies back to John's private chamber and watched the giant lawman haul up the headless body over his shoulder and start walking to the the bunker's chapel.
Now in the chapel He grabbed two folding chairs and set them on the stage and placed John's body in one.
"So what are you planning son?" Marcus finally asked.
"I plan on embracing my role in the cult dogma as 'The Collapse'. I have read enough of Joseph's book to come up with a few possible angles to subvert the cult's trust in Joseph by questioning his role as a Shepard and painting his actions thus far as sinful you know, 'Pride', 'Greed', and 'Lust' as far as a desire for power goes mostly." Roger said casually.
"This I got to see. I'll work the camera for you and I'll have the guys handle the rest. Go ahead and rest Joey, we got this." Marcus said a evil smile breaking across his face.
Joey took a nearby seat in the front pew, glad to get off of her feet for the moment. While Marcus and his men worked on figuring out the camera and broadcast equipment and Roger sat on the stage quietly muttering she assumed his speech she took the moment to examine the shotgun that Roger had given her.
She had of course seen this gun on his pack when they went bear hunting and again when they got on the helicopter the night they went after Joseph but this was the first time she had gotten a chance to be hands on with it.
Being a bit of a shotgun nut she at first thought it as just a bog standard SPAS-12 but the more she looked at it she noted the little changes and improvements that had to have been made at the factory.
"If you like it I can make you one." Roger said looking down from the stage at her.
"Well considering my issued shotgun is long gone I guess I can take you up on that offer. This is a really nice shotgun of the tactical variety but who makes them? Franchi stopped bringing these in the US decades ago and this is factory new just about." Joey asked.
"Why Rook Industries of course. Dad spent years trying to pry the production rights from Franchi but he finally did it and that in your hands is the first fully improved production version of the SPAS-12R. She will eat the hottest 3.5 inch loads I ever cooked up and come back for more and you can still switch it to manual pump mode for the lightweight stuff. Even in manual mode you can run her hard and the action with stay smooth as silk for over 10,000 rounds. Dad is really proud of it and I have to say its by far my favorite shotgun." Roger said proudly.
Joey giggled softly, no one could gush over a gun quite like Roger and she had to admit even though she was busy looking for cultists the gun had left a great first impression.
"Well at least you guys nailed the trigger. I don't think I would have to do anything to this one." She said smiling just as Marcus called out that they were ready to go live.
Roger sat back in his chair as the stage lights were aimed onto him and John and his father gave him a 5 second count down.
With the camera now rolling 'The Collapse' gave his first speech to both the cult and the wider Resistance of Hope County.
"Hello Children of Eden's Gate. I am Deputy Roger Rook or as I am sure the vast majority of you already know me as 'The Collapse'." He said in a laid back and friendly manner as if he was trying to be probably the strangest embodiment of Mr. Rogers that was ever conceived.
"For the last week you under the banner of 'The Father' Joseph Seed have killed, burned, and raided the people of Hope County. But allow me to enlighten you as to why you have been ordered to do as you have, why you have been tasked with being lead to slaughter and damnation.
As any of you good and faithful members of Eden's Gate know that in the holy book of Joseph's Word 'The Father' is to serve as the Shepard of the faithful through 'The Collapse' but in order to do this a Shepard must first lead." He let the words hang for a moment before continuing.
"On the night of the beginning of 'The Reapening'... of 'The Collapse' Joseph defied the will of God." He said as he increased his volume and energy.
"On the night that God had sent 'The Collapse' to meet with Joseph so that he might perform the task that he was ordained to do, the task that his flock, you brothers and sisters were tasked by God to place your trust in the Shepard and prepare for. The moment came... and the man who was to be the guide, to be the Shepard failed in his task. He followed the 'The Collapse' but failed to keep his flock in line and in their unruliness that he engineered by his inaction they attempted to halt 'The Collapse' in defiance of the will of God!"
Roger continued. "When the moment came for Joseph 'The Father' to humble himself and perform his role... he gave into sin. His 'Pride' of being asked to be taken by 'The Collapse' in order to serve as the guide and example to flock. His 'Greed' of being asked to shed the finery that he had gathered as part of his role. The clothes, trucks, guns, his house, his lands... he couldn't give it up when God demanded it. And most damningly! Joseph Seed's most vile of sins as far as the flock should be concerned... is his absolute 'Lust' for power."
Despite the crushing fatigue he was feeling he pressed ever harder digging deep to find and project thunder and damnation through his words.
"Yes! The 'Lust' for power, power over the members of the flock for steel is strong but flesh is stronger for what good is a sword without the hand the welds it? Stronger still is the will behind the flesh and that is the power that Joseph now above all else abuses! Instead of leading his flock, he hides behind his walls and gathered masses and sends them to stop the will of God. To stop 'The Collapse'!
Know now that everyone that takes up arms against 'The Collapse' also shares in the sins of 'The Father' and they will not be allowed to even see the Gates of Eden for their defiance of God's will only leads to the fires of Hell! And their corpses will line the roads to Eden's Gate and serve as an example of what happens to those who defy God's will!"
Now Roger switched gears from 'Fire and Brimstone' to 'Warm and Loving'.
"But God loves his children... even the wayward ones. Those that defy 'The Father' and show that they would rather take their own lives or be cut down by the wicked or beg to be cut down by the uninitiated they will by the spilling of their blood have their sins washed away so that they may still stand at the gates of Eden and await for the day of ultimate Judgment. Had 'The Father' does his job and guided you through the gates as he was ordered to, then the gates would be opened but alas in his failings he has delayed their opening.
Now on the subject of the uninitiated and the nonbeliever again just as the hand controls the sword and the will controls the hand... you the faithful are to serve as an example to the nonbelievers. Do not hate them for it is not their time in God's plan to be lead to the Gates of Eden, their resistance now is in fact in accordance with God's plan for through the spilling of your blood your willingness to make the sacrifice you serve as a kind of Shepard to them. By offering up an example that they will never forget."
Roger now switched to a more pleading tone. "So dear children of God... submit not to 'The Father' who has lost his way in sin, submit not to his lash, or his word. Instead submit to 'The Collapse' and by your example not only will you retain access to the Gates of Eden but you will serve as the Shepard that 'The Father' failed to be. Each of us is a Shepard to someone and by our example we will one day be able to stand with the Shepard of Shepards, the King of Kings, The Father of all Fathers... our God."
Roger gestured to John's body. "Even the family of Joseph saw the wisdom of these words. When I asked John if he would submit to 'The Collapse' he found a new level of untold power in the word 'YES!' and so he submitted to the crushing will of God. Your path will be likely be different but the question is the same. Do you submit to 'The Collapse'?"
Marcus cut the camera and after making sure that the men working the broadcast equipment had stopped everything he spoke.
"You seriously laid it on thick Roger." He said laughing.
Roger only smiled at first but explained his reasoning. "Remember these are cult members dad. Mentally speaking they are already weak enough to have fallen in line with Joseph from the start of everything, but now I have given them a new and powerful looking voice. I won't convert everyone but I will get some and I will keep getting some every day. As I 'The Collapse' lead the charge against Faith just as John's flock lost heart and became afraid of what I am so too will her flock and because of this broadcast they will know just who and in their minds why 'The Collapse' is cutting them all down."
The group returned to the control room where Marcus left three of his men to keep working on the computer systems while the rest return to town.
It was just past midnight when the two Deputies trudged into the Spread Eagle. Almost instantly Mary May flew out from behind the bar and embraced Joey and then Roger. Boomer was dancing around them violently waging his tail and sniffing the new comer.
"Oh my God you two... I... I can't say how glad I am to see you guys back alive and also killing John on top of all that too. You've really given us hope." Mary May said as she went back to her bar and the law givers sat on their stools.
"Mary May I hear that you had a rough morning with that asshole I rescued." Roger asked as he watched Mary May grind to a halt and look at him before continuing gathering drinks and silverware for them.
"Yeah you could say that. Still I'm alive thanks to your 'base covering'. Boomer saved my life and Dmitri did his part as well." The bartender finally said as she laid out their place settings.
"I was wondering about Boomer being here. Is Rae-Rae around?" Joey asked as a sad look returned to Mary May's face.
Roger answered for her. "I'm sorry Joey but Rae-Rae and her family were gunned down in the first hours of the takeover. I only just managed to save Boomer from being dog-napped and since I tend to work alone or with someone that can at least hold a gun I left Boomer to watch over Mary May."
He looked down were Boomer sat beside him having heard his name. "And you showed you are the Goodest of Boy's aren't you Boomer?" He said as he bidded the dog to jump up to his lap for a good aggressive ear and head scratch.
"Woof Woof!" replied the gun dog.
The act drew a laugh from the two women as Mary May took their orders and passed them to where Casey was quickly restarting his grill.
Casey soon set two plates of massive triple burgers and fries to which the two starving fighters quickly tore into.
"So I take it that most people are bunking here in town?" Joey asked as she polished off her second helping of fries.
"Yeah the church is full of either wounded or non-combatants. Everyone else is loosely bunked in the remaining houses around town. Mattresses on floors and sleeping bags galore. I know that some people are bunked up in the garage and general store where we are keeping our food and ammo respectively and I gave the up stairs room to Roger." Mary May said as she brought over a another bottle of beer for the two of them.
"Anything is better than my cardboard bed in my cell. I'll see where I can sleep once I'm done eating." Joey said remembering where she was just over 12 hours ago.
Roger grunted. "No need you'll take my room and I will sleep in a booth down here, if that is okay with you Mary May?"
"I won't mind at all but will you be comfortable enough?" She asked back.
Roger smiled. "I have slept in far worse places back in the Army. This will be a cake walk."
Joey wanted to reject the offer but by god the idea of having not only a real bed but also access to her own shower. Just the thought of the latter made her realize just how disgusting she felt.
"Thanks Roger. I'll want to see if my house is still in one piece tomorrow and at least get fresh clothes if at all possible though." She said gratefully.
Soon Joey drug herself upstairs and began the task of undressing and seeing in the rooms full length mirror for the first time just how much damage she had taken. Her torso, arms, and legs were decorated with various dark and multicolored bruises from John's fists and various tools. Still nothing truly serious, nothing that a few days time wouldn't fix mostly.
She didn't know how long she spent in the shower but by the time she got out she found that Mary May had come in and washed her clothes as she found them cleaned and neatly folded.
She cut the lights and slipped under the blankets hoping that sleep would come quickly.
Downstairs in the bar Roger helped Casey and Mary May shut down the bar for the night and bid them goodnight as Casey left for his own home and Mary May retired to the small apartment that sat next door to the guest room upstairs with Boomer hot on her heels.
Now finally alone he sat back in the darkness of the shut down bar and started mentally going over everything that had happened while he was gone. He had at one point stepped out front while helping Casey with trash duty and saw Jude impaled almost as high as the neon sign of the Spread Eagle. The sight had honestly helped him feel some form of closure.
He had gambled on taking on Jeromes task and it nearly cost Mary May her life, hell it could have just well cost his father's life! The cost of loosing the uplink while it hurt them it wasn't a complete loss. Black Cardinal knew that they were in trouble and the man had enough time in the service to know that if they didn't respond then they were in deeper trouble than originally reported.
Besides with the silo door being open if he had any spysat flyovers he would see a missile where a missile shouldn't be. By that if a foreign power happened to look then that would surely ruffle someone's feathers enough to justify sending people and resources to their neck of the woods. After that it would be just a matter of time until someone suddenly finds themselves getting shot at by the cult at which point things should start moving quicker.
"Of course we need to survive that long. Then there are the nukes..." He said to himself.
Out of everything that was coming out about the scope of the cults operations that was both the most pressing and at the same time unimportant thing. On one hand the idea that the cult had the resources to build a missile and to the best of their knowledge a complete nuclear warhead already is causing a stir among the Resistance members but the fact remained that they couldn't stop Joseph from launching his two other missiles assuming he even had two other missiles.
If they wanted to stop the missiles then their only option was to keep tearing the cult apart piece by piece as quickly as they could manage and if they managed to free themselves doing so then all the better.
That brought him to his broadcast tonight. Word of it had spread like wild fire among the Resistance and the sight of a headless John had brought more than a few people to tears of joy. While there were more than a few that didn't quite understand his 'sermon' to the cultists he figured that in time they would be able to see through it. After all it was tailored for someone who was already mentally and emotionally compromised so anyone not suffering such a condition would be able to see its core message with time.
Overall their situation had a slight net improvement. John was dead, Holland Valley was liberated, Joseph had potentially two nuclear missiles, and they couldn't communicate with anyone outside again.
With that he sat back against the wall of his booth, folded his arms across his chest his right hand coming to rest on his Desert Eagle and fell asleep.
Meanwhile in the dark bedroom Joey remained fully awake. She had thought that she would have been able to get some sleep given how poorly she had slept over the last few days not to mention shooting through a bunker full of cultists and running away from chemical weapons just today alone. But every time she tried to shut her eyes it took only the smallest of sounds from the building creaking to the wind rustling the trees outside to bring her back to full alertness.
The bunker had a constant background noise of machines working and of course the screams of people being tortured but those were as much as she hated to admit easy to tune out after a while. But the small sounds that didn't follow a pattern were what she focused on. It was those little odd sounds that she picked up on that meant that she was being 'summoned' once more or that it was meal time. She got up and glanced at the alarm clock on the night stand.
"Fuck me, 3am." Joey said her soft voice sounding horribly loud in the silence of the room. She eyed her clothes and decided that maybe she could step outside, get some air and some open space around her.
'For what good that might do.' She thought sourly. She dressed herself lightly for going her bra and undershirt and just lightly buttoning her deputies shirt enough to keep some modesty along side her pants and boots. Quietly she crept downstairs and in the moonlit gloom of the bar stopped at the bottom of the stairs and just listened.
No screams, no prayers either regular or heretical, and no cult music playing. Just silence save for one creature, Roger.
He sat in a corner booth facing towards the entrance arms folded and hat pulled low over his eyes. His deep slow breathing sounded like a slumbering dragon from some fantasy novel. It brought back memories of back when they would go out hunting and camping. Once Roger fell asleep not much would wake him up and he had the knack of being able to sleep anywhere he could fit.
She continued on to the front door of the bar and quietly stepped out into the cool night air. She sat on a nearby bench and watched the shadowed silhouettes of the night guards move about the general store roof across the street.
She was there for about 30 minutes her mind still working at full throttle even now when she wasn't jumping at every little sound. The door to the bar opened and out stepped Roger a bit sleepy looking but awake nonetheless as he joined her on the bench.
"Can't sleep?" He asked.
"Obviously not. What about you? I didn't wake you did I?" She said being apologetic.
Roger smiled before he replied. "Technically you did but that's normal. It's the small sounds isn't?"
"What?" She asked.
He continued. "It's the small sounds that keep you awake now. You know a building creaking under a strong breeze, people walking nearby like you did, the sound of water in a pipe. Small odd little sounds that trigger that defensive part of your mind."
Joey didn't know what to say but that was enough for Roger. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held her close to him. She could feel herself melt in the warmth of his embrace as if a switch had been flipped in her head.
"After my first week in boot camp I went through the same thing. The smallest sounds had me up and going at 110% which if I am being honest actually saved my ass a quite a few times back then. By my first tour in Iraq I had gotten over it, but it nearly got me killed then. Some ballsy insurgent looking to earn some badassery points crawled up a sewer line to the outpost my squad was bunking down in that night. He was a real quiet son of bitch. Sneaked into the room were my entire squad was in and killed two of my squad mates by slitting their throats before moving on to me. He stepped on a ration wrapper that I had missed and I remember waking up almost eye to eye with this shit covered Muslim. I had my M60 across my chest so I one handed it into his gut and pumped half a dozen rounds into him."
Roger stopped to calm himself as he mentally went through one of closer calls of his military career.
"Ever since that night the small sounds always woke me up. I had to ask Dad for advice on how to deal with it and eventually learned to wake up, identify, classify, and then fall back asleep and not wake up again to the same noise. Usually."
Joey laid her head on his shoulder and thought about what he had just described. She remembered how hard it was for her to deal with the death of Danny Wilson on her own and though she eventually got through it on her own she now knew better than to turn down help especially when it was freely offered.
"Can you teach me Roger? I don't want to jump at every little sound. Not just because I spent only a week in hell." She said softly.
"All it takes Joey is a single moment to change your life. You know that better than most people. But I will teach you how to sleep again, because I'm your best friend." Roger said equally softly.
The two of them just sat there in cool of the night for the next few minutes and Joey could feel herself start to slip into the first stages of sweet sleep. Roger noticed this and scooped her up easily ignoring his own discomfort and managed to get the front door of the bar open without dropping her.
Slowly and easily he climbed up the stairs to her room. There he stripped her of her boots and tucked her under the covers carefully before turning to leave back to his booth when Joey softly called out. "Roger... could you share the bed with me?"
He stopped and had to find his voice before he could speak. "Are you sure Joey?"
"Please?" She asked softly in a tone that he had only ever heard once before. It had been a month after her father died while they were on a wolf hunt as part of a population control operation by the Ranger service. That second night camping out he woke up to hear her crying to herself. He only being a teenager could only guess at what to do so he had said the first thing that came to mind.
"How can I help?" to which she replied "Can I sleep in your bag with you?"
That night he remembered thinking of nothing but keeping his arms around his friend in her time of need. As if that was all that was needed to keep her safe from the slings and arrows that life had thrown at her.
Once more he would answer that call. Even if somehow he didn't want to that simple plea for help was all he needed to override any objections he might have had.
"Sure Joey whatever you need." He said as he started undoing his armor and gun belt. Eventually he was down to just his pants and socks still not wanting to get too comfortable lest the cult decide to attack and slipped in beside Joey.
The moment he wrapped a massive arm across her did she roll over and tuck her face against his bare chest and lock her own arms around him. Soon her breathing steadied as she finally found the sleep that she so desperately sought. He too found sleep soon after, enjoying the soft warmth of the woman in his arms.
The dawning sun broke over the mountains, casing away the fog and summoning the daytime wildlife to awaken. In Joseph's compound he watched the looping broadcast from the Deputy in his chapel filled with the senior leadership of the cult including his elder brother and little sister.
Hell had certainly followed the Sheriff that night and now he had lost his younger brother to this... creature.
Joseph turned off the TVs and turned to face his congregation. He was bare chested once again this morning fully baring his tattooed and scarified form to the world.
"A seal has been opened. My brother John was loved by few. Feared by many." He said mournfully.
He continued looking across the room now. "Misunderstood by all... except me... John was not born a monster. He was just a child when our family was torn apart." He smiled at the memories that now returned to him.
"He was loving. Kind. Full of joy. He was easily preyed upon."
He paused in an attempt to hold on to his composure at this somber moment a moment longer before continuing.
"John was not perfect. Sometimes he was not even good. But he was my brother... and those responsible for his death will be punished. I promise you that. Just as those who have slain so many our brothers and sisters. Just as those who now try to poison our faith and turn it against us."
The crowd nodded at the last line with a wave of murmured "Amen.". Joseph pressed on his voice filling with fervor as the morning sun streamed in from the front windows of the church bathing him in golden light.
"This minion of Satan. Who has the bravado to openly admit that he is 'The Collapse' made flesh now seeks to not only destroy us by the sword but to make us question our true faith in God. Know this brothers and sisters. This is yet another test for us on the path to Eden. Demons and Demoness will seek to pull us off of the path and consume our very souls. Those that hold true to the word of god..." Joseph said as he held up his holy printed word.
"Will see the gates of Eden. They will stay on the true path to salvation. Amen." He now thundered and in return the gathered mass bowed their collective heads and uttered a equally thunderous "Amen." in reply.
With that the morning service was ended and the group left leaving the Seeds alone.
"You both must step up your efforts to finish off the Resistance in your respective areas. Now that they have a 'safe harbor' to operate from they will grow ever more bold with each passing day. This... Deputy Rook. He vexes me. I know that he is in God's plan but something isn't right, like a puzzle piece that is only slightly misshapen... he doesn't fit quite right."
"I will push to double the number of Judge teams we send out to hunt down the Whitetails. Faith have your people made any progress on the Saint project?" Jacob asked in his usual gruff manner.
Faith smiled. "Oh yes. Its far from perfect but it now has a much higher survival rate. We haven't found a Saint yet but Dr. Feeney has shown that the latest formula of Bliss is clearly on the right track. It's becoming more a matter of finding good enough stock that can fully survive the process. I will have him send over the information your chemists will need to produce the current version and make sure that any breakthroughs get rapidly passed along. Until then I'll see to it that any Archangels we can spare are sent to you."
Joseph smiled at the smoothness of how his family operated. Such ease could only come from obeying God's plan for them.
The smell of bacon wafted from the kitchen of the Spread Eagle into the upstairs bedroom. The morning sun had by now fully risen and could be seen flooding the bedroom in a warm comforting glow. These factors combined to awaken the massive deputy from his comfortable slumber.
Roger glanced over at the clock on the night stand.
'0830. That would explain breakfast... well time to face the music.' He thought as he took a look at Joey still firmly planted against his chest. Her flowing black hair was loose from its usual short braid softening her usual look considerably, the whole scene felt like old times almost.
He slowly reached up and gently tapped the side of her head to wake her up. Joey as well had started to awaken at the smell of food but it was the tapping on her head that finally got her to at least crack open a single eye.
"I want to sleep." She said tiredly.
"Time enough for sleep in the grave. There is bacon to be eaten, doctors to appease, personal residences to search, and I owe you a shotgun. Come on Joey get up." Roger said chuckling all the while.
With a grumble she let go of Roger's chest and threw back the blankets and sat up in bed. She yawned and stretched her arms up and back showing clearly that her shirt had come undone sometime over night giving Roger a eye full of her bare breasts.
Roger stared for the barest second before his senses came back and savagely beat down his natural reaction and turned away to start dressing himself with his back turned.
Joey for her part only realized what she had done after she noted from the corner of her eye Roger's sudden movement.
"Liked the view Roger?" She joked as she went to find her bra and undershirt.
Roger's face felt like it was on fire he was so red faced but still he couldn't let the question hang unanswered.
"Uh... yeah... its... its good that you weren't hurt too badly it seemed." He managed as he pulled on his boots.
The two Deputies dressed without another word as they proceeded downstairs to grab breakfast. Marcus sat at his usual booth with his wife and perked up when he saw Roger come down the stairs with Joey in tow.
The father and son shared a brief exchange of glances and body language as if asking if anything had happened last night. To this Roger casually reached up to his Desert Eagle as if to check that it was fully holstered... a clear sign that the father knew that such questions would not be welcomed.
A similar though far less aggressive exchange of knowing looks passed between Joey and Mary May as they sat at their usual places at the bar and ordered their breakfasts.
Marcus walked up to the pair and leaned against the bar. "Just to let you guys know Dr. Ferguson expects to see you at noon so don't forget. You guys have plans I suppose?"
Joey answered "I want to check my house and at least grab some fresh clothes and rearm myself. All my duty guns got taken by the peggies so I'm hoping that my personal collection is untouched."
"Hey Dad would be ok if I hit the shop and build Joey a SPAS-12R? So at least I can get my shotgun back from her." Roger asked of his father.
Joey laughed. "I like this gun I think I will keep it and you can build yourself a new one."
This got a loud laugh from Mary May and Casey who were listening in on the conversation.
"Go ahead and build her a gun. Make sure you lube it and test fire it before you hand it over, you maybe my son but by God in heaven if you ever produce anything less than a perfectly assembled and functioning weapon with the family logo on it I will have your head nailed outside my office door." The older Rook decreed before he returned to his own breakfast.
Roger nodded as he finished off the last of his food and turned to Joey. "Let me go reload my mags before we go. We may not be looking for trouble but..."
"Trouble finds us usually." Joey finished as she watched the younger Rook step out towards the general store.
Now finishing off her second plate of eggs and bacon Mary May came to clear her plate away. As she did so she struck up a conversation. "So, rough night?" She asked worriedly.
Joey looked down her reflection on the bar top before answering. "Yeah a bit. A lot harder than I have had... in a long time. It only takes a moment to change your life and like it or not I managed to pickup a sleep related issue. Roger has some experience with this sort of thing and offered to help."
Mary May put her hand over Joey's. "I'm glad that you're getting help. I remember watching you after Willson died and I really worried about you. Looking back I should have been a lot more up front about offering at least some kind of help. Still if you want someone to talk to I'm here Joey."
Joey smiled and thanked her friend as she got up to look around town while Roger loaded up with ammo. She doubled checked that her borrowed shotgun was securely strapped to her back as she stepped out and saw for the first time in daylight the state of her childhood home town. She walked down the main street and passed the burned out stores and even worse the still blood and bullet hole riddled places where it looked like a lot of people were executed. The sight alone made her stomach turn a bit until she got it under control.
Continuing on she was politely greeted by some passing guards on their rounds. It was a strange experience considering that she half expected to be blamed for screwing up everything and kicking off the cults take over. She reached Jerome's church and saw the sad state that it was in. Bullet holes, smashed windows that had been boarded up with scrap wood pulled from the wrecked houses she could see further down on another street.
She didn't enter the church yet as she walked the grounds heading towards the cemetery. A part of her wanted to make sure her father's grave hadn't been disturbed given the rest of the damage she had seen. Joey quickly found the thankfully untouched granite head stone that bore her fathers name.
'Edward Winston Hudson January 12th 1964 – December 16th 2004 Loving Husband, Father, and Lawman. Dad I wish you were here right now more than ever.' She thought as she heard a subdued sob from a dozen graves over.
A middle aged brunette haired woman stood over one of the many recent graves. Joey recognized her as one of the teachers at St. Isidore. As she walked closer she realized that surprisingly the woman had a basic looking AR-15 strapped to her side. She held a sheet of well folded paper in her free hand as she used her other hand to try and suppress her sobbing.
"Miss... Curie? Are you ok?" Joey asked gently.
The teacher redoubled her efforts to compose her self and was able to face the Deputy finally. "Deputy Hudson I heard that you were among the survivors pulled from John's bunker. It's good to see you're alive. I... I... was just tracking down the last of my students."
Joey stood beside the teacher and looked at the crude white wooden cross that served as the temporary grave marker.
"Georgia Ajax. She just turned 10 years old two weeks ago. She was an amazing artist. I had 18 students in my class Deputy... 18 beautiful and kind students. Only one is left alive. Alvin Yorkshire a great aspiring mountain man just like his father and grandfather, he wanted to grow up and become a Park Ranger just like they were. In fact the only reason why he survived was because he was out fishing with his grandfather the weekend..." Miss Curie struggled to hold back the tears once more.
Joey put a supporting hand on the other woman's shoulder. She remembered doing a outreach session with Miss Curies class at the start of the school year, she now wished she could remember the children's faces at least.
Then the grieving school teacher dropped a bomb of a question. "Deputy... how do I explain to my last student why he is the only 4th grader in the school? I spoke with Miss Lancing the other 4th grade teacher and she has lost her entire class to a child. So many of the children that went to the school are dead or missing that we might have entire graduating classes with no students for multiple years."
Joey looked back at Georgia's grave. "I'm sorry ma'am. I don't have an answer. The best thing I can even do right now is get ready to go out and fight back against the cult and I'm a Sheriff's Deputy. I hope maybe I'll find some family that hid away in the woods or... something to make up being in John's bunker for a week. Right now I think we all need to do what we can whatever it maybe. Not just for the few children that remain but also see to it that the cult plays in blood for everyone they have killed." The last words came out as a bit of a angry growl but it felt right to her.
"Thank you Deputy for giving me a real answer instead of some feel good nonsense. I never shot a rifle until a few days ago but I have since killed two cultists as part of the anti-hunting party operation. Its wrong that I feel better because of their deaths but I do." Miss Curie said as she then again thanked Joey and left the cemetery.
All around Joey looked at the sheer number of white cross grave markers.
"All it takes is a single moment to change everything." She said to herself.
The experience in the cemetery weighed on Joey's mind as she made her way back to the Spread Eagle were Roger stood waiting beside his truck.
He could tell that she had a dark cloud over her head but knew that now wasn't the time to bring it up. They hauled themselves into the truck and drove towards Joey's ancestral home.
Sitting behind a grove trees that hid the house from the road sat the expansive stone and mortar fortress that had served the Hudson family for five generations. It sat in view of the old Hyde barn across the river that had provided the very river stone that the house had been built with.
Whatever cloud that hung over Joey's head abated for the moment at the sight of her home still in one piece.
For Roger the house had been like a second home. Long nights playing video games with Joey or helping Mr. Hudson or later Miss. Hudson work their barbeque pit for the large cookouts they hosted once a year among other tasks that required sheer muscle to do.
Coming to a stop the two deputies cautiously approached the massive dark oak front door looking for signs of forced entry. Joey tried the door and found it still locked as she had left it. In moments she had the keys in hand and unlocked the door while Roger stood with his 1911 in hand ready to sweep the house just to be sure.
Joey swung open the door and Roger rushed in and moved through the house with practiced ease. Joey moved through the other half of the first floor shotgun in hand finding thankfully nothing out of place. The two of them met up at the base of the stairs that lead to the second floor and Joey quietly went up first with Roger covering her from behind. Again they checked each room and found nothing at all.
"Let's clear the basement before we call it good Joey." Roger said somewhat relaxing now. Everything suggested it wasn't needed but still hard experience and mild paranoia demanded the thoroughness.
The basement was just as Roger had remembered purposely left unfinished it had served in the later years of his and Joey's youth as a out of the way rec room where they would either watch TV, play video games, reload ammo, or have the occasional make out session.
He suppressed the latter most memories and focused on checking his corners. They had found again nothing.
"Thank god. I don't know what I would do if I lost this place." Joey said flicking on the safety on her gun.
"You would rebuild Joey. It's what you do, I'll even offer to help just don't ask me to decorate." Roger joked.
Before they could even react a massive slam rang out from the locked cellar door. The massive wood and steel monstrosity had been reinforced over the decades to the point that short of someone like Roger it required two men to heave open each door.
"I told your Dad that chain and padlock wouldn't hold up to being smashed." Roger said as he took up a position just to the side of the stairs leading up to the cellar door.
"I know! I know! I have been meaning to fix that since Mom gave me the house!" Joey said as she took up a position opposite of him.
Finally the smashing stopped and the sound of grunting and cursing could then be heard as the two part opened revealing a group of particular haggard looking peggies.
"Brothers let us be quick we need to get to Faith's land as soon as we resupply..." The leading peggie said as he took the first step down into the basement. To this he got a face full of buckshot, the next man beside him froze as he watched his friend get shredded giving Roger a clear head shot.
The two of them rushed up the stairs and found six unarmed peggies trying to decide if they should run or not.
"Oh god its that 'Demoness'!" Said one as he turned away.
"Fuck that its the fucking 'Collapse'!" Said another as the rest of them followed their first friend.
The two Deputies didn't bother with warnings or mercy and fired at will at the retreating peggies. In less than 30 seconds the cultists had been dealt with. Looking beyond the bodies they could see a beached cult gun boat obviously their means of transport.
"So much for not fighting." Said Joey as she grabbed the first peggies body and rolled it away from the doorway.
Roger looked on quietly. John might be dead and they had gotten most of the few groups that weren't in the bunker but that didn't mean that they were out of the woods yet. They would likely be mopping up the area for a few days at least.
"Joey you go ahead and get what you need. I'll toss these bodies in the river and let the fish deal with them." He said looking at the dead men.
Joey thanked him and left to gather what they had come for. Roger soon had the dead peggies dumped and returned inside the basement shutting the doors behind him. He could feel his muscles ache already from the exertion of a task that before he wouldn't have even given second thought to.
'Ok so the Doc has a point. Something is wrong and its not the fact that I'm getting close to 30.' He thought grimly. Still if something was wrong that couldn't be fixed by some down time that was all the more reason he needed to push harder and make more progress against the cult before he couldn't fight any more.
The more he did the less others had to do.
He went back up stairs and ascended to the second floor. He could hear the rustling of clothes from the master bedroom but before he went there he decided to make a minor detour. Just down from the master bedroom he gently opened a door and saw that much like his own childhood bedroom Joey's was largely as he remembered it.
The walls had numerous framed awards either in school or in her various shooting pursuits. Mounted high on the wall was a Benelli M1 that was signed and given to Joey by the legendary exhibition shooter Tom Knapp a short time before he died later that year when she took first place a match he was a part of. It was for the longest time the single most prized gun she owned and the only one that had never entered her armory as a active duty gun. Also mounted on another wall was Joey's rock collection of the various local minerals and ores present in Hope County all placed on display in a large pigeonhole display.
More than a few of them he remembered being there when Joey had found them. On the floor below was the one he remembered most. A massive multicolored geode that came up to his knee.
It was their senior year of high school and they had gone up to Raptor Peak just before the Thanksgiving holiday that year on a long weekend to a old camping spot. When they finally reached the summit they had found that a rock slide had occurred and covered their usual spot with various boulders.
Joey being the aspiring geologist took the hammer she carried and started hitting anything she found interesting while Roger made room for the tent. He remember her cheering when she found the massive geode and gushed over how it was the first one that she had seen that contained all the typical minerals found in your run of the mill geode and a few rare ones in one single massive geode. Needless to say they only stayed the night before they spent the next 14 hours hauling the monstrous stone down from one of the highest points in the county, they weighted it later and it had cracked the scales at over 120 pounds. Despite his own protests Joey had demanded that he share in the credit for the find since it was on his back that they had gotten the thing back home at all. Still it was one of the things that was cited when she was given her scholarship.
"I let Mom keep the newspaper clipping from when we brought that home." Came Joey's voice from behind him.
"Sorry I probably should have asked before coming in here." He said apologetically.
Joey waved him off. "It's ok Roger. I don't come in here hardly at all as of late, with all the doom gloom I've had to put up with in the recent years, I didn't want to bring that in here with all the good times I had."
They stood in the room in comfortable silence until Joey beckoned him to come to her safe room/ armory.
"I wanted to take the chance to let you see some of the guns I added to my own collection." She said with a evil smile.
Roger was now intrigued, growing up collecting old and historic guns was more something he did while Joey was the more pragmatic type. Every gun she owned had a specific use beyond just being a safe queen.
Behind the large steel door that made up the safe room she hit the light and what was once bare walls save for a few shelves of emergency food rations and other prepper type of equipment now had a fair number of familiar milsurps and racks of other older handguns.
Roger reached up at one the familiar handguns. It was a large and somewhat misshapen form of what would classify as a normal semi-automatic handgun. "That is one of my favorites I found while attending a law enforcement conference in Las Vegas." Joey said proudly.
Carefully he looked over the various roll marks and stampings.
"A WWI production and German re-chambered M1912 Steyr-Hahn in excellent shape. I picked up two of these while passing through Kosovo one re-chambered for 9x19mm and one in the original 9x23mm Steyr. Neither of them are anywhere in as good cosmetic shape as this." Roger gushed as he looked down the sights at the floor.
Joey smiled "Well I got a good deal on another two of those that I think you probably don't have at a gun show in Billings last year."
She opened a near by gun safe with more handguns and pulled out a pair of much larger guns to the one that he held in his hand. Joey started laughing at the obvious lusting he had across his face when he saw them.
"Repetierpistole M1912/P16. The guy selling them thought they were some attempted job by Bubba to add an extended magazine to a original Hahn and fake at least one as a SS gun. Sold me both of these with shoulder stocks for only $500." She said proudly.
Roger returned the first gun to its place on the wall and stepped over to Joey to examine each of the guns with practiced ease. "My god Joey these are... amazing and in both chamberings too. You know that hardly any of these were ever made right? Like less than a 1000 or so."
"By the time I got these I had done some basic research and realized what they were and why I needed to grab them then and there. I guess a little bit of you did rub off of me." She said with a proud smile.
Roger was now legitimately excited. "Ok Joey its clear you are hiding something interesting. Time to come clean."
She didn't say anything as she turned back to the safe and pulled out a massive AR-15 with the biggest belt fed upper he had ever seen.
"This is my 3-gun rifle... at least for Greg Armstrong's 'Ultra Heavy Metal' matches. I wanted to buy a AR-10 originally when he announced it so of course I went to your father's store to see what was available. He said he would give me a rifle for free as long as I understood that it was a prototype and not to blame him if I lost a match because of a malfunction or design issue." She handed the gun over to Roger for his judgment.
It was a massive affair. A 26 inch bull profile barrel with a large Barrett style muzzle brake and extended length quad rail. The rails had the normal light and laser mounted along side with a quality front pistol grip on the bottom and a back up front iron sight on top. This was matched up to a belt fed upper receiver that was too fat looking to be 5.56 NATO.
"Is this .50 Beowulf?" He asked getting only a large grin from Joey in reply.
"Dad you've been holding out on me. But why? This thing loaded would weight more than either of my guns." He asked.
"Armstrong came up with a new kind of 3 gun match that was tailored to encourage heavy builds and setups as a new kind of wrinkle. You know drum mags, rifle length bull barrels, and lots of mall ninja shit on peoples guns. The heavier your total weight of all 3 of your loaded guns were the more of a time reduction applied to your ending time. My setup got me a 3 second reduction, the next guy above me however got 8 seconds taken off his." Joey said as she started laying out readied belt boxes of .50 Beowulf to take with her.
"What could the next guy being running to beat this?" He asked genuinely curious.
"Your father signed up for the match at the last moment and brought a water cooled MG 08/15, a customized 23mm Russian TOZ-123, and a goddamn Smith & Wesson 500. He then beat the times posted by everyone including me except for Greg himself and Casey before the 8 second reduction was applied." She said incredulously.
"Sounds like you picked up quite a few hobbies over the years." He said as he watched the smile on Joey's face fade slightly.
"After coming home from college... I was bored. Then when the cult started causing trouble bit by bit I was stressed. Then when I dumped fucking Barry I felt... really alone. Sure I had Mary May, Grace, and your parents of course but I didn't have anyone that I could really enjoy the things I used to do a lot with you. Even shooting clays wasn't the same Roger. So I started looking for other things to do with my time beside just sitting in this house watching movies and working out, that took the form of actually into the collecting more than just old shotguns and partaking in a wider variety of competitions. I kinda hit the point where I was content, I guess." She said while looking at the belt of ammo in her hand.
Nothing was said for a moment until Joey loaded the rifle and draped it across her back. "Well its getting close to noon and we better not keep Doc Ferguson waiting." She grabbed one of her 1911's off the rack that held the rest of her more collectable pistols and walked out of the room.
Roger quietly followed her out deep in his own thoughts. He could feel that the two of them were coming to a point that neither of them felt comfortable talking about. They were friends but there was enough of a past that loomed behind them that they were both once something more and that they were back together the old embers started glowing again. But could they or should they let those embers grow as they once did.
It was the type of question that Roger struggled to answer especially now of all times. He was becoming comfortable with idea that the career that he loved and had worked so hard to advance in was going to be over once the dust settled from this. With it came the question of whether or not he would be looking at jail time or even a hangman's noose.
All of that made it hard to think about letting those embers he felt growing once more get out of control lest they cause more damage when the ax came down on him. There was however a small part of him that kept whispering...
'What if you are wrong? What if you can avoid the costs this time and enjoy the rewards?' He thought as he climbed into his truck and watched Joey lock her door again.
It went against the numbers he ran in his head, it went against the logic that he expected to be applied to him by those in power when they would cast judgment over his actions over the cult. But maybe there was a chance however slim that he could be wrong.
It didn't happen often but it did happen once in a while.
They arrived at the Hope County clinic passing several heavy roadblocks complete with machine gun mounts and plenty of man power. It was a sign of the importance that Dr. Ferguson held in the community that so many resources would be used to safe guard him and the other medical personnel at the clinic. Because they knew that if they lost them then a lot more of their own people would start to die.
Roger waited in the wait room quietly mulling over whatever happened to cross his mind be it what actions to take against the cult first, what might be for dinner tonight, or on how to deal with his growing feelings for Joey.
Joey finished redressing herself after being examined by the doc. It was as she thought. She was beaten but not critically injured, nothing that wouldn't start to heal in the coming days still he had surprised her with a strict no combat doctors note that unless the cult was attacking she was to stay away from the front lines for the next 3 full days at the minimum.
Still she knew that he was doing his best. The halls of the clinic and nearly every room had beds full of the worst injured people, many from John's bunker. She could still see on the staffs faced the heavy burden they still carried. A lot of these people wouldn't make it short of a miracle and all the staff could do was try to ease their suffering for as long as supplies lasted.
She passed Roger as he was brought to the room that she had just left. She wondered on what the doctor had said last night in the bunker about how Roger hadn't been moving right as of late. At first she had figured that it was as Roger said just simple fatigue but something told her that it was more serious. The question was just how serious could something had to be able to take down Roger Rook?
Roger sat on the exam bed bare chested as Doctor Ferguson poked and prodded, asked the normal questions that were the part of every exam he had ever had. The Doc took him to be X-rayed and took a blood sample as well before he disappeared for a time. He come back with a clipboard in one hand and developed X-rays in another.
The older man looked at the giant before him and took one last deep breath before digging in.
"Roger before I start I need a absolute no bullshit answer from you. Are you on any form of steroid?"
"No sir. Never took any ever." He said a bit hurt that one of the oldest and most dogged of false claims that were ever leveled against him in his youth and powerlifting days had returned.
"The reason why I ask is because I only have your last drug test from right before you graduated high school so there is a bit of a gap in your medical history that I can review. Back then you had a blood testosterone level of 3000 nanograms per deciliter, two and half times the highest average level for a healthy 18 year old male. Care to guess where you currently as a man approaching 30 probably sit at?" The doctor offered.
"I'm finally back down to where I'm supposed to be for a 18 year old?" He guessed.
"No, far... far... far. From it. You are sitting at a testosterone level... of 15,000 nanograms. A bit over 15 times what is on the high end of normal for a grown man your age. It gets even more interesting when I look at your bones." The doctor said as he brought out the print out of Roger's various X-Rays.
"You especially given your former occupation as a special forces soldier you should be seeing considerable cartilage wear at your joints yet the opposite appears to have happened because you have what appears to be fresh cartilage growing in place. Also your bone density is much much higher than anything I have ever seen and I suspect that you are slowly gaining muscle mass as well. Son the pain that I think you are bound to be feeling is like a second growth spurt brought on by the cults Bliss."
"But those were just knock out darts though?" Roger asked now increasingly confused.
The older man nodded. "Bliss from my observations effects most people in the way that the cult intends. Euphoric feelings and disillusions mostly. Then you have the people who have a stronger effect on top of that, those like powerful pain mitigation like we have seen with the preachers and other 'blessed' members of the cult. You Roger I think are in the 1% of the 1% as you are seeing a powerful physiological effect. I don't know if this could be helping or harming you beyond causing discomfort, I wish I did but what I do know is that you should avoid any more Bliss exposure from here on out and take the next 3 days off to rest your body then come back here for a check up. Depending on how you feel I'll see if I can spare some pain killers after that I just don't know what to do."
It was on that note that Roger redressed and walked out with a yet another weight on top of his shoulders.
As they drove to the Rook's gun shop Joey noticed how quiet Roger was being a sure sign that the doctor had given him bad news.
"Roger what did the doctor say? And don't bother deflecting you're showing that 'deep in thought' face you usually try to avoid showing." She asked.
Roger still didn't answer at once but he knew that he had been had and Joey wouldn't drop it until she got her answer. "I have been ordered to take the next 3 days off and come in for a check up then." He offered hoping that it would be enough.
"Ok same as me but clearly the doc is worried about something if he is bringing you in for a second visit so therefore you are still holding out me." She lightly scolded him.
They came to a stop in front of the shop but Roger didn't move to get out of the truck.
"Joey. I'm having some kind of reaction to the Bliss that the doc has never seen before. I'm showing signs of going through a second growth spurt of some kind. My testosterone levels are through the roof even more than they were back in high school too. I don't know if I am a ticking time bomb or if I am going to just have some minor pains to push through." He said seriously as he opened the truck door to step out.
As they reached the door to the store Joey touched him on the shoulder.
"Roger... relax. I have enough faith that whatever the cult is putting in their Bliss isn't going to be enough to put you down." She said softly before breaking out in a soft laugh. "Remember when in 7th grade the chemistry teacher got chlorine and chloroform mixed up as part of a identification lab?"
He remembered alright. The class that day was being held in a normal classroom rather than the actual chemistry lab. The much smaller and poorer ventilated room meant as the sample was passed around everyone was exposed to ever building levels of the chemical and half way through the class almost everyone save for Roger was knocked out. His larger mass had meant that he had a higher exposure limit and that had given him the time to realize that something was going wrong. The teacher passing out mid sentence helped as well.
"Yeah I remember." He said looking back.
"You're Roger Rook. It's going to take a lot more Bliss then a few dozen darts to bring you down and now that I'm back you're not going to go running off into obvious traps like it sounds like you were while fighting John." Joey said confidently.
On that note his spirits lifted he lead Joey into the depths of the family work shop.