*Another chapter, y'all. Hope you enjoy it!*

Five years have gone by.

Whitt's End is quite a bit bigger than it once was. Most of the buildings were fully repaired and there appeared to be a lot more people inhabiting the village. There was a lot less crime than before and the villagers all trusted each other deeply.

Particularly the villagers who joined a cult together.

One year after Roach was saved by Husk, the cult was officially formed. The various followers that worshipped the ground Husk walked on were finally able to call themselves a real family. A family with benefits, of course. The cult has pretty much split the population of Whitt's End. You have the people in the cult who worship Husk, everything he stands for and everything he does. And, of course, you have normal people. As normal as you could get. Yup. Totally normal.

Okay, at least they weren't THAT mentally deranged.

...

Let's move on.

Roach became Husk's right-hand man in everything he did. His pride as a man wouldn't let him betray or abandon the person who saved him. Roach also developed a long grudge against Henri, understandably so. Only with time did the tension between them start to ease up. They learned to tolerate each other since neither of them would be leaving the village any time soon, they'd have to stay in touch or at least see each other from time to time.

Akiria stuck around for a while. She made herself at home in Luke's bar whenever he would close it. It was a solid roof over her head that she wasn't going to pass up.

Juno started working with the doctor of the village, Been. The old man was useful for lots of things. They even got an assistant recently by the name of Redd.

Luke kept expanding the bar and managed to place himself into a very good position with the village folk. He was known by everyone who stayed in the village for a longer period. His bar had a massive visual upgrade and the profits he earned were far greater than before. The action of not going to the bar once in a few days, once in a week or once in two weeks was equal to a massive sin in the village. If you don't stop by for a while, you're treated like an outsider. That's how big the reputation of the bar and Luke himself were.

Speaking of the bar, that is where we find ourselves today.

There was a very large, rugged and tough man sitting at the counter. His massive jacket and fingerless gloves were made specifically for him. That should tell you how huge this man was.

"You good with that drink, Camo?" Luke's voice could be heard as he left the backroom of the bar.

Camo heavily grunted and nodded firmly. He didn't seem like the talkative type, but it didn't bother Luke.

"What's up, Luke?! How've you been?" Two tanned and muscular women by the name of Ba and Lits walked into the bar and loudly announced themselves.

"Ba! Lits! Hope you've been good, ladies." Luke tipped his cowboy hat forward.

"We're fine, thanks. You seem to be in good spirits! Get us the usual, would you?" The ladies sat down on either side of Camo and greeted him with a pat on the shoulder each. He acknowledged them and smiled happily towards them.

"Sure, girls, sure." Luke whipped out a few bottles of alcohol he kept under the counter and poured a fresh glass for each of them. "Don't worry about paying, by the way."

"You humble bastard, we'll pay. We still got funds of our own, you know?!" Ba leaned over the counter slightly but returned to her seat almost instantly. Lits lit a cigar.

"Relax there, Baddie Ba! You know I didn't mean anything by it." Ba winked at Luke as he grabbed a few dirty cups and began cleaning them.

Lits dragged a puff of smoke from her cigar and raised her eyebrows towards Luke. "You seem to be bigger, Lu. Have you been bulking?" Lits asked in a sarcastic, but playful way.

"Your eyes are still good after all those drugs? Your observation skills are still there, at least. Goddamn, must be a Tuesday." Luke chuckled and quickly stacked the cups on a few clean shelves behind him.

"Who knows, you might be able to take Lamprey on now." Ba raised her voice after sipping her drink.

Everyone shared a laugh, including a smile from Camo. The bar wasn't too busy, but a few tables were vacant by villagers. The cheerful mood suddenly changed as two huge men walked into the bar. Everyone who was hanging out at the bar that day knew who the men were.

Toyota, a brutal leader of a biker gang.

And Rolfball, the biggest thug of Toyota's gang.

The girls at the counter suddenly got up and glared through both men. Toyota took two steps towards the counter before stopping. Rolfball did the same and was now standing next to him.

"No more bullshit."

Luke suddenly moved up from the counter and was now standing only a few metres away from Toyota.

"Get the fuck out of my bar before I drag your sorry ass out of it."

Toyota placed his hands into his massive pockets and spoke up.

"I believe you have something of mine." A heavy accent and a raspy voice could be heard from Toyota.

"The only thing I have of yours is your eyeball, fuckface." Luke took another step forward and clenched his fist, but Rolfball stepped forward and put his hand forward.

Toyota clenched his eye-patch and scoffed. "We don't want trouble, Luke. We came to have a peaceful conversation."

Luke closed his eyes, took a deep breath and stepped back. "Alright. I'm going to deny you that right. I want you out of the bar, immediately. And if you don't..." Luke crossed his arms and nodded his head behind him. Camo stood up.

Luke is a tall bastard. Around 6'3. Now picture someone several inches taller than him. That's Camo. And he isn't just tall, he's huge in terms of muscle mass.

Camo took a single step forward. The shadow that he cast covered the entirety of both Toyota and Rolfball and a bit of space behind them.

"Listen, fuckers. I'm not gonna repeat myself. Get out of my bar." Luke threw a kitchen towel over his shoulder and grasped it firmly. "I got customers to handle."

Toyota and Rolfball turned around and noticed a group of a few people entering the bar. In front of the group were Husk and Roach.

"Any problems here, Luke?" Husk exclaimed from the entrance doorway.

"Hopefully none, H. I appreciate you." Luke glared through Toyota even harder.

After a few moments of turning his head back and forth, Toyota turned towards Rolfball. "Let's dip, Rolf." He suddenly turned towards Husk's cult. "Make a path." They walked out peacefully, for once.

Luke exhaled happily as he turned towards Husk. "Thanks, H." He quickly turned back towards Camo. "You too, Camo." They both nodded with respect.

"Luke, my man, care to supply my cult?" Husk waved his hand behind him, showing off his cult members. He walked up to Luke and briefly hugged him.

"Drinks on the house, lads! Although, you gotta pay for food if you want any."

...

After a good hour of drinking and chatting, Husk spoke up. "Can I ruin the fun and ask a serious question?"

Luke turned around and was now facing him. "Go ahead, brother."

"How have you been running in terms of supplies?"

Luke's impression turned from his cheery one to a casual one. "I'm doing fine, to be honest. I'd have to scavenge soonish, but nothing to worry about immediately." Husk lowered his head and put on a sad face. "But something tells me you aren't doing good in that department."

"I need a favour." Husk immediately lifted his gaze and placed his hands on his legs whilst he was sitting.

"Say the word, H." Luke positively glared through Husk after putting his hands onto the counter wide apart from each other. "I'll get it done."

"We just need a bunch of people to go on a huge scavenge in the nearby city." Husk nodded in appreciation and continued.

"The city? That sounds dangerous, H..." He stayed silent for a few moments before answering. "I'm in."

"You are?!" Husk walked up to Luke and hugged him tight before letting him go shortly after. "But, what about the bar?"

"Hm...I'll find someone, you don't gotta worry about that. Now get back to your cult before I start charging you for your drinks."

Husk ran back to his cult to enjoy the rest of his time at the pub.

Luke wondered where the rest of the village folk were, so he turned towards the girls and asked. "Hey, ladies, any idea where Akiria, Juno and Henri are?"

"Now that you mention it, I saw Henri earlier in the day. I don't recall seeing Kiri or Juno, though." Lits took a few moments to try and remember before answering.

"Hopefully they stop by, would be nice to see them," Ba replied as she nodded her head towards a big pool table in the pub. "Fancy a game of pool, Camo?" Camo looked over towards the pool table, turned his back towards Ba and nodded with a thumbs up.

"You good with your drink, Lits? I'll do a roundabout of the customers and their refills." Luke stepped out from behind the counter.

"I'm fine, hun. Do your thing." Lits lit another cigar and gave him a positive reply.

Luke walked past her and passionately brushed one of her shoulders with his hand.

...

Even with everyone's doubts very much rooted in their minds, Henri showed up, as well as Juno and Akiria within minutes of each other.

"Well, ain't this a fucking coincidence?" Luke joked as he welcomed everyone to the bar in a proper manner. "Good, are we all here now?"

Our main group of 6 gathered around the front of the counter.

"Where the fuck is Gams when you need him to run the place...ANYWAY! Husk has an announcement for y'all."

The attention was directed at Husk as he stood up and slightly bowed. "Alright, we all know where this is going, so let's get straight to the point!" Husk performed a drum roll with his hands and raised his voice. "Scavenge. The main city outside of the village. Who is in?"

The very busy bar suddenly became dead silent.

"You fucking vague bastard." Luke had his face inside of one of his palms. He quickly turned his attention towards the villagers. "Husk is planning a scavenge of the main city within a few days. Most of us are running low on supplies, so it'll do us all some good. Who's in?"

After a few moments, every person within the main group began raising their hands, one after the other.

"Alright, H. You got yourselves your cult and this entire bar by your side. Say the date and time and we're off." Luke relaxed his pose and proudly smiled.

Husk gripped his hand into a fist tightly and raised it to the roof.

...

After chatting for a while, Husk, Roach and the rest of his cult left, along with Ba, Lits and Camo.

Henri was busy, so they dropped by for a short time only.

It was a wonderful opportunity for Akiria and Juno to catch up with Luke.

"Now that shit's calmed down a small bit, who wants a drink or a meal? It's on the house." Luke finished cleaning up a few glasses and put them back on the shelves.

"TOMATO BEANS!" Akiria quickly shouted in excitement.

Luke paused for a moment and slowly turned around. "Tomato beans?"

"Tomato beans!" Akiria repeated.

"Tomato beans," Luke repeated. Akiria looked at him with her cute eyes. "Tomato beans it is. Juno?"

"I'm good. Angels don't need much to survive." Juno's heavenly voice echoed throughout the nearly empty bar.

"Come on, treat yourself. It's not like you're in my pub to survive, you're here to have a good time!" Luke nudged them a small bit.

"Fair enough, just get me a vodka, your choice." Juno quickly gave in and put on a relaxed smile.

Luke chuckled and nodded a few times as he entered his kitchen.

A few loud noises and rummaging could be heard from the kitchen for a few minutes.

"Juno! We're gonna participate in the scavenge, right?!" Akiria asked like a child asking their parent for candy.

"Yes, Akiria. Although, I will mostly be helping out with injuries and making sure everyone is safe during it. I won't have much time to hang out with you." Juno relaxed their voice.

"That's okay! There'll be plenty of people there anyway, I can talk to other people! I'm very excited!" Akiria bounced up and down in her chair.

Juno patiently waited for Luke to step out. He eventually did, holding both Akiria's plate and Juno's drink. "Luke, do me a favour, could you make sure Akiria is fine during our travels once we set out?"

"Oh, of course, Juno, you can count on me." Juno lowered their head in appreciation. "Enjoy yourselves, you two."

...

A few days later, a good amount of people were gathered in the town square. Husk's cult, along with Henri, Juno and Akiria.

"We're missing one big lad, aren't we?" Husk raised a question and spun around several times.

"I wonder who that big lad is." Luke snuck up next to Roach and the rest of Husk's cult.

"It's Luke, of course, where the hell is he?! He's gonna be late!" Husk looked in every direction other than Luke's.

"H." Luke's voice became more apparent to the cult leader. He carefully turned around.

"Oh. How long have you been there?"

"Long enough for you to look like a moron."

The funny moment was suddenly interrupted by what sounded like two men fighting. A bigger and stronger man shoved an average-looking fella down. He began attacking him whilst he was down and shouting lots of random slurs.

People in the crowd started dispersing, as they didn't want to be a part of the conflict.

The main cast noticed this immediately, and Luke was the first one to shout something towards the group. "Y'ALL ARE A BUNCH OF PANSIES, STOP THE MEN, FOR FUCK SAKE!"

Roach did not need an open invitation, though. His small stature made it easier for him to dash forward. He quickly stepped in between the two men and pushed the bigger man aside. The bigger man attempted to punch Roach a few times, but he swiftly dodged all of the hits. Roach quickly gained control of the fight and kicked his legs to knock him off balance. After the man landed on his knees, Roach kicked his face upwards and knocked him down. He quickly turned towards the wounded man who was attacked. "Meatball, are you alright? Why did Rolf attack you?"

Roach knew both of the men. How wouldn't he know, they were a part of Husk's cult.

"Rolf, you fucking bastard, get up!" Luke began shouting at Rolf, who was now getting up. "The fuck do you think you were doing starting a fight?"

"It was Meatball, man, he started it!"

"Stop bickering like a motherfucking child!" Luke held up a hand in front of Rolf, who was significantly shorter and smaller than him.

"Oi." Husk's voice could be heard. "If you guys have beef, handle it outside of the cult. Both of you, Meatball and Rolf, you aren't allowed on this scavenge, settle your differences like functioning adults."

"You're asking quite a lot from this moron." Luke glared through Rolf as Rolf gritted his teeth and stormed off.

Husk walked up to Meatball and crouched. He quickly analyzed his wounds. "You think you can make it to the infirmary?"

"I should be able to." Meatball spat some blood on the ground beside him.

"Been should be in there, he'll treat you well. I'll carry him there real quick." Roach got up and lifted Meatball off the ground.

"You got him?" Luke asked Roach with little concern.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good." Roach was a strong man, despite him being short and generally small.

"While Roach is gone, let's run over the scavenge plans. It'll take us at least a day to walk there. We can set up camp close to the city for the night before we make it there. We also have plenty of drugs, but not a lot of food, so treat yourselves nicely." Husk loudly announced the plan and everyone began agreeing and positively replying to each other. "We shall wait for Roach, then we're off!"

...

Roach got back fairly quickly, and the crew began the walk to the city. There weren't many interesting sights to see, apart from the world being destroyed. Nobody was surprised to see the world in such a terrible state. The plants were barely growing, the sky looked like a bad mixture of infected water and piles of mud growing out of a sewer system and the lands looked like an abandoned desert. There wasn't anything to look forward to or to sightsee. The world was truly enveloped in the cold, depressing and disgusting coat of an apocalypse.

A few people did some drugs, some people drank a bit of booze they brought, and everyone kept to themselves mostly. The social butterfly of the group, Akiria, kept bouncing around Juno and Luke, Henri and Husk and Roach. Luckily, everyone was used to her behaviour by now.

Thankfully, the time passed by quickly. It was around evening time when the cult settled down and began posting up a bunch of tents. Lots of people were high or drunk out of their minds, so Roach and Luke kept them within the vicinity so they wouldn't wander off. The night was mostly peaceful whilst Luke and Roach exchanged a few chill conversations.

The next morning was very busy. The cult members had to pack everything back up and continue with their journey.

"Is everyone here, then?" Husk walked up to Luke and Roach who quickly counted the cult.

"We should be good, yeah."

"Alright, let's continue."

...

After a few lazy hours of waking up properly, they made it to the city in one piece.

"Okay, lads, we've made it. Let's quickly explore the buildings and gather as much as we can, I got a bad feeling we shouldn't stick around too much." Husk instructed the cult as everyone began scavenging.

There was a single giant skyscraper near the middle of the city. It could be seen very clearly, even while the group was a few hours away from the city. It looked like it was covered in some kind of mould, a black matter, almost like buckets of dark rain were pouring down on the skyscraper. This goop could be seen throughout most of the city, and it seemed somehow sentient. A few crows circled the skyscraper and began landing on a few nearby buildings. They looked bigger than regular crows.

A few members of the cult, along with Roach and Husk, were exploring deeper and deeper into the city. However, their search came to an abrupt close as they saw a big man with a huge cloak surrounding his massive figure standing on the road in front of them. He was a considerable distance away from them, yet he didn't move a muscle.

"Husk, why is there a man on the road?" Roach curiously asked with a bit of hesitation behind his voice.

"Beats me." Husk quickly finished his sentence as the man began walking forward and revealing his outfit and body beneath his cloak. He was wearing a very bright necklace. He stopped in the middle of the road once again. The rest of the cult quickly gathered.

"Who's this guy?" Luke questioned.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling he's going to announce that." Roach quickly got serious. "I got a bad feeling about this."

The figure's bright eyes opened as he began shouting so that everyone could hear him. His voice was tremendous.

"Pray for the Lord's sacrifice, as He is the most important! Stand before God for your sins, betrayals and immorality! The Great Lord has brought us an apocalypse to condemn those worth condemning!" He paused for a few moments as he raised both of his arms towards the sky. "Join me, brethren! Seize the opportunity to worship and bow down to your one and only God who brought us into all of this!"

Luke's voice could be heard over the loud shouts of the religious man. "The fuck is this guy's deal..."

"The Lord recognises me as Abel, I am tasked with dealing with those that betray the Lord's merciful ways and abuse their powers as mortal beings!" He looked like he was about to start controlling the flow of all the black goop around him. "To teach you all non-believers and devil worshippers a lesson, you'll be cast down to Hell and all of your sins will be judged! But, more importantly, I'll condemn those that think they reign superior to everyone else! My brother shall be the first one to bow down to God's ways!" The goop around him began moving forward faster and more aggressively.

"I got a plan!" Akiria suddenly shouted towards the group. "What if I tried to seduce him?"

The group performed a simultaneous facepalm.

"It looks like this dude's either full of shit or he's incredibly powerful. I'm down to let Kiri try something." Luke backed Akiria up. "If anything goes wrong, I'm grabbing her and we're getting the fuck out."

After a few moments of hesitating, the rest of the crew agreed. This was Akiria's moment to shine.

She proudly walked up to Abel as she began doing very convincing flirting techniques. She kept this up for a while before realising this wasn't going to work. But that didn't stop her, she just kept trying and trying until Abel snapped and smacked her across the face. Akiria landed on her bottom as Abel yelled out towards the rest of the cult. "This will be your last day of witnessing God's divine strength! MURDER THEM!" Abel turned around and began marching away from the group.

Luke quickly sprinted up to Akiria and lifted her off the ground. He yelled back towards Roach. "ROACH!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Roach quickly pulled out a massive rocket launcher from his artillery of weapons and fired it at Abel. The rocket that was gunning straight for Abel's back suddenly changed direction just as some kind of bright purple shield protected his entire body.

Suddenly, every building around the cult began shaking and rumbling. Hundreds and hundreds of zombie-like people began emerging from the buildings. Half of their bodies looked withered and rotten, and they were leaking the black goop out of their bodies. It was clear they weren't here to have a tea party.

The entire cult gathered together in a small circle quickly as Husk yelled out for everyone to group up.

That was all he could say before the creatures charged at them.

...

*End of Chapter 2.

Sorry for the lack of chapters, really didn't feel inspired to write this story recently, but I will attempt to get more chapters out.*