Prologue: Homecoming
Through the cloudy night sky a single chopper flew across Hope County, Montana. A quiet little hamlet of peace for America's people, or at least, that is what Lucas remembered it as. Through all those homey old wood buildings and open wheat fields, he had many a good memory here, that was for certain. He could hear the rapid roar's of the helicopter's engines swirling as its blades cut through the clouds further towards their destination. Through comms, the voices of Sheriff Whitehorse and the Marshal came through.
"How much longer till we get there, Deputy Pratt?" the Marshal's voice flickered over his headset.
"E.T.A. five minutes sir, passing over now." Pratt answered as he flicked some nobs and dials over on the pilot's seat. Honestly, half the time Lucas thought that all those do-dads in the front were always for show when it came to planes and copters.
Sheriff Whitehorse quickly turned his attention over to the Marshal. "Just long enough for you to change your mind, not too late to turn back you know?"
"I don't know how you sheriff's and deputy's handle things on the ground level around here, but when me and my people get a federal warrant we don't tuck tail and run, waiting to see when the dust will settle." the Marshal replied.
"Maybe when your dealing with someone who isn't Joseph Fucking Seed. Listen to me now, he is not someone who you want to fuck with."
Old Whitehorse never was one to bring down the holy hammer of justice on people. Even when he was a deputy Lucas could remember the young, or well, younger, man always being the diplomat between feuds or bar brawls. Sometimes, it even worked for him, most of the time though, it was either the gun on his holster or the sheriff badge that did most of the convincing on whether or not the person he was talking to should start throwing punches.
As their conversation continued on Lucas droned out of it, pulling out his phone he began scrolling through some of the footage they had of this man who was supposedly not to be fucked with. Photos, recordings, official and unofficial videos all painted this as your typical case of a crazed psychopath with a messiah syndrome. His flock of sheep a mixture between bowing sycophants, downtrodden outcasts, and your average loony religious zealots finding demons and angels at every corner. Montana really had it all.
What it didn't have until now was a fully armed small army forming their own little independent territory within US borders, and that's where the Marshal, and more importantly the Federal Government, became involved. No one likes being threatened from their seats more than Big Daddy Government. Though it was strange how they had only sent one federal marshal. By all accounts, they would be walking into the lion's den, and they only had five people.
Soon the signal on his phone went out, showing only static and a red bar on the upper right hand corner of his screen from the video he was currently watching. He tapped a few times to refresh his service, maybe it was the high altitude, maybe the wires across the county are beginning to go out more, who knows anymore.
"No use Rook, signal's been going out across the whole county, you're only gonna be wasting your time." Whitehorse noticed his newly appointed deputy's attempts at regaining connection.
"Worth a shot." Lucas responded, putting his phone back in his pocket.
"How's it feel, Luke? First proper assignment you had since coming back to us. I wish it coulda been something less… severe, though." Whitehorse asked, his voice was always so gentle. It was clear many people saw the old man as their father figure.
"I've had worse jobs. Let's call it a learning experience for when I get stuck patrolling the roads for the next loonie drunk outta his mind."
"Don't joke about this kid, we're in serious waters here. Our friend the Marshal here may think his warrant carries weight to these people, but I don't want to catch you slacking, understood?" Whitehorse's question was answered via a nod from Lucas. It wouldn't be the first time he had to stick his head into some nasty business, but if things got ugly it was nice to know he had at least four other people with guns he knew he could rely on to watch his back.
The clouds began to depart as Pratt's voice chimed in, "Crossing over the Henbane now." and through those clouds the massive figure of Joseph Seed loomed parallel to them. He couldn't help but have his mouth slightly agape at the sight, where others like Hudson and Pratt only showed their disgust. Whoever this man was, it looked like he was going to be much more than just your everyday average cult leader.
"Goddamn crazy fucker…" he heard Hudson swear over the comms. "We're officially in Peggie country." It was a name he heard often back on the streets and bar at Fall's End, yet never cared enough to learn the meaning. At the moment though, it was tough to deny the inkling of his mind to find out.
"Peggies? Why do you all keep calling them that?" Thankfully, the Marshal came to his rescue so he didn't have to make himself the odd one out.
"Project at Eden's Gate; P.E.G." Whitehorse answered. "Peggies… It's what the locals call 'em. They started off harmless enough, but things soon got out of hand. We've had a few run ins with them before, none of which went well. It's why I'm telling you Marshal, it's still not too late to pull back."
"Yeah well I'll tell you this as well Sheriff, laws are in place in this country for a reason, and it's all of our jobs to make sure no one can go around breaking them willy nilly. Joseph Seed is about to learn just that." he liked the enthusiasm at least, Lucas found it a nice change of pace from the overall weariness his colleagues exhibited when talking about Eden's Gate.
Whitehorse looked as if he was about to say something back, but stopped himself. It was clear the time for convincing had long passed. "Put me through to the Sheriff's department." he ordered Pratt and the fellow deputy did as he was told. "Nancy, you reading me?"
"Loud and clear Earl."
"Good, we're approaching the compound, you don't hear from us in 15 minutes consider us officially K.I.A., M.I.A. whatever it is you fancy. Call in the damn National Guard and every other Federal Agency you got on that fancy speed dial of yours."
"Copy that. I'll be praying for you."
"We don't need prayers. Bullets will do." The marshall beamed with confidence.
From the front of the helicopter Pratt chimed in between his stupid little button presses on that seat. "We should have brought Nancy instead of the probe, Peggies wouldn't dare fuck with her. The only experience the Rookie's got is picking bar fights with the guys."
"Shut up Pratt." Hudson said.
Lucas remembered it like it was yesterday, mainly because it was. He had just finished a double shift covering for one of his colleagues when he arrived at Fall's End one and only bar, the Spread Eagle. It didn't take long for the cultists to see the badge on his belt and begin whispering everything and anything. Eventually they stopped bothering to whisper, and began openly antagonizing him, on his off hours no less.
As the saying goes, Justice never sleeps, and Lucas retorted to their words with a cleverly backhanded remark at all of their mothers. They took offense to that. Soon enough, noses were being broken, bottles bashed over heads, and punches flew that night. Until of course Mary May pulled out a shotgun and threatened to blow off the cultist's heads if they didn't leave right that instant. Technically, Lucas should have arrested her for an unprovoked discharge of a firearm in a public space, as well as threatening three civilians with said firearm. But he was off duty.
The helicopter slowly began descending towards a fortified and encircled compound. There were several buildings, and Lucas quickly noticed that each of them were labeled with a name, though it appeared to be in a foreign language, it looked Latin, but he was never entirely sure with anything that wasn't just hard English. There was a giant bonfire, being lit by a guy with a flamethrower, luckily the smoke was being blown the other way. He kept one hand on his holster, keeping a mental count in his head of just how many cultists began pouring out and watching them. They were outnumbered from the moment they landed, that wasn't good, but it was expected.
They passed through some sort of gate, probably an ode to their namesake. "Jesus Christ, you guys look scared. Aren't you wearing badges?" The marshal asked with a demeaning tone
"They don't respect badges much out here." Hudson pointed out.
"They'll respect a nine millimeter."
Lucas couldn't help but think about how trigger happy this marshal was turning out to be. Picking fights was usually his gimmick, but for once he was just as cautious as Whitehorse. As they approached further into the compound, him and Hudson stuck almost shoulder to shoulder, her with her shotgun and Lucas with his revolver. In retrospect, he would have liked to have the shotgun much more right now.
"Not every problem can be solved with a bullet, Marshal." Whitehorse lectured.
"You'd be surprised." Marshal almost whispered back, it was only because Lucas was close enough that he picked it up. It was then that Lucas could hear the chorus of Amazing Grace coming from the Church. They must be holding a sermon, but who in the hell holds a sermon at 2 in the morning?
'This is an intimidation plot.' Lucas thought, staring down all the suddenly armed cultists. One loony with a flamethrower was cause enough for serious concern but the concept of fighting his way through an entire compound of jacked up religious zealots made him somewhat tense. 'The more things change, the more they stay the same.' the picture of him in full gear, patrolling with his squadron around the streets of Kandahar came back into his mind.
It was then that the Marshal went for the door handle, only for the sheriff to stop him. "Woah Marshal. We do this, then we do it my way. Quietly, calmly." Whitehorse attempted to regain control of the situation.
"Got it." The Marshal replied, being as impatient as he always was.
Whitehorse turned to Hudson. "Hudson, on the door. Don't let any of these people get in." She nodded on the Sheriff's orders, but a quick glance back at his fellow deputy saw the woman frantically looking at all the people surrounding her, looking for any signs of danger. Any more hostility than currently present that is.
"Rookie, on me." Whitehorse commanded as he gave Lucas a comforting look. "And you-" Whitehorse turned to the marshal. "Try not to do anything stupid."
"Relax Sheriff. You're about to get your name in the paper." The Marshal smiled as he padded the old man on his arm. Whitehorse did a slight shake of his head. With that, Whitehorse went to the door.
"You gonna be alright?" he whispered over to Hudson, the grip on his revolver never felt so tight.
"Don't worry, I got your backs. Just keep watch on the old man and the Marshal." Hudson turned to Lucas. "You'll be fine." He wasn't sure if she even believed those words she spoke.
Whitehorse opened the door like it was a portal to a new world. Everything went quiet as they stepped in. Lucas looked around, and saw that all the rows of seats were taken up by people. The person at the altar was blinded by light, but he could make a qualified guess as to who it was. He looked up, and saw bird cages hanging from the ceiling, accompanied with bible verses.
"Something is coming, you can feel it, can't you?" The voice echoed across the church. "That we're creeping towards the edge, and there will be reckoning." it sent chills down Lucas' spine. Joseph Seed, the man of the hour.
"That's why we started the project, because we know what happens next!" Joseph's voice began to pick up. "They'll come for us, take our guns, take our freedom… Take our faith." Once again, a dramatic pause as they moved further into the church. "But we will not let them! We will not let their greed, or their immorality or their depravity hurt us anymore! There will be no more suffering!"
In that moment of silence between Seed's speech, Lucas let go of his revolver. He finally understood why no one was bothering them yet. This sermon wasn't for his followers, it was for them. He didn't know what this psychopath had planned, but for now it seemed, it didn't include attacking him or his partners. The Marshal, however, did not share in Lucas' revelation.
"No fuck this!" The marshal muttered. "Joseph Seed!" He called the cult leader's attention as he held up the arrest warrant. "I have a warrant issued for your arrest on the suspicion of kidnapping with the intent to harm. Now step forward and keep your hands where I can see them."
The man stood at the foot of the stairs overlooking his congregation of followers, shirtless and exposed as he slowly descended down the steps. His eyes were transfixed on Lucas, who stood between both the Marshal and Whitehorse. Perhaps it was just because both officers were still refusing to pry their hands from their holsters.
'What is it, you fucker?' he narrowed his eyes at the cult's leader. 'You scouting me? Thinking that little speech made me a convert?'
Joseph raised his hands as he gestured to the people standing in front of him. "There they are. The locusts in our garden. See they have come for me, they come to take me away from you. They have come to destroy all that we have built!" Each word sent the cultists into more of a frenzy, and in turn the marshal took a firm grip on his gun and was ready to pull it up.
Whitehorse began to do everything in his power to deescalate the situation, yelling at the marshal to put his gun back in his holster. The cultists didn't let up until Joseph came down and placed a hand on the men who were beginning to congregate around him.
"We knew this moment would come… And we've prepared for it. Go, go" He smiled at his followers, and Lucas could see just how much they believed those words. Every syllable this man spoke was like gospel to them, Jesus Christ himself could have descended from the gates of heaven and these people would still look their heads over to Joseph.
"God will not let them take me." and with those final words, they began to leave en mass. All of them walked past Lucas like they hadn't just been willing to shoot and kill him. As Lucas watched them leave, Joseph began to speak again.
"I saw when the lamb opened the first seal, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts say. 'Come and see.'"
"Step forward!" The marshal ordered.
"AND I SAW! And behold it was a white horse." Joseph looked over at the sheriff, but his gaze shifted back again to Lucas soon enough. Lucas smirked, did this guy think he was being clever? "And Hell followed with him." Joseph held his hands up. It could be interpreted as him surrendering, or him holding out his hands as a plea to come forward and accept his words.
"Rookie, cuff this son of a bitch."
"God will not let you take me." Joseph said, keeping his soul piercing gaze on Lucas.
He took a quick glance at the remaining people in the room. Whitehorse and the Marshal, keeping both an eye on the preacher as well as on Lucas, and the Seeds, the whole entire fucking lot of them. Joseph at the head kept his arms raised, while the other three in the back watched, he saw one smiling with a shit-eating grin, the one with the sunglasses on his head, with the other having a hand placed on a knife on his belt. The last was a girl in a pure white dress with flowers adorning it, their own little Virgin Mary.
"Joseph Seed." he took a step forward, and put the cuffs between Joseph's reached out hands. "In the name of the Hope County Sheriff's department and the Federal Government of the United States of America you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." as he put the preacher's hands behind his back and stiffened the cuffs he took a glance behind him, all the Seeds stood still as statues, not bothered at all by the sight. He didn't like that. "You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you." he leaned in on Joseph as the two finally saw each other face to face. "Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?" he said in a low tone, it was not a question, it was a threat.
"Sometimes the best thing to do… Is to walk away." Joseph replied, his voice barely above a whisper.
He didn't know if he should be angry at the bastard for all the bravado, or feel pity for him in his delusion. It looked like Joseph Seed truly believed he was not a man to be fucked with, but as the cuffs currently around his hands showed, Uncle Sam fucks with whoever he damn well pleases.
He showed Joseph forward, leading him away from the rest of the Seed's. Lucas would have liked to have all four members underwrap but as it appeared the Marshal only had a warrant for Joseph, so for now he's gonna have to believe they weren't insane enough to stab him in the back. "That was a nice little show you put out there, lotta words to try and convince us to fuck off and not come back, eh?" he whispered into the man's ear as the Marshal and Whitehorse approached the doors.
"So many words… and you understood none of them." Joseph whispered back, his tone was shallow in thought, it was clear things weren't going to plan for him. Did this man really think he would just up and leave after that little show he put on?
Lucas pushed Joseph slightly forward, and surprisingly Joseph complied and walked just as if he was on a Sunday stroll. Lucas spotted Hudson as soon as the doors opened.
As the Sheriff and Marshal both opened up the doors it became clear the pandemonium that the walls were hiding. A crowd had gathered outside and Hudson's finger was practically glued to the trigger of her shotgun. "We gotta get the fuck out of here." She said, and from the amount of people beginning to gather at the compound, she was right.
"Marshal. Take point, we're going right." Whitehorse ordered as he laid his hand back on his holster, ready, should anything happen.
"On it." The Marshal replied as he also kept his hand firmly gripped on his gun in his holster.
More and more droves of cultists came pouring out of the buildings. Just how many fucking people were there in this compound? There was no way Eden's Gate was really this big.
"Keep up, fucker." he shoved Joseph again as Lucas' hand went back to his holster for a moment. 'God will not let you take me.' those words came back to his head. It wasn't the wrath of God he was afraid of admittedly, it was the concept of these loonies starting to use those weapons they liked showing off so much. And was that a fucking armored truck? "They start shooting, I'll make sure you're the first thing they hit. Got that?"
Just ahead, Lucas saw a woman try and stand between the Marshal and his path, the brave marshal of course met this blockage by hitting the woman with the butt end of his gun. The crowd was in uproar, clearly this was like the end of the world for them, watching their precious leader being hauled off by the law. Conflict was coming soon, Lucas knew that.
Sure enough, not even five seconds later, a rouge rock made contact with the Marshal's head, almost enough to knock the man out. He stumbled forward as another rock landed close by them. He wanted to give whichever lucky son of a gun that managed to land that shot a high five, and a prompt stay at Fall's End jail, but the latter could be good too.
"PUT YOUR GUNS OUT!" Whitehorse finally ordered, and everyone followed that order. Though the Marshal decided to take it to the next level.
He fired two shots into the air, and all hell broke loose. Lucas immediately swerved around, pulling out his revolver and keeping the preacher in a choke hold in front of him. The helicopter behind him, he now realized just how many people they were up against. He didn't know where to aim his gun, or really even where to start, when the idea hit him. They were in a frenzy, desperate to just start pulling the triggers on their damn shooters, and at this point so was he, but he knew the thing that might just cool them all down. He aimed the barrel of the revolver right at Joseph's temple, and the yelling, the rock throwing, all the damn comotion. Stopped in a blink.
"Start up the damn chopper Pratt!" Whitehorse's shouting disrupted the disturbing silence that fell upon the compound. Of course the deputy already had the engine running at full speed before they even arrived at the foot of it, but Lucas supposed it was the thought that counted.
"Come on, get him in here." The Marshal and Hudson helped Lucas load Joseph into the chopper, and the carnage insued.
The moment the chopper began taking off the same woman the Marshal beat with the blunt end of his nine millimeter charge at the chopper and grabbed onto both it and the Marshal's arm. A second one joined, and then another, and soon enough there were around five people all climbing onto a still ascending helicopter.
Unfortunately for the woman holding onto the Marshal's arm, said arm was the one he used to hold his gun. With a click it fired off, and then again, until about seven bullets went into the woman's chest, and she fell back down to the ground. On the other side, Hudson beat a man off the helicopter with a kick, and Lucas gave yet another assailant the back-end of his elbow. The chopper's wings however, would soon meet their end. As winds seemed to blow one of the cultists into them, a sudden stop was felt, and soon the spinning began. Alarm and sirens were going on, Lucas could feel the stiff winds blowing the left side of his face, yet through it all, the thing that pierced his ear the most was Joseph Seed.
Among all of this, the bastard had the nerves to be humming Amazing Grace to himself. Rage and anger, those were the only two things Lucas had on his mind. Suddenly that little exchange between them made all the more sense, but he didn't care. He grabbed onto the first thing he could put his mind to, and that just so happened to be the preacher's neck as he began strangling him as they were falling in. Maybe it was just the turbulence, or the motion blur, but even as they were descending rapidly, and Lucas was busy choking the life out of the bastard…
There wasn't even a hint of worry on his face.