America felt she had a lot more space now that Peaches was by her side. She couldn't really blame people for giving her a wide birth, it was a fucking puma walking beside her afterall.

The cat paid surprisingly little mind to everyone though. Unless it involved food, peggies (sometimes those two intermingled) or playtime, Peaches just liked to nap mostly. She really acted more like a big house cat and the wildcat only came out when on the battlefield.

Most people were shocked she could even control the thing. Honestly, sometimes she couldn't believe it either. As long as she kept her fed and pointed at peggies, the mountain lion would do anything. Peaches was a dangerous, but she was a good kitty.

Right now though her only concern was with the patient waiting for her in Doc's room.

"Hey, Doc, how're ya doin'?"

"Hey, Deputy, just—Gah!" He jumped, but quickly calmed down. "Sorry! Sorry. I'm just not used to being so close to Mountain Lions."

"Yeah, sorry. As long as I'm at the prison I gotta keep Peaches close to me at all times.

"I understand." Though he still seemed on edge.

America wanted to move on. His reaction was more common than she'd care to admit. "Anyway, how's our number one patient doing?"

"Oh! He's doing just fine." Doc moved a curtain to show a snoozing Boomer in an open kennel. He got up once he saw his master.

America immediately went to him and gave him a good scratch on the head, neck and back. He in turn gave her loving kisses.

"Hey, Boy! It's good to see you again!" She giggled.

"He's been a really good boy. In a couple of days, he should be fine enough to move around." Doc informed.

"Ya hear that, Boomer? Who's a good boy? Who's the bestest boy of them all?" She praised overly.

Peaches suddenly approached, which grabbed the dog's attention. He was not unfamiliar with cougars. He's fended off, even killed one when he was Rae-Rae's hound.

"This here's Peaches." America explained, rubbing the feline's head to show she was cool. "She's watching over me kinda like you do."

Peaches approached Boomer and looked at him curiously with her big mismatched eyes. Boomer seemed wary of the big cat and cautiously sniffed her. After about a minute of looking at each other, Boomer licked Peaches, which she returned in kind.

"Wow. That's amazing." Doc said, astounded at the actions of the two creatures that usually oppose each other.

The Deputy smiled softly. "They're amazing animals."

She fed Boomer a dog treat she found, then fed Peaches something similar but for cats. Stepping out of Doc's office, she nearly got rammed into by Sharky.

"Jesus, Sharky, where's the fire?" She partly joked.

"The Marina!" He wheezed.

"What? The Marina's on fire?!"

"No, but it might as well be, the peggies are attacking it!"

The Deputy's eyes widened and she hastily ran back to the cellblock war room.

"Rookie! We got a problem!" Whitehorse called.

America quickly made her way over to her boss. "Sharky just told me. The Marina's under attack. Isn't that the outpost run by Adelaide Drubman."

"The same." He pointed to the person operating the radio and they turned it on.

"This is Adelaide Drubman at the Marina, honey. We got Peggies crawling all over us. We need assistance yesterday! I don't know how much longer we can keep these sonsuvbitches off of us!"

"How long has that message been goin'?"

"Maybe an hour or so. That message has been on repeat with no word since. We think the cult's taken the Marina."

"And if they got the marina then that means they have my hot Auntie Adelaide!' Everyone within earshot stared at him. "Did I say hot aunt, I meant . . . my cool aunt. Not that she's not hot, she's quite attractive for a woman of her age, even more so than—"

Everyone just decided to ignore him for the sake of their sanity.

"Why would they take her hostage?" In her experience it was a fifty-fifty chance of the cult either killing you or taking you. There was no rhyme or reason for it. They did whatever they felt like at the moment.

"Adelaide Drubman's a big name here in Hope County. She owns a lot of property and a lot of resources as a real estate agent, that she would never willingly hand over to the cult. She's more valuable alive than dead."

"Then let's go save her and get the Marina back." She slammed her hand into her open palm.

Whitehorse smiled. "Good girl."

"Hell yeah, let's go save my hot Auntie Addie. Shit!" Sharky cursed when he realized he said it again.

"Round up some folks and get to the Marina. On the double, Deputy!" Whitehorse ordered.

"Yes, sir. Come on, Peaches, you're about to get some food."

The cat perked up at this and followed her new master eagerly. America collected Grace and contacted Nick on standby. She peeked her head out a backdoor and saw a tent setup just outside.

"James, saddle up! We gotta go save the Marina!"

James stuck his head out of the tent, about ten car fresheners dangled from his neck. "On it!"

She could still smell the scent of a hundred skunks on him though. "You're driving solo by the way." And quickly slammed the door.

"Geez." James whined.

Drubman Marina Outskirts

America arrived with twenty strong at the Marina. They stopped their vehicles about a mile away from the target and walked the rest, hoping to catch the cultists by surprise. They came to a small cliff that overlooked the Marina. America and the others peered through binoculars, scanning the area to learn of the situation.

The cult had indeed claimed the Marina.

"I spot seven peggies on the docks. They're dumping Bliss into the water." Grace said.

"Mounted gun at the drive-in entrance. Along with three others." James said, ignoring people's repulsion of him.

"Don't know how many are in the buildings or behind them." America said. "Spot at least three walking around, but keep in mind there's probably more than we see. Also, two boats out on the lake, each has three passengers."

"Found Auntie Addie." Sharky said.

They all found her easily. When they all stayed quiet, they could hear the woman's rageful shrieking coming from the shed. She was shouting things from threats to feigning damsel in distress. All of which were ignored by the peggies.

"Actually surprised they kept her alive." America said.

"Auntie Addie never goes down without a fight." Sharky admired.

"Which means she doesn't have much time left. What's the plan, Dep?" Grace asked.

"What we'll do is—"

James interrupted her when he spotted something. "Hey who's that?"

James pointed to someone that just pulled up to the Marina's entryway. From a distance they could tell they weren't Eden's Gate, and once they looked through their scopes, they saw it was a tubby man, with big tattooed arms, dark hair and goatee, wearing a tanktop, American-flag sweatpants, and a blue bandana wrapped around his head. On his back was a triad of shovels. One of which was painted with a smiley face on it.

"Hurk?!" Sharky shouted, shocked.

"Oh boy." James groaned.

"You know that guy?"

"He's, my cousin." Sharky answered, and James nodded in confirmation.

"And I've arrested that dumbass a few times. He's good people, just . . . a dumbass."

"Well, we better save that dumb ass before the cult kills him." Grace said somewhat urgently.

"She's right we gotta move quickly."

"Wait, hold on, watch."

"Sharky, he's—"

"Trust me, he's got this."

The others weren't quite sure but they held back a bit to watch what happens next.

'Even if we moved now, there's no guarantee that we could save him in time anyway.' She thought gloomily.

Hurk had made it halfway to the front guards. The main gunner had lowered the heavy machine slightly and relaxed his trigger finger; he didn't think one fat heretic was going to be any problem.

"Halt, heathen!" The gunner shouted. "Take no further steps. You tread on the Father's land now."

Hurk ignored him. "Attention douchebags! My name is Hurk Drubman Jr. and I am a peaceful man. But you got my mama locked up in there and so I ask you to search your hearts and release her to me and we shall go peacefully! You can keep the handsome guy Xander though, I don't really much like him."

"Hurk! Don't you dare let them touch a single hair on my pretty Xander's head!" Adelaide shouted.

"Get lost fool! It is only by Joseph's mercy we don't shoot you on sight!"

"I will not move from here until you give me my mama back! So, give her back or I'll go all Liam Neeson on your hairy asses."

"Go break his legs."

Three cultists moved toward Hurk, intending to inflict harm on him.

"Well, he's dead." Grace said casually.

"Not if I can help it." America got up to do something but James grabbed her.

"Wait look."

Just as one of the cultists reached out to grab him, Hurk grabbed his hand and bent it at an uncomfortable angle. The peggie cried out in pain as his wrist made cracking sounds. Before any of the cultist's friends could stop Hurk, the husky guy removed a shovel from his back and gave it a good long swing.

He knocked the peggie out cold, then moved on to the others. They raised their weapons, but Hurk knocked them out of their hands. He then shoved the pointed end into one peggies throat, then swung it at the last, knocking him to the ground, then meeting his end when Hurk impaled the digging tool into his chest.

The peggie that gave the order to the three couldn't believe his eyes. He moved to fire the machine gun, but Hurk changed his stance and threw the shovel like a throwing spear. The weapon soared with precision and hit the peggie straight on in the chest, knocking him back a few feet.

The Resistance was just as shocked as the cult. They could not believe their eyes that the big man managed to take out four armed men with a shovel.

A freaking shovel!

The only one that accepted this was Sharky, who was shouting "Fuckin' metal, Hurk!"

Just when they thought things couldn't get weirder . . . it did.

Hurk retrieved his shovel from the dead peggie and looked at the Marina with determination. He then unleashed an ululating battle cry. From the other side of the Marina opposite to the onlookers, an army came running out of the forest to fight the peggies. But these guys were not what . . . anyone was expecting.

These "warriors", a term that would be used very loosely, were dressed in bright tydeid clothes, ugly-yellow pants, and armed with various weapons ranging from rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers, pipes, baseball bats, and to even Hurk's shovels. But their attire and weapons weren't the strangest things about them. No, what made this odd army beyond outlandish were the random, freaky, latex masks they were wearing on their heads.

Random was indeed the right word. No one person was wearing the same mask. They ranged from animal masks, Halloween masks, to weird random spherical masks, like eyeballs, billiard balls, and oranges.

It was like something out of an LSD trip. Only no one was high. Though everyone wished they were because then they could make some sense of what they were seeing.

As they watched below the cult was actually freaking out. Shouting words like "demons" and "the legion" at their strange attackers. The cult was actually being overrun, led by Hurk who was still using his shovel as some kind of long-reach melee weapon.

"What the fuck am I seeing here?" Grace honestly asked. America could only imagine what the veteran was thinking seeing such a weird battle taking place.

"Hurk at his most serious." Sharky answered proudly. "You're seeing badassery at its finest. That's what you're seeing." He grinned.

"I don't know if I would call it that . . . but it is something to behold." James said.

"Come on guys." America interjected. "We can't just sit by, let's give them a hand. Charge!"

America led her people into the fray, joining the weird masked fighters in taking on the cult. They joined just in time too as the cult had set off the alarm, calling in reinforcements.

More cultists came out of the marina main building nearly doubling the forces that were outdoors. It was some freaky pandemonium as both sides fought.

Grace and a few others stayed behind on the cliff and took out peggies from afar. They scoped peggies using the high ground of the roofs and removed them. When all the rooves were clear they watched over the others like guardian angels.

Speaking of. . .

"You're a good shot." An augmented voice complimented.

Grace nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the unfamiliar voice. Turning her head to the left she saw Black Hood taking shots alongside her.

"Where did . . . when did you get here?"

"I've always been here."

Grace would have questioned further, but from what America told her about the masked vigilante, Black Hood was always mysterious. So instead of questioning further, she returned focus to the battle. Which was swiftly going into their favor.

Peaches was the first of the group to reach one of the peggies. Their screams of pain alerted the rest to the Resistances approach. The mask wearers were at first spooked by the catamount and thought it would attack them too, but realized it was on their side when the cat returned to the Deputy's side.

America and James advanced with their sidearms raised, systematically taking out peggies one at a time. With a lot of their attention on the strangely masked offenders, it was easy for them to approach and pop them in the head or torso. They would duck for cover to reload, but then return to attack.

Peaches jumped on a heavy gunner. She bit and chewed, but couldn't get past his protection. He threw her off and was about to blast her, but Sharky came in and shot him back with one flame round, then a second. The gunner screamed in fear and pain as he burned alive. Peaches hissed before running off to find easier prey. Ones with less armor.

"Deputy, peggies coming from the south via the road. Three trucks!" Grace warned, but just as she did a barrage or rockets impacted the convoy, pretty much ruining every peggie passenger's day. The soldier followed the rocket's path and saw three masked fighters brandishing RPGs. "Never mind."

"Release the angels!" A peggie shouted from the garage. They opened the door and a flood of angels came running out. A few were shot in the head, but James stopped them.

"Hold your fire! I got this!" He pulled out a burlap sack and pulled out a slab of rank meat.

He tossed it back into the garage where the mindless peggies followed it like flies to a cowpie.

"What the hell are you doing your cretins!" The peggie that released the horde shouted angrily. "Get out there and protect the Family!" He was silenced though when his skull was bashed in with a pipe. One of the masked individuals, someone wearing a large skull mask, quickly shut the garage, trapping the Angels.

"Shit man, that was cool! What is that stuff?" Another masked person asked, this one wearing an orange fruit mask.

"Angel Bait. Good for herding Angels."

"Cool!" Suddenly he sniffed the air and recoiled. "Jesus dude, you reek!"

"Shut the fuck up!"

Sharky bashed someone with the butt of his shotgun then blasted a charging peggie wielding a knife. He then finished the downed peggie executioner style. Two peggies came running and pointed handguns at him, but before they could fire a green dot zoomed past them and took them out in quick succession.

"Thanks Grace!" Sharky shouted.

"Sharky!" America ran up to his side. "Keep your head in the game!" She fired Judgment, taking more peggie lives.

"Sorry, Dep!"

"Sharky? Sharky is that you?" the two looked over to see Hurk jog up to them. He had his shovel in hand, which was covered in blood. Both the shovel and his hands.

"Hey, cousin!"

"Sharky! Good to see ya cuz, what're ya doin' here?"

"When I heard Auntie Addie calling for help, I couldn't just do nothin'."

"Damn, cuz, it's good ta see ya! Glad ta see ya got your own band to party with."

"Hell yeah!" Sharky grabbed America by the shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. "This is America Jones; she runs this outfit. She also goes by Deputy. We as tight as this." Sharky crossed his index and middle finger together.

"Well, shit nice to meet ya, Deputy. Names Hurk Drubman Jr., but friends call me Hurk." He extended his hand.

"Yeah, nice to meet ya." She awkwardly shook his hand and hurriedly. "Listen, can we talk later, we're kinda in the middle of a fight here."

Hurk suddenly spear-threw his shovel, impaling it in a now dead peggie's face.

"Oh sorry, my bad. I just got excited seeing my cuz again and meeting his friends. I'll let ya two get back to it! Wowowowowowo! Come get some you peggie fucks!"

"Man, he sure is badass." America wriggled out of his grasp.

"He's something alright, now get back out there!" She pushed him.

Suddenly the radio crackled to life. "Everyone!" Grace warned. "I see some Chosen Planes coming from the North!"

"Well, it's a good thing we brought the King of the Skies with us, aint that right Nick?"

"Ten-four Deputy. Them peggie bitches won't know what hit 'em!"

Nick arrived from the south and engaged two Chosen fighter planes.

"Alright, you Chosen fucks, let's dance!"

Carmina's gatling gun fired as Nick fought for supremacy over the Marina's air. Only one King ruled the skies and that was him.

While the aerial battle happened above, the battle below still raged.

The boats from the water fired on the Marina. They tried staying out of the fight because of their fellow brothers and sisters, but the heathens had taken out nearly all of them.

"Grace, fire on those boats!" America shouted into her radio.

"I got this!" Hurk called and threw his shovel into the air.

It went farther than anyone expected and hit the gunner in one of the boats. Specifically, it took off his head, which scared the shit out of the others. The other gunner was also taken out by a soaring shovel, but by one of Hurk's masked followers. The rest in the boats would have been taken out by Grace and her snipers, but a white plane crashed right on top of them and exploded in a ball of fire.

"Woohoo! That's one down!" Nick declared. "Now let's make it two!" Carmina barrel rolled out of a hail of bullets and sharply turned to go after the last Chosen.

"Shit! Fight's not over yet!" Grace called. "We got another set of trucks comin' from Jacob's Region!"

This time there were about four trucks. All of them were loaded with armed peggies and everyone noticed more Goliaths and Acolytes in the backs. The cult did not want to lose this outpost.

"I can get 'em!" Nick declared.

"Ya sure, Nick? That's quite a lot of peggies." America asked through her radio.

"Hell yeah! I'll take them out, along with this chump on my tail. Watch and learn folks cause you're about to see somethin' really cool!"

Carmina took a nose dive straight toward the convoy, the Chosen in hot, murderous pursuit. The main gun buzzed and blasted away a second later. The back of the convoy was pelted by numerous bullets of friend and foe alike. One truck was taken out, followed by another.

Carmina came dangerously closer and closer to the ground. So much so that everyone watching were terrified for him. But Nick kept his cool and with a cocky smirk, pulled up at the very last second. The Chosen did the same but scratched the pavement.

Once Nick saw the Chosen still behind him, he dropped one of his bombs and it fell down straight into the peggie's propeller, turning it into fiery scrap. The remains of the plane plummeted and took out the remaining two trucks, creating a huge bonfire of metal and bodies.

Everyone cheered at seeing Nick pull off one of his craziest stunts ever!

"Way to go Nick!"

"That was some fancy flyin'!"

"All hail the King, baby!"

"Hate to interrupt the moment." Grace interrupted. "But the peggies are coming by helicopter lakeside."

Sure enough the peggies didn't know when to quit. One lone, large, white helicopter came hovering toward the Marina. It was close too. Everyone was too distracted by Nick's display to notice.

"No problem. Nick will knock it out of the sky easily." America said.

"Hold on." Hurk interrupted. "I can handle it. If anyone's gonna get the last kill here, it's gonna be me. Friend . . . give me Big Farma."

"Big What-A?"

One of Hurk's people, a woman wearing a horse mask, gave Hurk some kind of modified RPG-7. At first the Deputy thought he was going to blow it up, but to her utter disbelief, he loaded in one of his shovels.

Everyone got clear as he took aim at the coming copter. After almost a minute of focusing he fired. The device must have used some kind of pressure system because everyone's ears started ringing from the boom.

The shovel flew through the air with minimum resistance and plowed through the helicopter's windshield and into the pilot's abdomen. The passenger peggie flinched from the impact and looked shocked to see her friend bleeding to death with a shovel impaled through their chest. She was so shocked she didn't notice the helicopter taking a dive until it was too late. The last thing she or any of the peggies inside saw was the water hitting them like a slab of concrete.

Everyone watched in utter disbelief as the helicopter crashed, flipped and sank into the lake. America did not know what to say or think. She looked around at all the destruction, the people who commited it and could just not comprehend how not a single casualty was among them. Somehow, all these weirdos had survived.

Hurk took a big breath through his nose. "And that there was some genuine awesome-sauce."

The masked fighters cheered in victory. Eventually the Cougars joined in the celebrating as well. Weird or not, they won.

The Drubman Marina has been Liberated.

They got to work on removing the cult shit from the Marina. Thankfully they didn't have a lot of time to set things up, so the Resistance just piled it all onto a bonfire. Hurk personally started freeing Adelaide and Xander from the shed.

"Hang tight mama, almost got ya out!" He grunted as he tried prying the boards off the shed door with a crowbar.

"Hurry up! Xander's chiseled body can only keep me less angry for so long!" Adelaide shouted.

The last plank finally came off and Hurk quickly opened the door. "Mama! Mama you alright?"

A manicured hand pushed his face out of the door. A woman strutted out; her arms raised to the sky in liberation.

America had to admit, she was quite the looker. She wore a pink buttoned shirt with the bottom tied around her waist. He jeans hugged her shapely legs and bottom and complimented the cowgirl boots strapped to her feet. Her blonde hair was tied back into a bob with a pink headband, a pair of large hoop earrings hung from her ears. Her skin was slightly tanned and her face was decorated by thick eyeshadow around her brown eyes, blush on her sculpted cheekbones, and red lipstick on her perky lips, but it added to her aged beauty instead of making her look whorish. On her left arm was a stylized version of the name "Hurk." America had to guess she was around 60 or older, but something told her not to bring that query up.

Adelaide took a deep breath. "Mmm, smell that fresh air baby!"

A young twenty-something stud came out next. America guessed this was Adelaide's boytoy Xander she heard about. Even though America wasn't attracted to men, she had to admit he was very good-looking. He had a toned body of muscle that was accentuated by his tight pants and tank top. His deep blue eyes were piercing and his spiky black hair was shiny and looked soft to the touch. On his arm was a tattoo of Adelaide's name surrounded by roses.

"Ah yeah." He said in a SoCal accent. "Nothing like the fresh mountain air to clean those lungs. So good to be outta that shed."

"Oh I'd don't know." Adelaide flirted, wrapping her arms around the handsome man's neck. "Weren't so bad as long as I had you in there. In fact, I think I lost an earring in there. Might have to go back tonight and . . . rummage around a little."

Xander flashed a pure white smile. "Addie, you minx."

The two began making out . . . rather loudly . . . and very physically.

Everyone started feeling uncomfortable. "Aww ma, come on! I'm right here!" Hurk even more so.

Adelaide stopped smacking lips to yell at Hurk. "Can it, Junior. What are you doing here anyway? Thought you and your pa were hunkering down at the Fort, playing king of the moron?"

Hurk's demeanor suddenly changed, like the energy was sucked out of him instantaneously. His face dowered and his shoulders slouched. His masked followers seemed to grow awkward and hung their heads low.

"Mama . . . daddy's dead."

It took Adelaide a moment to process what he said. "What?"

"I, uh, he sent me on an errand and while I was gone the peggies attacked. He's . . . he's gone mama."

"Oh, sweety, I'm so sorry." She hugged him. "Oh Junior. Look uh, go into the Marina, find us a big bottle of scotch—I usually keep it hidden in the back—pour us some glasses and we'll talk about it alright?"

He nodded sullenly. "Okay mama." Then without another word he did as he was told.

America decided to introduce herself now while she could. "Hello ma'am. My names Deputy Jones. We came once we got your distress call."

Adelaide looked confused for a moment before realization dawned on her. "Ah good. Glad I was heard, thanks for comin' to my rescue."

"Well, I didn't do it alone. I had my team and . . ." She looked at a passing Hurk follower, "whoever these guys are."

"We're the Cult of Hurk, ma'am." Some random guy in a scary clown mask answered. "Or Hurkies if you wanna shorten it." He then went on his way with explaining further.

'Cult?! What am I supposed to make of that?!'

Adelaide saw the confusion on the woman's face. "My boy's always kept strange company. Don't worry about it. You must be that famous Deputy I've been hearing so much about. You knocked off John Seed."

America showed off the bunker key around her neck. "The one and only."

"Well shit, it's damn fine to meet ya. Adelaide Drubman's the name and if you ever need a big name to back you up, ya can count on me."

"Thanks Adelaide. My condolences for you husband."

"Ex-husband." She clarified. "And don't worry about it. Bastard got what was comin' to him."

America was surprised to hear that. The sad tone she had with Hurk was no longer there. "Oh! With how you were acting—"

"Oh no, I'm fuckin' glad he's dead. Junior's father was a lousy husband, a terrible father, and limp-dicked in the sack. I was just putting on a show for Junior's sake."

"I see."

"Don't worry about it. It's a family matter. Speaking of which I gotta go tend to my son. Shouldn't be too hard, boy's a lightweight when it comes to my personal liquor."

"Uh, sure. We'll be stickin' around a bit, helping to clean up."

"Much appreciated."

I have been super excited to do this chapter! This is one of the biggest changes I've probably made to this Far Cry 5 story. Say hello to Hurk's biggest wish from 5: The Cult of Hurk. Now just to be clear, they aren't really a cult. No one's too stupid to worship Hurk, but they are stupid enough to follow him. Why? Because Hurk is compassionate, naively stupid, and is always willing to lend a helping hand to strangers. At least to me in my headcanon. They follow him and do what he says (most of the time), which is why they all wear those ugly clothes and masks. They're uniforms!

If you're wondering about how Hurk is so good in a fight, well in FC4 he is actually a playable character that can do exactly what Ajay and Jason can do. SO, by that logic, he's one of the strongest people you will find in Hope County. The game just nerfs him for game mechanic reasons. I've always been a fan of genius idiots or idiot savant tropes. Caboose from RvB, Forrest Gump, Goku, they all defy what others perceive them as. In Hurk's case, he is indeed an idiot, but he's good at bringing people together friend or foe (check out his animations in FC3's co-op endings to see what I mean) and knows how to hold his own in a fight. Can he do math well, no, is he good with the ladies, no, can he bathe himself, probably not, but he's still someone that goes out of his way to help people and kick ass three ways to Sunday school. I'm so happy I could finally show this!