Elizabeth's parents had always told her not to come back home. They never gave a reason why she had always thought that maybe just because they didn't want her to spend the money to fly back. It had been 3 years since she moved from her home in Hope County, Montana to an apartment outside her college down south. Her family visited her at school but she'd never come back home since.

Hope County was an interesting place, to say the least. It was out in the middle of nowhere with terrible cell service, and the people have been there for generations. Her parents lived in Holland Valley, north of Rae Rae's Pumpkin Farm. Her Uncle Eli lived up in the Whitetail Mountains. So many childhood memories had been made with Uncle Eli. He would take her fishing along the Henbane River, to go see waterfalls up in the mountains, and he took her to see Cheeseburger the bear every year at the FANG Center.

The school was just as secluded as the town was. Hope County High School only had around 500 students from all grade levels. Everyone in the county knew Elizabeth and her family. They would come out to see her play softball with the Hope County Cougars. Life in Montana was nice but it wasn't what she wanted. That's why when her parents said they had the money to send her to college, she picked the furthest place from Montana.

It was the summer before her senior year of college and about a few months before her 21st birthday. She hadn't heard from her parents in 6 months. At first she thought maybe they were getting their landline switched out but something wasn't right. They wouldn't have waited this long to talk to her. She's decided that she's going home for the summer, to see what the heck was going on back at home. She filled her bags with clothes and necessities and loaded them into her car.

The trip back to Montana took a total of 4 days. Between driving and sleeping in her car, she was exhausted. But the landscape has grown more beautiful and mountainous as she's gone along. When she finally reached the county's edge, she would have normally been greeted with the Hope County welcome sign. Except she wasn't exactly greeted. it was knocked down and the word Sinner was spray painted in black over it.

What the hell? That was definitely not there before.

She kept driving on the road to her parent's house. She thought about stopping by Fall's End to see if anyone had seen them around but she decided to go straight home to talk to her parents first. It had been so long since she had seen them, she was excited but nervous to find out what was going in the county. Something was definitely wrong.

When driving through the valley, something else had caught her eye. Up in the tallest mountain in the valley was a giant sign that read 'Yes'. Now she was worried. She floored it to get to her house as soon as possible. Screw it if a deputy tried to pull her over. When she reached the house, she felt her stomach leap up into her chest.

The entire Silver Lake trailer Park was in shambles. There were burnt cars, damaged buildings, and almost everything was ridden with bullet holes. It looked like there had been a war there. When she saw her own house, she felt her chest sink. 'We will come for you' was written on the side of the house. Most of the windows were broken and the door was kicked in. She got out of the car and walked to the front door. There was a piece of paper nailed to the doorway. There was some sort of symbol at the top, it looked like a mix between a cross and a star. It said,

"We know you have been giving aide to the Whitetails. You have betrayed the will of The Father. Join us and confess. If you refuse we will come for you. We will take you and we will find her.

-Eden's Gate"

Were they talking about her?

Oh god. Who the hell was The Father, and what was Eden's Gate? When she walked inside, tears came to her eyes. Everything was trashed; chairs were thrown, the table was on its side, and every drawer had been opened. She dashed to her room and it was worse than she imagined. Her softball trophies had been smashed, all of her belongings thrown into one cluttered heap on the floor. One of the only things that survived was a photo frame with the glass shattered. She retrieved the photo from the frame and inspected it. The photo was of Elizabeth, her parents, and her older brother. Eli had taken the photo at Whitetail State Park a long time ago.

She folded the photo and put it in her pocket for safekeeping. Was her family dead? Or did they make it somewhere safe? They were smart, they would have known to get out. They would have left before whatever the hell this was got to them. Her dad had always been prepared. They had guns and supplies. They had to be alive. Elizabeth knew she had to find her Uncle. If anyone could have survived something like this, it would have been him. He wasn't far from here. She could make it to his old cabin, if he was even there. There was only one way to find out though. She climbed into her car and sped off towards the Whitetail Mountains.

The further she drove into the mountains, the more she noticed how bad things really were. There were destroyed cars on the side of the road and billboards that had the same symbol that was on the note at her house. There was no one out on the roads. She couldn't decide if that a good or bad thing. She slowed down when she reached the entrance of the state park. It was spray painted and there were bodies hanging from the sign. She gasped. she felt sick to her stomach. What the hell was going on in Hope County?

She kept driving until she came to a small parking lot that overlooked the mountains. It was free from bodies so she thought it was good of a spot as any to stop and gain her bearings. Turns out this was the stop for Langford Falls. Sometimes after church on Sunday's her family would come here and have a picnic. The rushing water always seemed to calm her down.

There was a noise of crunching leaves and she whipped around to find the cause of it. Three men were walking in her direction but they hadn't spotted her yet. People! She threw all logic out the window, she was just relieved to finally see someone around.

"Hey! Can you help me?"

The men turned in her direction. Oh no. She was so relieved to finally see someone that she didn't realized that these men were armed to the teeth. They all had compound bows and pistols strapped to their sides. Calling out to them wasn't the brightest idea. One man scoffed at her.

"There's one."

It all happened so fast. She didn't see him draw the bow but she felt herself go down. She looked down at her thigh and saw an arrow sticking out of it. Holy shit. That asshole had shot her.

Her mind didn't even have time to register the pain. She started to feel dizzy and fell down. Whatever they had shot her with was drugged. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was red.

…

Jacob surveyed the prospects brought in earlier today. Two of them were Eli's Whitetails that were caught trying to take out a roadblock, one was a local that they picked up, and the other was a young girl. Curled up asleep in the cage, she looked like a small child, but was probably much older than that. It's pathetic who they were bringing in these days. His men used to bring in potential wolves, now they bring him sheep. No matter, they would all serve their purpose one way or another.

Things had been relatively slow in Hope County for the past year. Eli had formed a resistance, but all they did was hide. They were no real threat. A few weeks ago he and his brothers had ran into a few kids who were trying to expose the project to the outside world. It wouldn't matter. Jacob's army had more than enough soldiers and firepower that could wipe out anything coming their way.

Even though things had been quiet, Jacob felt like something was coming. Maybe the end wasn't here yet but something was coming that would change everything. Jacob had to be ready.

He glanced back over to the cage with the young girl. He noticed something sticking out of her back pocket. Jacob grabbed one of his men and gestured to her.

"Search her."

The man opened the cage and took the photo out of her pocket. He locked the cage back and handed the photo to Jacob. The redheaded soldier studied the photo for a moment until a smile of recognition came across his face.

"Well I'll be dammed, she's his girl."