Elizabeth could feel her head spinning as she awoke from her drug-induced slumber. This couldn't be real, could it? She was lying in the dirt and glanced down at her thigh to see a makeshift bandage around it. She reached into her back pocket and realized her family photo was missing. It wasn't in her pocket. She scrambled up from the ground and ran straight into a fenced wall. Falling on her ass once again, she realized she was in a cage. Like an animal.

"Looking for this?"

There was a man sitting in a chair outside of the cage. He had red hair, a beard, striking blue eyes, and was holding out her photo. Elizabeth reached her hand out of the cage to grab the photo but the man quickly snatched it away.

"Ah ah ah. It's not going to be that easy little one."

He leaned back in the chair and studied her features carefully. He laughed. "I'm just still all tickled and shit. I can't believe I caught myself a Palmer. Eli and his Whitetails will just be itching to get you back."

His demeanor was cold and his eyes felt like they could pierce into her soul. She tried to stay strong but as soon as she opened her mouth, her voice cracked.

"Where am I? Where is my family?"

The redheaded man only smiled at her cowardice.

"Now that is the question isn't it. You see a few months ago when my men were going to go kill them, they had left. Vanished into thin air like they were never here. Not something that I'm too happy about. But am I glad to see you. We had almost forgotten about you, when your family shipped you away. You're lucky I found you first."

"Lucky?" The man had her locked in a cage and he expected her to be thankful.

"You'll be of some use to me little lamb. You won't be able to cull the herd but the weak have their purpose. You might be able to lure out some of the Whitetails for me."

"Whitetails? What are you talking about? Who are you!?"

She thought back to the note that was nailed to her house. All of this, it had to be some sort of... cult. That was crazy though. Her county couldn't have been taken over by a cult, of all things. But, she was sitting here in a cage, so there were crazier things. "Are you… Eden's Gate?" She asked.

He chuckled. "Such a smart little lamb aren't you?"

He motioned to one of his men. "Take her to the chair. Let's see what she knows."

The cage was opened again. She didn't have any chance to run before the man smacked her in the face with the butt of his gun, and she blacked out for the second time today.

…

When Elizabeth awoke again she wasn't lying in the dirt but was cuffed to a chair with zip ties and her mouth was gagged. The room was completely dark except for the projector she was sitting by. It flashed up a picture of a vicious looking wolf onto the wall. There were two other chairs in the room but they were empty. She was alone.

She immediately struggled against the restraints. She tried to kick and scream but it did nothing. As much as she tried to fight it, tears came to her eyes. She felt herself start to panic. Would they torture her? Or would they kill her? This isn't how she wanted to die. She wasn't ready to die.

Directly in front of her there was a video camera. They were going to film her pathetic state for all to see.

When her eyes adjusted she realized that she wasn't the only one in the room. The man from before was there. There were a lot of things that she didn't know about him the first time she saw him. He was wearing an army jacket with American flags on the shoulders with the name J. Seed etched into the chest. Everything about this man scared her. His presence sent chills down her spine. He stepped out in front of the projector.

"The world was once owned by the strong. The weak were preyed upon by the strong. But now the new world has evolved. Now the lamb does not fear the wolf. The lamb parades itself around instead of hiding from their predators."

For some reason, she understood what he was talking about. The people here have always been plain in appearance and had hunger in their eyes. Elizabeth had known nothing but a life of comfort during her time here. Anything she had ever wanted had been provided by her parents. Her appearance was far different than the locals she had grown up with. She was parading herself around. She was the lamb and he was the wolf.

"Time and time again the lives of the many have outweighed the lives of the few. This is how we have survived. But no longer. With the collapse upon us, this time the lives of the few outweigh the lives of the many."

He slowly approached Elizabeth. He put his hands on either side of her chair and leaned in close to intimidate her.

"If they want to survive the weak must become strong. The lamb will be turned into a wolf or their bones will thrown to the wolves. These so called Whitetails that try to threaten our way of life will have everything taken from them. Even those that they are closest to. The weak have no place in the new world. The collapse is coming and we'll be ready. This is the will of the father."

The blinking red light on the camera cut off. The tears had started drying on her face. She couldn't help but wonder if her uncle had saw that, or if he was even alive.

The gag that was blocking her voice was removed and she felt like she could finally breathe again. Choking on her tongue was not a hobby of hers.

"Let's talk little lamb. See what we can pick from your brain about old Eli."

"I don't know anything. I haven't seen him in years. I haven't been here in a long time." She quivered.

The man leaned against the back of one of the chairs. "You see I think that you do. You're a smart girl. And people in your situation, well… they always know something."

Seed then told her a story of a young man he was supposed to protect back in Iraq. He had been captured by the enemy. The boy had been beaten, starved, and they had eventually skinned him alive. After all that torture, he had told the enemy everything he knew. She might share the same fate as that boy real soon.

"Everyone talks eventually. Now what do you know about the Whitetails?" He asked.

She shook her head. For some reason she found herself laughing. Her laughter still didn't stop her from shaking though. "The Whitetails? You mean the mountains? Where we are right now? You dipshit!"

Seed didn't share her humor. He reached at his side and calmly pulled his gun on her. The smile faded from her face. "Now listen here you little shit. Your dear uncle is running a group of rebels up here. They've been causing me a whole lot of trouble. What do you know?"

"How would I know anything! I got here yesterday!" She yelled. Her legs began to shake again.

He holstered his gun. He seemed to be satisfied with that answer. "No, you don't know anything. But there are other things I can do with you. You can stop shaking in your boots sweetheart. I'm not gonna kill ya. Not yet anyways. But for now, the weak have their purpose."

Seed stepped forward. He had a small box in his hand. He cranked the box and opened it. A soft song started playing from it.

'Only youuuu…'

Something overtook Elizabeth. Her body started convulsing in the chair and her head slammed back. Her vision was clouded with white spots. Her body felt like it was on fire, it was the worst pain she had ever experienced. She let out a heart stopping scream before her vision faded to red.

"Sweet dreams little lamb."

…

The room before Elizabeth was red, everything was red. The chair that she was strapped to was gone. The room looked like it was on fire. The chairs that were once empty now had men sitting in them. In front of her was a table that held a .44 revolver.

She stood paralyzed by fear. This had to be some sort of dream. It had to be. Both men got up and drew their side arms. They fired at Elizabeth. The stream of bullets hit her in the stomach. She fell behind the table and inspected her midsection. She could feel the pain from the bullets but when she looked down there was no blood. It didn't even look like she had been shot.

The men continued to shoot at the table she was under but they never came any closer. They just continued to shoot at the hardwood table.

"Get up. Get up and fight."

It was Seed. He was in her head. Elizabeth curled up into a ball and covered her ears. She hid under the table and screamed to block out the noise of the gunshots and that dammed song.

After that, she had lost all sense time and direction. At times she would be strapped to the chair and other times she would be in the red room again. Hours or days could have passed and she wouldn't know.

The second time she went into the room she dived for the gun. She wrapped her hands around the revolver and tipped the table over to protect her from the incoming gunfire. She had only shot a few guns before in her life. Even though those times she had her father help her. The mechanics were the same though. She clicked the lever back and popped over the table. She pulled the trigger and missed. With her six shots she was able to take down one man, but the other was faster and shot her square in the chest.

"Pathetic."

In and out of the red room. Over and over again. Only you. Only you. Only you.

Elizabeth's brain was on the verge of being ripped apart. Being in the red room sometimes felt better than her body seizing in the real world and her head banging against the chair. The gag on her mouth didn't do much to stifle her screams.

She didn't know how many times she went into the room. Each time she made it a bit further before she got shot. There didn't seem to be any end to the world on fire. There were some breaks when the music would stop. Someone would remove her gag and give her water. Other times Seed would be there and lecture her on things, but all of his words would come out in a big blur that she couldn't understand. She had no concept of how much time had passed since she had woken up in the cage. All she knew was that there had to be an end to the world on fire, and that she was going to find it.

When she went into the red room this time she was ready. She grabbed the revolver from the table and shot the men before they got up.

"Excellent."

She grabbed the new weapon that was placed out and went into the next room. She took them down without trouble and kept moving forward.

"Good. Cull the herd."

The men in the hallways kept shouting that she wasn't a hero and kept repeating the same mantra:

"Train, hunt, kill, sacrifice."

Something had seemed to click into place inside Elizabeth. The killing had become easy, like a routine. Like this was her purpose all along.

The rest of the men had went down easy. All of them disappeared into the same puff of smoke.

"Well done."

She had become encouraged by his words. Impressing the redheaded soldier had become her current objective. She slid down an air vent and picked up a large machine gun. She dispatched the men in the hallway and kept going.

"Not bad."

There had to be an end to this. Some light at the end of the tunnel that would make it stop. She rounded a corner to find a faceless man. She shot him without hesitation.

"Perfect." Seed purred. Praising Elizabeth for her handiwork.

The faceless man disappeared into a puff of smoke and her world faded to black once again.

...

She woke up in the chair again gasping for air, and struggling against the restraints. There was no music though. It had stopped for now, but Seed was there. "Woah, woah little lamb. Calm yourself. You did good. You passed your first test. Took you a little while though." He patted her head like she was his pet. It didn't help her calm down. It only agitated her worse. Seed called over one of his men.

"Take her to The Chalet to train with The Chosen. Let's see what happens."

The man nodded at his order and walked over to Elizabeth. He threw a thick dark bag over her head and once again she was robbed of her sight. She was forced to her feet only to have her arms restrained in front of her. They led her outside and forced her into a van.

She didn't know how long the ride lasted. The bag over her head was stuffy and her only goal was to keep her breathing steady. The van eventually came to a stop and she was dragged outside. The black bag was ripped from her head and she was blinded by the bright sun in the sky. It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust.

There was a large two story building with wooden balconies. The same symbol from before was painted on it, and on the doorway it said, Know your purpose. There were several towers with armed guards in them. Black tents scattered the field and old tires were laid out in some kind of obstacle course.

Three men had gotten out of the car and they prodded her along to keep her moving. With her hands restrained in front of her, Elizabeth followed the men into the entrance of the building. There were two counters in the front. This place had used to be a hotel of some sort. The men led her to one of the counters where there was a woman waiting.

"Jacob's orders. She is to be trained with The Chosen."

Jacob. That was his name. It was a perfect name suited for an asshole as big as him.

The woman gave them a nod of understanding and directed her attention to her. "Name please."

Her lips stayed closed. She didn't want to announce it to the world that she was related to an enemy of Eden's Gate. The woman asked for it again and when she didn't answer one man prodded her with the butt of his gun.

"Liz. Liz Palmer."

She had hoped that no one would recognize her last name, but no one brought attention to it. The woman simply wrote down L. Palmer on her notebook and went into the back room behind the counter. She returned with a stack of clothes and a white book and handed them to Liz. Both the book and the shirt had the Eden's Gate star on it.

The woman smiled apologetically. "They might be a little big."

She was led upstairs into the main hall where there were tables. The tables were long and painted white with the Eden's Gate symbol. There were at least twenty people sitting around the tables. There didn't seem to be any pattern to the types of people here. There were men and women and people that spanned all ages. The cult seemed to have a knack for kidnapping everyone. The only thing that Liz knew was that she was by far the youngest and that she didn't belong here.

One man led her to a separate room adjacent to the dining hall. It had three bunk beds all with matching, ugly green sheets. The man pointed to the bottom bunk on the opposite wall.

"This bed is yours. Change and place your belongings in this bin. Knock on the door when you're finished."

The man removed her restraints and shut the door behind him. She laid the clothes down on the bed and inspected them. There was a white long sleeve Henley shirt with the symbol on it, a pair of cargo pants, black combat boots, a belt, and black gloves. She inspected the book as well. At first glance she thought it had been a bible, but it was something else.

Liz started to undress. Her clothes had streaks of dirt all over them and there were holes in her tank top. One of her favorite outfits destroyed, but it probably didn't matter now. Now everything was all about survival.

The shirt was about two sizes too big for her. It dwarfed her already small figure. She pulled on the cargo pants and boots. The boots were nice and sturdy. She tucked her shirt into the pants and tightened the belt as much as it would go. It wasn't perfect but nothing was falling down so it would have to do. She pulled her blonde hair into a ponytail and rolled up the sleeves of her shirt. She threw her dirty clothes into the basket. No need for them anymore.

Liz finally felt calm for the first time after being strapped to that chair. There would be a time to deal with what happened, but right now she needed to relax. Or at least, try to. Yes, she was kidnapped but she was free from that chair for now. She was free from Jacob Seed for the time being. Even if was only for today, it would be worth it. Finally feeling composed she knocked on the door.

The man opened the door and gestured for her to follow him. He led her back to the main dining hall. Liz sat at the table furthest from the center, not wanting to draw attention to herself. There were two men and a woman sitting at the other end of the table. She didn't make eye contact with them but she could feel their glares. From what she's seen from this place, it's where they trained their best soldiers and she certainly wasn't a soldier. She stuck out like a sore thumb.

A woman brought her food. Liz tried to distract herself by surveying the room. On the wall was written: Train-Hunt-Kill-Sacrifice. The same moto that the men in the hallucination would chant.

After awhile, everyone else at the tables had started to get up like clockwork, signaling that dinner was over. They all filtered back into their respective rooms, she did the same. When the sun finally went down, she was stuck with only her thoughts. Despite her best efforts, tears flowed from her eyes that entire night. She tried to muffle her sobs into her pillow. She had no idea what tomorrow held, or if she would even live to see it...