Far Cry 5: The Collapse
Chapter 17: When Angels Deserve to Die
By the next morning a rough plan had been drawn up for the attack on the Convent.
A gutted school bus pulled from the US Auto junkyard would serve as the main transport for the freed prisoners and both of the Mini-Revelators would serve as escorts back to Holland Valley for treatment. A local helicopter pilot that had been held up inside the Jail was able to return to his home in Holland Valley and brought back his chopper to the Jail's landing pad giving them the option of pulling out anyone either critically injured or barring that hauling the VIP that was the Marshal out of there and straight to the Jail for treatment and questioning.
The attack would be led by Roger and Joey with Mack's people attacking Shrines in the local area to slow down reinforcements when they got called. Nick had even shown up for a while to offer air support but once more it was determined by Roger, Marcus, and Dmitri that the Convent was still too close to Joseph's Word and its likely AA missile armed guards to safely go along with any kind of major air support.
They had timed the attack to happen right at lunchtime in hopes of catching the cult garrison eating so it was shortly after breakfast at the Jail that Roger found Joey picking through crates of recovered peggie weapons among which was Joey's current focus on loading up on grenades.
"Once you pop you can't stop can you?" He said with a smug smile across his face.
Joey nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard him but quickly recovered and flashed him a embarrassed smile.
"Uh yeah... I like the idea of having something that I can toss that can clear a room or take out a vehicle in one go. That said why don't you carry any?"
He shrugged. "Joey I tend to take out the guys facing me well beyond even my own throwing distance. It's weight that I rather spend on carrying more ammo for my guns. Just be careful Joey, Casey told me about the close call you had back at the chalets."
She sighed and rubbed her upper arm nervously trying to find something else besides his own stare to focus on. "Yeah I nearly got caught by a Bliss explosion. That stuff really is explosive and me tossing a grenade into a house full of it doesn't help things. Listen Roger I swear I'm trying to keep up..."
He instantly held up a hand to stop her speech. "Hold up. I'm not asking you to keep up trust me you are probably the only person outside of The Grey's, my father, or Dmitri that can even remotely keep up with me anyway but I'm not asking you to. All I ask is that you don't over extend yourself."
He stopped to judge her reaction before continuing. "I know everyone is having to learn new skills with the cult hemming us in like they are but explosives are unforgiving by their nature."
"I do have some training Roger." She huffed slightly.
"How much?" Came the flat sounding challenge.
Joey hemmed and hawed for moment before muttering softly. "A 3 hour lecture and throwing a smoke grenade."
"A grenade? As in one?" He said now visibly shocked.
"It was part of basic deputy training and it was one of those classes that suffered from a bad combination of lack of funding and not having a good place to practice... not to mention some of the other potential deputies probably would be better off not handing such things if I am being honest." She rattled off even as a wide smile broke across Roger's face.
"Ok story time but I'll tell you on the way to the treatment plant." He said as he lead them out to his truck. Their route would take them along the Henbane River so as to avoid tipping off any peggies that might be watching the roads, after all they were just some sinners heading back to their latest conquest.
"Ok so back in boot camp some bean counter screws up and the base gets a massive load of potatoes. Mess hall guys do what they can to make sure it doesn't go to waste but eventually they start to rot right when my training company needs to start doing our practical training for grenades."
"Once again the day is saved by bureaucracy." Joey quipped as he continued.
"So we get to the range early and are standing around waiting when I notice that all the throwing positions have bins full of these rotting potatoes. I being the stupid boot that I was turned to my drill instructor and quoted the grenade tutorial from Call of Duty 2." He said barely containing the chuckle as he relived that moment.
She smiled though struggled to remember what he was referring to as it had been well over a decade since she and him had played that game.
Roger picked up on the confusion and spoke in a stereotypical Russian accent. "Comrade Commissar! These are potatoes. Why are we using potatoes instead of real grenades?"
She giggled as he continued the story. "So my DI didn't immediately bite my head off which was a miracle when I look back but he came back with the commissar's quote and for my trouble I got picked to go first. Maybe I should see if Gardenview has a few bins of rotting apples that I can use to teach you grenade usage in a less lethal way than learning while fighting the peggies."
They were just passing the Chalets at that moment and the sight of them sobered Joey a little bit as in the daylight she could clearly see the damage caused by the Bliss pumped explosion.
"Roger if you can make it happen I'll take your 'Apple Grenade Course'. Like you and Casey said I have to actually survive the lessons to actually learn anything."
He simply nodded and the rest of the trip was made in silence until they reached the reclaimed and now fortified water treatment plant. The base defenses were similar to what was setup to defend the Hope County Clinic. Multiple lines of roadblocks along the entrances and machine gun nests with camo nets usually meant for hunting hides could barely be made out along the ridges overlooking the treatment plant. The cult would be hard pressed to retake the utility that's for sure.
At 11:30 AM Mack radioed that his Cougars were in position to strike at another trio of Shrines closest to the Convent that would likely respond to any calls for aid. With them in position and the school bus and Mini-Revelators waiting at Gardenview Orchard for the go ahead to rush in for the rescue all they had to was call out on the radio that they were moving.
'Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;' He thought as he reached for his radio. "Black Reaper and Demoness moving on objective."
Lucius ate his ham sandwich distractedly as he stared at the fount of the latest Bliss blend in the courtyard of the Convent through the chapel windows.
As one of the Chemists working for the Project and specifically chosen by Dr. Feeney and Herald Faith to work on the Saint project it was on his shoulders and the shoulders of the other chemists assigned to make sure that it came to fruition. This made the process of finding those among the faithful or those that are on the path to being freed of their sins and embracing the Bliss, both a massive responsibility and a burden on them.
They took on those willing faithful to see if their faith was strong enough to survive or those among the repentant sinners for whom the priestesses determined that it was the will of The Father and God that they under go the tests. In his most private of thoughts though he wished they would also develop some manner of test to see if those being offered up at least had the right body chemistry in the first place.
'Then there's the fact that those few that do make it out of phase 1 either loose their cognitive abilities or die shortly into phase 2. Herald Jacob may have a point about only picking the strongest subjects to under go the Saintifcation process... still there is something to be said about the amount of test data we are getting from our 'shotgun' approach.' He thought as the sound of a large truck coming down the driveway to the Convent.
He turned to the other members in the chapel and none were reacting to the sound of the truck.
'I guess I'm the only one to remember the Bliss delivery schedule, still they're rather early for a change...'
On this thought he shoved the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and hurried outside past a number of the guards that were eating as well, walked into the front yard and looked up at the drive way waiting to see the big white box truck come up hilly driveway.
'Sounds like they lost the muffler on the delivery truck.' Lucius thought to himself as the sound drew closer and then finally a massive black army truck came over the rise at high speed, then a woman in a black Stenson leaned out of the passenger window with a shotgun in hand.
"SINNERS!" He tried to yell through a mouthful of sandwich and turned to grab the guards that he passed earlier but only managed to take a few steps before he felt a massive surge of pain rip through his right chest from his back.
He fell down to the ground and couldn't even cry out for The Father as his lungs filled with blood. Lucius's final moments were of pain and absolute terror as the shotgun welding Demoness and the massive mountain of armored muscle of 'The Collapse raced out of their truck and over his dying body.
Roger jumped out of the cab of the truck HCAR in hand and raced for the chapel. "Joey! Take left flank and clear the other building! I got the chapel!" He called out and heard Joey's reply as she raced towards the dormitory.
She smashed her way through the doorway and entered what passed as a dorm for the cultists. Simple wooden double bunk beds lined each side of the rectangular room with familiar looking gym lockers that matched what she saw back in John's bunker.
Inside were three men and a woman dress in normal attire but more importantly she could see in a far corner of the room Marshal Burke in a chair staring at a wall blankly.
'Figures that he was Blissed out of his goddamned mind.' She thought as the other people in the room turned to her.
"It's ok everyone, my name is Deputy Hudson, Hope County Sheriff's Department. We're here save you." She calmly as she noticed now that everyone was armed with handguns in waist holsters.
'Oh no...'
Maybe it was the Bliss or the horrors that they had been subjected to but none of the people reached for their weapons at first, giving her a sliver of hope that maybe these people weren't too far gone.
Before she could start talking with anyone from a entrance at the far end of the dorm a woman clad in leather and baring the 'Tree of Eden' tattoo on her exposed belly raced in yelling for everyone to arm themselves when she saw Joey.
"What are you doing?! Kill the Demoness! FOR THE FATHER!" The priestess screamed as she drew a hunting knife and charged toward Joey. Burke in his corner didn't even react in the slightest but unfortunately the other civilians did reach for their guns.
She snapped her shotgun up on the priestess and gave her a face full of buckshot for her faith in 'The Father', but for the first time ever she hesitated on shifting over to any of the locals even as they drew their guns.
"DON'T DO IT! DON'T DO IT! DON'T DO IT!" She yelled but no one stopped. The man closest to her fired from the hip and hit her armor right where her right kidney would be if she hadn't been so heavily armored.
The impact still knocked the wind out of her but she held on long enough to snap a shot into each of the four locals turned cultists. Joey grunted in pain as she looked on at what she had had to do. From the floor the lone woman moaned as she bleed out muttering "Why Father? What did I do wrong?".
Even as she fell silent and Joey started slowly walking towards Burke all she could think of was just how much she hated Faith, how much she hated Joseph fucking Seed. Seeing first hand otherwise good people be turned by Faith's drugs and Joseph's corrupting word only served to eat at her.
She approached Burke and put a hand cautiously on his shoulder but got no reaction from the man as he continued to stare blankly at the wall.
"God damn you Burke... all you had to do was turn the chopper around." She said hatefully as she turned to go back outside and regroup with Roger.
In the chapel Roger was having flashbacks to when he hit US Auto. Even with the fall of John's region, the reinforcing of the jail, and the reclaiming of the water treatment plant the peggies stubbornly stuck to their routines. They ate at noon as a group with little to no one keeping guard, even the most brain dead cultists should think that not at least keeping a token watch is a bad idea.
The few guards that were too busy fumbling for their guns and tossing aside their lunches didn't stand a chance as he casually double tapped them, his fast walking pace unbroken until he got into the chapel proper.
The chapel was a open affair with relatively few pews and aisles that were wide enough to drive his truck through with ease. The white wainscoted walls were dotted with various cult crosses, framed excerpts from the Word of Joseph, and of course plenty of pictures of Joseph and Faith. A massive raised stage with a equally large though plain looking window that over looked the expanse of the river valley to the south finished the room.
From alcoves on either side of the large stage and from the over turned furniture on the stage itself a dozen or so peggies fortified themselves and started indiscriminately pouring fire on the doorway he now hid behind.
"Joey you copy?" He called over the radio.
"Right behind you!" Joey called out in response.
He noted that she was favoring her right side as she approached him. "You hit?"
She nodded. "I tried to talk to some recent converts but they were too far gone and got a shot off on me. The armor took the hit but this shit hurts! By the way found Burke stoned out of his fucking mind."
He laughed even as bit more of the door frame exploded from a bullet impact as the peggies showed their aptitude for 'spray and pray'.
"That is why we don't cheap out on body armor. Level IV or nothing. Not surprised about Burke. Now I need you to go outside and toss a grenade in through the big window in the back of this place. I'll keep these fuckers occupied." He said as he swapped his rifle for his own shotgun.
Joey spun and sprinted out of the chapel. For a moment she thought about cutting across the courtyard but didn't want to risk being seen at the wrong moment so she raced back through the dormitory over the bodies and past the still brain dead Marshal.
The back door of the dorm opened out to what seemed to be a low walled garden that she gladly used to move towards the while staying mostly under cover. A section of the chapel window shattered and the roar of Roger's shotgun could be faintly heard over the smaller pops of the cultists AR-15s.
"Fragging now!" She called over the radio and pulled out the explosive from one of her vest pockets. Pulling the ring she tossed the grenade and watched the spoon separate smoothly in air, it wasn't the greatest throw as it was too high and probably not going to go deep enough into the interior but it should still do something. She ducked behind the stone wall she had used to get to her position and waited the seeming long seconds before the building rocked with the explosion.
Roger had been peeking around the corner as he saw the little egg shape sail high into the room and actually tap the ceiling before he quickly fell back behind the doorway and waited for the explosion.
The grenade went off about twelve or so feet above the peggies heads and showered anyone on the stage with shrapnel. Only a few died immediately from the blast while others clutched at their faces, screaming in pain begging for help from anyone, crying out that their eyes were gone, and overall feeling a small portion of the pain they had inflicted on the people of Hope County these past few weeks... in Rogers opinion at least.
Topping off the shotgun he whipped around the doorway one last time and saw that those who had been in the alcoves before had forgotten between the explosion and the subsequent screaming that he was still alive as they rushed to aid those on the stage. He drew a bead on a pair of cultists to his right as they rushed to their brother's and doled out their lead ration, but to his left a third man ran out with his rifle and he started raising his rifle to spray in Roger's general direction only to have his face torn off in a shower of gore.
He looked back over his shoulder where Joey now stood with a smoking shotgun.
"Got a little squirrelly there. How was my throw?" She said over the continued screaming of the dying peggies.
He smiled pointed up towards the ceiling where one could see a small amount of scorching from the grenade blast. "You managed to airburst your grenade which worked this time, but otherwise you are improving. Still I want to work with you once we can get some half rotten apples to practice with and give you more formal training."
He walked over to one of the dead cultists and removed their revolver before executing the remaining wounded.
'No sense in wasting MY ammo.' He thought as silence finally fell upon the chapel and he tossed the revolver to the side.
"Roger got a locked basement here." Joey called out from one of the alcoves.
As he approached it was clear that the cult had wanted to make sure that you couldn't open the door without unlocking no less than three heavy looking dead bolts. A note was taped to the door that read: 'Moved the Archangel to the exterior holding cell after it calmed down. It managed to literally rip apart five angels before it got over its mental episode. It's amazing how strong these Archangels are but you have to pay attention to them or they could go off on you. ~Lucius~'
Joey sighed slightly as she switched to her Beowulf. "Great a basement full of angels. Better take care of it now."
He nodded in agreement and switched back to his HCAR before unlocking the three locks and opening the door. Instantly the distinct smell of human feces, rotting flesh, and blood assaulted their senses.
"Oh god..." He heard Joey mutter as he mentally steeled himself and dove deeper into the hellish basement.
The walls were the typical rough hewn local stone which gave the place a old dungeon like feel. At the base of the stairs was a light switch that when he flipped it on for one of the few times in his life he wished he hadn't felt compelled to come down here.
There were over a dozen gore covered Angels in the room wondering around aimlessly, muttering to themselves about the 'The Father' and his glory, and occasionally scratching at the walls or the floor for some unseen reason. This was nothing compared to the six corpses either chained to the wall by their arms or for some it looked like their bodies had been violently pulled off leaving the poor souls arms behind.
All of the bodies given what little was left of the ragged clothing on them were locals. Their chest cavities had been clearly ripping into by human hands and their shredded entrails now decorated the floor. Looking at the Angels again it was clear that some had managed to slip their masks some and had indeed consumed some of the victims flesh if the massive amount of dried blood on their faces and chests were any indication.
Roger and Joey looked on in stunned silence until one of the Angels noticed them and started growling clearly not recognizing them for their handlers. They both raised their rifles and fired into the mass of bodies, the tight confines of the basement ensuring that every round fired hit at least two or three targets as they ripped through flesh and cloth.
The last Angel even after being torn apart by multiple high power rifle rounds continued to crawl on the blood and excrement covered floor toward them only to have Roger crush the monster's neck under a massive boot with a loud resounding crack.
"When I get my hands on Faith... if I get the chance... I'm going to make the last hours of her life the most painful and terrifying thing she has ever experienced and I'm going to broadcast it for all of Eden's Gate and Joseph to see." He said softly his anger clearly only barely contained.
Joey nodded in agreement. "You better get medieval on her ass. Because if you don't I will."
Finally they left the nightmarish basement behind and walked into the courtyard. Roger raised his hand to signal for them to stop and listen. They were met with only the sounds of a soft breeze weaving through the nearby trees and the gurgling of the large fount full of Bliss in the courtyard.
"I think we are clear." He said as he wondered toward the fount of Bliss.
Joey followed still a bit unsure about getting so close to the fount but she followed nonetheless. "Looks like a baptismal fount of some kind. Figures the fucking cult would ritualized even their science experiments."
"Still never seen Bliss quite this shade of darkish green red. Lets call this in and get a sample to the medics, hopefully we can figure out just what the cult might start unleashing on us." He said as he reached for his radio.
Off to the side of the chapel was a storage shed whose door had been covered with boards hastily hammered into place. Inside the creature that resided started moving, its broken mind finally registering that things were happening around it. Through smokey green eyes it peeked through the gaps in the wood panels seeing the strange people outside, people that didn't look like The Father's people. Those who are not with 'The Father' must not be allowed to walk on the hollowed ground of the Project.
'Things are looking up for a change.' Roger thought. They had managed to hit the convent fast enough that no call for reinforcement was sent. Mack's people on their own initiative attacked the Shrines they were camping on and managed to not only kill the peggies but rescue a dozen people in the process. Now they just had to wait for the Resistance to hold the Convent.
"Well at least we still managed to save some people today." Joey remarked as she listened in on the conversation.
Anything else was cut short as a unholy roar came from behind them and a massive ghostly pale skinned Angel burst out from a boarded up garden shed.
'THAT was their exterior holding cell!' Joey thought as she looked at the monster before her. It's ghostly pale skin was stretched tight across grotesquely overgrown muscles that threatened to rip through the medical scrubs that were sized for a 'normal' angel.
The monster raced toward them with a speed that they had never seen from any Angel previously as it settled on going after Joey. She felt herself get batted away by Roger as he tried to counter charge the Angel but to Joey's horror not only was this thing fast but it was a full head taller than even Roger and bulkier to boot.
This difference in mass and velocity meant that she could only watch from the ground as Roger and the Angel both impacted and were sent flying into the fount of Bliss.
"ROGER!" She screamed as both men disappeared into dark greenish liquid. She got up and drew her sidearm in the hope that Roger would surface and give her a clear shot or the monster sized Angel would surface and show itself.
"Just how fucking deep is that pool?!" She thought aloud and she could only see the occasional ripple indicating movement under the surface of the fount.
Roger was legitimately shocked by how strong and fast this Angel was, he certainly wasn't used to fighting people that were bigger than him. Now that they were in the pool of Bliss he couldn't even hope to see the bastard unless he was nearly nose to nose with him it was so dark, then there was having to fight this monster as it tried to alternate from ripping out his throat or slamming him against the bottom of the pool.
Finally he managed to free his right hand long enough to draw his knife and started jabbing it for everything he was worth as he felt his air supply begin to run out. He could feel the blade jerk in his hand with every impact as he was clearly hitting bone but with over a dozen stabs the monster was still thrashing him about like a rag doll into the bottom of the pool.
His vision was getting darker as he got closer to passing out when he desperately started looking for other places to stab and maybe hit a softer spot that he could do more damage. He finally found a such a spot by driving his blade into the monster's groin finally getting the monster to thrash and pull away from him likely heading for the surface.
He push off of the bottom of the pool and reached upward for the surface hoping that he could last that long, just the effort in pushing off the bottom was increasingly painful as his muscles and joints all started lighting up and he felt his body start wanting to breathe despite himself.
On the surface Joey was getting rapidly getting worried until finally something shot up out from the depths of the pool and clawed at the sides pulling itself rapidly out of the pool. The overgrown Angel bore many gushing stab wounds in his chest and groin but otherwise seemed unbothered as it came out of the pool.
Joey waited for the Angel to get out of the pool so she wouldn't run the risk of a stray shot going into the pool and hitting Roger who she really hoped was going to surface any second now. Still once she had a clear shot she double tapped the monster in the head... and it only turned and made to charge at her even as its jaw and right eye were destroyed by the .45 cal slugs.
She started backing up and putting rounds into the monster's chest and neck visibly slowing it down but not stopping it dead until finally her gun ran dry and she scrambled for her shotgun.
Roger's head broke the surface and he gasped repeatedly trying to get some air in him but every breath felt like he was fighting his own body. He saw the monster start towards Joey and watched it eat a full mag worth of slugs with little effect.
'Kill!' His oxygen starved mind managed as he pushed through the pain and made for the steps that were intended for the cultists to enter and exit the fount. When he was halfway up the steps his body screaming at him in ways he had never experienced before he drew his Desert Eagle and aimed the hand cannon as best as he could.
His first shot was poorly aimed but it was for the better as the 400 grain .50 caliber struck low behind the Angels right knee utterly wrecking the joint and forcing the monster down. The next rounds weren't much better aimed but the heavy handgun rounds combined with Joey dumping her entire shotgun mag into it as fast as she could pull the trigger managed to finally put the monster down for good.
He dropped the slide on the empty gun and holstered it as he finally started loosing the battle raging within his body and started to struggle to breathe again.
"Joey... help." He said as he collapsed on to the grass.
She rushed over and could hear Roger struggle to breathe prompting her to start stripping him of his armor as fast as she could, it didn't help much as it seemed like almost every time he tried to take in a breath he his body was exhaling instead like a motor that had severe timing issues.
She looked into his eyes and saw something that in all of her years of knowing Roger Rook she had never witnessed before... fear. Honest to god fear. Realizing this she grabbed her radio.
"This is Hudson I need a medevac now at the convent. Roger's down hard and needs help! He can barely breathe!" She called.
Back at the Jail the Sheriff and Marcus were looking over the map after updating it with the fall of the convent and the nearby Shrines when the call came in. Marcus's blood ran cold. He was a lifelong solider and knew the risks that came with that line of work and those risks applied to his son just as much as they applied to him, but still as a father a part of him feared just this moment.
"Tracey grab the chopper pilot and a orderly and get out there as fast as you can!" He turned to Tracey who had been looking on at the on going planning session.
The young woman raced out of the room toward what served as a field hospital/laboratory for the Resistance forced based out of the Jail and grabbed one of the fighters that had volunteered to serve as an assistant to the otherwise overwhelmed medical staff and made for the helicopter and its pilot.
Back at the convent all Joey could do was hold Roger's hand to try and calm him and be on hand should he stop breathing completely so she could start performing CPR. A few minutes later the Mini-Revelators had pulled up to hold the convent but even the medic that had been among them didn't have anything on him to even begin to treat Roger.
So all she could do was sit, wait, and watch her friend and love fight for his life.
It made hearing the sound of the chopper approaching all the better as it landed out front.
"It'll be ok Roger. We'll get you back to the Doc and get you patched up. You still have to show me all those placed you promised me." She said softly only getting more gasping in reply as Tracey and her assistant approached.
"What happened Joey?" She asked as she looked over him and started laying out a stretcher to carry him to the chopper.
"Some fucking giant Angel attacked us and tackled Roger into a entire pool of Bliss. Afterwords he started struggling to breathe and I can only imagine that he is in a lot of pain if what he said about his previous exposure to large amounts of Bliss still hold true." Joey rattled off.
Tracey nodded with the new information as she looked at Roger's eyes. "Shit this isn't a normal Bliss reaction his eyes are still clear." She had her assistant hand her a couple vials and handed them to Joey.
"Go get me some samples from that pool he fell in so the docs can figure out just what the hell we are working against."
She did as instructed and approached the evil looking pool once more and carefully filled each of the vials. A small voice in the back of her mind wondered about her own exposure to the Bliss but right now helping Roger was far more important not just for her own personal reasons but the Resistance had just lost its spear point against the cult.
It took six men to lift Roger and the stretcher into the chopper. Another one of the men was kind enough to gather up Roger's equipment and discarded armor to load as well.
"Deputy! You got handcuffs? I don't want to let this guy run completely loose if we can help it, no telling what the Bliss has done to his mind." One of the fighter said as he and two others lead Burke to the chopper as well.
Joey nodded and whipped out the cuffs she still carried and with more than a bit of pleasure even considering the circumstances slapped them on Burke's wrists.
"Maybe next time Burke I'll have cause to read you your rights." She said spitefully as she loaded him into the chopper and buckled him in, bringing back brief flashbacks to the night that the cult took over and she did the same for Joseph.
'Focus Joey. Get Roger help first.' She chastised herself.
With everyone loaded up the chopper once more took to the skies as they now turned golden with the setting sun. The pilot knew the risks they were taking and flew at literal tree top height to avoid presenting a clear target to any cult anti-air units that might be in the area. Only when they flew over the Moonflower Trailer Park and got sight of the jail did Joey visibly relax a little.
There waiting on the ground was Dr. Ferguson, the Sheriff, and unfortunately both Rooks. Even as the chopper spun down the medical staff came by with a rolling stretcher and with a massive heave unloaded Roger on to it before speeding off back inside the jail with his parents in tow. Joey stayed away from the medical staff and pulled Burke out of the chopper and presented him to the Sheriff.
"This is the only survivor from the convent, every one else best as I can figure were turned into Angels or were about too be turned or were fed to them." She said trying desperately to not rush after Roger.
The Sheriff grabbed Burke by the shoulder. "Can't say I'm surprised to hear except for the feeding part, you'll have to tell me about it but do it later. Go look after Rook, I'll take care of Burke."
Inside the makeshift ward Dr. Ferguson was once more cursing the Seed's and whoever came up with the Bliss as he looked over the younger man before him.
They had started using a CPR bag to help force air into his lungs but now they were dealing with other issues.
"His temperature is spiking! Passing 103 degrees!" Lindsey called out reading his laser thermometer.
"ICE! ICE! GET AS MUCH ICE IN HERE AS WE GOT!" He called out as he started stripping with the help of the Rooks the giant lawman. Tracey arrived with a flatbed cart bearing a cooler full of crushed ice and plastic zip lock bags as she and another orderly started desperately filling them and handing them off.
Roger's skin was now flushed red and felt horribly hot to the touch even as they first covered the usual places where one would apply heat or cooling to help regulate a patients body temperature; Groin, armpits, etc... but now even with his massive chest covered in bags of ice he wasn't cooling off.
"Temperature check!" He called out as he started considering running a IV to make sure that Roger didn't dehydrate from the sudden amount of sweating he was doing right now.
"107 degrees!" Lindsey called out.
"Fuck it. Just dump the ice on him! ALL OF IT!" He said as he helped Tracey dump the ice and whatever water onto Roger. "Go get more!" He waved Tracey off as she ran to get more ice.
"Temperature check!" He called once more.
"102 degrees and falling." Lindsey said with a bit of relief in his voice.
"Keep checking his temps no more than every two minutes or so. We'll dump a bit more ice on him but lets make sure we don't give him frostbite inadvertently. I'll start running a IV line now."
"He's big enough that we might need to run two lines don't you think?" Lindsey asked. It was a double edged question as supplies were still finite and it would be easy to burn through their supplies if they didn't hold back where they could."
"We will start with one but if it even looks like he becoming dehydrated then we run a second line, might have to consider piping in nutrients later but lets see what happens. In the mean time once we can get..."
Rogers body started convulsing violently right then and the orderlies tried to hold him down in place.
Ferguson waved them off "Don't try to hold him down! Not that any of us could hope to stop him anyway. Charles temp check!"
"103... 104... 105 and leveling... off at 105 degrees." He called out just as Tracey arrived with a fresh load of ice.
"This is the last of the ice we have until the machine can make more." She said as she and Charles dumped the ice on Roger once more and spread it out across as much of his body as possible despite his continued convulsions which at least seemed to be waning.
"How is his breathing?" Lindsey asked the orderly who was working the CPR bag still.
"Stabilized by the looks of it should I continue helping him?" The man asked to which Ferguson replied.
"No but keep that thing handy, I get the feeling that this won't be the last time we go through this song and dance. I'll talk with Hudson and the Rooks call me if anything else goes wrong."
Tracey nodded. "I'll go find something to keep most of the water off the floor as this ice melts. If we need more though we'll need to find a new source of ice like a restaurant sized ice maker."
Nodding at the comment the doctor left the ward and entered the common area where everyone he needed to talk to was gathered around the map in the center of the room trying to focus on something besides Roger's condition. His entrance was first noted by the Sheriff.
"Doc, how's Rook?" He asked.
"Alive for the moment but please, please keep in mind that we are running half blind here. His body temperature has spiked as high as 107 degrees which runs a extremely high risk of brain damage even in short durations, we managed to lower it with a lot of ice but if he has another temperature spike before our supply can recover we won't have enough to treat him a second time. Then on top of that he's had a convulsive episode which combined with the pain and discomfort he has experienced with past exposure to Bliss makes me think he could be at risk for ripping his muscles and tendons apart especially considering just how strong he is at his baseline." The doctor said grabbing a nearby chair to settle himself in.
"We need to figure out a way of at least controlling his body temperature, after that its making sure he can still breathe as I think the start of the convulsions were what was interfering with his breathing earlier, and after that making sure he doesn't dehydrate from his body trying to control its temperature all by itself on top of whatever else stress is being put on his body."
At that moment Virgil walked in with a fryer basket full of golden brown chicken nuggets and some paper plates. "I know everyone is worried about Roger so forgive me if I took the liberty of making dinner for you guys. It's my own recipe too." He said with a warm smile that was hard to hate.
Everyone gathered around him as he portioned out the fried hunks of chicken and as Joey received her portion an idea occurred to her.
"Fryer basket... that's how we can keep Roger cool. We put him into a big tank of water to regulate his temperature as needed and pull him out when not." She said catching Marcus's eye before continuing.
"We can rip off one of these cell doors..."
"I can grab some foam sleeping bag mats from Fall's End!" Jessica perked up for the first time since they arrived.
"But how will you lift all that? Roger isn't exactly a lightweight. Pulleys?" Virgil asked and Marcus answered.
"No too slow and relies too much on having enough people strong enough to hoist him up and down. But the General Store does have a selection of truck winches I can mount and wire up. All the ceilings in this place are exposed I-beams so it would be easy."
Ferguson chimed in then. "Lorna's Truck Stop had a small farm supply store attached to it maybe they have stock tanks we can use."
"Come on honey lets get moving on this idea. Earl I'll take some of my men and get this done think you can hold out alright?" Marcus asked the excitement clearly in his voice.
The Sheriff nodded. "It'll be a cake walk, you guys do what you need to help Roger."
"I'll go too." Joey started to say but was stopped by Virgil of all people.
"Actually I also had a idea... you guys need information on the Bliss right? Well there is one guy if you can find him that might be worth bringing in."
"Who?" Joey asked sharply.
"Dr. Peter Feeney former pharmacist and drug pusher. Managed to get my son hooked on the Bliss and later my wife, eventually they both joined the cult. From what little we have been able to piece together from leftover notes and a few interrogations he is supposedly the cult's lead chemist and helped refine the original drug that Quentin Jessop developed into what the Bliss is now." The aging politician said the words weighing on him considerably.
"Well then it looks like I get to do some hunting then." She said as the Sheriff stepped closer.
"Joey at least get some rest and a meal in you before running off on a hunting trip. Besides you don't even know where to look yet."
"True that's why I just have to find something to draw him out or get Faith to push him to work harder. I just need to think on it some." She replied as she could feel the first threads of a plan forming in her mind but still slipping from her grasp when she tried to piece it together.
"Well all the more reason should get some rest before doing any serious thinking." The Sheriff concluded as he thanked Virgil for the dinner and went off elsewhere in the jail to get some of the handier Resistance fighters in the jail to pull a door from one of the unused jail cells. Virgil soon left as well leaving Joey alone looking at the large map of the region. She closed her eyes in concentration only to find herself being shaken awake by Tracey.
"Hey you fell asleep staring at the map. Anyway Roger is awake and wondered where you are. Be careful through everyone is working on your 'Fryer Basket' idea right now." The younger woman said with a small smile.
"Thanks Tracey. While your here can I ask you about Faith? I think you said you knew her once." Joey inquired as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
Tracey leaned on to the table casting her gaze over the massive Jessop conservatory. "Yeah I knew her. Her real name is Rachel Jessop. Back in middle school and high school she was always that quiet, overly nice girl. She always liked to keep the peace at all costs to herself, always willing to say 'Yes' to keep that peace."
"Sounds like John's kind of girl." Joey quipped as Tracey continued.
"Wouldn't be surprised by that at all. Rachel couldn't get the gumption to stand up for herself so she got good at bending over for everyone literally and figuratively. When I first met her I thought she was just this rich girl that needed a reality check, but no matter what we did together she never lost that naivety. Then she got hooked on drugs first cocaine then later heroin. I wasn't too far behind her to be honest but we eventually left a free spirit movement back out west and joined up with the cult. Cult life forced both of us to clean up but... well for me once I was clean, I was clear and I could see the manipulations so I jumped ship. I tried to take Rachel with me but she had finally found a place where she was 'safe' and Joseph loved her manners. Most people don't realize that Rachel isn't the first 'Faith Seed', hell I'm not sure if there ever was a real Faith Seed but what I do know was Faith when I was in the cult was a tall blonde with big tits, then a year later right after I had left it was this pixie of a Chinese girl that was being introduced as 'Faith Seed' it wasn't until a few years later that I next saw who Faith was and it was Rachel."
"I get it now. In the cult she is respected, has power and only answers to Joseph and she will do anything to keep that going. So now she pushes a drug that claims to make people happy because when people are happy they don't question things or people." Joey concluded.
"Bingo. Rachel in her efforts to keep the peace will lie and manipulate anything and everything and because she has been manipulated so many times over the years she knows exactly what to say, how to say it, and when to say it. Don't underestimate her she is more dangerous and cruel then most people give her credit for." Tracey said as she lead the way to the medical ward.
Roger wondered what new level of hell he must be in given the massive amount of whole body pain he was in as he woke up. Even opening his eyelids or the beating of his own heart sent constant pulses of pain through his entire body as if his own blood pressure was nearly too much for his body to hold in. On top of that he felt uncomfortably warm to make matters worse.
Above him his father and one of the other Grey's were bolting one of four 5,000 lb truck winches to the I-beams that crossed overhead, apparently Joey had come up with some idea that he couldn't quite remember but it was to help him so he wouldn't say no.
Still regardless of his pain and discomfort from just continuing to exist he smiled when Joey came into view.
"Hey babe..." He said surprisingly hoarsely as he suddenly realized just how dry he felt.
Joey grabbed a nearby bottle of water, knelt on the floor, and slowly helped him drink from it careful to watch his breathing so that he didn't choke.
"Roger... how do you feel?" She asked softly. She knew however from just looking at him that he had to be in considerable pain. His skin was still red and swollen yet his massive muscles seemed even more defined than ever. The scars of his past exploits were bright white, their presence highlighted on his body.
"I'm really hurting Joey and I feel so warm and so dry." He muttered as loud as he could manage.
Joey turned to Tracey to ask if there was anything to at least help him deal with the pain. "I'm sorry Joey, the docs already considered giving him pain killers but with this unknown kind of Bliss and how touch and go his breathing has been they feel they can't risk a bad reaction. If they did he might not be strong enough to survive it."
"It's ok Joey. I'll deal with the pain. I have to tell you something though." He croaked.
He slowly took Joey's hand in his own ignoring the screaming pain that both the movement and the contact produced he wanted... he needed to reassure himself that she was there and to reassure her that he wasn't dead yet.
"You have to keep fighting the cult. Show them that even if I am down, even if I am dead, that there is still one Deputy in this county who will line the road to the Gates of Eden with their corpses. You're the only one I trust to ask this of... take my Barrett and my 1911 but go out and find your own way of fighting the cult. By buckshot, rifle, grenade, blade, fist... use anything at your disposal. Any tactic save for those that would spend the lives of those who we are sworn to protect. Get in Faith's head and find out how she ticks and then exploit it without mercy." His short speech left him gasping for breath.
Joey was stunned. He actually was asking her to take point as it were against the cult to be the one who bore the burden of everyone's hopes to fight the cult and free them from its grip.
"I... I'll try Roger." She said simply still trying to deal with the request.
"No. Try not. Do or do not, there is no try." He croaked once more with a big smile.
A smile broke across Joey's face and Marcus above them could be heard snickering uncontrollably to himself.
"Did you just... go full Yoda on me?" She asked finally breaking out in laughter.
He nodded slowly and squeezed her hand a little bit more.
"I won't fail you Roger." She said finally.
"Know this I do. Now rest I must, so tired I am." He muttered as he rested his eyes and went back to focusing on breathing.
Joey leaned up and placed a light kiss on his lips. "Go ahead and rest, but don't disappear or die. You still need to show me the world after all. I love you Master Rook."
"Know this I do. Much love I have for you I do." Roger managed before slipping fully back to sleep.
From above them Marcus watched on silently having long since finished mounting the last winch. He watched Joey as she quietly got up and left the ward, her shoulders just now feeling the first burdens of responsibility. Still Roger trusted her to lead the way and he would do everything he could to support her, he only hoped that she could rise to the occasion fast enough.
Joey wondered the quiet halls of the jail until she reached the cell that she and Roger shared where someone had placed his rucksack, armor, and gun belt on his bed. She swapped pistols for his larger suppressed and double stacked 1911. She then with a unusual nervousness unhooked Roger's Barrett from the bag and hefted the massive rifle in her hands.
This particular M107 had been Roger's rifle of choice since he was 12 and had taken him from competition to competition without fail. In a way this was Roger manifested in steel, she had of course shot this rifle plenty of times over the years and was decent shot with it but while for her idea of 'long range' was hitting a man sized target at 500 yards it was a far cry from the longer ranges that Roger used to warm up with let alone actually fight at. Still even just holding it gave her a certain confidence but even with that the weight of what she had been asked to do fully hit her.
'I'm it... I'm the Demoness... sent by The Collapse to carry out his will. I'm the one that people will look to retake our home, I'm the one that people will look to for answers and help. This isn't just upholding the law anymore... this is being a leader of the people. Sure Marcus and Earl maybe the day to day leaders but Roger was where the buck stopped... and now I'm it.' She thought as she found herself trapping the rifle to her own bag and grabbing as many mags as she could fit in it before walking down to one of the few places in the jail that hadn't been changed was the small chapel.
It was small only having six pews that at best could sit four people she wasn't sure it had gotten any use before she had stepped in here but right now she felt like she needed some space to come to grips with everything.
Whitehorse wondered the quiet halls after checking on the fryer basket project for Roger and putting his grandchildren to bed. He knew that he too should be heading to bed himself but old habits from the siege were hard to break so he was going to do one last round of the jail to ensure that it was ready for the night.
That patrol stopped short when he peered into the dark normally empty chapel and saw Joey in one of the pews. He had heard by way of Marcus what Roger had asked of Joey and could tell that she was trying to cope with it all, hell he was having to cope with the days events as well. In every nightmare scenario he ever thought of that involved the cult he knew that the actual dirty work would fall on most likely Joey Hudson's shoulders and that conclusion became ever stronger as he watched more and more of his department join the cult.
Now they were back at square one.
Taking a deep breath he quietly entered the chapel as approached the front right pew where Joey sat head down in either prayer or contemplation as the moonlight came through the tiny stained glass window above them.
"Joey? May I join you?" He asked softly and she looked up at him briefly before waving for him to join her.
"Oh Sheriff! Yeah take a seat, I'm just... thinking." She said softly.
For a split second he thought to sit on her left but he thought better of it and sat on her right. 'That spot is taken like it or not.' He thought.
"I'm not the Sheriff right now, I'm Earl right now. I heard about what Roger has asked you to do." He said as he sat down.
Joey sighed as she was reminded of her new role. "Earl... how am I supposed to do this? Roger's at least sort of trained for this sort of fighting meanwhile I'm just a Deputy. It was one thing when he was there to teach me how to fight a war, catch me when I fall figuratively and literally but now I'm not only having to learn how fight but now I have everyone counting on me to keep leading us out of this mess. I never realized just how much pressure was on him to perform until now."
Earl reached up and took off his glasses and regarded his friend for a moment before speaking.
"Joey if I am being honest you're in a better position than I actually had feared for months leading up to this war. I always figured that if things kicked off with the cult that I would be pretty high up on the list of people to kill either that or I would suffer another stress induced heart attack. You where my only real hope, my bright spot in all this mess that maybe you would be able to lead and fight if I was gone or certainly physically do what I couldn't."
He let the words hang in the darkness for a moment before pushing on.
"Joey, you would have likely been in this spot right from the beginning if Roger wasn't here. But he was here and he has built a base for you to work off of and that gives you a massive advantage. One other thing to remember is that you have always had the flaw of comparing yourself to Roger in most things."
Joey turned and looked at her friend in confusion as he kept speaking.
"You are a lot better than you tend to give yourself credit for Joey. The problem is that you only compare yourself to Roger who lets be honest is one of the best things ever to come out of this county, if you compare yourself to everyone else you are still head and shoulders above them. So given that and the base Roger has built for you all you have to worry about is taking outposts and killing peggies, Marcus and I will make sure that you have food, ammo, and a place to rest and we will make sure that whatever ground you take we get people to hold, that anyone you rescue we recover and treat. Just focus on what you can do and the rest of us will fill in the blanks."
"See peggie, kill peggie, save the world... that's what he told me when we first moved against the cult in this region. When he asked me to take over fighting he told me to make my own plans, use whatever resources I can find, so long as I don't get the people we are supposed to be saving killed." Joey said sitting back in the pew looking at the tiny stain glass window and the moon that laid beyond it.
"Sounds like you have a plan already forming not to mention you did say you would hunt down Feeney." Earl said softly looking up at the window. The window was depicting the sermon on the mount but he could see that the gears in Joey's head were finally begin to turn freely.
"I need to blow Joseph's statue and I need to do it in the flashiest way possible even before going after Feeney. Spit in Faith's face and mock her for failing to defend it so she is facing not only pressure from us but from within the cult as well. I think tomorrow I'm going to ask Marcus to give me a crash course in how to use C4 and then I'll sneak up to the statue, blow it up, and go from there." She said almost in a trance like state.
Earl stood up and offered a hand to pull Joey up who took it and turned it into a hug surprising the old Sheriff.
"Thanks Earl for being there for me. I was kinda of wishing Dad was here but you'll do just fine." She said with a smile after pulling back.
"Well that's good to hear. Ed would have my ass if I didn't try to help you and your mother would certainly come back from Texas to rip me a new one as well. Let's get some sleep." He said as he lead them out of the chapel.
Meanwhile in the Whistling Beaver Brewery Doctor Peter Feeney was scowling at the latest turn of events earlier that day.
'It's bad enough we lost Deep North but now they are directly interfering with the Saint project!' He thought angrily. Eden's Convent had been a perfect site for the en mass testing and converting of test subjects in their search for a Saint among the faithful.
The convent had both holding facilities for test subjects both pre and post test and had the necessary spiritual facilities to support the subjects and the staff. Now he had to deal with the reality that the conversion sites at Joseph's Word and Eden's Altar were too small to hold the numbers of test subjects that they had been using up to this point.
'We can make do with Joseph's Word and Eden's Altar at least until I can ask Herald Faith to finish spooling up the expanded facilities at the conservatory which would solve all of our logistic problems.' He reasoned but until then he also had to contend with security and transport. Angel's and Archangel's especially were hard to transport as it was like herding cats unless the handlers were particular skilled and familiar with their group of Angels. To make matters worse freshly produced Angels could be particularly wild even aggressive in some cases.
He reached into a small refrigerator that was behind his desk in the brewery and pulled out a beer bearing the same branding as the brewery he was currently in. It was contraband of course but his position within the cult meant that short of 'The Father' or his heralds coming into search his office meant that he could allow himself some vices before 'The Collapse' eliminates such luxuries.
Taking a long swig of the beer he leaned back and stared at the white color ceiling of his office as his mind crunched all the factors of transporting the Angels but the test subjects, the Bliss blend which couldn't be produced in the amounts needed outside of the conservatory or the brewery or Faith's bunker, and then securing it all.
'The Resistance hasn't used any aircraft that we are aware of on this side of the river so we have that at least. But the roads are going to be getting increasingly dangerous especially for anything headed out to Joesph's Word and the rivers aren't going to be much better off. I could of course move everything at night and if it needed to be moved during the day I could ask for one of the helicopters to run escort but that would need us to concentrate everything into a single convoy for efficiencies sake.'
His head pounded and the beer wasn't dulling the headache like he had hoped it would. He was a chemist for God's sake not a logistics specialist.
"Why God do you task me so?" He said to the ceiling as if God would give him some kind of sign but not surprisingly there was nothing forth coming.
He got up and walked toward his private quarters his pounding mind still churning over all the details of keeping his Saint project going. It had to keep going, it absolutely no mater what had to keep going. He knew they were so very close to achieving what was said to be impossible, a perfect performance enhancer that was based on the original Bliss drug with all of its many pros and none of the cognitive degrading side effects.
As it was they had already reached what they could do with the original formula that was bestowed upon the specialists within the cult; the preachers, his chemists, and Faith's priestesses. They were slightly stronger and much tougher than they once were and didn't suffer from the same mental breakdowns of the Angels but that wasn't enough for him.
So he kept pushing seeing what the Bliss could do for it was an amazingly flexible drug that with right additives, selective breeding, processing, and preparation it seems like they could make virtually any effect stick. Thus came the Archangel the pinnacle of physical might and durability though they suffered mostly from the same mental handicaps that afflicted their lesser brethren there had been instances where a Archangel had shown basic problem solving skills above what had ever been witnessed otherwise from a Angel.
That had given him the hope that he was on the right course, but with every improvement the stress the subjects bodies were placed under increased and the number of dead candidates that didn't survive the blessing of the Bliss.
'Just need to find out what a good candidate for Sainthood looks like. I just need more time and bodies.' He thought as he slipped under the covers of his bed and finally found peace in sleep.