Far Cry 5: The Collapse
Chapter 23: Final Solution
As she walked down the hallway on either side were dozens of small work rooms filled with multitudes of various chemical testing equipment, beakers and other bits of lab glassware galore, and large clear plastic tanks of Bliss in colors that even she had never seen before.
Finally she came to a intersection. 'Ok up ahead is an observation lab, to the left is storage, and to the right is 'Test Subject Holding and Preparation'. Well I guess that settles where I need to go next.' She thought as she turned down the hallway towards a massive steel barn like door.
It was unlocked with a an appropriately massive lock that looked more like something she had seen on a battleship with a dozen thick steel rods that would go into slots in the door frame, this caught her eye as she wondered why they would leave a place that was supposed to be so secure unlocked. She slowly pushed open the well greased door and nearly passed smell of dirty bodies, rotting meat, and human excrement nearly overcame her and instantly her eyes burned from the odor, but she pressed on despite her body protesting otherwise.
The clean white walls of the rest of the lab section gave way to dark grey concrete as she entered what was clearly a prison. A prison with all the cell doors open. She rested her hand on her 1911 as she walked down between the open cells and could see numerous blood stains on the floors and walls, literal piles of human waste were in the corners of nearly every cell. In one cell however she saw a dead body, clearly a local judging by his clothing and likely dead for sometime as it was bloated and smelled... so very badly.
'What kind of excuse could Rachel or her scientists have to treat people like this? You at least need your test subjects strong enough to experiment on for God's sake!' Joey's mind screamed as she passed dozens of cells and passed a few more dead rotting bodies until she reached the end. Again she found a matching door security door that was unlocked and cracked it open to see what laid beyond.
This looked like a security office of some sort as even from the cracked doorway she could clearly make out the wall racks of law enforcement style restraints and cuffs. Seeing that this room too was empty she slid open the door, glad to be leaving most of the odor of the cell block behind she entered the security room at the corner of the room. It had security cameras watching the cell block, the room she was in and the observation lab that was beyond the only other door to this room. The camera in the lab didn't let her see much beyond the immediate area around the door but she could make out what looked like some kind of long clear semicircular chamber that was being packed full of people.
Seeing enough she went to the door that led to the observation lab in time to see the last of the prisoners be packed into the chamber at gun point from the guards who then retreated over to were Rachel was watching the group with a tired look.
'I guess even Heralds need their beauty sleep.' She quipped internally as she looked around for where she should go next when a loud glug from the overhead pipework nearly made her jump out of her skin. There above her was a hatch marked 'Service Access' and could be opened with a simple twist of the handle on the hatch.
"Ok up we go then." She muttered to herself as she reached up and opened the hatch immediately having to jump away as a telescoping ladder fell and stopped just short of hitting the floor. Her heart raced as she hoped no one heard that and quickly raced up the ladder before reaching around and pulling it up and with it the hatch itself. The crawl space she now found herself in once you got away from the hatch access was barely big enough for her to crawl on all fours as she followed the pipes and cables until she was past the wall and stopped at the first ventilation grate that offered her a view of everything happening in the main lab floor.
Rachel flanked by her personal guard and the senior chemist watched as the mass of sinners some 100 of them or so were packed into the test chamber. All around her more of the cults scientists sat at various computer terminals facing the chamber monitoring things she only barely understood.
'I have to do this, I have to show Joseph that I am doing everything I can to make his Eden a reality. It's the only way I can think of avoiding disappointing him or worse being punished by him.' Rachel thought to herself as she stepped forward.
"Are we ready?" She asked to no one in particular.
The senior chemist leaned over one of the terminal workers and nodded to himself. "Yes my Herald. The pumps are primed and we are ready to begin the blessing at your discretion." He said with a calm voice.
As far as he was concerned what some of the other brothers thought was a act of desperation he saw instead as an opportunity. They had never really tried to bless more than one person at a time but now they could finally see if it was possible.
How much Bliss would they need? What would be the ratios between deaths, Angels, and Archangels? Could they even find a Saint by this method? These and so many more questions that could now be answered as he and his fellow faithful scientists did their part to bring the faithful to Eden's Gate.
"Good morning all of you. I know its a bit early but our original plans had some last minute changes. Today we are going to offer you all a wonderful opportunity to experience the full breath of Bliss. To feel the weight and demands of a cruel sinful world be lifted from your shoulders. When you take in the Bliss you will feel clear... purified... and open. Without the haze of the sin or the pressure of the world you can finally see and embrace the full breath of 'The Father's' word." Rachel said now slipping fully back into the warm embrace of her persona as Faith Seed.
The tired and frightened sinners didn't know how to react. So they simply stood there some weeping, a few hugging spouses, and even a few muttering prayers in defiance of the cult.
"Embrace the Bliss and see Eden!" Faith said with out stretched arms and one of the men sitting at his terminal pressed a button opening the valves.
The sprayer heads above the group opened up and began covering the group in the cults drug... and so the screaming began.
A few of the victims held each other fully resigned to their fate, however everyone else either in a panic or in hopes forcing their way out of the chamber rushed to the massive steel door to the chamber. They banged and clawed at the door until their finger nails were ripped off and still they continued. One man decided that attacking the door was pointless and proceeded to punch at the clear plastic chamber walls.
Others joined him and combined their blows against the polycarbonate walls began to form cracks. Even when their hands had broken and become little more than bloodied wrecks they pounded on trying to expand the cracks they had managed to form.
The Chosen in the room held their rifles closely as they saw the cracks slowly expand but neither Faith nor the chemists were otherwise concerned.
By now the effects of the Bliss were mounting as some people blacked out and fell to the floor only to be trampled by those who still desperately fought to find a way out of the chamber. A man and a woman moved to get under one of the spray heads and the woman ripped off her shirt as she was hoisted up on the mans shoulders, all care for modesty tossed aside as she wrapped her shirt around the spray head to slow the incoming drug even as it now began to pool within the chamber.
Another couple moved to try the same thing but the woman had only gotten her shirt off when she was over come by the drug and as she fell so too did her partner. Even those that had ruined their hands beating against the chamber walls now fell against those same walls leaving long bloody streaks on them.
The last few people finally succumbed and the only sound that could be heard in the lab was the rhythmic whirring of the pumps and the pitter patter of the drops of Bliss still being sprayed into the chamber.
"Kill the pumps." The senior chemist said as he turned to his herald. "Give it hour or two and we will be able to pull them out and see what our results will be. I should have a preliminary report to you by lunch at the latest."
The herald smiled. "Thank you I look forward to seeing if this works, if so then we can further hasten the work of 'The Father'. Now I will see if I can get some more sleep before the start of the day."
The other man nodded understandingly and watched with a smile as she left with her guards. His own work was just beginning.
Joey laid frozen in the vent as she watched everything unfold in all of its unending terror. She had clamped her hand over her mouth lest she be heard sobbing as she listened once more to the screams of those who she was sworn to protect from the cult die. Once more she was on that bed of cardboard bound up waiting for John to summon her or feed her with nothing to do but listen the constant screams.
When she had been in the bunker eventually she could tune it out. Eventually being the prime word.
All she could do now was watch and hope that everything she had done tonight, everything she still had to do this night would be worth the price of having to stand by and watch these people die.
'Please God... don't make this a trip for nothing.' She thought as she watched Rachel leave with her guard. She crawled forward putting the scene behind her as she tried to remember the diagram that Dmitri had drawn out for her.
'Ok Labs are on the first floor, VIP quarters are on the second, and Rachel's residence is on the third.' She thought as she came to a vent that was in another hallway. It was near a exit given the soft red glow of the 'Exit' sign passing through the grate, so it would give her a place to leave the conservatory building and start making her way back to the Cache.
Pulling the vent cover out of its frame she peeked out into the lonely hallway that honestly she didn't know where she was in the building at this point. Seeing no one she slipped down through the vent, hanging by one arm so as to be able to reach up and slip the cover back into place before falling quietly to the floor.
The dark halls remained deadly quiet save for her rapid breathing that she was trying to get under control. Not wanting to hang around she turned and examined the door that she at least suspected lead to the buildings exterior for any signs of being equipped with an alarm or anything at all but found it was just a standard commercial steel exterior with a crash bar latch that was unlocked.
Still when she pressed quietly against the door she drew Roger's 1911 just in case. 'Everything else has gone wrong tonight so why expect that I'm not going to run into at least one guard?' She grumbled internally.
Now outside she had her bearings once more and knew she was on the far south end of the building. She would have to go north to get back to the Cache entrance but as she contemplated her next steps, she heard Rachel's voice on the wind from above her. A lone vine framed window that was not only open but large enough that even Roger could easily walk through glowed from within.
'Rachel's quarters or at least her office.' Joey realized as she checked her surroundings before listening closer.
"Is there nothing we can salvage? What about survivors?" Rachel asked the Chosen before her.
The older sounding man shook his head as he answered. "I am sorry my Herald, there's little more than ash and scorched earth remaining... even the vehicles they had are wrecked with little hope of being of much use as parts donors."
Rachel nodded. "Very well then you are dismissed. I need to get at least some sleep before I can figure out how to react to this."
The Chosen turned to leave before stopping himself and taking a deep breath. "My Herald... I would suggest that we move you to your Gate before it becomes impossible to guarantee your saf..."
Rachel exploded so loud that Joey didn't need to even strain herself to hear.
"I WILL NOT RUN! I have been ordered by The Father to stay with the children and that we are not to move them until he gives the order to do so! I will not counterman his will!"
The Chosen had paled to cult white under his red balaclava as he tried to dig himself out of the hole he had jumped into.
I... I... I am sorry my Herald. I didn't know The Father had ordered otherwise... I was just watching out for your safety as I was assigned to do." He pleaded to the far younger woman.
She quickly got her anger under control if only just as to be fair he was only trying to do his job. But running now would only ensure that Joseph would punish her not only for dereliction of her duties but for cowardice especially considering how increasingly shaky her people were before tonight's explosion.
'I wonder how many people will decide to overdose on Bliss? At least most of those become Angels or Archangels which still have some use. Better than those that decide to eat a bullet at least.' The cultist lieutenant thought to herself as she further calmed herself before speaking.
"Sorry I know you mean well. But the will of The Father is clear, I must look after the children as he has instructed and do so in the manner that again he has instructed. That means that we keep them here at the conservatory meaning I must stay here."
She placed a hand on the Chosen's shoulder looking him in the eye as she did. "We have to have Faith... the Resistance has gained a lot of ground but in doing so they have to be stretched thin and we will take advantage of that in due time. God's will shall not be stopped and we will create a new Eden in spite of these sinners efforts otherwise. I know its hard or even terrifying to see our losses but once we press through that fear... we will all live in the kind of Bliss that only Eden can give us."
The man had calmed considerably as he drank in the Herald's words. So overcome with hope he merely nodded in agreement as he turned away on the brink of tears of joy to leave his Herald both so she could rest and he could think on her words of hope.
Joey hadn't heard everything but she had heard a door being opened and shut followed by the lights being turned off. Looking at the white flower dotted vines that covered so much of this end of the building revealed that they were wrapped around a wrought iron latticework.
' "Joey I am serious don't go hunting for trouble." That's what Marcus said yet here I am considering just that.' She thought as she reached out and carefully tested the ironwork to see if it would even support her weight.
When it held she started to creep up slowly her vision sparking slightly as she did from the flowers. 'Figures that they would make some sort of hybrid version of Bliss that grows like a vine.'
Step by step she worked her way up past where she figured the second floor would be as the sound of rustling feet on the grass down below made her freeze and look down.
A pack of five Chosen were patrolling en mass below her and if even one of them thought to look up she would be easily seen even in the setting moonlight. But they passed, their pace unchanged as they glided quietly around to the front of the building.
Her hands refused to stop shaking from the stress even as she reached up to keep climbing. She had gone too far and seen too much tonight not to push for this in her mind. No matter how much Marcus would probably berate her for taking this risk or worse how much Roger would likely rake her across the coals for not thinking this through.
'"The war is going to be long and if we want to have any hope of seeing the end and dragging Joseph away in irons we have to pick our battles wisely." That's what Roger told me the last time I went and did something stupid and its not like I am not totally going in without thinking this time.' She reasoned as she continued to close on the open window.
'We need as much information out of Rachel as possible and with the prisoner count now being zero its not like I have much else to report beyond "The cult has 10 million fucking gallons of Bliss stored in the mountain along with enough ammo to keep fighting with impunity for years!". I don't know what I am going to find if anything but if Rachel's office doesn't have anything then it's doubtful I could find anything else without getting caught in the process, besides at least I know that she is trying to get to sleep so she is less than likely to be working late.' She justified as best as she could as she now reached the window and peered in.
The office space was decorated in dozens of awards for gardening and horticulture and thousands of carefully pressed examples of plants from around the world were on display. From Joey's place at the window on her left she could see a faint glow of light coupled with the adjoining sound of a shower going that told her where Rachel was. On her right she could clearly see through a open door a large unmade bed.
Directly before her however was the reason why she had come here in the first place. Rachel's own personal computer sitting a top of her large oak desk, it was a white and black themed 'gamer' styled monster that glowed brightly from within from numerous white LED's and of course the case bore several large black heretical crosses just to make sure that anyone that looked at it would know that this was a cult computer.
She pulled herself quietly through the window and knelt behind the desk making sure to listen and confirm that the shower was still running. Once more assuming her heart rate ever dropped even a tiny bit during this mission in the first place, her heart raced in her chest as she once more dug out the other external drive and connected it to the computer that sat unlocked on its desktop.
Rachel's desktop wallpaper was of her and the Seeds along side several of the more prominent members seemingly recreating 'The Last Supper'. Rachel sat to the right of John who of course sat at Joseph's right hand and Jacob at his left, looking at the rest of the table she could pick out Tabatha and Feeney both smiling widely. A few others outside of the Seeds she could place was Nancy in the place of Judas Iscarat and Police Chief Jacob in place of Simon the Zealot, even Barry her now long forgotten ex was in the background with a platter of food.
Few things pissed her off more then seeing them all smiling and happy especially now knowing what they had done to her home. She brought herself back to the present and started the transfer before turning off the monitor and ducking back behind the desk.
She heard the shower shut off and from the bathroom strode out Rachel as she toweled her hair dry toward her bedroom on the other side of the office. Behind her a foul chemical laden stench followed reeking of a poor attempt at matching the smell of pistachios.
The smell was familiar to her and brought back unpleasant memories of a date with Roger gone wrong. It was yet another thing she could easily hate Rachel for petty though it was.
She had been on the verge of relaxing just a bit when Rachel bedroom door opened and the cultist's foot steps drew closer to the desk. Joey froze with her hand on her sidearm praying fervently that she wouldn't come around behind the desk, if she did then Joey would kill Faith and face the consequences thereafter.
The sound of a glass container being opened sounded horribly loud in the dark office followed by Rachel muttering to herself. "I really shouldn't but what the hell?" followed by the sound of hard candy being scooped out of the container followed by another seemingly loud clink of the glass lid being put back in place.
Rachel turned and walked back to her bedroom before shutting the door with it signaling to Joey that she could breathe again and could now let her body shake from the strain of being so close to being caught.
'Oh God please let all of this be worth it.' She thought as she watched the activity light on the external drive go from solid to rapid flashing then finally go dead. She turned on the monitor and saw that the process had finished and quickly disconnected the drive and stowed it safely back into her pack. She did a quick search of the desk and the immediate surrounding cabinets and found little of note besides a particular black gun belt and holster with a shiny chrome plated 1911 in 9mm. Also attached to the belt was a U.S. Marshal badge.
'Burke's gun. Not surprising but I will at least do the right thing and return it to him.' She thought as she stowed the belt and gun in her bag and made to crawl back out of the window. Outside the mountains were beginning to glow with the coming dawn showing that she was running late.
Getting back to the Cache was fairly easy as she only had to stop once to let the group of Chosen pass by the stacks of wooden crates she had ducked behind before she continued unhindered into the man made cave.
She jogged past the office trailer which appeared unchanged and kept moving as quickly as she could down the various floors. It was on the third floor she had to duck in between some pallets of ammunition as four Chosen walked by chatting loudly as they did.
"I would have expected to see the morning shift guys by now." One said.
"They could have killed themselves. Seems like that is becoming increasingly rampant these days." Another Chosen said.
"More likely they overslept considering what happened last night. No matter we will check in once we reach the conservatory and they will probably go down with the Chemists." A older sounding Chosen said putting a end to that particular subject as the group passed out of earshot.
'Oh thank God something actually goes right for a change. The morning guards aren't here yet so I got a clear shot to grab Cheeseburger and get home.' She thought joyously.
With her new found hope that there was light at the end of the tunnel both literally and figuratively she continued her jog through the storage areas until she finally saw the last stretch of the tunnel leading to Gethsemane.
Her muscles burned and her exhaustion from the nights sneaking around was beginning to override her excitement for getting a clear shot out of here but when she saw the morning sunshine at the end of the tunnel she dug deeper still.
The greenhouses and test plots sat idle and quiet as she stepped out of the tunnel. The sky above her was darkening from ever thickening cloud cover but for now the sun was just at the right angle to shine over the mountains yet under the cloud layer painting the latter in an amazing rainbow of warm reds and oranges in various shades.
It was a reminder of the many mornings she had woken up to while camping and hunting with Roger. A reminder of why she was fighting against the cult and trying to retake her home.
"Cheeseburger? Are you still here boy?" She called out cautiously.
There was only silence save for the wind carrying the sound of the nearby river when from the bushes surrounding the greenhouses Cheeseburger's hulking golden brown form came into view still holding a half eaten fish.
"Well I can't fault you for getting breakfast, but lets go home boy." She said scratching the top of the grizzly's massive head.
War bear now in tow they returned to the bank of the river where they had crossed the night before, the daylight now showing the shocking amount of debris all over the area from the brewery explosion. In a small way she thought that she was lucky that they hadn't been hit when everything exploded.
Cheeseburger once more squatted down on at the river's edge allowing her to mount his back for the swim back and once across she tried to get off only to have the bear look back with a growl as he started following the road back toward the Seeley residence at a easy gallop. She ducked forward and laid against the bear's back so as not to draw too much attention from anyone watching the area from the conservatory because who wouldn't notice a woman in uniform riding a grizzly bear?
She didn't realize that she had fallen asleep until she felt someone tapping her shoulder. She regretfully opened her eyes and saw a freshly woken up Mack looking at her with concern. They were outside the Seeley residence and it would appear that Cheeseburger had scratched at the front door till someone answered the door as evidenced by the small pile of wood shavings in front of the door.
"Hey Deputy you hurt?" The younger man asked.
She sat up feeling notably better after her nap but still felt like she could fall asleep the moment she laid back down on anything comfortable enough. "Yeah Mack... I'm ok. Just a long night and lot of things I wish I didn't have to see."
A sad look washed over his face but was quickly replaced with something more neutral as he tried to take the news in stride. "So should me and the Cougars get ready for a prison break?"
It was now her turn for her expression to darken as the events of the gas chamber replayed in her mind. 'I'm going to be reliving that moment for a damn long time aren't I?' She thought.
"No... Mack?" She questioned.
"Yeah?" He shot back.
"Do you remember learning about the Nazi concentration camps in world history class? The gas chambers and such?" She queried.
Mack nodded his mind already realizing what she was asking. "Yeah and the medical experiments too. You mean they're..." He trailed off as Joey nodded.
"They are now gassing people en mass with Bliss. Rachel is still sugar coating it as part of 'opening people's minds to the words of The Father.' but it has to be so they can make more Angels and Archangels. I don't know for sure but I'll bet they are gearing up for one last attack against us, don't know when or where exactly but everything I heard from her and her people seems to trend toward that." She stated feeling even more tired after telling him of her suspicions.
The young man sighed. "Well then I guess we will need to hurry up and finish Faith off before she can really start mass producing an army of zombie cultists. In the mean time lets get you back to the jail, I would suggest that you check in over over the radio first though."
Joey groped for her radio as she followed Mack over to his truck now a large Ford F350 dually that handled Cheeseburger's mass in the bed much easier than the previous truck.
Finally seizing the radio she called for Marcus. The elder Rook had fallen asleep at the planning table waiting through the night for her to call in so it took a moment for him to realize that he was indeed hearing her through the radio and not as part of some dream.
"Joey? Joey! Jesus, Mary, and Joseph I was getting worried about you. Where are you and what's your status?" He asked as he searched around for a clean mug to get some coffee into him.
Joey smiled at the commando's concern for her. "I'm with Mack on my way back to the jail. I'm unhurt but exhausted. I'll give you the full debrief once I get in."
"Ok Joey, don't worry we'll have fresh coffee waiting for you." Marcus replied before cutting the line.
The moment the radio went silent she found herself nodding off again and once more she found herself back in the vent watching and listening to the terrified screams of the innocent.
Once more she felt the crushing weight of the green fog all around her as she fell downwards. Among the sound of the rushing air past her ears were the screams that had precluded her fall into the fog. She landed with a thud in a field of tall grass.
Joey got up and examined the new hell she now found herself in, all around her were fields of tall grass and further still were fields of careful planted Bliss flowers. A dirt path could be seen parting the fields and that path lead to a massive white tree of a kind that she had never seen before.
The surrounding horizon she now noticed was closed in with massive rolling wall like clouds, and above her was a mostly cloudy sky that diffused what sunlight was able to cut through the cover. However at the farthest end of her vision she could see a storm brewing and she could swear on the breeze coming from that direct was the smell of something burning.
"You know it's not too late for you just yet." A young woman's voice called out causing her to jump and spin looking for the source.
There she saw Rachel standing happy and calm with a knowing smile on her face. Joey reached desperately for her pistol but found nothing at her side, even her knife was missing.
"Welcome to the Bliss. I have been waiting for you Hudson, hopefully you will prove to be more reasonable then some of those who have come before you." The cultist said as she closed the distance between them.
"Depending on your definition of 'reasonable' I don't exactly have a great track record... especially with the cult." Joey growled. Rachel just giggled girlishly in response.
"You can drop the 'strong woman' act with me Hudson. I know that you disagree with what you have been asked to do... what you expect you will be asked to do... and what you have done. You think that what the project has done is wrong but you also doubt what you and the so called 'Resistance' has done. You are every bit the monster you think I am, worse still you don't have the moral high ground anymore." Rachel said as she started slowly pacing around the Deputy.
"Bullshit! I'm not the one gassing innocent people! I'm not the one drugging people so they jump to their deaths on a cult logo turn bulls eye!" She shot back.
Rachel's tone hardened as she spoke. "Yet you still question your actions. You loved interrogating that guard. You loved to taunt those men in the caves. You the so called woman of the law, the peak of justice that is supposed to be above taking pleasure in hurting others... are we really so different? Are you really still so much better then what you think I am? What would your father think of your actions?"
Joey anger surged when Rachel brought up her father. "You fucking cult whore. You are actually lucky my father isn't alive, there is a reason why he never challenged Sheriff Whitehorse for his office. While Whitehorse was the 'Good Cop' my father was the 'Bad Cop'. He always lived on that line of being too much of a hard ass while on duty and always on the brink of being just a little too rough. If he was alive then that day the Sheriff cornered you at the general store he would have kept Jacob at bay."
Rachel giggled again. "You didn't answer the question. What would you father think of your actions? It sounds like he at least kept control no matter how thin while you let loose, you lost control, and you know it!"
Joey's mind stalled with doubt. Dad had always battled his own aggression but never once that she had ever seen or heard that had he ever lost it either on the job or at home. It was something that she now couldn't say for herself.
She did enjoy toying with the men in the cistern, she still smiled when she thought back to questioning that guard with her blade under his dick, and she still remembered when she watched the garrison at the treatment plant break and run. How she loved watching them run for a change.
'Even then I went too far and Roger said so. Now without him beside me I don't know if I am going too far again. There is only so much even he can gleen from me telling him of what I'm doing and what others report on my actions, not to mention would he still try to hold me back with how close to death he has been? Would the cost of letting me go too far be better than holding me back?' She thought and before she answered Rachel one last thought crossed her mind.
'It would be like Roger to run that kind of risk. I would be willing to bet that when this is all over and what I have done comes to light he would take responsibility for not holding me the simple and inexperienced rural Deputy who was clearly in over her head, back from being too brutal. Always quick to protect me from the worst of what could happen.' She thought with a small mental smile.
"See you know the truth Hudson. But there is hope for you! You can even so late into this pointless war atone for your sins... you can leave behind your burdens and troubles. You can be happy again!" Rachel said as she drew closer.
But as she drew closer a loud roar came from behind the women spooking both of them.
"What?! What was that?! What did you bring here?!" Rachel cried as she started backing away from where they both thought the roar was coming from in the fog.
Joey didn't know what Rachel was talking about when a massive grizzly bear the size of a large 1 ton truck came striding out of the fog, his eyes burned a hellish red and his teeth were like black steel daggers. His coarse fur was just as dark and looked like it was closer to being steel wire rather than mere fur.
He now stood between the two women and eyed Rachel before roaring in her direction making her jump back once more and from her back green mist like angel wings erupted and took her above the monster and the Deputy.
With the cultist driven back the bear swung its head towards Joey and eyed her warily. She stood her ground and balled her fists, even now in this strange place her own aggression would not allow her to just back down no matter how pointless it was.
The bear growled once more softly as if it respected her bravery, then it shook it's massive body side to side as if it was throwing off water and from the movement came flying out of his fur a single black feather.
The feather landed in front of Joey and from just the contact of the feather on the grass, the grass did start to smolder.
"No... no... no not again! Don't touch that feather Hudson, if you do you will never be able to live with yourself afterwards." Rachel said as she floated over the bear and Joey and came down to just above the two.
She reached out with a offered hand to Joey. "Please take my hand Hudson... take that first step and save yourself from your own wrath! That feather is everything you have done wrong, every sin you have ever committed and if you touch it you will be drug down by those sins forever. I know we have our differences but at least let us agree on this... let me save you! Let me show you the Bliss!"
Once again the fog closed around her, disorienting her severely, and the pressure against her body from the fog was crushing her, forcing her eyes shut to relieve how ever little the pressure on them.
Finally as quick as the fog had closed did it dispel and she found herself at a sink scrubbing a sauce pan. Her body felt... heavy and off balance still, then she noted what she was wearing. It was a simple white dress of a modest cut and going along with it was a black apron that felt odd across her belly, the reason for that however became clear as well as why she felt so heavy.
She was pregnant and very far along at that. Instantly her mind went to Roger, she didn't know why she automatically assumed it was his but just something told her who was the father. She remembered being warned by her mother when she had suspected that her good Christian daughter was sleeping with a certain son of a local gunsmith that of all the boys she could be sleeping with she had at least the good sense to be with the one that would take responsibility if she got pregnant.
It had at the time reminded her to make absolutely sure that she took precautions when with Roger. Still even in the years down the road as she dated other men and grew up, the scenario of making a mistake back then and finding herself bearing his child still lingered in the back of her mind.
Her mother had the last time she had seen her shortly after breaking up with Barry gently questioned on the matter of marriage and grandkids but she quickly had dodged that question at the time. It hadn't even occurred to her when she and Roger had officially gotten back together that this was a possible outcome once more.
As her thoughts raged she felt a pair of arms wrap around her midsection and she could feel someones breath on her neck.
"Have I ever told you how happy I am to be your husband?" Rogers deep warm voice whispered into her ear.
She closed her eyes and placed her own hands over Rogers own as they rested on her baby belly. 'This is good, this feels right...' She started thinking but a small mental snag at the back of her mind kept her from continuing that thought.
Even as Roger gently ran his hands over her belly, she noticed that they felt different in that they weren't quite as large nor did they feel as thick and powerful as she remembered. But if that made her doubt then what she noticed next only added fuel to her realization that despite everything feeling great there was something a foot.
Once more she felt Roger's breath on her neck and this time she noted that it was too low on her neck, nearly at her shoulder even. He would have had to bend down considerably to achieve such a thing and she could feel his hips against her ass and even those felt... narrow.
'My ass isn't wider than Roger by a long shot.' She thought as the last thread of the current mystery fell into place. It was the gunpowder or rather the lack there of when she breathed in.
Roger had a signature scent around him, a permanent odor of burnt gunpowder and hot brass that even after she had shared a shower with him years ago didn't fade in the least. It was she could safely say a permanent part of what made him Roger Rook.
She opened her eyes and looked at the hands around her belly and found them to be thin and spindly thus she spun with a considerable effort and beheld... someone. The man that was smiling softly at her now was short likely a touch shorter than she was and he had long red hair tied in a man bun at the top of his head, his matching beard was wide, wild, and long. It was like looking at a deflated and much more hairy clone of Roger if he had nothing more strenuous in his life then lifting a book and had a diet to match.
His eyes however were clearly not Roger's as instead of being a bright piercing blue they were green and further made even greener by a smokey hue of Bliss. She smiled at the man even as her hand snaked back into the sink and among the other items left in the soapy water her hands felt the familiar handle and weight of a large chef's knife and she closed her hand tightly around it.
"I love you Josephine." The man said and only further sealed her suspicions that whoever this man was he wasn't Roger.
"And I... don't know who you are or what is going on but this can't be real." She said sweetly as she quickly brought the soap covered knife out of the sink and slashed through the mans beard and his jugular. Even before he could bring his hands up to his gushing throat she had already reversed her grip on the knife and slammed it into the side of his head to the hilt.
"Monster!" Rachel's voice rang out from behind as the man burst into a cloud of Bliss and she was once again wrapped in a thick crushing cloud of Bliss fog. When she next opened her eyes she was back in that field squatting, her right hand only a inch or two away from the black feather.
The massive bear that had brought her the feather looked on patently for her decision.
She slowly moved to grasp the feather even as she heard Rachel protest she continued until she felt her fingers touch the feather. In a bright white flash coming from the feather she was tossed back and she felt like a pair of hot spikes were being driven into her back making her desperately roll off of her back and curl into a tight kneeling ball.
She didn't realize that she was screaming until suddenly the pain stopped and she felt the gentle breeze run across her... wings? She uncurled herself and looked at the large jet black wings she now had.
"No! No... this doesn't make any sense! Why do you people keep wanting to be miserable?! Now there are two monsters loose!" Rachel shrieked before flying off in the direction of the tree.
Joey was at a loss about exactly what Rachel was going on about but if the cult whore was upset then that must mean that she was doing something right. She looked at the massive bear who came over a nuzzled her gently with its massive head, then without anything else he turned and returned to the fog from whence he came.
She thought about following the bear but another glance at the massive white tree shot down that idea. She didn't understand what she was supposed to be doing here but she felt a strong pull to go to the tree.
She turned and started walking towards the start of the path that lead towards the tree. In her wake the grass smoldered and withered.
Joey gasped as her eyes snapped open and she saw that they had pulled up to the jail. Mack to her left looked at her with concern.
"Nightmare?" He asked simply.
She only nodded before getting out of the truck. He followed her and Cheeseburger could be heard bringing up the rear after jumping out of the bed of the truck. She could feel herself start to trudge her way through the jail not replying to the greetings of the other Resistance fighters until she reached the large planning table.
"Good Morning Deputy, I got a fresh pot of coffee and one of the cooks made donuts this morning!" Minkler said when she approached. She accepted wordlessly the steel mug of strong black coffee and downed half of it in one go.
Marcus looked at the younger woman and shared a look with Earl. 'I think we finally might have pushed her a little too hard last night.' He thought. "Well Joey what did we find out?" He then asked.
It took a moment for her to take her eyes off of her mug before looking at the map and then finally looking at everyone gathered. "Rachel is going to be attacking us soon I think... as for the details I don't know, but she is gearing up for it. After Nick's attack on the brewery which by the way made moving around a lot easier so props to him, she had all of her prisoners gathered up some hundred or so and shoved into... this gas chamber."
She stalled out as the memory replayed in her mind yet again and she rubbed her face firmly to give her the second she needed to recover and continue. "Marcus she showered/gassed them all en mass with Bliss. Minimal religious dogma and fuss, just pack them in tell them that they were being given some great opportunity and then tell the chemists to turn on the pumps. They figured that by noon today that they would see how many Angels and Archangels they would have. Rachel seems to be doing this without checking in with Joseph but that is one reason why I think she is gearing up for an attack."
She polished off the rest of her coffee then pulled her pack around and extracted first the two external hard drives, her camera, and then Burke's gun and gun belt. "This drive holds everything I could pull from a office computer at the main entrance to 'The Cache', funny story about that one I'll tell you guys later when I feel up to it. This drive holds everything I could pull off of Rachel's computer in her quarters..."
"You got into Faith's personal quarters!" The Sheriff said wide eyed.
She held up her hands to stop any protests. "I know... I know it was 'stupid and risky' but after seeing the prisoners being gassed and hearing that she was going to bed afterwards I felt like I had a decent chance of getting something more important than information on their supplies. As you can see I also found Burke's sidearm as well in doing so."
Marcus smiled softly, he had secretly had hoped that Joey would go the extra mile and get something like this but he still officially stood by his original orders of not taking any unnecessary risks. Once more though he knew better than to second guess the man on the ground when he didn't have any better sources of information to say otherwise and having to stand by and watch innocent people suffer always tended to drive those that can only watch to push all the harder in doing what ever they can do.
"Well Joey I did tell you to keep an eye out for opportunities but what about Feeney's claims of storing Bliss? Also what other supplies do they have in that 'Cache'?" He asked.
The Deputy actually smiled a little as they moved on from the worst of the nights events. "Well first off Feeney was low balling us. The cult doesn't have a million gallons of Bliss stored but in fact ten million gallons. Ten 100,000 gallon tanks on all ten floors of the cache add to that they have rows upon rows of foodstuffs, water, heavy weapons, and a lot of ammo. I got pictures of some of the heavy weapons crates and ammo crates in addition to the shipping records pulled from the cult's computer."
Those gathered at the table were quiet as what she had just said sank in. Tracey however was the first to break the silence.
"Jesus Christ Hudson... there's no way anyone else could have pulled this off. But now what do we do?" She asked.
Jessica answered before anyone else could. "First off Joey you need some time off, at least a shower and some sleep. We've had you running hard for the last few days and at the very least you have earned it. After that I guess its a matter of digging through the computer files to see if there is anything useful there."
"What about Rachel's attack?" Joey questioned looking at the leadership.
"We will see if she has any plans in her files and until then I'll go around the jail and make sure we are better prepared this time around. Don't worry Joey you've done your part we'll do ours." The Sheriff said.
With that said Joey drug herself in the direction of the showers as the group around the table dispersed save for Marcus and the Sheriff.
"You figured she would push herself at the base and get that extra intelligence you wanted." Whitehorse said looking at his friend.
The elder Rook nodded quietly considering his words carefully. "I knew she would likely try it but I hedged my bets by making it clear that she didn't have to do it. If it were Roger I would have asked him to get into Rachel's computer as part of the briefing. Still I failed to account for what she had to sit and watch when inside the conservatory, especially after hearing from Dmitri what he had seen. I fucked up didn't I Earl?"
The old Sheriff looked back at the drives and Burke's chrome plated 9mm 1911 they had gotten a lot valuable information last night that very likely would save more than few people's lives in the coming days. He just prayed to God that Joey wasn't mentally wrecked from the experience.
"Marcus I think its a little too early to tell if you had fucked up or not. If Joey doesn't break or start to come unglued from the stress we have been putting her under then that will be enough of a victory in my book. That said let's at least agree to not ask her to go sneaking into enemy strongholds again if we can help it... especially alone." He finally said.
Marcus nodded once more before grabbing the camera and drives to start digging through them. The Sheriff's words did little to settle his own mind though. 'Joey for all the potential she has isn't Roger. I forgot that and now she is paying the price and will likely keep paying that price for years to come. God I fucked up big time.' He thought as he walked away.
The women's shower room was empty save for her which she was greatly thankful for even if she suspected it was because of Jessica likely was chasing away anyone else who would enter. It gave her the time to break down what she had seen and come to terms with it.
'How many people did I save by confirming that there were no prisoners left at the conservatory? How many people did I save by confirming that the cult had millions more gallons of Bliss? Then there is the pending attack. If I hadn't pushed we wouldn't be in a position to find out until it was nearly on top of us.' She thought as she reached for the shampoo that someone had scavenged. She thanked her lucky stars that it was her preferred strawberry scented brand as she relaxed with the small but familiar thing that felt like a firm anchor point in her life right now.
'That's what made it all worth while... how many people are in this jail? How many VIP figures are in this jail? Even if one of them died then it could adversely effect the entire Resistance. I need to talk with Roger and see if my own logic is sound.' She thought as she finished washing her hair and shut the water off.
She went to where the sinks were and found that Jessica or Tracey must have quickly washed her clothes as she found them freshly washed and folded even her boots had been washed and the mud and dirt of the river brushed off.
She held up her clothes before looking at herself in the mirror. She knew that she had to report in with Doc Ferguson now that she was actively having Bliss trips, add to that she couldn't ignore the other physical changes the Bliss was slowly putting her through.
She had grown taller and while before the war she was toned the muscle building effects of the Bliss had fully taken hold and now her body was increasingly fit with ever clearer muscle tone. She had to admit that it was hard to be upset except for the fact that she had also probably went up two maybe even three cup sizes so now she was faced that all of her underwear was too small for her. Even her uniform shirt was starting to visibly strain though she didn't think anyone had noticed with her armor on.
'At least we have settled the question on me changing genders. Still I'm not exactly looking forward to replacing my entire wardrobe.' She thought as she once more squeezed into her clothes with some discomfort and braided her hair back to its normal look when she was working.
One last look at the mirror told her that despite her internal doubts, moral quandaries, and physical changes she still more or less looked like her old self.
The medical ward was quiet now that the Rossenberg's and the Whitehorse's had recovered and were now helping around the jail. Burke still laid in bed passed out from his body dealing with the loads of Bliss that was pumped into it.
The doc she remembered commenting that despite having so much Bliss being pumped into him that because he had likely had the standard cult diet which according to Dmitri was small and simple in nature, he hadn't undergone anywhere near the physiological changes that even other people with a fraction of the exposure had that were eating a fuller diet.
'Happy bodies need lots of food to take advantage of that happiness.' She thought as she neared Roger's tank. The volunteer nurse saw her and quietly got up and left letting her have her seat beside the giant.
'There are "Happy Bodies" and then of course there is Roger Rook.' She thought as she looked at her love. His body now almost completely filled the stock tank, his arms and legs were thick trunks of muscle and his expansive chest would have made Superman look wimpy in comparison.
"You made it back..." Roger said hoarsely as she instantly grabbed a nearby water bottle to hold to his lips.
"Yeah... I made it. You knew where I was didn't you?" She asked.
He smiled now that he wasn't so parched. "You hit Faith's conservatory last night and Nick blew up the brewery."
She nodded and he continued. "Joey you're not just here to see your boyfriend. You got questions about what you did at the conservatory last night don't you?"
"How did you..." She trailed off when he answered. "You are thinking too loudly."
Even though he was looking at her with a smile all of her doubts surged up of their own accord and she felt like a child trying to do the right thing by telling her parents that she had done something bad.
"Roger... am I a monster?" She asked softly.
Once more she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye and instead looked at her hand on the edge of the tank. Roger slowly placed his right hand over own making her try once more to look at him.
"Tell me everything from the beginning." He said in a firm demanding tone.
So she spilled everything in excruciating detail from marching off to blow up Joseph's statue and interrogating the guard to the Bliss trip she had on her way back to the Jail after infiltrating the conservatory. Though she did leave out the detail of her being pregnant as she just simply couldn't bring herself even now to speak of it with Roger.
All the while Roger looked on with a neutral unchanging expression even when he questioned for more details on something she did, a brick wall would have displayed more emotion. At the end of it all she did at least feel... lighter after confessing everything but she couldn't help but wait on pins and needles for Roger to pass judgment on her actions.
"Joey. You are not a monster. If anything you are becoming a leader. You are using your head to weigh the options even though you know you are playing with people's lives. Most people can't disconnect themselves emotionally enough to make that high level of a decision with any sort of reliability because they fall back on what society has told them what is right and wrong instead of only focusing on the realities that lay before them. That is why even though you hated watching those people get drugged last night you didn't break cover, you didn't kill Rachel when you could have because that wouldn't have gotten you the outcome that best serves your goals and in this case the greater goals of the resistance." He said stopping for a bit to catch his breath once more before continuing.
"When you questioned that guard you knew that in order to cut through the dogma that the peggies love to spew you had to threaten him in the most personal and brutal way possible. What's more important is that you didn't even think of doing otherwise until now. You naturally read the situation and right there and then you acted. If you needed further proof of that ability you displayed it again when you taunted Faith and again when you taunted those mules at Lydia's trap. You toyed with Faith's head and played on your reputation within the cult to further throw off those men."
"So I shouldn't regret what I did?" She asked with increasing hope.
"No, not in the slightest. What you claim your father said in your first Bliss trip is I will admit a lot more accurate then what I would have thought possible, I have always wanted you to become stronger Joey mentally and physically. I can't show or tell you in enough ways how proud I am that you have achieve something that so few people ever do and more importantly between us something that I have struggled to do myself... you have reached that point where you can switch off and think clearly then go back to actually having empathy for others." He said huffing and puffing now.
She could only smile and try to fight back her own tears as he caught his breath and pressed on. "You are finest woman I have ever met and even if the world comes back and brands you as a inhuman 'Monster' just remember this: I was and still am a far bigger monster still. I have done things to push my agenda that would make even the Nazi's take a step back, I have sat back and watched hundreds of men and boys get butchered by machete welding jiahdists while their women and daughters were gang raped to death all to take down a single warlord or tribal big shot that was threatening to destabilize further an entire region.
I have weighed the lives of hundreds or even tens of thousands against the needs of millions and billions of people. It's not a easy thing and that is why there are so few people are in my particular line of work, but you the so called simple rural cop have done what seasoned soldiers and spies have time and again failed to do.
So even if you are a monster like this version of Faith that is rattling around in your head says you are then you can rest assured that you will at least be the 'Queen of Monsters' that sits beside me." He finished with a pant.
She now found herself giggling in the most embarrassing way at her latest title to be heaped upon her name. "So you are 'King of the Monsters' I got to say that you are a lot less scaly than Godzilla."
He laughed softly still fighting to get his breath back. "You should have seen some of the looks I got when I first went to Japan, you guys think I was big growing up but there I might as well be Godzilla and if or when I get out of this tank I will be the ultimate giant among men. I love you Joey and short of killing our own people you will be hard pressed to change that."
She moved up to his face and shared a brief but deep kiss, their first since he had been confined to his stock tank. "Thank you Roger, I couldn't help but think about all the things I was doing wrong since you weren't there to point them out."
He smiled back. "Oh there are very likely things for me to nit pick and things for you to improve upon but those are details and you will get better in time even without my help. Soon Joey I will be out of here I think and then you can show me first hand what you have learned."
With that Joey left the medical ward and even though it was now getting late in the afternoon she quickly found herself falling into a comfortable sleep on her increasingly too small cell bed.
Back at the ward Dmitri came into the room quietly to stand guard over Burke once more however now he looked at his oversized friend. "Did you really mean all that Roger? What you told Hudson." He asked.
Roger grinned at his Russian counterpart. "Figured you were listening just outside, but yes I meant every single damn word. By the way thank you for going back into the cult you very likely helped lay the groundwork for Joey's op."
The spy bowed his head in respect. "Thank you but I can't say I did it purely out of the kindness of my heart. I have my own demons and monsters to deal with and my best hope for fighting them was going back to the cult to claw out more information. Speaking of that your father wanted me to pass something to you as soon as possible but I wanted to first give you and Joey some time alone."
Roger cocked an eyebrow in curiosity. "Judging by your tone I going to guess that its a four letter acronym that starts with an 'I' and ends with a 'M'.
Dmitri nodded. "We have confirmed that Faith... Rachel has a second nuclear missile in her silo and like John she doesn't hold the ability to launch that missile herself."
He sighed and took a deep breath before speaking. "Well then logically we can reasonably assume that Jacob also has a missile of his own. Two missiles in play and both carrying some form of nuclear payload. God in heaven how I wish I could get out of this tank."
The other man sighed now. "Rachel wears the key to entering the silo around her neck at all times so what ever happens someone will need to get close to her to take it from her. Your father is firmly against sending Joey back into the conservatory again to get the key after how hard it was on her mentally this time around, though it sounds like you provided the words she needed to hear to get past that at least for the time being."
"I still would rather be with her or at least send you in support of her if it needs to be done. For all my praise she is still new to this kind of world and she needs someone older and wiser to help her past the hardest bits though after what she has gone through now there are admittedly few things she might have trouble dealing with still." Roger said as he suddenly fell back asleep.
Dmitri wasn't surprised by this as he had just spent hours straight with Joey walking her through everything she had done. If somehow both of them could take to the field again together he personally felt like Rachel wouldn't stand a chance and with her fall even Jacob, the soldier of the cult wouldn't be far behind in being crushed under the boots of the Resistance.
As the afternoon sun started slipping behind the mountains Rachel looked at the report before her for probably the tenth time since she had received it during lunch. The experiment from early this morning had worked far in excess to what the original projected numbers had been and had put them in now an excellent position for her next plan.
'85 Archangels out of 110 test subjects. My God had we realized this earlier maybe we could have crushed the Resistance at the Jail weeks ago.' She thought.
They still hadn't found a viable Saint among the group which she still expected for whatever Feeney was working on at the moment to solve but never had they had such a high rate of Archangels vs Angels vs deaths from among those blessed with the Bliss.
Attacking the jail again however was still a major gamble on her part. The last word that she had gotten from her inquisitors was that they had finally managed to cross the Henbane back over into Holland Valley. As for them reaching the Sheriff office undetected that was still unknown thus depriving her of important information on the movement of the Resistance leadership.
They had only spotty scouting reports on the location of key Resistance leadership and VIP's and with them having such free movement back to Holland Valley if they hit the jail and none of them were there when the jail inevitably fell before the might of the faithful...
"It will be a waste... just resetting things instead of progressing forward." She said to herself in the otherwise empty office.
There was one other piece that she had at first not concerned herself with but now as the noose had closed around the conservatory itself she found her mind wondering back to a single question.
'Where's Deputy Rook? Everything after the fall of the Convent was done by Deputy Hudson even our other losses the Shrines, Eden's Altar, and everything else were done by these "Cougars". Could he be injured? Dead? God in heaven if I at least knew his status I would feel so much better.' She thought as she stared up at the office ceiling.
"Tomorrow... at lunch time. We will end this one way or another... even if I can kill or capture one of their leaders it would wound them and with the new blessing process we can rebuild our losses." She said her last words bringing a smile to her face as she shot out of her chair dancing and twirling in joy around her office.
"Yes! We take their people and show them the Bliss! We take their people and make them all warriors of Eden! We can retake the mountains from them and then reclaim the valley maybe even show those people the joy and hope of the Bliss!" She said out loud.
She stopped dancing and looked out the office window with a broad smile across her face. "Hudson will be at the jail for sure... oh how I hope we can grab you. I will love personally showing you all the joys of the Bliss and maybe just maybe you will realize that you were wrong all along. If not... well I can't say that I haven't tried to reach her, after all even I have only so much mercy to spare."
As the last rays of sunlight slipped behind the mountains they painted the growing number of dark clouds moving into toward Hope County.