Author's Note: Chapter contains extremely graphic imagery, reader discretion is advised.
Far Cry 5: The Collapse
Chapter 27: Message 2 of 2
It was getting ever so slightly brighter outside or at least as bright as one could expect with such a heavy thunderstorm in the area that had so far refused to do more than look intimidating and dark. Joey had thought she would have spent at least some of the last four hours sleeping or coming close to it but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to do anything but listen in the dark control booth for the first signs of the peggies entering the amphitheater.
Roger hadn't offered any conversation either and she had caught on that right now he was all business so there was no point in trying to start anything. The only time he said anything was asking Dmitri about the status of things going on outside as the messenger noted that the guard shift change hadn't happened as the day time guards failed to show up to their posts as the night guards left.
"Well Joey we have an hour to go and so far the first signs are good. The guards are doing as instructed..." He said as Joey finished his sentence.
"And placing their complete trust in 'The Father'. Should we check in on Grace or more importantly Nick? I really don't want to have to find out when we run out of here that something has gone wrong."
He simply nodded and accepted Joey's train of logic as he reached for his radio. "Nick do you copy?"
The other side of the radio clicked open followed by some groaning and grunting drawing a odd look from the two deputies. Finally though Nick responded. "Uh... Yeah yeah... uh... yeah I am up Roger what is up? Oh God I'm not late am I?!" He said in a increasing panic.
He could only smile at his friends well meaning concern. "No you're not late however you have less than an hour before things get started. At exactly 8am I.E. in less than one hour you have to be wheels up and in the air and ready for pickup because as I told you there will be two minutes from the time I next call you to get us out of there and then get behind the mountain to shield us from the blast."
"Don't worry buddy. I won't let you down." Came Nick's cheery reply.
"If it were any other pilot I would be doubting those words." Joey quipped.
He replied with a slight nod of his head. "My original plan was to ask for him anyway but he of course had volunteered already."
With their transport secured he moved to call for Grace who was as expected much more on the ball despite the long night.
"I copy Roger, what's your status?" She inquired.
"A bit tired, very bored, and yet very tense. It's almost showtime but I wanted to pass on what we had stumbled on over here." He said as he turned the laptop back on to take one last look at the various security cameras within the bunker.
"Oh that this bunker is actually empty maybe?" Grace said as she attempted to sound witty.
"Not quite but close to it. They only got by our best estimate about 30 or so fighters plus nearly as many Angels and Archangels, I would still use caution though as those numbers are estimates but I doubt they have more than 50 fighters or Angels of any sort in there. Also if it hasn't occurred to you I suspect that after the blast or maybe even the broadcast the whole bunker may rush out to see the destruction, so I'm going to change your orders and you are now only engage the peggies but don't enter the bunker proper should some of them make it back inside. You got any machine gunners?" He asked.
Grace glanced to her right where Mack laid with his newly acquired M-60 that he had picked up after defending the jail. It was a new experience for him being used to only AR's, AK's, and various shotguns but now after some training by Marcus Rook he had taken to the classic LMG with a gusto that even some of Marcus's men had said was only matched by Roger and Marcus's own affinity for the weapon.
"Yeah Mack is just itching to try his new gun. I'll do my best to keep him alive." Came the sniper's reply.
"That's all I can ask Grace, got to take care of the greenhorns like it or not." He joked getting a rare laugh or some approximation of one from Armstrong in return.
"Indeed we do Rook." She remarked as she cut the line.
.
The next 45 minutes drug on it seemed until Dmitri called out that it seemed like a solid mass of children were exiting the 'Cradle' as he called it and being lead into the building. Soon they could hear then see hundreds upon hundreds of children filling up the seats with their guides close at hand keep them quiet and orderly.
"It's almost unnatural..." Joey muttered as she watched the masses gather.
"Pardon?" He asked missing her point.
"You have all of these kids and yet somehow some way they are so quiet. It's just..." She couldn't finish her sentence save for gesturing toward the near silent masses of children.
"This is something that doesn't surprise me to honest. Due to the cult's strict dogma these kids are little more but drones. Yeah maybe if you tell them to go out and play they will do so but you need only call once and they will snap to, and considering that they are expecting 'The Father' they are going to be especially quiet and obedient lest they disappoint him." He explained.
The silence hung for a moment as Joey processed his words. "A bunch of kids with more social issues then you or Grace. Sounds like a nightmare."
He let out a laugh that sounded a bit too loud. "Yeah that's not good for anyone. At least Grace seems to be slowly coming out of her shell finally and I had you to help me learn how to be sociable... or well at least tolerable."
She flashed him one of those wide smiles he had long since fell in love with. "Well good to hear that I had a good influence on you..."
Anything else that she was going to say was cut off by Dmitri radioing in. "Roger I just saw the main guard barracks empty and head inside, I think that is everyone in the conservatory."
A quick check of his watch showed only five minutes before the show was to begin. "Ok Dmitri now you have about 15 minutes till the detonation so get moving and get clear."
It was at that time that the pre-programed timer now showed up on the TV screens and started counting down to the start of the show. To go along with it he had one of the many songs that the cult had been playing over the radio endlessly it seemed begin to play over the house speakers. The song was one that happened to have a more or less appropriate title in Roger's opinion: The World is Gonna End Tonight.
"Step into the garden. We're gonna lock the gate. We gotta keep out the sinners. We gotta keep out the hate. Look at the horizon. The time is coming near..." The song played and in short order the children were clapping to the beat showing more life then they had before the music started and several of the adults be they Priestesses, Chemists, laborers, and even the Chosen joined in singing along with the song.
'Well at least they won't likely won't hear Rachel and if she had fallen asleep on that cross this will certainly wake her up.' He thought as the song continued.
"Look out at the world on fire. Look at the people frozen in fear. We won't listen to their cryin. They had their chance to see the light. We won't be handin out no pardons. Cuz the world is gonna end tonight..."
Somewhere a few members had rushed into a storage closet and emerged with some acoustic guitars. With obvious practice they joined in with the song lending their skill and sound to what was coming out of the speakers.
"See the rabbits runnin. See the mountains shake. Now the sea is flooding and the Earth begins to quake. Hear the boom of thunder..."
.
Outside Dmitri climbed down the rocky mountain side as fast as he could to get to his motorcycle by the roadside. He almost had breathed a sigh of relief when he mounted it and the motor started without issue.
'Ok almost...' He didn't even finish his thought as he put the bike into gear, let out the clutch, and move only ten or so feet before he heard a tinny metallic snap followed by the engine revving up now that it had lost the load on it. He looked down and behind him in time to see the broken drive chain fall off of the bike and on to the ground.
"BLYAD'!" He yelled as he slammed on the brakes and dumped the cult bike in the middle the road. He reached for his radio as he started jogging west down the main road.
"Roger! My motorcycle broke the drive chain, I'm extracting on foot now!" He said hastily. He had no real illusion that he could reach at least the Seeley cabin nearly two and a half miles away in a bit over ten minutes but he would try nonetheless. Even then the Seeley cabin could only be barely considered safe as its location still had some line of sight to the conservatory but it had a better chance of surviving the coming explosion then he did out in the open or on the road.
"Negative on that! Get to the entrance of the conservatory as fast as you can, you'll be riding with us. I'm not leaving anyone behind you hear me Ruskie?" Roger snapped back as he and Joey traded horrified looks.
'Something always has to go wrong.' They both thought as the Russian replied with a relieved tone in his voice. "Copy, moving now. I will hold you to your word you Capitalist dog!"
.
"It sounds just like the voice. They should have listened closer when they... When they made that choice. We won't listen to their screaming. They had their chance to do what's right. They'll be begging for forgiveness Cuz the world is gonna end tonight..."
"Joey hit the room locks. Hard lock everything." He ordered and watched as the gathered mass of nearly 3000 cultists kept singing along as the timer for the show counted down. No one in the room including even those Chosen that had taken positions near the exits heard the doors lock over the joyous singing of the gathered faithful.
"Those non-believers out by the path. They're gonna burn forever. They're gonna burn to ash. So take heed young heathen. Listen to me close. You are either in or out. And you're stuck with what you chose. No we won't listen to your beggin. You had you're chance to stand and fight and now you'll end your days in darkness. Cuz the world is gonna end tonight!" The song finished and with it the sea of sudden gasps could be heard as his face appeared on the big screens flanking the stage and the smaller TV screens below.
"As you can see I am much more impressive than I already was when I fought John. Faith as is her way, had produced a form of Bliss meant to produce a 'Saint'. This Bliss being more lethal than average had already killed hundreds of 'test subjects' to quote Dr. Feeney but I am 'The Collapse'." He watched his broadcast say as another wave of gasps washed over the room.
From the booth they could see the Chosen start taking their weapons into their hands if only to try and hide their own fear and anxiety at the mere sight of him and the Priestesses were quietly trying to reassure their groups of children that everything was fine. Even in the booth he could barely pick out a young woman's voice saying "It's ok, The Collapse can't hurt you. Just trust in The Father.".
A wide smile broke across his face as the end of his speech came and the next pre-programmed action was triggered and just as he had hoped the entire room exploded in a chorus of terrified screaming.
There on the massive cult cross was Rachel in the nude, fully displaying the careful carvings that were painfully made into her skin. Around her neck the word 'Siren' had been carved with crude reproductions of Bliss flowers on either side, above each bare breast the words 'Liar' and 'Manipulator' were cut into her flesh. Moving further down the largest and by far the most complex carving was a detailed recreation of the massive 'Tree of Eden' as he remembered it from his Bliss trips and while it was impossible to see from probably even the foot of the stage he was even go so far as to carve a pair of angels at the base of the tree.
Finally on her pelvis for just an added dose of crudeness as if more was needed he had carved in large easy to read letters 'Welcome to the Bliss' with jagged arrows pointing at her vagina.
A few seconds later the timed latch on Rachel's ball gag popped open and she predictably spat out the hunk of firm red rubber and added her own screams of pain and terror to the audience's own as her own tears dripped off of her face and stung as they fell down on her open wounds.
On the screens at the base of the cross a timer started counting down... 2:00... 1:59... 1:58...
"Joey grab the laptop and let's go." He ordered as he turned to leave the booth and climb up the ladder leading to the roof.
A quick glance behind him to see that Joey was behind him also gave him the chance to see a few people had jumped up on to the stage to aid their Herald but most were trying fruitlessly to open the doors leading out of the room, just as the poor souls in Rachel's gas chamber had done.
Now with both of them on the roof he could see at the entrance to the compound that Nick had already arrived and that Dmitri was already on board with his Dragunov in hand as he watched for any cultists trying to get out.
Joey was the first to zipline down off of the roof and landed skillfully before hitting the light pole, she then took off at a full sprint only occasionally glancing back at him as he clamped on to the cable.
No part of the cable or the light poles on both the roof and the ground were meant to be particularly strong, there simply was no reason for them to be. But the weight of a fully loaded down Astartes-esqe commando was far and above what they could hope to hold and shortly after he got half way down the line the poles at both ends bent under his weight before snapping at their respective bases.
'Oh dear this isn't good...' Was all he could think as he felt the familiar but brief sense of hang time as the world slowed down to a crawl when he started falling about 20 feet to the ground. He used his forward momentum to start rolling the instant he felt his feet touch the ground in an effort to spread the landing forces over as much time and across as much of his body as possible and mostly managed it before flopping onto the gravel covered ground.
He could see Joey reach the helicopter and desperately wave for him to follow as he got up and broke into a full sprint. 'Next time I get the bright idea of setting off a kiloton or larger explosion I should really not cut it as close as this!' He thought as his long strides quickly ate up the distance and he dove into the chopper as Joey and Dmitri latched on to him to further help him get on board.
"GO! GO! GO!" The three of them yelled at Nick as he pulled up sharply on the collective control and the chopper was sent racing into the sky. He was relying on his passengers to take care of themselves as he whipped the chopper around and made an absolute beeline for the back side of Mt. Harrison.
.
Back inside the conservatory the timer on the screens entered the last 30 seconds as more people both adult and children started getting the feeling that something was wrong as they surged against the locked doors soon crushing anyone that had the misfortune to fall down. Rachel could only cry and scream as the few people that came up to help her off of the cross struggled to either cut through the thick fibrous rope or undo the complex and tight knots that bound her to her cross.
Never in her life did Rachel seriously think that this would be the way things would end. She wanted to blame Joseph for everything, for the drugs, the threats, the sweet but empty praise that was better than the best hits of heroin she had ever had. But even then she couldn't help but realize the dirty ugly truth that she had been avoiding for so long that now reared its head as she heard an audio countdown play over the rooms speakers so loud that they could be heard over the panicked crowds.
"10... 9... 8... 7..." The count went and Rachel let out one last tear as she looked up skyward for the last time. "I fucked up everything..." She said to the notice of no one around her as the countdown finished. On the screens and over the speakers a skull and cross bones started laughing menacingly before everything erupted.
.
Within Joseph's compound inside his little white chapel the bare chested cult leader was about start the days lesson on the importance of purity and how it was going to be essential in the New Eden that they would be creating. But a cult member then burst inside past the Chosen guards who roughly rushed to him and held the man in place as he belted his message to everyone inside.
"FATHER! FATHER! THE COLLAPSE IS ON THE TV AGAIN! HE'S ON THE RADIO TOO!" The man yelled.
Instantly those sitting in the pews had flashes of fear dance across their features as they looked to Joseph for guidance and protection against the news that they just heard. Joseph's face remained stoic even if he felt a surge of anger rise up through him at the word that the embodiment of 'The Collapse' was once more spreading his evil.
He glanced at Jacob who had come to the compound to update his brother on the slow but steady progress against the local militia in the Whitetail region. His brother understood the unspoken order and turned on the two TV's in the chapel so he could see for himself what the ambassador of Satan had to say.
"So on this dark and thunderous day all of creation will feel wrath of God as he strikes down upon your number and punishes you all for your continued defiance, to this end so too will your children suffer the sins of their forebears as they too shall take a place at the gates of Eden. Now Children of Eden's Gate look upon the price of your sins against man and God." He heard Roger close and the scene changed from him to a live feed from the interior of the conservatory's amphitheater in time for everyone in the chapel to see the white curtain fly open and reveal Faith Seed in all of her blood soaked glory.
Jacob actually let out an audible gasp of shock that was thankfully lost in the sudden cries of horror from the other people in the chapel as they could see the bloody carvings on her body. Worse still was the following screams of the children panicking at seeing their Herald in such a state as their teachers and guides tried uselessly to calm them if they themselves weren't shrieking.
Joseph couldn't bring himself to move from where he stood. Any thoughts of giving orders to send whatever aid they could muster kept getting derailed as he spotted some new detail in the scene as he could see at the edges of the scene people trying to slam against the amphitheater exits as they refused to open. Then there was the countdown.
'Why is it there? What is going to happen? God please tell me...' The cult leader thought as he kept watching silently as the last vestiges of order broke down and the scene in the amphitheater turned fully into pure animalistic chaos.
"Oh my God they are trampling each other!" A woman's voice rang out from the pews making Joseph realize something else that he up till now hadn't fully realized.
'This is being broadcasted... it's being broadcasted all over the county. Everyone will see this and the sinners will keep it on loop just like they do with Rook's first message after he murdered John...' Joseph thought as he watched the timer tick down the last few seconds.
"3... 2... 1... 0..." The timer went before being replaced with a laughing skull and cross bones that seemed familiar from some old sci-fi movie he remember seeing back in the 90's. He should have known then what was about to happen but any gaps in his thoughts were brutally filled when the sound of roaring overwhelmed the microphone followed by the floor of the conservatory bubbled upward and from the left side of the where the camera was the wall of the room bowed for a fraction of a second before it was blown violently apart and the camera along with everyone in the room was destroyed.
He instinctively turned and sprinted outside of the chapel and looked in the direction of the conservatory. He was in time to see off in the distance from behind the mountains a blast wave race ahead of a massive black and gray mushroom cloud toward the heavy stormy sky and with impossible ease crack open the sky.
The blast when it parted the clouds that had been threatening rain for so long now let the full strength and brightness of the sun shine through the hole, bathing it seemed only where Joseph stood in front of his chapel in sunlight.
All around him the faithful poured out of the buildings, pointing and screaming as they saw the mushroom cloud rise over the mountains. Some, certainly more than a few dashed back inside whatever buildings they had come out of while others made for their barracks. Soon after the singular sound of pistols and the odd rifle being fired told everyone that could tear themselves away from the sight before them what had happened.
The sunlight made Joseph ask some internal questions that he thought he had answered nearly a decade ago. Was God really on his side? Was he really doing God's will? Was he really in the right?
Anything else was stopped when a woman grabbed him absolutely beside herself with grief and tears. "Father! Father... where is my son?! Please there must be something we can do?! Where is he?!"
He looked at her with the same unmoving gaze from behind his amber lensed aviators as he thought about what he should say. "Your son is now waiting at the gate of Eden." He reassured her just as he had done countless times to other distressed members as their losses in this war had mounted. This was however met with something he had never seen before... outright refusal.
"No...no no no no... NO! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT US! YOU PROMISED US EDEN!" She yelled wildly as she drew her pocket revolver and actually pointed it at him.
"I WANT MY BABY BACK!" She screamed as she started pulling the trigger and the hammer started moving back to cock itself. She didn't get far though as Jacob's own pistol fired and her head disappeared in a shower of gore. Another man yelled in grief as he rushed over to the woman likely his wife before reaching to raise his rifle against where Jacob and Joseph stood.
The gunshot had snapped the Chosen out of their own shock as they and Jacob unloaded their weapons into the offending man. The crowd of faithful rushed back as the Chosen then placed themselves with their rifles raised between them and The Father as Jacob pulled his shocked brother back inside the chapel before he closed the door.
"You'll have to stay in here for a little bit to let the shock wear off. Joseph... I don't know if we can recover from this." Jacob said as he and his brother stood alone inside the chapel.
Joseph didn't answer immediately as he slowly paced toward the front of the chapel and turned off the TVs that were already repeating the latest speech by Rook. "Things... are getting dark Jacob. But it's not us that can 'recover' this, we are only God's tools. He... will guide us out of this."
Jacob was glad that Joseph had his back towards him so he couldn't see the strain and anger on his own face. It had always been like this since he joined with his younger brother's dream, his own pragmatism and overwhelming cynicism smashing against Joseph and John's faith.
"What about the missiles?" He asked though he already knew the answer before his brother even uttered a word.
"Those are not ours to launch yet. If there was even the slightest sign that is what must be done then I would launch all three of them. Such a tool is only fit to be in control of God... we merely press the button." Joseph said looking at his elder brother and as always saw right through him.
"I know that you have always had some doubts... some disagreements with mine and John's faith in God, but please Jacob... have faith in me." Joseph asked softly.
Once more Jacob couldn't help but look down in shame. He had once again bitten the hand that feed him or more accurately the hand that had pulled him out of dead end homelessness and given him a purpose once more. Now here he was on the brink of saying that everything was hopeless and shrugging off that purpose, but for what?
He had nothing to go back to and the best thing he could expect is a jail cell for the next few years, so what really was there to lose if he kept fighting against the sinners? At least he was good at fighting and leading men after all they had cut the Whitetails down to virtually nothing, so soon enough they would have a firm base to push off of.
'Finish off the Whitetails so I don't have to have a rear to worry about. Then put a rifle behind every damn tree and a wolf in between and turn this place into a meat grinder. All I have to do is chew away at Rook's supporting staff... the soft... the weak at the back of herd. Without them he can't maintain his tempo and if he moves to protect them then that means he can't advance, yeah that's how I can play it. Keep him off balance and looking to his rear more than his front... of course I need to be able to actually take advantage of that.' Jacob thought as he looked back up at his younger brother.
"Yes Joseph. But I won't try to 'save' Rook. How can I after John failed and now... after what he did to Faith?" He said almost pleadingly.
The cult leader nodded his head surprising the old solider. "I don't expect you to... This Roger Rook is something strange. Evil for sure but even then there is evil and then there is what he has just done. If anything I think his own people will start to turn on him and thus it will be the sinners turning against each other as they do so often that may very well be his end. However I don't wish rely on the whims of sinners so if you can rid us of this 'False Saint' then by all means do so."
The last Herald nodded his head in understanding taking the small victory for everything it was worth before turning to leave and tend to his own people and the inevitable morale issues that he was going to be walking into.
Joseph was now left alone with his thoughts as he looked through the stain glass window above the front doors at the cult cross that was still back lit by the sunlight flooding through the cracked sky.
"We are wounded but God's faithful are strong and we will bring about Eden. God wills it." He said to himself as he went back to his messenger's bag to extract a legal pad and a pen. He now needed to write Faith's eulogy after all.
.
At the Spread Eagle the majority of the drivers had gathered for a celebratory beer after their nights work. Of course all the merry making stopped dead when Roger's latest commercial came on and they all watched the sheer brutality that their local hero was capable of unfold.
To the gathered Resistance fighters credit none turned away from the TV screen when Rachel was revealed and the children's screams could be heard. However when the explosion occurred everyone raced out of the bar to see with their own eyes the massive mushroom cloud rise from behind the mountains, to see the shockwave punch a hole in the cloudy sky and let in a small stream of morning sunlight, and lastly to feel the oddly strong gust of wind that raddled windows and made the various American flags flap vigorously for a brief time.
Mary May stepped forward ahead of the group watching the mushroom cloud begin to fade, once there she turned and addressed everyone. "Well that's two Seed's down and dead... only two more to go before we completely take our home back!"
From the gathered mass of fighters came a great cheer as they were reminded just why they were fighting and why they followed the lead of their hero deputy. They were closer than ever to freeing their home and that was the most important thing at the end of the day.
.
Someone else had been watching Roger's presentation and had stepped outside to see for himself the resulting horrors. Pastor Jerome could only numbly watch the distant mushroom cloud fade as he struggled to decide if he was shocked or angry at the deputy's actions.
'Roger... Lord have mercy I never thought you would become like this.' He thought as he sulked back inside his church. His thoughts shifted and flowed with every step until he found himself behind the pulpit once more. He cast his eyes over the empty pews until they settled on where Roger and for that matter Joey had sat for so many years in their youth.
"I can't just stand by anymore... I'm sorry Roger but someone has to reign you in and I guess that someone will have to be me." He said to himself as he started thinking on how he would go about it.
Facing the deputy directly was pointless as the man was still a massively powerful and deadly foe. Even now though he pulled himself back, he wanted to stop Roger not kill him. The man had given them a fighting chance against the cult so he was owed at least that much. However if he couldn't face the man directly then he could take away his support, it would mean that he would have to be much more loud and upfront in convincing the local people to actively turn against Roger.
'It's not just Roger I would have to contend with. His parents would back him come hell or high water and Joey certainly wouldn't likely turn against her boyfriend still maybe if I could get her away from him long enough to reach the good that I know she still has to have inside her I might have a slim chance. Mary May and Grace could be helpful in that regard but they are also good friends of Roger so again long shots all around. I will have to look for help elsewhere.' Jerome thought as his eyes moved across the rest of the empty church pews.
The Rye's wouldn't likely help. Nick was good hearted if not the most eloquent person in the county much like his father before him, that meant that even if he might be willing to help at first it wouldn't take much for him to fall back to aligning with his friend and Kim was simply too quick witted to be easily convinced even now that she is a young mother.
'I doubt appealing to her new found motherhood would get me anywhere considering how hard the peggies gunned for her and Nick. So long as her child is fine she would be hard pressed to care much beyond that.' He thought as he moved on to another section of the church and it was there he found the lead he was looking for.
'The Dearborns... yes they would be willing to help.' He realized with a smile. They were another one of the old long standing family's in the area as they had been running the largest farm equipment dealership and garage in the county for nearly a century now. But most importantly they were a devout family and their six sons, all in their early 20's by now weren't lightly built either so if it came to getting physical with Roger they stood a decent chance of ganging up on him so the giant could be restrained.
Once that was done they could finally focus on fighting the cult properly instead of tolerating the needless brutality that had been the hallmark of Roger's combat style thus far. He glanced at his watch and noted that it was still on the early side to go out and see if the Dearborns were available to speak to, he knew that he still would have to be careful with his words as like anyone else in the county the peggies had effected their lives harshly as well so it wouldn't likely be a one and done conversation.
.
In the helicopter Roger struggled to cram his massive frame into a seat and strap in as Nick whipped the aircraft with just as much skill and grace as could be expected from him when he was flying Carmina. Finally with Dmitri's help he got buckled in and could focus on what was going outside.
Nick had by now managed to get behind the mountain just in time for the charges on all the storage tanks of Bliss to go off within milliseconds of each other hitting exactly 8:12 am. The blast fought against the mass of granite that made up the majority of the mountain above it and instead was directed outward and downward, as far as the conservatory was concerned the earth under the compound flowed like water for a brief moment before the blast had found a weak point in the mountain near the entrance to The Cache in fact to erupt upward taking with it all the surrounding structures with it.
From this weak point the above surface detonation wave was formed like a cloud rapidly moving outwards in all directions. The mountainous terrain however guided and funneled much of the blast in abnormal ways as most of the wave followed the river northward or westward. West of the conservatory the terrain opened up much more rapidly reducing somewhat the damage done by the shockwave. Reduce but not eliminate.
McCallough's garage was scrubbed clean off of its foundations and another mile west Nolan's fly shop was severely damaged by a combination of its foundation being shaken apart and the wall of trees and river water thrown up by the shockwave.
Northward however was a different story altogether. Here the terrain remained confined and focused the blast wave far more intensely, it was so great a focus that in addition to all forms of plant life being scrubbed from the area even the surrounding rocks were near instantly sand blasted smooth ensuring that it would be clear for at least centuries to come that a powerful explosion had taken place in the area.
The only break in the northward blast zone was the small pass between and the smaller mountain that housed Rachel's silo. This too got the instant sandblast treatment and wrecked several of the bridges in the immediate area but besides finishing off the scrubbing of the King Hot Springs Hotel and wrecking the upper half of the Misery the wide open area dissipated the part of the blast that made it through the gap.
Further north still past Feeney's house that was subsequently leveled like every other object, the blast wave hit the tight river bend and was forced mostly upward following the mountains that made up the edges of the Hope County valley. Still some of the blast wave had managed to shave a fair chunk of the trees on the back side of Raptor Peak as the last mark of the blast.
In all the areas the river flowed that was subject to the blast wave either had its water vaporized or at least pushed backwards until the forces reduced to the point that the river would overpower the blast wave and come surging violently down its former course adding just a little bit more to the total destruction.
All of this they would see in the coming days but right at that moment they had other more pressing issues. The lookout tower atop had simply been turned into little more than matchsticks by what little of the blast actually rode up the side of the mountain. Matchsticks that however were now raining down on their helicopter.
Nick backed away from the blast as best as he could as debris and wreckage could heard pinging off the fuselage or more worryingly the main rotor. As the wave dissipated everyone in the helicopter was treated to the sight of the massive black mushroom cloud reaching toward the parted stormy sky.
"Ok that is officially both the biggest explosion I have ever had a hand in setting off and the most wrong I have ever been on calculating the TNT equivalent of an explosive." Roger said as the helicopter continued to weave about as Nick kept dodging bits of kicked up debris.
"What kind of yield did you expect?" Dmitri asked immediately followed by Joey adding "And why are you only mentioning this now?"
He smiled widely at his friends. "I originally estimated somewhere between 0.87 kilotons up to as much as 1.25 kilotons. Bear in mind that I'm going off of what I could glance at from Feeney's records which doesn't exactly have all the figures I need for calculating this so some additional work would be needed to be accurate. As for why didn't I share this until now is because again I wasn't sure of my numbers and it would no doubt scare a lot of people. Even if your average Joe doesn't know exactly what a kiloton of TNT looks like they know that is a lot of fucking explosive, it's why I told my Dad to get everyone as far away as possible just in case I was wrong. But boy howdy was I wrong by a large amount."
"10 kilotons." Dmitri said out loud throwing out a guess.
He shook his head. "It's hard to say without being on the ground and taking some readings from the blast site but I feel safe in saying that whatever this yield was it's at minimum 20 kilotons."
"Mind putting that in English Roger?" Joey asked.
"We likely just detonated something at is on par or more likely more powerful then what the US dropped on Hiroshima in WWII." He stated simply as he watched his girlfriend's eyes widen.
"Well... we wanted let the world know something is going on in Hope County. We sure as hell managed to do that I think... I hope." She said just as the helicopter started shuttering with increasing violence.
"Guys I think we took some damage!" Nick said as he fought the controls.
"Can you get us to Rachel's silo?" He asked as Nick looked at his instruments.
"I think so or at least we can get closer but once we are down this bird isn't going anywhere." Came the pilots reply as he guided the wounded bird toward the massive concrete silo only a few miles away.
.
At the silo some of the cultists rushed out in time to see the massive explosion happening right on their doorstep as Roger had predicted but it was only a handful still Grace had her orders and the main entrance to the silo was open.
"Fire on my shot." Grace whispered into her radio as she lined up on a Priestess who had fallen to her knees crying at the destruction before her. Her suffering was then ended when Grace had offered consoling at the end of a 180 grain .308 Winchester round to the head.
Before the Priestess's body even hit the ground Mack and the other fighters added their own fire quickly cutting down the half dozen other cultists in short order.
"This is Grace I need the Bunker Bliss turned off and vented. Silo entrance is open and we are moving to breech and clear the entrance." She called out over the radio.
"This is Grey Reaper. We copy Grace and have already killed the Bliss, so it should be safer to enter the bunker at this time. Just mind the locals they are likely a bit upset at the moment." Marcus replied from his place at the Jail.
Grace rolled her eyes as she and the other fighters closed on the entrance slowly watching for further signs of peggies deciding to come out and see what the noise was. What they got however was about ten more peggies trying to surge up from the depths of the bunker.
"CLOSE THE DOOR! THE SINNERS ARE HERE!" One of the peggies called out as they tried to reach the top of the stairs where the door controls were unfortunately placed. It was a stark reminder that the silo was not built with having to resist an infantry assault in mind.
Though they held the doorway there simply was too much suppressing fire coming up the stair well to press on beyond that. Mack in a moment of inventiveness used his up till now largely useless cell phone camera to peer over the edge of the stairs enough so he could semi-blind fire while keeping his body out of the line of fire.
Grace prayed that they didn't decide to start lobbing grenades just yet as she wasn't sure if enough of the Bliss had been vented out that a proper explosion like a grenade wouldn't set off the entire bunker. The gun fire was making her nervous as it was. However the longer they were held up at the entrance the more her vision started sparking and judging by the comments of the other fighters and Mack they too were noticing the effects.
The sound of a helicopter landing near the silo was a welcome blessing as she watched Roger, Joey, and Dmitri race up with rifles up with Nick surprisingly following behind them.
"I hope you weren't expecting a ride home. Nick had a hell of a time nursing this bird here." Roger said as he approached the silo entrance.
"Right now I couldn't care less. Peggie's can't reach the door controls but they are holding the stairwell with a lot of suppressive fire. I don't want to start tossing grenades with all the Bliss still in the air." She said with some relief in her voice as she handed off the responsibility for attacking this bunker to someone that had a better idea of how to do it.
Roger nodded then dashed away from the door and up a stairway to the top of the structure. Once there he could see how much if any Bliss was still venting from under the main silo door and any of the vents on the silo exterior. Thankfully what he found was only the barest wisps of Bliss coming from the vents but most telling was the silo door was no longer leaking the drug.
'Ok so the silo is no longer pressurized with Bliss.' He thought as he dashed back to the entrance.
"Joey toss a frag down there and let's get this raiding party started." He said as Grace started to protest.
"But there is still Bliss in the air! Hell I can barely see because of the sparks!" The sniper said.
Roger laughed as he watched Joey inch toward the top of the stairs and started talking with Mack about where best to toss her grenade.
"Grace just because you are seeing the effects of Bliss doesn't mean there is a dangerous level of the chemical in the air anymore. Remember lower and upper flammability limits? Well gaseous Bliss..." He started to explain before she cut him off harshly.
"Roger! Are we going to get blown up?!" She snapped.
"No. Not enough Bliss in the air." He said curtly.
The sniper nodded and watched Joey toss her grenade while Mack dumped the rest of his belt to further suppress the cultists at the base of the stairs.
The sheer noise of Mack's gun covered up any sound the grenade made when it hit the ground but even then the sound of panicked screams could be heard followed by the deep bass of an explosion.
Roger turned and flashed a knowing smile at Grace before turning back toward the interior of the bunker. Soon he was leading the charge down the stairs with Joey, Dmitri, and even Nick hot on his heels. Mack and Grace with half of their own fighters followed them, the other half staying top side just in case the peggies had a few survivors that might think to fall back to the silo.
The layout of Rachel's bunker was unsurprisingly at least on the upper levels exactly like John's own bunker so they knew that the control room for the silo was on the 5th floor. This was also where it seemed most of the cultists were making their last stand.
The heavy government issued steel desks were flipped over and then many of the old reel to reel and not quite as old micro transistor computers where then heaped in front of those. Like most of the cultists attempts at setting up barriers if he had been armed with just a AR it might have stopped some of his rounds but between his .30-06 HCAR and Mack's M60 they both just hosed the desks until nothing came back up to shoot at them.
"I really need to start remembering to carry some flash bangs when clearing these bunkers." He commented as he did a count of the bodies.
"Didn't we pass an armory of some sort a floor or two ago?" Nick asked as he tapped a dead peggie with his boot.
Mack was the one to answer. "Yeah just as you reach the base of the 4th floor stairs there was something marked 'Armory' not sure if it really was an armory though."
Grace turned to some of the fighters and Cougars that had followed them. "How about you guys double back and see if there is anything in that armory worth grabbing."
The men nodded and rushed away in short order. It was then that Joey had finished her count of the dead. "Ok so we had ten at the stairs and another fifteen here that gives us a total kill count of 25 out of roughly 36-ish."
"How sure are we of those numbers?" Dmitri asked out loud as he looked at some of the newer server racks in the room.
"They are rough estimates. Joey found that the laptop in the control booth of the conservatory was tapped into most of the systems here in the bunker, most importantly the security cameras. We have a rough estimate of the number of cultists and I know that a few levels down we have another two dozen Angels and Archangels waiting for us." Roger stated as Joey exclaimed catching everyone's attention.
"Found the control computer, looks like they tried to smash the keyboard instead of the computer tower to disable it. Fucking idiots." She said as she started to unhook the keyboard.
"Joey go ahead and swap the keyboard with another one and get that computer up and running, then we will keep moving to clear the bunker once the guys finish their armory run. I'll take care of the radios this time." He said as he set to work on his own task.
He found the radio repeater for the bunker and changed it to the Resistance frequency. By doing so he took away the remaining cultists communications and bolstered his own, a clear win-win in his book any day. Soon enough with pockets loaded down with flash bangs and a few more grenades provided by the cult's own armory the group delved deeper into the bowels of the bunker while the Cougars and other fighters held the control room.
"Deputy, do you copy?" The man sitting at the computer in the control room called as they entered the 5th floor.
"We copy, what do you have?" Joey replied as Roger looked around at the vastly expanded chemistry labs around them, all containing a rainbow of quietly simmering variants of Bliss and God knows what else.
"Man I'm having flashbacks to chemistry class... not the good ones either." Nick commented as Joey spoke over the radio.
Mack chuckled. "Let me guess Mr. Zarvos daily elemental identification quizzes?"
"Yeah... nothing is worse than seeing a long list of 'zeros' on your grade card save for the obvious elements like copper or carbon. Also breaking the vial with the... I think it was cesium didn't help either. I know the explosion afterwards certainly didn't." Nick reminisced.
Roger chuckled. "I remember that day, I shielded Joey and a few other people from the shards of glass. Then spent the night with Dr. Ferguson pulling out all of it from my back."
Joey got off the radio and turned to the group. "We got problems brewing with other failed experiments. The control room guys just watched the last of the peggies try to unleash their army of Angels and all got torn apart. Roger some of these Archangels are nearly as big as you are..." she said with some concern towards the end.
"I'll bet those Angels were on the prisoner Bliss, made to calm them down. When we killed the bunker's Bliss production we must have killed that as well." Dmitri added as he thought back to Feeney's explanations.
He only shrugged and smiled. He really should be more concerned but his overwhelming curiosity drove him to want to answer that burning question: 'Just how strong was he really?' At least should it come to hand to hand fighting something as big as an Archangel especially one that needed Bliss to stay calm.
"Sounds like a party, so are they coming up the stairs?" He asked.
"No, they are staying on the 10th floor where they were held but that could change. Should we seal them in?" Joey inquired.
He started walking forward and leading the group towards the stairs leading down another floor. "Seal the doors heading deeper into the bunker. If that gets them to move then they will at least come to us."
The 6th floor was more of the same empty lab spaces and operating theaters seemingly so Feeney and his chemists could keep conducting their experiments though the question of who might be their test subjects in a bunker with mostly children led to questions even Roger didn't want to think too hard on.
What they found on the 7th floor however fill him and Dmitri with barely contained professional horror.
An entire floor dedicated to radioactive material laboratories made worse by the two dozen black cone shapes resting on various stands in the labs. The floor only had a single hallway about as wide as a car with the rest of floor sealed off by thick concrete walls on either side of the hall that were only split by narrow viewing windows of equally thick blocks of some sort of radiation shielding plastic.
"Roger... are those what I think they are..." Grace asked as she peered through the thick windows.
With a slight shake in his voice he responded to the sniper's question. "Yes Grace, those are MIRV's and I'll bet that all of them are very much actual live nuclear warheads."
"Roger... if the cult is making MIRV equipped missiles this vastly increases their throw weight per a missile. With this many warheads already built could they be building another missile?"
Joey answered this time. "Maybe they could be tooling up for building more. Think about it John's bunker had all that machining equipment but Rachel has the chemical and laboratory space to build the warheads."
"Don't forget the fuel and oxidizer either. You also got to build the missiles and I'll bet that Jacob has somehow re-purposed some of the logging equipment for that task. I mean trees are long and round just like missiles right?" Nick added.
Mack groaned softly in frustration. "You mean to tell us that Joseph wasn't happy having three nuclear missiles so he has the materials for more? What the fuck man?"
Roger had to agree with the young man. Already before all this he was shocked at what the cult had accomplished but now... the cult had more warheads then some nations did. He prayed once more that his and Joey's plan on mocking up a false underground nuclear test to signal for help actually worked because things were quickly getting beyond what even he thought he could handle.
"At the end of the day it changes nothing. We still need to clear this bunker and then prepare to move on Jacob's holdings, once we have pulled all of Joseph's nuclear tipped teeth out then we can relax a bit. Let's go now, I feel like hitting something." He said as he led the way once more.
The journey down to the 10th floor was done in silence as everyone wrangled with the latest revelations they had seen in the lab. It had shown just how powerful the cult had become and how close the cult had come to possibly bringing about 'The Collapse' by their own hand. If they were honest with one missile still in Joseph's hands he could still potentially kick off just that.
Right now however 'The Collapse' they hadn't expected was working against them and now with the majority of the county back under control of the residents the cult's days were increasingly numbered.
.
The 10th floor was a cross between a church and a prison block all in a single massive room. One side was a raised stage and pulpit within a heavy steel cage while several rows of long monolithic concrete blocks served as nigh indestructible pews for the calmer and more focused Angels to sit and pay attention to whomever was preaching to them as part of their indoctrination.
If the Angels became too much of a handful much like they had the ceiling of the room was dotted with large shower heads that made Joey shutter momentarily as they were the same design used in Rachel's gas chamber.
The six fighters now moved quietly to the edges of the doorway as they took in the sight of numerous cultists that had been literally torn limb from limb by their rogue creations. Their original estimate on the number of Angels failed to account for the clown car factor in which the cult crammed far more Angels into an assumed space than what any sane person would expect.
Instead of only a dozen or so Angels they had nearly fifty, the silver lining if it could be called that was there were indeed only ten Archangels, but what monsters they were. The hulking masses of muscle had long since torn through their scrubs that now held on to their bodies as little more than dirty rags.
Another change compared to their slightly smaller standard Archangel brothers were their elongated toe and fingernails that looked like three inch long claws, it wasn't clear if it was just a lack of care by the cult or them trying to make a more dangerous Archangel. Of all the threats in the room they were the ones that caused the most concern.
"Dmitri take my rifle, I'll be using my .50. Grace, Nick you guys jobs are going to be chucking a flashbang followed by three grenades each as far as you can into the room after that grab your guns and join Dmitri in hosing anything that looks like it's getting too close. Joey switch to your Beowulf and you and Mack will be providing the bulk of the fire. I will be focusing on the Archangels." Roger ordered as he handed the spy his rifle.
In short order Joey and Mack were prone on the ground on their bipods with Grace and Nick respectively kneeling with their grenades beside them for easy grabbing. Dmitri and Roger stood using the door frame to steady their rifles.
"Ok... Flash out! Cover your ears and don't look at the blast!" He called out as Grace and Nick tossed their flash bangs and everyone did what they could to shield their ears from the blast. The fact they were in a bunker even if the room itself was quite open made the already loud blast seem far worse as the Angels began thrashing about clutching their ears some even ripping them off as if it somehow would lessen their pain. This bought the group time for the pairs of frag grenades to be carefully lobbed throughout the mass of stunned and screeching cult zombies.
Then all that could be heard next was the chugging roar of Mack's machine gun as he along with everyone hosed the wounded and panicked masses down with high speed lead. Roger tapped away at the Archangels heads as he centered them in his scope until finally he got to the largest of the Archangels.
The creature in a manner not unlike the Bliss enhanced preacher he had killed in front of the Spread Eagle so long ago it seemed had the left side of its head blown apart by the explosive round but instead of politely dying it instantly honed in on the group and charged.
The last and greatest of the Archangels violently tossed aside the dwindling numbers of lesser Angels as they happened to cross its path.
"GO FOR THE LEGS! GO FOR THE FUCKING LEGS!" Nick yelled as the group shifted focus to the charging Archangel.
The monster's legs and knees exploded but the monster was only slowed somewhat as it first tried to walk on its wrecked limbs then resorted to crawling the last ten or so feet to the doorway.
"I'm out!" Joey yelled as she started swapping for her shotgun.
"I'm out too!" Mack follow as he brought his pistol out of its holster.
"Hold your fire, I got this!" Roger roared as he walked forward and simply crushed the creatures head under a massive boot sending blood and brain matter squelching and flying. His presence in the room finally caught the attention of the remaining handful of Angels as they froze in shock.
"Who's next?!" He yelled as he swapped his Barrett for his own shotgun making a bit of a show of unfolding the stock as he did.
The Angels only regarded him for a brief second before they broke out in another bout of panic, running away toward the sealed doorway leading deeper into the bunker. They banged and clawed at the steel door hopelessly as he sent round after round of buckshot screaming into their skulls.
With the last of the monsters dead the room fell silent. The smell of blood and torn bodies only added to the visual element of the butchered cult monsters.
Joey walked beside him as he regarded the pile of dead Angels at the doorway. "I remember how shocked I was when I first saw these... things at the youth camp just flooding out of that cabin, but now I think seeing them run from you is actually more shocking."
He draped his free arm around Joey's shoulders and smiled. "That is the one regret I have from all of this, I doubt I will ever get an answer for just why these otherwise mindless zombies have enough brain cells to recognize a Saint that certainly wasn't included in any of their indoctrination."
"Well buddy there are somethings that we simply aren't supposed to ever figure out. Like how Kim fell in love me to the point she said 'Yes' to when I purposed to her... still trying to figure that one out." Nick said as he approached them with Grace and company in tow.
"Life questions aside lets clear this bunker and go home." Grace added to the agreement of everyone else.
A quick radio call was all it took to open the door leading deeper into the bunker's depths and while the door opened it unceremoniously shoved aside the piles of bodies that were in its path. The rest of the clearing job went without any further contact as they had expected, but thoroughness demanded that every empty bunk room be checked.
Roger did have a brief moment of intense longing as they reached the bottom level and found Rachel's private quarters complete with a massive King size bed covered in white silk sheets and looked comfortable if one could get past the giant cult cross on the comforter and the images of Joseph, John, and Jacob beside that.
'I don't care what anyone says I'm going to spend tonight at the Spread Eagle.' He thought as he finished searching Rachel's room for anything of worth and finding it much like her room at Seed Ranch: clean and impersonal lending more weight to what Joey had learned about there being different 'Faith's' over the years.
.
The next few hours were blurred as once the bunker was declared cleared and safe they opened the main silo door in the hopes that any satellites that might be investigating the origin of the explosion that morning would see now two open missile silos with missiles within.
Marcus came by and with the same Geiger counter from John's bunker confirmed that the missile in Rachel's silo was indeed nuclear in nature. He also visibly paled at the sight of the additional warheads in the labs and gave specific orders that the labs were to remain untouched by anyone, after which he then more ordered than requested that the two deputies take at least the rest of the afternoon and evening off after spending all night and morning liberating Rachel's region.
Hitching a ride in the back of Resistance pickup truck it was near sunset when they finally pulled up to the welcome sight of the Spread Eagle. They walked in and instantly were assaulted with cheers and accolades with plenty of shoulder clasps and pats on their armored backs.
"OK OK! DON'T KILL THEM WITH CONGRATULATIONS NOW! ROGER! JOEY! TAKE SEAT AND WE'LL GET SOME FOOD IN YOU!" Mary May shouted over the crowd.
Their journey through the crowd towards their usual place at the bar was only halted by his mother digging and shoving everyone in her way until she was able to hug her son.
"Roger Titus Rook can you please not cut it so close next time?!" She complained.
He sighed slightly with a smile. "Sorry Mom I didn't exactly have much choice this time. I try not to make a habit out of it." He returned the hug before she hugged a shocked Joey as well.
"Don't think I wasn't concerned about you too Joey. I really don't want to have to call your mother to say that you died in this mess." The older woman said as she stepped aside so they could reach the bar.
Now finally seated with massive burgers and fries set before them Casey came out with a small folded note card that he glanced at before handing it back to the cook. Joey noticed this and leaned closer to him.
"What was..." she started to ask before he cut her off quickly.
"I'll tell you later in bed." He said as he went back to work on his food.
A little while later The Sheriff and his family arrived with a excited Edward racing up to the deputies.
"Roger! Roger! Your Dad found all the guns you suggested and gave them to me! Even Jess got a AK like Dmitri's!" The boy exclaimed.
Roger glanced at the Sheriff in the background who only smiled and nodded in approval.
"Well Ed just make sure you take care of all of those guns. Most kids your age don't normally have access to those kinds of guns so don't waste this opportunity by abusing or damaging them." Roger stated with all seriousness.
Ed nodded. "I won't Roger."
.
The evening wore on as it seemed everyone in town at some point came up and thanked them for killing Rachel. Overall it was a more positive reaction overall then he had originally expected but he figured that in the next day or two people might start questioning his methods once the shock and joy of killing Rachel had worn off.
'Never check the oil level on a hot engine and never take a opinion poll on a emotional group of people. Still its hard not to think that most of these people might understand why I did what I did and if not well... I certainly won't be helped by trying to lie about it that's for sure.' He thought as he stared into his now empty glass of Coke.
"Roger you're thinking loudly again." Joey teased.
He couldn't help but smile at his girlfriends words. "Sorry, just wondering what all these folks will be saying in another day or two once the scale of what I just did sinks in."
"What we did Roger. I was there as well and helped plan the attack so don't try to carry the burden by yourself. As for what the people will say... honestly even if they hate us, eventually they will have to realize just how few alternatives we had. If not then I say let them wallow in their ignorance." She said as she drained the last of her own soda.
Not long after that with the dishes cleared away and Mary May making it clear that she had things well in hand, the two law givers drug themselves up the stairs and back to the spare bedroom. The sight of the large comfortable bed was almost too intoxicating for Roger to resist as he sat down on the bed and nearly fell asleep there and then.
He didn't though by the slimmest of margins and finished stripping for bed and gladly took Joey into his arms once she joined him under the covers.
"We're almost there Joey, just need to kill Jacob and then Joseph will be cornered." He whispered.
"So you'll still arrest Joseph? Even after everything?" She asked.
"Of course he still has a federal arrest warrant on his head and besides I did say I would drag him through the ashes of his congregation. I want him to be left with the screams of his people for the rest of his life unless somehow he gets death row which works for me as well." He said as he tighten his grip around Joey a little bit.
"All that said once Joseph is no longer in our custody I am going to suggest if we can manage it finding a nice quiet tropical getaway for two weeks. Some place warm, pleasant, and hopefully not over run with tourists... or pirates but mostly tourists."
"Always wanted to see Hawaii..." Joey trailed off as sleep claimed her.
He smiled as sleep came for him as well. Figures that a woman who loves geology would want to go to Hawaii tourists be damned.