Chapter 20:

Faith watched as Tyler stepped into the boat with the Marshall and Seb. She felt strong urges: one being that she was grateful to have him back with her, two being immensely relieved that she was able to be given another chance which was rarely given by The Father, but more noticeably she wanted to hold onto Tyler's hand and show him what lies ahead in her way, not His way. Tyler would be more inclined to listen to him than Joseph so that felt like the best way to try and turn Tyler over to her side. The right side. But no, she had to play it safe now and make sure that not a single action of hers lead her to trouble. The statues destruction had already given its consequences. So she let him go, and turned around and left the men in the boat alone. If Tyler wanted to pull them both out of the Bliss, then who was she to stop him.

Tyler sat down in the rowboat across from Seb and Burke and just watched as they began to row further out into the lake. Burke told a story about life, that everyone lives by a set of rules prescribed to them by someone higher above you. But the Bliss is the only place he felt truly free to feel happy. Tyler shut it out as much as possible, but what captivated him was the words that Seb said.

"You know that I used to resent you," he said. "I always hated that you were able to beat me to everything I'd been working my whole life towards. When you first found me, I was no more than a full time fisherman but I made the choice to work with you, to take up arms and fight against something I never truly understood, but you convinced me with your words as you told me 'save everyone that deserves saving,' and that's what we did. But I never once thought of myself coz I was always thinking of others." He paused and looked around. "You were the one that called the shots, made the decisions and carved a deep warpath through this county and you know what I've learned?" He asked, staring deep into Tyler's eyes. "Never once in my life have I done things for me," he said cheerily. "But now I'm able to do those things and more. The Bliss gives me anything I could want and here… I can always be better than you, always get what I want before you get the chance to take it from me." By the time he'd finished talking, their boat number onto the muddy riverbank. Both Seb and the Marshall hopped out and walked away, heading towards large heaven-like gates. Tyler knew what this meant. Once they reached the gates, they would be forever lost in a sea of Bliss, just like the other mindless souls who've dedicated themselves to The Project. The gates began to open. Tyler hopped out of the boat and began hustling towards the two men who were lumbering themselves towards the gate. He had to save them. Both of them. He was so close now, but now he could feel a brightness within him as he got closer to the gates. No, I have to push further, Tyler thought to himself. He reached the Marshall and grabbed his arm and reached out and also grabbed ahold of Seb. As soon as he did this, his vision clouded over once more and he felt himself lose consciousness again.

Unlike the last time, he didn't reawakened in familiar territories. He was on his side outside what looked like a large plantation estate. But Tyler had the feeling it looked familiar, soon enough the sounds that echoed from the grounds around the old plantation reminded him. The old Conservatory that once belonged to Faith. He patter himself down and realised that all of his guns were gone, most likely taken when the cultists drugged him by the statue of Joseph. But tucked away in his sidearm holster was a new looking 1911, metallic red paint cover with an extended magazine, square suppressor albeit detached and two extra loaded magazines. Tyler attached the suppressor and checked his ammo once more and closed his eyes. A deep hatred began burning away inside. They were all gonna pay whether they deserve it or not. He made his way over to a truck parked at the very far end of the driveway and listened. The loudspeakers were playing that damn irritating music again alongside a sermon recorded by Joseph Seed.

"Wrath is coming for you, my Children." He declared. "He will come and he will mercilessly attempt to take this land away from you, but you know what needs to be done. Turn over every stone and listen to everything your soul tells you. Find the Sinner and end his cycle of death and destruction. Tyler smiled to himself and rolled his eyes. He must be so close now to ending the madness in the Henbane River. Moving forward quietly but quickly, he fired a well placed shot into the neck of the cultist by the garage. He didn't die but collapsed to the ground, neck oozing blood but he was unable to even make a squeal of pain. Tyler got up close, pulled the man's head back, place the barrel on his forehead and pulled the trigger. He quickly moved towards the house and entered through the open front door. He holstered his gun and took out his knife. He heated footsteps above him so he slowly ascended the steps and saw another cultist recording some information down on a clipboard alone. Tyler pounced. He nicked the clipboard out of his hands, spun the man around and thrusted his knife into the chest, he then pulled it back out and smashed it into the side of the cultists head until the hilt was at level with the skin. He pulled the knife out again and let the body slump to the ground. The thump was loud and the man somehow fell on his rifle which made a noisy clang as it hit the floor.

"You hear that?" Tyler heard from outside.

"Yeah c'mon, gotta go check it out. Could be that Sinner."

Two sets of footsteps could be heard enter the door downstairs. Tyler slid over to the back of the banister and watched as two cultist began slowly climbing the staircase. He took out the pistol and aimed it in line with the cultist further away and waited until they were both at the top of the stairs together. The shot went straight through eh back of the first cultist head and on its way out, struck the side of the head of the other one who had come up with him. Both slumped to the ground together. Tyler walked over to the corpses and looked at the gun the first cultist was carrying. An m133 shotgun that naturally packs a punch. Tyler picked it up and walked towards the window and aimed it at the head of the sniper on the catwalks. The bang was deafening and the sniper slumped to the ground straight away and his blood pooled around him. The gunshot set off the other three cultists in the Conservatory, one of which was shot by the second round fired but Tyler. The next two began firing at the general direction Tyler was in but both had clearly no idea where he was. Tyler went back to bodies of the dead cultists and searched them for any sort of explosives and gathered three grenades. He walked back over to the window and could see where the last two Peggies were firing blindly from. He pulled the pin on one grenade and threw it in the direction of the cultist. He heard a scream of terror before an explosion sounded. Tyler did the same thing again and the last cultist dropped dead.

"I saw what you did Tyler," Joseph's voice sounded over the PA. "This is your chance now, go to Her, her test is waiting. Call out for her and she will take you to your new home again." Tyler left the building and stood out on the catwalks. He felt that he too had to finish this off. Joseph Seed was not far away at all, he will die for what he has done to him.

"Faith!" The Junior Deputy roared loudly. His cry echoed around the mountains. His body, all of a sudden became cold and all to soon, the clouds of Bliss overtook him.

"I'm so glad you came back."

"I don't understand," sounded Faiths voice. "Did you think you could just continue to do what you wanted without consequence?" She appeared from the left and she wasn't happy to see him. She had a deathly glare on her face as she stared at Tyler. "I've been reasonable, I've been fair, but you are just so selfish!" She screamed before pushing his in the chest with force Tyler never thought she had. "I asked you to listen, to let me help you, to not hurt those who mean you no harm… but yet you continue to do your own purging. You only know of violence, blood, gore and death… so I'm gonna show you something you won't wanna see." She grabbed his hand and pulled them both fast and rapidly towards a person that Tyler quickly recognised as Seb. He looked lost, scared and confused. She walked over to Seb, bent down and whispered into his ear.

"Burke!" Seb called out. "Get in here, you gotta check this shit out." Faith was showing Tyler real life events.

"Faith stop it!" Tyler snapped as he shook her hands off his own.

"This is your punishment," she said. "Someone's gotta suffer the consequences."

The Marshall came running into whatever room the two of them were in.

"What is it?" The Marshall asked, but he was met swiftly with a bullet in the bottom of his chin. The Marshall backed into the wall of the room and instantly hit the ground in a pool of his own blood. Seb had shot him without a second thought.

"I'm sorry you need to learn that way, Tyler," Faith whispered. "But He has a method to everything, and we too must follow his methods in order to survive. I can't believe I ever let you talk me into doubting his wisdom." She then put two hands on Tyler's chest and pushed him backwards into darkness.

"Rook!" A voice called out faintly. "What happened to you, are you ok?" Tyler opened his eyes and saw he was back in the infirmary at the jail. The Cougars must've brought him back home to safety. Tyler sat up and ignored the head rush that accompanied. And he let it all out: that Faith had used Seb to kill the Marshall, that it was his fault, that Joseph might have been right all along.

"Woah there," Whitehorse said. "That's not your fault though." Tyler looked up at him with confusion all over his face. "You arrested Joseph because you were ordered to, you took a chance to try and salvage the reasonability out of Faith from the goodness of your heart. None of this is your fault." Tyler smiled sadly at his boss' words. They moved him. "But you still have one more thing you gotta do. You find Faith Seed and your friend and you do what your heart damn well tells you to, but then you, you friends and I will go and find Joseph and ensure that he doesn't live to see out his doomsday bullshit." Tyler nodded. "That's an order, deputy." The Sheriff whispered. He soon got up and left Tyler alone on the bed he was later down on. Not too long after, the door opened and in came Pastor Jerome and Nick Rye.

"My friend," Jerome said sadly. "For everything that's happened to you here… I'm sorry."

"Yeah partner," Nick chimed in. "I'm so fuckin' sorry I couldn't have been there with you to help you out. Ain't no one I'd want to see take this kinda burden on single handedly." Tyler smiled and closed his eyes.

"It's good to finally see you guys again. It's been a long time."

Authors Notes:

Hi guys, so if you can tell, I'm getting towards the end of this story. I think I really like the tone this story took and I hope that you like the way I've developed the main characters like Seb, Tyler and Faith. Might be a bit of a wait before the next upload due to where I'm at with this story.

Thanks for reading!