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“You still don’t understand. You don’t know what it is you’re doing do you?” Faith cried out in her defeat, forcing her bloody cracked lips to form a weak smile. In her last moments before the deputy finally forced the sister of Joseph down from the hold she had over him in his drugged state she had confessed what happened. What made her Faith, being drugged and manipulated by the Father something the deputy had come to be familiar with in the last month. Faith takes a step towards the young deputy and from pure reflex he took a step away, keeping the distance from them. Why would he believe her? He had been warned that lying is like breathing to her, natural and without thought. But, the pain in her eyes that was covered in a layer of tears threatening to fall told him maybe in those last moments when she realised she would die that only the truth can help. Maybe she was trying to warn him of what Joseph is capable of. “Joseph believes he’s our saviour. But you’ll be the one who decides what happens.”, Faith continued to choke out her grimacing face showing that the pain was becoming to much for her. “You were the start. You’ll be the end.” Faith tries to reach out to hold onto the deputy, the man who caused her this pain, but once again he stepped back with a quick intake of air. Faith’s bruising face fell into an empty shell as the tears finally fell from her eyes, smudging more blood across her cheek on the way down. Her hand fell back to her side accepting that the damage she and her ‘brothers’ have caused to deputy couldn’t be reversed by her words.
“It was always going to happen this way.” Her voice cracked while her balance stumbled down the bank, she turned towards the river and slowly pushes her weight into the calm water. “You’ll walk the path” the words were spoken with a sad laugh, holding her arms out in the childish manner she held close as her guarding wall. “You’ll rescue your Sheriff. You’ll be the hero” This time she looked up to the deputy from the stream with a smile until her voice dropped into a serious tone, “And then you’ll choose.” Her body dropped into the water with a loud splash, the girl who made the world see her as a guardian angel too weak to hold her body up anymore. A diluted colour of red rippled across the water around her, her wounds were small but many her body seemed so small floating in the river.
“And if you don’t listen to him, he’ll be right.”
The deputy’s eyes dropped to his feet seeing the bliss flower call to him in his drugged state, he turned away to the girl that was slowly dying in the river and started to make his way to the Sheriff.
*Inside the Bunker*
The deputy had forced himself through the bliss clouds following the Sheriff’s singing. The deputy cursed to himself for taking too long with Faith when he saw the older man tighten a noose, he must hurry. With the skill’s he had to pick up from fighting this cult the deputy quickly and quietly took out the cult members in the bunker one by one, turning off the central valves as he went through. The anger. No, it was wrath, that he had built up this last month fuelled him into getting the job done with little commotion. Alarms started blaring in the deputy’s ears like a bad hangover, making him stumble into the next room that held the central pumps. The comfort that his gloved hands that rested over his ears brought him held him back from steadying his pistol. The deputy sat exhausted behind cover as he counted how much ammo he had left, peering over the banister he spotted a crate full of assorted bullets and a few grenades. The deputy pulled out a small vile of digestible liquid, that rushed blood through his veins, this could get him across the room to those grenades. The deputy let out a sigh, he never thought he’d be one to take drugs willingly but if he didn’t now many would be affected by the bliss willingly or not. Tilting his head back the deputy poured the burning liquid down his throat until the vile was empty. His breathing quickened at once making him sound like a rabid animal and so in mere moments the deputy had ran towards the crate, take out two cult members and slide over to pick up the explosive items.
One.
Two.
Three.
All done, Whitehorse radioed in signalling he was making his way out meaning all for the deputy to do now is to make his way out before the bunker blew. With both the bliss and the fast still running in his system the escape through cult members and streams of fire was easy. Nothing compared to his fight with John. The explosion was heard across the whole county, gaining cheers from the newly freed resistance members. Meanwhile the deputy was slowly losing his sanity, two regions and one to go but what more must he sacrifice to do so. This emptiness was shown clearly on his face, so Whitehorse didn’t say anything on the way back to the prison, nothing was asked more of him allowing the deputy to decide what to do next.
The deputy ditched the car and walked into the woods with one of his modified rifles, it started getting dark when he reached one of the personal bunkers that was abandoned months ago to be claimed by the deputy. He hesitated to open the door, scared of what lies inside. His footsteps echoed of the metal steps waking the single resident that lay battered and tired on the bunk-bed.
“Hello deputy, from the explosion I heard a few hours ago I take that you destroyed my bunker” Faith tried her best to sound confident and in control but she wavered revealing that she was still weak from their battle. The deputy stayed silent as he always did since even before this war started, just fell onto the opposite bed holding out his hand to give Faith the change of clothes so she didn’t have to lie in her own blood-stained clothes. Balancing herself on the side of the bed Faith stood and stripped from her clothes pulling fabric from the bandaged wounds. The deputy turned away from the sight making sure she kept her dignity that was originally forced from her by the Seeds.
“Deputy Stander”, the deputy finally spoke attempting to get the young woman to relax around him. “Or Lucas. If you would prefer”, Lucas Stander held out his gloved hand a proper introduction will surely help Faith trust him. She took his hand smiling at his kindness towards her, she finally took in what he looked like. Short cut hair that stayed in light messy curls, likely because war wasn’t a time to take time to style. Eyes as green as fresh spring grass that dug deep into every inch of Faith’s soul, his face was defined and attractive but bruised and dirty with smoke and blood.
Why would the deputy save faith? The woman that hurt so many, that hurt him, that killed Virgil and the Marshal. When the deputy stood staring into the river at the woman who was just floating as she waited for death, the deputy saw something. Him; a victim to Joseph Seed, a pawn in a battle, used to get some outcome they don’t know the truth about. No longer will Deputy Stander play by the rules created by Joseph, no longer would he become the monster that woke him in the middle of the night. This change will be started off with Faith, both of them will be free.