Mickey

You stood in front of the tall red silo with your arms crossed, trying to contemplate the best way to blow it up without blowing yourself up or sending shrapnel flying across the field.  Sure, you had the grenades which could collapse the whole thing, but if the fertiliser inside was as flammable as that guy said, you could certainly just shoot the thing and catch it on fire, right?  You followed your eyes up to the brightly painted Eden’s Gate cross, and an incredibly judgmental look crossed your face.  You hadn't noticed how it stuck as you tried to estimate the height from the ground to the roof.  

Deciding you could use a grenade if shooting it didnt go well, you rotated the rifle’s belt around your shoulder and pressed the trigger.  It burst three shots, and you tried again.   You could tell there was a heat, maybe a fire starting, but the compression of the fertiliser was too compact and preventing it from igniting, so you opted to look at one of your three grenades and pursed your lips.

“Well, this is a stupid idea,” You muttered as you pulled it out from the sack and ensured everything was secure on your person for your run.  You repositioned your legs so that once you tossed the explosive, you could immediately pivot and flee.  So, you did just that.  You took a deep breath, pulled the pin, and didnt even bother to risk cooking it in your hand as you dumbly slung it towards the base of the silo, then ran the opposite direction, silently counting to four before covering your neck and diving to the ground at the same time that the explosion sent the metal sheets flying. You rolled onto your back to watch as the silo’s gaping hole began to fold in on itself and scrambled up to run off to the side, escaping the falling path of the crumpling building. The fertiliser that spilt formed a flaming mound, plenty of feet high, that you weren't bothering to count.  

“That was…. Anti-climactic…” you muttered and swivelled to look back at the farm buildings.  You should probably ensure you have a couple of clips for the rifle and get another grenade.  And now that you think about it, you should probably pack a few medkits in the bag you were carrying, too.  You huffed and checked yourself over, then brushed some dirt from your knees before walking back to the small group of resistance members that were gathering on Rea’s farm.  You weaved your way through the seed field mounds and past the bout of threes before getting onto the gravel of the driveway and beelining back to the makeshift armoury. “Can I…. Get another grenade? And whatever else you may have… oh! Oh, and a medkit or three? And ammo for whatever this is.” You held up the rifle.

“I'll be expecting money next time, Dep,” he said as he edged the items forward on the table.  

“Put it on my tab?” you asked sheepishly 

“I’m countin’,” he said.

Someone from Rea Rea’s gave you a four-wheeler that said she’d wanna give it to you if she had been aware of the situation.  You got on and tapped the back rack twice for Boomer to jump up and join you.  It was easier said than done to make your way towards Fall’s End, having to stop every moment you saw the tiniest bit of mayonnaise white colour that the cult painted on their vehicles.  You even had to pull over a small handful of times when you saw a few cult members snatching civilians and zip-tying their wrists while they were on the side of the road.  Most of the time, you'd peel off just before they noticed you, and carefully snuck the ATV closer to the ditch.   You dipped into the brush, crouching low between the pine trees, the sedges and the ferns. You walked in your squat and let one hand dig in the ground beneath you as you lurked through the flora.  Once you were close enough, you stilled your breathing and placed your rifle up against your shoulder, your sights angled up to the two peggies.  

Your shots were consecutive and quick enough that they hardly had time to react before they'd already dropped to the ground. It was hardly even a brief sprint for you to get to the captured duo’s side. 

“See, I told you, Crow.  Nobody can stay away from us long, always fighting to have us on their side.” The girl with blue-dyed hair elbowed the snow-haired girl's side.

“Don’t fuckin’ do that,” Crow snapped, trying to yank her bound hands to smack the girl beside her.

“Hey, easy now.  Im just being honest,” she opened her mouth to say something else, but you cut them off by clearing your throat.

“Am I interrupting something?” you asked, tilting your head with mild amusement. 

“No, no.  Crow is just being a bitch-” “Yes, obviously you're interrupting, bitch!” they both said in unison.

“Crow, we’re still cuffed.  And you.. Are you trying to curse out the person who MIGHT uncuff us?”

“Fuck the deputy, I can get out myself!” The blunette sighed and raised her head away from the aggressive one beside her.

“Please excuse Crow.  She’s thinking she would have to go on a rampage. Towards whom- probably everyone,  she has no bias.” You slowly nodded as you watched Crow visibly slump her shoulders.

“Sounds right.”

“Anyway, Im Venus.  As I've said, this potty-mouth is Crow. Mind untyin’ us? We’ll help you with whatever you need. We owe ya one for stoppin’ them pegs from blowin’ our brains out since the free bird can't help but to run her trap.”

“We are kinda lucky they're helping…” You cut the zipties, and Venus gently rubbed her wrists before beaming a smile at you.  

“Aint you just enchantin’!  It looks like you're headed towards town… We’ve got some skills if you want some help with... Whatever your goals are?”

“Vee…” Crow looked at her,

“Shut up, Birdie, this is our chance to slaughter some people!”  You jerked your head back in shock at the bubbly girl saying such a thing. Crow, on the other hand, looked like this was normal, nodding in agreement.

“They threw our shit in the back of their truck, though.” Crow finally stood, and you realised she was much taller than you anticipated, towering over the five-foot-two Venus by at least a foot.  What kinda relationship do these girls have? You wondered.

“A strange one,” Venus winked at you.

“What,” you said,

“Huh,” Crow tilted her head as she pulled her LW3A1 frostline sniper from the box of the truck. 

“Oh oh, are my goodies in there?” Venus launched herself towards the tailgate and hoisted herself over it by stepping up the bumper brackets.  You heard a thud as her feet disappeared.  It wasn't even a second before her head popped up. “They didnt lose my baggie!”

“Jesus, Vee.  We were here the whole time.  You watched them put it in there.” Crow balanced the sniper over her shoulder and rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, anddd? They could have lost it at that time!”  She put the straps of the hiking bag over her shoulders and placed her right hand on the gate before swinging her legs over and out. She landed on both her feet. “God could be trying to nerf me by taking my shit.”

“You can't nerf yourself.” Venus placed her hand up, motioning to silence the grumpy friend. “Put your hand down before I punt you like a football, you little fuckin’ ankle biter.” 

“Hey now, Im not an ankle biter. Red calls me a Koala… NOT because of Clymidia” She paused awkwardly “ANYWAYS, Im just sayin, someone up there has it out for me” She pointed to the sky. “I can just feel it in my bones that im meant to help the Deputy, here, otherwise my gear would be gone.

You shifted, still unsure of what the two were yapping about.  “Do you… Do you do this a lot?” You asked Venus, since she was clearly the more vocal of the two.

“Oh, oh, yeah,  just, listen.  I know as well as anyone that it seems the world has put you in a pickle.  Not many people ‘round here have soulmates.  Im sure they certainly don't understand you.” She pulled the collar of her shirt down to reveal a portion of a black sentence scrawled across her collarbones.   “So that makes us two peas in a pod, you and I. And don’t worry much about Crow.  We’ve been friends for a while…. She probably won't try to hit me anytime soon.  We stick together, and since imma stick with you, she’ll probably pitch in every once in a bit.  Now, I've got word that John Seed’s been tryin’ to put planes over the town to stop you from takin’ it back.  We can help with that.”

Based on the two simple facts that Venus didnt seem like she’d back down and that you had scolded the man at Rea Rea’s that nobody was here to help, who were you to deny her?

“Alright, Im hearing you.  She's got that frostline… What do you have to help?” Venus tilted her head and pushed her lips into a duckface, quirking one brow.  “Watch!” she turned around, and you finally noticed the two thigh holsters that held a knife each, then the belt that also held another two that hid under her shirt, which she was lifting the hem of.  On her right hip, there was a third belt holster that held a silenced pistol. 

“Im sneaky,” she said.  You then recognised something.  

“Give me a second,” you muttered as you pulled out a pocket book that Dutch gave you from the thigh pocket .  You flipped through a few pages before you found a part Dutch had labelled ‘Person(s) of interest’, which held a total of twelve people.  You knew some of the names, like Hurk Jr., which was the running senator’s son, Sharky, his pyromaniac cousin, and… Cheeseburger? The county’s famous bear. At the bottom of the list was Crow, Red, And Venus Chaos, and you read the notes below their names.

“Crow’s real name is unknown, but her ‘sister’ Venus seemed to pick her up like a stray dog one day and never let her leave. Sniper for hire  She's got two skills: True Shot and Frenzy Fire.

The former noted that she never took a shot unless she knew it’d hit, so she never missed.  The latter was a skill she had, only triggered when she was particularly pissed.  She could rapidly fire several shots.

Venus, However was quite the case.  Her skills were marked as Feral, Lady of the Woods, and a third one, ‘Unassuming.’

Just as Crow, the former was noted “Melee/fang for hire  When Venus is backed into a corner, she is known to use feral and primal fighting techniques and is known to get dirty. ‘WILL BITE’ was underlined three times.  The latter was written that she could call upon various wild animals that she had encountered during her time in the woods, and they'd fight alongside her.

You looked at where the unassuming label was and read it.  ‘Easily fools her enemies by being unassuming.  Most people don't bat an eye before she jumps on them and kills them.’

Then, underneath that, he wrote:

‘Vee is Jess’s friend.”  You looked a few pages back, where you saw Jess’s name and noted that Jess was Dutch’s Niece.  That meant you could probably trust the… feral girl.

“You know Jess?” you asked, stuffing the book away.

“Do I know her? God! She’s practically my platonic wife! I collect them like Pokémon!” She finally turned back around, figuring she had shown off her weapons enough and looked at you.  “Do you know her?”

“Not quite yet.. But I know Dutch.”  You shifted, and “He's got a couple of people he noted down.  Said they’d help me or somethin’.  You're on that list.”

“Oh, how sweeta him! I always thought he was soft on me,” she began.  “Reminds me of my own old man!” she looked to Crow.

“Well, we'd better get on our way towards Falls End, otherwise it’ll get too dark for us to take out as much as we'd wanna.  Whatcha say, Crow and I take this truck? You can't drive, though. That's on me.”  You grimaced, not particularly wanting to let this… Whatever she was drive.

“That's fine, I gotta fourwheeler back there, but I'll follow you.” You nodded back at her, and she shot you a thumbs up, watching as you turned around to retrieve your vehicle.

~~

Venus had pulled off the road near a fence, and you followed suit.  You watched as she jumped from the truck and heard Crow’s own door close. 

Venus took one strap off her shoulder and slung her bag around to dig through it while you walked towards her. She didnt look up, but turned towards you as she began to speak.  “Listen, we gotta go on foot from here, otherwise the cult’ll know that it's us.  They’ve got eyes watching the edges of town, but I know a few back ways to sneak in between buildings.” You peered in her bag and whatever she was shuffling through and noted a ziplock bag of… horse treats and jerky?  She grabbed a smaller bag that was filled with freeze-dried dog treats and a bottle of water.  She also grabbed a thermos.  She drank from the thermos before putting it back in, opening and pouring the water over a handful of the treats. She put the remainder of the treat and water back in the bag, then put it back on her back. 

“You're not eating that.. Are you?” you asked, gawking at the handful of now soggy treats.

“Oh god, no! What do you take me for, a starving artist? No, no. These are for the wolves!”

“The what-now?” you stepped back and gaped.

“Well, my friend Red is also tied up in town, that's why the cult picked us off the road.  We were on the way there! And I wasn’t gonna go in, so bear, and, as a Montanan, I have the right to arm bears! Or.. in this case wolves.”

“I don't think you're saying that right, Vee.” Crow looked down at Venus.

“It's the right to bear arms,” You replied.  “But… you know that doesn't include actual animals… right?”

“What the fuck? don’t want bear arms… they're too hairy.  It's all propaganda anyway.” Venus dismissively waved her hand and then stepped into the hedges of the ditch.  She whooped towards the denser treeline, then quieted.  The birds stopped chirping for only a few seconds before three wolves emerged, and the birds piped up again. 

“Good, good.  Yes,” she praised the massive lupines, extending her hands with the treats and feeding them after they tromped to her. “Let's go,” she motioned as she wiped her slobbery hands on her jeans. She crawled up the ditch edge, then grabbed your wrist, not bothering to grab her aggressive counterpart, and pulled you to one of the galvanised road rails.  She yanked you around the side, then let go as she slid into the creek trench, stepping on a few stones to avoid the water before walking into the tall culvert.  She wandered further in, and the wolves slid around you, briefly looking as they passed, then caught up to her.

Crow tailed, taking the caboose to ensure a bit more safety. After getting out of the tunnel, she jumped and grabbed at a portion of barely visible chain-link fence that was covered in twisting vines and climbing ivy. She slotted her foot in and rolled herself over the top of it and beckoned you over, offering a hand.  You took it and put your own foot in a link to hoist yourself up.  Crow hardly had to climb. The wolves went through a fox ditch.  When all three of you were on the other side, Venus put a finger to her lips, hushing you and waving her hand to beckon you to follow her.  She went to the back of a building and you followed her, before she leaned back and whispered. “You can go in from here, I think.  Just go through that alley.  We will be behind you.”  

You split off from her and took the lead, going between the alley as she directed and crouched behind a dumpster for coverage as you leaned out and surveyed the area. At least a dozen people were herded, cuffed in the street and twice that in peggies patrolled around them in a circle.

“You can’t do this to us, Ya hear?” Mary May shouted at a small portion of the passing cultists.  “You can't just steal all our shit and try to convert us by force!” One of the men passing hissed at her to shut her up, but she only got louder, and he gripped his gun, shoving the butt of it into her stomach, causing her to lean over her knees and cough.

The scene enraged you, floored you, and you felt your blood run hot.  You grasped your pistol and jerked forward, swinging it up and firing, shooting three of the peggies in the chest consecutively as the many innocents ducked down to avoid your rapid gunfire. Your clip ran out and you didnt even bother to swap to the half full one, instead swapping to your rifle.  

You took an aim, but didnt shoot as a flash ran past you.  Venus and her wolves ran into your view, and she lunged at one of the cultists, shoving herself into their waist and shoving him to the ground, at the same time grabbing a knife from her back and stabbing it into his eye.  The cuktist next to them had twisted to defend his partner but jerked back as a hole blew out the back of his head.  

You looked to the roof of the building next to you, and Crow sat perched in a nest of signs as cover. A wolf ran past Venus and lunged, jumping on a few of the others that were centring on Venus and ripping their necks apart.  You refocused and began shooting others in the distance, sure that Crow would protect her sister. Venus moved and began to rapidly cut the bindings of the townspeople, freeing them before Crow fell back, and the ladder slid, following Venus and her wolves to the next portion of town.  

You ran, grabbing a few clips from bodies as you passed them, and caught up, only to go still by the Girl’s side.  In front of them, a woman, you were guessing Red, was covered in blood, slamming her boot into a peggie’s chest and leaning down, grabbing the knives from his pouch before standing and throwing them into another two peggie’s heads behind her. She twisted and waved at your group briefly, still fighting.  Venus shook from her Shock, and Crow raised her rifle as you stormed forward and continued to use your own rifle to shoot the cultists from close range.

“Baba Yaga,” Venus cheered as she cut the bindings of Pastor Jerome.

“Starshine!” Red exclaimed, twisting past a cultist's bat, then grabbing his wrist and pulling him to the pavement. 

“How’d you get out?” Crow asked as she shot the final peggie.  Venus was crouched, cutting off the bindings of the last person, who went running as soon as they could. 

“Oh, you know,” Red began as she walked around, gathering the throwing knives from peggie’s skulls. “I just pulled my legs through. Old circus trick.” 

The chattering stopped as your radio screached to life and the chatter of the pilot entering the airspace blaired. 

“I see them, im goin’ in,” he babbled, and the plane dipped down, just over the buildings, nd tried to shoot at the group of girls, trying to isolate you for your capture. The girls scattered, wach taking a different form of cover.  Venus dipped into the open garage door, Red took cover behind a car, and Crow backed herself under an awning. 

“Don't. harm. the. Deputy.” John spoke over the radio.  The plane twisted and turned around to try and take another pass in the town, and your brain clicked, and you ran, jumping behind the stone fence of the church and lying in the grass as cover.

“Ive got it,” sky shouted as she watched the plane spin and the nose dipped down.  Crow was quick to brace her rifle against a post that held the awning up, then looked in her sights and shot.

the plane veered off to the side and dipped further down, crashing just outside the town. You grimaced as you watched smoke billow into the air.  

“Yikes,” Venus muttered as she ran towards you, while you stood up from ground.

“I feel a little useless..” You stated, looking back to the now very bored looking Crow.  

“No, no.  Don't feel that way.  You're only just starting out.  You'll get better with time. It's very hard to go from being a Deputy about to make your first arrest to a member of a very prominent resistance.”

The radios, once again, began to crackle before John's voice broke through the static.

“Sin is pervasive… It drives us to do unspeakable acts,” he paused.

“I know the feelings that must drive you, I know them intimately. I can cleanse your soul, so you can join us in Eden.  To join Joseph.  Why do you fight against your destiny, so?” You heard him sign deeply. 

“It will be worth it.  My people will are coming for you. Try not to fight them, or the harder we'll have to scrub.”

You felt hot panic course through your veins and quickly bid the girl next to you a goodbye.

Venus tried to reach out to you, and said something. You didnt hear her.  You onky heard the sound of the blood rushing in your ears and a pressure built its way in your lungs.  You were moving faster than your own mind could keep up with, it was hard for you to focus on anything. You weren't sure where you were even going until you came to face your four-wheeler and Boomer still sat on the back of it.

“Good boy, Boom Boom,” you said hushedly, and you got on the back and began to drive as fast as you safely could. 

You had to make distance from Falls End, and fast.  John's hunters would probably start there and try to spiral out in an attempt to catch you. Maybe you could backtrack? Try to hide on Dutch's island for a few days until you can get back into the open? No; it'd give the cult more time to prepare, and risk Dutch's location, too.  You couldn't risk that, not after he'd helped you. You drove and drove until you found an empty field, devoid of any people or crops, and nearly slid the ATV into the ditch as you pulled off to the side.  You got off and called Boomer to come with you as you practically jumped into the deep grass and clawed your way up the dirt to the fence, which you rather ungraciously climbed through.

You cut yourself on one of the barbs, and hissed at the sensation.  Once yiu were stable on the other side of the fence, you looked at the slit on the webbing between your thumb and finger, then dipped your head and locked the cut.

You didn't even hear the trucks behind you.  Only the sound of a single pistol firing brought you out of your haze, but you didn't process anything as your vision went foggy, then dark.  The last thing you felt was your head falling into the soft, tilled soil underneath you.