✞𝐉𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐡 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝✞

You sat inside a broken, misshapen and destroyed car as fire crackled around you, taunting your failed escape. Your head pounded and your arms ached, and looking at them, it was a miracle that they were still bent in the right way. How unlucky you were to have survived the crash, for nothing else survived the blast. You were terribly injured, and your mind swirled in a dazed and injured state. You could hardly remember what happened not even... How long, again? You couldn't tell. But all you could, was that one person survived. One and only you. You looked behind yourself, at the backseat, and saw all your friends dead, some in worse shape than others. Hell, one was a mess of shapes splattered across. Nothing but a red spill all inside the car, and mangled, destroyed and scattered giblets. You spotted half an arm, the top of a torso with most of the organs missing, and a crushed skull. It should have concerned you more, but after all the other gruesome deaths, all the conditioning and brainwashing, it didn't matter anymore.

Turning back around, you tried to get out of the car, but the head trauma caught up to you, and you ended up blacking out against the door. Who-knew-how-long later, and you heard whistling, and felt yourself get pulled out of the car. At least you could tell it didn't take a long time. If you hadn't been so thoroughly injured and out of breath by the crash already, the awful, fiery and ashy air made it even worse. You felt yourself get dragged against the rough, dirty rocks, your more injured arm being used to pull you by your fingertips carelessly. You could only guess it was to Dutch's bunker, and through a hazy mind, that gave you some form of comfort. Dutch would save you.... Dutch's bunker, of course. That reminded you of what had happened. After killing Joseph's family and entering a showdown with him, after everything should have been over, you watched him crawl. Crawl away in what you thought was a helpless chance of survival. A pathetic last escape, that was, until it happened. The nuclear explosion, the blast that chased you, and left only fire and ruin in its wake.

But in the present, you heard footsteps as you were dragged down the stairs, and then something snapping. Through your dazed state, after another interval of time you couldn't tell, you woke up to that same whistling, and your hands bound to a table. Whistling, and Joseph Seed standing in front of you, facing away. You looked down, and what was clear was confirmed. Dutch laid dead, his neck broken, right before your eyes. With him, now you had no one left. Not the sheriff, not the marshall, not anyone. No one but him. That... Awful voice you'd heard too many times spoke, and spoke with a question you didn't answer. "You know what this means?" Joseph asked, as he turned around. You saw that face that you'd wanted a bullet shot into for months, the face of the man who ruined everything for you, took everyone from you. That face, it was the last you would see, wouldn't it be? And it smiled.

Joseph smiled, and said, "It means the politicians have been silenced. It means the corporations have been erased. It means that the world has been cleansed by God’s righteous fire…" Those arms slowly raised, and lowered back down. You hated to see it. It reminded you of when you first marched through his church. When you tried to leave, and you crashed from a follower in the helicopter blades. And now, this time, you crashed all because of him. As much as you may have wanted out of this, there was nowhere to go. Nothing to do. Nothing, but listen to The Father. He approached slowly, and he crouched down to your level. The unblinking, bloodied face stared right at you. "But most of all… it means I was right. The Collapse has come. The world as we know it is over. I waited so long… I waited so long for the prophecy God whispered in my ear to be fulfilled… I prepared my family for this moment. And you took them from me."

Joseph's voice became rough and gritted, for the first time since you'd killed his family, the first time his hate was so palpable since then. "I should kill you for what you’ve done." Joseph said, and he stared. Stared into your soul again and paused, before that less angered tone from before returned. "But you're all I have left, now. You’re my family. And when this world is ready to be borne anew, we will step into the light. I am your father and you are my child. And together, we will march to Eden’s Gate.." Joseph sat back, and he continued to only look at you, for he had won. To that point, what did it even matter anymore? Neither of you had anything left. You sat before him with your arms bound to a piece of furniture, and there was nothing more here. Your only options were to stay here and fruitlessly and powerlessly deny what he told you, or to do as he said. He was forgiving, he was passive, he would accept you if you only stopped resisting. So there you both were, underground, alone. Even most of the wildlife above burned away. It was only him, and only you. You always were special, to what extent being up to your own description, but no matter who you were or where you came from, you managed to inadvertently kill everyone within some distance you didn't know, maybe the entire state or further. You brought down a cult, and took so, so many people down with you. After everything you did, you were left with nothing but the man who drove you to do all of this.