Outlast (Twenty One Pilots)

Seven

Song is Heaven Help Us by My Chemical Romance.

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Tyler wakes up but he's not where he was when he fell asleep. Oh no, I fell asleep! Tyler looks around and he's on the back of a horse on his stomach. Next to him is Josh, still asleep even after all of this. Both his and Josh's legs and hands were tied. Where's Brendon? Oh God, where's my Dallon? Tyler looks up and across from him is another horse walking right beside the one he was on. Brendon and Dallon were facing away from them but they were in the same position as him and Josh.

Suddenly the horses stop. If there's a horse, then there's a rider. Tyler looks to his right and sees someone getting off. "Oh look, the Heretic is awake." He knows better than to talk back but at this point, he can't hold himself back.

"Let us go," is that all he's got? Let us go?

Then suddenly, the Overseer walks up and in between the two horses. Tyler can see Dallon start to move and Brendon starting to wake up. Josh beside Tyler, is still asleep but he isn't for long. The Overseer grabs onto Josh's underarms, dragging him off of the horse. Josh starts to scream and thrash, still fresh from sleep and confused. "Let me go! Let me go!"

"Tie him up," the thick southern accent of the Overseer instructs two other men, yanking Josh to a tree, tying him up and stuffing a gag into his mouth.

"Josh! Josh! Let him go!" Brendon yells, pulling at the restraints around his wrists and ankles.

"Where," the Overseer begins. "And I've asked him. I've said, God, why must we suffer like this? Why must we do this terrible violence? Do you hate us God? Do you hate this world? And do you know what God says? God said unto Moses: I am that I am. And that's all there is to it." Overseer walks over the Brendon, yanking him off of the horse like he did with Josh, throwing him beside the boy. "We stand in opposition to the Antichrist. If we hope to beat him, we cannot only try to be like Jesus. We need to be like God! And now, God has sent us this...woman," the Overseer points to Josh who only start to sob harder. He's shaking his head back and forth and clenching his eyes closed. Brendon is scooting himself closer to Josh, doing his absolute best to comfort him. Him, he's a he and he is fully a man. This 'Overseer' has no idea what he's talking about, and he's in no place.

"Don't listen to him, Josh," Brendon whispers, pleading, rubbing his hand onto Josh's knee which is scraped and covered in blood.

"Fallen like a rebellious angel from the sky." The Overseer turns back around after having put Tyler and Dallon onto the ground several yards away from Brendon and Josh. "Take the gag off."

One of the men comes over to pull Brendon away from Josh, holding his arms tightly while the other pulls the gag from Josh's mouth. Josh's cries become louder and more clear. "God, I ask you, who is this outsider? This stranger come into our midst?" Josh is hyperventilating and sobbing uncontrollably, Brendon is crying too. He wants to do something but he can't. He looks over at Tyler and Dallon. Tyler is wearing a scowl and his face holds nothing but anger. Dallon looks confused.

"Listen to me, please, we-" Brendon starts.

"Hush, child." Overseer holds his hand out, waving it before the man behind Brendon covers his mouth with a rag, tying it tightly. Overseer turns back to Josh, "you've already revealed your tongue fit for nothing but lies. God's truth is here now, come to reckon." He then holds Josh's head in his hands, squeezing which causes Josh to cry out. "God, I lay these hands on this dissembling sinner and ask that you reveal the truth. Pray with me, children. 'God give me voice, God guide my hand.'" The Overseer and his men begin to chant and repeat the phrase. Meanwhile, Tyler pulls his knife from his back pocket, maneuvering it so that he could cut straight through the ropes on his wrists and his ankles.

"Don't move." He tells Dallon just as he's cut his hands free.

"Lay bare what she would keep hid. Make plain what she would confuse. Make true what is false." The Overseer bellows out, tightening his hold onto Josh's head. "Enter me, Lord. Please, I don't need to know the way, only to know that you. I..." He then yells out, screaming, throwing his head back then gasps and opens his eyes like he's suddenly realized something. That he's found something so extraordinary. "Your child. Your child is the one."

Brendon is gasping for air through the rag around his mouth, breathing harshly and shaking his head because he doesn't understand. Josh, he - Brendon knows Josh is transgender but he makes no sense of what this man is saying.

"She is ripe with the antichrist! The enemy waits in her womb!" The Overseer points at Josh's stomach, standing back.

"What?" Dallon is quick to ask. He's more than confused now as Tyler cuts the rope around Dallon's wrists and ankles.

How does this man know if Josh is pregnant or not? Brendon is still shaking his head because he and Josh haven't had sex in two months. He only just got Josh to feel comfortable with his body around Brendon. They wouldn't go as far as getting Josh pregnant. They were careful! Brendon made sure that the only time they ever did have sex, the condom was new and perfect and not damaged. He's so confused. Is Josh pregnant? If so, how was he able to? The doctors had told Josh that as soon as he had started taking testosterone, that his chances of becoming pregnant were slim to none, but it was still possible. Maybe he was? But then again, they can't believe a man based upon his religion and beliefs that God had just told him the underlying truth.

"Whore of Babylon! Whore to Satan! Mother of harlots and the horrors of the earth!" Is all this because of Josh's gender? Were they taken from their homes because Josh was doing what was best for his well being? Is Josh hiding something? Is what this man saying really true? Brendon doesn't know what to believe.

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