Broken Bones - John Seed

Chapter One

To say I was shitting myself would be an understatement. As I looked around me, the many pale, sickly looking faces of the cultists stared back at me, their beady eyes burning holes right through me. They knew why we were here and they knew they weren't going to let us take away their Father. A soft tug on my elbow forced my eyes to shoot up at Deputy Carter, he gave me a quick flick of his head, urging me to keep up with him and not stray too far. I gave him a nod and increased my pace, my right hand hovering over my holstered weapon. As we reached the large doors of the church, we all tightened are circle and listened as Sheriff Whitehorse gave us the rundown of how he wanted this arrest to take place.

As we opened the large church doors, I worried the sound of my heart beating against my chest would give away the panic coursing through me. I knew these guys were nothing to fuck with, the Marshal may think he's a big man and is going to put all this to a rest but the rest of us, the ones that actually lived here, knew exactly how bad this could go.

It all started slowly, no one took them seriously, figured they were just some crazy religious folks that would eventually move on to somewhere else but could we be more wrong. Before we knew it their numbers had grown dramatically and the lawyer in their cult had robber our people of their land. You couldn't even go down to the bar and enjoy a drink anymore, they had taken over most of the town, leaving the rest of us living in fear.

We as a police force felt hopeless, our people would come to us for help and we would have to turn them away. It angered me, I did my best to help whoever I could but I knew if Sheriff Whitehorse had found out he would kick my ass. He wanted this to become a federal problem, we didn't have enough man power he would always say.

As we stepped inside the church the familiar voice of Joseph Seed echoed through the hall "Something is coming. You can feel it can't you?" His voice was impossible to forget, it was plastered all over the local radio stations of his preaching's, it almost made me shudder at hearing it so up close and personal. As much as I had heard of the Seed family, tonight was the first night I would actually be seeing them.

As we approached the man, he stood up on his stand, his stance calm and peaceful. I must admit I expected him to at least be a little intimidated, the four of us armed up to the ears, angry expressions on our faces as we ignored his ramblings. I couldn't help but to look around at the followers of the cult as we slowly approached the rambling preacher in front of them. A look of complete and utter disgust on their faces.

I looked back ahead of me and straight at Joseph Seed, his half naked body casting a shadow on the ground before me. His voice began to get louder as he preached to his people and I could see the marshal get more and more agitated at the man's preaching's.

"Joseph Seed, I have a warrant for your arrest on the suspicion of kidnapping with an intent to harm." The air went still as The Marshal shoved the piece of paper towards Joseph, his impatience getting the best of him. "Now I want you to step forward and keep your hands where I can see them."

I watched closely as the man almost smiled at the US Marshal raising his hands softly in the air, everything about the man's presence was so soft and calm. "Here they are, the locusts in our garden. You see they've come for me. They've come to take me away from you. They've come to destroy all that we've built." His voice had risen and his ambience had changed.

His followers began to form ahead of us, creating an obstacle between us and The Father. The room became tense as everyone began to argue and raise their voices. I instinctively placed my hand over my holster, my eyes darting around the room as I felt completely overwhelmed by the number of them.

"Stand down!" The sheriff yelled out "Everyone calm down." I looked to the Sheriff for reassurance but I could see it in his face that he couldn't provide any.