Devils Water

Chapter 1

—First official part, and baby blue may be back, don't worryGageSeed030 . Also, the song that goes with this chapter is from one of my favorite artists, they're lit.—

You know that cliché saying that goes like, "once you hit rock bottom the only other way to go is up"? Well, there's a lot of truth to that. And god knows Ryann had hit rock bottom, she hit damn bedrock. After about a month or two of no text, no call, no sight, or sign of John Ryann kinda gave up. She was a lot more snappy the weeks that followed, pushing whoever came close to her away. It wasn't until she had successfully torn apart her room, and had a full on break that she decided to start to climb that latter to get out.
She stayed in for a good week and a half, doing nothing but living off coffee, energy drinks, and anything else she could scrap together. In that time of barley any sleep, or food, Ryann stayed up and did research. She did extensive research, wrote papers, copied information, the kind of shit she'd done last at the end of high school.
After she had what she considered a good collection, she crashed. 2 full days, she crashed, barely leaving bed, sleeping more than 18 hours a day. It had been about a month since Ryann last visited the bar, so caught up in research, then in trying to get sleep back. She grabbed her- now thick- folder tossed on a jacket and a comfortable pair of pants leaving her hair in its messy updo, along with her light blue shirt, the one that had a little plane embroidered right under the collar, the one that technically wasn't even hers.
She headed to the bar with her folder, and a small backpack that she used as a purse. She hooked up her phone to the radio in her car, and cranked the volume as she drove. Honestly, she wasn't going to lie, part of this sudden motivation was filed by spite, and anger. And when it comes to motivation, those two things aren't the best things to be the fuel. Ryann didn't care though, because eventually it would go away, and she would have some other motivation, this was just a starter..
Once she reached the bar Ryann grabbed all her things, giddy to get inside. She entered and a few eyes drifted to her, some smiles, some looks of relief. She didn't talk much with the people of the regular crowd, but they all had an understanding, and all knew who she was. She took her usual spot at the end of the bar, resting her elbows on the thick folder beneath her. After a few minutes May was the one to walk out, and a wave of relief washed over both of them. May smiled softly, and Ryann did the same as the older woman started to approach her "hey darlin'..." she said quietly, as she got closer to her, "hey momma May" she grinned. Not only was May a friend of hers, but she also acted strongly like a mother figure when Ryann was around her.
"I was startin' to get worried, you hadn't showed in a while" she grabbed a glass, but Ryann stopped her "uhm- just a coke please" she smiled, and May did too, a almost proud look on her face. "So what have you gotten yourself into?" She rests her elbows on the bar after grabbing the soft drink. "Uhm, that's actually what I wanted to come show you" she smiled shyly pushing the folder forward. It wasn't until May opened it, and read over a few things that Ryann spoke again, "I'm going after it. Gettin it together" she sipped her drink, and May got a huge smile on her face "oh hun.. if they don't take you, they ain't got any sense."
She closed the folder and slid it back to Ryann. The past month all she'd been doing was writing, and researching, and applying, police academies. She was going after it, the big shot, the real adventure, the filler. She smiled and laughed a little getting somewhat emotional, "thanks May.. but that most likely means I won't be comin in to drink a lot." The older woman nodded in agreement "oh of corse not, if you kept your regular schedule I think I'd have have to slap some sense into you" she says jokingly, with a tender smile, "you can always take a run here once in a while though, come get somethin to eat, some water." Ryann nodded in response, tapping her fingers on the worn wood.
"Have you been accepted anywhere yet?" Ryann gulped at the question, and looked up nervously, "yeah actually.." she replied. "Oh really? Where at?" May's eyes lit up and a smile warmed her face. "Uhm- Montana actually.. I mean, you usually don't see them on headlines, and it pretty quiet out there, but they have a great academy. I'll be going there for a little bit, but I'm going to Los Angeles first, I'll be there for a little while training, because big cities are where you have the most crime, and LA is crazy." She laughs a little, "going into LA will give me a great path to Montana, plus LA might even get me in a bit with the government" she smiled bright "I uhm- I leave out for LA next month.." her smile turned sad. May gave her the best hug she could over the bar "I'm so proud of you hun.." Ryann hugged her back, secretly already counting down the days until she was out.
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Turns time really does fly when you're having fun, because that month was the fastest that ever passed Ryann by. Everyday she would run or walk the good 10 blocks between her and the bar, stop in for a drink, and to see May, then either keep walking, or go back home. Along with more research, she filled her time with numerous visits to the gym. Despite the bad habits she kept up for years, she had been pretty active as a kid, and a teen, Keeping in good shape. It never really wore off, just laid dormant. She wasn't the most skinny girl, definitely not like most of the flirty girls who came to the bar in hopes to seduce. The ones who had the "ideal" waist line of 10 inches. Ryann was never like that. But what she lacked in the thin department, she made up for in the muscle one, and with her skills, she was a force to be reckoned with.
Once in Los Angeles, the distant thought of everything that Ryann had been hoping, and waiting for was finally a reality. Everything. And that meant finding somewhere to live for the time she was going to be there. There was quite a bit of money that she had stored back, money she inherited, and money she earned, but she also wanted to keep some of that  money, and LA was going to drain her. She decided on staying at a motel/hotel for the first week she was there, just to get her bearings. Of corse what she didn't expect was to make friends so fast. The first person at the academy she really got close to was someone she found by dumb luck, someone who would be going out to Montana soon too, Staci Pratt. He'd been there longer than her, and was already in good with the police department up in Montana, planed to leave about two weeks after him and Ryann met. They hit it off quick, becoming closer friends than Ryann had expected. And that friendship was how she found her place to stay. Turns out Pratt had a house he owned down in LA, because of family, and he was planning on selling soon, when he moved out to Montana. And seeing as how Ryann wasn't that far behind him, he offered her to stay. Of corse Pratt was already and officer, and his business at the academy was either for catching up and refreshing, or helping to teach. That was his trade, tech and be thought. It was just a matter of transferring into Montana, where he had apparently been quite a few times before. Ryann, being the little shut in she was for years, though this was so cool.
Like most of the people Ryann is around, Pratt soon developed a nickname, a loving one of corse. Pratt's nickname was "Peaches". He gained this nickname when Ryann walked in on him eating a whole ass can of peaches at 3 o'clock in the morning, while sitting on the counter. It was interesting to say the least, and something she would never let him live down.
LA was a lot to handle to put it lightly, the city was bigger than what Ryan was usually used to, and she honestly couldn't wait to get to Montana. Sadly, she was going to be here for another two weeks at least. She was doing good, top of the class, focused mostly on her work, honestly, she was just trying to get out of there as quick as she could. She could see why Pratt wanted to get out of this place, to somewhere with more clear air, somewhere with more space..
Those last two weeks in LA dragged on for so long, so much longer than they should have. With Pratt gone out to Montana, Ryann was alone. And time seems to drag out when you want it to be over. She was getting the first flight out of here, the first flight to new home sweet home. What a fun time this would be!
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Ryann came in as a rookie, a deputy. She already knew Pratt, and soon warmed up to another officer, Joey Hudson. The three were great friends, but from where Ryann saw it, they didn't do much work. Little did she know of corse, something out here had been festering. Something rooted in a small place called Hope County. Something that Ryann was not ready for at all.
It had been about a month since she arrived before Ryann heard anything about this "Hope County situation". And when she did, she brushed it off like it was nothing. So what there was a cult deciding to take residence in a small county somewhere in the mountains of Montana, not a big deal. Wrong. Because of this not a big deal mindset, Ryann decided not to do any prior research, whatsoever. It was going to be simple, but exciting. Go in, take a weird religious dude into custody, get the hell out, no biggie. Wrong. Too bad she didn't do that research.
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The day was there- we rather night. The day they went to Hope County. It wasn't until Sherif Whitehorse, and a US Marshal showed up that Ryann took the hint. This was a big deal. As they loaded into the chopper, Ryann felt her anxiety starting to rise, more than it had in a while. She pulled a black bandanna of fabric over her mouth and nose, leaving nothing but her eyes to show.
In the time they had, she decided to pull out her phone, doing as much research as she could in the short time they had. What she found was truly disturbing, interviews with the locals, video footage of the cult, specifically the leader, "The Father." When she saw the fire arms these guys were carrying, she knew this was no joke, crazy cult shit. She was entranced in the footage she was watching she didn't snap back to reality until her phone cut out with a lost signal, Whitehorse breaking it all. "Rookie.. Rookie." She looked up fumbling with the phone, "you're waiting our time.. no signal up here." She nodded and looked around a little glancing to Marshall, who looked at his papers "crossing over the Henbane now.." She glances out the window in time to She a huge white statue of a man- of The Father. Her ears and attention are filled with Pratt And Hudson now, chattering. "Oh fuck, there he is.." Joey breaths out, followed by Pratt, "crazy motherfucker.."
"Jesus.." Whitehorse shakes his head. "We're officially in Peggie Country." Hudson sounds just as anxious as Ryann feels. "How much longer?" Marshal looked at Whitehorse, "just long enough for you to change you're mind... so we can turn this bird around.." it sounded like they had run-ins with these people before.. "you want me to ignore a federal warrant sherif?"
"No sir.. I want you to understand the reality of this situation." It was at this moment, Ryann knew, she was fucked. "Joseph seed.. he's not a man to be fucked with.." there was a trace of anxiety in Whitehorse's voice now too. "We've had run-ins with him before that haven't always.. gone our way.." he looks back a Hudson, who looks back at him. "Just sometimes.. sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone.." he sighs. "Yeah, well.. we have laws for a reason sherif. And Joseph seeds gonna learn that." He holds up his paper, and the emotion that crosses Whitehorse's eyes is almost unreadable. It's like regret, mixed with fear, and an extent of disappointment. "Pratt.. open a call with dispatch.." Pratt nods and does so, a nice sounding lady now over the radio. "Whitehorse to dispatch, over."
"Go ahead Earl"
"We're approaching a compound Nancy.. over"
"Roger that sherif, ya still planning to go through with this? Over"
"We are.. unfortunately, still tryin to talk some sense into our friend the Marshal, over."
"Okay.. lucky I'm not there. You get into any trouble you just let me know, Over"
"10/4 over and out.." he shakes his head finishing the call.
Pratt is the first to break silence, "maybe we should've brought Nancy with us instead of the probie, the Peggies wouldn't fuck with her." He motions to the back, toward you. "Pratt!" Hudson scolds and sighs. "Why do you keep callin em Peggies ?" Marshal finaly asks. "Project at Edens Gate, P.E.G. Peggies, that's what the locals call em.. well they started off harmless a few years back, but now they are armed to the T. They're lookin for a fight."
"Are you scared sherif?" Marshal asks, picking up on his nervous rambling. "Compounds just below.." Pratt interrupts. Looking out the window you can see a small group of building and homes, all surrounding a big, white church. There's a jumble of voices sighing saying things like "oh my Jesus.. this is a bad idea" Whitehorse's voice is the only distinct one, talking to the marshal. "You sure you still wanna fo this Marshal?" There's nothing but a sigh for a few seconds, but then he deadpans, "we're goin in." And the air noticeably tenses. "Set 'er down.." the choker begins to lower "Pratt.."
"Roger that.."
"Dispatch, you still there?"
"Yes? Go ahead sherif"
He sighs, "you don't hear from us in the next 15 minutes, send in everyone, call in the goddamn national guard if you have to. Over."
"Yes sir sherif, I'll be prayin for ya" and with that headsets are off. "Alright!" Whitehorse stops us "three rules, stick close, keep your guns in your holsters, and let me do the talking, got it?" Marshal is first to reply, "got it."
"Rookie?" He looks to her, and she nods, snapping pack to reality. "Alright everyone.. stay sharp.. Let's go!" Everyone exits the chopper, grouping up on the side closest to the church.
There's small talk on the short walk, Hudson tells Ryann to stay on her, and stay close, which trust me she does. The people around a wielding weapons, and giving nasty looks as the 5 of the walk up to the church.
The faint sound of singing can be heard from inside as Marshal tries to open the door, only to be stopped by the sherif. "Whoa Marshal.. we do this, we do it my way.. quietly, calmly..you got it?" he takes the handle instead, "fine.." marshal puts his hands up. "Hudson, you're on the door, watch our backs, make sure none of the people get in.." he turns to Ryann, "rookie? You're with me." He turns back to Marshal "and you.. just.. try not to do anything stupid.." he mumbled, "relax sherif" marshal grins "you're about to get you're name in the paper." Whitehorse shutters, and takes the door handle again, this time opening the large white doors. Hudson gives one last reassuring nod "you'll be fine.. she mumbled.
As they walked in, a sermon was going on, Joseph was at the alter, his followers listening with such dedication, the whole place guarded and armed with assault rifles, and other weapons like such. The pace the three of them, her marshal and the sherif, walked toward the front was a slow, creep, an unsettling one that gave her full opportunity to scout the room. She focused on joseph though, wanting to get this over with. What broke her trance was the sherif trying to calm the marshal down, to no avail. He thrusted the slip of paper at Jospeh's face "Joseph seed. I have a warrant for your arrest." He said in a bold tone. Ryann was all over the place now, eyes going from Joseph, to the armed people around them, to shadow cloaked figures in the back, the worlds swirling. "On the account of kidnapping, with the intent to harm. Now I want you to step forward and keep your hands where I can see them." He slowly lowered the slip. Joseph raised his hands, and said calmly "there they are.. the locusts in our garden.. they have come for me. They have come to take me away from you." People began to crowd in-front of him, adding to the chaos and heat of the room, making Ryann lightheaded. "They want to try and destroy all that we've built!" Everything was getting more aggressive, and now everyone was yelling, on the verge of cutting each other's throats. Joseph called them down, saying things like "I knew this moment would come, I've prepared for it.. go.. go now..." but Ryann was more focused on the figures starting to walk up behind Joseph, two men and a woman. The shortest of the men, through still cloaked in shadow, and far away, masked by mist and haze, struck a subtle recognition in Ryann. She was broke from her focus by people brushing past her and Joseph mumbling "god will not let them take me.." Joseph started to spew off bible verses, getting more on marshals nerves, in turn getting more on Joseph's nerves. Ryann knew she had to focus now, so she blocked out everyone behind Joseph, just focusing on him, the bandanna over her face suddenly very uncomfortable. At the end of his cryptic scripture, he held out his hands, staring, it seemed, directly into her soul. Marshal ordered her to cuff him, probably the easiest part of this right? Wrong. As she approached she fumbled with the cuffs, Joseph grinning and saying again, "god will not let you take me.." once she finally cuffed him, Ryann felt as if a heavy pressure had just been added to her, yet so much released at the same time. It wasn't until Ryann was behind Joseph that she decided to rip down her bandanna, out of sight of the three shadowy figures behind the cuffed man. She took as deep breaths as she could manage as she slowly walked Joseph out of the chapel.
The walk to the chopper just got more and more filled with chaos, and once they got to it, peggies were climbing all over it, there was gun fire, bodies dropping, and fear in the air, but it was until the chopper started to spiral where they really fucked.
The last thing Ryann remembered was bracing for impact in the quickly spiraling chopper, destined to hit the ground. When she woke up there was heat, there was fire, there was throbbing pain all over, and fuzzy vision, faint distant sounds coming to focus. Crackling, shouting, humming, and Nancy through the headset. Ryann tried her best to reach it, but Joseph stopped her, telling dispatch everything was ok, and surprisingly, she listened, she was in his side too.. he got up really close in her face, a wicked smile playing on his face "I told you god wouldn't let you take me.." he hummed, climbing out of the helicopter to address his followers. Spewing some stuff Ryann could barely focus on, it wasn't until people were being pulled out of the spots around her, and Marshal was hightailing it out of there that she got the hint that she needed to run.
She quickly unfastens the belt, thumping hard against the ground. Somehow she manages to crawl and start stumbling into the woods, her stumble turning into a run, crashing through the brush, doing her best to avoid bullets. She slides down into a ditch, losing them off into another direction. She finally sits and breaths taking everything in. She patches herself up best as possible, popping a few pain pills. He stands up wobbly, and starts slowly and quietly going through the trees, looking for something, anything. She comes up on two single cultists, and takes them both down pretty quickly, taking whatever they have on them. She loads up the pistol, and slinks through the woods, keeping it on hand. Her radio lights up, marshals voice coming through, giving her directions his location. It's not too far of a walk, but she tries to get there as quick as possible.
Once there she quietly enters the backdoor, met by marshal, ready to fight. She fights him off, and he finally sees who it is "Jesus dep.. oh my god.. thank god you're here.." he sighs.. "we gotta get out of here, notify everyone we can, get the military in here, and get the hell out of here. There's a truck out there, if we can get to it, we can hightail it the hell out of here." There's distant shouting in the woods and Marshal perks up "shit.." he grabs an assault rifle off the wall and hands it to her, gear up, cover me, let's go. He hops out the window and makes a run for the truck, taking down as many people as he can, Ryann follows behind him. Only when she's forced to does she finally pull the trigger, openings spray of bullets, taking down 4 guys. She just killed 4 men without a second thought. There was no time to feel astonished though, she had to get the fuck out of there. She hopped in the passenger side of the truck, gunning a few people down on the way out.
She did the best she could while they drove, but in the end it didn't go at all as planned. They met a blockade, and Marshal swerved. Driving them straight into the river.. when Ryann finally regained full consciousness, she heard yelling from another bank, she looked over to she marshal being dragged off, thrashing and yelling. Before she passed out again she saw a figure standing above her. She only saw bits and pieces as she was being carried through woods. When she did wake up for more than a few minutes she was tied to the leg of a metal bed frame. She looked around frantically and her eyes landed on an older looking man. He had a Breaking Bad kinda look to him, gruff, doesn't take shit from anyone. He sat in front of her and shook his head "they're out looking for you.. yaknow the smartest thing for me to do would be to turn you in.." Ryann looks up at him in fear, and he sighs, taking out a knife and cutting the zip tie restraining her. "Guess I'm stupid.. get changed, can't have people swing you in this clothes, pick whatever you want from over there then come meet me.." he walks out of the room mumbling to himself. Once gone, Ryann searches through the clothes stored, and picks out a simple outfit. Some black jeans, a little worn, and torn. A green jacket, with a top under it, she pealed off the still wet outfit clinging to her skin, quickly changing into the clothes she chose, happy with the warmth and dryness of it. Once done she searches around a bit before finding the man who has saved her. "Finally, you made it.." she nods "good to see something fit.." she smiles a little and mouths 'thank you.' He nods back "names Dutch by the way, and you're the rookie, deputy-"
"Ryann.." she says quietly with a nod. "Ryann, alright. Look.. there are a lot of out there that need help. And I know you just got here, but you seem like you got a good heart kid.. they need help. Each of the seed siblings has at least one of you're friends.. are you willing to help?" He laid it all on her, and she took a few seconds to process it before nodding slowly "I'll help them." Ditch smiles "thank god.."
just then they're interrupted by a horrible static from the TV, followed by a message, edens gate symbol and a camera panning down to a face. A face Ryann knows all too well. Wearing a color that Ryann knows all too well. There was no goddamn way. There was no way in hell that was who Ryann though it was. It wasn't until Dutch spoke that's she knew.. "it's that crazy motherfucker, John Seed.." he mumbled and Ryann felt her heart drop down to her stomach. On the screen before her was him.. it was her baby blue. Right next to Hudson.
"I know you're out there Deputy. And I'll find you." That's the last the she heard he fore she blocked everything out, focusing on only that face, her heart surging through her ears. That was..
    That was her goddamn baby blue...

(Yikes guys, sorry lol. I feel like I could have done better on this chapter, but it is what it is. It'll get better. And sorry for the late update too. Hope you enjoyed ~ ❤️)