Johnny couldn't sleep. He had no idea what came over him in the van. He knew that a serious act of terrorism was going to go down but he had planned on staying in the background. Hell, he had planned on staying HOME on the day of the attack. But Syn and Matt had coerced him to get into the van with them, claiming that they needed him to "mind the presents"- the presents being the church helper in a wheelchair with the bomb underneath. Johnny remembered the poor man screaming through a gag to be let go, screaming that he wouldn't tell anyone... even offering to flee the country. But Matt and Syn were hell-bent on death and destruction, and were especially keen on using the man as a sacrifice for his cause. Johnny remembered the man's stricken face as he pleaded for his life, as Syn taunted him, prodded and pinched him with tweezers, laughing as Matt poured gasoline over the man in his wheelchair. Johnny had no idea why he had kicked the man to his death, and other people's deaths. 'I wanted it to be over and done with' thought Johnny, 'I couldn't take seeing that man in distress anymore'. That didn't make him feel any better. Johnny remembered the crime being played out in the newspapers: 'THE DEVIL VISITS TEXAS' 'INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE OVER CHURCH BOMBING IN USA' 'US GOVERNMENT SUSPECTS DOMESTIC TERROR CELLS' and 'IS THIS THE END?'. the bombing killed more people than Matt had anticipated; 445 dead, 400 of those in the church and 45 more churchgoers walking through the doors. The church was destroyed all right; whoever wasn't killed by the blast was definitely killed by the falling rubble, or the resulting wild fire. It was like 9/11 all over again; police, soldiers, medics and firefighters everywhere. It disturbed Johnny to no end that President Obama had committed US Spec Ops operators to follow up leads on the suspects and hunt them down. He had every reason to be worried; among the operators were Delta Force. They had the reputation of being able to blend in to any environment, get close to their target... and kill them. Johnny knew that with the military involved in the investigation, him, Matt and Syn stood next to no chance of surviving. He knew that if the soldiers got to them before the police, they wouldn't have their rights read to them. They wouldn't get the offer of a lawyer. No, they would be tortured brutally before being shot in the head. The Delta guys had plenty of experience in that, from years of being put in politically touchy situations in foreign nations. Johnny immediately thought of Zacky, and a new wave of fear hit him. How much did Zacky know? And would he tell his girlfriend, the kind detective who had been so good to them at the hospital? Hell, how would Johnny be able to face MADELEINE if she ever found out? Val seemed so far away now; a memory of a past life. It wasn't too long ago that they were law-abiding citizens. Not anymore.



When Joey heard about the bombing, he immediately knew that Matt and Syn had had something to do with it. He could just tell; they spoke in hushed tones around him, often stopped speaking when Joey entered the room. And Johnny had been acting strange too; Joey felt bad for him. Johnny was one of his best friends, his confidante after Paul Gray had died, much the same way as Jimmy. After that, Joey and Johnny were like 2 peas in a pod... but lately, Johnny hadn't made much of an effort to hang out. Something seemed to be troubling him. Madeleine had voiced her concerns to Joey the day before, and Joey made a note to drop in on Johnny and see what was going on. And, if he could get a hold of them, Matt and Syn. Joey wasn't sure what to think of them at the moment- were they innocent people still? Or had they become terrorists? A voice in the back of Joey's mind kept nagging him, to do something about Matt and Syn. Then it hit him- ZACKY. He would go to see him, and find out what was going on.

"Hey man!" Zacky smiled, pulling Joey into a hug. Joey returned the hug and walked with Zacky to the kitchen. "Beer?" Zacky offered, pulling out 2 Budweisers. Joey accepted, glad that Zacky was in a social mood. "So man, what's been going on?" Zacky asked. Joey drained his beer and looked Zacky straight in the eye: "Zacky, I didn't come for just a light catch up. There's something I need to get off my chest." Zacky's smile dropped slightly, leaning forward "what's on your mind dude?" Joey steeled himself for a few seconds and started with "you know the bombing a few days ago?" "Yeahhh, what about it?" Zacky asked, no longer smiling. "Here's the thing," Joey said, taking a deep breath before continuing, "... I think Matt and Syn have something to do with it"

There was silence in the kitchen as Joey sat in the chair, upset but determined, and Zacky's eyes widened in shock. Not shock that Joey would dare voice suspicions about his friends; in truth, he was more shocked that Joey had been thinking the same things as him. "Yeah Joey, I've had my suspicions too" Zacky said quietly, "and you know what else? I thinks Johnny was in on it as well." Now it was Joey's turn to be shocked; he hadn't even considered Johnny capable of such things. "What makes you say that?" Joey demanded, gripping the table very tight. "I don't know if you've noticed Joey, but Johnny hasn't been around that much lately either" Zacky quipped, "and he's been real weird, too. Every time I see him... he always looks like he's gonna tell me something, but stops himself at the last second. And the other day I walked in on him on his phone, talking about justice coming or some shit. He nearly shit himself when he saw me". Joey thought all of this over; now that Zacky mentioned it, Johnny's behaviour HAD been a little worrisome on the few times Joey actually managed to see him. "Well we can't say anything just yet," Joey said, "for all we know, they were all probably still in bed or gone out for target practise that day. We just don't know. Sure, they definitely have the motive, especially Matt, but we can't jump to conclusions. Hell, for all we know they probably think that WE did it". Zacky could see Joey's point. There was no point jumping the gun.


They spent the next few hours playing Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 before Joey decided to call it a night. He and Zacky embraced as Joey went to walk out the door. "Now remember, we keep our mouths shut... act normal whenever we see the guys" Zacky warned. Joey nodded. He still had his suspicions, but he was going to put them at the back of his mind. He pulled out of Zacky's driveway, and started the drive back to his apartment. His apartment being on the edge of the desert, he admired the Texan desert by the moonlight, thinking that he should buy a ranch here one day... Iowa was becoming a real hassle, especially with the Christian Democrat government. It was becoming way too expensive, and dangerous to live there, as the police had virtually been stripped of all of their power, due to the governor's wish to oversee a "state that nurtures, rather than punishes". Joey felt that there needed to be more states like Texas, where justice and discipline came first over the various excuses presented by wrongdoers with no respect for the law. And that was the last thing Joey ever thought, as the mysterious shadowy figure hiding in his bedroom sliced Joey's throat with a machete.



Syn's mobile was blaring with the ringtone "Let It All Bleed Out" by Rob Zombie. He fumbled around with it in the semi-darkness, but missed it. The call went dead. Syn groggily unlocked his screen and seen that it was a call from Joey. Followed by a text message: I'M AT YOUR FRONT DOOR. LET ME IN. Syn grunted, wondered what Joey could possibly want at 3am in the morning. He crawled out of bed, threw some jeans on and ventured down the hall, unlocking the door, and seeing no one. Fuming that Joey had woken him up as a joke, Syn stormed back to bed. No sooner had he started taking off his jeans that there was a loud thump on the door. "Fuck this little asshole to hell" Syn growled as he got out of bed again and sprinted down the hall, intent on catching that little shit and beating the shit out of him. He had just reached the door when a bright orange flickering through the frosted windows caught his eye. "Probably just some homeless person keeping warm" Syn said to himself as he threw open the door. He stormed outside, looking for Joey... then the orange flickering became apparent.

Syn moved closer, terror and rage pumping through his body. The flickering was a fire. A big fire. And it was two crosses, life-sized, that had been erected on his front lawn. They were on fire. And there were people on them; one to each cross. He started screaming and fell to his knees as Joey and Michelle rapidly burnt away before his eyes.

As the sirens of the fire department became louder and louder each street closer to Syn's house, he looked up at Michelle. She was looking straight at him, screaming for him to help her.



2 weeks later. A Texan cemetery. The last of the mourners had drifted away, gone back to their normal lives. The only 4 people left standing at Michelle's grave were Syn, Matt, Zacky and Johnny. Last week's funeral for Joey had been just as heartbreaking. It was quicker to arrange Joey's funeral, the funeral director had told them, as Joey was already dead by the time he was found on a cross at Syn's house. The cause of death was immediatelty apparent; someone had slit his throat. The burning was just purely ritualistic. Michelle had been a harder case, though, as she was still alive. Syn remembered that she had stormed off after a fight they had had, over something petty. From what the pathologist determined, Michelle had traces of chloroform in her system, indicating that she was drugged and kidnapped. The pathologist had also found her body to exhibit signs of being sexually assaulted. But what stood out most for Syn was cradling a still alive Michelle, horribly burnt and mutilated, after the fire fighters had doused the flames and cut them down. She had whispered to him before dying, "it was them. The same people who killed Val" before dying in his arms.

Now, at Michelle's graveside, Syn could do nothing but sob quietly. Matt, Johnny and Zacky were in tears too. Matt was thinking, "how is it that these weird cult fuckers are still around? I thought I had killed them all! But that asshole Yahweh must have more followers than we thought." Zacky, meanwhile, was thinking, "why Michelle? Why Joey? Jesus, wasn't Val enough for them? Why target us again?" Zacky remembered the bombing, and a cold wave of fear washed over him. 'This was a reprisal attack' he thought, 'Matt, Syn and Johnny DID do it, they blew up that church and now its given Yahweh more reason to attack us!' He still felt sad for Matt and Syn for their losses, but also felt a terrible anger at them for letting their emotions get the best of them, and chase vengeance instead of justice. His thoughts were interrupted by a punch in the face.

Zacky felt rough hands pick him up. What he saw horrified him; the twisted faces of Matt and Syn, Syn now holding a pistol to his head. Matt was pointing a Mac-10 at his stomach. "How much do you know?" Matt snarled. "I-uh-uh-Matt" Zacky stammered before Matt punched him in the face again. "ANSWER ME!" Matt screamed. Zacky started crying, "I- I just thought it might have been you guys!" "Well, that hurts a bit, Zacky," Syn snarled, "Why would you think that of your brothers?" "What the fuck?! You guys have guns pointed at my face and stomach and you're lecturing me about loyalty?!" Zacky shouted. "Well just to clarify Zacky, yes, we did do it!" Matt growled. Zacky knew that it would come to this, but it didn't stop him recoiling in horror at what he had just heard. His best friends of over 20 years, all of a sudden murderers. Terrorists. "Why Matt, why?" Zacky moaned as he slid to the ground, vomiting.

Matt picked Zacky back up off the ground, and threw him into a tombstone. Zacky cried out in pain as his face collided with the stone. Syn and Matt were laughing by now, no mercy in their eyes. "WHY MATT, WHYYYYY?!!" Syn mocked as Matt guffawed. Zacky looked around through his pain and saw Johnny standing idly by someone's grave, twirling a sawn-off shotgun around his finger. Johnny, however, was looking at the ground, definitely trying to avoid eye contact with Zacky. Syn, no longer smiling, roughly pulled Zacky up and put the pistol to his head again. Zacky looked at it in terror; it was a .50 Desert Eagle. "Now Zacky, we're gonna lay down some rules" Matt spat, as Syn smirked and Johnny looked away, "
we intend to destroy this group and its pathetic excuse for a leader, with or without your co-operation. Did you really think I would let them get away with what they did to Val?" Matt snarled; he turned, gesturing to Michelle's grave, "or what they did to Michelle and Joey?!! We can't trust the police to do it for us!" "Matt, you know full well that the cops tried everything to keep those bastards locked up, it isn't their fault that they got released!" Zacky yelled. Matt's answer was to kick Zacky in the head. Johnny tried to intercede; "look, guys, let's just lay off him, he's our brother, remember?" "FUCK OFF JOHNNY AND STAY AT YOUR POST!" Syn screamed; Johnny bolted away, terrified. Zacky sat up. "Now Zacky, we are planning more attacks against these fucks, and we will do it whether you like it or not" Matt snarled to the terrified Zacky, "so I'm gonna let you go. But" he warned, as Zacky scrambled up off the ground to scoot off, "you breathe a word about this to that bitch detective whore of yours, or to anyone for that matter" Matt picked up a curious squirrel off the ground and Zacky wondered what he was doing. What Matt did next filled him with terror and revulsion; "you'll end up like this. Except that it won't be as quick as the squirrel. I'll torture you first, burn you alive. Then I'll leave you in front of the police station looking like this. Your whore will have the same done to her, as well". Zacky stared terrified at the squirrel impaled on Matt's hunting knife for a few seconds, nodded, and ran towards his car. He took one last look at his brothers... or at least, who he thought were his brothers. He would never forget Johnny's expression: it was one of pure misery and fear.