Far Cry 5 One-Shot Collection

Beneath

Even with the world burning, the waters poisoned and the land made barren, Rook still can't quite bring herself to think about it all. To really digest and make sense of it. Stuck in a numbing stupor her thoughts have run wild, fleeing like the dying life above and hiding themselves away in the deepest chasms of her heart and skull, escaping from a collapsed reality and leaving a yawning void. In a way her head is so empty, gears groaning like sleeping giants before falling still once more, that she can't help but wonder if she even cares anymore.

It's all such a mess, and she doesn't even have anyone to blame for it. It was just unfortunate timing. That is all she can draw it down to; just very unfortunate timing. That didn't mean that she, nor anyone else for that matter, was off the hook though. Everyone played a part in this TV drama movie. It wasn't just her that lead them to this moment and for Joseph to say that it was – well, it showed a lack of responsibility on his part.

She may have been the catalyst, the switch that signalled the coming of the end, but what he forgets is that it was his – his family and his followers – actions that drew them all here in the first place. Although, not being one to shirk the blame, Rook knews she should have handled things differently. If she had actually had a voice instead of sitting back and letting others make the decisions for her maybe things would have been different. Maybe she would have actually done her job and arrested them instead of kill them all in cold blood.

Joseph has every right to be angry, to be brimming with a rage as raw and catastrophic as God's own righteous fury. And with the way he had gotten right into her face – lips pulled back into a vicious snarl as his eyes bled a deep and unfathomable hate, fingers coiled tight around her throat as if he intended to snap it with sheer force alone – she was surprised he hadn't throttled her then and there.

Although, you could always argue that what came next was worse.

It's been what feels like weeks since she was dragged down here, dead weight slung like a bag of potatoes over Joseph's shoulder (at least she assumes she was from what snippets of the crash and aftermath she actually remembers), and things haven't exactly gotten better. That disturbingly human mania, twisted and gnarled as it is, still hasn't left his eyes. It wavers in its intensity at times, looking somewhere she can't and doesn't want to see. Shimmering with the transparency of a mirage; never giving way to the sweet oasis that'll give you hope for the long journey ahead.

At this point she's near certain she's going to rot under the desert sun. She holds no hope of finding even a cactus to drink from. It's all too bare, heavy and stuffy, and despite his words he is not helping matters in the slightest. Last time she checked you don't keep your child – as he so affectionately refers to her as now – cuffed to the frame of a bed and dictate to them everything they can and can't do like some mentally unhinged control freak. And yes, she knows that's practically his modus operandi now, but that's not the point. It doesn't make it right.

Saying that though two wrongs also don't make a right, and she's not exactly been the best company either. Not that she was before the bombs dropped anyway, she's always been a bit of a recluse. Unsociable some would say. Sticking to her own thoughts and feelings like a fly caught on sticky paper instead of openly sharing them with others, never wanting to chance even the slightest risk of judgment that may fall upon her.

She supposed it has something to do with her upbringing, well-mannered and a tad traditional as it was. Always told not to speak when others or her elders were already doing so. Although that did lead her to her favourite teaching, and one she'd practically grown to live by if her verbal restraint was anything to go off of; 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all'.

No wonder she kept her mouth shut during the whole cult fiasco, especially when it came to the Seeds. If she had opened her mouth she knows she would've eventually gotten comfortable, and that would've been very risky and very stupid. She tended to get overly sarcastic at times and, with how the Seeds irritated her so, she knows for a fact that her sarcasm would not have been appreciated. Even now she hears it sassing back like a prissy teen every now and again. It's almost a good thing that her voice has gone on strike against Joseph. Although, how long that will last she cannot say.