I suppose that's true. [ Rook shrugs in return, offering a sheepish smile. ]
Well, then- the Marshal and I escaped into the woods, and met up together, jacked one of the cult's trucks and tried to flee back to Missoula to get the national guard in. That... went about as well as the helicopter had gone, and we ended up in the river. The marshal ended up taken too. I washed up on shore a ways down from him, and was found by this prepper... a lot of people up there are preppers, folks with bunkers and weapons and nonperishable food to last whatever kind of apocalypse comes their way. I guess that's why the cult picked Hope County.
After two different crashes and damn near drowning, I was out for a while. By the time I woke up, the peggies were broadcasting about their 'Collapse' and their 'Reaping'. They'd taken over towers, jammed signals, blocked all roads in and out of the county. Like I said, Hope County is pretty rural, surrounded by mountains. It didn't take much. We couldn't send for help. I found evidence later of people that had tried to fly out in chartered planes and had been shot down.
The leaders of the cult pushed out their own broadcasts instead, pure propaganda. They put my friends - the other deputies, and the marshal - on the screens. One of them had his face beat black and blue, one had duct tape on her mouth, one was drugged so much he had no concept of reality anymore. Dutch said - he was the prepper that picked me up off the riverbank, sorry - he said that we could fight back, folk just needed someone to show them the way, and I... I don't know. Something snapped in me, I guess. Maybe it was cathartic, hurting the people who had hurt me, and my friends, and the people I knew. I guess I thought it was easier to gun my way through the cult than try and sneak out to find help.
In any case, eventually people did get out, and get help. The cult's leader and I were- well, they arrested him. Later in the hospital, they arrested me, too. I killed a lot of people, I won't deny that. Maybe some of them didn't need killing. Hell, maybe most of them. But the things that cult did to innocent people... [ Rook shakes his head, gaze directed at the floor. ]
To a lot of people, what I did was just another Ruby Ridge, another Waco. Just the law flexing its power over folk that are just trying to live in their own way. If cops had left them alone, nothing bad would've happened. To a lot more, I guess I'm too dangerous to be around normal people. Might snap and decide I want to kill more people, and maybe this time they'll be innocent. [ A resigned shrug. ] A lot of people defended me. I don't know if they should have or not. They convicted me of I don't know how many cases of 'deliberate mitigated homicide'... I think most other states call it voluntary manslaughter. Self-defense, but excessive force.
[ He leaves out a lot of details. Details about firsthand knowledge of the effects of Bliss, about being classically conditioned and brainwashed. He leaves out details, too, about what the cult had done to people, the ways they'd been slaughtered and tortured.
Rook spreads his hands with a grim sort of 'ta da' air. ]
And that is the story about how a cop became a convicted criminal.
no subject
Well, then- the Marshal and I escaped into the woods, and met up together, jacked one of the cult's trucks and tried to flee back to Missoula to get the national guard in. That... went about as well as the helicopter had gone, and we ended up in the river. The marshal ended up taken too. I washed up on shore a ways down from him, and was found by this prepper... a lot of people up there are preppers, folks with bunkers and weapons and nonperishable food to last whatever kind of apocalypse comes their way. I guess that's why the cult picked Hope County.
After two different crashes and damn near drowning, I was out for a while. By the time I woke up, the peggies were broadcasting about their 'Collapse' and their 'Reaping'. They'd taken over towers, jammed signals, blocked all roads in and out of the county. Like I said, Hope County is pretty rural, surrounded by mountains. It didn't take much. We couldn't send for help. I found evidence later of people that had tried to fly out in chartered planes and had been shot down.
The leaders of the cult pushed out their own broadcasts instead, pure propaganda. They put my friends - the other deputies, and the marshal - on the screens. One of them had his face beat black and blue, one had duct tape on her mouth, one was drugged so much he had no concept of reality anymore. Dutch said - he was the prepper that picked me up off the riverbank, sorry - he said that we could fight back, folk just needed someone to show them the way, and I... I don't know. Something snapped in me, I guess. Maybe it was cathartic, hurting the people who had hurt me, and my friends, and the people I knew. I guess I thought it was easier to gun my way through the cult than try and sneak out to find help.
In any case, eventually people did get out, and get help. The cult's leader and I were- well, they arrested him. Later in the hospital, they arrested me, too. I killed a lot of people, I won't deny that. Maybe some of them didn't need killing. Hell, maybe most of them. But the things that cult did to innocent people... [ Rook shakes his head, gaze directed at the floor. ]
To a lot of people, what I did was just another Ruby Ridge, another Waco. Just the law flexing its power over folk that are just trying to live in their own way. If cops had left them alone, nothing bad would've happened. To a lot more, I guess I'm too dangerous to be around normal people. Might snap and decide I want to kill more people, and maybe this time they'll be innocent. [ A resigned shrug. ] A lot of people defended me. I don't know if they should have or not. They convicted me of I don't know how many cases of 'deliberate mitigated homicide'... I think most other states call it voluntary manslaughter. Self-defense, but excessive force.
[ He leaves out a lot of details. Details about firsthand knowledge of the effects of Bliss, about being classically conditioned and brainwashed. He leaves out details, too, about what the cult had done to people, the ways they'd been slaughtered and tortured.
Rook spreads his hands with a grim sort of 'ta da' air. ]
And that is the story about how a cop became a convicted criminal.