Introducing our favorite Hope County Resistance Band brought to you by lead vocalist Wheaty, Judas King and Daisy Kane on guitar and bass and ms. Mary Hart kickin’ ass on the drums, you know them, you love them, The End of The World everybody!
A wild woman in a red ball cap is on the hunt for the elusive Eli Palmer and manages to capture his attention the only way she knows how: Through the Whitetail Militia security cameras.
Cappie De la Costa & Eli Palmer of Far Cry 5
"Um, Eli? Sir?"
The concerned voice hollered out from the surveillance room, bouncing off the concrete walls of the Wolf's Den and over the variety of ammunition, food stores, and outdoor supplies stacked on tables and in the corners of every room. Eli Palmer sighed from down the hallway. After jotting down a small note for later on his inventory list, he made his way over to address the next crisis.
The Whitetail Mountains were shrinking each day. More sightings of people in red balaclavas and large, white wolves reached his ears, leaving no trace when either he or the Militia made it out to the sites. Campers also told the Militia that they've been chased out of campgrounds by angry Peggies and warned to stay away from the old Veterans Center. No doubt it was Jacob's people, that Project that grew and grew like a sick, festering wound in Eli's side. Something was brewing. Something was about to fall on all their heads, Eli just knew it.
His neck popped as Eli entered the surveillance room. He found Wheaty inches away from one of the glowing screens on the wall. Tammy stood behind him with her arms crossed.
"What's wrong?" asked the tired leader.
Wheaty looked over his shoulder and pointed at the screen.
"Um, there's this uh, girl?"
"A girl?"
"Yeah, she's like, talking to you, I think?"
Eli moved to stand beside Tammy, his brows raised as he observed just what Wheaty tried to describe.
She stood below one of their hidden cameras—Well, supposedly hidden—eyes glancing between the lens and some far off place. Eli frowned. He knew the woman to be Cappie De la Costa, that tricky firecracker he found stranded the other day near the Den, all orneriness and flirtation in the form of a wild woman in a red ball cap.
Fidgeting. Restless. And her mouth running rampant.
"...Yeah, I dunno," she drawled. "Just thought more and more about the world ending and how I'd probably freeze to death or be eaten by a cougar, or starve, or eat a poisonous berry, and I don't know, what you and your–Army? Are you an army?–Um, people do, but like, I need help trying to figure out how to live in the wilderness, and like, you look like you know how? Oh! I don't, I don't mean that as like, an insult! But you told me you fought a bear once–"
Tammy turned to him, brow quirked and mouth a firm line.
"I never said that," supplied Eli.
"...And maybe you're not hearing me. Maybe this camera is broken and I'm just talkin' to myself! But, uh, I don't really know where or how to even find you? For real, I've asked around, but man, you're like a sasquatch or some other cryptid 'cause none of your people wanna help me! And no one has ever seen you, apparently, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I thought that I could use your survival skills some day, so if you're free I'd like your services! I could pay you in money, grass, or beer! Maybe exchange hair care tips, I dunno, just offerin'..."
Cappie took a moment to breathe, turning her backpack around to rifle through its contents. After a moment of digging and a small 'Aha!', Eli watched as Cappie scribbled something on a granola bar wrapper with a marker and held it up for the camera.
A slow warmth spread across his cheeks and at the tips of his ears. A phone number, messy and smudged, was written on the colorful plastic.
"Guess I'm littering, but here!" chirped Cappie. "Call me!"
The camera caught her suggestive wink before it was obscured by the wrapper. Her footfalls crunched on the rocky trail, then quieted, leaving all three observers in silence in the wake of her one-sided conversation.
"Well," started Tammy. "This is a turn."
Eli was relieved that it was only the three of them in the room. That was, until he turned and saw that the whole Wolf's Den had stopped what they were doing to gather in the room with them, staring either at Cappie's phone number on the screen or their blushing leader.
Eli tried to talk, but had to clear his throat first.
"It's nothin'," he said. "I just helped her the other day."
Tammy shook her head and furrowed her brow.
Eli scoffed and offered a small smile.
"Don't you know?" she prompted. Her finger pointed to the screen. "That woman we just saw? She is in with the Seeds."
"Cappie? I really doubt it–"
"No, Tammy's right," chimed in Wheaty. "She and Jacob Seed had a thing and now there's rumors that she might be with John Seed."
Eli frowned. It seemed that his mission to stay out of town gossip bit him in the ass for he had no clue what they were going on about, and Cappie hadn't mentioned the Seeds when they first met, not that she would have any reason to, he supposed.
"We could get some information from her," shared another Whitetail from behind, the idea gaining some agreements about the room.
"Maybe bring her back here," added Tammy.
A calloused hand ran down Eli's tired face. If that all was true, it would explain the lethal look he earned from Jacob Seed after Cappie was dropped off from his truck, the pure hate he felt.
"We could," he admitted aloud for the group. "But Cappie doesn't seem like the type to be a part of the Project."
"Because you know her so well?" challenged Tammy. "What if Jacob sent her to meet you? To learn about the Wolf's Den? About us?"
A hot sigh left him, a ghost of the comfort he couldn't feel.
"So we let her in? We do what he hoped? I don't know her, Tammy. You're right. Which is why bringing her back to the Den is a mistake, whether she's with the Project or not. Until I learn anything else about her, this isn't Wolf Den business."
"Cool, so like a date then?" asked Wheaty. In response to Eli's blank stare, he added, "What? You got her phone number, so I thought-"
"Everyone, you're dismissed," cut in Eli. "Got a lot of work to do."
Wheaty flinched at the dull stares his question was met with, and obeyed Eli's orders for everyone to resume preparations for the oncoming war with Eden's Gate.
"I didn't even do anything," he grumbled before turning back to the cameras.
