Salvation

[Straza]

Conciderunt

The past month had been a wild ride for Damien, from joining an organization with 20+ strong members, a family who took him in while he slept in the back of his lowered Tampa trying to survive like a streetrat. Going from chopping anything not zeroed out and pushing small amounts of weed to running labs and doing something bigger than himself all while making fantastic money.

 

“The blood of the covenant is thicker than the waters of the womb” is a saying meaning that the bond developed through soldiers in the trenches is stronger than the ties of family. But in the case of Salvation we are family in the trenches together, or at least it was that way. Salvation has taken a big blow in the past few weeks, members not being in the city, no solid foundation as Messiah wasn’t very often in the city.

 

Damien sat in his Exemplar that fateful day, he had heard that Salvation was meeting with LNF so he was excited to hear some good news for once. He had a gut feeling that yelled out to him “Get out of the city today, take some time to look back and reflect on this week” So Damien did exactly that, he flew out and went off the grid for the time being. Leaving for one day couldn’t be that big of a deal right?

 

Damien found himself sitting on a bike in the middle of the woods, The night sky covering what laid in front of him was a feeling too familiar. In complete silence he sat and thought to himself about the organization that had grown to become the closest feeling to family he has had in a long time, why were we being kicked down so hard? How can we expect to make a difference in this city if we can’t even keep ourselves afloat? Damien was conflicted, on one hand he felt nothing other than total loyalty to those around him but on the other his easy going chill surface was cracking at the seams, unsure of how many more blows he could take.

 

He opened up the notes app on his phone and wrote this down:

“I feel powerless. We’re going to fall apart and disband any second, it feels like I'm rolling a boulder up a hill each day just for it to roll back down even further. We don’t even have a fucking leader, where the fuck is Messiah in all of this? I’m not doing enough to help those around me, I need to be smarter and stronger. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and I want to achieve even more than I currently have. I will do what I can to constantly one up myself and prove myself to everyone else. I need to be a soldier”

 

He sat there, for what felt like hours and watched the sun rise.

 

Damien flew back into the city, when his reception kicked back in his phone exploded with questions from his friends. None of them made sense to him, he hopped on the radio and was greeted by T and Jackie saying “Griffith, we need to meet up. something happened while you were gone” Damien had become jaded by this phrase with the consistency of hearing it. Damien pulls up to the agreed meeting spot and is greeted by Charlie, sitting on the sand with an absent mind.

“What, I’m gone for one day and the end of the fucking world happens?”

 

“Damien, Messiah is dead”

 

He sat there, on the sand. Even though a million thoughts were flying through his mind his whole body shut down. To him this marked the end, and after talking with what remained of his family he could see morale was at an all time low.

 He felt upset and angry he wasn’t there to support the people who had his back, it made him realize that from now on the continuation of Salvation lies in everyone's hands. And that he wanted to do something about it.

This would mark the next chapter in Damien's story, one of healing, one of improving his shortcomings. One of Damien becoming the perfect soldier.

 

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity”-Sun Tzu

Edited July 10, 2021 by Straza

[Trevor rider]

“Hey Ladybird, you remember how you told us about someone selling base jumping experiences at the pier? Turns out he’s a friend of mine and he just offered to take us off the Vinewood sign for free… you all in? We’re heading there now.”

 

Trevor’s heart sank into his stomach as he heard Jackie’s voice call out over the radio. It had been a chaotic week for Salvation and they were all in desperate need of some distraction, some fun, something other than business to attend to… but the thought of jumping with nothing but a parachute to keep his body from breaking broke Trevor out into a cold sweat. He wasn’t scared of much but when it came to heights… 

 

“I’m in,” he agreed before his fears paralyzed his ability to speak, sending the rest of the members of Salvation into an eruption of excited chaos as they arranged how to get everyone up to the designated location. Before he knew it, six of them stood below the towering sign with their instructor walking them through how they were all going to make it out of the situation alive. Jump, rip the cord, tuck your knees, aim for the bridges miles away in the distance and barely visible through the thick haze blanketing Los Santos. 

 

It all sounded painfully easy and Trevor kept the words on repeat in his mind as knuckles turned white around the never ending ladder he climbed. What couldn’t have been more than a few hundred feet felt like miles to the ground when his feet hit the platform at the top. The air felt thin and he gulped a deep inhale down into his chest; it was thick, laced with the fear thumping loudly below his ribcage. 

Everything inside of Trevor was screaming at him to turn around. To climb back down the ladder until his feet were once more safely on the ground. Perhaps he would have done just that had the calls of encouragement not curled into his ears from  below

 

 

Trevor wasn’t afraid of much. He’d learned a long time ago to hold his own- it was the byproduct of living a life where he could rely on no one but himself. Salvation had brought with it something he wasn’t used to. Salvation had brought him a family and it was a family that stood now below him calling up with nothing but faith his parachute would not fail. As he looked down on those who he’d lay his life on the line for in a heartbeat, a slight smile broke through the fear and the corners of his lips ticked upwards. He had a reason now to fight through the fear and jump- family. 

 

He jumped. The parachute opened with a whoosh of fabric cutting through the air. And as the cheering from below was swallowed whole by distance, his gaze traveled out to a view of Los Santos he’d never before seen. This was his home. This was his family. 

 

Fear was conquered that day and as he safely landed with the parachute ballooning gently down around his feet, Trevor’s hope was renewed. With Salvation, he could do anything.

[Aldarine]

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