Girl Cyborg: A Dystopian Action Adventure Thriller

Cliffhanger

Bess was a kid again. She and Cherry were sitting in the Academy auditorium. Against the rules, they were giggling and stuffing handfuls of popcorn into their mouths. The Headmaster walked to the podium and cleared his throat.

"I know you loved the hypothermia documentary, Cold Can Kill, so tonight will be a special treat."

The audience groaned. They seemed to be shifting up and down like ocean waves. The motion was making Bess dizzy. Why didn't he just start the movie?

The lights went out and the screen lit up. The title, written in blood-dripping letters, was Signal Loss. The sensation of her seat rising up and down ceased as the credits faded out.

"This is going to be stupid," said Cherry. She giggled and punched Bess in the arm. "You're probably going to take notes!"

Bess ignored her, captivated by the image of a cyber dragging himself through the sand on hands and knees. Rain poured down on his bloody back. His ripped shirt revealed a gaping wound close to his spine. A voiceover, which sounded like the Headmaster, intoned:

"After eight hours without the signal, a cyber goes into withdrawal. Imagine living without boosts to raise your spirits and give you energy. Without the signal, every ache and pain is magnified. Healing goes at a snail's pace. Let's see how our hapless cyber got himself into this deadly situation."

The scene flashes back to a sunny day at the Academy. The cyber gives a guard the thumbs up and drives out of the compound alone. He is soon speeding along a coastal road. It starts to rain and lightning flashes. Thunder crashes as the rain increases to a steady downpour.

Suddenly, the car goes over a big bump. Airborne, the vehicle is out of control and comes down on the edge of a tall bluff overlooking the lake. The car slides, dips, and catches, half on and half off the cliff. The driver falls against the door which flies open.

Now the hapless cyber is hanging out the bottom of the driver's side door. He is swinging in the air and screaming for help.

"No help will come." It's the headmaster's voice again. "This cyber has removed the signal that would let the Academy find him. He is doomed to die by his own hand."

Rain pours on a close-up of the cyber's hand until it loses his grip on the door frame of the vehicle. With a long drawn-out scream, he falls to the beach below.

Bess shivered. Her back was on fire. She tried to roll over but it felt like she was wrapped in spider silk.

Paralyzed.

She couldn't open her eyes.

Bess tried to reach out but her arms were pinned to her sides.

She cried out to her friend but Cherry wasn't there.

Around her the world was rumbling, moving, rushing past. She had to wake up, but she was so exhausted opening her eyes took extreme effort. It didn't help that she remembered how the movie ended.

The Academy couldn't track down the runaway cyber. Without boosts from the signal, his augmented eyes lost the protection of anti-rejection boosts. His body's immune system started attacking them. The donated cells got rejected like a bad transplant. One-by-one his organs self-destructed until he was blind, deaf, and dying alone on the sand.

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I  hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was a lot of fun to write. 

What do you think is going on? Why is this happening to Bess now?

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