The Rider (Complete)

Chapter Twenty-One

In the morning, Kade awoke with a splitting headache and dark rings around his eyes. He was on death's doorstep. Still feeling withdrawal symptoms from the ghost, each day was worse than the previous as his body craved the drug. The cold sweats and shakes were so severe that he was unable to get a proper night's rest, which only exacerbated his feeling of depletion.

As Kade attempted to stand, every bone and muscle in his body ached. Once on his feet, his brain started piecing together the events that led him to being where he was. He looked around at the four walls that surrounded him and saw that he was inside a tiny stone structure — a destroyed church that had been abandoned long ago. He didn't see Cali anywhere. He looked down and saw a taser, most likely left for him. It had been placed there at some point after he had gone to sleep.

Kade contorted his back to stretch out the tight knots that was a result of a lifetime of riding, mixed with sleeping on unforgiving floors. He went outside to look for Cali. Stepping out of the tiny church, he was met with nothing but the wind and the warm rays of the hidden sun. In every direction was endless landscape of dirt and rocks bathed in an orange haze. There were no trees, flowers, or weeds as far as the eye could see. A once lush and vibrant forest was now a wasteland that resembled the surface of Mars more than Earth.

Cali was gone, and she had taken the bike. There was no sign of her anywhere, not even her tread marks to indicate which direction she had gone. The wind had since covered those. A part of him wasn't upset with Cali. She had warned him not to trust her.

Listening to the whistling wind he realized he was the only living organism within a hundred kilometres. He tapped the side of his helmet to bring up the display to check the temperature, his bio-stats, and most importantly, his oxygen levels. Another quick tap and the display disappeared.

Returning to the tiny shack, he wanted to get out of the sun and rest, partly to heal his body but also to conserve his oxygen. His only option was to hope and pray for a miracle, which in this life, wasn't worth waiting for. Laying down on hard floor, he took those moments of quiet contemplation to think about his life and the choices he had made up until that point.

With no food or water, no transportation, no eco-suit, and limited oxygen supply, he knew this would likely be his final place of rest. He had come to terms with death, but wasn't looking forward to the slow agonizing decent of starvation and dehydration. If there were any kind of consolation, it was that he would no longer have to deal with Saigon ever again.

He thought about his mother and whether or not she was still alive. He then weighed out the possible scenarios. If he were to somehow make it out of this situation and return to Endocrine without the package, Saigon would surely kill him. Although, there may be some small chance Saigon would spare his life, as unlikely as that may seem. However, the package was with the drone on some random rooftop in the abandoned city, and it would be impossible to find without his helmet, which he didn't have. Even if he did have it, going back into scav territory was just as much of a death wish as baking out in the hot sun and waiting for dehydration to kill him. Either way, he was in a lose-lose situation.

With each passing hour, his condition worsened. He was still clinging to a glimmer of hope that Cali would return for him. Perhaps it was a prank she was playing on him, or maybe she just went out to look for food and water and she got lost, or her bike broke down, or she got captured. After spending half the day with nothing but his thoughts, he came to the sad conclusion that she was not coming back. She had left him to die.

Kade picked up the taser and thought about using it to kill himself. For the next four hours he weighed out all the pros and cons until he decided that it would be the best course of action to take. There was nothing left to live for and no point in delaying the inevitable.

He took one last moment to briefly reevaluate his decision, and then slowly raised the taser to his throat and held it there. A tear rolled down his face as he was seconds away from taking his last breath and leaving this cruel world. Thoughts of his mother came flooding in, which overwhelmed his emotions. His hands started to tremble as the intensity of the sobbing increased. Tears soaked his glossy cheeks, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. This was it, his final moment. Thoughts of despair competed with thoughts about his sweet mother who had nurtured him and protected him since he was a baby. She would never see her son's face again, and he would never see hers, at least not in this life, but perhaps in the next. Thinking about her was gut wrenching.

"I'll see you on the other side, ma. Please forgive me. I love you."

Kade squeezed the trigger of the taser. In a flash, 50,000 volts of electricity surged through his body, causing his muscles to clamp down on the trigger and stiffen. He gritted his teeth and kept holding the taser as long as he could until his brain shut off. A moment after he had began, his arm went limp and he dropped the taser. He now lay motionless on the floor, his eyes closed, and gone from this wasteland of a planet called Earth.