Post by Rider on Feb 18, 2017 11:56:09 GMT
It was cold.
It was dark.
He was alone.
Rider’s heavy feet sunk into the muddy, wet dirt. The rain pittered and pattered all over the ground he stood on as he pondered, staring blankly at the dark sky. The moon shone brightly over the cliffside. Rider couldn’t stop gazing.
====^^^====
Rider gasped, panting and sweating all over. He glanced around the room with a look of panic. It was lit up with a blazing red flashing light, accompanied by a blaring alarm. Suddenly, the sliding door to the cylinder he was being kept in whizzed to the side. Abruptly, the temperature dropped - his insides were freezing up - Rider had to wrap himself in his own arms to try and shield himself from the cold.
The heap of metal stammered and tried to speak, but to no avail. He was in a haze. His vision was blurry. He heard a noise - someone trying to call him.
“Rider!”
He blinked multiple times as he tried to get used to the temperature, screaming in agony.
“Goddamnit, Rider! Wake up!”
The android looked up at a familiar face - the doctor. His snow-white lab coat was covered in blood, and one of the lenses in his glasses was bust. He had the same bushy beard as he had 2 months ago - the last time Rider saw him. He looked down at the doctor’s hands - one bruised and dripping with the red liquid, while the other held a small pistol. The doctor held out his hand. Rider took it, soaking his own hand in blood, pulling himself up.
“Your systems are going to freeze - here, take my coat.” The doctor took off his upper apparel and hurriedly wrapped it around Rider, muttering something to himself about not being able to finish his project.
“W- what the fu-u-u-u-uck is g-going on?” The android shivered as he tried to utter the sentence.
“I’m not going to let them sell you to some mindless group of grunts. Come on, we have to leave.”
“W-w-why are y-you co-o-overed in b-blood, doc?”
The doctor ignored him as he led him out of the room and through the corridor. They passed two dead bodies on their way - a scientist and a soldier, both with multiple gunshot wounds. A rectangular ceiling light had fallen onto the floor - the glass casing broken. As they made their way through the facility, they could hear shouting - most likely from the security team that had just been deployed - the doctor had been observing the radio chatter on the device he swiped earlier on. They finally arrived at the garage. There were jeeps and trucks of all sorts - the doctor recognised them instantly as the vehicles owned by the private militia that wanted to purchase Rider.
The doctor swung open the door of a truck and helped Rider in.
“You’ve gotta get out of here. Just - take this jeep and keep on driving. Don’t stop and don’t trust anyone. They’ll be coming for you, Rider. Don’t let them take you back.”
He smiled, patting the jeep.
Rider nodded, starting the ignition. He placed his hands on the steering wheel and took a short breath - he looked over at the doctor one last time and uttered two words.
“See ya’ in another life, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Rider slammed his foot on the acceleration pedal and drove off, out of the facility. He glanced up at the rear-view mirror - the doctor had taken cover at a barrier. He could see the security team quickly closing in on him. The android sighed.
The off-road vehicle continued to traverse through the desert. It wasn’t going to be stopping anytime soon.
====^^^====
Light shone in through the small gaps in between the planks of wood. All the windows, bar one, had been boarded up. Rider sat on an oak chair in one corner of the empty abode, silently playing with a toothpick in his mouth. The radio was dimly playing retro tunes in the background, most of which were to his liking. Either it was his own taste, or it was something that his creator had planted inside him.
“Tick, tock, tick, tock.” Rider muttered. He quickly shot up from his chair, swiftly removing the toothpick from his mouth and stuffing it in his pocket. He could faintly hear engines in the distance. The android knew exactly who was coming for him. He jogged upstairs as the floorboards creaked under his feet.
He walked through the door, entering one of the many desolated rooms of the abandoned desert shack. There was a mattress in the corner - he’d been resting on it the past few days. Rider slumped back against the wall in the corner of the room, sliding against it and sitting down. He heard the door break as what sounded like a stampede entered the house.
“CLEAR!”
“No activity in this room, sir - clear!”
The footsteps started to get louder as the mercenaries came upstairs - Rider stood up and took his position behind the front wall.
“Alright. Hallway clear.”
“I’m starting to think we’re searching a ghost house!”
“Shut the fuck up.”
There. The voice was just opposite Rider’s room.
The android sent his fist crashing through the thin drywall; the noise booming throughout the decayed and deserted house.
“What the f-” came the voice from the other side, his cry abruptly shortened by Rider’s grasp.
The android tightened his grip on the soldier’s shirt - tucked under his bulletproof vest - as he heaved him through the wall, whatever was left of that small section completely destroyed. A cascade of wood and concrete came flying out onto the floor. Rider laughed a bit as he slowly but quickly realised he’d pulled the poor guy too hard, sending him swooping back into the opposite wall. It came to no surprise that the soldier then managed to smash himself through three more layers of timber. Rider brushed the gathering dust from his palm-tree patterned shirt. His ears perked up as he caught the sound of more soldiers parading up the wooden stairs.
“Fuckers can’t leave me alone, can they?” he yelled as his foot went full force through the door. It flew off its hinges and spiralled, knocking itself into the wall. He galloped out and pivoted towards the staircase. Around 20 soldiers, each of their uniforms exactly the same were gathering, ready to fire on command. They didn’t seem like a formal military organisation, more like some street thugs. The soldiers looked terrified, scampering up the stairs, occasionally falling over each other.
“CONTACT! CONTACT ON THE SECOND FLOOR!” yelled the one in front, shortly before unloading what seemed to be his entire clip into Rider’s body.
CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK!
The soldier tapped his gun a few times before coming to the horrifying reality that he’d run out of bullets. Rider shook his head - the bullets had hit him alright, but they had left nothing more than a few dents to his body. A faint crimson glow started to emit from Rider’s eyes.
A harsh, thick beam of red light erupted from them. Rider tilted his head and targeted the energy towards the staircase. It practically exploded - the stairs collapsed as the soldiers fell all over the place - most into the wall, some through the floor, and others even flying into the ceiling. Rider decided that there were too many cadavers and groaning mercenaries crowding the stairs to walk down, so he took the scenic way out instead. The android galloped towards the wall at the end of the corridor and slammed himself through it, the weak and flimsy wall imploding as he leapt out of the abandoned desert house.
He landed with a bump, rolling across the floor before coming to a halt and getting up. The android ran through the desert as a couple of soldiers scampered towards their trucks, trying to give chase. Rider was long gone before they even started their engines.
====^^^====
Rider shifted the gear on his car as he drifted the street corner in South Capitol. 80 miles per hour, riding through the night. He’d been living in the city for a while now in a house up in the hills. He had to ‘persuade’ the owner of the house to let him take sanctuary, making up some nonsense about being on the run - while it was partly true, he’d altered, if not left out some majorly critical details.
It didn’t matter anyways. If the militia found him, he wouldn’t hesitate to tear apart anything in his way if he had to. Anything to avenge the doctor.