[10] End Game

[Kaden]

As it turned out, vehicles in Friend or Foe did not mix well with idealistic blond couriers. Kaden thought he had learned his lesson when the last car he had been in had turned out to be a bomb. To drive the point home, though, a helicopter needed to be crashed into the side of a volcano. Kaden wasn't sure whether to consider himself luckily or out of luck when he was thrown from the helicopter itself. That was right as Kai collided with the helicopter. That was also when things went black for Kaden.

The courier hadn't been completely sure what happened. As he fell, and the heat of the volcano washed over his body, he found himself wondering what would happen if he actually into the volcano itself. After that, all Kaden remembered was a vicious tug and a sharp pain. The next thing to reach his senses was the barking of a dog. He tried to sit up, to turn his head towards the sound, but someone was holding him down.

Opening his eyes, Kaden found his vision blurred and his head pounding. Even if he had able to discern the blurry figure before him, he wouldn't have cared who it was. A muffled voice reached his ears, but Kaden couldn't make anything out. When he tried to say something, he became sharply aware of the fact that some kind of cloth had been stuffed into his mouth. He quickly figured out why.

A sickening pop hit Kaden's ears just before the pain. His left shoulder felt as though someone has just jammed an ice pick into it. Fortunately, the pain did an effective job of sharpening his senses and the cloth in his mouth served the double purpose of giving him something to bite down on and muffling his cry of pain. Tearing the cloth from his mouth, Kaden glared up at the person standing over him.

"What the fuck did you do?" the courier demanded.

"Tch... you're welcome," was Trisha's response. "Your shoulder was dislocated. I figured you'd rather have it in the socket. Next time I'll let you take care of it yourself."

"My... shoulder?" Kaden ran a hand through his hair as he looked around.

The helicopter seemed to have crashed quite a ways off. How far had he been thrown? When a wave of heat hit his bare arms, the courier's focus shifted to his jacket... or the lack thereof. The tugging as he fell from the helicopter, and the pain just before he blacked out. It caught on something and wrenched his arm from its socket as he fell away from the 'copter.

"Uh... thanks," Kaden offered to Trisha.

"Whatever. I'm going to find Rosemary and Pride," she responded as she turned and began to talk away.

"Find who?" Kaden hopped to his feet and hurried after Trisha.

"The other people in the helicopter, genius. It would be nice if I didn't have to get a new one all by myself."

As the sound of a dog's bark reached Kaden's ear, he realized that Trisha was actually following the path the dog had taken. Why, Kaden had no clue. He couldn't even begin to guess why a dog was on that helicopter to begin with. Nonetheless, the dog proved its worth when Kaden and Trisha rounded an outcropping of rock and came upon Jackson, Rosemary, and Oliver Nash.

"Who's the kid?" came Jackson's voice.

"Champ found him," Trisha explained after a short pause. "Thought he was one of you guys."

"Hey," the courier began. "I'm--"

"Kaden," Rosemary interupted. "Another player in this game."

"Uh... yeah." Kaden cocked an eyebrow at the scarf-wearing woman. "Anyway, what's going on? Oliver just kind of disappeared from that Temple... Town... place. And I thought Trisha was... dead."

"Please..." Trisha waved a hand dismissively. "I've been shot worse than that."

"Anyway, we were trying to get you guys off of this island," Jackson answered Kaden's question. "You see how well that worked out."

"No one deserves to be in this hell," Oliver quipped. "Except that sonofabitch Kai."

"We need to find a new way out of here," Rosemary moved on.

"We need to go find everyone else. Like Piper," Kaden found himself glaring at Rosemary for no real reason. "And Sophia. And Ashe and Sage."

"Not a good idea, kid," Jackson replied. "Greg's interested in those four. He doesn't seem to care about us. We use that to secure an escape route. That's the best shot you've got at helping your lady friends."

With every fiber of his being, Kaden hated the idea of leaving Piper and Sophia on their own. He should have been with them, helping to bring Kai to justice. Isn't that what he and Piper promised they would do? Running away to look for... what? A helicopter? A boat? What good was that?

Shaking his head, Kaden brushed those thoughts from his mind. He was thinking about things the wrong way. Piper and Sophia were more than capable of looking after themselves. Hell, they were far more capable of taking down Kai than he was himself. He would just get himself hurt and then Sophia would waste energy healing him instead of the person who actually something about fighting.

Besides, when they brought down Kai, they'd need a way to transport him to the authorities, wouldn't they? The faster something like that was available, the less danger they would be in. Jackson was right. The best Kaden could do to help his friends was to find a way off that island and hurry back as quickly as possible.

"Fine," the courier finally said. "Where to, then?"