1 Chapter 1

Sudan: Hospital:

In the year 2045, a hospital in the country of Sudan was surrounded by thousands of vehicles.

Individuals, groups, international news channels, helicopters, and many more. The eyes of tens of millions of people around the world were gathered on this one place for one reason alone.

A man was dying.

A man who inspired people around the entire world.

A man who had nothing, no family, no wife by choice, not even a pet.

And yet, this single man saved so many lives over the course of twenty years.

This man traveled around the world saw the horrors of humanity and the state of the less fortunate in war-torn and undeveloped countries.

The man's name was Leo.

And Leo was currently dying.

Laying on a hospital bed, connected to a rebreather, and surrounded by his closest friends, Leo was smiling.

MC POV:

'Man, how did things come this far?'

I took a wheezing breath and knew this was probably the last time I would regain consciousness. A man knows when his time has come.

I struggled to breathe as I looked around at my friends who had tears in their eyes and refused to leave my hospital room for anything.

I couldn't help but smile.

I was just a backpacker, you know?

I dropped out of college, threw on a backpack, and took off into the world without any care.

My head turned to the leftmost side to see a very tall and buff man of Spanish descent doing his best to keep a straight face, but his eyes held pain.

My closest friend.

'First was South America.'

My first stop took me to South America, where I visited all the famous locations I could while moving at my own pace.

Did you know that long-distance buses in South America are insanely comfortable?

You can get a ticket on a 12-hour bus ride for dirt cheap, and they even give you meals during the trip.

Anyway, I started in Argentina, made my way down to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world before Antarctica while stopping at cities and famous locations like the Patagonian mountains.

The place would take your breath away.

I traveled north, through Chile, crossed the sand dune desert into Peru, took a stop in Bolivia to see the bright white salt plains that spread for miles on end, and into Ecuador.

The trip was amazing by that point, I met new people, learned about cultures, saw sights straight out of movies, worked in hundreds of places, and ended up in funny yet crazy situations (Not always by my own will).

I felt like I was in a dream, but…we all must wake up sometime, right?

'That's when reality hit me.'

My next stop was Colombia and Venezuela.

For the first time, I saw how bad life could be for some people, and something changed in me.

I began to question life.

I was never anything special or had any specific talent; in fact, you could call me a lazy bum who couldn't even finish college and never held a real job.

I was just…. curious and free-spirited.

I met my South American friend at the time.

Despite his large frame, he was an up and coming doctor with a lot of talent who had lost his family in a drug war between gangs. I stopped him from committing suicide on a bridge I happened to be walking by.

I talked him down and managed to convince him to keep going.

Interestingly enough, in the few days I spent with the guy, we forged a friendship that stood stronger than any I had before.

During a drunken night out, I shared my doubts about life with him, and he jokingly told me to go see the places that were even worse off.

Something stuck out to me about that, and I ended up doing just that.

In the next few years, I traveled around the world to war-torn and or undeveloped or suppressed countries.

Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan, Libya, Pakistan, Ukraine, and many more.

I traveled, met thousands of people, experienced so much, and managed to make strong bonds with people I met in random places.

It wasn't all bad, but the pain stood out strong to me.

The more I saw, the more pain I felt for those who simply wanted to live but ended up getting the short end of the stick in life.

Starvation, homelessness, natural disasters, wars.

On the inside, my mind and spirit grew distorted from the typical civilized views on the world.

The horrors of humanity that most of the world just turns a blind eye towards. It's not like I couldn't understand, it's easier to live in ignorance if you keep your head down and blend in with the crowd.

Everyone else is doing it, so its cool for me to do it too, right?

Eventually, I made my choice.

I reached out to all the connections I made over the years; all the people I bonded with and begged them to help me.

Not all of them helped, of course, but a few stepped forward.

Together, we formed an organization that had a single purpose, to help those who could not help themselves.

We reached out to everything we could, started fundraisers, reached out to investors, and put out heads together to create new and efficient ways of helping people.

I never had many talents for these things, some of the others were the real brains, but it seemed that I became the glue that held everything together.

'Those were fun days.'

We developed methods to get clean drinking water, setting up cheap but comfortable and efficient homes, medicine, and, most importantly, food and jobs for millions of people.

It took a few years, but our organization just kept growing and growing as more people joined to help, and eventually, other organizations merged with us.

Not everyone was happy of course, many corporations and rich and powerful people tried to manipulate, control, or otherwise get rid of us.

It was a dark time, especially for our core members.

It was a long and grueling battle, but after a decade, we spread ourselves so deeply around the world with enough backers who approved of our goals that no one could easily touch us. We helped create stability without turning a blind eye to anyone suffering, and any government that backed us got positive PR from around the world.

And then, only two days ago, a desperate Chinese millionaire couldn't take it anymore and launched an incredibly stupid direct attack on the very core of our organization, the founding members.

We were caught completely unaware when a group of Chinese thugs opened fire on us while we were having a meeting here in Sudan.

We had our own bodyguards who were all veteran soldiers and fought back, and with such a direct attack, the enemies were put down quickly, but not before I took a bullet that was meant for my South American buddy.

I pushed him out of the way when I saw the gun pointed his way and had to give myself a full five stars for the movie like scene of pushing your friend out of the way to save his life and get full body shots in return.

I was rushed to the closest big hospital and hooked up to machines to keep me going, but it was a downhill battle.

The Chinese man who launched the attack tried to hide behind politics and bribery but quickly got backed into a corner and arrested before facing death row due to the worldwide public outrage.

Anyone who tried to protect the man was arrested and faced life in prison.

'And that brings us to now.'

I smiled at my friends.

My South American best friend.

A Ukrainian woman whose home was destroyed in a bombing along with her husband. She was balling her eyes out and holding my hand.

An African man who committed his life to saving as many children as he could from being turned into child soldiers. He stood near the door like a guard and didn't let anyone unknown through.

A middle eastern man pushing sixty who lost his large family to a treatable illness he couldn't afford.

And a Turkish woman with a fierce personality who was saved when we shut down a kidnapping and sex trafficking group.

The six of us and one more who passed away a few years before in the attacks were the founders and core of an international organization that touched the lives of tens if not hundreds of millions of those in need.

I reached up and pulled down the oxygen mask on my face.

"Leo!"

"What are you doing!"

"Stop!"

They tried to stop me, but I shook my head.

"*Wheeze* Guys, it's my time, no point in delaying it. Let me say my final words while I have the strength." (Leo)

*sob*

"No…"

"This isn't fair!"

I smiled and rested my hands in the two women's grips while I matched eyes with the men.

My African friend nodded and bowed his head in respect.

My Middle Eastern friend sighed and looked resigned.

My best friend and I locked gazes, and we spoke without words.

'I was supposed to be the one dying right now.' (Best friend)

'It's ok; I know you would have done the same for me.' (Leo)

He looked down but nodded while tears fell from his eyes.

I smiled and looked at everyone.

"*cough* It was a fun ride guys; I want to thank you for everything. Honestly, you listened to my selfish desire, even if it led to your goals as well.

I was a simple jack of all trades and master of none; it was the five of you and good old George that made our dream come to life.

*wheeze* Thank you for your time, for your friendship, and most importantly…. thank you for the memories we created together.

It's allowed me to look back and smile, knowing I led a full life; it's you guys I hold most dear."

My friends were all crying now, but none of them interrupted me.

"I want to ask you all a final favor."

They nodded.

I put on my most sincere smile.

"Please live your lives to the fullest. Don't mourn for me for too long; I want you guys to smile and find things to fill your life with. And don't let our friendship go, watch each other's backs and never let your loyalty waver."

"*sob* Ok…. *sob*."

"*Sniff* I'll…. I'll try my best, I promise."

"*Sniff* You have my word Leo."

"*Sob* I…I won't let you down."

I turned to look at my best friend, who was trembling and gave him a minute before he responded.

He approached my bed and raised his hand.

I raised one of my own, and we grasped hands like brothers.

"I….I will Leo. Just like you told me when we first met back on that bridge…..I…I'll live for everyone I love… my wife, my children, and now *choke* you…. I'll live for both of us, my brother."

I nodded and smiled even while I felt myself growing weaker.

"Good….good…. please guys, don't be too sad… I know the unknown is scary, but it's just the next great adventure….I... I'm just gonna go ahead of you for a bit."

I felt my eyelids grow heavy and took one last look at each of their faces.

"LEO!" (Everyone)

I felt scared to you know? But that wasn't going to stop me from putting the last of my strength into my smile to try to leave my dear friends with my smile rather than my tears.

"Thank…... you…... guys…... for…. everything."

And with that, I sunk into the sweet embrace of sleep while my heart stopped.

That was the moment I died.

"WAKE UP!" (???)

"WHAT THE FUCK!" (Leo)

or not.