Yeah so, I want LOTS of reviews! Bad or good, whatever! I'm trying to keep Riddick in character. If you've seen the sequel to Pitch Black then you know that his character is more expansive than originally portrayed in this film, so I've got a bit more space to work with. I know Erica asks alot of questions in her head. She is way, WAY confused though and I want people not to miss whats going on in her head. Anyway let me know what you think!
Flashing lights. It was the first thing Erica knew. Red, blood red, and pulsing. The type of lights that flash a warning, signaling iminent doom. The lurching of the ship was what brought her awake, and in the bleary dream world of one who is being jerked into consciousness, it seemed a confused jumble of light and sound. Or lack of sound thereof. As her glazed eyes adjusted, she realized she was locked in a tight chamber that forced her to stand upright in a most uncomfortable manner. A hydrosleep chamber. She was a passenger, she remembered suddenly. But from where, and where was she going? She couldn't remember. Why? Because she had lost her memory, lost it in some terrible accident. She was being sent to a medical facility somewhere in the deep reaches of space, to see if this problem could be corrected. By whom? Who was sending her? She didn't know. Someone who knew her, who was very wealthy, who could afford such an advanced treatment.
Why couldn't she hear anything? Her flailing mind grasped onto the situation at hand, blotting out the confused jumble of her life's circumstances for the time being. The chambers were designed to block out sound. A sudden high-pitched blaring noise sounded shrilly in her ear, causing her to cringe. What was it? The chamber's own built in alarm system. A display panel appeared suddenly before her, a type of holographic reflection on the clear plastic of her enclosure. Beyond that all she could make out was the metallic interior of the ship, and the wild flashing of the emergency lights. Her chamber had registered her leap into consciousness and was promptly informing her of the situation outside of the man-made cocoon.
UNSCHEDULED AWAKENING, it glowed in electric blue. SEARCHING FOR CAUSE OF THIS ERROR.....NONE FOUND.....SUBJECT RESISTANT TO HYDRO AGENT.....Erica frowned. What? Had she fought the sleeping gases that ensured her peaceful slumber as her body felt the turmoil of the spacecraft she was flying in? Was that even possible? ABORTING INVESTIGATION, the screened flashed, EMERGENCY TAKES PRECIDENCE. Emergency? Had they been hit by something? STATUS: FORWARD HULL PENETRATED, AIR LEAK. ENGINES NON-RESPONSIVE. TRAPPED IN GRAVITATIONAL PULL. Pull towards what? A planet? Were they crashing? CASULTIES: CAPTAIN .
The letters faded from the screen and there was a sharp hiss as her enclosure opened up. The captain is dead? The thought barely had time to form in her mind as she was hurtled head first onto the hard metal floor of the ship's interior. Her eyes darted left and right as she lay sprawled on the ground, her head aching terribly. It seemed the world around her trembled and shook as if in preparation to explode violently. She noted that the rest of the passengers still slept while she attempted to focus on her surroundings. She could see their expressionless faces lining the walls, each engulfed in an eerie red glow. The large laser proof doors seperating the passenger area from that of the crew was tightly sealed. She could only hope the crew was awake and aware of their dire situation...hell, she just hoped they were still alive.
Resolutely she ignored the throbbing of her temples and began to push herself up. Suddenly there was a loud whistling noise, and several bits of debris shot through the air above her head, penetrating the hull and disappearing out into space. Erica felt like screaming. Her life had been sustained by mere inches. What the hell was going on? The ship lurched again as she struggled to regain her feet, and she staggered sideways, crashing hard against something near the rear of the room. Gasping for breath she splayed her fingers on the slick, cool surface of the large obstacle and, still confused, turned her eyes upon it. Someone stared back. She would have shrieked and flung herself back across the cabin, and was in the process of doing so, when another sharp change in the ship's trajectory caused her to roll across the plexiglass front of the sleeping chamber. She clutched at the edge, an extreme amount of sudden gravity attempting to flatten her to the life containing box. She risked another look, the turning of her neck a huge effort as if a heavy weight were pressing down against her, intending to crush the very life from her body.
There was what appeared to be a man within, a large, powerfully built man with a shaven head and eery black goggles drawn down over his eyes. It gave the appearance of a fierce gaze, though there was no way she could tell if he was in fact even conscious. Who was this? She fought to dredge up the memory, at the same time struggling to draw breath through tortured lungs. Among the passengers was a miner woman, a young boy, a holy man, an arrogant man who appeared to be an officer of some sort.....who was transporting her......and this was....she had listened, had stored the information in her memory banks...he had been residing on the same planet as she....had been taken aboard......a convict! She remembered his identity with sudden regret. The stress of being pressed up against this beast's holding cell with a thin sheet of transparent material seperating them didn't help to put her at ease. A convict, a murderer, escaped from some terrible slam. On his way back. Who had captured him? Johns, that was it. And Johns was.....the cop. How many people had he murdered? Shit...too many. Highly dangerous. They had all been warned to stay far away from him. Riddick. The name flashed through her mind. The bold warning scrawled across the front of his enclosure read: WARNING, NOT FOR EARLY RELEASE. Super. There were chains and thick cables shackling his muscular arms, and some sort of strange bit-like device was wedged in his mouth and strapped firmly about his bald head. This all made him even more menacing.
Her heart pounding, Erica stared through the plexiglass, eyes locked on the lenses of the alien-looking goggles. Another swift change of direction peeled her back from the container and sent her flying backwards, the crushing gravity releasing her from it's monstrous grip. Another sleeping chamber caught her in the left shoulder and she cried out as the impact sent her spinning towards a support beam. Her back slammed hard into the metal, knocking the wind out of her, and then she felt a terrible pain shoot through her leg like fire. A jagged piece of rebar had pierced her left thigh and she was now pinned, blood gushing from the fresh wound. Sleeping chambers began to pop open and passengers to roll out in a jumbled heap as the artificial air became sparse in the small area. There was a horrible crunching sound, the sound of the ship's metal skin being rended from its steel skeleton and then the frantic and confused cries of the other passengers. Erica knew nothing more after that.