Chapter Three
Adel joined the small group outside waiting for the others. They had rejoined with Imam and his young wards. Time seemed to move slowly though only a few minutes had passed. Fry and Paris had joined them shortly thereafter, each carrying bottles of liquor and expensive wine. Adel eyed it as Fry handed her a bottle.
It's just going to dehydrate you.
Yeah, but better than nothing.
You know that's bullshit, right?
Silencing her subconscious, Adel took a swig. The amber liquid burning a trail down her already parched throat to her stomach where it spread like a liquid fire.
Damn, that felt good.
She took another swig. Well, now her headache was going away.
From her periphery, Adel noticed Johns coming towards the group at a jog. In his hand was the horse bit that had been in Riddick's mouth. Adel's heart quickened its pace. Conversation stopped as everyone noticed Johns approach.
"He's escaped?" Jack asked, almost excitedly.
The grim set of Johns' mouth confirmed the group's fears.
They had inventoried their supplies and compiled anything that might be considered a weapon in defending themselves against the escaped murderer. Johns had positioned himself atop the fallen ship, scanning the horizon with a scope. Adel was still clutching the bottle of liquor that had been handed to her. Logically, she knew that she shouldn't be drinking the alcohol but damn if it wasn't helping cure this nagging terror and keeping her from the edge of hysterics. Between a murder and that small feat of being somewhere that wasn't physically possible, she thought she was doing an acceptable job of taking it in stride. Under Fry's advisory, she had torn the sleeves from her blue long-sleeve t-shirt. She had also torn her jeans, converting them into cut off shorts. Her long, heavy dark hair had been piled on top of her head and tied with a strip from her former sleeve. Shazza and Zeke had been working on modifying the breathers, in which they tested their new prototype on Jack. Imam and his boys had changed to their traditional Bedouin head-gear to help displace some of the oppressive heat.
"We should leave soon, before nightfall but while its cooler." Fry spoke as she watched the two suns slow decent towards the horizon before turning back to her charges. She, Adel, Johns, Imam and his boys, they had called themselves Crislams, were going to try and find water. Adel was busy messing with the straps on her breather when she heard one of the teenage boys yelling in Muslim. He gestured in the direction that they were headed, away from sunset. They rounded the ship and stopped to find a third blue star flaring above the horizon.
"Three suns?" Jack asked, warily.
"Bloody hell." Shazza was stunned to immobility for a moment.
"Fucking fantastic," Adel took another swig from the liquor bottle.
"So much for your nightfall." Zeke glanced to Fry.
"So much for my cocktail hour." An audible sigh was heard, this time from Paris.
Imam, ever the patient optimist spoke.
"We take this as a good sign. Blue sun, blue water."
Johns swung down from his perch atop the ship.
"That's actually a bad sign. That's Riddick's direction."
"I thought you found his restraints over there. Towards sunset." Fry looked a touch concerned.
"Which means he went towards sunset," Johns informed her with a nod.
The party trekked on, through the scorching desert, with only the sound of short, audible prayer sent up by the Crislams. In the distance, Fry noted strange trees. A hard wind swirled sand around them, as if leading the way to the trees. The younger boys took off in a run towards, what they believed was an oasis. Imam explained as much. Johns and Fry followed after them. Adel stared for a moment, studying the strange shape of the branches and noting that they didn't move with the wind.
Very strange.
She willed her feet to move, cursing fate for however she got here and the fact that she was wearing flip flops. No one else had seemed to notice which was fine for her.
Yeah, good luck explaining that.
Do they even have flip flops here, wherever we are.
T3. Fry called it that.
This planet. Or whatever it is.
Adel crested the hill to join the others, realizing that they were staring at the scene below.
Not trees.
Bones!
It was a bone yard. Huge, colossal skeletons littered the ground, ribcages creating tunneled paths of dismay. Adel was stunned. What happened to these obviously huge creatures?
"Is this whole planet dead?" Fry whispered, awestruck. They begin to move, together, as a group. An unspoken, unacknowledged feeling of dread, washed over Adel. She felt like she was being watched; that there was something terribly wrong.
Great. Move in a herd. Excellent idea, girly.
Safety in numbers.
STOP! Stop being analytical. Just move.
They made their way from the top of the hill, down; the huge, towering tree-like bones had been bleached white in the harsh, unforgiving light.
"Some… communal graveyard, perhaps.. like the elephants of Earth…" Imam mused thoughtfully. Fry wandered ahead of the group, towards one of the ribcages. It was a macabre forest, though desolate and decayed. Adel inspected one of the rib bones they were walking beneath. It had cut marks on it, as if hacked away by steel.
I don't think it was natural causes that killed these animals.
She lifted a hand to the sun-bleached bone, feeling the grooves beneath her fingertips. Her hands felt sensitive, blood pulsed beneath her palms under her injuries. She suppressed a shudder, drawing her hand away. She caught up to Fry, falling in step beside her. She tipped the bottle of liquor to her in an offering. The woman glanced at her, before stopping. She grabbed the bottle and leaned back, resting just slightly against another ribcage.
"Probably makes it worse. Dehydrates you more." She smiled at Adel.
"Probably right." Adel smiled back. Fry took a drink anyway before handing the bottle back. Adel took another swig. She joined Fry, leaning against the animal's remains, embracing the few moments of shade. She noticed Fry looking at her feet.
"What are those?"
Huh? Oh, right.
"Flip flops." Adel looked away, back into a shadowy recess of the animal's body. The hair on her arms stood up. She held her breath for a moment, swearing she had heard something. She turned back to Fry.
"I don't think I've seen anything like that before." Fry murmured. "Or that material..." She motioned to Adel's denim cutoffs.
Shit.
Well, how do I explain this?
She'll think I'm crazy.
Or a stowaway.
Fuck it.
Adel sighed heavily.
"Can I tell you something?"
"Sure." Fry looked intrigued.
Somewhere within the cavern of the animal, Adel swore she could hear an intake of breath. She peered through the bones again. No movement.
"I'm not from here." She whispered. Fry smiled kindly.
"Well, none of us ar…" she was cut off as Adel continued to speak.
"No. I mean, I woke up when the ship crashed. Before that, I had been in my apartment. There's no such thing as Cryo-sleep or spaceships that go to different planets. Hell, or crashing on desolate planets for that matter!" She rushed the sentence, her throat tightening as she tried valiantly not to cry or even acknowledge the hopelessness that was threatening to overtake her. "Before today, I was a normal girl, in the year 2010…" Fry's eyes widened as she mentioned the year but Adel continued. "I had a boring job and a quiet life. I've never even been camping and now I'm stuck on some god-forsaken planet completely out of my element, hell completely out of my time with a bunch of people who are far more adept at this that I could have ever imagined." She finished her rant by taking a long drink from the bottle. It was nearly half gone now. She grimaced as the liquid raged through her. Fry was quiet for a movement, processing everything Adel had told her.
"Well, now. That's something new. "A new voice cut through the silence.