Chapter 3

Arriving at the Medical Centre both Riddick and Riley began to search around. The Medical centre was not that much different to the Command deck as the area was in a shambles. Cables and broken control panels flared with electricity and monitors flashed and blinked on and off. There were no bodies found in the main Medical area let alone in the morgue. The beds were broken along with the medical equipment.

"Looks like they had a party in here too?" Riddick said as he knelt down and looked through wreckage on the floor. The quicker we search around the sooner we can get off the damn ship he thought.

"I would have to agree with you on that, lets see if I can get anything out of the Medical Officer's logs"

Walking over to what had been the Chief Medical Officer's seat, there were protruding cables that were still sparking and she managed not to get herself electrocuted by any of them. Then standing a knocked down chair upright she sat down in front of the monitor as she began to hack in to the system. The encryption was not difficult to break as she found her way in to the Medical System. All crew manifest files were available to her. Riley skipped straight to the medical incident files along with research findings. It was there that she found what she had been searching for; there had indeed been a finding from another ship, which had almost collided with them. This was all too much of a coincidence for her liking. Scanning more quickly now for exact details relating to the unknown finding, it was an ancient corpse with no details about the sexual orientation. There had also been dead bodies of the previous crew on the old ship. The bodies had been dead for some weeks confirmed by some examination. Some of the remains were mummified and withered to dust practically but nothing else. It would appear that whatever was going on linked to these bodies somehow.

Feeling a nervous twitch in her gut, she pondered what she had read. All of this was indeed a trap and she had fallen for it. Whatever was going on here they really did not need to be apart of. They were here because of her foolish pride, you cannot save the whole universe even she knew that. She realised that the loss of her old best friend Jay had affected her way more than she had realised. Getting revenge on the man that had killed Jay she thought had been enough but it was not. She still had not accepted losing him and felt that saving David on this ship would make up for that deep down. Finding no details about David could mean that he had escaped and was very much alive she thought. Focusing on Riddick had helped her not to focus on Jay's death so much but now she just had to accept it and move on otherwise they could both wind up dead well before their time.

"Riddick we need to go now…." As she jumped, up from her seat and rushed towards the Med Lab Door.

"You finally come to your senses now… Took you long enough" he grunted.

"This is a trap like you said and we need to leave… Stop gloating and move your fucking ass!" she said snapping back at him.

His eye shine eyes stared back at her harshly. She could tell that he did not like taking orders from anybody.

"What's the matter?" he stood facing Riley by the doorway now right up in her personal space. He placed his bare muscular arm up to bar her path as he pushed her back right up against the wall. His face was right up close to hers and he was not moving until she replied.

"Let go of me Riddick!" she pushed him back hard only to have him push her back harder. He was not moving until she replied with what he wanted to hear. Cursing her self, she responded.

"There was no data about David ok, so he could be alive and have escaped… we just have to get back to my ship now before whatever is on board gets what it lured us here for!" Dammit how could I have been so bloody blind and stupid!

"Ok … Let's go" he said calmly as he released her slowly as he looked down at her and pressed the door control to open the door as it whirred and clicked away.

The door opened slowly but surely and they found that they were not alone anymore. As there right in front of them was a monstrosity of what appeared used to be a man. It towered over them both and reeked of rot, and decay. Before either, one of them could react one of its arms came flying out as it slammed in to Riddick's chest hard and sent him flying back towards the med lab beds. Riley tried to cushion his landing as best she could with her telekinesis. As the creatures, other hand then came out it grabbed her by her throat, and lifted her up off the ground. Gasping for air, she found that she could not focus enough to use her telekinesis to get this creature to let go, as its grip tightened around her neck. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as she struggled to catch a breath. She suddenly remembered that she had a gun as she frantically pushed her right hand down to unbuckle the gun strapped to her thigh. Without a second thought, she aimed at the creatures' chest and fired directly. The bolt of energy connected with its' chest and had no effect as it still held on to her throat tightly and its' grip was getting tighter by the second. Keeping her wits about her she thought if I cannot take it down how about I blow its' bloody damn arm off!

She changed tactics as she then began firing shots at its arm, focusing past the pain and feeling that she would pass out soon or die if this thing did not let go of her. Chunks of flesh began to blast away to the bone as the arm finally broke apart and she fell to the ground struggling for air. Pulling off the hand that was still hanging from around her neck she flung it to one side. While she kneeled on the floor to catch her breath, the creature came to attack again with its one free arm. Riddick then charged in from behind her as he shouldered the creature in the chest and his motion carried them both outside of the room and crashing in to the corridor wall. Breaking its remaining arm with a loud crack, he then beheaded it with his shiv in one swift fluid motion. He looked down at the now slumped corpse of a headless body that was before him on the ground.

Riddick kneeled down for a closer examination of the body; it looked like it had been a member of the crew, the tattered remains of a uniform showed that much. The man appeared to have been dead a long time from the stench of his remains, poor fucker Riddick thought. He then noticed an intensely strong stench of dead flesh emanating from the corridor as he turned his head to look down the corridor in to the darkness that lay ahead. His eye-shine eyes seeing all too clearly in to the darkness as he furrowed his brow shit!

"Riley! You ok?" he shouted while rising to his full standing height.

"Yea… I'm… ok!" Hoarsely she shouted back while just managing to stand back up fully as she rubbed her neck.

"Good because we need to get moving now….Fast!"

"Why? Weren't you able to kill that... thing?" she said as she came over to the doorway and looked down at the body on the floor.

"He's down for the count but his friends don't seem too happy about it…" he stared down the corridor pointing in to the darkness.

"Friends…?" she whispered straining to see in to the darkened corridor perplexed.

Following Riddick's arm line, she could just about make out shadows of movements from down the corridor along with an awful stench of death, which was extremely overwhelming now. She quickly pulled out a flare and lit it up before tossing it down the corridor she wanted to see what these so called 'friends' looked like. There in full gory glory were a handful of what used to be members of the crew, now the living dead. Without another word, Riddick turned and ran in the other direction needing no light to see. Riley followed while lighting another flare to light her way while keeping up swiftly with his pace.

Her mind wandered frantically while they ran the last thing she wanted was to end up becoming a damn zombie. What would do that to people she thought. She crashed in to Riddick's 6'1" muscular frame, as he had come to a dead stop at a cross-junction entryway where one corridor led to the hanger.

"What's the matter? Why did you stop?"

"Listen…" he said as he held up his hand to hush her.

She knew better than to argue with him about his rudeness at this point, as it was not personal. Riddick was a survivor he did not muck about where his instincts and survival were concerned. Listening in to the silence all around there was the faintest noise of movement coming from all directions towards them. The zombies were blocking all entryways to stop them getting back to the Hanger.