No one had come up with a solid plan, and they'd been in there for over an hour. Paris passed out first; the holy man went next, passed out while he was praying, leaving Riddick, Jack, and Johns awake. Jack sat on the floor against the stored ottoman that Riddick was sitting on. She leaned against his leg tiredly, the loss of momentum hitting her harder than the two men staring each other down.
"So what's up with the boy Riddick?" Johns asked nodding towards Jack, who glared at him.
Riddick shrugged leaning against the dresser behind him. "He followed me home boss, can't I keep 'em?" Riddick joked dryly, leaning up slightly to pat Jack on the head before sitting back again.
"Glad you still have a sense of humor at a time like this," Johns muttered rubbing his cheek, shifting around.
"You know we can't just sit here," Riddick pointed out, "Ain't no one coming to collect the dead until the sun goes up. If we live you know you won't get your bounty if the government drops down and takes us in."
"So what do you suggest?" Johns asked leaning back against the boxes behind him.
"Rest up, get all the light we can, and book it for the skiff," Riddick said simply.
"We both know better than to think it'll be that easy, especially if we both make it." Johns said raising an eyebrow at the killer. He had no one to put a show on for, especially with the boy fawning all over Riddick.
"You said you'd let him go," Jack insisted wrapping her arm around Riddick's leg like it'd keep him with her.
"I lied," Johns sneered at the kid.
Riddick shrugged when he caught Jack looking back at him. After a second he said, "I figured you were lying about letting me go, but be honest Johns you gotta be sick of chasing me all over the verse."
"Yeah, but be honest Riddick, why you taking us with you? I don't pretend to be able to get back to the skiff alive with a fucking flashlight," Johns said watching Riddick, keeping the conversation up to stay awake.
Truthfully he needed other smells to keep the winged beasts off of Jack. Bigger meals might keep them off the girl till the end. That and having more sacrifices made better odds. "Someone's gotta be eaten first, and more hands mean more light to be carried." Riddick explained frowning as Jack crawled up onto his lap. It was obvious she was more than half asleep, and he knew he should dump her on her ass back at his feet, but he just let her sit there leaning into him.
"What the shit is up with that?" Johns asked looking at the kid pretty much knocked out on a murderer's lap.
"Fuck if I know," Riddick grumbled watching the kid behind his goggles. He didn't have to put on a show of glaring at her when no one could see exactly what his eyes were up to.
"Going soft?" Johns asked with a dirty grin. Kids were the reason he got Riddick on the Hunter-Gratzner.
"Fuck you Johns," Riddick said shifting Jack around so she wasn't as perilously balanced on his lap, and leaned up against him more solidly.
"Don't tell me you see yourself in the runt?" Johns continued to pry.
"Nah, by Jack's age I was nicely tucked away in a facility that taught troubled youth how to be in the military," Riddick said with a shrug. He sure as fuck wouldn't be sleeping in a killers lap. Though, he'd never quite understood why you would show a teenager who beat a guy with a pipe how to become an efficient killing machine, but their error was his gain.
"So what's the plan?" Johns asked tilting his head back.
"Rest, load up on light, run for it. I'll lead the way; anyone who lives gets a seat. We'll fight out our feud if we live to see someone pick us up before the life support on the ship goes out… or you know we starve, whichever comes first." Riddick laid out the plan (again) watching Jack sleep against him. "We'll run a straight line from here to there, no stopping, if they can't keep up they stay behind in the dark. We'll keep the power-cells on sled between the four adults."
"The boy gets a free ride?" Johns asked closing his eyes.
"Jack's got a debt to pay," Riddick said, his tone final. "I'll take responsibility for the kid."
ooo
By the time Johns was completely out was about the time Jack suddenly woke up, with that obvious jerk of someone who hadn't meant to fall asleep. She had the obvious start of someone who also didn't remember exactly where they fell asleep. After a second she tensed against him, wouldn't look up, wouldn't talk. Giving her a break he said, "You owe me kid."
"I didn't mean to fall asleep…" Jack insisted softly leaning up to take stock of herself. She was sitting sideways on his lap, Riddick had an arm around her, and she still felt heavy and tired.
"Mean to sit on my lap?" Riddick asked an arm lazily draped around her waist as the other had pushed his goggles up on his head to take a good look at her.
"I don't remember that…" Jack breathed finally looking up at him, her eyes catching his immediately in the glow of the one of the flashlights. She really didn't remember moving from the floor against his leg to his lap. Jack could remember leaning against his leg listening to him and Johns bicker about something that wasn't completely clear anymore. She'd just been so tired…
"There's a plan now," Riddick moved on, seeing no reason to explore her choice in sleeping spaces right this second.
"You're going to leave me here?" Jack whispered her one question about the plan leaning against Riddick more.
"No, we're gonna get all the light we have and get to the skiff, you too," Riddick explained simply. "Stay close to me, and stay in the light. Don't say anything about staying behind."
Frowning at the dark corner of the nook they were in Jack didn't say anything else, trying to think. The light hurt the creatures, but she was bleeding, and she got the feeling she might be in more trouble than the others because of it. The others didn't know, but she'd be putting them in danger. Jack really wanted to live though. She did not run away just to lie down and die on this heap.
"Get some more rest kid," Riddick told her, his voice low and calm. "There will be no stopping."
Jack closed her eyes obediently but she didn't know if she could sleep. She stayed leaning against him, and tried to clear her mind, but she couldn't. There were flying monsters out there that wanted to eat them and their defense against them was two flashlights and a cutting torch. She didn't see how this could work, and on top of that the others had to keep believing she was a boy. This wasn't going to work. On top of this, now that they weren't all go-go-go her stomach was starting to cramp up.
"What did I tell you?" Riddick asked as he pushed his goggles back down. Jack kept fidgeting, her fingers picking at the hem of her shirt.
"Rest."
"Then do it."
ooo
"There's the two flashlights, the torch, a couple of bottles of booze that we can burn, and I have some flares," Johns said looking at the pile of lighting they'd managed to find. It wasn't a lot, and he wasn't so sure it'd keep the monsters at bay, but there wasn't a whole lot to be done. Riddick had been right; they couldn't just sit here and wait to be eaten or worse, wait to live and have the bounty snatched right out from under him. It was one thing to let Riddick go, it was another for someone else to run off with him.
"Is this going to be enough?" Paris asked even as he rigged up the bottles with a little rope so they could burn them if they needed too.
"It's going to have to be," Johns shrugged. "There's another sled around here for luggage, we'll go out get the cells off the sandcat and we'll go. We won't stop, Riddick will lead the way, we'll be there before we know it, and light up the skiff while we get ready. Fool proof."
Riddick looked at the group, Jack was sitting back on the floor at his feet idly running her fingers along the seams in one of his boots, Johns was skeptical about the whole deal but he was playing leader man all the same, Imam looked like he'd slipped into mourning but the holy man would probably snap out of it once they were in immediate danger again if not he'd probably be the first to go, and Paris was at least doing something useful and being generally less twitchy. As long as no one was foolish enough to step away from the sled and the light they all had a fair chance to make it. There was only one problem he foresaw, and that was the canyon they came through to get here. Shazza had blocked the path back. They'd been trying to get here so fast; they knocked down one of the skeletons. It'd have to be dealt with to get back. That would mean pausing in their trek, taking time where he couldn't have Jack practically under him to keep her safe.
"Finished!" Paris said finishing up the last of the five bottles.
"Gr-" Johns paused as a low noise started. Not the screeching of monsters that flared up now and then but a patter soft after then harder.
"It's raining…" Jack breathed looking sadly up at Riddick. She was trying to find some way to be useful, but she couldn't think of anything. There was nothing she could bring to the table. She wasn't strong, she couldn't see in the dark, and she didn't have any extra light for them…
"Doesn't change anything, the rain will make it harder going, but it might cover our sent, make us harder to find," Riddick said as he nudged the kid to get up before standing himself. Looking to Jack from behind his goggles as everyone else stood too Riddick was silently glad her backpack was already in the skiff holding her seat, otherwise he'd have to tell her to leave it behind. There were probably important things in the bag though.
"Let's get one of the sleds out of the back and get packing," Johns said motioning for the group to follow after him.
"Shazza and Zeke were settlers… that means they did whatever work needed done on a planet right? On the outer planets, or new ones?" Jack asked quietly after everyone walked passed them
"Mmhmm," Riddick grunted looking towards her.
"You think they were miners too?" Jack asked hopefully.
Riddick stopped and looked at the kid for a moment before it clicked. If the couple had been miners they might have lights. "Where'd they get the O2 rigs?" Riddick asked grinning at her. Just barely holding back, if she were a bit older he'd give her a proper kiss for being so smart.
"What is the hold up? This whole suicide mission was your idea?" John asked as he pushed his way back to the two who were just starting to look increasingly happy at each other.
"Shazza and Zeke might have been miners," Jack announced, pride at realizing this rolling off her in waves. "They might have some lighting in their stuff." Jack barely waited before she scurried over to where Jack had seen Shazza get the kits for the rigs. This got the attention of Paris and Imam who quickly came over all of them searching through the boxes near the one Shazza had opened earlier.
Jack made a happy noise as she pulled a couple of light rigs. They looked like a large belt with four lights attached to them. Two, certainly not enough for everyone, but more light was more light. She handed them over to Paris who moved off to set them with their other stash about the time John yelled, "Jackpot!"
He came up with two three lanterns pulling them out one at a time and handing them off to Riddick and Paris. "We can tie these to the sled on top of the cells. Set them on high."
With things looking better, they sorted out the light: a flashlight going to Imam and Paris each, the rigs going to Riddick and Johns, while Jack was just expected to keep up, no light but essentially being given a free ride to safety as she wasn't even expected to help pull much. The torch and booze were for "just in case" and safely stored in a bag to keep them together on the sled. Once everything was turned on full blast they headed out with the sled to get the cells and start for the settlement.
AUTHORS NOTES:
So I've come to terms with the fact that things are moving about as fast as they should be. I've also decided that my second installment of this will actually be a second story, and not have it all just be one long thing. So we have a vision and we know where we're going, so no one worry when this ends in a couple of chapters, it's not done it's just gonna be more than one story. It'll be great. Hopefully yous won't get sick of me in the mean time.
REVIEW REPLIES:
RatedRGirl83: I'm glad you got the alert this time, and that you like the story and the pace. Yeah I've seen older Jack Pitch Black retellings but I wanted to start at the beginning with everyone right where they were before.
Anon: Thank you, it's always good to know there are people reading what I'm writing.
ShadowCrawlerCiel: Thank you ^_^ I'm glad you like it all so much, and that you think I'm doing a good job with Jack. I'm not always the best at writing kids, and trying to keep Jack a well "balanced" 13 year old isn't the easiest. Thank you so much again.
Drix: A couple days later but here's the next chapter. I'm glad you like it so much. I wanted to try my hand at this and I was never much of a fan of Fry x.x
LiasonFan2: I'm glad you like it, and you do have a point, you can't spend forever on one night on a planet.
magickaleyez: I'm glad you like my Riddick, and my version of Pitch Black, it's encouraging.
