Recap: She was more hopping after them then limping.
Not soon after the group slowed down to a walk. Luna was happy for this because all the hopping after them had made her tired.
She held the cables around her body tightly in her hands. The thought of the light going out was not something she would enjoy. She was sure of it.
She glanced over at Jack and noticed with worry that he began to get more and more paranoid. The boy was whirling around at every sound he heard while his hold on his cable was like a vice-grip.
All of a sudden Paris's torch went out.
Gasping at the sudden lack of extra light, he stared at it with increased anxiety. Creatures whooped around them, making everyone look around. "Stay close," ordered Imam as the group stopped for a moment.
They then all turned and started running again. Paris quickly walked closer to the sled and grabbed another light from a small box on it. Unfortunately due to a rock the sled went over, another light fell out of the box and onto the ground. It rolled just out of the light barrier.
Jack noticed and quickly pulled his cables over his head. "Wait." he said and went for it.
"Jack!" cried Fry and Luna at the same time but Luna took also the moment and pulled her own cables off of her body and went after him.
Just then a bioraptor screeched loudly nearby and Luna knew what was going to happen.
She tried to limp faster but her foot suddenly gave away and with a yelp she fell to the ground.
Johns shot at where he heard a creature wailing while at the same time Suleiman shouted something in Arabic.
Imam took this chance and ripped off his own cables and dove for Jack, pulling him to the side just when the creature struck.
"Jack!" cried Fry again and went for him.
Luna also wanted to go over to Jack but knew she was as much a target as Jack was. Her wounds made her probably an even bigger target than the boy.
Johns fired another shot and whirled around, ready to fire another shot and almost shot Fry who gasped in surprise. The two stared at each other for a moment before the woman quickly crawled on hands and feet towards Jack.
Luna tried to stand up in the meantime. Paris was standing frozen in fear, hyperventilating, when one of the creatures came swooping down on him and knocked him over.
Luna had just stood up when she saw it happen. "Paris!" she cried and hopped on one leg quickly to where Paris had fallen.
Johns shot at the creature as fast as possible, trying to hit it but failed.
Luna passed by Blade who grabbed her arm, halting her in her tracks. Her eyes snapped to him and he frowned at her. "Leave him. It's too late," he told her in a dark tone.
She frowned and clenched her fists. She knew he was right but she still wanted to try.
"Not true! I can still try!" she told him and jerked at her arm, but Blade didn't release his grip. In fact, he only tightened it.
"Let me go!" she ordered. "It's too late. Look!" he barked and placed himself behind her and grabbed her other arm. "Look!" he barked and she reluctantly turned her sight to where Paris was crawling.
"This can't be happening! This can't be happening! This can't be happening!" chanted Paris.
"Paris!" screamed Fry "Get back here!" she cried but Paris didn't hear her.
Luna jerked her arms before she used her foot and stomped on Blade's boot, but he didn't feel it. "Let go!" she ordered but her words lost their strength the further Paris crawled away. She knew what was to come but didn't want to see it.
Blade grunted and merely tightened his grip on her arms to the point of almost bruising.
Suddenly the cables got pulled further than they could stretch and the battery was pulled out of its place with a jolt of lightning.
Everyone's eyes flew to the thing. Fry and Suleiman immediately flew towards the battery but couldn't grab it as it was pulled out completely and everything was covered in darkness.
Luna couldn't stop the whimper that flew from her lips. The silence that followed was deafening. Tensing in his grip, she unconsciously pushed her body closer against his. The memories of the hole came to her mind, how the bioraptors almost caught her and hurt her arm and ankle.
Blade tensed when he felt her leaning closer to him. A part of him wanted to push her away. She was only another survivor and even then more of a liability than any of the other survivors.
But another part of him, a smaller, darker part of him, wanted to hold her close and keep her safe. The moment he felt the second part, he viciously stomped it down and with a growl pushed her away.
The warmth she had given off was instantly missed, but he roughly shook the feeling away and walked over to Riddick. Leaving a confused woman behind.
Riddick was crouched down and playing with his shiv again, as he watched how Paris got cut in the back and surrounded by bioraptors.
He glanced over at Blade when his comrade in arms came over with an annoyed look on his face.
"What's up with that look on yer face?" demanded the man when he saw the look. Blade growled and crossed his arms over his chest. "Getting too close." he grunted, to which Riddick hummed in return.
He knew what he was talking about. He had the same problem.
Meanwhile Luna was staring over at where she last saw Paris and suddenly saw a small flame light up a few feet further from where she was staring.
"Paris." she whispered sadly, knowing it was a lost cause.
With a final flash of a flame, he was gone. Luna gasped when she saw a lot of bioraptors surround Paris in that burst of light.
Hot tears gathered in her eyes when the light died out. She may have not liked Paris but nobody deserved to die like that.
'Except maybe Johns. That guy deserves every bit of pain,' she thought bitterly and then turned to the group.
Suddenly Johns lit up a flare making her blink in surprise.
She watched how Suleiman and Imam pulled the stacks of clothing out of the sled and tied them to the sled with the end of the rope, making sure there was some distance between the sled and the stacks. Johns then walked over and lit them on fire.
Instantly there was more light around them even though they gave off a lot of smoke, too. Luna heard a bioraptor hiss behind her and whirled around. Just in time she saw the tail of a bioraptor disappear in the darkness and shuddered at the sight.
She quickly turned and limped over to the sled and pulled one of the bottles of alcohol from the sled and lit the tuft of rope that stuck out of the top on fire.
Luna helped Jack light his bottle while Johns did the same for Imam's and Fry's bottles.
Blade and Riddick took this moment to walk back closer to the group again.
Luna chanced a glance at Blade. She silently wondered what it was that had made him let go of her so suddenly. One moment he had held her in his arms, even if it was just to hold her back, and the next moment he pushed her away as if she carried a disease.
Her eyes then fell down to the ground and she sighed. "Well, it's good to see you two are okay," mocked Johns, while he watched the two men come to a halt.
Riddick and Blade said nothing and turned their gazes to where Paris was. Luna looked at Blade questioningly. "You can really see in the dark?" she asked softly, unable to contain her curiosity. Blade and Riddick glanced over at her before they noticed she was looking at Blade and Riddick turned his gaze back to the creatures that were devouring Paris.
He grunted and turned back to where Paris was being devoured. She was a little put off by his lack of answer but let it drop.
Fry came over to stand right behind Blade and Riddick. "Do I even wanna know?" she asked with a small frown. Luna glanced over at her and she could've sworn she saw Fry's eyes glance down at Riddick's ass for a moment.
'Where her eyes just…? Was she really…? Nah.' She thought the last part with a shake of her head, thinking she imagined it.
Riddick and Blade gazed at the scene for a long moment before they both glanced over at Jack and stared at him. Luna, standing right next to the boy, frowned and stepped slowly closer to him.
Both men snapped their gazes to her and she blinked at the sudden attention before glancing to the side. Their gazes were unnerving. Something about their gaze felt… dominating.
Johns and Imam picked up the cables and pulled the sled again while Blade and Riddick started walking again. The rest followed after them and Jack stepped back to stand next to Luna and smiled at her. "Need help?" he asked making her smile back.
"Sure." She replied and wrapped her arm around the boy's shoulders and started walking/limping.
After a while of walking, Jack looked briefly at Fry. "Are we getting close?" asked Jack softly to her. Fry frowned and glanced down at the sled for a moment before looking back up at the men before her.
"Can we pick up the pace?" she asked loudly, which Johns took as his cue and threw his cable down in anger. Everyone stopped and looked down at the ground.
Luna looked down also and saw what they saw. 'We crossed our own tracks,' she thought while her eyes widened 'That means hell's gonna break loose any moment now!' she thought with a frown.
Suleiman said something in Arabic.
Luna looked over towards Riddick and Blade and saw them both crouched down next to one another. A random thought flew through her head. 'They really are close to one another,' she thought.
Her line of thought was broken when Johns stomped over to them and glared down at them. "Want to tell me what the hell's going on?" demanded the merc angrily.
"We crossed our own tracks." Fry told Jack.
Luna frowned, knowing what was going to happen in the next couple of minutes.
"Why have we circled? Are we lost?" asked Imam sounding slightly annoyed.
"Listen," rumbled Riddick softly. "And be quiet," growled Blade afterwards.
"Do you two even know where we are?" demanded Imam, sounding angry now. Luna blinked and stared at him.
In the movies he sounds only annoyed but now that I hear him say that in real life… he really is a bit angry with Riddick and Blade.' she thought slightly amused that the holy man could become angry.
"Listen!" barked Riddick loudly suddenly while he and Blade jerked back up.
Everyone grew quiet at the command and did as told.
For a moment nobody spoke. "Canyon ahead. I circled once to buy us some time to think." explained Riddick curtly.
"I think we should go now," suggested Imam, sounding still slightly miffed.
Luna smiled at his words. "Oh, I don't know 'bout that. That's death row up there. Especially with the girl bleeding," said Riddick calmly, while nodding his head in the direction of the canyon.
Luna silently mouthed his words when he said that. She knew exactly what he was going to say.
Her smile quickly fell though. 'And now comes the harsh part.' she thought grimly. Silently she stepped closer to Jack.
Johns glanced over at Fry and then at Luna before he turned his gaze back to Riddick. "What the hell are you talkin' about? She's not cut," he motioned towards Fry "And her cuts have long since stopped bleeding." he said annoyed when he glanced at Luna's wounds.
Luna stiffened slightly and tried inconspicuously to step closer to Jack.
She knew that Jack's secret was about to be revealed, so she made sure she stood next to him when it happened.
"Not her... her." said Riddick with a slight mocking tone. Everyone turned to Jack, who paled as tears gathered and fell from her eyes.
"Je-!" started Fry but was cut off by Luna who stepped in front of Jack.
"I asked her to do that." she told them, while staring Fry straight in the eye. Fry blinked in surprise before she frowned. "Why? Jesus, Luna! What were you thinking?" demanded the woman, aggravated while clawing a hand through her hair.
Luna kept her calm "When we crashed on this planet I wasn't sure if I could trust any of you, so when I noticed her, I quickly told her to hide her gender from all of you. And with good reason. If Derek found out that Jack was a girl, it wouldn't have been me who would've been almost raped," she told them and Fry's eyes widened along with Imam's eyes.
Fry didn't know if she should be angry with Luna or thankful. Sighing, she once again raked her hand through her hair. "Nevertheless you should've told at least one of us." she told her which made Luna glare at her.
"And what were you gonna do then, huh? If you had known you probably would've accidentally slipped up by calling him a her instead." she told her, hoping secretly that this would keep the others off her back. Truth be told, she found no real reason as to why she didn't tell them.
Jack whimpered softly behind her making her glance at her. Tears were silently streaming down the girl's face. She sighed deeply and wrapped an arm comfortingly around Jack's shoulders. "It's okay, Jack. They aren't gonna leave you behind." she whispered soothingly to her.
Jack sniffled. "How can you be so sure? For all you know they could leave me behind a rock and travel further without me." she retorted. Luna frowned and squeezed Jack's shoulder.
"They wouldn't leave you, Jack. After all, they didn't leave me behind when they have every reason to because of my bad leg." she said softly to her and Jack looked up at her face as hope flickered in her eyes.
Fry came also over and stood on the other side of Jack. "It's gonna be okay, honey. Are you really bleeding?" she asked softly and Jack nodded feebly.
Fry sighed deeply and stepped away from Jack. "Look, this is not gonna work." she told them and after a moment of silence; "We're gonna have to go back." she said exasperated.
Johns tensed at those words and slowly looked over at her, disbelief was clear on his face. "What'd you say?" he asked softly, his voice holding a dangerous tone to it.
"You're the one who got us out here in the first place and tried to get us…" started Johns while pointing at her.
"I was wrong. I admit it. Okay, can we just go back to the ship?" cut Fry in.
Johns glared at her. "I don't know, Carolyn. Nice breeze… wide-open space, I'm starting to enjoy my fucking self." said Johns in a scathing tone.
"What, are you high again? Just listen to yourself, Johns." said Fry
"No, no, you're right Carolyn. What's to be afraid of? My life is just a steaming pile of meaningless shit anyhow!" demanded Johns, his voice grew louder with each word.
He then pointed to Jack. "So I say mush on. The canyon's only a couple hundred meters, after that it's skiff city. So why don't you butch up, stuff a cork in the fucking kid, and let's go," he ordered, which made Jack whimper. Luna glared harshly at him and opened her mouth to say something but Imam interrupted her.
"She is the captain. We should listen to her." said the holy man loudly while he came to stand next to Fry. Johns narrowed his eyes at him.
"Listen to her?" he asked and turned his gaze to Fry, a deriding look on his face "When she was so willing to sacrifice us all." he continued mockingly.
"What's he talking about?" asked Jack confused "This does not help us..."
"During the crash she tried to blow the whole passenger cabin. Tried to kill us in our sleep!" interrupted Johns loudly which made Imam turn his head to Fry.
At the same time Blade and Riddick were calmly watching the group. They were slightly amused by the whole happening.
"Shut your mouth!" cried Fry and Luna grew angrier and angrier with each word.
"We're fucking disposable. We're just walking ghosts to you." spat Johns, interrupting rudely.
Luna clenched her fists. "Why don't you shut the fuck up, Johns!" she cried all of a sudden, cutting him and Fry off from their argument. They both turned to her, Fry looked surprised and Johns furious.
"What…" he started but she interrupted him before he could say another word.
"We get it. We're all scared, but unlike you we aren't trying to cover up that fact by putting the blame on someone else." she told him and took a deep breath. "I know what Fry did was wrong, but anyone would've done the exact same thing in her place. Even you, Johns." she spat. "So stop trying to make yourself look like a fucking saint because I bet you've done much worse than any of us." she finished with a sneer. Unconsciously she reprimanded herself for revealing that.
Johns glared darkly at her. "What do you know of it, Luna?" he argued to which she gave him a cold smile "Trust me, I know a lot more than you'd like me to, Johns." she told him, her eyes glittered with hidden animosity.
He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists while glaring angrily at her. She returned the favor before Imam stepped in. "Alright. That is enough. You both made your point, now can we please continue our journey." he asked agitated.
Fry looked down, a guilty look clear on her face. Jack looked at Fry for a moment but her attention was drawn to Luna who limped over to her.
"Come on, I still need a crutch here." she joked softly, making Jack give her a watery smile.
The rest of the group gathered themselves again and Johns stormed off further in the dark, lighting a flare as he walked.
Blade and Riddick watched him go, both showing no emotion whatsoever to the whole drama.
Imam and Suleiman grabbed the cables and started pulling the sled. Fry followed quietly, guilt written all over her face.
Luna knew what was going to happen next. Johns would talk to Riddick about killing Jack. Her hand unconsciously tightened around Jack's shoulder.
She watched as Johns waited around bend, the light of his flare gave him away. When Blade and Riddick came around, she noticed the light moving again.
'Okay, Johns is going to talk to Riddick and Blade about ghosting Jack. After that, it will be only a few more minutes before he dies… I hope.' she thought silently.
Blade and Riddick came around the bend and saw Johns waiting for them. The light of the flare was too bright and Riddick shielded his eyes from it. Noticing the gesture, Johns pulled the light out of sight a bit and started walking with them.
"Ain't all of us gonna make it," stated the merc calmly, having calmed down from the argument moments ago.
"Just realize that?" questioned Riddick slightly mocking.
"'S not hard to figure it out." commented Johns, ignoring the slight jibe.
"Only eight of us left." pointed Blade out.
"If we can make it through the canyon and lose just one that'd be quite a feat, huh?" said Johns as he and the two convicts calmly ambled forwards.
"Not if we're the ones." said Riddick calmly while he glanced towards Blade, sharing a look.
"Well, what if you're one of seven?" asked Johns casually, as if they were talking about the weather. The flapping of wings nearby along with whooping made him flinch and whirl his head around and he halted in his tracks. Riddick and Blade also glanced over at the sound but unlike Johns, they saw the creature. It seemed to have sensed the hostility and had landed just out of sight and out of the light.
"We're listening," said Blade, slightly interested. Johns looked back to them before starting to walk again.
Luna noticed that the space between them and the trio further ahead was bigger then before.
"What are they doing up there?" asked Jack uneasily, not trusting them talking alone. Luna bit her tongue to keep herself from telling the truth.
"They're talking about the canyon I suppose." commented Imam calmly "How to get us through." he told her.
Luna couldn't stop the scoff from escaping her mouth. Jack heard and looked over at her.
"What? What is it?" she asked jittery.
Luna mentally cursed herself but on the outside tried to smile, which turned out into a grimace. "I'm pretty sure what they're talking about is not the canyon." she told her slowly and reluctantly. Imam and Fry glanced over at her.
"What do you mean?" asked Fry and Luna winced. She tried to think of something but came up with nothing.
"Well… Riddick and Blade are both wanted m-criminals." she started but almost slipped up on the last word, wanting to say murderers instead. "And I don't know about you, but I haven't found a reason yet to trust Johns. Especially after what happened around the hole." she spoke the first words carefully, minding what she said next but the last part she muttered softly.
Jack heard though. "You mean the part where they pushed you into the pit?" she asked curiously and Luna mentally cursed herself again.
'Should've kept my mouth shut, but nooo, I just had to open it, didn't I?' she thought annoyed and mentally kicked herself for it.
She was about to lie, but decided against it. "No… before that." she sighed deeply, which caught Fry and Imam's attention. "When I went back into the ship after Fry left… Johns came looking for me." she told them and gritted her teeth in anger at the remembrance of the conversation.
Fry frowned deeper. "What did he do, Luna?" she asked, slightly dreading the answer as she slowed down a bit so that she was walking next to her.
Luna gave a forced smile. "He came to tell me to go down the hole…. Or else he would send the kids down there," she said the last part reluctantly. Although she hated Johns that didn't mean she enjoyed playing snitch on him. She was not so enthused about snitching. It always brought more trouble than it did good.
Fry, Imam and Jack flinched while Suleiman asked something in Arabic. Imam answered him back in the same language before he glanced over at her. "Is what you say true, my child? Did he really said that?" he asked with a deep frown.
Luna sighed deeply and nodded. "Yeah, he and Derek threatened me that if I weren't to go down that hole then they would send one of the kids down there." she told them and looked down at the ground. Though it was like a weight had lifted from her shoulders, she was at the same time not so happy about telling. She felt slightly guilty at telling them.
"That bastard." growled Fry "And then he dares to talk me of murder." she hissed and clenched her fists. Luna glanced over at her and saw her squaring her shoulder and started walking faster.
Anticipating what she would do, she quickly grabbed Fry's arm. "Don't!" she said quietly.
Fry glanced down at the hand on her arm and then at Luna's face, the frown on her face deepening. "Why not? That asshole needs to be taught a lesson." she growled angrily but Luna shook her head. "No, leave him. He'll just somehow turn our words against us." she told her quickly, hoping the lie would work.
The real reason was that she knew Johns would die any moment now and she was afraid that another argument would stop Riddick from killing him.