Title: Jack B. Badd Part Three: A Day Without Rain
Author: Daryn
Fandom: Pitch Black
Pairing: Jack/Riddick (eventually)
Rating: PG-13 for a few curse words
Email: dmunster@hotmail.com
Series/Sequel: This is part three in the saga of Jack
Web Page: http://ddraven.tripod.com/pitchblack/
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, but damn I wish I did.
Warnings: Jack is a boy. Read 'Disclaimers' page for more info
Notes: Jack's POV. This is the story of Jack's life with emphasis on his experiences on the planet in Pitch Black. There is no sex, yet. Eventually Jack and Riddick will get groovy though.
Summary: Years later Jack narrates his memories from the Planet from Fry's confrontation with Riddick through the decision to run for the skiff.
Beta Credit: Colin and Cait. *hugs*
The others began to discuss logistics. What would we do?
They decided that we should go to the settlement that the search party had found and we would take a power cell and check out the skiff they found there.
"We may need Riddick's help," Johns looked at Fry.
"What?"
"Look, I'll make him a deal and he won't be a danger. We don't need him another liability here."
Fry looked at Johns for a moment. Neither spoke.
Fry eventually said, "If you can get him to agree on helping us and guarantee everyone here's safety then go ahead." Oh be still my poor adolescent heart.
Johns headed in. I slipped away a little later to spy. I wanted to see what would happen.
As I put my face up to the opening, I could see Riddick from a distance and the back of Johns' head. "I'm tired of chasing you," Johns was saying.
Riddick's voice was too low to hear, I picked up something Johns said about Riddick dying in the crash. Then I couldn't believe my ears. Riddick said, "My recommendation -- do me." My eyes stretched wide and I almost gasped before I realized that he meant that Johns should kill him.
"JACK?" I heard Shazza and slowly backed away.
I hopped down. "Stop doing that," she said stiffly and I sheepishly apologized as we rejoined the group.
"Fry?" I ventured. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just give me a minute..." I backed off. I stared out at the hills where Zeke had died.
I turned around to see Riddick storm out of the ship. Holy shit, I thought, did he kill Johns? But Johns was hot on his heels (so to speak).
"Ok. Here we go," Johns said simply.
Everyone got busy grabbing gear. I took the opportunity to hop over to the other compartment and grab myself a tampon.
I was throwing random things into a pack when I noticed some goggles. They were white, one of the lenses was broken, and so was the strap but I scrounged up a roll of black tape. I fixed them up and pulled them down over my eyes.
I felt a little amused at my own childish attempt to be more like Riddick. Oh well, who was it going to hurt, after all?
I slung my boomerang under the back of my pack and waited with the others. Paris took a little longer. He was picking up more booze.
As we headed off in the direction that the others had followed when they set out earlier, I toyed with the idea of hanging back a bit to be nearer to Riddick but decided that I shouldn't risk anyone's wrath or possibly hurting Shazza.
I walked behind Shazza and Johns instead.
"He's one of us now?" Shazza asked. he sounded more than a little skeptical and cynical but I could sense a real question in her voice. "Well, are least this way I won't have to worry about all you," Johns replied.
I quickened my step and ask, eagerly, "So can I talk to him now?" I received emphatic "No"s all around.
I glanced back a few times to watch Riddick dragging the power cell. It occurred to me that Johns and Riddick had a very S/M type of relationship going. Of course at the time I didn't quite have the words to describe that observation, I just felt it and it made me... something like happy and horny only different.
We passed through a canyon and into the deserted settlement. Fry pointed to the ship they had found. It really was just a skiff -- but it was as glorious as a interstellar battle cruiser to me. I got excited and ran in.
I looked around, wishing that I knew how to run a ship. I figured that once it got off the ground I could probably ask Fry some questions about it.
As I walked out Shazza was saying, "Well, it's not a star jumper." "Doesn't need to be." Riddick stood jauntily by, with his hands behind his back. He was talking about the ship and getting off that planet and all I could do was stare at him.
It was no wonder that chains couldn't hold him for long. I noted with no small amount of cynicism that Riddick's tits were probably bigger than mine.
"Ain't that right, captain?" Riddick was smirking. Fry ignored him. "Can I have a little help here?" On reflex I bent to help but they had it under control.
Riddick sidled over but Johns stopped him. "Whoa, do my a favor..." I don't know what he asked him but I skipped off. I was getting too hot under the collar, being so close to Riddick.
I went into one of the houses and poked around. Whoever lived there left just about everything from the look of it. I found a shaver.
After two seconds thought I did it -- in a frenzy I shaved all my hair off right there (well, in the sink and watching my progress in the mirror).
I told myself that it was just a smart thing to do: keep my head cool, be more boyish and all that. Deep down of course I know it was because I wanted to be like Riddick so badly. Or maybe I wanted to make it look that way to make him like me. Flattery and all that, like with the goggles.
I don't know. Pick your own reason. But in any case, I did it. And I've never regretted it since.
I stepped back from the mirror and looked at myself. I grinned. I turned around to see the smallest of Imam's boys, Ali, standing there. I grinned at him and beckoned for him to come with me.
Who knows what he was thinking. Since we didn't speak the same language we could choose our own meanings for the game we played. I was imagining that Ali was my little brother and that I was like Peter, looking out for him, and that we would have to watch Riddick so that we could learn how to survive by following what he did.
We found a vantage point. I put on my goggles and we watched Riddick walk through the compound. He stopped short in front of the last building.
"Let's go," I whispered to Ali. This was fun and it was good to forget about the bigger problems by losing myself in this game. We snuck around and I hid under a tarp which hid the top of the building that Riddick had paused in front of.
I didn't notice where Ali had gone off to. I peeked out and saw Riddick squatted on the ground, looking at something.
I backed away when he stood up and walked toward the building. He was just pulling on the tarp and I was holding my breath when I heard a whistle and Johns call out "You're missing the party. Come on, boy."
I let my breath out but immediately gasped it back in as the tarp was yanked away and I was staring into Riddick's goggles.
"You're missing the party, come on," he said to me, completely deadpan, in a voice that half-spoofed Johns. And he walked away.
"Oh man," I sighed. I stood up and watched Riddick's back. I wanted to bounce around and release some of my nervous energy. Instead, I leapt off the roof and followed him.
I hopped up into the house where everyone was hanging around a table full of glasses with water. One of my worries shrank away: they had gotten the water contraption working.
I pulled up my goggles and lifted a glass, coming face to face with Paris. He stared at me. I looked around and saw that everyone was staring at me.
I felt giddy I think: happy to be noticed but also defensive of my own excuses for the haircut. So I retorted with the classic "What?" Paris said, "It's the winner of the lookalike contest." I smirked, took my glass, and sat down to listen to the others talk.
Shazza said the people who lived there were probably geologists. "But why'd they leave their stuff here?" Fry pointed out.
"There people didn't leave," Riddick showed up in the doorway, fussing with his goggles, "Whoever got Zeke got them. They're all dead."
The others protested but Riddick said, "I know you don't prep your emergency ship unless there's a fucking emergency." I liked the way Riddick was standing up to them. "He's fucking right," I threw in, just for kicks.
Johns told me to watch my mouth. Hmmm, I thought, I'd like to watch my mouth and Riddick's mouth... Concentrate Jack!
At this point Imam realized that Ali was missing and we were off to check the coring room.
As we approached the coring room (which turned out to be the building on whose roof Riddick had surprised me) I was feeling scared and more than a little responsible. I got really scared when we heard Ali scream.
Johns shot the door in. I couldn't believe that I hadn't been looking out for Ali. I damned myself for being so infatuated with Riddick that I had forgotten about my little game. And as the realization that encouraging Ali in our game I had probably caused his death, I lunged forward, after Johns, but Fry pulled me back and told me to wait.
When that huge cloud of flying things appeared we all jumped back. I was frozen with fear. Imam was in there now too and I hated to think of what I might have caused.
Too many things were happening too fast. I wanted a time out. I wanted a break. I couldn't look as they took Ali's body away. I just stood in the doorway while Riddick, Johns, Fry and Shazza looked around the coring room.
They finally boarded it up and went back to the house with the planet model thing. Riddick had the oxy pak that I had seen Shazza trying to give him. I was vaguely glad to see that they had sort of made up.
I sat for a while and looked around me. I wondered if there had been kids in this place. I wondered about their lives. I just sat and spaced out for a while until Johns and Fry left the house and headed for the ship.
I hopped up then and almost bumped into Riddick as he stepped out the door.
"Hey," he said. "Yeah," I gulped. "Know where a guy can get some shaving apparatus in this dump?" he grinned at me and I swear he winked under his goggles.
I slid my own goggles down. "Hell yeah."
I dashed off and rustled up some shave gel and paste that had gone a bit sour (but I didn't think Riddick would complain), a bucket, and a shiv. I knew Riddick probably wasn't supposed to have one but my gut was saying to do it.
Besides, I just didn't see Riddick using the shaver and maybe if I handed him the shiv he'd assume that I had used it to do my head. Oh what I wasn't willing to do to come across as tough...
I ran up and presented my findings. "Thanks." Riddick sat down and set to shaving his head. I sat down in the shade of the ship to watch. Johns came out of the ship and retched a bit. I just watched Riddick and wondered if Ali was in heaven or what and if there even was a heaven.
When Riddick had finished he tossed me the bucket: "You should probably go lay down or something." I walked off toward the house where I had found the shaver with the vague plan of laying down there after throwing the bucket into the waste bin.
I saw Imam praying with his other two boys and I walked over there instead, wondering if they would be offended if I joined them. Imam indicated for me to join them.
I didn't pray. I just say there with them, my goggles down, and took comfort in their presence. After a while I felt better and I looked up. Imam looked up too and saw what I saw -- but he understood what it meant and I did not. Not then anyway.
He told his boys something in Arabic and they took off running. "What is that?" I asked him. "There is an eclipse coming." I shivered. No. This just kept getting better and better.
We walked back. Everyone stood and looked at the moving planet on the horizon. "We'd better get the stuff from the crash ship," Shazza pointed out, "The sandcat is solar." I climbed on the sandcat.
"Where's Riddick?" I yelled, ready to panic if he didn't show up. But just then he leaped down onto the cat.
As we sped along I stood opposite Riddick and pulled down my goggles, trying to be as unsubtle as possible in my message of 'hey, I'm trying to be like you'. He just stared at me, perhaps the corner of his mouth twitched a little, and made a slight movement with his fingers.
I looked, and dropped just in time to avoid being killed by one of those giant skeletons we had passed under in the canyon. He's looking out for me, I thought.
That was only one of many thoughts which floated through my head as the sandcat made its noisy way through the desert.
We reached the crash ship at last and I jumped to the ground. I didn't see anything for me to do as the others ran around like crazy people.
Then as I turned, I was facing the eclipse. I felt so small and insignificant, all my fears and worries threatened to possess me at once. I ran back and started frantically wiping the sandcats's solar caps -- anything to help our chances of getting back. Anything to keep my mind from the prison of despair.
Anything to keep from breaking down.
The cells were loaded. But the sandcat died.
As the last ray of light was intercepted by that planet (and damn it was moving so fast, it defied all logic) and the purr of the motor came to a halt my stomach turned and a sour taste filled the back of my mouth.
I swallowed back the fear as the noise began. It was the first time I heard it and I will never forget it or the powerful message of human insufficiency that it belied.
I still have nightmares about that noise. I can't even describe it without getting chills.
Next thing I knew, Paris was yelling for us to flee. And flee we did. I sprinted to where Paris stood in the storage section, apart from the ship. Only when I reached the doorway, feeling for all the world like a child caught in a deadly game of tag who has just touched the 'safe' marker but knows that it doesn't mean much, did I dare to turn and look back.
I can't describe the sight of all those things flying through the twilight. Nothing in the vids had prepared me for this sight. I tore my gaze from the sky to where Shazza and Riddick were, still running. And the creatures were gaining. They each leapt down the hill and the things flew RIGHT over them.
I crossed my fingers and toes. Those were the things that had gotten Ali, those were the things that had gotten Zeke. Their passing was followed by a moment of silence like the silence after the crash only with the promise of return.
Shazza got up. No! Fry yelled "Get down!" They were coming back. "No, stay there!" I heard myself shouting. I struggled, I could feel Paris holding me back.
"Just stay down Shazza," my shout turned to a scream. I couldn't take it. Not again. Not Shazza.
As her body was lifted away, I went limp. Would I cry? Not yet. I focused for a moment on Riddick. Be like Riddick, I told myself. Just shrug it off and survive. There was nothing you could do. Don't cry.
Paris was the only thing keeping me from collapsing back against the side of the ship. The tears were threatening to fall. I barely felt Paris steer me inside. I needed hope and I wasn't seeing any. What was to keep those things from getting all of us?
I decided that this was the point at which I would just have to throw my life into the hands of these adults -- for better or worse.
We were in the storage hold now. I figured if I talked it would be easier to avoid crying: "If she'd only stayed down she'd be Ok," the tears were at bay, "She wouldn't have died."
Vocalizing my pain helped it to ease back, I could distance myself from it.
"Remember the boneyard?" Johns asked, "These are probably the fuckers that killed everything on this planet." "What are we gunna do now?" I wanted to know. Paris brought up the crucial question, "Are these the only lights we have?" "No, there's the cutting torch," Fry looked around for it.
"Quiet please," Imam and his remaining kids listened at the wall. I did too. What the hell are they, I wondered, and will it hurt if they kill me? "Why do they do that, make that sound?" I asked. Imam suggested, "Maybe it's the way they see."
Suddenly there was a horrible metallic clanking noise.
Oh shit.
"Could be a beach in the hull," Fry ventured. Riddick was closest to the noise. "Johns, you got the big gauge," Riddick said suggestively. "I'd rather piss glass. Why don't you go fucking check?" came Johns' caustic answer.
Imam opened another door or something -- I was pretty disoriented. We all filed into a smaller room. Imam locked the door behind us. Fry patted my shoulder. I guess it can be good to be the runty kid cuz I sure appreciated the physical comfort.
Suddenly something stabbed through the door right next to Imam. We scampered away. I was breathing fast. Riddick lit the cutting torch from Paris' lighter and began to burn us an escape route. I think. Johns was just shooting. I remember thinking 'let it be over, let it be over.'
We crawled through the hole after Riddick. I wanted so badly for him to hold me and just tell me it was all going to be Ok. Just let Riddick live to do that, I thought.
Maybe it was a prayer. I guess it was. I kept back with Imam and one of the other kids.
Riddick had gone to check around I think. Johns and Fry headed in that direction too. "Riddick?" Fry called out. "Don't stop burning," came the slow, deliberate answer. Oh shit, I thought. Imam suddenly asked where his other boy was.
OH SHIT.
What happened next was just a confusing jumble of flashes. Riddick came running and got a face full of handlight and Johns shot one of those monsters down. I watched and let it happen around me.
Oh shit, I thought again, without much feeling.
I leaned in with the others to look at the scalding carcass. No, it was only scalded where the light touched it. "Light hurts them," Fry said. Thank you, captain obvious.
"Let's get out of here," Johns said. Good idea.
We sat around our light inventory. "Maybe we have enough light," Fry said. "Enough for what?" Johns spit. "We get the cells back to the skiff," Fry came back.
Made sense, in a way, I figured. But... "You mean tonight? With all those things out there?" I asked. No use not showing my fear now.
Johns asked my other questions. "How long can this last?" Yeah, I thought, maybe it'll be over soon. "I'm sure someone else said that," Fry replied. Of course. I realized then that we couldn't stake our lives on the possibility of it letting up.
"What about the kid?" said Johns, pointing at me, "How scared's this boy gunna be out there?" Good point, I thought, but... "Don't use him like that," Fry retorted. Yeah, I may have been scared be we had to get out of there.
"Shut up," Johns was so stupid. "How much do you weight Johns?" Fry asked coldly. "About 79 kilos. Why?" "Cuz you're 79 kilos of gutless white meat." Ooooo. You go Fry. But Johns didn't think so.
He rushed forward with his gun. But that gun ended up pointed at Riddick's head as he stepped between them. Riddick slowly pulled up his goggles and looked at Johns.
I looked down to see Riddick's shiv tapping John's thigh, right on his crotch.
Dammit, Johns was going to get us all killed or kill us himself. This was getting so terribly Lord of the Flies (I saw that vid with my carefather and Peter and I was trying so hard to keep it out of my mind at this point).
Fry chose this moment to baby me a bit. I didn't mind, I was grateful really. "They're afraid of our light," she put her arm around me, "So we don't have to be afraid of them." Like hell, I thought. But it made me feel better.
I could put my life in other people's hands and they would take care of me. I was important to them (or at least to Fry). I could at least fake myself into feeling kind of safe.
"And you can get us there?" Imam looked at Fry expectantly.
She stood up.
"No. I can't. But he can," she pointed at Riddick.