Notes: Review, Review! I may revise Chapters 1 and 2 soon. Does anyone
know how to have your file be saved as a word document when you upload but
still keep ellipses (.)? I can't figure it out and I don't like how saving
as html gives you enormous spaces in between. Nobody replied last
time.Riddick POV? Want one?
Chapter 7
Alex gathered her wits and went over to her case. She'd been able to pull off the bluff. It had worked before with someone who had tried to mess with the case, but it was a gamble trying to do that with Riddick. There was no "poisonous gas", just a voiceprint identification after anything was wrong with the thumbprint. The voiceprint wasn't all that hard to hardwire, either. It seemed that he had almost hardwired the thumbprint, so she just pressed the inconspicuous button on the side, and said her name and the command.
"Bennet, Alexandra. Open." The case slowly opened, revealing the remainder of her possessions. She couldn't take any more knives with her, as that would be too much, but she did take a few of the most expensive things. That really had been a lot of money after all the years. Nightshades, "sun"glasses that really had sophisticated nightvision technology which could be used at the push of a button. She hadn't wanted to bring them out before, but definitely didn't want to leave them behind. They had been very useful on the last planet, when she was only out at night, and definitely allowed her to move about with more confidence. Now they might just be only sunglasses. She also took her small kit for cleaning the blades, a handheld computer with her identification info, and a miniscule first aid kit. All of it fit into the pockets in her black vest without looking like anything had been added.
For a moment, she considered her attire. All black-not the wisest choice for constant sun, as she was finding out, especially the long sleeves. But those long sleeves concealed the dagger she had recently flipped out at her wrist. Tricky. The only person she really needed to hide it from already knew it was there. With a sigh, she ripped off the sleeves, revealing pale but toned arms. Around the upper part of her bicep on her right arm was the only luxury she had permitted herself, a thin silver armband which she had seen in a shop somewhere. It never came off, and was always underneath her clothes. It amused her, and also had a function. The disc design, no larger than an inch in diameter, depicted one of the old Chinese characters which meant "flame." Alex bought it because it was pretty, and eerily appropriate. But underneath the disc was an emergency chip that contained the account information where she had the majority of her leftover money held, which could not be traced to her if people looked up Alexandra Bennet. By number only, she was prepared in case something happened. It never hurt to be suspicious, better safe than sorry.
She sighed in appreciation, for she was much cooler, and the lightweight and slim vest was no longer as hot as it had seemed. Her preparations having taken less than ten minutes, she made sure there was nothing too personal in it and then closed the case, and spoke for the voiceprint. "Bennet, Alexandra. Lock."
Alex walked outside and then over to the section where the power cells were, and Shazza tossed her the last miniature oxygen tank. Nodding her thanks, Alex put it on and noticed that they had fixed a rope to the large, heavy power cell and Johns was telling Riddick to pull it. Jack had found some goggles somewhere that looked like the ones Riddick was now wearing, and was looking at the guy with hero-worship in her eyes. Carolyn was the last one to come out of the ship.
"Everyone ready for this?" The rest of them looked grim, but determined. "All right then."
Carolyn led the way towards this settlement the others had found, with the remainder of them following her. Riddick was waiting to be the last in line, and Alex hesitated. Never let an adversary have the advantage of being in your blind spot. However, she felt that for some reason he wasn't going to be a threat, at least not yet. So she was quick to follow Carolyn towards the beginning. She wanted to see this settlement for herself. As she walked, she got out the sunglasses and put them on with relief. After a minute adjustment, the glasses successfully filtered the blue sun's light so that it was much easier to see as they made their way across the dry plain.
The settlement, when they finally reached it, was of a decent size, but looked as if no one had been there in quite some time. The ship though, did not look as bad as Alex had thought when Carolyn first mentioned it. The wings needed patching, and hopefully the power cell would hook up, but other than that.soon they would be off this planet. Imam and his boys went over to the hydroponics setup, saying something about trying to find the water. Riddick brought the power cell over to the open door of the ship, then walked a bit away while the others gathered to survey the ship.
"It's not a star jumper," Shazza said.
"Doesn't need to be," Riddick put in unexpectedly. Everyone looked at him. "Take a two seater like this back up to the Sol-Trec shipping lanes. Stick out a thumb. Bound to get picked up. Ain't that right, Captain?" He said, looking at Johns. Alex wondered exactly how this "escaped convict, murderer" who had introduced himself to Paris earlier knew about shipping lanes.
"Can I have a bit of help here?" Carolyn asked, trying to get the power cell into the ship to hook it up. Jack and Paris helped her carry it in. Riddick went to help, but Johns sent him to look around to find wing- patching material. Jack, after helping Carolyn, went inside one of the buildings to explore.
Alex wandered over to where Imam was just in time to see the well they were clustered around begin to drip water. I'll be damned, she thought, they got it working. She went over there and was able to get a handful of water to drink. Paris pushed her aside and put a container he had found under it to collect some for him and everyone else. While he was doing that, Alex wandered into one of the nearby buildings. This one, like all of them looked, was unlocked.
She took off the glasses and waited a moment to allow her eyes to become adjusted to the dark. Although dusty, it looked like the people who had been there had just disappeared. Everything was left out in the open, as if they'd gone on an outing and were expecting to come back. Not exactly the signature of a group of people who were leaving permanently and taking much of what they had with them. As Alex poked around in some of the shelving units, she saw children's toys, strewn haphazardly, perhaps a quick clean-up job before their mother gave them dinner. She wandered into one of the smaller rooms, which had a bed in it and a quick-fabricated dresser. She pulled out one of the dresser drawers, and coughed as years of dust was released into the air. But the synthetic clothing still remained, neatly folded, as if they were coming back soon. Why hadn't they? What had happened to these people?
Alex went back outside to peer around. One of the larger buildings looked promising, so she went over to it at an angle and started walking around the building to find the entrance. In front of the entrance was Riddick, squatted down and cleaning off a pair of glasses that he had found in the dirt. He didn't see her yet, but got up and tried the doors to the big building. Despite one forceful pull, they wouldn't open. He peered inside for a minute, and then as he turned around, he saw Alex ten feet away.
She couldn't read his expression through those goggles he wore. Well, she might as well talk to him since he was right there, and maybe now he didn't think she was worthless. "Seems like that's the only one that's locked," she said. "One I went into had everything exposed, like they were going to come back and never did." Alex paused, taking in the building. It had heavy doors and walls, and was built more solidly then the rest of the buildings. "None of the other ones are built like this," she mused.
Riddick said nothing, and turned back to face the doors. He held back a piece of canvas to reveal the words "Coring Room." Then, a whistle sounded out from Johns, who had walked over in search of Riddick.
"Missin the party, C'mon boy" Johns said, patting his thigh as if calling a dog.
Alex couldn't help but let out one laugh at his antics. Obviously not smart enough to realize it's not a good idea to antagonize a known killer. Riddick snapped his head to look at her, an angry tense to his body. "Sorry," she said, a wicked smile on her face. She nodded her head to indicate the direction Johns had gone and rolled her eyes. "Idiot."
Riddick, who had still been holding the canvas, let it fall and began to walk off. As the canvas came off of the top of the building, Jack, who had been crouched underneath listening, gave a gasp. Alex's eyebrows rose in surprise. Jack had found a razor somewhere and shaved her head, and still wearing those Riddick look-alike goggles she looked a lot like the real thing. Alex could think of nothing except "and I shall call him Mini-Me!" but restrained her laughter in front of Riddick. It had been a long time since she had laughed.
Jack was frozen with surprise, but Riddick mimicked Johns' southern drawl perfectly and said, "Missin' the party, c'mon," then walked away, a ghost of a smile playing about his lips.
As he left, Jack put her head down in defeat, and muttered, "aw, man!" Obviously she wanted to remain unnoticed.
Alex smiled at her idolization of Riddick. "Come on," she said, and started to walk towards the larger living quarters. A winding noise made her turn around. Apparently, the large globes on the top of the coring room were solar-powered energy sources, and uncovering them started a generator. She filed that away for future notice, to remember what the solar power generators looked like. Alex turned back and walked to the building, then followed Riddick following Johns into the large building.
Everyone else was gathered in there, and someone had found a set of wine glasses that they had poured the water into. Alex went over and picked one up, still amused by Jack. Paris looked at her, surprised by the smile on her face. Alex shook her head, indicating it was nothing.
"All praises to Allah, for his many blessings to us!" said Imam, raising his water as if in a toast. At that, the door slammed and Jack came in, trying to look tough. She took off the goggles and coolly took a glass of water as Johns, Carolyn and everyone else stared at her new "look."
"What?!" she said, and took a sip.
Paris pointed to her smiling, and said, "It's the winner of the look-alike contest."
Alex grinned openly, but placed her fingers to her nose to cover it. She glanced over at Riddick, who revealed nothing, except that the set to his shoulders was relaxed. Those eyes were so hard to read.
As they talked, the predominant theory seemed to be that the people there before were miners or geologists. But Carolyn brought up the question on Alex's mind earlier, asking why they left their ship. As Johns, Paris, and Shazza tried to rationalize it, Riddick interrupted.
"These people didn't leave. Come on. Whatever got Zeke got them. They're all dead." Reminded of Zeke's death, Shazza bowed her head. "You don't really think they left with their clothes on the hooks, photos on the shelves?" He was right. Alex knew he was right. She was pretty sure Carolyn did too. The rest of them just hadn't resigned themselves to the truth yet.
"Maybe they had weight limits," Shazza offered, "You don't know."
"I know you don't prep your emergency ship unless there's a fucking emergency," Riddick answered.
"He's fuckin right," Jack added.
"Watch your mouth," Johns told her.
"He's just saying what we're all thinking," Carolyn broke in. Now Alex was sure that Carolyn knew. All those items left out, as if they would return but were stopped. Carolyn looked at Riddick. "So what happened? Where are they?" she asked him.
But before he could answer, Imam came back into the room, flustered. "Has anyone seen the little one? Ali!!?" Alex hadn't noticed that the youngest boy, about Jack's age, wasn't with them.
"Has anyone checked the coring room?" Riddick said ominously.
At that moment they all heard a child's scream. Ali. Coming from the direction of the coring room. They got up and with Imam running towards it, followed him towards the large, heavily built building. Johns shot out the lock of the large doors, and then cautiously pushed them inward. Alex stayed back. She didn't have a good feeling about what they would find. That building was dark. Dark like the inside of a hole. No, she definitely didn't have a good feeling about it. Imam rushed in, calling for Ali, but Johns held him back, motioning for caution as Carolyn prevented Jack from entering. Alex crossed over the threshold, out of the sun, and saw an enormous rig at the center of the room around a hole in the ground. Looked like a drill, or the exit point from a mine of some sort. The ceiling had a large opening and sunlight streamed through it, dimly lighting the space. As Johns and Carolyn looked around cautiously, Johns with gun at the ready, they heard a rustling noise coming from behind two doors.
"Ali?" said Imam, and as he reached his hands towards the doors, they burst open, and what seemed like hundreds of fast-moving, batlike creatures circled out and moved as a flock around the ceiling, emitting shrieking noises. A second later after overcoming her surprise, Carolyn shouted for all of them to get out and as they did, she and Johns closed the doors, leaving Imam inside. A few moments passed until they ceased to hear any rustling or sounds of the creatures, and again they opened the doors, cautiously. Alex flipped out her wrist knife, for the moment more concerned about what was past those doors than Riddick, who stood across from her, watching the people, enjoying the spectacle.
"Imam?" called Johns, and a few seconds later, so did Carolyn. The turbaned man rose up slowly from the ground, staring at what lay beyond the two doors that the creatures had hidden behind. There was no sign of the creatures. Imam crawled over to doors on all fours, and as he peered inside he was startled by a sudden thump. Alex, Carolyn, and Johns moved into the room to see better, to reveal that what had fallen was a mangled corpse wearing the boys clothes. He looked.eaten alive.
Clenching her jaw against nausea, Alex fought the horrified fear within her. Whatever did that could do it to her as well. With a worried sigh, she resheathed her knife and walked out. "Can I go in now? Can I see?" Jack said eagerly.
"No, just.just wait awhile," Alex answered. She didn't want the kid to see what had happened to Ali. It Shazza and Paris looked at her with inquiring expressions, and Alex shook her head slightly. She looked at Riddick, who remained impassive and met her gaze, then turned and walked into the building. Alex walked away from the group a few feet, to touch the sword at her side, protection against this fear.
Eventually Imam and Johns carried out the body, which had been covered with Ali's own turban so that they couldn't see his mangled, fleshless face. They carried it to the hillside, with Imam's other two boys following out of sight. Johns came walking back, and behind him the sound of Islam prayers carried in the wind. They all followed Johns in, each inspecting the coring room on their own. Riddick had actually climbed down a bit into the shaft. Alex joined Shazza, Carolyn, and Johns on top of the rig looking down into the mining shaft. Johns lit one of his flares, and dropped it into the hole. On its way down it illuminated white bone fragments caught on the rocks, and as it hit bottom it revealed skulls from at least a dozen people, bones picked clean. A mass grave for the poor souls there before them. They had hidden here, never to escape. That was why everything had been left out. Alex touched her sword again. She could not let the fear overtake her. She breathed in deeply and fed the fear into the flame, then let it out.
Riddick, on the lower level, peered into the hole below them. "Other buildings weren't secure, so they ran here. Heaviest doors. Thought they'd be safe inside. But they forgot to lock the cellar." It made sense to Alex. But why would the creatures come and attack the original miners? They weren't anywhere to be seen in the sunlight, and it was only in dark places they had found them. With looks among the four of them, Alex and the others came down from the upper level of the rig. Shazza came down first, and after staring at Riddick, threw him her oxygen hookup. It was her form of apology, Alex thought. For distrusting him about Zeke. She kicked it towards him. Alex watched the exchange coming down the stairs, and paused until Shazza left. Riddick picked up the oxygen and held it, staring at it for a moment, then putting it on. Then he looked at Alex. Unreadable behind those black goggles, she was sure his eyes must be burning into her. She walked down the stairs and out of the coring room.
She entered a nearby building after she saw Carolyn walk across the doorway, with a determined stride. Alex followed Carolyn, hearing her mutter, "twenty-two years.twenty-two years". Carolyn made her way to a model of a solar system. Must be this solar system, Alex concluded. Three lightbulbs on a track represented the three suns the planet orbited around. Carolyn moved the track, looking at a small counter, indicating the years. As it clicked to twenty-two, Alex finally looked at the model. The planet that indicated theirs was completely dark. An eclipse.
Those creatures came out in the shadows. With all the light gone.Alex's thought trailed off as a sinking sensation developed in her stomach.
"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" Riddick spoke up behind her, to the whole room. Alex turned quickly, not having heard him come up. But he was staring at Carolyn, and the model.
"We have to get the hell out of here," Carolyn said.
Alex couldn't agree with their leader more.
__
Ok there's that next chapter.a bit exposition-y, but sorry, I have to get it out there somehow. Do I spend too much time on integrating Alex into the situation?
Chapter 7
Alex gathered her wits and went over to her case. She'd been able to pull off the bluff. It had worked before with someone who had tried to mess with the case, but it was a gamble trying to do that with Riddick. There was no "poisonous gas", just a voiceprint identification after anything was wrong with the thumbprint. The voiceprint wasn't all that hard to hardwire, either. It seemed that he had almost hardwired the thumbprint, so she just pressed the inconspicuous button on the side, and said her name and the command.
"Bennet, Alexandra. Open." The case slowly opened, revealing the remainder of her possessions. She couldn't take any more knives with her, as that would be too much, but she did take a few of the most expensive things. That really had been a lot of money after all the years. Nightshades, "sun"glasses that really had sophisticated nightvision technology which could be used at the push of a button. She hadn't wanted to bring them out before, but definitely didn't want to leave them behind. They had been very useful on the last planet, when she was only out at night, and definitely allowed her to move about with more confidence. Now they might just be only sunglasses. She also took her small kit for cleaning the blades, a handheld computer with her identification info, and a miniscule first aid kit. All of it fit into the pockets in her black vest without looking like anything had been added.
For a moment, she considered her attire. All black-not the wisest choice for constant sun, as she was finding out, especially the long sleeves. But those long sleeves concealed the dagger she had recently flipped out at her wrist. Tricky. The only person she really needed to hide it from already knew it was there. With a sigh, she ripped off the sleeves, revealing pale but toned arms. Around the upper part of her bicep on her right arm was the only luxury she had permitted herself, a thin silver armband which she had seen in a shop somewhere. It never came off, and was always underneath her clothes. It amused her, and also had a function. The disc design, no larger than an inch in diameter, depicted one of the old Chinese characters which meant "flame." Alex bought it because it was pretty, and eerily appropriate. But underneath the disc was an emergency chip that contained the account information where she had the majority of her leftover money held, which could not be traced to her if people looked up Alexandra Bennet. By number only, she was prepared in case something happened. It never hurt to be suspicious, better safe than sorry.
She sighed in appreciation, for she was much cooler, and the lightweight and slim vest was no longer as hot as it had seemed. Her preparations having taken less than ten minutes, she made sure there was nothing too personal in it and then closed the case, and spoke for the voiceprint. "Bennet, Alexandra. Lock."
Alex walked outside and then over to the section where the power cells were, and Shazza tossed her the last miniature oxygen tank. Nodding her thanks, Alex put it on and noticed that they had fixed a rope to the large, heavy power cell and Johns was telling Riddick to pull it. Jack had found some goggles somewhere that looked like the ones Riddick was now wearing, and was looking at the guy with hero-worship in her eyes. Carolyn was the last one to come out of the ship.
"Everyone ready for this?" The rest of them looked grim, but determined. "All right then."
Carolyn led the way towards this settlement the others had found, with the remainder of them following her. Riddick was waiting to be the last in line, and Alex hesitated. Never let an adversary have the advantage of being in your blind spot. However, she felt that for some reason he wasn't going to be a threat, at least not yet. So she was quick to follow Carolyn towards the beginning. She wanted to see this settlement for herself. As she walked, she got out the sunglasses and put them on with relief. After a minute adjustment, the glasses successfully filtered the blue sun's light so that it was much easier to see as they made their way across the dry plain.
The settlement, when they finally reached it, was of a decent size, but looked as if no one had been there in quite some time. The ship though, did not look as bad as Alex had thought when Carolyn first mentioned it. The wings needed patching, and hopefully the power cell would hook up, but other than that.soon they would be off this planet. Imam and his boys went over to the hydroponics setup, saying something about trying to find the water. Riddick brought the power cell over to the open door of the ship, then walked a bit away while the others gathered to survey the ship.
"It's not a star jumper," Shazza said.
"Doesn't need to be," Riddick put in unexpectedly. Everyone looked at him. "Take a two seater like this back up to the Sol-Trec shipping lanes. Stick out a thumb. Bound to get picked up. Ain't that right, Captain?" He said, looking at Johns. Alex wondered exactly how this "escaped convict, murderer" who had introduced himself to Paris earlier knew about shipping lanes.
"Can I have a bit of help here?" Carolyn asked, trying to get the power cell into the ship to hook it up. Jack and Paris helped her carry it in. Riddick went to help, but Johns sent him to look around to find wing- patching material. Jack, after helping Carolyn, went inside one of the buildings to explore.
Alex wandered over to where Imam was just in time to see the well they were clustered around begin to drip water. I'll be damned, she thought, they got it working. She went over there and was able to get a handful of water to drink. Paris pushed her aside and put a container he had found under it to collect some for him and everyone else. While he was doing that, Alex wandered into one of the nearby buildings. This one, like all of them looked, was unlocked.
She took off the glasses and waited a moment to allow her eyes to become adjusted to the dark. Although dusty, it looked like the people who had been there had just disappeared. Everything was left out in the open, as if they'd gone on an outing and were expecting to come back. Not exactly the signature of a group of people who were leaving permanently and taking much of what they had with them. As Alex poked around in some of the shelving units, she saw children's toys, strewn haphazardly, perhaps a quick clean-up job before their mother gave them dinner. She wandered into one of the smaller rooms, which had a bed in it and a quick-fabricated dresser. She pulled out one of the dresser drawers, and coughed as years of dust was released into the air. But the synthetic clothing still remained, neatly folded, as if they were coming back soon. Why hadn't they? What had happened to these people?
Alex went back outside to peer around. One of the larger buildings looked promising, so she went over to it at an angle and started walking around the building to find the entrance. In front of the entrance was Riddick, squatted down and cleaning off a pair of glasses that he had found in the dirt. He didn't see her yet, but got up and tried the doors to the big building. Despite one forceful pull, they wouldn't open. He peered inside for a minute, and then as he turned around, he saw Alex ten feet away.
She couldn't read his expression through those goggles he wore. Well, she might as well talk to him since he was right there, and maybe now he didn't think she was worthless. "Seems like that's the only one that's locked," she said. "One I went into had everything exposed, like they were going to come back and never did." Alex paused, taking in the building. It had heavy doors and walls, and was built more solidly then the rest of the buildings. "None of the other ones are built like this," she mused.
Riddick said nothing, and turned back to face the doors. He held back a piece of canvas to reveal the words "Coring Room." Then, a whistle sounded out from Johns, who had walked over in search of Riddick.
"Missin the party, C'mon boy" Johns said, patting his thigh as if calling a dog.
Alex couldn't help but let out one laugh at his antics. Obviously not smart enough to realize it's not a good idea to antagonize a known killer. Riddick snapped his head to look at her, an angry tense to his body. "Sorry," she said, a wicked smile on her face. She nodded her head to indicate the direction Johns had gone and rolled her eyes. "Idiot."
Riddick, who had still been holding the canvas, let it fall and began to walk off. As the canvas came off of the top of the building, Jack, who had been crouched underneath listening, gave a gasp. Alex's eyebrows rose in surprise. Jack had found a razor somewhere and shaved her head, and still wearing those Riddick look-alike goggles she looked a lot like the real thing. Alex could think of nothing except "and I shall call him Mini-Me!" but restrained her laughter in front of Riddick. It had been a long time since she had laughed.
Jack was frozen with surprise, but Riddick mimicked Johns' southern drawl perfectly and said, "Missin' the party, c'mon," then walked away, a ghost of a smile playing about his lips.
As he left, Jack put her head down in defeat, and muttered, "aw, man!" Obviously she wanted to remain unnoticed.
Alex smiled at her idolization of Riddick. "Come on," she said, and started to walk towards the larger living quarters. A winding noise made her turn around. Apparently, the large globes on the top of the coring room were solar-powered energy sources, and uncovering them started a generator. She filed that away for future notice, to remember what the solar power generators looked like. Alex turned back and walked to the building, then followed Riddick following Johns into the large building.
Everyone else was gathered in there, and someone had found a set of wine glasses that they had poured the water into. Alex went over and picked one up, still amused by Jack. Paris looked at her, surprised by the smile on her face. Alex shook her head, indicating it was nothing.
"All praises to Allah, for his many blessings to us!" said Imam, raising his water as if in a toast. At that, the door slammed and Jack came in, trying to look tough. She took off the goggles and coolly took a glass of water as Johns, Carolyn and everyone else stared at her new "look."
"What?!" she said, and took a sip.
Paris pointed to her smiling, and said, "It's the winner of the look-alike contest."
Alex grinned openly, but placed her fingers to her nose to cover it. She glanced over at Riddick, who revealed nothing, except that the set to his shoulders was relaxed. Those eyes were so hard to read.
As they talked, the predominant theory seemed to be that the people there before were miners or geologists. But Carolyn brought up the question on Alex's mind earlier, asking why they left their ship. As Johns, Paris, and Shazza tried to rationalize it, Riddick interrupted.
"These people didn't leave. Come on. Whatever got Zeke got them. They're all dead." Reminded of Zeke's death, Shazza bowed her head. "You don't really think they left with their clothes on the hooks, photos on the shelves?" He was right. Alex knew he was right. She was pretty sure Carolyn did too. The rest of them just hadn't resigned themselves to the truth yet.
"Maybe they had weight limits," Shazza offered, "You don't know."
"I know you don't prep your emergency ship unless there's a fucking emergency," Riddick answered.
"He's fuckin right," Jack added.
"Watch your mouth," Johns told her.
"He's just saying what we're all thinking," Carolyn broke in. Now Alex was sure that Carolyn knew. All those items left out, as if they would return but were stopped. Carolyn looked at Riddick. "So what happened? Where are they?" she asked him.
But before he could answer, Imam came back into the room, flustered. "Has anyone seen the little one? Ali!!?" Alex hadn't noticed that the youngest boy, about Jack's age, wasn't with them.
"Has anyone checked the coring room?" Riddick said ominously.
At that moment they all heard a child's scream. Ali. Coming from the direction of the coring room. They got up and with Imam running towards it, followed him towards the large, heavily built building. Johns shot out the lock of the large doors, and then cautiously pushed them inward. Alex stayed back. She didn't have a good feeling about what they would find. That building was dark. Dark like the inside of a hole. No, she definitely didn't have a good feeling about it. Imam rushed in, calling for Ali, but Johns held him back, motioning for caution as Carolyn prevented Jack from entering. Alex crossed over the threshold, out of the sun, and saw an enormous rig at the center of the room around a hole in the ground. Looked like a drill, or the exit point from a mine of some sort. The ceiling had a large opening and sunlight streamed through it, dimly lighting the space. As Johns and Carolyn looked around cautiously, Johns with gun at the ready, they heard a rustling noise coming from behind two doors.
"Ali?" said Imam, and as he reached his hands towards the doors, they burst open, and what seemed like hundreds of fast-moving, batlike creatures circled out and moved as a flock around the ceiling, emitting shrieking noises. A second later after overcoming her surprise, Carolyn shouted for all of them to get out and as they did, she and Johns closed the doors, leaving Imam inside. A few moments passed until they ceased to hear any rustling or sounds of the creatures, and again they opened the doors, cautiously. Alex flipped out her wrist knife, for the moment more concerned about what was past those doors than Riddick, who stood across from her, watching the people, enjoying the spectacle.
"Imam?" called Johns, and a few seconds later, so did Carolyn. The turbaned man rose up slowly from the ground, staring at what lay beyond the two doors that the creatures had hidden behind. There was no sign of the creatures. Imam crawled over to doors on all fours, and as he peered inside he was startled by a sudden thump. Alex, Carolyn, and Johns moved into the room to see better, to reveal that what had fallen was a mangled corpse wearing the boys clothes. He looked.eaten alive.
Clenching her jaw against nausea, Alex fought the horrified fear within her. Whatever did that could do it to her as well. With a worried sigh, she resheathed her knife and walked out. "Can I go in now? Can I see?" Jack said eagerly.
"No, just.just wait awhile," Alex answered. She didn't want the kid to see what had happened to Ali. It Shazza and Paris looked at her with inquiring expressions, and Alex shook her head slightly. She looked at Riddick, who remained impassive and met her gaze, then turned and walked into the building. Alex walked away from the group a few feet, to touch the sword at her side, protection against this fear.
Eventually Imam and Johns carried out the body, which had been covered with Ali's own turban so that they couldn't see his mangled, fleshless face. They carried it to the hillside, with Imam's other two boys following out of sight. Johns came walking back, and behind him the sound of Islam prayers carried in the wind. They all followed Johns in, each inspecting the coring room on their own. Riddick had actually climbed down a bit into the shaft. Alex joined Shazza, Carolyn, and Johns on top of the rig looking down into the mining shaft. Johns lit one of his flares, and dropped it into the hole. On its way down it illuminated white bone fragments caught on the rocks, and as it hit bottom it revealed skulls from at least a dozen people, bones picked clean. A mass grave for the poor souls there before them. They had hidden here, never to escape. That was why everything had been left out. Alex touched her sword again. She could not let the fear overtake her. She breathed in deeply and fed the fear into the flame, then let it out.
Riddick, on the lower level, peered into the hole below them. "Other buildings weren't secure, so they ran here. Heaviest doors. Thought they'd be safe inside. But they forgot to lock the cellar." It made sense to Alex. But why would the creatures come and attack the original miners? They weren't anywhere to be seen in the sunlight, and it was only in dark places they had found them. With looks among the four of them, Alex and the others came down from the upper level of the rig. Shazza came down first, and after staring at Riddick, threw him her oxygen hookup. It was her form of apology, Alex thought. For distrusting him about Zeke. She kicked it towards him. Alex watched the exchange coming down the stairs, and paused until Shazza left. Riddick picked up the oxygen and held it, staring at it for a moment, then putting it on. Then he looked at Alex. Unreadable behind those black goggles, she was sure his eyes must be burning into her. She walked down the stairs and out of the coring room.
She entered a nearby building after she saw Carolyn walk across the doorway, with a determined stride. Alex followed Carolyn, hearing her mutter, "twenty-two years.twenty-two years". Carolyn made her way to a model of a solar system. Must be this solar system, Alex concluded. Three lightbulbs on a track represented the three suns the planet orbited around. Carolyn moved the track, looking at a small counter, indicating the years. As it clicked to twenty-two, Alex finally looked at the model. The planet that indicated theirs was completely dark. An eclipse.
Those creatures came out in the shadows. With all the light gone.Alex's thought trailed off as a sinking sensation developed in her stomach.
"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" Riddick spoke up behind her, to the whole room. Alex turned quickly, not having heard him come up. But he was staring at Carolyn, and the model.
"We have to get the hell out of here," Carolyn said.
Alex couldn't agree with their leader more.
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Ok there's that next chapter.a bit exposition-y, but sorry, I have to get it out there somehow. Do I spend too much time on integrating Alex into the situation?