Chapter Three: The Crash

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Chapter three is now yours to read and review. Enjoy


Riddick watched from the rafters as Johns walked over to his gun. Just a few more steps, just a few more. Now! He told himself. He dropped his chain-clad feet down and wrapped them around the merc's neck.

Johns reached into his thigh holster and pulled out his baton, and began to take whacks at Riddick's thigh. Riddick wanted to laugh, the blows felt like love taps. But this was a serious matter; more serious was the fact that the bar that he was holding onto was about to break. He heard the metal groan and he grunted softly, knowing what was to come. The rafter broke with a scream and pain rushed through his body as he fell full force onto a fallen air duct, then to the solid-steel floor.

"Someone's gunna get hurt here one of these days, an' it ain't gonna be me." Johns smiled, and the next thing Riddick knew a blaster was jammed under his chin. "Up, slowly." Riddick complied peacefully, biding his time, sizing up the opposition.

------

Fry's eyes snapped open and she ran her hands over her body, checking for injuries, finding none. She heaved a sigh of relief and hit the switch to release her safety harnesses, then she pushed the heavy metal chair off herself and began digging the rest of her body out of the sand. She coughed as the dry air entered her lungs, and closed her eyes against the hot sun.

Suddenly, she remembered Owens and ran quickly into the ship. In the main cabin, she began pushing objects out of her way, and finally found Owens still strapped in his chair with a rod sticking out of his chest. Dead.

"Owens, I'm so sorry," she whispered, taking his head into her lap.

"Get it outta me! Get it out!" Fry nearly jumped out of her skin when he shouted. Then she looked around quickly to survey her surroundings, a group of survivors started to show up and watch Owens squirm in pain. "Get it! Get it outta me!" Fry moved to take the rod out. "Don't touch it! Don't you touch it!" She withdrew her hands, trying not to panic.

As Owens's screams grew louder, a man with a thick Old-Australian accent shouted out: "Take it outta him!"

"No, don't, it's too close to his heart," a woman with the same accent told her.

"Don't you touch that handle, Fry! Don't touch the handle."

Fry tried to block out Owens's screams. Instead of listening to him, she turned to the survivors. "There's some manestaphine in the med lock at the end of the cabin," she barked out.

A scrawny looking old man looked at the back of the cabin, "Not no more. There's not."

"Get outta here. Everyone. Get out," she told the group, shutting her eyes, not watching anyone leave.

------

Meera took a deep breath, shook her head clear and opened her eyes. She was still in her cryo-tube. When the ship crashed her head was slammed into the glass door of her tube, thus knocking her unconscious. But now she was awake.

She felt blood trickling down her wrist and onto her fingertips, dripping to the floor of her tube. Her restraints tightened around her wrist as she strained to assess her damage, drawing more blood. She felt something wet ran down her face and she closed her eyes against the pain, willing herself to no longer feel it. When the pain was gone she opened her eyes slowly and found herself looking into the eyes of a black haired woman. The woman smiled warmly.

"You all right, love?" She asked over the intercom. Meera only nodded because she couldn't reach the COM with her hand. "Just hold tight, we'll get you out in just two clicks." Seconds later, she fell out of her tube and into the arms of a strange man.

"Cripes, are you all right?" he asked her, his thick accent floating around her. She felt one lung short and rasped for air.

"I'm Shazza, love, an this here is Zeke. What's your name?" The woman who had gotten her out spoke.

"Meera." She choked out, standing out of Zeke's arms. "Thank you."

"How's about we take off those cuffs?" Zeke asked.

Meera smiled; she was starting to like these two. "That would be very nice."

"Hands off my prisoner." She heard Johns say as Zeke moved to remove the restraints. Zeke and Shazza stepped away from her, and she smiled wickedly at Johns. His reaction to the look: a punch to her jaw, hitting a soar spot from a previous fight. Next he punched her in the stomach bringing her down to a knee. "What is it with you and Riddick? Always gotta make trouble."

She turned her head to the side and spat blood. "Don't compare me to Riddick. I'm nothing like him."

"Up," Johns commanded, and she did as she was told.

------

Riddick heard Johns shuffle over by him and smelt the air; the girl was with him. Meera said something he couldn't understand and he heard flesh connecting with flesh. Anger flared up inside him as she choked and spat as Johns cuffed her around another beam and left.

The fact that any action in an unkind manner toward Meera angered him, surprised Riddick. He was supposed to be a cold-hearted bastard, not some protective lug.

She coughed again causing Riddick to look up and see her chained with her back to him, two beams ahead. He thought for a second then looked at the beam that he was tied to. If he stood up straight there would be a breach in the beam an arms distance above his head.

Riddick stood up and stretched, flexing his arms experimentally. He soon began to raise his hands behind his back, running the chains along the beam and when his arms were neck high he dislocated his shoulders. Mind and body screaming in pain, he brought his arms over his head with a grunt, biting down on the horse bit as he popped his shoulders back into place. As he fell to the ground he grabbed the cutting torch that hung within his grasp and on the cold steel floor he went to work on his chains.

When he was done, Riddick moved to work on Meera's chains. "What the fuck are you doing, Riddick?" she asked quietly. What's wrong with her? Here he was getting her out of the chains and she was getting nasty with him.

"I'm getting you outta here," he snapped at her gruffly.

"O.K." she said quickly. As he went to work on the cuffs someone started walking towards them. Her head snapped towards the footsteps, but still he kept working. "Shit! Riddick stop!" she snapped quietly.

"What?" He stopped working for a second and knelt in front of her.

"Go! Someone's coming!" she barked at him.

"I got you into this, I'm not leaving you."

Through his goggles her saw her roll her eyes. "Please. I can take care of myself. You, on the other hand, have a weakness." In one swift movement she moved from being on her knees to resting on the balls of her feet. "Now go!" she said, as she jumped up and kicked him in the chest. Riddick sailed through the air and slammed against the wall. Who knew the girl had such strong legs? He started towards her.

"Listen, kid-" Footsteps coming closer cut him off. Tossing one more look at her, he took off through a breach in the wall.

------

"Where's Riddick?" Johns pulled Meera to her feet as soon as he walked in and noticed Riddick was gone. She shrugged her shoulders in response and smiled smugly. He obviously wasn't satisfied with that answer. Her face slammed against the support beam from the force of his punch, her cheek split open and she sighed; that was going to hurt in the morning. "I asked you a question, now answer it!" She laughed at him and received a punched her in the stomach. She doubled over and spat out blood. What was it with mercs and hitting people when they were down? Johns hefted her back up straight and she coughed from the pain.

"How the hell should I know?" she croaked.

"Bullshit!" he said, punching her in the stomach again. "You think I don't know about you two?" Johns asked as her slammed her head against the beam.

Meera took a deep breath and frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, please, I caught the both of you together in your house and in the alley," Johns told her.

"Which reminds me. Why the hell did you arrest me?" she asked, while trying to breathe. She grinned devilishly at him. "Besides for killing your partner."

Johns backhanded her, sending her other cheek into the beam. "You are also wanted on suspicion of murder and participation in an illegal organization," he spat at her, through clenched teeth.

She took in a deep breath. "Uh-huh. So what? Was Wallace, like, you butt buddy or something?" Meera was answered with another backhand, followed by a punch to the stomach and another to the jaw.

"Jesus Christ, Johns! You made your point." A female's voice broke through and the blows stopped and Meera fell to the floor gasping for air. You deserved that one, genius, she told herself.

------

Fry had watched Johns pick up Riddick's horse bit in the direction of sunset. After that, she had pulled everyone in the ship and ordered them around. "Ok, listen up. We need water, weapons, and food, in that order. Go through your lockers and bring whatever supplies to the Nav Bay. We all meet back here in exactly sixty tics," she remembered ordering.

Now here they were, a disorganized group trying to become organized. For all the people traveling to other planets she was surprised at how little food there was. Shazza and Zeke had plenty of tools, pickaxes, digging tool, and hunting boomerangs. Johns was packed a little more practically, pistol, baton, and a shotgun, as well as a knife. Paris, who seemed to be the only one who thought to bring food: liquor, caviar, olives, and smoked oysters, had also bought a collection of antique weapons.

"What the hell are all these?" Fry asked, watching Paris walk by, arms full of weapons that looked as if they would break at any time.

"Marata crow-bill war picks from Northern India," he told her proudly. "Very rare."

Zeke pointed to a long, carved wood tube: "An' this?"

"Blow-dart hunting stick from Papua New Guinea. Extremely rare, considering the tribe is extinct."

"Cuz they couldn't hunt shit with these thing be my guess."

"Well, what's with the need for the war party hardware, anyway?" Paris asked no one in particular. "If that man's gone, he's gone. Why should he bother with us?"

Johns finished checking his weapons and turned around. "Maybe to take what you got. Maybe to work your nerves. Or maybe he'll come back just to skull-fuck us in our sleep," he told them all in a menacing tone.

"Sounds like a charmer," Shazza said to herself.

After a few minutes, everyone was outside looking into the desert. Paris came running back, breathing heavily and leaned against his war ax. "I thought you'd like to see this," he said to Fry. She looked passed him and saw a blue sun rising. Fry turned and looked passed the little boy Jack, to see two setting suns.

"Three suns?" the little boy asked her.

"So much for your nightfall," Zeke told Fry.

"So much from my cocktail hour," Paris whined to himself.

Imam, a Muslim priest, stood next to Paris and smiled knowingly at his boys. "We take this as a good sign. A path: a direction from Allah." No one made any sign of understanding and Imam sighed patiently. "Blue sun, blue water."

"Ever wonder why I'm an atheist?" Zeke shook his head.

Johns also shook his head and looked towards the rising blue sun. "I take this as a bad sigh: that's Riddick's direction."

Fry's brow furrowed. "I thought you found his restraints over there, towards sunset." Johns laughed to himself. What? Does he think I know everything? I'm not the fucking captain or anything! she shouted in her head.

"Right. Which means he went towards sunrise," he told her. Well, I guess he knows Riddick best. Johns undid the holster on his pistol and handed it to Zeke. "Safety zone. One shot if you spot him."

"Ah, crikey, you're going off too?" Zeke asked him.

"And if Mister Riddick happens to spot us?" Paris asked.

"There will be no shots." Johns smiled at him.

------

Riddick heard them coming before he saw them: the little kids playing with the ribs, but he wouldn't take their oxygen. Though he needed it, he would never hurt a kid.

He gently dropped from the crevice inside the large rib cage onto the sand, and made his way towards Fry, who had just sat against the bones. She took the last two hits from her breather, and then switched to her second oxygen canister. Now, he would do it now. Riddick had no qualms with killing women. Key word being women, no girls. Which was mostly why he kept Meera alive, because she was only seventeen. But Fry-

He moved in for the kill, but stopped when he heard more footsteps. Damned Johns! he thought furiously. Riddick moved a step back. He gripped his newly carved bone-shiv.

"Care for a taste?" Johns asked her, reaching out with a bottle of scotch. The liquor wafted to his nose and he stepped closer to the scent. The smell brought back memories of his childhood that he pushed immediately back into the past.

She accepted the bottle. "Probably shouldn't do this. Dehydrates you even more."

"Probably right." Then they started to talk; the talked about the most boring things he could ever imagine sitting through. How can you sit through this bullshit, Carolyn? he asked her mentally. Wait! Did she just say she tried to kill us all in our sleep? That sly devil, I can't believe he got that out of her! "I guess I'm a lit'l more glad to be hear than I thought," Johns said before they left.

Then he was running back to the ship, he could always find another breather there. He stood above a hole and someone was inside. He moved in for the kill. Gun shots sounded, and suddenly, the woman was there. Riddick thought twice about killing her, but turned and ran in the opposite direction.

Johns came out from behind a termite hill-like thing, catching him off guard. Damn goggles! "Son of a bitch!" Johns said while hitting him.

More blows came from someone else. "What'd you do to 'im! What'd you do to Zeke!" the woman shouted.

"Shazza!" Fry said, holding her back.

"Just somebody kill 'im. Somebody Goddamn kill 'im before he can-" that was the last thing her heard. And a boot hitting his temple was the last thing he felt before the bliss of unconsciousness came and whisked him away.

------

Meera watched them drag Riddick back into the ship, a nasty bruise starting to show on his head. Ouch that's gotta hurt, she thought. Then she thought of all her own cuts and winced. The drugs were kicking in and everything would be gone in a few hours, she'd still hurt like hell, but you'd never know she was hit.

Those were some of the perks of being a Peacekeeper; the body naturally erases all signs of injury. A cut would disappear in a matter of seconds, a broken bone would heal in a few hours pending the severity. Granted, everything would heal and disappear, but the pain didn't just vanish. No, it was left as a reminder not to make the same mistake twice, and the pain could last for days on end. But she, she was special, she could make the pain go away for a while, just by willing it away. Unfortunately, the second she woke up, or the second she was hit, everything came rushing back to her.

Like now: she had been falling asleep - which was terribly uncomfortable considering that each time she would doze off, she'd lean forward pushing her restraints to their limits against the beam - when Johns walked in. The pain ripping through her body was multiplied by a thousand thanks to the beating she had received earlier. Meera took a deep, calming breath and began to will the pain away.

"Riddick!" she whispered, after the pain had lessened considerably. "Riddick!" He was sitting on a box, arms chained straight out and eyes tightly closed. The chains ran from his hands to the wall connecting behind his head. "Riddick!" she tried one more time. Obviously he was either out cold, or he didn't want to talk.

"You aight, kid?" He asked after few seconds, scaring the hell out of her.

"Christ!" she said, under her breath. "I'm bleeding and you?"

"Been better. Bleeding? From what?" Though he tried to whisper it impassively, Meera heard the edge in his voice.

"I decided to throw myself into a doorknob a couple hundred times," she croaked, keeping her voice light.

"Doorknob?" she heard him question, softly. "Someone's coming!" Meera looked up to see Her. Her savior. The one who stopped Johns from killing her.

"So where's the body?" The woman asked, but no one answered. "Well do you wanna tell me about the sounds?" she asked. "Look you Johns you heard sounds." Meera looked over at Riddick who said nothing. "That's fine, you don't want to talk to me, that's your choice. But just so you know, there's a debate right now, as to whether we should just leave you here." With a slight shake of her head she turned to leave.

"You mean the whispers?" His question stopped her dead.

"What whispers?" The woman managed in a hoarse whisper.

"The ones telling me to go for the sweet spot." His voice sounded like he was reminiscing. "Just left of the spine, fourth lumbar down. The abdominal aorta." Meera bit back a laugh; he was playing with the woman's mind and she found it funny. "Metallic taste to it, human blood, copperish. But if you cut it with peppermint schnapps that goes away."

"Do you wanna shock me with the truth now?" Fry retorted. Gutsy, Meera thought. The way Riddick acted when she talked to him like that showed that not many people had guts around him.

"All you people are so scared of me. Usually, I'd take that as a compliment." Meera could tell he was saying the truth. "But it ain't me you gotta worry about now."

"Show me your eyes, Riddick." Meera could almost hear the wheels turning in his head.

------

"So fucking stupid!" Fry shouted. Riddick had told her to look deeper and what did she do? She looks deeper, almost getting herself killed. "I don't know what the fuck is in there. But whatever it is it got Zeke and in nearly got me-" Her rant was elongated by a pulling on her rope and she flew back into the termite hill. Johns and Imam battled against whatever was pulling on her. "Get it off me! Get it off me!"

"Cut it," Imam ordered. Johns pulled out his knife and cut her rope. Once the pulling stopped Fry was thrown forward. It took all her self-control not to kiss the sand. That was so fucking stupid! And Riddick knew it- whatever it is- was down there. That fucker set me up! He almost got me killed! she thought furiously. He was playing with her mind.

------

"Finally found something worse than me." It wasn't a question; it was a statement. Riddick sat on the crate, his arms straight out to his sides, eyes directed away from the light.

"So here's the deal, you work without chains, without bit, without shivs. You do what I say, when I say it-"

"For what? The honor of going back to some asshole of a cell? Fuck you!" He interrupted Johns.

"The truth is...is I'm tired of chasing you around."

His eyes snapped open and he looked up, his eyes adjusting to the momentary brightness. "You saying you'd cut me loose?"

"I'm thinking you coulda died in the crash," Johns said.

"My recommendation? Do me," Riddick told him darkly. "Don't take the chances I'll go shiv-happy on your wanna-be ass."

"Ok."

"Ghost me motherfucker, that's what I'd do to you."

Johns said microseconds before he pulled out his shotgun and pulled the trigger. The bullet shattered the chains and Riddick's arms were free.

"I want you to remember this moment. The way it coulda gone, but didn't." He held out Riddick's goggles. "Here."

Riddick eyed the goggles, reaching out for them with his right hand and grabbing the shotgun with his left. "The girl's out too," he said, pointing the gauge to Johns's chest.

Johns nodded furiously and Riddick thought the man was about to piss his pants. "Do we have a deal?" Johns asked weakly.

"Want you to remember this moment," Riddick said, mockingly. He emptied he shotgun, grabbed his goggles, and walked over to Meera. They both looked at Johns expectantly. Slowly, he made his way over to them, shoving a shaking hand into his pocket and pulling out a single key. The merc undid one handcuff and looked at the girl in shock.

"What the fu..." His brow furrowed and he brought her hand up for closer inspection.

"Careful, Johns," Riddick warned. "She could be pretty vicious."

"I fucking wailed the shit outta you, girl," he drawled in his Southern accent, dropping her wrist and roughly grabbing her chin, forcing her to look at him. Riddick got ready to attack him if he was going to be boasting. "Where in the Hell'd all those cut and bruises go?"

She grinned wickedly at the merc, and Riddick watched as her eyes flashed a deeper green for a second. "I'm a fucking God," she whispered, secretly. He watched as Johns undid the other cuff and left the ship in a huff. When he was out of earshot, the girl began to laugh softly.

"I have to admit it. That was a good one."

She nodded in agreement. "Got him thinking."


Chapter 4 will be up faster than this chapter, so sorry about the wait.

Please review.

Thanx.

~ Litl A ~