Chapter 6
Meera glanced over at Riddick as Fry continued her speech. "...So all right. Maybe we have enough light," she told everyone.
Johns asked the question that was on everyone's mind: "Enough for fucking what?" Ok, so maybe Meera would not have used those exact words, but Johns got the point across.
"We stick to the plan. Get the four cells back to the skiff. We're off this rock."
Feared made itself present in the merc's next words: "Back up. How long can this thing last?" Johns frowned at her. "Few minutes, hours, a day tops?"
Imam looked at him and in a low voice said, "I had an impression from the model, the two planets were moving as one, and there would be a lasting darkness."
Riddick looked back at her as Johns said, "These suns gotta come out some time. And if these things really are phobic about light, we just sit here and wait till the sun comes up."
Fry shook her head, clearly peeved. "I'm sure that's what someone else said, locked inside that coring room."
Meera sat back and watched as the debate went on. "Look, I hate to ruin a beautiful theory with an ugly fact, but that Sandcat is solar," Paris told everyone, and the captain looked at the man in surprise.
"So we carry the cells. We drag them, whatever it takes," Fry said. She was sounding more like a real captain every time she spoke.
Someone whimpered a little, causing Meera to frown and turn her head. "You mean, tonight? With those things still out there?" Jack asked in a scared voice, the boy sat on a crate in the far corner of their room, his knees drawn up against his chest, and arms hugging them closer to his body.
Johns, the wimp that he was, played on Jack's fears. "We need to think about everyone here, especially the kid. How scared's this boy gonna be out there in the dark?"
"Don't use him like that!" Fry snapped.
"Like what?"
"As a smoke screen. You deal with your own fears."
She was starting to enjoy this; Johns was finally getting put in his place. "Hey!" he said indignantly. "Why don't you shut your fucking mouth for two seconds, and let me come up with a plan that doesn't involve mass suicide?"
Beside her, Riddick snickered. Was he enjoying this as much as she was?
"I'm waiting," Fry said after a couple of seconds. "How much you weigh, Johns?"
Meera arched an eyebrow and looked at Riddick. What was Fry doing? What did weight have to do with anything?
"What does it matter, Carolyn?"
"How much!"
"'Round seventy-nine kilos to be exact." -
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Ok, for those of you reading: Does that last line make any sense to you? And it's not like I came up with that line. That's exactly how Johns says it in the movie. How can something be around something, but at the same time be exact? Anyway...
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"'Cause you're seventy-nine kilos of gutless white meat, and that's why you can't come up with a better plan."
Johns had a short temper and everyone knew it. Shit was going to hit the fan. Meera looked up at Riddick; he returned the look. She leaned over to him and whispered, "You wanna put a stop to this?"
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He knew what Johns was doing before the merc did.
"Is that fucking right?" Johns asked, springing forward. Riddick stepped in front of him as he made his way to Fry. Johns jammed his pistol under his chin. "Where you going?" Riddick looked back at him, his goggles masked the look of pure hatred that shone in his eyes.
"This solves nothing," the Holy man said. It was a stand off.
Riddick removed his goggles and looked at Johns. He twisted his left wrist - which contained a shiv - back and forth near Johns's groin.
"Ok." Johns grinned evilly at him as he sat back down.
Riddick had a soft spot for Carolyn Fry. So what? he thought as she crouched next to Jack. He took his place next to Meera and kept quiet, his hatred for Johns growing inside him for what he had done to his sister. He remembered what her face looked like as he knelt down in front of her to get her out of the chains. One eye was barely open, the other was blood shot, her right cheek was purple and puffy and the left one was bleeding badly. Sure, all the physical proof was gone, but he knew she was in pain, she had to be. And for that, he hated Johns.
"They're afraid of our light. And that means we don't have to be so afraid of them."
"And you're certain you can find your way back. Even in the dark?" Imam asked as Riddick turned to converse with Meera.
"No, I can't. But he can."
Riddick turned his head and gave her a deer-caught-in-headlights look. Before he knew it, he was walking with the group to the main part of the crash-ship. Fry called his name and he moved ahead of the group. Taking off his goggles, he looked inside.
"Looks clear," he called to the others.
Johns walked ahead and fell to the ground screaming as a bat-like creature flew out of the ship. "You said clear!" he whined.
Stop being such a pussy. "I said 'looks clear!'"
"Well, what's it look like now?"
"Looks clear." In the back of his mind, Riddick could imagine Meera laughing.
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"Oh, oh, kill him," Fry heard Meera say. She looked around and saw Paris scurrying away like the scared little man that he was.
"Paris," she commanded. "Get back here."
Suddenly, all the halogen lights went out. Johns walked over and struck up a flair.
"Nice to see you're OK," he said as Riddick joined them.
Time dragged on and Fry was getting tired. She looked at their group and tried to relax. So much had happened in the past twenty minutes. Jack was a girl; she had to remember that. Jack was a girl, just as frail as her and - well maybe not Meera, she thought. Up ahead, Riddick and Johns were talking, and Fry nervously gave the order to slow up. As their paces grew smaller, Meera took the opportunity to snatch the blasters from the shed.
"What do you think you're doing?" Fry asked her.
"Taking back what's rightfully mine. What?" She opened her vest to reveal two body holsters. "You think I have all these holsters for show?"
A shot rang out and she looked Meera who gave her an it-wasn't-me look. "Leave the sled!" Fry ordered. She ran with the rest of them, leaving behind everything, taking only the burning bottle of liquor in her hand. "Let's move!"
She didn't know how far she ran until she ran into Meera. Frightened, Fry turned around and slammed into Riddick's chest. "Back to the ship, huh? Just huddle together till the lights go out?" his voice rumbled in her head.
"Get away from us," she said, looking at the others. The girl had a weapon in her hand and was at the ready, but she did not look scared.
"Until you can't see -" - he paused momentarily as Meera walked up to him - "- what's eating you? That the big plan?"
"Where's Johns?" Imam asked sternly.
"Which half?" The question was rhetorical and Fry felt her stomach sink.
"We're all gonna die out here," Jack mumbled.
Riddick's hand went to the small of Meera's back as he led her around the group. Fry suddenly found herself surprisingly jealous. "He died fast. And if we have any choice about it, that's the way we should all go." The two of them - Riddick and Meera, with his hand still on her back - walked over to Jack. "Don't you cry for Johns. Don't you dare," he told her sternly.
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"Come on, kid. Be all right." Meera felt Riddick's hand leave her back and she felt bare without it. It amazed her how much she had become attached to him. She kept the blaster in her left hand and put her right arm around Jack's shoulder. Together, the two of them sat in the light, while Riddick walked around and Imam, his boy, and Fry talked. She smiled reassuringly at Jack.
Finally, the other girl broke out of her shock. "So what's the deal with your eyes."
"Ever hear of night vision binocs?" Meera asked.
"Wow, so have eyes like Riddick."
She gave her a short laugh. "Hardly."
"I don't un-"
She finished her sentence: "Understand? Mine are natural. His are surgical. Though mine aren't quite as strong as his."
"Oh."
"Yup."
Imam walked over to them. "Shall we-" Meera cut him off by shooting a creature that was drawing nearer. "Shall we pray?"
"I'll take a rain check there, sir. Never prayed before and I'm not about to start." She walked away after Jack said that she'd like to pray.
"Meera? Can I talk to you a sec?" She turned around, to see Fry walking over to her.
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Riddick looked at the alien skeleton. "Blind spot," he said to himself, fitting a piece of bone into what looked like the correct place.
"Shall we pray together?" He dropped the piece of the eye at the sound of Imam's voice. "I've already prayed with the others." When he said nothing Imam added: "It is painless."
"S'pointless."
"Just because you don't believe in God, does not mean God does not believe-"
"Think a man could spend half his life in a slam with a horse bit stuck in his mouth, and not believe?" he asked, tying the cells together. "Think he can start out in some liquor store trash can with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, and not believe?" He paused to let it all sink in. "Got it all wrong, Holy Man. I absolutely believe in God." Riddick looked up at Imam, his eyes shining. "And I absolutely hate the fucker."
"He is with you nonetheless," Imam said.
"Two of your boys are all ready dead. How much faith do you have left, father?" Imam walked away.
"My brother died like that." Riddick looked up to see Meera standing above him.
"What? I thought I was about to use your brother as protection," he played dumb, knowing it was too early to let her know the truth.
"I was adopted."
"What happened to your real family?"
"They were abusive," she answered after a few seconds. It was almost as if she wanted him to catch her in the lie.
"What honestly happened?"
She smiled for a second, but it faded as fast as it came. "My parents were killed."
"And this brother of yours?"
"Would've been older than me."
"What happened to him?"
"Died during labor." Was that what they told her about him? Then again, that was what his mother believed had happened to him. Or at least she believed that until he killed her. "I have a question?"
"Shoot," he told her.
"That day, when we were caught, how'd you know where I lived? I mean, I friggin' zigged and zagged." Just as he was about to answer Fry came over to them.
"I think we should get going."
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"Get up, Riddick!" Meera heard from around the corner. "I said I'd die for them, not you!" Fry repeated the sentence a few more times as they came into view. Riddick and Fry were supporting each other.
Suddenly, there was an eerie silence and she unholstered two blasters. Digging her toes into the mud, she propelled herself forward towards the couple, and as she did so Fry was jerked from Riddick's arms. Meera dropped to the ground; sliding in the mud, she sighted and pulled the trigger until she heard the double click, signifying that the crystals had finally died.
"You might wanna-ooff!" She exhaled as Fry landed on her, taking away her breath. "Catch her," she finished weakly.
Together, Meera and Riddick managed to get Fry back to the skiff. Jack and Imam stayed with Fry on the floor, while she and Riddick sat in the cockpit.
"A lotta questions. Whoever we run into, might even be a merc ship. So what'd we tell 'em 'bout you?" Jack asked, causing both of them to glance at her.
"Riddick's dead. He died somewhere on that planet," he told her in an ominous voice.
Chapter 7 is coming up soon, I hope you enjoy.
Please review.
~Litl A~
