Hey here is chapter 9. I know most of you know what's going on in the movie and all so I kind of skipped describing everything, and I mostly overviewed the movie scenes, so I hope this chapter is ok. Anyway I'm sure Racheal and Riddick will end up together somehow…geez but I don't want him to just all of a sudden be prince charming…lol…Can you just imagine taking Riddick home to meet mommy. Hehe um Mom, meet my serial killer boyfriend. The look of confusion on Riddick's face when mom passes out…*cough* sorry daydreaming there…Anyways onto chapter 9...
They all trekked thru the barren wasteland. Fry leading and Riddick bringing up the rear. He was carrying the power cell, which looked extremely heavy. Racheal was somewhere in the middle by Shazza, who spent most of the journey in silence.
Jack kept asking Racheal questions about Riddick, and when he realized she wasn't talking he went to go and find someone else to talk to. Racheal couldn't help but feel bad for Shazza. She tried to imagine how she would feel if Riddick was attacked. Probably scared and lonely, but that was just her, Shazza seemed much stronger than that.
They reached an old deserted mining village. There was at least an inch of dust on everything in sight. They all made a b-line to the skiff that was on the opposite end of the colony.
"Normally I can appreciate antiques, but this…" began Paris when they reached the abandoned skiff. Paris taking another large draught from a bottle of liquor.
"It'll work," said Johns offhandedly, "As long as the electricity adapts."
Racheal wondered why he was so confident, but then she remembered he was confident about most things.
"Its not a star jumper." Shazza observed.
"Doesn't need to be…" began Riddick. "Take it up to the Soltrack shipping lane. Stick out a thumb. Bound to get picked up. Isn't that right, Captain?" He directed at Fry. Who in turn ignored him and mentioned something about needing help loading the power cell into the skiff. Everyone seemed to exchange meaningful glances at each other. All wondering how he knew about shipping lanes. Riddick advanced to help her but Johns stopped him and told him to go look for something to patch the wings with.
Racheal went to help Shazza work on a Sand Cat that had also been abandoned near by. It was only the two of them, and the help mostly consisted of Racheal handing Shazza the tools that she asked for. After about half an hour of working Shazza took a break and sat down in the sand cat's drivers seat. Racheal stood next to her, taking in the landscape.
"So, you wanna tell me what's really going on between you and Riddick?" Shazza asked after a moments rest.
"What makes you think there's something going on?" Racheal asked, looking at her feet.
"Let's see," Shazza said with a knowing smile. "he cut your restraints back at the crash site, when Johns let him go he went over and stood beside you, and unless I'm not much mistaken you keep trying to catch a glimpse of him over there." she tossed her head toward the village.
Racheal smirked at how observant Shazza had been, then sighed heavily. "I don't really know what's going on between us, if anything. I'm not even sure if he's capable of…" she broke off.
"Love?" Shazza asked. Racheal didn't answer. She was deep in thought. "Do you love him?" Again, Racheal didn't answer. "Ok," laughed Shazza, "Better question…Do you trust him?"
"Yes." she didn't hesitate. Giving an awkward smile, "Yeah, I do." Shazza nodded, giving Racheal a half smile.
"Well, that's something." then she went back to work on the Sand Cat.
'Yeah, something.' thought Racheal.
Fry approached a bit later, saying that they had water in a main room of the colony. Shazza and Racheal followed Fry back, laughing together about a joke that Shazza had told.
It took a few seconds for Racheal's eyes to adjust to the inside of the room. When they did she noticed that the others had water spread out on a table in several glasses. Racheal grabbed one and handed it to Shazza who took it and then said "Cheers." Johns came in followed by Riddick. Riddick quickly took off his goggles in the dimly lit room. The conversation was sparse until the topic turned to where the people who had run the mining colony went. Half of them thought the people had been taken off by a bigger drop ship, the rest, which included Riddick, thought they were all dead. The talk was interrupted by Imam, the Muslim, bursting in and asking if anyone had seen Ali, a child that was traveling with him. At Riddick's suggestion, they all went to the coring room. Johns blowing off the lock allowed them entry. Weird thing was it was locked from the inside. The light from the opened doors caused some bird looking things to fly away, down into the earth. A bit later they found Ali's body. It had been pecked over by something. The smell of exposed flesh in the heat made Racheal's stomach churn, or maybe it was the fear of whatever that was that did such a thing to a little boy. Whatever it was, Racheal ran out of the coring room and almost threw up outside. Ali's torn face springing back up in her memory. Shazza was beside her in a second, patting her back asking her if she was ok. When her gag reflex had subsided she gave Shazza an apologetic smile.
"Yeah," she said leaning back up against coring room exterior wall. "I wasn't expecting that."
"I don't think any of us were." said Shazza. "You sure you're alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Racheal half laughed at herself. "I'm just going to stay out here a bit longer, catch my breath.
"Suit yourself." she said and walked back into the coring room with the others.
About ten minutes later Shazza reemerged and seemed a little ticked off. She muttered something under her breath about Riddick being an asshole then walked back to the sand cat. Racheal thought seriously about telling Shazza about Johns attacking her in the bathroom that day, and of him being a merc but she thought better of it. The last thing she wanted to do was cause riffs in their relationships.
She went back to the sand cat with Shazza and resumed her role of handing her tools. From her vantage point she could see the skiff perfectly. She saw Johns leading Fry inside of the skiff. Riddick wasn't far behind. He didn't go in though, he just sat outside and started shaving his head with what looked like axel grease.
"It's the one with a blue handle." Shazza was saying when Racheal came back to herself.
"Sorry," muttered Racheal grabbing a large wrench, but it was too late Shazza had already followed Racheal's eyes to where Riddick sat. Shazza sighed deeply.
"You could go talk to him." she offered.
"Nah, you need my help." Racheal declined.
"Well, I'm finished here actually. Few more bolts to tighten and it should work." She took the wrench and went back to the Sand Cat's engine. Racheal had started walking toward Riddick when Johns remerged from the skiff. She stopped in her tracks. She didn't want to get in the middle of their power struggle. So, instead she walked back over to the main hall, where the water had been laid out earlier. Paris and Imam was there. Imam was on his knees praying and Paris was looking glad to have some company.
"Hello again, Racheal." he said, looking at her instead of the skiff which he had also been staring at.
"Hi Paris." She wondered when they had gotten on a first name basis with each other.
"How's the Sand Cat coming?" he asked her looking in Shazza's direction.
"Should be working now," she replied. "Shazza said it was almost done."
"Good to hear." he smiled. "Never thought I would be this ready to get back into space."
"Yeah, the heat is unbearable." She didn't want to say anything about the deaths of Ali and Zeke with Imam being that close. Paris just gave a slight nod and took another drink of water.
Johns came over. He looked at Racheal with a look close to contempt, or maybe she was imagining it. He looked pale and clammy all of a sudden. Much less in control than he normally looked. He walked past them in a hurry and into the building. She noticed him shaking as he past. It seemed to dawn on her in a minute. Riddick's comment about illegal substances, him shaking like that and the pale face in the beating sun. Racheal had seen enough strung out kids in her line of work to notice drug withdrawal when she saw it. So, Johns was an addict. 'Lovely,' she thought quickly before Shazza came over and said that the Sand Cat was in working order.
"That's wonderful." said Paris.
"I thank you two ladies for getting it running." said Imam, finally getting up off his knees.
"All the thanks goes to Shazza." smiled Racheal. "All I did was hand her tools."
"Well," Shazza smiled back, "It got the job done in half the time."
Racheal smirked at herself and gave a sarcastic roll of her eyes as though to say 'yeah right.'
A upset looking Fry came by in a hurry and walked into where Johns had gone inside. Shazza and Racheal exchanged raised-eyebrow glances.
Riddick was nowhere to be seen. Racheal was disappointed he wasn't staying nearer to her, but everyone, even Riddick, had been busy getting the ship repaired and ready for flight, and Racheal had been busy with Shazza at the SandCat.
She wasn't sure who spotted it first, a large shadow rising on the horizon. Everyone stood dumbfounded staring at it. Comments like 'What is it?' and 'Oh my God.' seemed to be the only sound. Fry had emerged and saw it too. Shazza seemed to come back to herself before any one else and stated that the sand cat was solar and ran off to get it.
They all loaded into the SandCat when Shazza returned. Racheal had been shoved in a little closer to Paris than she would have liked, but he wasn't complaining, which was a first for him.
The planet on the horizon was rising higher and higher. It was inevitable, an eclipse was coming. The idea of pitch darkness wasn't a happy thought. The careened thru the landscape at high speed, even knocking over a pile of large bones as they went.
When they reached the crash site everyone jumped out of the SandCat and went to work getting the power cells. Shazza, however, remained at the drivers seat to keep the engine going. Racheal saw Paris run off in the direction of the cargo hold, presumably to get more of his things that he had left there. After the power cells were loaded onto the SandCat it became quite apparent that they were too late. The sun in the sky was already half covered, causing long shadows to cover the ground. The SandCat's engine died, even though Shazza worked hard to keep it going. That's when they heard the sounds. Loud screeching on the horizon. Paris heard it too because he yelled for them to flee.
Racheal took off in the direction of Paris, as did almost everyone else. Only Shazza and Riddick lagged. Shazza still trying the egnition on the SandCat, and Riddick scanning the horizon with his goggles off.
The rest of the survivors had reached the cargo hold with Racheal. They piled inside and watched as Shazza and Riddick finally began running toward them. Swooping birdlike creatures dive bombed Riddick and Shazza, who ducked to the ground just in time. They could see them coming back around for another swoop. Jack yelling at Shazza to stay down. Shazza didn't listen. She jumped up and began running again. She didn't get 2 feet before the creatures swarmed her. A silent scream escaped Racheal as Shazza was ripped into two pieces and flown off right in front of them. They all could see Shazza's expression as she disappeared over the roof of the cargo hold. Riddick was walking slowly and purposefully now back up to the cargo-hold. Racheal's scream finally left her throat and turned into a sob. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked around to see concern playing on Johns face as he tried to comfort her. She quickly and hatefully shrugged off John's hand, and then went barreling thru him into the dark corridor of the upside down cargo-hold.
She stood propped against the wall inside. Her head staring down. She felt emptier than she had since this whole thing had begun. Shazza had been her friend, and now she was gone.
The rest of the survivors had now piled into the corridor. Racheal felt what was unmistakably Riddick's hand on her cheek. He caressed her now, briefly. Letting her know he cared. Then she heard his clunk of footsteps go farther into the corridor.
They all trekked thru the barren wasteland. Fry leading and Riddick bringing up the rear. He was carrying the power cell, which looked extremely heavy. Racheal was somewhere in the middle by Shazza, who spent most of the journey in silence.
Jack kept asking Racheal questions about Riddick, and when he realized she wasn't talking he went to go and find someone else to talk to. Racheal couldn't help but feel bad for Shazza. She tried to imagine how she would feel if Riddick was attacked. Probably scared and lonely, but that was just her, Shazza seemed much stronger than that.
They reached an old deserted mining village. There was at least an inch of dust on everything in sight. They all made a b-line to the skiff that was on the opposite end of the colony.
"Normally I can appreciate antiques, but this…" began Paris when they reached the abandoned skiff. Paris taking another large draught from a bottle of liquor.
"It'll work," said Johns offhandedly, "As long as the electricity adapts."
Racheal wondered why he was so confident, but then she remembered he was confident about most things.
"Its not a star jumper." Shazza observed.
"Doesn't need to be…" began Riddick. "Take it up to the Soltrack shipping lane. Stick out a thumb. Bound to get picked up. Isn't that right, Captain?" He directed at Fry. Who in turn ignored him and mentioned something about needing help loading the power cell into the skiff. Everyone seemed to exchange meaningful glances at each other. All wondering how he knew about shipping lanes. Riddick advanced to help her but Johns stopped him and told him to go look for something to patch the wings with.
Racheal went to help Shazza work on a Sand Cat that had also been abandoned near by. It was only the two of them, and the help mostly consisted of Racheal handing Shazza the tools that she asked for. After about half an hour of working Shazza took a break and sat down in the sand cat's drivers seat. Racheal stood next to her, taking in the landscape.
"So, you wanna tell me what's really going on between you and Riddick?" Shazza asked after a moments rest.
"What makes you think there's something going on?" Racheal asked, looking at her feet.
"Let's see," Shazza said with a knowing smile. "he cut your restraints back at the crash site, when Johns let him go he went over and stood beside you, and unless I'm not much mistaken you keep trying to catch a glimpse of him over there." she tossed her head toward the village.
Racheal smirked at how observant Shazza had been, then sighed heavily. "I don't really know what's going on between us, if anything. I'm not even sure if he's capable of…" she broke off.
"Love?" Shazza asked. Racheal didn't answer. She was deep in thought. "Do you love him?" Again, Racheal didn't answer. "Ok," laughed Shazza, "Better question…Do you trust him?"
"Yes." she didn't hesitate. Giving an awkward smile, "Yeah, I do." Shazza nodded, giving Racheal a half smile.
"Well, that's something." then she went back to work on the Sand Cat.
'Yeah, something.' thought Racheal.
Fry approached a bit later, saying that they had water in a main room of the colony. Shazza and Racheal followed Fry back, laughing together about a joke that Shazza had told.
It took a few seconds for Racheal's eyes to adjust to the inside of the room. When they did she noticed that the others had water spread out on a table in several glasses. Racheal grabbed one and handed it to Shazza who took it and then said "Cheers." Johns came in followed by Riddick. Riddick quickly took off his goggles in the dimly lit room. The conversation was sparse until the topic turned to where the people who had run the mining colony went. Half of them thought the people had been taken off by a bigger drop ship, the rest, which included Riddick, thought they were all dead. The talk was interrupted by Imam, the Muslim, bursting in and asking if anyone had seen Ali, a child that was traveling with him. At Riddick's suggestion, they all went to the coring room. Johns blowing off the lock allowed them entry. Weird thing was it was locked from the inside. The light from the opened doors caused some bird looking things to fly away, down into the earth. A bit later they found Ali's body. It had been pecked over by something. The smell of exposed flesh in the heat made Racheal's stomach churn, or maybe it was the fear of whatever that was that did such a thing to a little boy. Whatever it was, Racheal ran out of the coring room and almost threw up outside. Ali's torn face springing back up in her memory. Shazza was beside her in a second, patting her back asking her if she was ok. When her gag reflex had subsided she gave Shazza an apologetic smile.
"Yeah," she said leaning back up against coring room exterior wall. "I wasn't expecting that."
"I don't think any of us were." said Shazza. "You sure you're alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Racheal half laughed at herself. "I'm just going to stay out here a bit longer, catch my breath.
"Suit yourself." she said and walked back into the coring room with the others.
About ten minutes later Shazza reemerged and seemed a little ticked off. She muttered something under her breath about Riddick being an asshole then walked back to the sand cat. Racheal thought seriously about telling Shazza about Johns attacking her in the bathroom that day, and of him being a merc but she thought better of it. The last thing she wanted to do was cause riffs in their relationships.
She went back to the sand cat with Shazza and resumed her role of handing her tools. From her vantage point she could see the skiff perfectly. She saw Johns leading Fry inside of the skiff. Riddick wasn't far behind. He didn't go in though, he just sat outside and started shaving his head with what looked like axel grease.
"It's the one with a blue handle." Shazza was saying when Racheal came back to herself.
"Sorry," muttered Racheal grabbing a large wrench, but it was too late Shazza had already followed Racheal's eyes to where Riddick sat. Shazza sighed deeply.
"You could go talk to him." she offered.
"Nah, you need my help." Racheal declined.
"Well, I'm finished here actually. Few more bolts to tighten and it should work." She took the wrench and went back to the Sand Cat's engine. Racheal had started walking toward Riddick when Johns remerged from the skiff. She stopped in her tracks. She didn't want to get in the middle of their power struggle. So, instead she walked back over to the main hall, where the water had been laid out earlier. Paris and Imam was there. Imam was on his knees praying and Paris was looking glad to have some company.
"Hello again, Racheal." he said, looking at her instead of the skiff which he had also been staring at.
"Hi Paris." She wondered when they had gotten on a first name basis with each other.
"How's the Sand Cat coming?" he asked her looking in Shazza's direction.
"Should be working now," she replied. "Shazza said it was almost done."
"Good to hear." he smiled. "Never thought I would be this ready to get back into space."
"Yeah, the heat is unbearable." She didn't want to say anything about the deaths of Ali and Zeke with Imam being that close. Paris just gave a slight nod and took another drink of water.
Johns came over. He looked at Racheal with a look close to contempt, or maybe she was imagining it. He looked pale and clammy all of a sudden. Much less in control than he normally looked. He walked past them in a hurry and into the building. She noticed him shaking as he past. It seemed to dawn on her in a minute. Riddick's comment about illegal substances, him shaking like that and the pale face in the beating sun. Racheal had seen enough strung out kids in her line of work to notice drug withdrawal when she saw it. So, Johns was an addict. 'Lovely,' she thought quickly before Shazza came over and said that the Sand Cat was in working order.
"That's wonderful." said Paris.
"I thank you two ladies for getting it running." said Imam, finally getting up off his knees.
"All the thanks goes to Shazza." smiled Racheal. "All I did was hand her tools."
"Well," Shazza smiled back, "It got the job done in half the time."
Racheal smirked at herself and gave a sarcastic roll of her eyes as though to say 'yeah right.'
A upset looking Fry came by in a hurry and walked into where Johns had gone inside. Shazza and Racheal exchanged raised-eyebrow glances.
Riddick was nowhere to be seen. Racheal was disappointed he wasn't staying nearer to her, but everyone, even Riddick, had been busy getting the ship repaired and ready for flight, and Racheal had been busy with Shazza at the SandCat.
She wasn't sure who spotted it first, a large shadow rising on the horizon. Everyone stood dumbfounded staring at it. Comments like 'What is it?' and 'Oh my God.' seemed to be the only sound. Fry had emerged and saw it too. Shazza seemed to come back to herself before any one else and stated that the sand cat was solar and ran off to get it.
They all loaded into the SandCat when Shazza returned. Racheal had been shoved in a little closer to Paris than she would have liked, but he wasn't complaining, which was a first for him.
The planet on the horizon was rising higher and higher. It was inevitable, an eclipse was coming. The idea of pitch darkness wasn't a happy thought. The careened thru the landscape at high speed, even knocking over a pile of large bones as they went.
When they reached the crash site everyone jumped out of the SandCat and went to work getting the power cells. Shazza, however, remained at the drivers seat to keep the engine going. Racheal saw Paris run off in the direction of the cargo hold, presumably to get more of his things that he had left there. After the power cells were loaded onto the SandCat it became quite apparent that they were too late. The sun in the sky was already half covered, causing long shadows to cover the ground. The SandCat's engine died, even though Shazza worked hard to keep it going. That's when they heard the sounds. Loud screeching on the horizon. Paris heard it too because he yelled for them to flee.
Racheal took off in the direction of Paris, as did almost everyone else. Only Shazza and Riddick lagged. Shazza still trying the egnition on the SandCat, and Riddick scanning the horizon with his goggles off.
The rest of the survivors had reached the cargo hold with Racheal. They piled inside and watched as Shazza and Riddick finally began running toward them. Swooping birdlike creatures dive bombed Riddick and Shazza, who ducked to the ground just in time. They could see them coming back around for another swoop. Jack yelling at Shazza to stay down. Shazza didn't listen. She jumped up and began running again. She didn't get 2 feet before the creatures swarmed her. A silent scream escaped Racheal as Shazza was ripped into two pieces and flown off right in front of them. They all could see Shazza's expression as she disappeared over the roof of the cargo hold. Riddick was walking slowly and purposefully now back up to the cargo-hold. Racheal's scream finally left her throat and turned into a sob. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked around to see concern playing on Johns face as he tried to comfort her. She quickly and hatefully shrugged off John's hand, and then went barreling thru him into the dark corridor of the upside down cargo-hold.
She stood propped against the wall inside. Her head staring down. She felt emptier than she had since this whole thing had begun. Shazza had been her friend, and now she was gone.
The rest of the survivors had now piled into the corridor. Racheal felt what was unmistakably Riddick's hand on her cheek. He caressed her now, briefly. Letting her know he cared. Then she heard his clunk of footsteps go farther into the corridor.