"NO! JACK!!!!!!" he said as the Swede laughed maniacally.
He ran to her as the Swede stood waiting, laughing and taunting him. "JACK!" he shouted as he rushed to her.
A gun shot twice before Cavanaugh could get a bead on Riddick. Cavanaugh fell backward and hit the ground with a loud crack and thud.
Riddick and Kalifa looked up just in time to see Roper sitting up holding a pulse pistol, still smoking.
"JACK!" he said wiping the blood from her face. Her chest was covered with blood and he put his hand against her wound and saw the entry and exit of the bullet. It was between her shoulder blade and her collar bone. "No. No. no, no… God no…Are you with me Jack?"
Please wake up, you can't die now. Please you can't die now.
"ARE YOU WITH ME?" he shouted rousing her to consciousness. He removed his goggles and looked into her eyes.
"I was always with you." she choked losing consciousness quickly.
He gasped uncontrollably when he heard her voice. "Kill that son of a bitch." She said lifting her good arm up and touched his cheek before she passed out.
"My pleasure baby." He said laying her down. He kissed her cheek and wiped his hands on his pants, still clutching the shiv. "I'm gonna kill you motherfucker." He informed the giant without any trace of the human left.
"Do you think she's bleeding internally? She looks pretty pale." He taunted. "Do you think that Cavanaugh blew her lung apart? Heavy bleeding is common. Bet it hurts! I'm gonna gut you." the Swede said laughing as he pulled out two long slender knives. "I know your fighting style. Pathetic."
He wiped his hands and lunged at Riddick, who moved away from Jack. The Swede moved closer and kicked her unconscious body enraging Riddick further.
"Son of a BITCH!" snarled Riddick as he came up and knocked him into a wall.
A groan came out of her as he shot a glance to Kalifa who ran and picked her up and laid her down by Toombs and Roper, "If you wish to live pig, don't you dare move."
Riddick lunged at him growling, nothing but the animal left. There was no human left in his eyes, no trace of the man Kalifa came to know as brother.
What kept running through Riddick's mind was that Jack was dead, or as good as dead and he had nothing left to live for. He stood there a moment and realized that he didn't want to feel human any longer. And he welcomed the coldness that came with that realization.
She was gone. He didn't have to feel any longer…The relief was so palpable he embraced it gladly rather than feeling the torment of her loss.
Roper was so terrified by Riddick's transformation that he didn't dare move.
Kalifa took out his portable Sasha and ran it over Jack. "Kalifa, put pressure on the wound. We have entry and exit and a collapsed lung. We need to get her to the med lab ASAP."
"You!" He growled to Roper, "Press here and don't you dare move, or I will kill you myself."
"Father, we have a problem. Jack's been shot, prep the med lab. Riddick's got the Swede. Toombs is unconscious and we need to get her to the ship ASAP." He said as the mainframe Sasha let the crew know that Jack was coming hot and heavy.
A growl of absolute fury came when Riddick clashed against Johannson's brute strength. He watched the big blonde drop to the dusty ground and throw gravel dust in his eyes.
Riddick cursed loudly and staggered trying to right himself and momentarily didn't see the Swede's oncoming punch. It lifted Riddick off the ground and slammed him against the wall. "That's gotta hurt now doesn't it fish?"
Riddick's head came up and he spat blood on the ground. He closed his useless eyes and concentrated on the sounds. "Fuck you merc!"
What do you hear Riddick?
Heartbeats. Heavy breathing. Boots scuffing the dirt…
The Swede was loud and cocky and he used that to his advantage. In a sweeping arc, he brought up his arm and took Johannson in the gut blinking madly to get the dust out. He felt bones crack with such force he heard the giant grunt in excruciating pain.
What do you feel?
Movement, slower, and labored.
The Swede recovered quickly and as Riddick's eyesight returnedJohannson sliced Riddick up his back from the top of his pants to his mid back. A growl of agony escaped him as he looked at the big man and knew how this was gonna end and he looked forward to the pain he would inflict.
"Die you mother fucker." He growled grabbing him at the waist and slamming him against the wall. With a lightning quick move, he took a shiv from out of his boot and shoved it just under the fourth lumbar vertebrae and snapped it off.
The big man fell, screeching in obvious distress while Roper and Kalifa watched as Riddick climbed on his chest and roared torturously, "You killed her, you killed her…. You killed Jack! NOOOO! AGGGGGGGHHH AGHGGGGGH!" was his roar of agony as his hands pounded Johannson's chest again and again stabbing up and down so many times that in the end he was saturated with the merc's blood and matter.
"My brother, he is dead. We need to save Jack. RIDDICK." He shouted as Riddick rounded on him the demon of rage still in his eyes. "She's still alive!"
Jack! Alive, oh GOD! Breathe motherfucker, slow your ass down, look at her, not at the blood. He told himself over and over desperately trying to grab a hold of the rational.
After a few moments he sat up still astride the dead man and cocked his head as he looked up at Kalifa. "Why is that merc still alive?" he snarled pointing his bloody shiv at him.
"He's keeping Jack alive." He told Riddick as he looked and Roper had Jack in his lap and was keeping pressure on the wound.
"Rid…" a small frail voice croaked and he ran to her.
"Jack. Don't leave me baby. Stay with me…" he said running to her. "No, please don't do this. Stay please. Don't I can't do this without you… Remember the beach, the house, the garden, stay please. PLEASE!" he cried holding her in his arms. "Come on baby, stay with me… I love you so much."
"Don't kill him. He didn't…he…walked…away… Trust…me…" she said losing consciousness again. "Promise me…"
"You got yourself a reprieve but if she dies, so do you." he said pointing the bloody knife in his face. "Like him."
Roper was shaking so bad he couldn't breathe. He kept praying. God don't die, please God let her live…
"Get Toombs, and you," he said pointing to Roper, "help me with her or I'll gut you like a fucken fish. And I'll enjoy it much better than killing that piece of shit."
Roper got a look at Johannson and nearly wet himself. They lifted her and she groaned. Blood was dripping and Riddick pulled her against him. Roper pressed against the wound with both hands one on her collarbone, the other on her back.
He continued his mantra aloud, "God don't die, please God let her live…"
"You keep praying you piece of shit. You keep at it." Riddick said as Kalifa lifted an unconscious Toombs over his shoulder.
It took them fifteen minutes to reach the spaceport and it was dead quiet when they reached the restricted section. "Salim!" Riddick shouted and Jack flinched.
Dr. Janis and Anne came running with a stretcher and he laid her down on it. "Anne where's Layne?" he shouted in pain and very distraught.
Anne was shocked and frightened by his tone and all the blood. "Sleeping. God you're wounded."
"GET JACK!" He growled at her.
"Back off Riddick, Dr. Janis has her and when she starts to operate I will help her. Don't you dare yell at me now! Get yourself into that chair." She demanded looking at him so furious that she was shouted at.
He was in shock and she knew that even if he didn't. He found himself sitting down on a stool and staring at Jack on the table being worked on by Janis and Salim.
Kalifa had put Roper and Toombs into one of the crew quarters and locked the door running back to help where he could.
"I need a pressure dressing and an IV line run stat Anne, do that while I assess Riddick. Hello Riddick, my name is Janis, we haven't met."
Kalifa came in and plugged portable Sasha into the mainframe and Sasha's vid screen roared with life. "Collapsed lung, gunshot wound entry and exit. Shattered clavicle and we need to reinflate the lung as soon as possible… Pulse steady and blood pressure dropping."
"Line's in." Anne shouted grabbing a tray. "Next?"
"Run two units of plasma." Dr. Janis shouted as she cut away whatever fabric was still in the way. "That's a deep laceration Riddick, you're gonna need about 50 stitches. Salim, get a pressure bandage and hold it against his back until I get Jack stabilized."
Janis went back to Jack and put a new pair of sterile gloves on. "Prep for intubation."
Riddick watched in horror as they intubated Jack and Janis got the scalpel and chest tube. "Jack's lung is collapsed, we're going to reinflate it."
She looked at Riddick's pained face and got to work. "Sasha give me Jack's vitals. Where the hell is Kalifa?"
He ran back in and stood there waiting for orders. "Wash your hands and put these gloves on. Give me what I ask for and do it quickly. Anne, push epi 100 mgs."
Kalifa washed and stood next to her and watched as she repaired the damage caused by Cavanaugh's pistol. Cavanaugh used bullets and not a pulse weapon which made it easier but difficult at the same time. Janis shouted orders to Anne and Kalifa as they worked non-stop.
Riddick looked grave as they operated. He stared openly weeping and prayed. He begged God not to take her. He never had any use for God but in those moments he knew that one thing was true, he was nothing without her.
Please, not Jack, I can't do this without her, not my baby, please…
He lost consciousness due to blood loss as they hit the two hour mark. When he woke he was on a bed laying on his stomach. There was an IV attached to his arm and he saw a red tube. "What the fuck happened?" he asked trying to move. He groaned as every part of his entire torso screamed in pain.
"You passed out, we moved you to this bed and spent two hours stitching you up. That's what happened my son." Salim said holding his hand.
"Jack?" he asked pained and worried. Salim looked over to the bed next to him. Jack was unconscious and on a breathing tube. "Is she?"
"She lives. The gun missed her heart but nicked her lung. It shattered her collarbone. Jack's lung has been reinflated and a drain put in. Raphaella had to put pins and screws to repair it. She will recover. That is the worst of it. You, my son, have 72 stitches up your back.A liter of plasma and three broken ribs."
"Let me up." He said wincing.
"No. Not until the doctor sees you." he said firmly.
"Where's the baby?" he asked as the pain throbbed along his back.
"Sleeping. Anne has just fed him. You are lucky. I will get the doctor."
Dr. Janis walked over and looked at his chart. "Hey," she said rubbing his face like Jack would. "she's going to live. I've sedated her until she stabilizes more. She's going to be fine. It'll just take time. Do you want to get up?"
He nodded and she removed the IV and gave him a shot to help with the pain. "How bad was it?"
"I've seen worse. But she's strong. Sasha updated me on your recuperative powers. She'll heal faster because she's like you. You need to be careful. You lost a liter of blood. Now, I'll remove the breathing tube in a few hours and get her breathing on her own. Let her rest. I took almost four hours to repair the damage. It was on the same shoulder she got stabbed on. Her shoulder's okay but the collarbone will take a while to heal. But she's gonna recover, you keep thinking that."
Kalifa came in and helped him off the bed. "Let us get you out of these bloody clothes. Then we need to pay a visit to Toombs and Roper." He said giving him his arm.
Jack would live that's all that mattered. "Thanks Doc." He said and silently he thanked God.
Kalifa waited patiently until he came out of the bathroom. He washed the blood off him and was careful not to get his bandage wet. He stood there in a towel dripping.
"Feel more human my brother?" Kalifa asked as Riddick tried to stand straight. He walked over to the dresser and pulled out clean underwear and a pair of pants and a clean shirt.
"I will. Once Jack wakes up. I can't FUCK." he winced sitting on the edge of the bed. Kalifa walked to his wardrobe and pulled out a button down shirt, a black one; the first one he got his hands on and helped Riddick put it on. He rewrapped his ribs and helped him put his boots on. "Thanks."
"It's over. Now, let me help you, and then let us go and pay a visit on Toombs."
"Rise and shine merc." Riddick said throwing a pail of water on him.
Toombs woke with a start and squinted. "Riddick?" he said nervously.
The first thing he noticed was that he was sitting in the middle of the med lab handcuffed to a chair. On one seat sat Anne, then behind her stood Kalifa, next to him was Jack unconscious, the sounds of the ventilator burring and pushing air into her lungs. On the other side sat Riddick and Salim.
When his eyes focused he saw seething hatred and malice directed at him and he didn't like being restrained one bit.
"You just don't fucken learn do you?" Riddick spat rubbing his face.
He tried to be smug and cocky but Riddick came up fast and deadly with a shiv under his chin. "Listen up motherfucker cause I'm only gonna say this once."
Toombs gulped. "This is the LAST time you'll see my face. I catch you anywhere near me or mine and I will take my time and introduce you to all of your major organs, starting with this one." He said pointing the edge of the shiv at one of his eyes. "YOU HEAR ME?"
"I, uh, hear, you," he said and Riddick noticed an odd smell. He looked down and started to laugh and evil malevolent laugh that scaredToombs half to death.
Toombs had pissed himself.
"Fucken pussy. You tell those motherfuckers on Hellion Prime we're dead. Cause if you don't and I even smell mercs sniffing around us, I'll make it my personal mission in life to make my earlier threat a reality. Plus, I have a Doc to help me keep you alive so I can do it all over again. Ain't that right Doc?"
"Hello Harold." Dr. Janis said coming into the room from the hallway.
Toombs' sense of betrayal was so acute that his whimper of emotional pain was so loud Riddick found it ironic. "But… But… I trusted you."
"Yeah, I'm not sorry about that. You were right. Trust is for those who deserve it. It's men like you that make men like Farad more powerful. You see, Jack saved my daughter Fatima, and many others like her. I wasn't going to allow you to harm her or their son. My debt to her has been repaid." She said walking to stand behind Riddick putting a hand protectively on his shoulder.
He smiled a broad shit eating grin aimed at Toombs.
"But you gave a shit! I knew you did…" he said devastated. The horror of her betrayal was so acute that his heart shattered so completely that he almost succumbed to tears.
"I don't feel anything but revulsion for you. Nothing except disgust."
"Remember Toombs, I will warn you just this once. If I even smell your ugly ass near my family, your ass is mine." He said cocking his head and smiling an grin so sadistic that Toombs would have pissed himself again if he didn't already empty his bladder.
"Nighty night." Riddick said waving as Anne shot him in the chest with another dart.
Toombs' head lolled forward and Salim and Kalifa smiled feeling vindication. "Get him back on the ship and dope him for the trip back to Hellion Prime."
"Yes my brother. Father, let us go and take care of this," Kalifa said smug. "piece of filth."