(Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine.)
GORE ALERT. Necessary, but you'll see why...
Can I just say "THANKS"? All your reviews make my day. I went to see an author (who wrote Big Fish) speak last night and he said, "If you start to write a story and you know where it's going, it's going to be bad." I started this one having no idea where it was gonna go and so far, I'm really pleased. It'll start to be a little but more pairing-ish in this chapter.
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"Oh, come off it, Johns." My tone was more than annoyed. "I'm sick of all your blame-game bullshit."
"Nobody asked you."
"I don't give a fuck. You can't see what's attacking them and that scares you," I replied, glaring. He stepped forward, his jaw working firmly.
"You woulda killed us, hack?"
"If it meant saving my own ass, yes," I replied and looked at the others, then back at Johns. "You would've done the same thing, Johns. It's instinct."
"How would you know?" He seemed interested now.
"Because that's what happens. I don't blame her!" I yelled and hoisted the chains on my back. "How about we all shut the hell up and go? I'm tired of standing here, arguing about things we can't change." Everyone was silent. But slowly they picked up their things and we started moving again. Royston moved slowly up to Riddick and began to talk. I tried to lean my ear in but they took large strides, distancing themselves immensely from the rest of us.
"What do you think they're talking about?" the kid turned to the holy man beside me.
"Probably about how to cross the canyon...ways to get out," the man replied and the kid nodded, raising her flame higher.
Riddick swiftly glanced behind him at us. I knew. The look in his eyes was enough to tell me he was thinking about death. Carolyn stopped.
"Slow down," she whispered and we obeyed, easing up slightly on our pace. We were now creeping along and I saw Riddick lunge for the gun.
"Leave the cells! GO!" I yelled, ducking at the shotgun blast and we all ducked, running away with the light.
"Follow the tracks!" Carolyn bellowed behind her and we did as she said, finding the tracks and running quickly along them. A sudden yank on my shirt sent me tumbling backwards and my back slamming against the dirt.
"You two in it together? Kill us both?" Johns screamed in my face and I saw the light of Carolyn, the kid, and the holy man fading away. He was now gripping the front of my shirt and I grabbed his wrists, pulling them as hard as I could.
"Do you want to die?" I replied and he smiled.
"Oh, I'm not dying," he laughed and I kicked my feet. His body weight kept me still, but I kept thrashing. My body began to ache and he didn't budge. The shotgun was between my eyes, cocked. One last push...
He groaned and rolled off, grabbing his throat, right at the Adam's apple. I kicked the gun away from us and climbed on top of him, my knee firmly in his groin.
"Let me tell you something," I growled, "I've been starving too fucking long to let your ass kill me. I've killed too many people to give up now..." A confession in the passion. His eyes widened and I swallowed, realizing my slip. He took the moment to kick me off and grab his gun again. My head smashed to the ground and the sore wound opened again, spilling blood over the dirt.
"Kate!" the kid's voice echoed in the darkness and I tried to speak, but his hand was on my throat. His finger was pulling the trigger. But almost like a dream, I shoved him over me and the gun spilled on the ground, casings rolling on the dirt. I crawled, grasping a shell and the heavy gun. Johns was already up and running toward me. Pull it back, blue-side last, close it, up, shoulder, aim...A blast echoed in front of me. Blood, brains, skull littered my hands, the gun, and the front part of my body. Johns flopped down like a rag doll, his face caved in from the powerful shot. He was dead.
I sighed, tears running down my face in awkward joy and I dropped the gun. The light was coming toward me and the clicking increased. They appeared as I wiped the bits of flesh from eyes, smearing blood over my face and into my hair. Relief.
They all curled in fear and I looked up, eyes glazed in tears. Riddick had bits of blood stuck to his arms and he smiled. The deal was done.
"He was going to ghost me." It was all I could manage. Eerily, they all understood, not outraged at my action. CLICK CLICK CLICK.
"Let's go," Riddick said gravely and we all followed, grabbing up the power cells that had been abandoned before. Johns and Royston's bodies were now being devoured, fought over by the creatures. We all ran behind him and stopped as he halted before the canyon.
"Light them all in max. We're going in there like a big fucking sled. Get the girl under a sled so they don't see her. You two pull." Riddick pointed to Carolyn and me. I nodded, turning to the kid. The last little holy kid helped us mold a perfect shell out of the sled metal around the girl and I could see Riddick and the holy man having a conversation. Riddick didn't smile once. A fucking comedian and he was too stubborn to listen to anyone. I shook my head.
"Now!" Carolyn and I ran quickly through the canyon, torches held. Riddick pulled 200 pounds of stubborn cell weight while the holy man led us all. The hatchlings on the ceiling sprang to life, swishing and flying around, cutting each other in the frenzy to detect us. The blue of their blood mixed with the red on my dry skin, making a purplish run-off down my arms.
"What do we do?" Bodies of the animals had piled at the exit and both Carolyn and I were stumped.
"They're fucking stairs!" Riddick bellowed and we began to climb. But our load became light. The girl squealed, falling down the pile of bodies and I reached for her hand, jerking her up at the last minute. The muscles in my arm were ripping steadily and I groaned to pull her back up. She let out another squeal as a black shadow dipped in front of us, its monstrous blade reared to split us in two. But it moaned in pain and guts spilled onto the ground below us and the body tumbled down into the blackness. Riddick put away his shiv and hoisted the cells back up. "Didn't know who he was fuckin' with."
"Suleiman!" The other holy kid. Popping out of the darkness, the kid looked tired. The holy man sighed.
But as he did, the kid's eyes widened and he was swiped swiftly back into the darkness, like the dealer had been taken away.
"Keep going!" Riddick screamed and we pulled ourselves up and out of the canyon, breaking into the night. It was like heaven to see the moon and the stars...a torch sputtered and I could feel something cool on my cheeks. Tears of joy? No, it didn't taste salty. Rain.
"Where's your God now? He's PISSING on me!" Riddick chuckled angrily and one torch exterminated itself. The torches were waning under the storm that raged.
"We can't make it!" Carolyn yelled to Riddick, who looked back at her. Blinking, he swallowed.
"Get in there." He pointed to a small fissure in the side of the canyon, hidden away from the rain. We all piled in and Riddick stepped back out in the rain, his shape glowing in the twilight. "Stay." We all nodded and he jogged off, the cells sliding easily in the mud.
"He's not coming back, is he?" The girl looked up with sad eyes. My heart leapt as I tried to find his disappearing figure in the darkness. I didn't know. He had made the deal: I killed Johns. I killed the bastard. I needed to get off this planet.
"What are those?" I looked up to where the holy man was pointing and saw softly glowing blue lights, wiggling on the walls of the crevice.
"How many bottles do we have? Let's get them in..." Carolyn extracted some bottles from the sleds and we began plucking the larvae from the walls. With two bottles glowing, Carolyn grabbed one, tying it around her neck. My eyes were wide.
"Where are you going?" I couldn't believe her. She managed a smile.
"Going to save us." And she left, leaving the three of us to silently sit in our hole. It was silent, rain pattering on the rocks outside, and I could feel the girl shift beside me.
"Why'd you kill him?" she whispered silently and I looked at her. Oh my God. Her small face, twisted in anguish. She shouldn't have been there...My hot tears began to mix with the rain on my face. I looked at the blood still in the creases of my hands, showing the contours of the same hands that had shot so many people...the stump of my left trigger finger had healed long before, the scar shiny in the night. But it wasn't an excuse. I had shot Johns in full conscience. But I knew I had to rid the group of him. Before he ruined anyone else's life. My fingers balled into fists.
"I'm tired of being pushed around," I replied, gasping through the tears, "I don't want to be a victim anymore. I've killed too many people because I didn't want to die and I thought I had stopped, but he held that gun to my face..." I was sobbing now and their eyes were soft and sympathetic. "I got in the Slam because I wanted something for my family: money. We starved for so long..."
"Child, the Lord has put you here for a reason..." the holy man extended his hand to my arm but I retracted.
"Why? So I could kill people and hack into computers and ruin people's lives? Is that what he wants?" my throat hurt from crying and tiredly trying to scream. They were silent and I could feel a small hand winding into mine.
"You're not a bad person. At least, I don't think so," the girl said in a small voice. My heart fell. Love. Such a long lost emotion...I had forgotten its warmth, its promise. That's why the flashbacks had frightened me so much.
The sled in front of us suddenly skidded away and a large figure stood there. Riddick. Bastard had a soul.
"You came back for us?" the girl's eyes were enormous.
"Yeah, yeah, we're all fuckin' amazed. Let's go," he motioned us up and we didn't object. We ran behind him, ducking behind rocks, splashing through the mud. But he stopped. "Listen." He put a finger to his lips and we were quiet. The creatures had huddled around a hole, lapping up the water greedily. Riddick broke out into a run, dragging us like linked paper dolls through a gap in the monsters. Water splashed around us and we reached a muddy rise, creatures now swarming near us. The girl suddenly detached and slid down the rise, feet first. In a flash, Riddick's arms had swiped the girl up and heaved her to me.
"You know the way, Murphy!" he screamed and I turned back, running ahead of the holy man and Carolyn. We ran breathlessly toward the lights of the skiff. The hatch was open and the holy man grabbed the girl aboard, me following. But Carolyn stayed.
"I'm going back for him..." she replied and screams, human and animal, echoed through the rain drops. She suddenly ran back, into the darkness, a glowworm bottle bouncing around her neck.
"What if they don't make it back?" the kid looked to me and I sighed.
"They're coming back. It's Riddick," I replied, going into the cockpit and finding that all the switches were on, the engine humming.
"Look!"
I rushed back to find the kid's finger pointed forward into the night. A bouncing light, coming back toward the ship slowly. I jumped from the back and caught a flash of a large head above the two figures, slicing wildly. My fingers clawed for a rock and I heaved it into the air, sailing for the head. It struck soundly but the blue light disappeared. Gone. But someone was on their knees, crawling slowly through the mud. I padded through it to find Riddick, bloodied and battered, struggling in the puddles.
"Go," he said weakly and his eyes swam with fear. Fear? I shook my head.
"No, come on. I'll carry you."
"Carry me?" he gasped as I put my arms under his pits, dragging him through the mud and to the light of the ship.
"Oh shut the fuck up Riddick and let me help you!" I groaned and he slowly lifted a foot, standing and stumbling with me to the ship. His weight burned my arms and I loaded him onto the ship, heaving his dead-weight legs and heavy boots in front of me. Something swiped at the metal beside me, drawing sparks and burning my skin. I jumped after him and slammed the hatch shut as hard as I could.
"Riddick, you gotta get up. I ain't pulling you any more..." I grumbled, taking his shoulders and pulling him into the cabin, next to a cot that had been constructed for sleeping. He grasped the side of the cot and I helped him tumble into the thick net. The ship lurched and scratching began on the sides.
"Kate!" the strangled cry was at the controls. I left Riddick and slowly slipped into the pilot's seat. Setting our coordinates, I turned the ship on. It shot upward and I sighed, my muscles gently relaxing. We were alive. But Carolyn...
"New Mecca?" the holy man's eyes were at the digits on the screen and I nodded.
"Apparently, we know some people," I smiled and he sat back down. We were now sailing above the dark planet, going toward the light. Light. Such a needed commodity. I stood and walked back toward the cot, where Riddick was slumped, eyes opened in slits. I turned down the light and they crept open, looking at me.
"I need that name." A smile broke on his face at my words. I sat across from his body, arms resting on my knees and my eyes on him.
"You did it," he rested his head back.
"Killed Johns?"
"Yeah. Didn't think you'd do it."
"Me neither. But I wasn't going to make it through this and still have cuffs on and a bit in my mouth," I looked toward the cockpit, where the girl and the holy man were milling around. Sunlight broke slowly and I shielded my eyes, then turning back to Riddick.
"Where we going?"
"Sol-Track and then New Mecca. I gotta see someone. Gotta place to stay, too."
"Room for one more?" His voice was soft and I grinned.
"Yeah. I guess."