Disclaimer : Not mine and it depresses me.
Note : An update, which has a bit of blood in it. Yay!
Valley of Death
Chapter Seven – Striking Back
The greatest place in the world to hide is where everyone expects you not to be. Before the war, even before running away from home, Jack had been rather good in this particular area. Hide and seek had been her favorite game, but back then it had been hard to find anyone who wouldn't give up after the first round of being the seeker. No one ever thought to look under the kitchen sink or behind the water heater.
Only one person ever found me…Jack sighed and leaned back against the wall, watching the spaceport for any sign suspicious enough to warrant moving her new hideout. She was in one of the old hangars on the backside of the port, the rundown side that only got used in cases of overflow for shipping. That hadn't happened in a while, not since she'd managed to steal a ship where the pilot was more worried about staying alive than following orders.
She'd taken the computer chips from the ship as a joke, but apparently they had something important on them, so now, according to the news reports, she had a nice little price on her head.
Like Riddick's only they're not going to take me to the slam…nope. Hijacking in the middle of a planetary civil war…that's treason, isn't it? That's automatic death sentence, no lawyers, no judge, no trial. Just a firing line and maybe a last cigarette…
Jack let out a laugh and kicked her foot against the wall, listening to the echo the sound created in the empty space of the hangar. She looked back out over the runways and noticed a ship parked near the edge of the dividing line between the modern port and her territory. It was steel grey with more than a few scorch marks burnt into the paint along with what appeared to be more than the standard amount of weaponry for a civilian ship.
Shrugging, she grabbed in her pack for the pair of binoculars she'd managed to knick off some tourist earlier that week and turned her attention back on the ship, peering through the lenses.
"Definitely not civilian," she muttered to herself, surveying a particularly nasty looking gun turret mounted on the underside of the left wing. Movement at the back of the ship caught her attention, and she turned her gaze to see a small group of people waiting outside for the loading ramp to lower. By the weaponry they carried, Jack could come to a certain conclusion about what they were.
Mercs…Jack was about to turn and put the binoculars away when she caught sight of something that made her blood freeze. Eyes wide, she looked back, catching a glimpse of what the mercs were dragging onto the ship.
"Riddick."
With that statement, she shoved the binoculars back in her bag and threw the straps over her shoulders before scrambling down from her perch in the rafters. She hit the ground at a run, dashing out the back way and into the shadows between the buildings that would take her closer to the new side of the port. As she ran she tried not to think about the fact that she had no plan or that the only thing remotely dangerous that she had with her besides her boot knives was the combat knife she'd carried back on Kartos.
Those are not going to do much good against four guys with guns, so what the fuck are you thinking Jack?
Ignoring herself, Jack skidded to a stop at the side of one building, glancing around the corner to see where she was in relation to the merc ship. It was sitting maybe thirty meters away, the ramp still lowered.
And why is it still down? Hell, if I were them I'd have secured the ship by now…
She took in a deep breath, steadying her lungs after the run even though it had been a relatively mild one compared to that chase back on Kartos. She had a scar on her leg from that one, but thankfully the damage hadn't been too bad. Thinking back on that, it was hard to believe that she had managed to even survive to be standing there right then.
She stared at the loading ramp and glanced around. The port was empty except for a few people mingling around the gate a long ways off.
Shit, are they waiting for someone? Yeah, that's it. No way there's only four of them.
With that thought she began to formulate her plan, walking away from the wall towards the ship. Her steps carried her to the end of the ramp and for a moment she stood there, peering inside. She heard voices, someone laughing, and the what sounded like someone's fist hitting flesh. At that she stepped onto the ramp, climbing it as quietly and quickly as she could, reaching the top in time to catch a snatch of the conversation.
"Shit, where the fuck is Ace?" asked the raspy voice of someone who'd smoked too many cigarettes. "Gonna smack him one, the stupid shit. Three hours my ass, the parylitics already wearing off. I do not want to listen to this fuckhead making smartass comments while I'm flying."
Jack allowed herself a grin as she glanced about the back of the ship, taking in her surroundings. Apparently the mercs had turned this section of the ship into makeshift living quarters, for there were a few cots to one side and what appeared to be a small kitchen in the opposite corner. Creeping silently in, she dropped her bag on one of the cots, still listening as she looked around.
"Maybe you should have read the label, Varnes," rumbled a familiar voice and Jack snickered silently to herself. Riddick sounded exactly as she remembered.
"Shut up," snapped Varnes raspy voice accompanied by the sound of fists hitting flesh she'd heard earlier. "Leon, go get Ace so we can get the hell out of here."
"Sure thing," muttered another voice, less raspy with more of a dim air.
Footsteps rang out in the hall and Jack stepped to the side of the wall, pulling out her knife as the sound grew closer. She only saw the side of the merc one instant before she let the blade fly out, jamming it at an angle in the back of his neck, right at the base of the skull. He died almost instantly, body falling forward with a thud that was way too loud against the metal floor.
Blood pooled around his head as Jack bent to retrieve her knife, glancing down the hall, but the blade got stuck against the bone. The tip of it snapped off and Jack let out a curse, then mentally kicked herself.
"What the fuck was that?" came Varnes' voice echoing down the hall, more footsteps accompanying it. Jack set her knife aside and stood, stepping away from the dead merc and towards the small kitchen. She grabbed the first thing she laid eyes on and turned back to the door just as the merc stepped through. "What the-"
He looked at her, then down at leon and the broken knife on the floor, then back up, a bewildered expression on is face. In that moment of hesitation, Jack lashed out, kicking him in gut and knocking him back. The surprise lifted from Varnes' face and he made to go for his gun, but Jack punched him if the jaw, snapping his head back up long enough for him to see what was coming next.
The spoon that Jack had grabbed from the kitchen; she shoved it ito his eye and he let out a pained scream, arms thrashing out to throw her off. She let them hit her, twisting the spoon before yanking it back out with a sickening squelch. Varnes clawed at his face, blood and the jelly-like gooey substance that makes up the retina leaking out of his socket as he shouted.
His shrieks had drawn the last two mercs from the front of the ship running down the hall, but Jack was prepared this time, for in the process of rendering Varnes incapacitated she had also grabbed his gun. No sooner had the last two nameless ones stepped into the room did they find bullets tearing apart their vital organs. Jack emptied the clip, then spun and buried the heel blade of her right boot in Varnes' neck, cutting off his screams.
Looking around, she dropped the empty gun and walked over to loading ramp, glancing out at the docks to see that there was no one running to investigate the noise. Apparently the mercs had parked their ship far enough away from the rest of the docks for the noise to go unnoticed. Smirking, she closed the hatch and turned back into the ship, picking up her bag before stepping back over to Varnes' body.
He was still twitching slightly as she searched through his pockets, a small puddle of blood having formed from the gash in the side of his neck. She found a key card in the pocket of his shirt and stood, peering at it for a moment before turning to the front section of the ship. She paused just outside the doorway to take a look at the room, noting the cryo-jump seats mounted against the walls behind the cockpit.
Cryo…I hate cryo…
And there he was, chained up a lot like the time she'd first seen back on that hellhole planet, jet black goggles covering his eyes and a non-expression on his face. He also looked like he hadn't shaved in at least a week.
"You just going to stand there?" he asked, turning his head slightly to look at her.
"Maybe," Jack said, glancing down at the key card in her hands. "Maybe not."
"This isn't a game, Jack," Riddick growled. She blinked, surprised because she hadn't expected him to recognize her, which was exactly the reaction he'd been expecting apparently, for he smirked slightly. "You want to get out of here before the last one comes back, I suggest you undo these chains."