Chapter Eleven: Guilt Will Destroy You
River was becoming more and more aware of an extra pair of echoing footsteps coming from behind her. They were barely audible but when she stepped lightly she caught ear of them. Every time she quickened her pace so did her follower. Whenever she turned around to look she could see no one, but she knew they were there, she could still hear them. Breaking in a run, she turned every corner she came to; taking a right, then a left then another right, until someone's foot stopped her. Hitting the ground some force, she winced as her wrist clicked from the impact. Rolling over she found herself being stood over by several silhouettes. The first thing she knew was a woman's voice.
"Are you sure it's this one? She's a little too scrawny for my reckonin'."
The man who seemed to be in charge responded with an acknowledging tone, looking down at the girl in question.
"It's this one. I can tell…"
"How?"
The leader knelt down and held River's chin in his hand for a moment, studying her eyes for a few seconds before standing back up and looking to his comrade.
"Look at her eyes. She wasn't running from us."
The two voices continued to discuss something of her while another man picked her up off the floor and handcuffed her hands behind her back. The sudden change in positioning left stars floating in front of her eyes for a short moment.
"Back to the ship. He wouldn't have left planet yet, and this one's gonna come in useful."
The leader looked at her before another man took hold of her arms sharply and started to lead her forward down the alleyway while the rest strolled behind.
Riddick sat down on a bar stool and ordered a drink. After refusing to take his hood down and breaking a man's wrist in confirmation that it wasn't going to be coming down any time soon, he focused on remaining just another civilian in the over crowded bar. After downing his drink he glanced behind him and out of the musky window at the docking stations opposite. Once he spotted his ship still in place he glanced around the contents of the bar, there were several pilots due to the location and it was fairly quiet. The small old fashioned Tv above the bar was on the news channel and the usual reports were buzzing out, murder, theft and Riddick. He smirked at the report on him spurted out that he was reported to be on seven different planets at the same time. There were blurred images of supposed snapshots of the escaped criminal; they were useless in informing the planets what he looked like, apart from a bald blur in black. Then another pictured flashed up onto the screen of a figure in the background, and then it zoomed in on the figure, a skinny girl with a blue dress and scrawny ginger hair. She seemed cold and skittish; she was looking behind at another figure, taller, with its back to the camera. It zoomed in once again, but on the other figure, it was a man; muscular, bald with a black band around the middle of his head and all in black. A serious male voice came over as the picture of a girl and Riddick came up onto the screen.
"This girl is travelling with Richard B. Riddick and should be held as a danger to the public. If you sight her or Riddick, do not, I repeat DO NOT approach either but report it to the local authorities or to the mercenary guild on…"
The bar door continued to swing on its hinges as Riddick sprinted down the street.
