Age of Nox
Chapter 15
Jack registered movement around her, but that was all she could do. Her shoulder blades rippled with pain every time she stirred, which dulled the bite of the cuffs on her wrists and ankles. She was blindfolded and had lost too much blood to focus on anything with sound, so she was surprised when she was lifted up and thrown over someone's shoulder. Her bruised and broken ribs burned and she coughed, tasting blood in her mouth.
"Just hold," Riddick hissed at the furious man next to him. He thought Toombs was going to commit mass genocide if he didn't stop him at this point. Those pictures had really gotten him bad and Riddick didn't want to know what would happen to the captors if Jack was dead.
"Fuck this shit, Dick," Toombs growled back and opened fire from behind a building, taking out the guards around the building they had tracked Jack to.
"Merc, I said hold!" Riddick's voice was raised but the man in question didn't hear him. "You're gonna get yourself killed and where will Jack be then?"
Toombs stopped.
"Good. I'll get us in." Riddick led the way in the shadows, over the dead guards and to the wall of the outer building. He listened through the wall and signaled for Toombs to start. The merc looked at the lock and pulled out a few tools, beginning to pick it. They couldn't risk much noise right now.
The lock dropped to the snow in a few seconds and Toombs held back, letting Riddick in first. He covered their tracks and threw the lock into a large pile of snow farther down the side of the building. He followed Riddick in and eased the sliding door shut, keeping an eye on his surroundings.
Where was she?
"Well, Caliber, looks like you've served your purpose." Pellon's voice brought her into semi-consciousness. "String her up, boys."
She couldn't manage any noise as her arms were jerked up, a chain between the cuffs that was hooked up to the ceiling. Jack just processed the feel of a ray of sunlight that crept through her blindfold. Her knees just hit the floor and she just let her body drop and moaned when her dislocated shoulder was pulled even further out of place.
"Let's give her a warm goodbye, shall we?" Before Jack could manage to tighten her muscles, a thick stick smashed into her side and she began to cough, tasting more blood and it began to drip from her mouth, over the metal bit and onto the floor.
"It's been fun." Pellon laughed and walked away, his 'workers' following him. But Jack heard a shuffle, a curse and a blaster being set off.
"You mother fuckin' son of a bitch!" She heard Toombs' voice over the groans of dying men.
He wanted to rip anyone to shreds when he saw her strung up, blood streaming from her mouth, down her neck and chest, staining the dirty cloth that covered her. His beast on the other hand wanted to do a little more than ripping.
"Get her!" He ordered and Toombs didn't need to be asked twice.
Jack fell forward when the chain was lasered, but instead of hitting the hard floor, it was a familiar and warm embrace. She let herself be carefully sat down on the floor while seemingly ungraceful hands gently eased the blindfold off, with the bit next while her eyesight focused.
"Jack, oh fucking hell…" Toombs managed to get off the cuffs with relative ease, letting them fall to the floor. "You listenin'?"
She nodded, gripping to him with the little strength she had left. Jack felt him pull away and she scrambled at first but was reassured when a warm shirt was pulled over her and his hands took away the wrapped cloth from her chest. It smelled like him.
"We gotta get goin', babe." But she held onto him, pulling him down. She pointed at her throat and he pulled a small flask from his belt and managed a weak chuckle when she eyed it warily. "It's water."
Jack ignored the dried blood all over her as she focused on unscrewing the top to the flask and taking a sip, her parched throat cracked clean with fresh water. Her hands shook as she gave the container back, but his warm ones encased hers.
"It's gonna be ok, hold on." Toombs easily scooped her up and held her close to him, her head leaning against his chest. She heard the yells of men and the nearly silent death that was Riddick. A crunch of bones, the shiv leaving the flesh, the squeak of boots through blood. "Jack, don't pass out on me, got that?"
"Yessir," she mumbled, craning her neck to see Riddick, who was approaching them. She saw his beast still unrestrained, that wild twist to his presence. "Rid-"
"Shh." In a gesture she would have never expected, he lifted his hand to her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb. It was natural reaction for her to push into it and she could tell that her reaction told him she was ok. "Let's get outta here."
The walk out was literally a walk, the entire place reeked of death and Jack could only guess that the two men had a near field day with her situation. She could sense a near state of camaraderie between the two and was pleased to say the least, but she wondered what they had gone through to get to that point. She assumed Toombs had a least a few bruises and cuts to show the remnants of the fight.
They got to the hangar undetected and Jack only breathed easily when the ramp door closed. Without words Riddick went to the cockpit to start up the engines and Toombs took Jack to the back to the med bay. Just as he set her down on the table the ship rocked with the force of a hit that jarred Jack to her core. Toombs was thrown off balance and had hit his head on a counter, leaving him unconscious. She knelt next to him, ignoring her dizziness, checking his head.
"Toombs! Shit, those motherfuckers are gonna stop at nothing." She cradled his head in her lap and was somewhat relieved to see that there was no blood. Swallowing, Jack shakily stood and grabbed a few bandages and began to wrap her most major wounds. She was thrown about the small room when another hit rocked the ship. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," she snarled, tearing the bandage with her teeth and quickly fixing the knot. Jack grabbed a filled syringe off the counter and tucked it in one of her wrist bandages.
She grabbed Toombs' blaster, ran to their room where she tossed the mattress to the floor and pulled back a tile. It was their small hidden arsenal. She armed herself before bracing for another hit.
"Toombs!" Riddick's voice echoed through the small ship.
Running out of the bedroom she skidded into the main room where Riddick stood, shivs out.
"He ain't awake," Jack replied, walking towards the door, holding her dislocated arm.
"And you should be walking the other way, get out of here!" Riddick yelled.
"Shut up and start up the engines," she began to key in the code for the ramp. Riddick's hand shot out from behind her and grabbed her good arm, pulling it back.
"I'll dislocate this one if it will get you stay in this damn ship. You don't need to do this, we'll just blast off this rock." Riddick tried to edge her away from the ramp but she shook him off.
"Into a small army of Pellon's ships?! Fuck no! We take out these idiots and at least we're safe for a short time! That time we can use to get off this planet and avoid being eradicated!" She breathed heavily, her wounds making her weak. "Stay here." Jack's eyes bore into his. Promise me."
"No, I'm going, you are staying here and there is no argument." Riddick went to move past her to key the ramp down.
"Riddick, stay here." Her voice held no chance of changing her mind. "Get out of here with Toombs. If you go there, you probably won't come back and I can't do that, I can't live with that." Jack ignored the scent of Toombs on the shirt she was wearing.
"And you will come back?!" He growled out, not understanding this. He stood directly in front of her, staring down at her.
"Riddick, I'm sorry." She looked down, clenching her fists. "And tell Toombs I love him." She looked up and Riddick saw guilt but felt a pinprick before he could do anything. It was strong, whatever it was and he fell backwards as she turned and keyed in the code, the ramp lowering down. His eyesight was going blurry, but he heard another code being keyed in as the ramp shut and his voice going hoarse yelling for her.
Jack ignored Riddick's shouts and breathed deeply as the ramp to the ship locked shut. There were about twenty men, all armed and all with their weapons pointing at her. She took a few seconds to judge them before walking out into the hangar, with no weapons in sight.
"So, you want them?" She motioned back towards the ship.
"You ain't gonna stop us, bitch," one yelled back from behind the safety of crates.
"And you're going to stake your lives on that?" She called back, palming a blade in one hand and a getting ready to pull a handgun with the other. "Cause you're gonna have to get through me to get to them."
The battle started.
A man from behind shot out from the shadows, yelling with his blasters drawn. Just as he jumped to kick her down, she gracefully dipped and arched back, her knife slicing neatly across his throat and her foot following, knocking him out of the air and to the ground.
Nineteen to go.
Running forward, the blasters began to go off and she leapt into the air, back flipping through the space being fired through. One blast barely grazed her but other then that she landed atop a pyramid of crates a few seconds later, completely unharmed. Without wasting a second, she pulled out her handgun and began to fire, getting two between the eyes as they climbed up to get her. Blast fire was all around her as she fell to her stomach, grabbing a man who was climbing up and twisting his neck, satisfied at the crack and crumble of the body.
"You won't last long!" Someone shouted as she rolled off the crates, falling onto her back, her bruised and broken ribs flaring pain into her body.
"You," she stood, spitting blood from her mouth onto the ground. "Fucking wish."
Jack fell to one knee and pulled out another handgun and opened fire at the men hidden behind the crates farther from her. The pained yells were her sounds of success but the victory was short lived when someone jumped on her from above, crashing her to the floor.
He straddled her and punched her in the face, only to have the butt of her gun smash into his the side of his head. Thrown off balance, he leaned back and she slid out from under him, pulling up her gun and shooting him twice in the head.
Too late she heard the cocking of a gun and as she turned, a bullet ripped through her chest, lodging itself somewhere in her. She yelled out in pain, falling when another bullet deeply grazed the side of her leg.
Toombs shook himself awake, pulling himself up. He heard sounds of a serious fight outside. Muttering, he remembered what happened, the blasts to the ship. Jack had been sitting on the table…
His head shot up, looking for her but only small pools of her blood remained. Toombs scrambled to stand and ran out into the main room and nearly stepped on Riddick, who was lying on the floor.
"Shit, if Dick's in here…" he looked at the ramp and knew that he didn't have to check the rest of the ship for Jack. "Riddick!" He shouted, looking down at the unconscious convict. A growl emitted from the other man as silver eyes flickered open. Recognition and remembrance hit him as well and he stood, staring the ramp door. Toombs had already started in another direction, knowing exactly why the ramp wouldn't be working.
"There's another way off this motherfucking can, but I need your help, Dick, so stop with the puppy eyes and follow me!" Toombs shouted from down the hall, where he was pulling up tiles. He dropped through one and Riddick looked down before following, seeing various pipes and tanks. But he followed Toombs, only wanting to get to Jack.
Finally Toombs stopped, reaching the edge of the ship where smooth sheets of metal curved up. He crouched and with a knife, began to cut away at the edge of a tile labeled 'emergency'. But his hands shook, the blade falling out of place.
"Stand back." Riddick ordered, kneeling down. Taking two of his shivs, he edged them under the sheet and pushed down with all his weight and the tile broke free. Toombs tossed it aside and began to work at the next tile, which was the outermost one.
Jack limped, but ran all the same, firing behind her and knowing that bodies were falling. She glanced at the ship, wondering why the fuck the engines weren't going. That dosage should've only kept Riddick out for a few minutes, he would have fought it off by now. But a whizzing bullet that nearly nicked her ear brought her back into the situation and she fell behind some metal crates, breathing heavily.
She heard the footsteps of the booted men, coming closer to her small pile of crates. Clenching her jaw, she managed to look over the edge of the crate and see their positions. Without second thought, she slammed another magazine into the gun and swung around, firing at will.
The shot ricocheted into her and she saw memories as each bullet left the barrel.
-"Daddy! No!" She screamed, being shoved out of the house.
"Run Jackie! Get out of here!" He left a bloody handprint on her shoulder as he pushed her down to the sidewalk before running back inside, where Jack heard her mother raging.-
Another body fell.
-"This is the last call for the Hunter-Gratzner, please will all remaining passengers board the ship."-
Another yell split the air.
-The eclipse, the fear sinking into her as screeches came from beneath the sand.-
The men were closer, but she kept firing, her arm in pain but the numbness overtook it.
-"We're gonna be ok, right Riddick?" She asked as they blasted through the atmosphere.
"Yeah kid, we will." He looked down at her huddled form.-
The sound of the bullet tearing into the flesh was so close to her she thought it was her own. She could nearly see the whites of the eyes of her enemies.
-"You've earned your place, fuzz skull." Toombs rubbed her head as she sat up from repairing his systems.-
A man stepped onto the crate and she fell back, aiming up and realizing in horror that the clip was empty.
-His hands pulled her onto him and she moaned into his mouth, tangling her fingers in his hair.-
She opened her eyes when a body fell right next to her and looked up. Riddick's form stood on the crate, his shiv dripping. He stared down at her, goggled eyes still able to judge her.
"Dick!" Toombs' voice shouted from beyond the crates. Riddick disappeared from view and Jack struggled to sit up but the searing pain in her leg and arms kept her down. "Jack! Jack, where are you?!"
"Toombs!" She yelled, pulling herself closer to the crates for better protection. "Toombs!"
Suddenly he dropped from the top of the crates down next to her. They locked eyes but her heavy breathing broke it, making Toombs look down at her.
"Christ, what the fuck did you think you were doing?" He snapped, gathering her in his arms, but still staying behind the protection of the boxes.
"Keepin' you safe," she hissed when he pulled her closer to him, the bullet in her shoulder biting into her flesh. Just as she was about to continue, Riddick appeared again.
"You got your time, Jack, let's get the fuck outta here." He lead the way back to the kicked out tiles and she was carefully handled through the small entrance as Toombs sealed the tiles back into place, just climbing into the back hall as the engines kicked in.
Riddick manned the ship, setting up the hyperdrive, knowing that it was their only option once they got out of the atmosphere.
"She's in the med room, merc." He growled out, starting to power up the speed.
Toombs went into the med room, his breath catching in his throat when he saw her lying there, blood everywhere. Her breathing was shallow and her eyes closed.
"Hey," she managed, shifting her position. "Dose me, with the strongest shit we've got." Jack reached to the counter, grabbing a pair of large tweezers. Toombs did as he was told, knowing the next few minutes would be terrible at best.
"Inject me, in the arm." She ordered, the needle barely felt as it penetrated her skin. "Fuck," she hissed, digging the pair of tweezers into the wound, just able to feel the hardness of the bullet through the more pliable flesh. Her hands were slippery with blood and she lost her grip more than once but soon pulled out the bullet, dropping it to the floor.
Toombs immediately began wiping up blood, stopping only when her hand grabbed his shirt. They were going through the atmosphere. Clenching her hand into his shirt, she pulled him down over her and kissed him hard, taking him by surprise.
"I love you," she whispered, her breathing labored.
"Jack, no, just-" he was cut off as they were slammed into hyper drive. He fell over her and it was only minutes, but it felt like hours once they pulled into normal speed. "Alright, Jack, you listen to me," he started. But her eyes were closed, her chest wasn't heaving with hard breathing and as he stood, her hand fell from his shirt, limply dangling.
Wooo! Another chapter!
Hope you all liked it, I had trouble writing it. Like, a lot of trouble. The fight scene was different, but I think it ended up ok.
So!
What will happen? Jack's dead, right? Or is she?
Seeing how the next chapter is the last of this story, I'd love to hear what people want it to end up as, so give me ideas and I'll use as many as I can.
-Shamrock