Ironies and Things That go Bump in the Dark
Grave News
Riddick glaced upwards through a small tear in his blindfold. 'There. Johns you cocky son-of-a-bitch.' He wrenched his arms up over his head popping them both out of socket at the same time.
He grunted pained against his gag. But quietly brought his arms back down infront of him. He was no longer chained to the pipe. 'Johns you really cocky son-of-a-bitch.' Riddick thought as he grabbed the welding torch and quickly cut through his shackles.
He pulled the ball gag out of his mouth clenching it in his fist.
His goggles that were still in his belt were put over his eyes quickly and he slipped out of the broken hull silently. He looked up at the sky and was nearly blinded even though his goggles.
'Three suns. Gonna need water soon. Low oxygen, going to need that too. But for now my freedom is enough.' He thought running a short ways towards sunset dropping the gag and finding some solid rock to run back towards the blue sun.
He continued going at a steady pace. He lay on a ledge looking over a gulley waiting patiently.
And just like he expected the small scouting party came walking by. He got up knocking several pebbles down the dune. Johns turned rapidly whipping his gun around trying to spot Riddick.
Riddick had hidden behind a rock letting Johns gaze pass right by him.
He walked towards the graveyard the pink haired medic had noticed.
He was walking faster then them so he easily reached it before them. He found a small tusk from one of the smaller creatures bodies. He studied the shape and decided it would make a decent shiv if he sharpened it up.
He grabbed two more tusks about the same time and grabbed a sharpening stone. He then climbed up into the cavaty between one of the larger creature's eyes. He leaned back against the eye socket far enough back so he would be hidden from any one outside unless they were under him and looked straight up; but far enough forward so he could see anyone that approached the graveyard.
He began sharpening the shiv, glancing upwards every couple minutes to see if anyone was coming. And he sat there like that for a long while.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Sakura walked a short distance behind the rest of the group. The holyman's three disciples were running back and forth in the middle of the group chattering eagerly in arabic. Johns was walking ahead his gun slung over his shoulder in easy access. Fry was walking beside him looking around for signs of water. The holyman was also looking for signs of water.
Sakura shaded her eyes and looked around.
"Look at this." She heard Johns tell Fry. "Do you see what I see?"
"Trees." Fry stated.
Sakura walked over to them and held her hand out for the spyglass.
Fry handed the spyglass over easily.
She looked at what they had seen and shook her head negitively. "Not trees. Bones." She corrected.
"Bones?" Fry asked incredously.
"Mm hm. Bones. Bleached by the sun. Moss has grown on top giving it some green to make it look like trees. No surface water could reach the top of the bones like that so it probabily rains somewhat regularly." Sakura explained as she handed the spyglass back. "Even if the animals died, they have to have been traveling somewhere." She told them heading towards the bones.
A sound broke their sudden discussion and a few pebbles scattered down a dune.
"Sh!" Johns demanded whipping his gun up to scan the horizon. Nothing.
"Nothing." Johns muttered disgusted.
"Let's go." Fry suggested leading the group towards the bones.
When they reached the area they found that Sakura was right.
The youngest Arab boy said something in arabic to Imam.
"He asks what could kill such great beasts." Imam translated.
"Tell him something we hope not to meet." Sakura replied examining the teeth marks on the bones.
Imam whispered something to his youngest son. They fell silent for a second then began chittering like small birds all over again.
Sakura rubbed her thumb against the gash. It was clean and deep. Something with the same sharpness as a knife had cut into these creatures. She walked around the other side of the large creature and looked around to see no one was watching. No one was. She pulled out a kunai and sliced it across the bone. It made a horrible hissing sound like metal against metal. The cut the kunai had made was shallow and superficial compared to the cuts that had been made by whatever had killed the creatures in the first place.
"Damn." She muttered staring at the edge of her kunai which now had a notch in it.
"Piece of shit." She muttered putting it away. She turned away from the bones and started walking towards the biggest pile of bones. She was just under the head of the creature when she felt the hair on the back of her neck rise in warning. She grabbed her kunai and brought it up just in time to cross it with a bone shiv that was heading towards her neck.
She pushed the kunai and the shiv away from her neck so it was at a more comfortable distance from her skin.
Riddick chuckled a deep and animalistic sound. Sakura smirked back at him.
"Good reflexes." He observed his voice still holding the huskiness of his laugh.
"Nice try." Sakura countered, shoving the shiv down out of any position he could've used it in.
Riddick withdrew his shiv, he still had it out where he could use but it wasn't held threateningly.
Sakura slipped her kunai back into sleeve hidden from sight but within a simple motion away. She could flick her wrist and it will land in her hand ready to use.
"So you're a murderer?" Sakura asked curiously.
"I am and you are?" He returned easily.
"Sakura Haruno. Immortal medic. Ninja." She introduced.
"Richard B. Riddick. Escaped convict. Murderer." Riddick responded.
A scuffled foot step caught their attention. Riddick held a finger up to his lips and disappeared up into his hiding space.
Sakura made a motion and suddenly she was gone from view. She had used a genjutsu to completely hid herself.
Fry walked into the shadow of the ribs of the great creature and sat down.
Riddick dropped back down sneaking forward his eyes on Fry's O2 breather. He stopped and sunk back into the shadow just as Johns appeared in front of Fry.
"Want some?" Johns asked holding out a bottle of whiskey.
"I really shouldn't. It'll just dehydrate me quicker." She said looking at the bottle.
"Yeah." Johns muttered taking a swig and setting it down beside them.
"You know there might not be any water on this planet." Johns started.
"I just wanted to get away."
"I've never seen a captain so eager to abandon her ship."
"I'm not your captain."
"What do you mean?"
"When things were at their worst, Owens was at his best. When the docking pilot tried to purge the passangers he stopped it."
"And who was the docking pilot?"
Fry's silence was answer enough.
"Well, I guess I'm glader to be here than I thought." He said standing up.
Riddick had snuck up sometime during the discussion and cut a lock of Fry's hair off while she wasn't paying attention. He sniffed it then blew it into the air in front of him.
Johns held his hand out and helped Fry to her feet. They heard arabic voices and Imam calling for them and they quickly went to see what the others had found.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Sakura appeared right where she had been before having dropped her genjutsu.
"Really? Stealing a girl's hair?" Sakura asked leaning against one of the ribs of the great beast.
"Smelled funny." He muttered.
"Like you can judge what hair is supposed to smell like." Sakura replied looking pointedly at his bald head.
He shrugged. "You gonna turn me in?" He asked.
"I don't see a reason to. Its not like you've murdered one of us. As long as you don't harm any of us I see no reason to harm you." Sakura shrugged.
"And you think you can harm me?" He asked honestly curious.
Sakura smirked picking up one of the ribs with one finger. Then grasping it in her hand and crushing it to powder.
Riddick looked at her with an odd facination.
Sakura turned and walked toward where the rest of the party had gone. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Riddick had left and he was gone.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
She walked into a small mining town several minutes after Fry found the ship.
"This thing going to work?" Johns asked.
"I just need to get a power cell and do an integety check. I should be able to reconfigure the core to accept the power cells." Fry explained.
"For how long?" Sakura asked.
"What?" Fry turned to her.
"How long will the ship stay in space? How long until power fails? Until everyone dies of starvation and dehydration?" Sakura asked.
"Let's worry about that after I get the core reconfigured." Fry suggested avoiding the question as best she can.
Sakura shrugged letting it go. After all her chakra will heal her no matter how badly she's injured.
She walked off looking around the abandonned town. The clothes were still on the line, dry as bones but left out. Children's toys were left out in the street, some partially buried from sand being blown over them. She pushed open one of the rusty doors into one of the houses. There was pictures still hanging on the wall.
Sakura heard a distant bang.
"Shut up!" She heard Johns snap and made her way over to him along with the Christlums.
Fry gave him a questioning look.
"I thought I heard something."
"Like what?"
"Gunshots. We best be getting back."
The group started back towards the ship.
When they reached the bones Johns stopped and picked up the bottle he had left there. "He didn't go for it." Johns said shaking the bottle testing the weight.
"Fall for what?" Fry asked.
"I left this as bait. He didn't bite."
They continued on. The reached the ship just as several more shots went off and Zeke screamed.
They raced towards the area where Zeke had been. Riddick was standing over the hole staring down into it, a shiv in his hand. Shazza screamed in anger and grief. Riddick ran.
Johns saw were he was going and rushed to intercept him yanking his goggles from his face. Riddick hit the ground hard craddling his eyes. Shazza caught up to him and began kicking at him. Fry and Owens rushed to restrain her. Shazza managed one last kick hitting Riddick in the head and knocking him unconsciousness.