Johns was loading his shotgun as everyone else started to gather up pick axes and old relic weapons that an antiquities dealer named Paris had brought on the trip. There was also a lot of booze but still no water. Everyone headed back outside and were told to keep an eye out. Jo and Johns were left alone in the hold, Johns started to wobble over a bit then shook his head, and stood up straight again. Jo looked at him for a beat then it hit her…
"What's wrong with you?"
"Little swamp flu from the congo system. Never shook it with all this Cryo-sleep."
"Bullshit"
Johns looked at her straight with the gun still clutched in his hands, Jo didn't back down she knew what he was and how much more dangerous it made him.
"You're an addict aren't you?"
"No"
"Yes you are I can see it in your eyes"
Johns lifted the gun a little pointing it toward her. "You gonna rat on me"
"No, but you had better get some drugs in you. I'd rather see you high then have to deal with a monster going through withdrawls"
"Really? A monster?"
"Yeah, I've seen people on this shit and if they can't get it, it ain't pretty. So you get your drugs, if not it won't be Riddick we have to worry about"
He flinched when she compared him to Riddick. He knew she was right though; he stood up and pulled her outside. They were going to try and find water, where they thought that they would find water on a forsaken planet like this, Jo had no idea but she went along anyways.
They seemed like a strange expedition group, one merc, one convict, a pilot, and some holy Chrislams. One of the younger pilgrims ran up to Imam and pulled on his shirt, he was shouting something in Arabic and pointing out to the horizon, coming up slowly was a blue sun. The mining couple, Zeke and Shazza stared at each other and Jo gave a look over to Johns.
"Three suns?"
"So much for your nightfall" Zeke nodded over to Fry.
Paris sighed dramatically "So much for my happy hour"
Caroline conversed a little with Imam then they decided to get there little excursion under way. The Chrislams led chanting and swinging incense pots, Caroline followed behind speaking with Imam and Jo and Johns brought up the rear. It is too damn hot out here. Luckily the heavy shirt she'd been using as a bandage was replaced by some gauze they had found in a small med kit. None of her wounds had been too deep so they were healing ok, but they still hurt like a son of a bitch. Johns stepped back and nudged Jo with his shoulder.
"You ok over there"
"Yeah I'm fine"
"Good, I can't have you die out here"
"Johns how much would get for me?"
"Not sure, depends on the warden at the slam. You're a woman so a man will pay more. But you have a nearly spotless record, so somewhere down the line they may let you out, so a man won't pay too much if he don't think you'll be there long."
"Wouldn't I be more beneficial to you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, I'm a woman, you move around a lot and I don't mind travel… and I can make a guy real comfy"
"Really you seem taken with me and quickly what do you want" Johns grabbed her upper arm.
"Fine, I don't want to go to jail and I can't go home. Life with a good looking man who can take care of himself is really attractive"
"I'm not a one woman man sweetheart"
"I wasn't asking you to be, just take me with you. Have the girls you want I don't care, think of it as mutual. I can be a stripper anywhere; you keep me out of jail I make you money. It's really a business deal with perks"
"I'll think about it, don't give me any reason not to trust you" Then he let her go and walked two steps ahead of her.
I doubt you'll live long enough to say no. But Jo kept her thoughts to herself, she didn't want anyone to know about her relationship with Riddick, it kept her off their radars.
Soon the little group came up to tall thin trees, the young Chrislams ran over to them but Jo felt like there was something weird. The trees weren't trees they were bones, huge massive ones half buried in the sand. Everyone slowed down and began to explore through the bones. They looked like the ribcages of huge animals. Jo moved around a little sticking close to Johns, she found an area that was covered by comb like bones. She sat and leaned up against them, there was a little shade and it felt so wonderful. Johns came up beside her and held out his hand, Jo was going to stand but felt a little pressure at her lower back to the left of the spine, fourth lumbar down. Fuck.
"Can I sit for a minute?"
He looked at her oddly, but shrugged "You gonna run off?"
"I need you to get off this planet, I'm not going anywhere"
"Ok I'll be back in five minutes, be ready to go"
Jo gave him a mock salute and then leaned against the bones. As soon as he was out of sight she let out a huge breath. She didn't want to move, she had no idea what Riddick was up to but she knew not to test him.
"So… your little deal with Johns? Was that your plan all along, ride his dick out of here?" He put more pressure on her back.
Jo didn't turn around but turned her head just little, she saw a tiny amount of shiny black goggles through the bones. "How'd you know I had a deal with him?"
"I heard you going over it, funny what people don't realize when it's just on the other side of a hill"
"You followed us"
"The entire way, now why are you making plans with John" She could hear the low anger in his voice, and since he was being so calm she knew he must be furious.
"If Johns trusts me he won't be paranoid about having to watch two prisoners. Please I told you I had a plan, give me some credit Riddick. If I can distract Johns then you can find some way to get rid of him."
"So you're not actually going to fuck him"
Jo turned fully to glare at him through the bones. "Riddick I wouldn't even fuck him with your dick"
"That's good to know"
"I have to go, please find some way to get me the hell outta here. I told you that wouldn't be able to break out of prison, but if I never make it there then it's all good. Just get me away from the merc and then I can take care of myself from there"
"You won't have to"
Jo raised an eyebrow about to ask what that meant but Riddick fell back into the shadows and Jo stood up to follow where Johns had gone. She found Johns and Caroline sitting against a large bone, and right behind them was Riddick, he had his shiv out. Jo wanted to yell; there was no reason for Riddick to kill the captain. She hesitated though; Riddick put his shiv through and cut a tiny piece of Caroline's hair. Cocky Bastard He could have been spotted only if Johns had been smart enough to turn the fuck around. Jo walked up to them and when they noticed her Caroline immediately got quiet. What the hell? Johns stood up and led them both away; Jo took a small glance toward the bones, but no Riddick.
Riddick watched from on top of some bones as Jo walked away with John's. He wanted to go after her and keep her away from him, but she did have a good point if Johns wasn't worried about the both of them, they had an advantage. He just couldn't shake the anger over John's being able to talk freely with her and be around her, when he had to keep his distance to make sure no one caught on to his relationship to her. Riddick decided to head back to the ship he was going to need to scavenge some stuff from the others. When he made it back he saw Paris climb down from the little cabana he'd set up on top of the ship, so Riddick climbed up and took his spot from his vantage point he could see a dirty and bloody man walking towards the ship, another survivor apparently. He watched as Shazza leapt out at the guy but stop just short of killing him, but Zeke wasn't so hesitant he pulled out a pistol and shot the guy in the back. Probably thought it was me Riddick just chuckled; he didn't even need to do anything. His reputation and weird circumstances were enough and people were doing the dirty work for him. One less person to try and stop him later. He watched Zeke drag the body over to the grave he was digging so he decided to follow him. He hung behind some spires that were around the grave, he saw Zeke pull back the tarp but all the bodies originally there were gone and there was a small hole in the side. Once Riddick saw Zeke crawl inside the hole he snuck down to get a better look, but then Zeke started screaming and shooting, Riddick ran over to the grave but the screaming suddenly stopped, there was blood all over and no sign of Zeke. Riddick realized there was something on this planet and he didn't want to stick around to find out what. Just then the tarp blew back and Riddick looked up and locked eyes with Shazza. Riddick started running.
The search party came to a canyon; everyone was silent except for the quiet mumbling of Imam's prayers. Finally the young Chrislams found something strange; it was a baseball. Everyone kept moving and came across a settlement, except it was deserted. Fortunately there was a water-recovery unit. Thank god. Jo stood around while the men and boys tried to repair the old machine; her eyes followed Caroline who had headed into a room in one of the buildings. Jo followed; instead of following Caroline though she took another route and ended in some apartment style rooms.
She looked around the walls; there were dusty pictures and some old clothes in a closet. It felt very strange so Jo started to back out, then strong arms wrapped around her shoulders and a hand clamped down over her mouth.
"Don't go too far, he may be out there"
Johns let go of her and gave a cocky smile, Jo gave him the best fake smile she could but inside all she wanted to do was to shove her boot into his balls. She mock laughed and put a hand over her heart.
"Dammit, don't do that"
Johns started laughing and held out his hand to her, Jo took it and let him lead her outside. He started pulling her under some old clothesline.
"We found something good"
He gestured under a sheet and she saw the skiff in front of her, it wasn't much but it may be their only hope. Fry was doing a systems check, she said that there was no power and that they'd need cells to get it off the ground. Caroline was going to go over a plan to make it work when John's put up a hand, and turned his head into the wind.
"Thought I heard something"
"Like what?"
"My pistol"
John started to head back toward the ship, he told Caroline and the others to get water and find out what they needed for the skiff. Jo followed close behind Johns who had his shotgun cocked and ready. Then there were more gunshots, and they were close and very clear. Johns broke out at a run with Jo following as fast as she could behind him. The running hurt her lungs and the light made it hard to go very far without stumbling over something, but she had to make sure that Riddick was not part of whatever gunfight was going on. Jo stopped dead when she saw John's raise his gun and shoot, a man dropped to the ground. She ran over but Johns put his arm out. Jo stopped when she saw it was Riddick his head beneath John's boot. She wanted to hit Johns and take off but the others were coming fast so she backed up and let Johns take Riddick.
Everyone took their turns punching Riddick, she tried to step in, but Riddick gave her a look even behind his goggles that Jo knew meant he wanted her to stay out of this. He took hit after hit for something he hadn't even done. They accused him of killing Zeke, not just killing slaughtering, they said there was blood all over the grave he'd been tasked to dig, but how come there was none on Riddick. Not even Riddick could have ripped a man to shreds and not gotten any blood on him. Johns pulled Riddick up and dragged him back to the ship. He had been chained to a post inside, she wanted to know what was going on, but no one except for Fry and Johns were allowed near him. Then she saw little Jack, the kid was sneaking into a hole on the side of the ship, so Jo walked over and tapped the back of her head she froze and turned around slowly, when she saw it was Jo her scared look went away.
"What ya doin' kid"
Jack looked down like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "I just wanted to see him"
"Good, me too. How do we get in there?"
Jack smiled broadly, "Follow me"
The pair crawled through the small hole fortunately both of them being small they could fit pretty well. Jack slid down onto some steps just inside the room where they were holding Riddick, Jo leaned on some pipes. She could overhear Caroline asking Riddick about the murder and where the body was; Jo smiled at the way Riddick could scare the fuck out of people just by talking to them. The kid seemed pretty taken with him too. Caroline was asking him about the sounds, and he started telling her about the sweet spot. Then he began go over how blood tasted, Jo knew that he knew what it tasted like from all the times he had bitten her when they had sex and had drawn blood. Ok Riddick quit being an ass.
"All you people are so scared of me an' most days I'd take that as a compliment, but it ain't me you have to worry about now."
"Show me your eyes"
Hey back the fuck off lady… wait where the hell did that come from?
Caroline went over and pulled the goggles off Riddick's eyes, but he still had them shut, and then when Caroline had gotten close to his face his eyes shot open. Jo put a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing at the look on Caroline's face. That's when Jack crawled down a few more steps, Jo tried to grab her pants but she was already down.
"How do I get eyes like that?"
"You gotta kill a few people"
"I can do that"
"Then you gotta get sent to slam where they tell you you'll never see daylight again. Then you dig up a doctor and pay him 50 menthol cools to do a surgical shine job on your eyes"
"So you can see who's sneaking up on you in the dark"
"Exactly"
Jo could remember the first night she saw Riddick with his new eyes, it had caught her off guard at first. She'd hated them, like they were mocking her for failing him. Eventually though she'd grown used to them even though in the back of her mind they were a constant reminder of all he'd been through and suffered. Jo finally crawled out of her spot, pretending as if she hadn't been there the whole time.
"Ugh there you are kid" She grabbed Jack's collar "Sorry I said I'd look after him and he got away from me, just barely saw him crawl down here. Cmon Jack, you need to stay away from murders"
The irony wasn't lost on Riddick who just laughed or Caroline who scoffed and pointed Jo and Jack out the door. Jo pulled Jack along and back outside; Caroline followed after Riddick told her to look deeper in the hole. Jo and Jack curled up in some shade, while Caroline went over to the group to let them know the verdict. Jo pulled out some whiskey she'd pilfered from Paris and took a big swig, she handed the bottle over to Jack who took a sip and coughed up. Jo just laughed at her and then Paris walked up and looked down at Jo then over to Jack obviously pissed he was having to share his bounty.
"Are you keeping an eye on the little brat?"
Jo looked down at Jack and laughed. "Yeah I am, this shit is good by the way."
She stood up and squared up to Paris. She stared straight into his cocky face, she would have hit him but Johns walked by and told them they were all going back to the hole.
They all arrived at the hole and Johns and Caroline were arguing. Some one had to go in the hole and look for Zeke's body. It was no use, Riddick hadn't killed that guy something else was here with them and they needed to find out before they all went one by one. So Caroline went into the hole, she had a rope around her waist and a flashlight in front of her. She crawled deeper and deeper, until her feet had disappeared from sight. They waited for awhile and then Jo heard something, Jack perked up to. It was an indistinct voice, but someone was screaming. Jo backed away from the hole and tried to follow the sound. She looked over at Jack, who was doing the same thing, then the kid's eyes widen twice their size and she pointed toward a spire.
"It's over there"
Both girls took off toward the spire, Johns jumped when he saw them running and dropped the chain and chased after them…
"Hey… what the hell… Come Back Here"
Jo and Jack dropped down next to the spire and could clearly make out Carolines's voice inside yelling for help. Johns ran up and heard it too, so he moved the girls and threw his pick axe into the soft dirt of the spire, pieces broke away and a hand reached out from the hole. Jo reached down and grabbed Carolines's wrist and began pulling her out.
"It's ok… We got you"
Caroline was panting hard and everyone around was looking to her for answers. Shazza came forward and pushed others out of the way; though, Jo still kept hold of Carolines's wrist until she calmed down.
"Did you find him? Did you find Zeke?"
"…wasn't Riddick… it was… it was… goddamn that was stupid… but wasn't Riddick. Somethin' else down there that got Zeke and nearly got…"
Before she could say 'me' Caroline was violently tugged back into the hole. Jo held onto her as people scrambled to pull her back. It was like a sadistic game of tug-of-war. Pull hard Fry lives, slack a little and you've lost your captain. Imam unsheathed a blade and cut through Carolines's belt, Jo looked into the hole and saw the rope descend and several shadows chase after it.
"We have to go now"
No one questioned her, everyone just ran back to the ship grabbing what supplies they needed. It was all loaded onto a sled of scrap metal. Johns had gone down into the ship to grab some gear, and when Jo had gone to follow him he had told her to stay up top. She wasn't sure what he was going to do, but definitely didn't like it when she heard a shot gun blast go off. Jo dropped the gear she had and ran into the ship, she stopped just before colliding into Riddick he gave her smirk before pushing her aside and stepping out. What the Hell? Johns was following behind with his shotgun trained on Riddick's back.
Johns shrugged "He's gonna help us out"
Jo looked at Johns then blinked a couple times, possibilities of what just took place running through her mind.
"I'm sure he will"