The sound of the holding bay door slamming open exploded into Jack's brain. She flinched, felt the unmistakable nudge of someone's steel toed boot in her back, rolled over and dug her nails into the tender skin behind someone's knee. The scream sounded like Riley's.
She rolled again and took the retributive kick in her back. Something popped sickeningly; and then she was yanked to her feet, muscles screaming in protest.
The fluorescent light felt like sandpaper on her eyeballs, but she could see the cryo-lockers. Cobi, absurdly small in a locker built for a full grown man. For a criminal.
She could feel Riddick behind her, then. Still chained to the wall, definitely awake, probably watching despite the bright lights.
Riley was there, and Gerod. There were new faces in the room, too. All young, desperate looking boys carrying gauges and shock sticks.
God, did I look like that?
Their eyes skirted past her, rested on the real threat. She heard Riddick snort quietly behind her and wished briefly that they would just shoot him.
Riley sidled up behind her, "Walk."
She walked.
The heat outside was absolute. She inhaled ash and sand, coughed, and spit up blood.
What the hell?
Riley was on her, shoving her down the ramp, across a stretch of magma rock, and into the expansive enclosed hangar bay. Davis emerged from the only door, grinning like the devil, flanked by men who could only be guards.
They grabbed her, lifted her chains above her head. Their hands on her were intrusive, rough, and underneath it all...shaking with some kind of disgusting excitement. She recoiled, earned a kick to the back of her knee that grounded her.
Davis's face loomed above her, brows knitted in manufactured concern. He stroked her face, quietly tutting.
"Careful, boys. You break, you buy."
She coughed again, groaned.
Davis stood, stepped over her. "Take her in. We still got the main attraction coming."
He smiled at her over his shoulder, all malice and thinly concealed amusement.
Just like Johns. Jesus Christ.
Except the monsters here will keep me alive.
Despite the unrelenting heat Jack felt suddenly very, very cold.
Seemed like they were just handing over guns to anybody these days. Half of the new crew was probably younger than Jack. Scared kids trying to look tough.
They put his goggles back on, unchained him from the wall.
Probably like Jack had looked when Davis snatched her up. Before he twisted her into his executioner for hire. Before he beat her. Raped her…
He could feel himself start to slip. Enough. Thoughts like that made the six laser beams dancing across his chest seem trivial. And that would get him killed.
There was a quick shove from behind, "Walk."
He recognized Farris's voice and sneered. "Kid talked me out of killing you once. Don't count on that happening again."
Behind him, Farris snorted in laughter, snapped the cuffs as tight as they could go. The young punks seemed to like that. He noticed they made no attempts at getting closer, though.
"Won't have the chance, fucker."
Riddick took a bruising kick to the calf, and then felt a cool slip of steel slide into his left hand. A scalpel.
He smiled. The new faces looked worried, most stepped back a couple feet.
Farris pushed him again, more of a pat on the back than anything else. Riddick noticed, and appreciated, that the man was smart enough to keep his voice hard. "Now walk."
From her spot in the corner Jack could see the little vein that had begun to pulse in Davis's neck. The guards weren't cooperating. Didn't seem to like the listed price.
"Look" he snapped, pushing back his chair, "Riddick's eighty K. Non-negotiable. You're getting a deal here."
She laughed loudly, despite the crushing pressure in her chest. "I dunno about that. Riddick's trouble."
More than you'll ever know…
Davis shot her a murderous look, and she smiled back, bloody teeth glinting under florescent light.
The warden however, tipped his head thoughtfully, "The girl's right. Big money for that kinda liability."
There was a sharp knock of metal on metal, a door slid open. Said liability shuffled into the room chained, cuffed, restrained. Every gun in the room followed him.
Jack snorted, shook her head. Riley shoved the barrel of a gauge into her back.
Jesus Christ! The pain in her chest rose to an almost unbearable level. She fixed her eyes on the floor, fighting back tears.
She could feel the smile creeping across the warden's face. "Well. Speak of the devil and he will come."
Riddick's disdain was palpable, "Yeah, well I live to please."
"We were just discussing the terms of our…arrangement. Have a seat."
She heard a thud, and the unmistakable sound of kneecaps hitting concrete. Almost felt bad for him and then scolded herself for it.
He played you. Again. If shit had worked out you'd be standing alone on a New Meccan runway. Like an idiot. Again.
She glared through her lashes at his kneeling form only to find that he was already watching her.
This may be the last time I ever see him. And that thought hurt more than she thought it should.
The movement of his head was almost imperceptible.
What...
She glanced around quickly. Everyone else was caught up in negotiations. Riddick was trying to signal her, part of her rebelled against it. Bristled at the thought of following his command, yet again.
His smirk downturned and she knew she had projected her thoughts. Fuck, he might leave me here. Who knows?
She nodded, grudgingly compliant.
He moved faster than any living thing had the right to. Behind him a guard dropped, intestines sliding out around his fingers. Another guard followed, slammed against the wall with Riddick's full weight on his ribcage. Jack winced at the sick crunching noise followed by the wet, breathy scream.
Riddick turned, kicked out and smashed the fuse box like paper bag.
In the dark there was an instant of impenetrable silence. And then the shooting started.
He'd always recognized the beauty in pandemonium.
The chaos in the room did not disappoint. Instead, it allowed precious time to drop onto his back and bring his hands up in front of him.
Riddick watched Jack propel her body blindly into Riley as he rose from his chair. They disappeared under the table together.
Some asshole had backed himself into a corner and started shooting off rounds at random. Doing Riddick's job for him. He almost regretted having to send a shiv into the guy's throat. Couldn't risk catching one of those stray bullets though.
Four guards and a merc later, Jack was still under the table.
Fuck.
Light exploded into the room. Someone had found the access pad. Bodies tumbled over each other. Riddick caught a fleeting glace at the back of Davis's head as the man kicked his way through the crowd and hi-tailed it up the corridor.
Fuck him, Riddick thought, wistfully. Get Jack.
He didn't need to. She crawled, chains and all, from underneath the table. A bib of blood around her neck, on her chin. She turned, kicked out hard. Riddick heard a wet snap, a pause, and then her dark chuckle.
Jack laughing at death. He found that fundamentally wrong. Didn't matter. It was time to go.
She liberated a ring of keys from Riley's corpse, unlocked her own cuffs and slung the chains around her neck.
"What're those for," he asked, snatching up a good sized gauge. She killed someone. And laughed. What the fuck?
She tossed him the keys with a little too much force, headed for the door, "You'll see." She stopped, "Thirty-four minutes 'till sunrise." Then she was gone.
It should've made him laugh, her threatening to leave him in the hellhole. Like that would ever fucking happen.
But when he picked up the last of the gauges he realized, stunned, that he couldn't hear her footsteps anymore. She'd gone. Quickly.
Riddick curbed the shock, shouldered the guns and sped off after her.
She ran like the devil himself was behind her.
The whooping and screaming from the prisoners below sounded hellish enough.
Maybe Riddick is the devil. Maybe it's best I take off.
She rounded corner after corner with dark thoughts on her mind, until she fell into a coughing fit that sent a fine spray of blood onto the sandy floor.
She stumbled, fell. Was overcome with abject desperation, sickening panic.
I'm not going to make it out of here. I won't even make it to the end of this tunnel. Not like this.
And then he was pulling her, one hand locked in an iron grip around her wrist. Riddick tucked her under his arm and kept moving, guiding her swiftly through the passage.
She dug her nails into his arm and hung on.
Just for now, she told herself. Just for now.
By the time they reached the hangar bay's entrance each breath brought came with monumental effort. She was dizzy, clinging on to Riddick's arm so hard that his blood had begun to seep under her fingernails.
He pushed her gently against the wall, stooped down to her eye level.
"Jack." His voice was coming from far away, hands gently tapping her face. She swatted them away, clumsily.
It was so hard to breathe, the sick crackling in her lungs filled her ears. Riddick stooped lower, ear pressed against her chest.
His face went tight. "Fuck."
Hmm, she thought, distantly. Never a good sign, Riddick worried.
"No good, huh," she rasped, head falling back. He shook his head, began liberating weapons that she hadn't seen him stash.
From the hangar bay came the unmistakable tattoo of gunfire. Men shouting. An explosion.
"I hope," she coughed, spat up coppery fluid, "I hope they blow themselves to hell. Less work for us."
Riddick smiled tersely and nodded. There was another explosion, followed by familiar wrenching sounds.
Like Severet. Except. Except I'm not making it out of this one.
She watched Riddick arm himself to the teeth. Opened her mouth to tell him…she had to tell him…
His hand pressed against her lips before words could form, "No more talking, kid." Her determination fell, didn't rally.
"I need to get you out of here. You gotta stay here. Hear me?"
She nodded then shook her head, risked another breath, "Cobi."
Riddick's lips pressed thin, he gave her a long blank look. His voice was flat. "I'm getting you outta here, Jack. As fast as I can." He gripped her arms hard. "You stay right here. Do you understand me?"
More gunfire, this time closer. Her knees buckled and he lowered her to the ground. She nodded, miserable.
She wasn't going anywhere. She couldn't if she tried.
Riddick smirked but underneath it, for the second time in her life, she saw real fear. He kissed her forehead quickly, shoved a gun into her hands, and disappeared into the hangar bay.
