Chapter Eighteen.
* Riddick's POV *
PLANET CREMATORIA AND THE UNEXPECTED SAVIOUR.
The sudden rush of coldness clung to my skin shocking my awake with a jump. The rusting metal surroundings were tinted a gentle black due to the lens of my goggles which had been replaced over my eyes and instead of being laid out like a frozen meal on the cooking runway, I was laid in the shelter of the hanger temperately housing the Mercenaries ship. I gather myself onto my feet alerted by the sound by the loud sound of electromagnetic buzzing, I quickly limb over as my muscles have not fully regained consciousness and from the bay doors of the hanger I watch helplessly through the burning ash and sunlight of the day on Crematoria, the Necromonger carrier descend to the air and shoot off into the atmosphere away from the planet. On board they carried the bodies of Elisha, Dakota and Hans.
A solid lump forms in my throat behind my tonsil's, blocking my airways as I unknowingly whisper her name for the sheer comfort of having its strange sweetness linger on my lips for a few seconds. Scanning the runway of discarded bodies, a faint tapping of expensive metal on cheap metal repeated echoes around the interior of the hanger every several seconds in an annoying rhythmic pattern.
"I was suppose to deliver you a message," the silky smooth voice of the scrawny man from Helion Prime, known amongst the Necromonger's as the Purifier, typically the person who talked you into joining their fucked up religion and converting, spoke clearly, "If Vaako failed to kill you." the mention of the Commander's name brought anger to my blood and sickness to my stomach. The Purifier delicately removes his jewellery and places it without a care on the container made for tools in front of him. "A message from the Lord Marshall himself: he tells you to stay away from Helion, stay away from him and in return you'll be hunted no more." The Purifier speaks clearly whilst removing his shoulder decoration and necklace of a face I witness far too often on the jewellery of Necro's. The scrawny man then collects a knife, a patterned blade with ridged edges, it was more than familiar in fact it was the knife given to me by the Marshall, the Purifier then approaches me carefully, "But, Vaako will more than likely report you as dead, so this is your chance, your chance to retrieve your loved one and do what no man has ever done before –"
My large hand grips his shoulder tightly as his voice begins to grate on my nerves, my thumb slowly beginning to press into his windpipe at the front of his throat, gently putting pressure on the breaths he takes, "The girl, what will they do to her?" I ask.
The Purifier's face begins to colour more than I believed it could, but he says nothing and instead undoes the top of his long garment and pulls it open revealing his snow, hairless white chest and surprisingly, two inches left from the centre bone of his chest was a light blue hand print clawing and pressing to break free from his ribcage. My hand released him with a gentle shove backwards, our eyes travelled together from his hand print chest to mine, both moving beneath our skin. The mark of the Furyan's.
I locked eyes with the convert, once a Furyan, now a Necromonger. His mouth twitched into a nervous inward smile. "We all began as something else." he states, a phrase from our first meeting with the rest of the population of Helion Prime. My goggled eyes remove from his yet he still speaks to me, "I've done, unbelievable things, in the name of a faith that was never my own." he says truthfully, "And he'll do to her, what he did to me."
make her forget, make her believe. A voice trailed off reading a list of horrendous possibilities that surfaced in my mind.
The Purifier edges towards the limit of the bay doors before levelling off with me, he turns to face me directly, "The Necromonger in me warns you not to go back, but the Furyan in me –" the man smiles warmly before taking the back of my hand in his and placing the blade in my palm, "– Hopes you won't listen."
With one last glance of sorrow, he leaves without fear from the safety of the hanger and into his down death, with overlaying respect for his Furyan side, I watch as the powerful heated wind blows away his skin like ash from a burning cigarette. It is quick but not the way I feel he should have gone, the Furyan in him would have wanted better, something honourable but if it wasn't for him I would have burnt like he in the heat of Crematoria's day. If it wasn't for him, I feel me and Elisha wouldn't have been complete as we live unknowingly in our Furyan state but now knowing their truly are others will fuel, if not her, me to find them and lean, some must remember Furya. Their home. Our home.
The Purifier's body crumbles to the ground, the harsh heated wind separates small sections of his burnt limp body which rolled like tumble weeds in different directions. I climbed into the Mercenaries space craft and turn it on before double checking that everything was working correctly. Different coloured lights flashes annoyingly as they alert me for things I am unaware of as I push different levers to place certain pieces of the craft into gear.
"Warning: Ship Core Over Heating." a computerized female voice says clearly.
I ignore her and punch in the wanted location: Helion Prime – before setting the quickest course and taking the steering controller firmly in my hands. I press my foot heavily on the accelerator and from a stationary position, the ship rockets out of the hanger at full speed heading through the searing hot sun which slowly began to melt the outside metal. A red light flickers on the control board alerting an alarm, I naively ignore it until the nose of the ship breaks through the heat barrier and into the atmosphere beyond the planet.
Despite connecting myself up to the Cryosleep machine, it doesn't work for there is too much adrenaline surging through my veins keeping my brain far too active to give in to the sedation medicine, instead I sit awake staring out through the windscreen admiring the sharp shining stars, I never really got a front seat in a ship, I was always at the back in restraints too far to admire them properly. Maybe that will change after I get her back.
I hope she is okay.