TRUST ME WHEN NIGHT FALLS 17

Seventeen

“Everyone, get inside! Now!” Riddick could hear the creature clearly but even he couldn’t see it yet; from what he had gathered the creatures had some sort of camouflage that allowed them to blend into the stone of the planet. It worked well for the darkened interior of the ship as well.

Unless it moved he didn’t have really expect to see it, but he knew it was close and all of them could hear the distinctive sound of its claws on the grate floor. The survivors poured into the last section of the crashed ship, and tried not to think of the fate of the settlers who were here before them.

The slam of the hatch door between sections was a horribly final sound, the hollow chunk slammed into each of them; they may have been safe, but they were also trapped.

Johns had to put down his shotgun to help Riddick seal the hatch and there was a split second when they both looked at each other. Johns couldn’t see Riddick of course, but he wondered if it was a good idea not to be armed around him.

Riddick wondered if he shouldn’t take that shotgun off him now, so that he didn’t get a chance to do what he and Fry had planned on. In the end, they both chose to make sure the hatch was sealed and worry about the rest later, that shotgun might indeed kill the second creature out there, but what if it wasn’t the only one? How many more could have poured in through the weak spot in the nav bay?

Imam was distraught, and Jack had crawled her way across the bay to sit with him. Both Fry and Shazza had felt around on the floor as they tried to find light tubes in the need to do something useful. Johns and Riddick stood less than a foot apart, although Johns had no idea that Riddick was that close, as Riddick considered whether he should kill him right here or not, he might never get the perfect opportunity again. Johns still hadn’t picked up the shotgun, and in fact looked frozen in place with his hand on the large wheel of the hatch. There would be a time to deal with Johns, but now wasn’t it.

It was Shazza that broke the strained silence in the room, as she tried in vain to not only move the power cells but struggled just see what was in front of her. It was a simple and practical request for help, and Johns would probably never know how much he should thank Shazza for his very life at that moment.

Riddick touched Shazza’s shoulder as he knelt down beside her, partly to let her know he was right there and partly for a reason he couldn’t fathom; he had held her hand before, and needed to touch her. Riddick spun on the balls of his feet, the shiv already in his hand when he heard the click; Johns had taken the light attachment off the shotgun, so they would have more light to work by. He held his hands up to show they were empty of everything but the light, once he saw that Riddick had considered him a threat.

Shazza looked up at both of them, her face drawn with strain. “Some other time.” She looked from one to the other; it wasn’t a question, but a demand, and one that would not be denied. “Hold the light here, Johns.” She didn’t look up to see whether he would do it or not, just put her head down and went back to work fastening the light tubes to the power cells. “Let’s spread them out a little…”

Now that there was a little light, they spread out, and Johns and Fry hooked up light tubes to power cells on one side of the bay while Riddick and Shazza did the other side. Soon the entire last section of the ship was bathed in a soft blue glow. It wasn’t quite bright enough that Riddick needed his goggles, but with Johns and Fry still an unknown, he thought it would be safer to not be left vulnerable.

All of them looked pale and strung out, and it wasn’t just the blue light that was to blame. Five of their number had been killed; six if you included the man Zeke shot that they didn’t even know had survived.

Imam had lost his three charges; Paris had been killed, and Shazza had lost Zeke. That last hit Riddick harder than he would have thought possible, not for Zeke, but for her. Jack didn’t look like she bought Imam’s claims of “I am fine, my child.”

Shazza sat with the power cells, as though, once the task at hand had been completed, she didn’t quite know what to do. Johns and Fry sat together on the other side of the bay, close enough to touch.

Riddick wondered how real that was. He hadn’t forgotten the conversation he had overheard in the skiff, and once the shock of the race through the ship had worn off; those two would be a threat to all of them again.

Jack held Imam’s hand for a moment, and Riddick could see she was on the brink of tears. He shared a look with Shazza; no matter what happened Jack had to be protected; if she fell apart now she might never come back from it.

“Jack!” She had looked startled for a moment at Riddick’s voice, and then her eyes cleared of tears as she squeezed Imam’s hand again and walked the few steps towards Riddick. “I don’t know what’s in all these boxes you’ve brought over, but I hope at least one of them has something to eat in it.” Her own stomach rumbled at the idea of something to eat, and the sound of her laughter echoed strangely in the tense bay. Her face didn’t look as drawn as she set about to find food.

Johns had stood again while Jack had started to look through the boxes; it seemed as though, once again, Riddick and Johns were the only two in the room. The two men stepped to within feet of each other and Riddick knew that it would come down to this eventually. That their plan from the skiff would come into play sooner or later and it was better to get it out in the air now. “So, do we huddle together in the dark until the lights go out? Is that the big plan, Johns?”

Johns felt uneasy as he faced down Riddick. Riddick knew something Johns didn’t, and that was the last position you ever wanted to be in with him; he would use anything he had against you. It was almost impossible to tell what Riddick thought at the best of times; his face was an unreadable mask. He knew how dangerous, how unpredictable Riddick could be, and this had already gone on long enough. He needed to remind Riddick of their deal before it was completely out of his control. “No, that’s not the big plan.” Riddick almost seemed to wait, that same enigmatic smirk that pulled up the corner of his lip. Johns wanted to push Riddick, but he knew that Riddick pushed him back in his own way. “We’re here to regroup. We get enough light, and we drag the cells back to the skiff, and then we’re off this rock.”

Riddick tilted his head, and Johns felt a flicker of anger, because he felt afraid, like a small mouse in front of a snake. “We?” It was then that Johns suspected that Riddick knew; that he had overheard somehow, maybe he had just known. It didn’t matter; he knew Riddick, and in the end Riddick would go along with the deal, if it kept him alive. All the rest was just head games he played to amuse himself. That’s all it was.

“Not everyone, we can’t send the boy out into that dark.” Johns could play to an audience too, if it served him, and he played up the kids fear for all it was worth. “There was a cart in the other bay, with wheels. It would still be pretty heavy but between Fry and me, we could take it. You can see in the dark, keep us away from the creatures and make sure we don’t get lost. Once we get to the skiff, we hook up the power cells, it’s a short hop back here and everyone goes home safe.” By the end of the speech he had almost started to believe it himself.

“That’s a good plan, Johns, it could work. One of the cells here, and some light tubing should be enough light for us; we leave the rest for everyone else, until we get back.” Jack sat silently on top of a crate as she watched the conversation between Riddick and Johns. She couldn’t believe he wanted to leave them; that he wanted to leave her. The crackers she had found were forgotten in her hand; she wasn’t hungry anymore. How could he do this?

Riddick’s face was so cold, as he stood in front of Johns and talked so rationally about plans to leave them all here. She turned to Shazza, and hoped that Shazza could talk to him. Shazza meant something to him, she knew it, she had seen it on his face every time he looked at her.

Shazza also watched Riddick for any signs that this wasn’t, couldn’t be, real. ‘Trust me’ he had said, but it was so hard; she knew that without Riddick they would be dead. ‘Trust me.’ She looked at Jack, shook her head subtly, and hoped that Jack would trust her too.

Her stomach churned with that small decision she had made. If she was wrong, if she was wrong about Riddick, then Jack and Imam would be dead, and so would she. Even if they survived the eclipse, they couldn’t get off the planet without a pilot or a ship. She thought back to the run from the sandcat, when he had protected her. He could have let her die, like Paris, but he didn’t. She had to trust him.

Her hands shook as she prepared the lighting tubes and power cell. The light would keep any creatures at bay while they walked through the ship, to find the cart from one of the other sections. Then it would be easy enough to take the cart out, load up the other cells that were in the sandcat, and they would just walk out to the settlement and the skiff.

Her voice shook, when they were ready to leave. Riddick told Fry and Johns to wait for him and Johns grinned evilly at her, as though he sought to confirm her worst fears, fears she didn’t want to believe. Fry and Johns moved further away, and Jack and Imam were already on the far side of the room. Jack wouldn’t look at Riddick.

Shazza looked close to tears, when she finally looked up. Riddick hadn’t been prepared for that, or how it would make him feel, like he had been stabbed and couldn’t breathe. She was tired and strung out, like everyone else. She was exhausted, physically and emotionally; but this was more.

She was hurt, even though she tried not to show it. He did something he didn’t want to do, he turned his back on Johns to look at her, as she started to speak, her voice no more than a quiet whisper and broken with pain. “I understand why you’re going Riddick, but can you please, please…take Jack with you?”

He had expected anger and bitter reprisals, but he hadn’t expected this, and he definitely had not expected her to plead with him, to beg. He looked at Shazza and he saw someone that would never break, that would fight to the last, and she begged now, but not for herself. For Jack. She begged for Jack.

“I can make it easier on him, so he won’t ask about Imam and me, but take him with you, take him away from here…please…” She dropped her head before he could see her cry quietly. They both knew that to be left here was to die, and she was willing to die, if he would save Jack.

His hand reached out to cup her chin and lift her face to him. She tried to wipe at her eyes, but he stopped her, and leaned in to whisper in her ear, as his thumb brushed over the tears on her cheek. “Trust me.”

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