Treacherous

At the hatch Bell saw that Ramsay had followed them. His unobtrusive programming kept him silent and ready at all times. “Wait here. We’ll be back,” she instructed. He gave a curt nod and stepped back up against the wall to begin obeying.

“Don’t wanna take your new buddy with?”

“Lay off, Riddick. What do you have against synthetics? Can’t kill them proper?” As she asked the question she realized that it was probably exactly true and she busted up. Riddick left her beneath the ship with a less than friendly look.

Bell continued to laugh as she followed him more slowly. “Oh, God, Riddick, that’s too fuckin’ funny. You can’t hit the sweet spot, huh?”

He’d left her sight as she walked and suddenly he was back. In her face and staring her down. “What do you know about the sweet spot? I never told you how I make my kills.”

Bell gulped, almost swallowing her tongue. “No, uh, an article. You were quoted. I just liked the sound of it,” she said haltingly, staring up at his narrowed unnatural gaze.

Just as before he dropped the topic like it had never been mentioned. One second she was unable to think straight because he was literally breathing down her neck, and the next he was turning away saying something about a trailer.

“Wh-what?”

“The ATV’s. There are some trailers for them.” He pulled a tarp away and sure enough there were three small trailers.

After a trek to the door at the other side of the building, they drove the four-wheelers inside and Riddick connected the trailers. Leaving together, they both drove ‘East’, back towards the apartment they’d used and stopped at the first buildings. When Riddick stopped at the first she continued to the second, a small office looking building. Split up they could search twice as fast, right?

Riddick just nodded at her before he was out of sight inside.

Bell was a little slower, but the lighted interior allowed her to see there was no danger and she entered freely.

HOT!! She’d searched five tin buildings, each was like an oven waiting to cook the next unsuspecting fool to enter. The freshness she’d felt since her shower was quickly lost.

She took her first load to the ship, letting Ramsay unload the jugs and the single box of cans she had found. There were already some jugs there, showing her that Riddick had already been there. While she stood under the ship’s exhaust vents to cool herself Riddick pulled up again.

“Droid, let’s load the jugs. We need them full.”

That made sense, but it had honestly never occurred to her. The heat was just dragging her down, making her feel tired and dim-witted. She watched Riddick and Ramsay arrange the water containers back on the trailers. Ramsay climbed onto hers to drive and she paused for a second before hopping on Riddick’s instead of circling it to get to hers. She was careful not to touch his sweaty shirt and back as she clung to the cargo rack behind him. Yuck!

The water pump or whatever the thing was, was behind the far row of buildings, set in a manmade concrete bowl. Four different collectors had hoses coming out, and both Riddick and Ramsay pulled up right under them, nearly hitting the damn things.

Riddick, being his silent self, climbed off gracefully, avoiding hitting her and started filling the jugs. Bell turned and watched, noticing for the first time that she was in the shade.

She looked around her and saw that the bit of shadow from the water pump was directly on her. Not even Riddick was in the shade just a few feet from her, his sweat-slick skin glistened in the sun. She frowned as she watched him move from jug to jug, rinsing each out, filling it and closing it. The longer she was around him, the more perplexed she was. Was he a selfish killer or simply a thoughtful man? The first seemed so much more likely, but he kept showing bits of the latter.

Ramsay finished first, and left with the trailer. The ship aside, Ramsay was about a godsend. Information, knowledge and labor all conveniently packaged in an independent mobile unit.

Riddick finished his last jug and then suddenly turned the hose on her.

Bell screeched and held her hands up to ward off the spray of refreshingly cool water. “Hey! Stop!”

He just chuckled and sprayed her for a little longer, his thumb over the hose sending the water out in a sparkling shower. “Cooler?”

“Asshole.”

She shook her hands and wrung out her hair, surprised at how wet she’d gotten so quickly. Her clothes were literally clinging to her and a quick glance at Riddick told her that he’d noticed her body’s reaction to the cool water. He showed not a bit of chagrin for staring at her openly.

“Back to the ship. Hang on, Drippy.”

Bell rolled her eyes at his pet name. Great. She just loved being the butt of Riddick’s newfound sense of humor. On the return trip she made sure to press up against his back several times, soaking his clothes as much as possible. In the hot sun she felt like she was literally steaming. Her childish attempts to soak him as much as she was backfired brutally. First, he was already nearly as wet as she was. A little more water didn’t seem to faze him. Second, her contributions were COLD. He didn’t seem to mind, but the muscles of his back reacted to the cool touch, flexing and bunching in a display that she enjoyed watching a little too much.

The interior of the hangar was still dark even with the door open enough to keep air moving. In essence it felt wonderful. Ramsay had already emptied the first trailer. Cages meant to secure smaller cargo worked perfectly for the jugs, fitting them in side-by-side would keep them from sliding. Ramsay helped Riddick unload his trailer and they were done within minutes.

“More?”

Bell eyed the containers of water, “How much do you think we have?”

Ramsay gave her the answer, “There is approximately three-hundred and twenty liters.”

She frowned at the containers shoved in tightly together and the few extra that hadn’t fit. That was all? Three hundred liters? Shit. That didn’t buy much more time, maybe three more days for the group. In the back shipping lanes it could takes weeks or even months before they chanced a meeting with someone. Especially with the comm. disabled. To keep her and Riddick safe they would need to make it to somewhere rather than be rescued.

“Yeah, more. I was hoping to get another thousand liters, at least.”

Riddick wasn’t pleased by her answer, but he stonily climbed onto his ATV and was gone in seconds. She sighed and got on hers. At the entrance she got the idea to check in the other direction. This hangar had held such surprises. Maybe there were more. The way their luck was running she had to at least look.

Empty, empty, and empty. Garages that held nothing. It was almost eerie. Where were the sandkats or other vehicles that had been at the settlement? Even other ATV’s or something similar. But there was nothing.

Having saved the smallest till last she wasn’t really expecting anything wonderful. The larger three buildings had held tools and dust. Nothing useful to them. The third looked more like a storehouse. She was hoping for at least some more canned foods.

The door was banging in the ceaseless wind and she could see there was light shining from inside somewhere. Nothing surprising there. The shock came after she’d secured the door and stepped inside.

Bones. There were skeletons and bones literally covering the floor. Some were obviously not human. The human skulls and bones looked like white matchsticks beside a giant axe-shaped bone that must have been something’s head. Gigantic teeth snarled from the long-dead creature. Bell stood transfixed for long seconds, the horror of these people’s last minutes playing through her mind. The ceiling at the back was ripped open, curled in like something had flown through it. Had it been the axe-head thing? The hole was definitely big enough for it.

Slowly she backpedaled, covering her gaping mouth with one hand. There had to be the remains of a couple dozen people there, the bones broken and scattered.

Unexpectedly something barred her way, her back bumping in a solid shape. She was screaming as she turned, the knife in her hand before she knew it.

Strong fingers gripped her wrist. Dark goggles stared down at her. Bell heaved a sigh and a sob at the same time. “Riddick! Oh, my God, I could’ve hurt you. I’m so sorry. I—There’s--.” She couldn’t finish, and by the lift of his brow she got the feeling he doubted that he was ever in any danger.

“Bones. There’re bones in there, and this thing. I don’t know what it is.”

He tugged her arm, pulling her out of the way and stepped forward, his attention now on the interior. Bell stayed back, unwilling to approach the door again.

She heard the sound of cracking and realized he was walking over the bones, shuddering at the thought. After a minute she heard another cracking sound, this one much louder. Riddick reappeared holding a dagger of some sort that was as long as his forearm. He was holding it up and looking at it as if it were made of gold.

“What is that?” Bell whispered.

“Big guy had two of these. Could probably shove them out between his fingers as a weapon.”

“That’s disgusting. What was that thing?”

Riddick lowered his prize, souvenir, whatever he considered it and turned back to look into the building. “Top of the food chain?”

His unaffected tone while looking at the remains of probably thirty or more people sent a cold shiver down her spine. Surely these people had had families, loved ones, dreams, and to be so violently killed, their remains neglected and forgotten, was appalling to her.

Now, seeing the fate of the settlers she had to wonder why the organization that had set them up here hadn’t returned to clean up the mess? Why just leave the whole thing? And what were those things? Were they still around? What kept them from attacking her and Riddick or the group at the other settlement?

Riddick’s look was almost smug, his attention on the sharp claw thing was either reverent or envious.

“What are you thinking happened?” she whispered, wanting him to spell it out for her rather than have her own imagination conjure it.

“Nighttime sucks around here.”

She smacked his arm, hating him for joking about it. But he was right. The creatures, wherever they were now, if they were even still alive, were apparently nocturnal. On a planet with ceaseless sunshine the settlers hadn’t been prepared. Or had they?

“What’s in there?” she asked, stepping closer to him to literally peek around him.

He turned and moved into the doorway. Bell felt like a kid at an adult’s shirttail. She hung onto him as he moved, keeping him between her and the macabre scene and any danger within.

“Exactly what we’re looking for. MRE’s, water, stove at the back next to some bunks.”

A safe house then. “They knew.”

“Miners. Probably met a couple underground.”

“Why’d they stay? I would’ve left.”

“Money. And ol’ Comate. Probly gave ‘em a raise and a few threats. Lotta work to have ‘em leave once they’re here.”

She backed away from him and the building, relieved when he came away too.

“Can we take their stash? The water still good, you think?”

He smirked, “You comin’ in with me?”

She shuddered, thinking of all those bleached bones. “I will.”

In the end she didn’t. Riddick sent her back to get Ramsay and together they plundered the storehouse. The water was in barrels with a tap that could be inserted. Only one had been tapped, probably still fresh, but they dumped and refilled it anyway. Ten one hundred and twenty liter barrels had been lined up at the back of the building. The dozen or so crates of MRE’s went too.

The job took a couple hours, but when they were done Bell was beyond pleased. They had five thousand liters of water, not counting what the ship had in its sanitation supply. They had enough to keep twelve people alive for approximately eight weeks. That was amazing. And necessary. They’d have to dock somewhere to set the others down to keep from exposing Riddick’s whereabouts to the authorities who would be monitoring communications.

To be going through so much to keep a convicted criminal free didn’t seem as strange to her as it should. This wasn’t just any criminal. This was Riddick, and unfounded or not, she felt an affinity to him that she’d never explain to him. Keeping him out of Slam right now was more important than even the others’ lives. After all, they HAD left a human to die of exposure amidst them.