The Journey

It took only a few hours to get to the planet, but Kylie took an extra hour to circle the planet, showing him where the major cities were.

“Course, they’re not there now. I don’t know if anyone lives here anymore, but if they do, I doubt they’re in one of them.”

She landed outside a moderately sized city, which had also been nearly destroyed and uninhabitable. “We can camp out here.”

They set up a couple sleeping bags, the air being warm enough they didn’t need a tent, and decided that if it was going to storm, they could duck into the ship.

She led him around the outside of town, showing him the way to a cemetery. She made her way through the dilapidated gates, and back near the center of the broken headstones and markers. When she was where she wanted to be, she knelt down in front of a marker. It was framed by two sealed vases.

“I wasn’t totally honest about coming here. I was here about two years before we met. Only long enough to put my parents’ ashes here with my brother, where they would have wanted to be.”

She brushed some leaves away from the headstone, and stood. “Most of these graves are children, or whole families.”

She shook her head sadly and turned, walking away. After a moment, he followed.

That evening, with the fire set up, they ate in silence. Kylie laid back on top of her sleeping bag, looking up at the sky. She had camped pretty close to this spot with her parents.

The stars started to swirl and swim before her eyes, trails of light dancing across the sky as something faded into her sight.

Gun fire, rough hands, and blood. Running through the city, half dragged, being chased. Pain from her side, daylight is far off. Angry voices echoed around her. She was being held by someone…who? She tries to turn her head, only to have things go black, accompanied by the mingled sounds of her screams and a man in pain.

Kylie gasped, sitting up suddenly. “No..” She murmured, “No no no..won’t let it…”

She looked around the campsite, and found herself alone. She forced herself calm, feeding the fire with some of the wood they had collected, then sitting down on a stump. The city she had been running through, it was a ruined one, probably the one they were nearest to. But when? Where did Riddick go?

She sighed, then frowned as she heard a twig snap. She did her best to not let on that she heard it, picking up a fairly thick stick, poking at the fire, and hiding the actions of her other hand as she pulled out a knife.

A loud harsh chuckle came from the woods as a group of rough looking men stepped out of the trees. The leader of the group was a man wearing clothes that were filthy and tattered. He motioned to his friends, and they spread out, circling the fire.

Kylie didn’t panic, eyes flitting from one to another as she watched them move. Her grip tightened on her knife as she stood.

“What have we got here? Looks like we found something to play with. Trip might have been worth it after all.”

The laughter of his mates joined him as he stepped closer to her, reaching a hand to grab her arm. She took a swipe at his face, and was jumped on from behind by another man. Stabbing backwards, she used the stick as a spear, nearly gutting him. Pulling the stick free, she whirled, hitting another one of them over the head with it, knocking him out.

She took advantage of the surprise to take off into the trees, trying to use her size to out maneuver them. She didn’t want to go into the city, she didn’t know it well enough to find anywhere to hide. She could hear them chasing behind her, hollering to each other, telling them which way to go, or where they thought they saw her.

She wasn’t watching where she was going and ran into one of the men. He tried to grab her, but her anger and fear fueled her, and she jabbed at him with her knife. He dodged, and lunged forward. She stepped to the side and grabbed him around his neck, dragging the knife across his throat hard, slitting it. She then took off running again, trying to keep ahead of them, especially after she heard their angry screams from finding his body.

She didn’t realize she was running in circles, and emerged on the outskirts of the city. Before she could try to run again, she felt hands closing around her arms, pulling her down to the ground. Struggling against the numerous hands on her she screamed. A hand hit her across the face hard, rocking her and blurring her vision. The started dragging her through the city streets, in spite of the fact she tried to stand.

“Com’on bitch.” He hissed at her, and she bit his nose when he got too close to her face.

He hit her harder still, and she lapsed into a state of fuzzy vision, able to tell she was moving, but she couldn’t follow which turns they made.

Next thing she knew, she was on a ship. It wasn’t her ship, this one was absolutely disgusting. She could smell blood, and hear fighting somewhere she couldn’t see.

Swaying on her feet, she stood and made her way towards the back of the ship, looking for a way out. She stumbled over the body of a man, and she searched the body, finding a knife, but no other weapon.

Holding it tightly, she found the hatch. There in front of her, she saw Riddick, and in front of him the man who had grabbed her in the first place. She felt rage, and as they turned so the attacker’s back was to her, she launched herself at him, burying the knife in his back. His arm swung backwards, grazing her side with the knife that she hadn’t been able to see from where she had been standing.

With a cry, he threw her off, her head hitting one of the ramp supports hard enough that she blacked out.