The Journey

When she woke, she was held by chains with her arms spread and her feet inches from the floor. Her clothes were gone, and she was left in the cold room alone, shivering as the temperature started to really set into her.

Her eyes darted around the room, settling on the door as she heard people coming. She squirmed, struggling against the chains that held her, kicking out as two of the men came close. She glared at them as they grabbed her ankles and chained them down. A moment later the leader of the group came in, followed by Riddick.

She wasn’t sure what to think, she hoped she was right, that he wasn’t really with them and only trying to see what their setup was, but knowing his past, and not knowing how he felt about her, or anyone else for that matter, had her uncertain. Even if he was fooling them, how far would he let it go?

She shuddered as she saw what the man was getting out. A large bullwhip hung from his belt as he pulled open a drawer with a wide range of pokers in it. Each one had a different symbol, and he perused them before turning and quietly saying something to Riddick.

Riddick nodded, and pointed.

The man smiled and pulled out two pokers, setting them on some sort of heating device, waiting for them to heat up properly.

“She tied down right? Might wanna gag her, but we’ll wait until we see how loud she is, don’t want to freak the other merchandise yet.”

The group of men laughed at that, and one of them left. The other walked over to a cabinet and pulled something out.

“Now, for the punishment for being bad.”

The man by her spun her around, so she was facing the wall. With that the man walked over to her, stopped behind her and raised the whip over his head. He brought it down hard across her back, the sound of it hitting her skin sounding loudly through the room. She felt a sharp burning pain across her back, but only hissed, not wanting to give them the pleasure of hearing her scream.

As he hit her over and over, she bit her lip, drawing blood to keep from crying out. Suddenly the whipping stopped, leaving her panting, gasping for air around the pain she felt through her body. She felt someone behind her, and they slipped a blindfold over her eyes.

“Now, to mark you for what your future…career will be.” She could hear the clanking of metal behind her, and she braced herself. This would hurt even more then the whip did.

Just before the poker touched her skin, it was close enough that she could feel the heat radiating off of it, someone burst into the room.

“Sir, there’s soldiers in the forest. Some big black ship landed near the town and they are coming this way.”

“Shit! Round up the men and start loading the ship. Looks like we’ll have to finish playing with you later.” He spoke into Kylie’s ear as she heard the footsteps of two of the men retreating.

As she could feel him pulling away and heard the metal being set down, she heard the thump of a body hitting the floor.

She wasn’t sure what was going on, she could smell blood, most of it her own, and the men who were in the room before, as well as Riddick. When a hand touched her side, she jumped, flinching away from the touch, head turning to the side that was touched.

“Who?” She whispered, more for herself then for the benefit of the person who had touched her. She slumped to the floor as the chains holding her up were released, and she pulled the blindfold from her eyes.

Blinking, she saw Riddick standing there, behind him the body of the slaver’s leader, his intestines spilled out onto the floor, his head lolling to the side, nearly completely severed.

He didn’t say anything, walking out the door, locking it behind him.

Kylie rose to her feet, ignoring the searing pain shooting through her back. Allowing herself a moment of anger, she kicked the head of what once was a man.

Digging through the various cabinets and drawers in the room turned up more torture devices and finally a set of clothes that were a couple sizes larger then her, but wearable.

Slipping into them, but unable to find any shoes, she picked up a pair of knives, slipping them into the waistband of the pants before walking over to the door. She touched the button and frowned when it wouldn’t open.

“Damn you Riddick.” She cursed at him under her breath as she punched buttons on the pad. Growing tired of it after a moment, she took a metal rod from one of the cabinets and bashed in the keypad, one hand raised to protect her face from the sparks.

With a reluctant groan, the door slid open. Kylie stepped into the hall and took a deep breath of the air around her. One direction, the one that went deeper into the ship, smelled strongly of Riddick and blood. As attracted as she was to the smell of both, she chose to go the other direction, she heard the sounds of fighting and the cries of children in fear.

She stood in the hatch, looking over the battle going on around her. She could see Vaako and Kyra together at the edge of the clearing. They and the other men were pinned down by gunfire, but they were gaining ground. She spotted a group of men trying to round up the people who had been freed, one in particular hovering over a small group of terrified children.

With a battle cry, she launched herself through the air at him, pulling the knives free from their temporary hilt. The sound of her, combined with the sight of this valkyrie flying at him stunned him. Kylie’s knives had done their damage before he was even aware he was injured. Bringing one knife down, the other up across his body slit his throat and stomach at the same moment.

His blood sprayed out, showering Kylie’s face and shirt in the warm sticky fluid. As his body slumped to the ground, she looked at the children. “Run, go back to the houses, quickly. MOVE!”

A girl of about ten took the hand of a smaller child, and they started running, slipping into the woods and out of sight.

Kylie’s eyes sought out her next target, followed quickly by the rest of her body.

The man was huge. He easily dwarfed Kylie, and was probably even taller then Riddick, he certainly was wider.

She grinned ferally at him, crouching. He wasn’t fast, or smart, his dull eyes told her that. He lunged at her and she ducked under his outstretched arms, cutting open his shirt. She wanted this to last, now that she could hear Vaako’s men dealing with the rest in more close quarters.

“You missed.” She chuckled darkly, eyes flashing at him. “Think you can do better next time.”

He glared at her, pulling out some sort of knife, and lunged again, lower this time. She leapt up and over him, dragging her knives down his back, making two long thin lines of blood well up.

He screamed in rage as he whirled around on her. She moved too fast for him though, and planted her legs around his neck, flipping him over her as she cart wheeled. He landed on his back on the ground. She planted her feet on either side of his head, and buried her knives in his eyes, piercing his brain.

Wiping the blood and fluid on the clothes of the now dead man, she looked around slowly. It looked like Vaako and his men had things well in hand, the majority of the slavers laying dead, the remainder with their hands over their heads being herded into the cages where the people from the village had been kept. Kylie made her way over to where Kyra stood.

“Good timing.”

“Got here as fast as we could.” Kyra looked at the older woman and gasped. “Your shirt, it’s soaked in blood.”

”Not all of it is mine.” She sighed and found a rock, out of sight of where the soldiers were, and sat. “Cut it off.”

Kyra took the knife from Kylie, and slit the bloody shirt down either side, peeling it off of her back. Kylie hissed in pain as the wounds on her back were reopened, but showed no other reaction as Kyra cleaned them with water from a canteen she had carried with her.

“They’ll be gone by tomorrow. They’re not deep enough to be there longer then that.” Kylie said with a sigh as she pulled on a clean shirt. “If anyone needs me, I have a friend to bury.”