Treacherous

Chapter 5

Finally Riddick halted. The red and orange suns were just leaving the highest point in the sky. They’d been moving through a valley gouged between two cliff faces. A high point above gave a bit of shade and they both sat with backs pressed to the wall to utilize what little shade was there.

Bell gave Riddick one of the ration packets without speaking. She drank a bit of water and promptly dozed off.

“You’re not cut out for this, are you?”

Bell blinked awake groggily. Her head ached, of course, and she felt her old friend nausea rolling through her. “What?”

“You’re not cut out for this.”

Bell rolled her eyes and drank some of the hot water she still held. “I don’t take that as an insult.”

“Can you make it?”

Alternative? The reward of having her throat slit out here was not what she was looking for. Her resolve hardened. If she held him back he wouldn’t appreciate it. It might kill her to keep up with him, but then that would just save him the trouble of doing it himself. With this decision made she capped the water and adjusted her bandana, hating the damp material being against her skin. She stood, facing the way they’d been headed and started walking.

Fuck him! She could make it. She was no invalid. And obviously he’d forgotten that he wouldn’t even be here now if it weren’t for her. She should invite him to take his place back in SS4 tied to a fucking post.

The sounds of him following her, more the sound of the water sloshing in the containers both eased her mind and let some of the wind out of her sails. He was carrying all the water. Since they’d left the cave she hadn’t touched one of the containers, leaving it all to him, and still she was having problems keeping pace with him.

For the next couple hours they walked side by side. Bell did her best to move as fast as possible and Riddick did a perfect job keeping pace with HER.

At one point they passed a high ridge and Riddick had her wait while he climbed up to look around. Bell found a shaded spot behind a boulder and waited, watching him climb nimbly up the steep rocky hill. A few rocks fell as he went, but otherwise he could have been a mountain goat, bouncing from one ridge to the next with hardly a pause. Finally he was a silhouette against the bright sky far above her. He stood immobile for endless minutes, gazing out at the land they had just crossed.

On his way back down he was little more careless, causing small falls of rocks that he nearly rode down. Bell was duly impressed. If she were to attempt the same feat, either ascending or descending, she would most likely end up in a broken bloody heap at the bottom of the hill.

Riddick hunkered down beside her, just getting into the shade, and literally took the open bottle from her hand. “I don’t see anything. Maybe he gave up. I wouldn’t have figured it, but he’s got the rest of them still to impress.”

Bell frowned at his panted words. At least he WAS breathing hard, but what interested her more was his mention of Johns. “What do you mean ‘impress’?”

His head turned, indicating to her that he was looking at her for a change. “Our friendly neighborhood cop ain’t all he appears,” was all he said before he handed the bottle back, now empty. He moved away from her, donning the pack again, and in seconds she was scrambling to catch up to him.

When they stopped again it was amidst a graveyard of the giant beasts they’d seen before. Beneath the enormous ribcages was a sheltering tunnel. Bell slept soundly. When Riddick woke her she was feeling less than eager. Aching muscles, headache, a nearly constant nausea, and now she just couldn’t shake off the fatigue, and was even suffering from shivers like she was cold or something.

Riddick tipped her off that there might be something really wrong with her by being a vigilant companion. He kept their pace slow, which further worried her, and didn’t leave her side, continually pressing her to drink more water. After a while she started to feel somewhat better and figured it had just been a temporary malady.

Then suddenly she was dropping to her knees, puking water into the dust.

Riddick stood over her patiently, by design or accident, his large body shaded her as she emptied her stomach.

“You’re dehydrated,” he told her, still waiting for her to finish. “If you stay out here much longer you’ll go into hypothermic shock and die.”

Bell added more water to the dark circle beneath her face as she started to cry. It just wasn’t fair. She wanted to fight for her life. Resist, argue, reason, or at least run. But instead all she could do was kneel and cry. It was getting to the point she felt so miserable that she almost wished he would kill her. Why suffer so long if the end would be the same?

“I’d say we’ve covered forty-five kilometers or more. We should be getting close if we’re not off course. But I can’t carry you.”

Bell’s arms felt like shaky noodles as she held herself up. She was done throwing up, but she didn’t know if she had the strength or will to get up. “Don’t kill me.”

A moment of silence broken only by the wind, then a deep rolling laugh was filling her ears, her head, even her chest. It was such an abnormal sound, so unexpected, that she didn’t realize that she sat up to look at him, probably to make sure that beautiful sound was really coming from him.

His head had tilted back as he laughed and as he lowered it she saw that he was grinning. GRINNING! For a second she was struck dumb, seeing again the appeal she’d seen before the distractions of this journey had blinded her to it. He was like a poem, hard to read and understand, but still able to stop a person in their tracks by the simple beauty of it.

She longed to see his eyes, even the unnatural silver would be preferable to the black goggles. With his eyes covered his smile was easily mistaken as evil. Surely the devil enjoyed his work?

“Fear sharpens the senses, but fucks with reasoning,” he said suddenly, still with that broad smile. “If you knew a little more you’d be a tough opponent. You’ve surprised me with your quick thinking and sheer grit more than once. Why would I bring you to the door of the settlement to kill you? I’da got here a lot faster with you in that cave with the water jug.”

For the moment Bell’s misery was forgotten. “Why didn’t you?”

“Cuz of those first five kilometers. Cuz of the shirt and the lip stuff. Cuz of the cutters. Cuz of the water for three days before that.”

Bell sat before him mute. Was he saying that gratitude had saved her life? No, he was saying he owed her something. Yeah, his fucking life. That thought shocked her and she looked up at him anew. “But I can’t keep up.”

“Are you arguing for this or against it?” He smirked at this and then continued, “I’m only carrying now what you carried then. You left me shit to carry while you lugged everything. I’m fucking impressed.”

Slowly Bell hauled herself up. When he held out a hand it was only natural that she took it. She felt like a weight had been lifted from her, the clouds had departed, the sun was fucking shining, and Richard B. Riddick didn’t plan on killing her!

She didn’t know what to say. She felt like grinning like an idiot and probably was, but what exactly did you say to a person that just told you they didn’t intend to leave you for carrion?

She took the one empty jug from him and they started walking. After watching her clumsy gate for a minute Riddick asked, “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know, but I’m not staying here.”

He nodded and they walked for a while in silence.

“What’s your name?”

“What?”

“You heard me. You never told me your name.”

Bell shrugged, “I just figured you knew it.”

“I don’t.”

She rolled her eyes, knowing what was to come. “It’s Jezebella, but everyone always calls me Bell or Bella.”

Riddick actually halted in his tracks. “Your name is Jezebel? You’ve got to be kidding. Did your parents hate you?”

Bell smiled, having expected and heard his reaction. “I was adopted. The missionary or whatever liked biblical names. When my mother adopted me she just added the L-A and left it alone.”

They started walking again.

“Can I call you Jezebel?”

“Not if you expect me to answer.”

He gave her a considering look and nodded, “Good enough. Bell it is.”

“Can I call you Richard?”

He smiled, “Not if you expect to live.”

Bell found this hilarious and had to stop for a moment to catch her breath and hold her stomach, which still wasn’t particularly pleased with her. Riddick was cracking jokes now? This had to be the seventy-fourth wonder of the universe or something.

“You done laughin’ at me?”

Bell smiled as she caught up to him. “I don’t think so. Your wit is killing me.”

He looked down at her with an all-too grave look and she giggled again.

“This heat is getting to you.”

Bell laughed again. Oh, God, he had to stop, or she did.

Suddenly he stopped and she pulled up short as well. Following his gaze she looked up and saw the twinkle of metal in the sun.

They’d made it!! She’d been starting to doubt herself, the map, the distance, the direction, everything. What if they just wandered in circles and never found anything? What if the other settlement had been destroyed or worse yet, dismantled? What if the coordinates were off? What if she was stupid for having left SS4? But finally there it was, an oasis in the desert.

Riddick had them moving forward again, now aiming to the right where they hoped to find a way up. The settlement looked to have been built on a hilltop or just the edge of the cliff that they were now below. The actual camp was far above them.

It seemed to take forever to cross the wide expanse before the hill and another eternity to climb the steep hill, but finally they were walking between the first buildings. The most noticeable thing was the size. SS1 was probably three or four times bigger than SS4. The tin buildings were bigger and better arranged here. Some of them were two stories and were set up in lanes with wide streets between them.

But everywhere was the evidence of desertion and long-term neglect. Whatever tragedy had befallen the settlers at SS4 had been widespread or even global.

Riddick moved down the street, appearing more interested in the larger buildings. Bell had more simple goals. She knew they needed water. What they had wouldn’t last another day. But right now she just needed sleep. Slowly she climbed the outside steps on the side of a two-story building. Logic told her the housing would be on the second floor wherever there was one. Also, there had been some minor destruction at SS4. Something had ripped the roofs open on some of the smaller buildings, like something big trying to get in. If the same had happened here, chances were no one would have tried to take refuge in an upstairs room, so it would most likely be undamaged.

The door creaked when she opened it, but at least it had been closed. Sunshine lit the inside of the room, a small kitchen and dinette with a couch and desk off to one side. Nice accommodations. Nothing at SS4 had been this lavish. Through to the other door she saw light shining in the next room too, the large screened blinds were open and she saw it was what she’d sought. A bedroom.

The blankets cascaded and puffed dust and dirt when she pulled them off. She dropped them in a heap and then crawled onto the now somewhat clean bed. Whatever they needed to do next would have to wait. She was asleep before her head touched the mattress.


**Sorry about the delay in posting. I'll try to keep up.