The Slow Burn

Ardath Rekha


Seven - Eight - Nine

 

7. Fiona: Offerings

"So, click your fingers and he's one of us, now?"

Fiona glanced over toward Shazza and Johns, where they walked side-by-side. There was still anger and hostility in Shazza's voice, as if she still blamed Riddick for Zeke's death. Fiona sighed, then glanced back at the man in question.

Riddick was at the back of the group, pulling a heavily-laden sled. She frowned for a moment, trying to figure out what seemed wrong with the picture.

Finally it came to her.

Bastards didn't give him a breather, she thought to herself, as she fell back to walk beside him. Carefully she lifted her unit off of her shoulder, then held it out to him.

"Here," she told him. "I think you need this more than I do."

He stared at her for a moment, his pace lagging. She continued to hold the unit out. After a moment, he took it, and placed it across his shoulders, over the sled's chain.

"You sure about this, Fee? You're not letting yourself in for a picnic, here."

Her family had always called her that. Oddly enough, it didn't hurt, hearing it now, as much as she'd thought it might. There was pain, but it was remote, staying out of the way of the more immediate concerns around her. She nodded. "Maybe if it gets bad you can let me have a hit or something."

Riddick nodded, a slight smile crossing his face. Then he lifted the breather tube up and took a long drag on it. "Hmm," he said after a moment, quirking one eyebrow at her.

"What?"

He leaned over, dropping his voice so none of the others would hear. "Now I know what your mouth tastes like." His breath was warm on her cheek, but somehow it sent shivers through her.

8. Riddick: Considerations

The settlement and the skiff turned out to be deeply unimpressive. Fry seemed to think that the skiff would get them up where they could be rescued, and Riddick had publicly agreed with her, deliberately revealing some of his knowledge of how astrogation worked. Johns promptly asked him to take on tasks that would keep him as far away from the skiff as possible. Typical.

Riddick moved off and began to explore the ghost town. His investigations quickly began to disturb him. Everywhere there were signs that people had left in a hurry, or had been caught up in some kind of panic. No actual signs of the people, though. A broken pair of spectacles, a small water-flask, somebody's chrono... things that shouldn't have been lying among the dust. Not unless there was big trouble at the end.

Well, it wasn't such a surprise. He hadn't actually seen Zeke get taken, but he knew it had happened fast. Looked like these settlers got a taste of the same thing, unfortunate bastards.

As he walked, his mind turned to his companions. Things could get hairy pretty damned quickly, and most of them were still trying to delude themselves as to what the real dangers were. Johns, of course, would do whatever he could to save his own ass, and Fry might do the same. He didn't necessarily think so, though. She seemed to feel a lot of guilt over almost dumping the passenger cabin. Maybe now that everybody had become real people to her, she would feel obligated to protect them.

Too bad nobody's ever "real people" to Johns, he reflected.

Shazza was unpredictable. She was still riding the edge of her grief and rage. If she snapped, she might do the whole group a world of harm. Paris was worthless, another one like Johns.

The holy man seemed okay, but those kids of his would probably get themselves into trouble. And Jack... Jack was interesting. Riddick had spotted the boy earlier, ducking through the town, with a shaved head and a pair of goggles that vaguely resembled his. Jack would probably side with him if things got rough, for whatever that might be worth.

Finally, there was Fiona. He'd held off on thinking about her until last because she was the most interesting one of all. Since the beginning, she'd treated him like a genuine, oxygen-breathing human, as opposed to a rabid jackal that happened to know how to walk on two legs. He wished he knew whether she would have done so under normal circumstances, or whether the loss of everyone important to her had simply left her reckless.

But there were the repeated, consistent acts of simple kindness to consider. The horse bit. Cleaning his cuts. Sharing her breather. Things that nobody else in the group had even thought about.

And, of course, there was the very simple fact that he wanted her. It had been a very, very long time since he'd been with a woman, and even longer since he'd been with one who didn't charge by the hour. He hoped he wasn't imagining their chemistry.

Still thinking about Fiona, Riddick moved over to the Coring Room and began examining it.

9. Fiona: Private Nightfall

Ali's abrupt death left the entire group in shock. It didn't help when Fry told them, in no uncertain terms, that the creatures which had attacked her and killed Zeke had been much bigger. Suddenly nobody wanted to go anywhere dark, and nobody wanted to sleep.

Fiona knew that she'd been awake for about thirty hours now. Everything had taken on a surreal quality for her. The strange light played tricks with her eyes more and more. Finally she gave up and went searching for a bed.

She found one that had a large, heavy bedspread on it. The spread had a thick layer of gritty dust on it, of course, but when she carefully lifted it up the sheets and pillow underneath were fairly clean. She adjusted the window slats so that their light streamed up onto the ceiling, then climbed under the sheets. She fell asleep almost immediately. She was fast asleep when Riddick came into the room and joined her in the bed.

 

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