Categories > Movies > Pitch Black > Darkness, Be My Friend
Chapter Four : Within the Here and Now
The sandcat was actually in better condition than Riddick expected; all he had to do to get it working was clear the dust and debris from where half the awning it was housed under had collapsed. The transparent plexiglass bubble that covered the solar panels had collected a fine film of dust, the kind you only get when mud dries. This was puzzling, as it went along with the evidence of water damage to the buildings he'd noted earlier; and those skeletons in the bone yard had possessed features that hinted at aquatic life.
This place has three fucking suns, they had to use a vaporator as a supply of water... no way anything bigger than maybe a pet fish could live out here...
Riddick ran a hand over his head, noting that he needed to shave and letting out a slight laugh at the thought. He sat back in the driver's seat of the sandcat, frowning out at the landscape; his eyes fell on the skiff and saw the girl climbing down the ramp, having deposited, not a third load of cans but a collection of what appeared to be water-filled containers. He wondered how much food there actually was and guessed that she may have been exaggerating the amount. There couldn't be much more than twenty, twenty-five cans at the most; a settlement like this would grow its own food, as evidenced by the dead gardens.
Which brought back this little problem; alone, Riddick knew he could survive any number of days subsisting on the bare minimum but the kid... He shook his head and stood up, absently cracking his neck. Knowing your own limits was a part of survival and surviving was something that he was very good at; second only to his uncanny knack for escaping the inescapable.
Riddick crossed the sand to the smallest building where Jack had disappeared to after dropping off the cans. He stopped at the doorway; she was crouched next to a spindly display of colored globes and miniature lamps powered by a single whirling solar panel in the light of the window. It was a solar system model, guessing from the way the different arms spun around; there was a large planet stationed in the very middle in a slightly tilted elliptical orbit and a bigger ringed orb near the outside.
Two lamps circled each other on one side of the mobile while a third blue lamp kept pace in opposition. But between them all was one small planet, plodding along almost in time to the clicks of the spinning gears.
"There's not enough food," Jack said quietly, keeping her gaze on the mobile, the light from the miniature blue sun illuminating her face as it passed by. "I mean, there's maybe two weeks, a little more than two weeks worth, but that's it."
Riddick frowned, leaning back against the door, listening to the clicking sound of the spinning model.
"How many cans are there?" he inquired, glancing back outside towards the skiff.
"Twenty-two," she answered softly and the gears to the mobile ceased their movement.
That's a week and a half, not two weeks...
"How do you figure, two weeks?" Riddick asked, turning his head to look back at the girl. Jack blinked, opening her mouth to say something, but shutting it quickly in favor of biting her lip again. His frown deepened at her actions, it annoyed him now, if only because it brought back the confusion from before. "What, you planning on not eating?"
The look on her face told him that he was more than half-right in that respect. This girl did know her own limits when it came to food and he berated himself for thinking otherwise; Jack was a runaway, that much had been obvious already. It only served to confuse him more as he realized that she'd rationed out her portion of the food so that he could have more.
Who does something like that? Puts strain on their own survival for someone else...doesn't make sense...
Then his eyes fell on the mobile; it was frozen in place, the light from the three miniature suns still glowing eerily in Jack's face. But the little globes representing the planets had arranged themselves into one line, the smaller one in between the two larger completely obscured from the light. There was a counter on the underneath of the mobile; Riddick stepped away from the wall, crouching down next to the girl to see it clearer.
Twenty-two...
"There was a calendar in the bigger building," Jack whispered and he could feel her eyes on him. "It had the system year conversions, sixty to twenty-two. At least, that was the last mark on there..."
She trailed off as he turned his head to stare at her; there was now a small bleeding cut in her lip from her teeth.
"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" Riddick asked, unable to keep the taunting edge out of his voice. The girl seemed to contemplate the question, eyes falling on the mobile and its simulated eclipse.
"I don't know," she whispered, smiling faintly and shaking her head before looking back at him. "Are you?"
****************************
...Shouldn't have said that...
Jack watched as Riddick stood up again, stepping silently out the door and walking a few feet off before glancing back at her. She took it to mean that she should follow, so she quickly scrambled up and ran out after him. She stopped just a few feet short of where he stood, shoes kicking up dust with the motion; he was frowning again, she could tell even though he wasn't looking at her.
...Yeah, shouldn't have said that...now he's mad at me...
"You need to be quieter," Riddick commented with a slight growling edge in his tone.
"What?" Jack asked, startled. She'd expected him to say something else; perhaps some scathing statement about how he didn't have any reason to be afraid where as she had many. Instead she'd gotten a comment on her walking habits; Riddick glanced back over his shoulder at her.
"Could hear you from a mile away, kid," he informed her before continuing on towards the sandcat. "Walk quieter, you'll live longer."
Jack wasn't sure if Riddick was trying to be cryptic in that statement or if it was just his way of giving advice. Preferring to take it for the latter, she cautiously followed him back to the awning with the sandcat, trying not to make any noise when she walked. It took some concentration, but in the few dozen steps she made she couldn't even hear her own footfalls.
"Still heard you," Riddick told her, breaking her concentration and startling her all at once.
Jack looked up, frowning at him, but her frown disappeared when she saw the amused grin on his face. It was an actual smile, not a half-one like he'd given her earlier; it made her feel slightly abashed and a faint flush creeped its way onto her face. He didn't seem to notice her embarrassment and instead climbed behind the wheel of the sandcat.
Clambering into the back of the vehicle under the roll bars, Jack watched as he toggled the different switches and the engine whirred silently to life. The cart moved surprisingly fast, so she found herself holding onto one of the support bars as they drove out of the settlement back towards the canyon.
We're going back to the crash? Why?
Jack didn't voice that question, but instead turned so her back was facing the front wall of the sandcat's bed and her feet were pointing towards the back end of the vehicle. She watched as the wheels left tracks in the dirt, the treads and weight of the vehicle making it possible to leave a mark. A small pain suddenly cut through her stomach, and she grunted, dragging her knees up to her chest; she felt her insides cramping up and closed her eyes.
As if this couldn't get any worse...
It took little less than an hour to reach the crash site again and Jack was thankful that Riddick didn't pull the sandcat up to the passenger cabin. She never wanted to see another cryo-locker ever again.
Jumping out the back as Riddick climbed out of the driver's seat, Jack glanced about at the spires surrounding the outside of this section of the crashed ship. They looked more than a little eerie to her now and she shivered despite herself, moving to follow Riddick inside. He went towards one of the back sections of the ship and Jack started to follow until she noticed something strange.
When they had looked around here earlier there had been a body, one of the crew members, lying on the floor. She remembered because she had closed the man's eyes, mimicking what she'd seen in a movie somewhere. The body was gone now and the place where it had been held a stain that looked identical to blood; in fact it wasn't just one stain, there was a whole trail leading towards the front of the ship, the part buried under the sand. There was a faint scratching noise emanating from the shadows beyond the fallen ladder, and Jack felt another shiver run down her spine.
Something's down there...
****************************
A ship like the Hunter-Gratzner took twelve twenty gig cels to power everything from the computer systems to the main drives. There were seven left intact after the crash and that was more than enough needed to power the skiff. Riddick pulled the manual release switches on one before pulling it out and hefting it over one shoulder. He pulled out a second cell and carried the two of them back outside, dumping them into the back of the sandcat.
Not even pausing a step, he turned and went back inside the ship, intent on getting the next two cells, but halfway there he stopped, sensing a strange undercurrent in the atmosphere. Frowning, he turned back towards the front of the ship and reached up, pushing his goggles away from his eyes. It was dim enough to see comfortably here, especially since the automatic lights from the ship's control panels had been damaged in the crash. He saw a light, though, down near where he'd found the scattered remains of the pilot; the girl had evidently found herself a working flashlight.
Careful kid...
Shaking his head and replacing his goggles, he went and pulled out two more of the cels, carrying them back out to the sandcat with minimal effort. Thirty-five kilos was next to nothing to him; he could easily lift twice his own weight without trying. He set them in the back with the other two, casting a glance at the two suns rising on the horizon before quickly turning back inside.
Riddick was just pulling out the last power cel when a scream cut through the air.
The sandcat was actually in better condition than Riddick expected; all he had to do to get it working was clear the dust and debris from where half the awning it was housed under had collapsed. The transparent plexiglass bubble that covered the solar panels had collected a fine film of dust, the kind you only get when mud dries. This was puzzling, as it went along with the evidence of water damage to the buildings he'd noted earlier; and those skeletons in the bone yard had possessed features that hinted at aquatic life.
This place has three fucking suns, they had to use a vaporator as a supply of water... no way anything bigger than maybe a pet fish could live out here...
Riddick ran a hand over his head, noting that he needed to shave and letting out a slight laugh at the thought. He sat back in the driver's seat of the sandcat, frowning out at the landscape; his eyes fell on the skiff and saw the girl climbing down the ramp, having deposited, not a third load of cans but a collection of what appeared to be water-filled containers. He wondered how much food there actually was and guessed that she may have been exaggerating the amount. There couldn't be much more than twenty, twenty-five cans at the most; a settlement like this would grow its own food, as evidenced by the dead gardens.
Which brought back this little problem; alone, Riddick knew he could survive any number of days subsisting on the bare minimum but the kid... He shook his head and stood up, absently cracking his neck. Knowing your own limits was a part of survival and surviving was something that he was very good at; second only to his uncanny knack for escaping the inescapable.
Riddick crossed the sand to the smallest building where Jack had disappeared to after dropping off the cans. He stopped at the doorway; she was crouched next to a spindly display of colored globes and miniature lamps powered by a single whirling solar panel in the light of the window. It was a solar system model, guessing from the way the different arms spun around; there was a large planet stationed in the very middle in a slightly tilted elliptical orbit and a bigger ringed orb near the outside.
Two lamps circled each other on one side of the mobile while a third blue lamp kept pace in opposition. But between them all was one small planet, plodding along almost in time to the clicks of the spinning gears.
"There's not enough food," Jack said quietly, keeping her gaze on the mobile, the light from the miniature blue sun illuminating her face as it passed by. "I mean, there's maybe two weeks, a little more than two weeks worth, but that's it."
Riddick frowned, leaning back against the door, listening to the clicking sound of the spinning model.
"How many cans are there?" he inquired, glancing back outside towards the skiff.
"Twenty-two," she answered softly and the gears to the mobile ceased their movement.
That's a week and a half, not two weeks...
"How do you figure, two weeks?" Riddick asked, turning his head to look back at the girl. Jack blinked, opening her mouth to say something, but shutting it quickly in favor of biting her lip again. His frown deepened at her actions, it annoyed him now, if only because it brought back the confusion from before. "What, you planning on not eating?"
The look on her face told him that he was more than half-right in that respect. This girl did know her own limits when it came to food and he berated himself for thinking otherwise; Jack was a runaway, that much had been obvious already. It only served to confuse him more as he realized that she'd rationed out her portion of the food so that he could have more.
Who does something like that? Puts strain on their own survival for someone else...doesn't make sense...
Then his eyes fell on the mobile; it was frozen in place, the light from the three miniature suns still glowing eerily in Jack's face. But the little globes representing the planets had arranged themselves into one line, the smaller one in between the two larger completely obscured from the light. There was a counter on the underneath of the mobile; Riddick stepped away from the wall, crouching down next to the girl to see it clearer.
Twenty-two...
"There was a calendar in the bigger building," Jack whispered and he could feel her eyes on him. "It had the system year conversions, sixty to twenty-two. At least, that was the last mark on there..."
She trailed off as he turned his head to stare at her; there was now a small bleeding cut in her lip from her teeth.
"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" Riddick asked, unable to keep the taunting edge out of his voice. The girl seemed to contemplate the question, eyes falling on the mobile and its simulated eclipse.
"I don't know," she whispered, smiling faintly and shaking her head before looking back at him. "Are you?"
****************************
...Shouldn't have said that...
Jack watched as Riddick stood up again, stepping silently out the door and walking a few feet off before glancing back at her. She took it to mean that she should follow, so she quickly scrambled up and ran out after him. She stopped just a few feet short of where he stood, shoes kicking up dust with the motion; he was frowning again, she could tell even though he wasn't looking at her.
...Yeah, shouldn't have said that...now he's mad at me...
"You need to be quieter," Riddick commented with a slight growling edge in his tone.
"What?" Jack asked, startled. She'd expected him to say something else; perhaps some scathing statement about how he didn't have any reason to be afraid where as she had many. Instead she'd gotten a comment on her walking habits; Riddick glanced back over his shoulder at her.
"Could hear you from a mile away, kid," he informed her before continuing on towards the sandcat. "Walk quieter, you'll live longer."
Jack wasn't sure if Riddick was trying to be cryptic in that statement or if it was just his way of giving advice. Preferring to take it for the latter, she cautiously followed him back to the awning with the sandcat, trying not to make any noise when she walked. It took some concentration, but in the few dozen steps she made she couldn't even hear her own footfalls.
"Still heard you," Riddick told her, breaking her concentration and startling her all at once.
Jack looked up, frowning at him, but her frown disappeared when she saw the amused grin on his face. It was an actual smile, not a half-one like he'd given her earlier; it made her feel slightly abashed and a faint flush creeped its way onto her face. He didn't seem to notice her embarrassment and instead climbed behind the wheel of the sandcat.
Clambering into the back of the vehicle under the roll bars, Jack watched as he toggled the different switches and the engine whirred silently to life. The cart moved surprisingly fast, so she found herself holding onto one of the support bars as they drove out of the settlement back towards the canyon.
We're going back to the crash? Why?
Jack didn't voice that question, but instead turned so her back was facing the front wall of the sandcat's bed and her feet were pointing towards the back end of the vehicle. She watched as the wheels left tracks in the dirt, the treads and weight of the vehicle making it possible to leave a mark. A small pain suddenly cut through her stomach, and she grunted, dragging her knees up to her chest; she felt her insides cramping up and closed her eyes.
As if this couldn't get any worse...
It took little less than an hour to reach the crash site again and Jack was thankful that Riddick didn't pull the sandcat up to the passenger cabin. She never wanted to see another cryo-locker ever again.
Jumping out the back as Riddick climbed out of the driver's seat, Jack glanced about at the spires surrounding the outside of this section of the crashed ship. They looked more than a little eerie to her now and she shivered despite herself, moving to follow Riddick inside. He went towards one of the back sections of the ship and Jack started to follow until she noticed something strange.
When they had looked around here earlier there had been a body, one of the crew members, lying on the floor. She remembered because she had closed the man's eyes, mimicking what she'd seen in a movie somewhere. The body was gone now and the place where it had been held a stain that looked identical to blood; in fact it wasn't just one stain, there was a whole trail leading towards the front of the ship, the part buried under the sand. There was a faint scratching noise emanating from the shadows beyond the fallen ladder, and Jack felt another shiver run down her spine.
Something's down there...
****************************
A ship like the Hunter-Gratzner took twelve twenty gig cels to power everything from the computer systems to the main drives. There were seven left intact after the crash and that was more than enough needed to power the skiff. Riddick pulled the manual release switches on one before pulling it out and hefting it over one shoulder. He pulled out a second cell and carried the two of them back outside, dumping them into the back of the sandcat.
Not even pausing a step, he turned and went back inside the ship, intent on getting the next two cells, but halfway there he stopped, sensing a strange undercurrent in the atmosphere. Frowning, he turned back towards the front of the ship and reached up, pushing his goggles away from his eyes. It was dim enough to see comfortably here, especially since the automatic lights from the ship's control panels had been damaged in the crash. He saw a light, though, down near where he'd found the scattered remains of the pilot; the girl had evidently found herself a working flashlight.
Careful kid...
Shaking his head and replacing his goggles, he went and pulled out two more of the cels, carrying them back out to the sandcat with minimal effort. Thirty-five kilos was next to nothing to him; he could easily lift twice his own weight without trying. He set them in the back with the other two, casting a glance at the two suns rising on the horizon before quickly turning back inside.
Riddick was just pulling out the last power cel when a scream cut through the air.
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