Night Run: Chapter One
She ran.
Some part of her brain knew the situation was bad. Really bad. In the dark, bleeding badly, surrounded by legions of heavily taloned monsters that navigated by scent and sound, stuff of nightmares really, almost cliched in how bad it was. Thank god for adrenaline or she'd be gone already. When she'd been ripped from Riddick's arms and taken into the night she thought that was it, the end, big final sacrifice for the fucking Hunter Gratzner team, final payback for wanting to purge all. But she'd underestimated the creatures' savagery: mid-flight her captor had been sliced open by a fellow nightstalker and had dropped her. She'd fallen through the air, hit the slope at the edge of the compound, skidded and rolled to the bottom, and was up and running before she even knew if she was too hurt to move.
It was her only chance. She ran.
It was so dark. Too dark. She didn't know where her feet were landing, only knew her direction from the dim glow of the skiff in the distance, just enough light to see the shapes of buildings before she ran into them. Not enough light to see if the creatures were lurking ahead. Didn't matter, didn't change anything, she would go until she was stopped, that was all.
She ran.
She had a sudden vision of the skiff taking off, and a sudden spasm of panic gripped her chest. They didn't know she was coming, didn't know she was alive. "Wait," she thought as hard as she could at the direction of the skiff, "I'm coming I'm coming oh God please wait." The panic gave her a little more speed.
She ran. Heart pumping, arms pumping, legs pumping.
Final corner. She couldn't run like this forever, her back was starting to announce its wounds. Thank God, the walkway was still down, they weren't leaving yet. Riddick? He was there, lying in a heap in the skiff, leg extended, Imam was looking at the wound, Jack was soaking bandages in the puddles at the base of the walkway to clean his leg. She tried to call out, but no voice, all her energy was in her legs. She saw Riddick lift up on his elbow, look into the night. Did he see her? His silvery eyes met hers, widened in surprise. Strong fucking survival instinct was right. Fierce pride rose in her, gave her a little more strength, a little more speed.
Then his face changed, he wasn't looking at her anymore, he was looking behind her and she knew, she knew that it was going to be so close, but no cigar. This time she'd be snatched back to stay. She dodged sideways to avoid it, goddamit she'd seen rabbits do it on Earth, she could evade too. She ran into the oil drums alongside the building, huge clattering as she ran over, through, around them. Pushing them behind her to slow it down, buy a few more seconds. Almost there....almost in the light...god, her back hurt.
She looked back towards the skiff, still running, just in time to see Riddick's arm lift, bend back and then his shiv was coming at her. No, it was landing just ahead of her. She dove down and sideways, landing on her shoulder, rolling over and then up on her feet again, shiv in hand. A shiv against this creature, was he insane? It wasn't him it was fucking with this time. Live or die, she thought, one or the other, and she lunged forward as the creature dove towards her, trying to get under it., to slash its stomach the way Riddick had.
It went right over her and she felt its dark blood spill over her, knew she'd hit it, but how bad? She didn't know. Then light split the air around her and she heard the creature shriek. "Get in here, NOW!" she heard Riddick bellow, and she scrambled around. He had ripped out one of the flourescent lights from the skiff and was holding it out, beautiful light spilling around her and she laughed.