Deserter: Chapter Seven-Max's End

     The worn group of crash victims was quickly approaching Rhea’s largest settlement. It was large enough to be classified as an actual city, roughly the size of Old New York, and was so named New-New York. The name seemed stupid to Rain, but it was a place she could shower and eat, and that made a fool grin spread across her face at just the thought of it.

  Rain followed the group closely, wondering if she should pick Max off for the hell of it, or just let the kid be. Killing him was appealing, but didn’t seem useful, considering everyone had voted on just heading out of the woods as fast as possible. They didn’t seem inclined to become her next “accident.” The fact that they were leaving her alone now made her infinitely happy, but Max’s shifty eyes looked odd, and she was picking up strange signals.

  Riddick would send her things, bits and pieces of conversation going on in the group, but didn’t say anything himself. This way she was able to keep a handle on what they were all planning on doing once they reached New-New York.

  Rain crept closer and then moved off to the left until she was walking beside them, close enough to hear the muffled words of the survivors. Counting herself, Rick and Clyde, there had been ten, but she knew there had been more in the beginning. Seven had died in the crash.

  She mentally ticked off the names of the survivors still alive. Anne, Walker, Max... those three. Riddick, Biggs, Nick and Gina, a young free-settler couple, and a boy named Brand. And another girl, this one looked less than friendly, but was quite pretty. Rain hadn’t picked up her name, so she sent Riddick a message.

  ‘Who’s the quiet chick?’ she asked.

  A mental shrug. ‘Don’t know,’ he lied. He was reluctant to tell their identities. He liked the two because they’d helped him a few months earlier.

  And that ended the conversation.

  New-New York was about six miles away, so that meant food and shower weren’t far away for Rain either.

  She got so caught up in her happy reverie that she lost her concentration, and missed when the young woman left the group, a revolver in her waistband and a twelve gauge in her hand.

  ~~~

  Max hadn’t missed the girl’s escape though, and he followed her into the brush. She knew something and he was going to find out what it was.

  He followed her into a dense stand of trees and when he parted the branches, she was gone.

  There was a thud behind him, and when he turned around he found himself staring down the barrel of a cocked and loaded forty-five millimeter revolver.

  The girl gazed at him through strangely silver eyes, one brow lifted.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doin’ kid?” she asked quietly, her voice low and menacing.

  Max gulped hard and felt his knees go weak. “I, uh, was just going to ask you the same thing, girl,” he answered with false bravado.

  She lowered the gun to his chest, but her stance suggested that she wasn’t relaxing at all. “Girl?” she questioned, a sneer curling her upper lip.

  He gulped again. “Yeah. Unless you gotta name?”

  “Ven,” was the low answer.

  Max swung around when there was another thud behind him and turned to find the boy he’d often seen talking to Ven behind him, a blade clasped expertly in his hand.

  The boy looked to be about thirteen, and Max figured he could take him. When Ven nodded to the boy and shoved the revolver back into her waistband, Max launched himself at the kid.

  He quickly wished he hadn’t when the boy sidestepped his clumsy attack, bared his teeth and ripped his arm open with the blade, sticking out his booted foot at the same time and tripping him. Max landed with a grunt and a yelp, grasping his profusely bleeding arm with his free hand.

  The boy hunched over him and pressed his knife to Max’s throat, a low growl emanating from his throat. Gold eyes stared at him coldly from beneath the kid’s dark brows.

  “Brand.” Ven’s voice was sharp as she called to the boy. The boy slowly pulled the blade away from Max’s throat and Max warily eyed the boy’s canine type teeth, which were still bared in a feral grin.

  And as quickly as they’d appeared, Ven and the boy she’d called Brand, were gone.

  Max shoved himself to his feet, still grasping his arm and moaning at the pain. Figuring now was not a good time to go after the girl and her young companion, Max turned back towards the others.

  He never reached them though, because Rain had finally decided what to do with him.

  She’d broken out of her reverie in time to see Max leave the others, and had noticed the girl was gone. She’d heard the boy approaching behind her, but he didn’t seem to detect her, so she’d taken to the trees.

  She’d waited for him to pass beneath her, but instead he’d stopped directly under her, tilted up his head, and grinned at her. Then, while she was still in shock, he’d galloped after the girl and Max.

  Intrigued, Rain had followed close behind and witnessed the little spectacle. These weren’t normal kids, she decided, watching the young boy drop Max.

  But now she knew that Max wasn’t giving up his hunt, despite seeing Clyde with a new grin on his neck.

  So when he turned back towards the others, she dropped from her tree, pulled her blade, and jumped at him.

  Max stared at Rain incredulously. Then he glanced down at his stomach in horror. Rain was pressed close to him, and he watched as she twisted the blade she’d shoved into his gut.

  He let out a strangled cry and she covered his mouth. “Shhh...” she breathed in a calming tone.

  She pressed the blade a little deeper and twisted again as he stared into her eyes. Her expression was strangely gentle, but there was an odd light in her eyes. She shifted her position and then ripped the blade sideways, across his abdomen, then pulled away from him, bringing the knife with her.

  Max fell to the ground, his stomach completely open, and felt his innards against his palm. With a quiet moan, he slipped off into the blackness already tinting his vision.

  Rain wiped her hands off on Max’s pants, cleaned her knife before re-sheathing it, then ran off towards New-New York. She was going to beat the others.

  ~~~

  Riddick had also seen Ven and Brand disappear, Max following Ven and Brand following Max.

  He heard a distant yelp that no one else would hear, and then the coppery scent of blood filled his nostrils. Max was either dead or injured now, he thought.

  He’d heard Rain disappear after them and wondered if she’d kill Max now. If she’d kill Ven and Brand.

  He doubted that. Ven wasn’t the type to be messed with. He hadn’t seen her for three months, but that didn’t mean he didn’t remember her or her brother.

  He’d run into them on a dusty planet called Dres, and had left Jack with them. What they were doing here didn’t make any sense to him, but he was sure he’d find out soon enough.

There was another sound, and then the unmistakable scent of death was present, and Riddick knew Max was gone.

~~~

James was half a day to Rhea. Pictures of Rain were spread out before him on the ship’s tiny table and he eyed them.

Rain was wearing a Ranger uniform in the photographs, her long hair braided tight and hanging to just below her waist.

Files stated identifying marks were a tattoo of the letter “R” on her right hip, and a strange twisting symbol on her left, akin to a Celtic knot. She had a third tattoo on the back of her waist, another twisting design.

Scars were evident, but those were common to Rangers in her field. She was twenty six and trained to kill. He hoped he could take her. She’d been trained to be a killer by The Company. He’d been trained, too, but seven years at a desk job and he didn’t fool himself into thinking he hadn’t gone a little soft around the middle. He placed a hand on his stomach. More than a little soft, he corrected himself skeptically, feeling his bulging belly.

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