Deserter: Chapter Eight- New-New York
Ven had noticed Riddick the minute she’d boarded the Ring Cruiser. Rumor had
it that her sister had been spotted on Titan, so that’s where her and Brand
were going.
Riddick hadn’t acknowledged her and
Brand’s presence on board the ship any more than they’d acknowledged his.
She’d caught him watching her curiously
though, and wondered what it meant. That wasn’t important now, though. She had
to find Critchten’s prisoner. That was her plan, and she would execute it.
Brand walked beside her. “I saw her in a
tree,” he said, watching his older sister solemnly.
Ven frowned down at him. “Why didn’t you
say anything?”
“Because that dumb ass, Max, was there. He
admitted to trying to hunt the chick down himself. Then he tried to jump me!
Dumb ass,” he repeated.
“Okay. But where do you think she was
going?”
“I think she was going after Max herself.
She took out Rick, her biggest threat, and then Clyde. She’s a killer, Ven.
Why not just ask Riddick for help?” Brand watched the expression on her face
shift between wariness and determination. “At least we know he won’t kill
us,” he added.
“We’re all killers, Brand. Even Mama and
Daddy took out their fair share. But now we need help, and I think she can give
it to us. We can’t ask Riddick for anything. He’s not any safer than her,
and he’s got his own ass to look after right now.” Ven’s voice rang with
determination.
“She has to look out for herself, too, Ven.
Why would she help us?” Brand demanded.
“Because we can get her out of here once
we get to New-New York, that’s why. I’ve got more than enough creds to buy a
Libra-X2L. We’ll be outta here in three days, tops. And maybe with the
chick’s help, we’ll be on our way to Gyn.”
“Only if she doesn’t try and kill us,
too,” Brand mumbled, but he shut up when Ven shot him an icy glare.
~~~
Rain was flying towards New-New York. Her
past chased her and she saw the people at her station being beaten and killed,
over and over again. She hadn’t been able to help them. They’d screamed for
mercy, and she’d been helpless to give it to them. And she hadn’t been able
to stand it.
So she’d left. She’d killed a lot of
Rangers on her way out, but she’d made it. At least for a little while. And
then Critchten had come after her. The man had been either to stupid or to
stubborn to die, although she’d tried to kill him twice. She hadn’t failed
the last time though. Snapping someone’s neck is a sure fire way to get them
dead.
Then those dumb ass kids had thought they
could take her, and now they were dead, too. It wasn’t something that bothered
her, though. Killing never had. But it had slowed her down. She could be in
New-New York by now if she hadn’t had to kill those two kids. She’d had to
follow the rules though. And rule number one was: Look out for number one. Or as
she had always liked to put it, thy own ass onto thine own. Self-preservation
was more important to her than anything, and she was a survivor.
Rain thought about the boy and girl. Ven and
Brand. That’s the names they’d used, she remembered. The boy had been
incredibly quiet and skilled, and the girl even more so. She hoped she
wouldn’t have to kill them.
The others would notice Max was gone soon,
and Rain doubted they’d be so inclined to let her go over another death. She
frowned. As long as those two kids and Riddick didn’t help out, she’d be all
right. They seemed to be her only real threats.
Elimination of the three would be her best
bet, but she was reluctant to take them out. She found herself liking Riddick in
her own twisted sort of way, and the kids intrigued her. She realized the girl
probably wasn’t a kid anymore.
Thinking about it, she realized the girl
probably wasn’t much younger than herself. Twenty-two, maybe twenty-three.
They boy was much younger though. Probably only about thirteen, which was
surprising considering the skill he’d used to drop Max.
She’d covered about three miles now, and
sounds of the city began to reach her ears. Trees had already began to make way
for small houses planted in the forest, and she discovered that she’d entered
a sort of suburbia.
“Wonderful,” she muttered to herself,
slinking through private yards. Rain heard cars,
children laughing, and worst of all, smelled barbecue. She salivated as
she came across a happily laughing family, cooking steaks of some sort over a
big fire pit.
She looked down at herself with distaste.
Her favorite leather pants looked like shit. Her shirt was ripped and she knew
her face had to be at least a little dirty, if not a lot. She lifted her arm and
sniffed. Not *to* bad, she thought. Definitely could have been worse considering
she’d been without a bath and deodorant for two days. The sun was beginning to
set and she checked herself. Almost three days now. Riddick had given her a
piece of jerky, but that’s all she’d eaten, and she knew she had to be
dehydrated as hell. She felt dehydrated as hell, in any case.
Killing innocents had never been something
she’d indulged in and now wouldn’t be a place to start, but she was going to
steal at least one steak and one of the sodas she spotted resting in a cooler.
Pulling her blade to ward off anyone who
might try and stop her, Rain rushed the man at the pit, who was currently
laughing at something his wife had said, and yelled loudly.
The startled family looked at her in shock,
and seeing a tall, muscular woman with wild hair and emerald eyes rushing them
with a rather large knife in her hand, they all screamed back.
“Now,” Rain said, brandishing the knife
fiercely, waving it at the parents who were now beginning to back towards their
young children protectively. “I don’t want to hurt you people, but I’m
hungry, tired, and thirsty, and I’m going to take one of your steaks, one of
those sodas over there,” she jerked her head towards the cooler, “and then
I’m gonna be on my way.” They didn’t answer. “Is that understood?”
The man nodded. “Hell, take two steaks.
She bought to many anyways,” he said, pointing at his wife.
Rain flashed a strangely warm grin at them,
snatched a steak and the soda, and as an afterthought, a few napkins, then
jumped their cute white picket fence and began jogging down the street.
“Well, that made everything more
interesting, didn’t it?” the man asked as he watched Rain leap the fence
easily.
His wife gave a strangled laugh and the kids
stared in opened mouth shock.
“She was kewl, Dad!” his eleven year old
daughter exclaimed.
“Aw, hell,” was all he could choke out
at his daughter’s awed tone.
“Aw, hell,” his wife echoed.
~~~
Riddick watched the others faces. Fear and
anxiety was plaguing them, and he could easily understand. Ven, Brand, and Max
had all disappeared. They’d found Max with his guts hanging out, but there was
no trace of Ven and her younger brother.
He guessed they’d gotten sick of
everything and headed for the city on their own. Riddick stayed for appearances,
not only that but he didn’t have a ride off this moon without Walker. If the
man was still capable of piloting a ship, he thought dully. He hadn’t been
doing so well since his face had been cut by Rain. The deaths of Clyde and Max
hadn’t helped the man’s already rattled nerves, either.
Riddick found himself annoyed with Rain.
Neither had been thinking about how this would affect Walker’s piloting.
Walker had mentioned having a shipping company here, and they’d all been
thankful they’d landed on Rhea, instead of Dione, which was populated with
Rhea’s criminal rejects. No shipping company there. But that might not matter
now, because Walker was looking a bit to nervous to be pulling a wagon, let
alone flying a space transport.
Great, Riddick thought to himself. This is
fuckin’ great.
Nick and Gina, the young couple, seemed bent
on going after Rain. They said justice had to be delivered to the convict and
they were just the ones to give it to her.
Riddick sneered at their naiveté. Rick
Critchten had been a trained professional and he’d been killed by Rain. Clyde
and Max were both slit wide open. Walker had been the lucky one, and he was only
alive because she’d so decided that he should stay that way.
Her thrill game had become a lot more deadly
and Riddick understood why. Self-preservation. Look out for number one. She’d
been threatened, and the threat had been eliminated quickly and efficiently. Max
had been lucky to live as long as he had.
~~~
When Rain entered the actual city of New-New
York, her senses screamed. Her ability to read people also heightened her other
senses, because she felt them through others, and the smells, bright lights, and
the actual taste of the air made her dizzy. Not to mention the multitude of
emotions. People in the city allowed the emotions to flow out of them like a
river finally breaking through a dam.
Reeling from the impact, Rain took the creds
she’d lifted from Rick, Max, and Clyde and headed for the nearest hotel.
It was a run-down looking place, with the
name Rhea’s Ring spray painted above the door.
The tired looking man behind the desk eyed
her warily but when she flashed the creds he brightened immediately. He gave her
the pass key to the “Presidential Suite” and asked to carry her bags.
She’d offered to let him carry her knife,
sarcastically, but he’d refused with a nervous shake of his head, both hands
held in front of him as if to ward her off. Rain bared her teeth in what could
almost be considered a grin and went up to her room.
The “Presidential Suite” was merely a
little cleaner and a little bigger than the rest of the rooms, which suited Rain
just fine.
The first thing she did was peel off all her
clothes and step beneath the shower head. It spurted clean, hot water and she
groaned as she washed the dirt and sweat from the last three days off of her
skin.
Surprisingly, the bathroom had a little
plastic basket with a bottle of shampoo, a tiny bar of soap, and clean towels.
Rhea’s Ring was higher quality than Rain had first guessed and found herself
unimaginably happy that she’d been wrong about it.
When she was clean to her satisfaction, she
took her clothes and washed them in the sink, then she hung them over the shower
curtain and laid naked on the bed, instantly falling asleep.
~~~
Ven grabbed Brand’s arm and pointed at
Rhea’s Ring. “She just went in there,” she hissed.
They could see Rain in the little hotel’s
window, paying the desk clerk. “What do you want to do about it?” Brand
asked.
“Wait until she comes out.”
“That could be hours away. Let’s get a
room, too. The smell of this place is making me sick. And I lost my shades in
the crash, so now my eyes hurt, too. C’mon, Ven, please?” he pleaded.
“Fine. But we have to take turns watching
for the chick,” Ven finally conceded.