Forgotten Past: Chapter Thirty Five-To Late
Eight resistance battle cruisers accounted for to commence the invasion of Al-Anon.
The number of men and women present on the landing deck was daunting to say the least, and Riddick carefully evaluated the status of each person within his range of vision.
Most were stoic, casually checking weapons and ammo, relaxed. Seasoned veterans of the fight between the Company and the resistance. Many had scars visible. On the face, chest, arms. Then there were the new guys, visibly shaken by the battle, fidgeting nervously with blades and guns, talking to each other. Fake smiles plastered on young faces.
This invasion could make or break them. Only the strongest of them would survive.
Carolyn was crouched low to the ground, her expression untroubled as she conversed quietly with Moe. She held his broad hand in hers and Riddick watched a look of pain cross her face quickly before she squeezed Moe’s hand then stood up to face him.
“You okay?” he questioned, taking her hand and pulling her close.
Carolyn nodded and leaned her head forward, resting her forehead on his chest. “It’s weird, without Winter here. She would have loved something like this. This large a scale, an actual colony invasion of this magnitude. Yes, she would have loved it,” Carolyn murmured against his chest and Riddick folded her close, catching the slight smile Moe bestowed on him before he turned to the others.
“Worry about that later,” Riddick answered, lifting her chin so he could see her face. “Right now, that guy on the transport looks ready to start talkin’. Let’s listen to what he’s got to say.”
Carolyn grasped Riddick’s hand in hers and brought his knuckles to her lips, kissing them tenderly, her eyes closed. “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice almost inaudible, even to his keen ears.
He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. “It’s almost over,” he whispered in return and felt her nod slightly. “C’mon. We’ll talk after.”
Wiping at her damp eyes, Carolyn allowed Riddick to pull her towards the transport where a man of about forty was standing, beckoning to the tense crowd for attention.
As the last stragglers of the worn group approached his makeshift stage, the man raised his hands in the air, silently demanding silence so he could speak.
“I’m Joel Summers, leader of Rorrim and the technical head honcho of this whole damn mess. The troops will be filing in here in a few minutes, our initial entrance picked up on surveillance cameras.
“Some of you have been fighting under me and the other groups for years, others only a few months or weeks. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been fighting or for what reason you joined this cause. All that matters is that we take this colony and some hostages with it. Kill everyone and let Rorrim take care of the hostage part.
“Most of you know what you’re doing, and if you don’t know what you’re doing find someone that does so you can get on the bandwagon and join the party. This is not a game and this is not a joke.”
Joel’s speech was interrupted when the sound of thundering footsteps and angry voices began to filter into the docking bay.
Riddick gripped Carolyn’s hand tighter and nodded towards the huge steal doors that separated the docking bay from the rest of the colony. She flashed him a wary glance before tugging her hand away from his and drawing a pair of matching revolvers, clicking off the safety on both.
The crowd had turned slightly towards the door and the footsteps and shouts were drowned out by the overwhelming noise of cocking weapons and steal on leather as blades were drawn.
Everything from pocket knife to shiv to sword to revolver to shot gun was present. Phaisers and taisers. Cattle prods and pulse rifles. Carolyn was almost surprised there were no sporks present in the multitude of varying weapons making an appearance at the battlefield that was Al-Anon.
“Take out this group and move in!” came Joel Summers’ final command and Riddick turned in time to see him leap from the top of the transport into the crowd below, drawing his guns as he dropped towards the floor.
“You ready for this?” Riddick whispered, leaning towards Carolyn’s tense back as he watched the doors of the docking bay began to slide open, allowing the enemy to spill into the area like a tidal wave of death.
Carolyn nodded slowly, thankful she’d tied her hair back and turned to her sister who’d joined them not long before. Sleke flashed a grim smile and brushed a stray hair from her eyes before turning back towards the advancing enemy.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Carolyn muttered finally, and coiled her muscles for the onslaught. Her goggles hid her light sensitive eyes from sight and Riddick adjusted his own before drawing the revolver at his hip and the blade with his left hand, adjusting his grip.
Yells and cries of pain and anger were rising above the multitudes as the Company clashed with the resistance. The echo of bullets shot at pointblank range of their targets reverberated off the walls, punctuated by the cry of the wounded.
Riddick saw the standard blue uniforms of Rangers pouring towards him through the crowd and followed close at Carolyn’s heals as she streamed forward, rushing towards the enemy, guns drawn.
A loud cursed issued from her lips as she realized the confines of the docking bay were to small for the use of guns without threat of wounding some of the resistance, and she was forced to replace her guns and draw her blades from boot and hip.
Riddick uttered a similar expletive as he replaced his revolver and drew the other knife from his waistband.
The enormous docking bay was shuddering with the force of the battle waging inside its metal walls. The superior numbers of resistance members were successful in squelching the advances of Company foot soldiers that finally ceased to pour through the docking bay doors.
Carolyn turned to Riddick and kissed him before backing away from him and jumping straight into the air, spreading her black, leathery wings and flying towards the ceiling, eyeing the scene beneath her.
The view she beheld below her was striking in its intensity. The dead littered the metallic docking bay floor, their blood giving the floor a potent coppery smell.
Both resistance and Company men and women were lying lifeless on the bloodied floor, and Carolyn closed her eyes to the sight before diving towards the ground where she’d last left Riddick.
Riddick watched Carolyn dive towards him and raised a hand to give her his position. A man in a Company uniform dove through the ranks of fighting men standing in his way and Riddick launched himself forward, losing sight of Carolyn, and let out a low growl as his blade slid through the vulnerable flesh at the man’s throat.
Blood spurted unhindered from the torn flesh and the man let out a choked gurgle of surprise before falling lifeless to the ground.
Carolyn alighted not far from Riddick and the battle began to reach them. Rangers were pushing through the crowd of resistance fighters, vainly cutting a meager path. As they rushed forward they were cut down, falling to the floor in the throws of death.
It took less than twenty minutes for the resistance to make short work of the Company’s weak force of Rangers.
Riddick searched for Carolyn in the rapidly shifting crowd as the last of the Rangers were wiped out. Riddick couldn’t spot Carolyn anywhere and began shoving people out of his way as he headed in the direction he’d come from. She’d landed not far behind him and maybe if he started there he would find her.
Discovering that looking for Carolyn was like finding a needle in a haystack, Riddick let out a frustrated grunt and pressed towards the transport formerly used as a stage by Rorrim’s leader.
The man himself was climbing up atop the transport once more when Riddick finally pressed through the mass of people, stepping over bodies as he went.
What a mess, he thought absently as he finally reached Joel Summers’ side. The man turned to him and flashed a grim smile before reaching for a handhold to lift himself to the transport’s roof.
Riddick grabbed his arm, halting him easily from his climb, and stepped up into the smaller man’s face.
“I need to get up there,” he murmured, his voice low.
Joel eyed the man before him warily, unsure. “Why?” he finally answered, tugging his arm away from the iron grasp.
“Lookin’ for someone.” That said, Riddick leapt up and easily grabbed a slight ledge on the shuttle and hoisted himself up. He scanned the docking bay for silvery blonde hair and black wings, but his search yielded nothing.
He turned his eyes to he ceiling, hoping to see Carolyn floating above the crowd, but still there was no sign of her.
“What the hell?” he murmured under his breath, and continued to scan around, searching for her. Something wasn’t right and he wasn’t going to give up until he found her.
Riddick barely heard Joel climbing up beside him and whipped around to face the man when he was standing beside him.
“What?” Riddick snapped, annoyed by the interruption.
Joel stopped his progress towards the larger man and folded his arms across his chest. “Who are you looking for?” he questioned. He needed to talk to the rest of the group and get the operation under way.
Riddick turned to Joel and a wry smirk twisted his lips. “Creed Xander,” he answered, and turned back to the crowd, searching for Carolyn as before.
Joel blinked, startled, then walked close the man. “I know who you are,” he murmured and Riddick flashed him a glancing look before returning to his self appointed task.
“You’re Riddick. The convict guy with Creed,” Joel continued when Riddick didn’t answer.
Riddick shrugged. “Yeah, yeah. Listen, unless there’s a point to this great conversation, shut up or help me find Creed.”
Joel frowned before answering, “Okay. I’ll help. What’s she look like?”
“You don’t know?”
“No. Enlighten me.”
“Tall for a woman, around five foot eight. Silvery blonde hair, very long. Braided right now. Black wings. Can’t miss them or the hair,” Riddick answered.
“Wings?”
“Yeah. Just start looking, Summers.”
The two men searched vainly for Carolyn’s distinct form in the crowd for ten minutes before Riddick muttered a dark curse and turned to Joel. “Look, if she was out there I’d have seen her by now. Do whatever it is you gotta do. I’m going after her.” With that, he dropped effortlessly from the transport to the crowd below.
Joel watched Riddick until he disappeared into the crowd then returned to his original task.
~~~
“Wake up.”
Carolyn stayed silent, unsure of her surroundings and the voices of men she didn’t know. The air on her face was cool, but not uncomfortable. The bright light, shining through her thin eyelids, was causing a very hot, red light to flood her pupils. She wanted to scream out at the harsh pain, but stayed carefully quiet.
She hadn’t been unconscious for almost an hour. Her captors didn’t know that, and she preferred to keep it that way.
“Why isn’t she waking up? Is she breathing?” A voice, demanding. Probably the head honcho of whatever freak operation was being run here.
Cool, dry fingers pressed against the base of her throat, checking for her pulse.
“Pulse is steady, breathing normal. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.” Quieter voice, indistinguishable accent. Maybe Irish, Scottish... Something else in his voice reminded Carolyn of Imam and his comforting speech.
Rough cloth rubbing together played to Carolyn’s ears, the sound of weight shifting from one foot to the other. “Then why doesn’t she wake up?” the demanding voice questioned again, getting annoyed.
“You morons, she IS awake.” Different voice. Caustic, cynical, hard edged. Southern North American accent. Soldier.
The Doctor, as Carolyn figured he must be, or at least some sort of medical man, turned, the rustle of his clothes telling her his position. “Then why doesn’t she speak?”
Footsteps approached and Carolyn again checked the cloth restraints on her right wrist. The men were standing on the left side of her and she’d been sawing through the binding for the past hour, careful and slow.
The bond was gone and she’d be able to take the next fool to touch her hostage. Then she’d kill him for even trying to keep her locked up.
Soldier boy was approaching, near her left shoulder. “You’re all fools. You don’t think she’d actually just sit up and say, ‘Oh, how lovely, I’m awake and here, tied up. Thank you.’”
Sounded like the Boss was considering this bit of information and Carolyn cursed idiots born with half a brain for exposing her. More footsteps approaching. Soldier boy was making a move on her.
He leaned over her, so close she could smell his after shave. Eyes still shut against the painful light, Carolyn extended the claws of her left hand with lightening speed and ripped through the bonds on that side, bringing up her right hand and grabbing the man’s neck in an desperate grasp.
She brought up her left hand and held the pointed claws to his throat.
“Don’t move,” she whispered, her teeth clenched, eyes still closed. She could feel the man’s pulse jump up three notches, skidding into hyper drive. “Doctor, I recommend you turn the lights off or on full dim, right now.”
She heard the Doc scuttle to do her work and then the red glare was gone, allowing her to open her eyes. The room was dim, almost completely dark, but some light was coming from the overhead light fixtures.
“Now,” she said, turning her eerie black gaze to the Doc, “step away from the light switch very slowly, otherwise Soldier Boy here gets a new blow hole.”
The Doctor stepped towards the middle of the room. Carolyn adjusted her position, turning the man in her grasp so his back was to her, wrapping her left arm around his neck and clutching a handful of his uniform at the shoulder, claws still extended.
Carolyn leaned down and cut the restraints at her ankles then swung her feet over the edge of the table she’d been strapped to, placing her right claws just under Soldier Boy’s jaw.
“See, this is how it works,” she purred in his ear, her voice deceptively smooth. “You do as I saw, or, I take these lovely mutations in my knuckles and run them up into your mouth from the outside and give you something new to taste.”
No one said anything and Carolyn turned her eyes to the Boss. “When I’m done with this one, you’re next.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, lady,” the man replied.
“Oh, c’mon. You don’t think I can’t tell who’s who here, do you? This is your back up,” she began, gesturing to the man she held. “That’s your doctor, or medical technician. You’re the boss. That makes you dead in my eyes. I will kill you.”
Carolyn flashed a feral grin and began pushing the tips of her claws into Soldier’s under jaw, feeling the thin skin give way to the pressure slightly and blood slide down her claws to her knuckles.
“Let’s not make this any more painful for me that it already had been,” Carolyn stated as she began pushing him to the door.
“You don’t know where you’re going, or where you are.” Boss man, talking through his hat.
“I know exactly where, just not in relativity to this colony. What? You thought I’d think I’d been taken off colony? No way. I recognize the metal this place is made of. Not to mention is has the same stench as the guys we killed earlier, right before you grabbed me.
“Now, where’s my goggles?”
The Doctor handed her dark goggles to her, pulling them out of his breast pocket.
“Thanks,” she sneered and donned the eye gear one handed, momentarily pulling her claws away. The man didn’t try to get away.
“Which way is the docking bay?” she demanded as she began backing towards the door.
“Take a left out of this door, then a right at the end of the corridor. You’ll find signs to the docking bay painted on the walls from there,” the man she was holding answered quickly. He was shaking and Carolyn wondered if it was an act. If it was, it wouldn’t save him. If it wasn’t, it still wouldn’t save him. He was going to die.
“Where’s my weapons?”
“In the cabinet, closest to the door on the bottom,” he answered again, his voice taking up the trembling his body was already letting her on to.
“Good.” Then, questions asked, Carolyn shoved her claws straight through the man’s under jaw and then let his limp body fall to the floor. She reached out and over the recently deceased body and grabbed the doctor.
Carolyn slit his throat with her claws in a second then launched herself at the Boss, repeating the fatal stroke to the throat on him.
When the three men lay dead, stunned expressions freezing on their faces, Carolyn took her weapons from the cabinet and strapped them on, checking ammo and whatnot before heading for the door.
She had to find Riddick. She had to get away. Whatever these men had wanted they’d worked hard to pull her out of the fight without getting caught, and she didn’t want to stick around any longer and find out what it was they wanted.
The door slid open with a soft whoosh of air and Carolyn stepped quietly into the corridor, turning left towards the docking bay. She could hear voices behind her and pulled one of her revolvers out, wrapping her wings around her shoulders.
Snatches of conversation came to Carolyn as she continued towards the end of the corridor she was traversing. There was a whoosh as a door slid open and then a startled cry. They’d discovered the bodies.
Carolyn abandoned any thoughts of secrecy and broke into a run, heading for the end of the corridor. She knew she was getting closer but it seemed to slip further and further away as she ran for her escape. The feeling of being trapped was swarming her, but she finally reached the end of the corridor, narrowly escaping slamming into the wall before her. Carolyn turned sharply, her hand catching the wall for balance and turned right.
To her left, painted brightly on the wall, DOCKING BAY was sprawled in loud letters, a yellow arrow pointing the way and proving her directions correct.
Whoever had found the bodies were obviously after her, judging from the shouts approaching and the loud clump of booted feet racing towards her from behind.
Carolyn rounded another corner, looking over her shoulder blindly and ran into something large, warm, and very solid. Enormous hands grabbed her just above the elbows and Carolyn lashed out at the man.
It wasn’t anyone she knew and he was wearing a Company uniform.
“Let me go!” she screamed in his face. She still held her revolver and, checking to make sure her feet were clear, she pulled the trigger twice.
The gun shots echoed off the walls loudly and the man cried out as one of the bullets slammed into one huge booted foot, his beefy hands releasing her as he bent to grab the injured foot. When he released Carolyn’s arms, she shoved her revolver into its harness and clasped both fists together, bringing both her elbows down with all her weight into the back of his neck. He dropped like a sack of wet potatoes and Carolyn continued her desperate race for the docking bay.
The voices and footsteps were closer, gaining on her due to her delay by the big guy laying unconscious on the metal corridor floor.
There was little warning when Carolyn again slammed into some huge guy wandering aimlessly about the corridors. What the hell is this? she cried out silently, sliding her claws out and going for a fatal punch to the heart.
Then, the scent of the man before her sent off alarms in her head and she halted her claws less than an inch from the broad, black cotton covered chest. “Riddick!”
“Dammit, Carolyn, where the hell have you been?” Riddick barked, masking his worry in anger. “I’ve been searching for you for four hours!”
Carolyn collapsed against Riddick’s chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Thank God. Some Company guys snagged me and I just knocked out some guy bigger than you, with luck on my side, and some other guys are coming this way, and fast!” she exclaimed, the drug that had originally knocked her out still making her weak and weary.
Riddick peered over Carolyn’s blonde head to spy the corridor beyond then snagged her arm and began dragging her back in the direction he’d come.
“Where are we going?” Carolyn asked, keeping up with Riddick’s long stride. Without the adrenaline her head was swimming again, the drugs still coursing, if weakly, through her tired system.
“The docking bay to catch a transport to The Charmer. I’m getting you off this colony, now.”
Carolyn was going to protest, tell him she was fine, just needed some water. A minute to rest. To late.