A Dark Horizon(PB2):Chapter Eleven-Finale
Riddick followed Linus’ tracks in the snow deep into the
canyon, his unusual eyesight allowing him to move swiftly and effortlessly in
the pitch black of night on K1-B7. The
footprints ended abruptly at a dead end with no indication that Linus had back
tracked. “Come on, you motherfucker,” Riddick yelled his voice echoing off
the high rock walls
that surrounded him, “I know you’re here!”
Silence, then the small sound of clay and rock shifting. Finally, Linus spoke.
“Please, please don’t hurt me, Mr. Johns,” he begged. “I was only trying
to protect her. It was my fault, I know, I was only trying to protect her!”
Suddenly, a shot exploded in the rock face next to Linus’ head. “Don’t
move,” Raye said, appearing from behind a rock formation, aiming her gun
straight at the suspected
murder’s forehead.
“Who the fuck are you?” Linus frowned, a confused look crossing his face.
Riddick replied that she was a friend of his and Linus stood, raising his hands
in surrender.
“Please, just hear me out. I didn’t kill Morgan, I swear. There’s a lot of
stuff you don’t know.”
* * *
“Do you think he’s okay?” Jackie asked, nervously staring out the door,
squinting, trying to see better in the darkness. “He’s been gone an awfully
long time.”
“I’m sure he’s fine, “ Cassandra replied, unconcerned. Her voice was
odd, cold, distant. “He can take care of himself. He’s so strong.” She
walked up behind Jackie, glancing
past the girl towards the horizon.
* * *
“I wanted to say something to you sooner,” Linus explained. “Morgan urged
me to and I didn’t listen. I thought you’d hurt her. I was trying to protect
her, don’t you see it? I love her but she’s sick! She killed McCarrick, we
couldn’t stop her. We thought she was getting better, but then a couple of
months ago a ship made an emergency landing her and the killing started all over
again. Morgan wrote you that note, he was going to tell you all of this , but
she got to him first. It was Cassandra all along!”
Riddick’s heart pounded in his chest and his throat went dry. Of course it all
made sense. The incisions on those bodies were far too clean, too professional
to be made
by an ammeter. It took someone familiar with a knife, with medical knowledge, to
cut like that. All the lies, all the deception came crashing down around him. In
the instant
he saw Redding as she really was, devious, manipulative behind her mask of sweet
innocence. The distractions, the sexual advances, all coolly calculated. He
thought of
the cuts on her arms, the ‘defensive’ cuts he’d noticed when he’d first
met her. Then he’d imagined a helpless little girl trying desperately to
defend herself against an
oncoming attack. Now he realized they were probably made by some poor victim,
sick and weak, trying to defend themselves against her enraged attacks. And
he’d left
Jackie with her.
* * *
Cassandra pulled back her arm and struck Jackie on the back of the head with a
wrench she’d been tightly gripping in her hand. “It’s a shame you’re not
as strong as he
is. I didn’t want to have to do this,” she said coldly, then shrugged
disaffectedly. “But oh well.” She dragged the girl’s limp body across camp
to the storage building she’d been keeping Imam, drugged and silent, prisoner
in the cold storage room since this morning when the holy man had become a bit
too nosy. She unlatched the freezer door and
pulled it open, revealing the Muslim who looked up at her with hazy eyes. “Why
does everyone always have to piss me off,” she mumbled to herself, placing
Jackie on the
cold, wet metal floor next to Imam.
* * *
“You just keep turning up like a bad credit,” Riddick frowned at Raye as the
two of them and Linus rushed back to the settlement. “Guess I can’t get rid
of you, huh?”
“What can I say? I guess you’re stuck with me,” she teased with a small
smile even though she knew he wasn’t entirely joking. They arrived at camp and
split up. Linus led
Raye to Redding’s office while Riddick headed towards the storage building
that Linus had pointed him towards. He told him that that is where she kept the
‘spare parts’.
Riddick didn’t like the sound of that. He quickened his pace.
“Cassandra, stop, no! Riddick, help!” Jackie screamed, narrowly avoiding the
strike of Redding’s ax only by inches.
“Stay still, dammit!” Cassandra scolded, swinging and missing again as the
girl rolled out of the way. “This will be excruciatingly painful, but I’ll
do it as quickly as I can.” She looked to Imam for a split second, saying,
“You’re next, holy man!”
“Don’t Cassie!” Riddick called out forcefully, storming into the building.
Panicked, Cassandra grabbed Jackie by the arm and, pulling the girl to her, held
the blade of the
ax to her throat. Linus and Raye, alerted by the yelling came running, the
former out of breath and wheezing. Linus sighed, “Come on, baby, don’t do
this. Let Jack go.”
“Don’t you see, I have to,” she replied calmly. “They’re like
McCarrick, they’ll try to stop us and then we’ll starve. We need them to
survive, like the others I killed.”
“Cassandra,” Riddick tried to reason with her, “you don’t have to do
this. This woman here,” he indicated Raye, “she has a ship. If you don’t
want to leave we can at least
radio for help. They could bring supplies and food.”
“Do you think anyone would come to our rescue?! Redding scoffed. “Like
knights in shining armor riding to save us?! Don’t you think we tried to call
for help everyday after
everyone left until the radio stopped working?! The people out there, they
don’t care about us. To them, we’re just another dark horizon, not worthy of
their time or energy.”
“Cassandra...” Riddick took a tender step forward, holding out his hand to
her. She screamed in frustration and took a step backwards. “Stay away from
me!” she
demanded. “You’re just like the others, you say you care and you don’t !
Like the ones who left, like McCarrick, like Morgan!” He took another step
forward and she another
back, bringing her closer to Imam’s slumped body.
Suddenly, the Muslim, fighting his drug induced stupor, grabbed Cass’ ankle,
surprising and distracting her until she dropped Jackie. Raye didn’t blink.
She aimed and fired her gun, hitting Redding square in the chest. She crumpled
to the floor, coughing and sputtering blood from the mouth. Linus cried out and
ran to her, cradling her dying body
in his arms. He stayed with her until morning, until she was cold. He buried her
in the frozen, unforgiving ground and by the minimal light of dawn, burnt the
settlement down
to its foundation.