A Dark Horizon(PB2): Chapter Twelve-A new Horizon

Smoke abscured the sky as Raye prepped her ship for take-off. She felt Riddick at her back and spoke to him without turning to face him. “So, are you going to tell me what
you did with Johns, or am i gonna have to you stranded on this planet?”
“Now, I know you wouldn’t go and do a thing like that,” Riddick grinned wickedly, leaning in closer to her. “Ask me another time, I might just even tell you one day.” Raye
smiled to herself. God, the man could be difficult, and that was exactly why she had always kept her fondness for him. “Ready to launch?” he asked and she nodded in
response. “Great,” he sighed, “can’t wait to get as far away from this shithole as possible.”
Riddick sauntered down the craft’s entrance ramp to where Jackie and Linus were standing, watching from afar the smoke billowing skyward from the buring settlement.
“We’re ready to leave,” he told them. Jackie asked Linus if he’ll be alright and he replied with a shrug, “Everything’s been dead here for years, I just couldn’t see it. There are regrets, but there’s nothing to be done about that.” He turned to Riddick. “You can just drop me off at the next inhabited planet, I don’t care where it is.” He turned back to face the harsh landscape. “Anywhere but here.”
Raye slept, slumped in the co-pilot’s chair in the darkened cockpit while Riddick piloted. He was enjoying the silence, the isolation of the moment when he heard footsteps approach him from behind and recognized the Muslim’s distinct way of walking. “You okay now?” he asked.
Imam came to stand next to him, folding his arms across his chest. “The effects of the drug Dr. Redding used to keep me sedated have passed, yes, but I fear I may never recover from the things I have seen. And you, my friend? How are you doing?”
Riddick’s stomach wrenched and a slew of unfamiliar feelings swirled around his heart. Truth be told, he didn’t know how he felt. Cassandra was a demented, murderous,
lying, manipulative bitch, but he’d had feelings for her. She’d been so frightened, so twisted by the abandonment, so sad. He had seen something of himself in her as well
as an innocence he envied. “Nothing,” he told Imam, “I feel nothing.”
The holy man nodded wisely, sensing and understanding Riddick’s violent inner conflict. He motioned his head towards Raye and inquired, “And what of her? Is she to
be trusted?”
“No, but I think it’ll be alright,” Riddick said, stealing a glance at her restful form. For the first time in his life, the escaped con felt hopeful for the future. He knew the mercs would keep coming, he knew that he would have to keep running, dragging the only two people in the world he cared about along with him. But somehow it all seemed okay.
He pulled his protective shaded goggles down over his forehead onto his eyes as the small vessel flew off into the sunset.

THE END

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