The New Furyians

Chapter 7: Sandcat

Shazza joined Riddick and I at the base of the tunnel opening, gazing on the human remains in the bottom. I was still weary of her until this part. I knew this meant she had stopped blaming Riddick for Zeke's death.

"So that's what come of me Zeke." She said with a small depressed sigh. She took a moment to pause before speaking again. "An' you saw it. You was right there." She said to the convict a few feet from her, Riddick only nodded. "You were tryin' to kill him too. " She said, seeming to be looking for Riddick to still admit he wanted to harm Zeke. Riddick shrugged, not really knowing what to say.

"Just wanted his O-2." He said quietly, He was picking at his nail subconsciously, I could tell he was uncomfortable with this whole exchange. "Though I noticed he tried to ghost my ass.When he shot up that stranger instead." He said making Shazza look down, knowing it was true. She looked at the convict infront of her differently now, the man she once beat while in chains. She took off her breather, holding it out to Riddick. 

"Take it." She said as Riddick eyed her suspiciously. 

"What, it's broken?" He asked making her roll her eyes.

"Startin' to acclimate, anyhow. Take it." She told him. 

Riddick awkwardly takes it, breathing in some of the o2. I glanced up to see Johns watching our interactions carefully, clearly not much liking the idea of Riddick being promoted to oxygen-breathing human. I simply gave him a smile and flipped him off, making him look away.

"Let's board this up and get the hell gone.They seem to stick to the dark, so if we stick to daylight, should be all--" I cut Johns off.

"Not quite, dickwad." I said as I stepped on the edge of the tunnel and pulled myself up to the main floor of the room.

"What?" He asked making me roll my eyes.

"These coring samples? Yea, newest ones are 22 years old. This month."

"Yeah? What's special about that?" Shazza asked.

"Well, I found a model of the solar system of this planet, and I rewinded it to 22 years ago and, well," I started, sitting on the railing on the grated floor. "These suns don't last much longer."

"What do you mean?" Imam askes making me look at him and sigh.

"An eclipse starts in about 5 hours." I said making everyone jump up.

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" Johns said, running his hands through his hair.

"Not afraid of the dark, are you?" Riddick asked.

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We all walked back to the main area we had taken refuge in as John and Fry walked off to the skiff. I knew they we're going to put it off as long as possible and its gonna get everyone killed so, we had to take things into our own hands.

"Alright, while we go get the power cells I want Imam and Ian to stay with all the kids on the ship. These things hate light so turn all the lights on when it gets dark and wait for us to get back." I said, handing out orders to get the skiff ready for the 5 to sit tight in.

"Do we have enough power here for that?" Shazza asked making Max and I grin, grabbing the cells we brought back earlier and handing them to her.

"I figured it was good to snag an extra cell or two the first time, just incase we needed to bunker in." I said making Imam smile, relief flooding his eyes.

"You are a miracle from Ahallah." He said making me smile.

"I want as many of us to make it off as possible, the less people out with us, the better." I said, letting him and his children take the cells to the skiff as the rest of us pack the sandcat with supplies. Max comes up to me and hugs me.