Ebony Sun

Ebony Sun
Chronicle Two: Wonderer

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Fire raced up and down both of his arms, the thick metallic coppery taste of his own blood in his mouth, his head felt like soup sloshing around in his skull – everything hurt.

Riddick, as a Furyan, was used to pain – you didn’t live as long as he had without being able to take a fair, and not so fair, amount of pain – he’d been in crashes before, the one from five years ago came to mind as one of the more spectacular, but he didn’t think he had ever been banged up this much. Toombs’s ship was probably completely fucked beyond belief – along with Riddick’s hopes of outrunning the Necros long enough to vanish into the black. Fuck.

The 6’4” Furyan groaned, his limbs twitching sporadically as he regained consciousness, silver eye shine flickering open only to flinch and cringe away from the bright overhead sunlight streaming in from the broken and shattered cockpit windows. That must have been one hell of a crash to shatter the windows as they were carbon treated to prevent cracks and breakage under the pressure of space travel and whatever else kind of terrain it would find itself burrowing through. The 30-year-old moved awkwardly and slowly as his fingers groped upwards and jerked his dark welding goggles over his photosensitive eyes, whole body aching and throbbing with every movement he made. His muscles were probably saturated with too much lactic acid from the crash, causing the burning sensation in his limbs and the steady ache as he blindly unfastened himself from the pilot-seat and picked his way through the twisted wreckage, maliciously smirking as he imagined the expression on Toombs’s face at the sight of his ship. This thing was expensive, especially for a Merc. All those Credits, what a shame.

He groaned rolling out of a gaping tear in the hull where the door used to be, “Just my luck. Another desert planet.” He growled irately as he pushed himself up and took stock of his surroundings.

Bright sunlight overhead, a clear blue sky with very few clouds seen far over into the distance hovering over rocky terrain, deep tan sand beneath his fingers, loose here but hard packed and strewn with dried up half alive grasses further on, arid wind occasionally sweeping across him, cooling his skin and bringing with it the scent of hot metal, desert flowers and something decaying. Probably a carcass of some long dead creature that the scavengers had not yet got to.

If memory served, he was currently stood upon an underdeveloped planet – this one only having reached its neighbouring planets before all development suddenly stopped roughly about six-years-ago. He remembered thinking it odd and probably worth investigation, sadly, no one else agreed and the ruling bodies at the time marked it down as a Black Rock, rendered uninhabitable by the wars of a lesser race. Oddly, the Elementals seemed upset over the whole matter though they never said why.

Well, there was no use in just standing around. Checking his shivs – still in place and none the worse for wear – he started hiking towards the west, moving to avoid having the sun in his eyes. After all, any direction was as good as another when you were lost.

He trudged onwards, feeling the heat from the sun overheat seep into his muscles and prickle across his skin as the aches of his limbs steadily drained away and his ever so slight trembling to subside. The wind was nice across his skin but annoying in that he kept inhaling sand particles every time he took a deep breath, leaving a gritty dull flavour in his mouth.

He didn’t know how long he’d been walking, an hour or two maybe, when he suddenly stopped, squinting out in the bright light, silver eye-shine picking up the shuffling humanoid figure not all that far away, slowly but surely making its painstaking way in his direction. Riddick grinned, an unpleasantly wolfish expression he used often to unsettle the newbie Mercs who looked to make a name for themselves by catching the uncatchable. To anyone who knew him, even vaguely – Johns, Toombs, I’mam, Kyra, the Spirit woman Shirah – it meant that someone was going to be terrorized until he got answered, depending on the answers they could live or die.

The 30-year-old slunk across the remaining distance in absolute silence, automatically moving so that he was downwind of his prey, wrinkling his nose slightly in protest at the scent of rotting flesh and old blood that washed over him, and spiriting up behind it, him, with barely a whisper of noise as he jabbed a shiv against his spine – not even producing a flinch of alarm/surprise as he did so, ‘Plus ten points.’ he thought childishly for a moment.

“The blade comes off when you answer some questions for me, and you’d better get ‘em right or you’re looking at a one-way trip to the Great Fucker in the Sky.” He growled threateningly, pressing the blade a little harder against the flesh beneath the tip, wrestling with himself not to gag on the horrific scent in the air – so strong it left a taste in the back of his mouth as he breathed – putrid flesh was a foul scent, one of the worst he’d encountered actually, even while crawling around the lower levels or Ursa Luna and Butcher Bay.

The man groaned making the Furyan frown slightly before his eyes widened slightly in alarm as he pitched forward in a drunken fashion and staggered around to face him. The Furyan froze half in horror half in shock as sightless milk-white eyes met his own, mottled peeling desiccated grey flesh was bared in harsh sunlight revealing the places were someone or something had gnawed at his face, his mouth, chin, throat and chest covered with dry blood – obviously not his own – and an ugly bloodless open cut on his ribcage, the right side just above the liver. He wore no T-shirt and no shoes, just a pair of dusty faded blue jeans that were splattered with dry blood, dust and dirt and smelt like putrid flesh. Oh gods above, the stink was horrendous, Riddick was almost choking on it now.

Gaping maw emitting now what he recognised as a moan of hunger, the being lunged forward clumsily, his arms launching out to capture the Ex-Con even as severely rotted and blunt teeth aimed to tear into his skin.(1) Only to miss as the scent finally made Riddick snap out of his stupor and dodge aside, right into the waiting arms of a second creature who then proceeded to try and complete what the first had started – only to receive a shiv slashing across both eyes and the bridge of his nose as the tanned male dodged from under its arm and rammed that same shiv into the chest of a third as he slipped to the side of it and retreated several paces to figure out what the hell was going on.

“The fuck!?” He demanding in disbelief as neither attack even phased the things, they didn’t even register it, hell... they weren’t even bleeding. Riddick hadn’t even realised there was more than one until he was walking into them - Unacceptable!

The Furyan growled and withdrew his second shiv as he stepped into the small handful – now shuffling at seven strong, through where the other FOUR came from he really didn’t want to know – knives slashing tendons, throats, eyes and hands, nothing, nothing slowed the bastards down. His shivs were slick with red/black blood but none of the wounds he had inflicted were actually bleeding, it was as if their hearts weren’t beating or their blood just didn’t flow to those places. On top of these bastards not even stopping, every time he hit them in a Sweet Spot – arteries, veins, nerve clusters – or just knocked them down, they got back up again. Their number had grown again into nine and Riddick was beginning to find breathing difficult because not only was there sand and dust in the air but the taste of rotting flesh that filmed across the back of his throat like poison making him want to throw up or gag every time he slashed at the bastards.

He was beginning to contemplate just leaving, sure he was all for a little killing and blood sport but it was hardly fun when the fuckers didn’t die and kept trying to eat you when a loud crack echoed around them causing him to flinch – his enhanced hearing now ringing in agony – and one of the creatures to jerk backwards onto the sand, motionless and steadily oozing brain matter and blood from the 4 inch exit hole in the back of it’s skull.

Riddick blinked and instantly, every head, even his, snapped around to stare at the diminutive brown and red figure astride an incoming motorbike – a bike that showed no sign of stopping as two more shots rang out, the two creatures approaching Riddick from behind as he stared at the passing figure dropping with a wet thump on the steadily becoming blood-soaked sand. The motorbike ramming into one of the creatures when he finally did decide to come to a stop, his front wheel making a very satisfying CRUNCH - SQUISH on it’s skull as he did so. Only for the driver to get knocked off to sprawl in the sand with one of the creatures snarling, straining against the arm pressed against its throat preventing rotted teeth from latching onto him a top the smaller male – finally spurring Riddick into action.

“Don’t interfere idiot!” The Biker shouted angrily, the decapitated head of his attacker hitting the ground in the corner of the Furyan’s eye, two more shots ringing out as it’s victims hit the sand and did not get back up. Riddick ignored him and kept slashing, his pride demanding no less, until a small tanned hand slipped between his guard and landed a forceful open palmed strike against his chest, not only knocking him back on his ass but also driving all the air out of his lungs –effectively keeping him out of the fight as he choked on his tongue trying to breathe in and re-inflate his lungs. Not that the Biker really needed his help as more shots rang out accompanied with the wet sound of a blade slicing through flesh, bodies dropping like flies around him and refusing to get back up for a round two.

The Furyan growled irately, did he think that he was useless? Pride smarting, he pushed himself to his feet as the Biker shot the last of their attackers in the head, Riddick couldn’t see his features due to the goggles and dark crimson shawl he had wrapped over his head and face but the male was small about 5’4” in height – a full foot shorter than he was – but he wore a dusty sleeveless knee-length tan jacket with two slits at the back on the sides in which Riddick could see the sheaths for a set of twin blades – one of which was still there and the other clasped in a small hand and slicked with blood – a pair of dusty olive green canvas cargos tucked into a pair of well worn black combat boots which looked as though they’d seen better days. On his arms were a pair of armoured arm socks fashioned to look a lot like fish or reptile scales, they were black with the occasional orange, gold and red scale dotted in, wrapped up his arms to protect them from any errant creature who might think to nibble on them. Around his waist were a small collection of utility belts on which a pair of thigh holsters where hooked – again, one was in his hand and the other was safely clipped away – and a grimy white wife beater with another belt crossing his chest to support his shotgun. His beloved Kate (the Sniper Rifle) was still hooked onto the Motorbike, not that Riddick knew that.

Turning slightly, the Furyan was treated to a long studying stare from the other goggle wearing male who after a while seemingly came to a decision and pulled down the back of his shawl – allowing the wind to grab at dusty long black hair and tease the freed tendrils into an irritating thatch of knots atop his head – and pulling down his goggles and face mask, revealing tanned almost elvish/impish features and a pair of eyes that made him blink, taken aback in surprise, they were large and almond in shape with longer than usual black eyelashes. But it was the colour that threw him, ever since his eye shine, all he’d seen in was shades of Mauve and silver but... he could see green. He couldn’t tell what shade it was as he was fairly sure he’d never seen such a shade of green in his life, but he could definitely see this man’s eyes in colour.

His breath caught in his throat as the man holstered his gun and stabbed the blade into the sand and approached him, Riddick didn’t even realise, he was still marvelling over the fact he could see colour and wasn’t able to react in time to avoid the right hook the tiny green-eyed male treated him to.

“WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR MENTAL DEFECT!!?” he practically howled, “PLAYING WITH ZOMBIES LIKE THAT! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET INFECTED YOU RETARD!?” He continued to shout even as Riddick got to his feet, and was treated to another thump which he hadn’t been able to dodged mainly due to the shock of someone so small having lungs so powerful. He could tell he would have bruises after this.

“I could have taken them!” He retorted only to get hit again,

“IT CERTAINLY DIDN’T LOOK LIKE THAT!!” Riddick was hit again, that was getting old and getting old fast, “AIM FOR THE HEAD BRIGHT SPARK!! EVERYONE KNOWS THAT!!” The boy tried to hit him again only to have his wrist grabbed.

“WOULD YOU STOP HITTING ME ALREADY!!!?” The Furyan roared in return, only to get thumped again, with the other hand.

“NO I WILL NOT STOP HITTING YOU BECAUSE AN IDIOT LIKE YOU SHOULD BE DEAD INSTEAD OF SUFFERING BRUISES!! IDIOT, MASOCHIST, RETARD, UNGRATEFUL BASTARD!!” Green eyed continued to holler, getting right in Riddick’s face, coupled with the insults was really putting his back up and he growled, yes actually growled, at the boy who’s eyes narrowed and he growled right back, green locked stubbornly on goggle hidden silver, neither of them willing to look away and admit a weakness.

It was only when they both fell silent to glare at each other that they heard the growling that most certainly didn’t belong to either of them, Green Eyes stiffened and turned slowly his face twisting into an expression of dread that confused the older man who whipped around and froze, his silver eyes meeting the massive faded gold ones of a large spotted cat probably larger than I’mam’s house in New Mecca.

“That’s... not good is it?” The Furyan muttered out of the corner of his mouth to the smaller male,

“Nuh uh.” He practically squeaked before grabbing his arm and wrenching him around, causing the feline to roar, kicking up a large amount of dust in the process as Green Eyes dragged Riddick over to his bike and swung on.

“Hurry up Dumbass!” He snapped and Riddick did the only sensible thing he could think of and swung on behind the smaller male, “Hold on.” He heard the younger male growl even as his head twisted to look over his shoulder at the large cat bounding across the small distance between them, blackened infected gums and teeth open wide to crunch on bone and bike alike. Riddick hadn’t been expecting the solid jerk of gravity and a wall of kicked up sand when Green Eyes kick started the engine with a roar and shot forwards, with him clinging onto an entirely too skinny waist and a giant rabid cat chasing them.

What drug trip had he just stepped into?

He was still unconscious, lying in the ship; this was all just a hallucination. He was not getting chased by a very angry and very hungry kitty cat, nor did he have bruises forming on his shoulders and jaw from the tiny fists of Green Eyes. A sharp elbow to his ribs swiftly disillusioned him of those thoughts and he found a gun being shoved under his nose.

“Those things are relentless. Aim for the eyes.” The black haired male shouted over the sound of the engine, the wind and their pursuer, green eyes slitted to keep the sand out, “Don’t sit there looking gormless! Shoot the fucker!” He snapped nudging him with the gun again. Snatching it out of the brat’s hand with a dark look on his face, Riddick twisted in his seat and aimed down the barrel, his arm still wrapped tightly against the younger male’s waist.

The infected Nundu screamed in rage as his eyes were spot out, small nubs of metal lancing into his brain severing the impulses that branched out to the rest of the body that the T-virus fed on. Green Eyes hollered gleefully as the giant feline crashed to the ground with a ground shaking tremor that threatened to unseat them both and send their bike crashing to the ground – Riddick was only marginally surprised that the smaller male kept it steady and on track.

“Nice shot! Maybe not as stupid as I first thought!” He called over the engine, “We can’t stay here though! Scent’ll attract more of ‘em and whatever other scavengers are here!”

“Where’re we headed!?” Riddick called back, thumbing the safety back on and slipping the gun into the back of his belt – he would return it when they stopped – and wrapped his other arm around his waist.

“Little Motel a few hours out! I cleared it last night; we’ll sort ourselves out there!” Riddick nodded against his back to let the other know of his agreement as they continued to roar their way across the desert and eventually back onto a tarmac road.

Riddick watched the rest of the landscape fly past, they were travelling at probably 70 maybe 80 miles an hour, he saw more of those walking corpses staggering around in the distance but he couldn’t smell the decay that clung to them with Green Eyes right in front of him. All he could smell was desert flowers and spices, engine oil, musk and something completely alien, the closest he could recall was on Aereon that Elemental woman. The planet wasn’t dead; he could see that, whatever the hell those creatures he encountered earlier were the native inhabitants were obviously more than capable of handling them, but what were they? Green Eyes mentioned something about an infection and the similarities between the stumbling humanoids that reeked of death and the young man he was leaning against right now were too close for him to completely dismiss. Was there some kind of plague that only affected certain members of the population? Was Green Eyes one of the few survivors? Would things only get worse when the lights went out? Obviously none of these people were capable of Interstellar travel, would he be able to get off planet before the Necros found him? If they did find him, would he take any survivors with him? Like last time?

“Better not be falling asleep back there Baldie, we’re here.” Green Eyes called as they rolled to a stop, Riddick’s nose picking out the scent of carbon, burnt flesh, old blood and dust. “C’mon, off.” The younger man ordered with an uncomfortable squirm as he waited for the Furyan to release him and back off, obviously not used to physical contact or he’d just come to associate it with something bad. Considering how those walking corpses out there practically pawed/mauled the little guy he wasn’t all that surprised by the aversion.

Swinging off and taking a few steps back Riddick turned his attention to studying the buildings, single floored buildings, one larger than the other and panelled with faux wood, the other building made of stone painted white, he could see jars and tins and the like inside so it might have been a storehouse or a shop of sorts.

“Where are we?” Riddick asked turning slightly to see Green Eyes checking over his bike to see if there was any damage from using it as a makeshift battering ram against those corpses earlier.

“Honestly? Not a clue. Haven’t looked at a map for months, I DO know we’re a good 400 miles away from Las Vegas, which is damn good. That place is a Corpse-Muncher all you can eat. Place is crawling with infected and whatever other unpleasants you can think of.” He explained with a flippant wave of his hand before he got to his feet and brushed himself off and gave Riddick a once over glance, a frown creasing his weather beaten features.

“Where are you from? Certainly ain’t from the Nevada area or you’d know this shit. It sounds like you never even heard of the infection where you’re from and that’s, quite honestly, impossible. Every corner of this planet’s been touched by that damn thing.” He declared placing a hand on his hip and glaring those green-green eyes at him.

Riddick pressed his lips together wondering what in the verse to tell the smaller man. It was painfully apparent to the Furyan that he had no Geographical knowledge of the planet, no knowledge of the threats, advantages, people, history – which was looking to be more important by the minute – he also had no idea of their military ability nor of their space travel ability. What if they were more skilled in Defence than space and blew up any ship that passed by searching for him, he would be stuck here. Likewise, if they were better with space than defence, he would need to commandeer a ship and possibly ward off anyone from landing on the planet for fear of infection. He certainly did not like the idea of those corpses getting anywhere else in the verse. They were such a pain and Riddick had only been here for what... three hours?

Noticing how the green-eyed male was looking more and more impatient squinting in the bright sunlight, he decided to find out, “How’s your space travel program?” He finally asked making the 21-year-old frown slightly before realisation hit him like a ton of bricks.

He blinked several times before sighing and gesturing towards the motel, “I’ve heard stranger shit. C’mon, lets get out of the sun and I’ll explain there.”

Riddick blinked, he was a little shocked at his good luck, obviously this planet had no outside contact but... wait he probably had heard of stranger things than beings from another planet, after all, had Riddick not just seen a cat the size of a spaceship try to eat them?

Following after the smaller male the two ducked into the musty smelling motel and made their way to a single opened door where Riddick’s sharp nose could smell fresh blood, he frowned slightly and eyed the room spotting the blood drawn onto the doorframes and windows. “Bloodwards.” Green eyes stated guessing where Riddick’s eyes were trailing, “Sit down, this could take a while but before we get started, what’s your name?”

“Richard B. Riddick.” He stated gruffly, leaving out his customary convict/murderer adage, didn’t want to scare the kid off too quickly considering how he was his only lifeline in this shit hole.

“Leo. I’d say nice to meet you but under the circumstances I doubt you’d believe me.” Green eyes – Leo – stated bluntly before he crossed his legs and leaned back on the bed. “Well, you’re lucky you ran into me, I’m known as a Far Rider in these parts, as such I know more about the Outbreak than most. You hear things if you listen real good and ask the right questions.

“Couple of years back there was a major pharmaceutical Business group known as Umbrella INC, they produced skin creams, antidotes, even cured Cancer – my aunt contracted it when I was younger only to die during the London Outbreak – but it was all just a front. Behind the scenes in their special little labs they were producing Bio-Weapons, a more sophisticated weapon that wouldn’t destroy the planet or wipe out the natural resources of the area. Basically, this virus reanimated dead cells. The Scientist who created it originally used it as a way to allow his daughter to walk again instead of having to rely on a wheelchair like he himself. Umbrella took his creation and bastardized it. The T-virus reanimates dead cells by feeding off the electric impulses that run through the human body, but, if allowed to multiply unchecked it chokes the system with the virus essentially poisoning and killing the host. Only to reanimate them with their very base instincts. What you saw out there were, quite plainly put, the dead walking.

“The First Outbreak was at a small research facility at Ground Zero: Racoon City. One of their Security team members went rogue, stole the virus and the antidote to sell on the black market and infected the whole research facility to cover up his escape and the theft of the experiment. The Underground research facility shut itself down completely, the Computer’s Artificial Intelligence AKA ’The Red Queen’ tried to control the situation and kill as many of the infected as possible to destroy the virus, but she never knew the full capabilities of it and until it took full effect, she didn’t know which Virus had been unleashed. She did everything she could, flooding the labs, depressurizing the lower levels, releasing the locking mechanisms in the lifts, poisoning the food. Anything she could think of. Eventually the lockdown was noticed and the S.T.A.R.S. – a group of specially trained individuals don’t know what the equivalent to you would be but to us they’re kind of like Marines – were sent in to investigate and find out what the Red Queen was up to.

“To cut that particular sad story short, there were two survivors of the Hive Break out, Alice – the head of the Security Department; she was planning to go public with the information about the Bio-Weapons, and the older brother of the woman Alice was in contact with to release the information, his name was Matt. However, when leaving the research facility, Matt was infected with an advanced strain of the Virus and taken by Umbrella for experimentation. Alice, who was uninfected at the time was taken as well and later infected with the Virus. However, Alice’s body mutated it and she basically became a super-soldier. While Matt and Alice were locked up in the Racoon City Hospital Special Unit, Umbrella reopened the Hive, and unleashed the infection on Racoon City. Thousands died, all so they could unleash their little pet project Nemesis. The remains of Matt once their Science Division finished with him.

“The infection became too difficult for Umbrella to contain and they ordered the sanitation of Racoon City. A tactical Nuclear weapon to raze the city and wipe it from the map. They already had their cover story: Melt down at the Power plant. Alice and several others escaped, but then again, so did the infection and it spread like wildfire. The public had no idea what it was or what it could do, the couldn’t contain it and very quickly, it had become an international issue.

“I was 15 when it hit England, the other side of the planet. I got lucky. I’m a bit special, I know you’ve encountered Elementals before, I can smell an Air Element on you.” Riddick blinked in surprise, Aereon, he hadn’t spoken to her in a good week and yet Gr- Leo could smell her on him even now? “Basically, The Elementals originated from this planet, myself and many, many others are distance genetic cousins to them. We have special abilities that others don’t, I had an edge because my house was seeded with Intent Based Bloodwards, it means that anyone who means myself or my Aunt – my closest blood relative – harm cannot pass the windows or doors. I held out for about two weeks before I left to find survivors. Found a few and joined them heading over here to America where I joined a Convoy along with another survivor from England. It was the same convoy that Alice and the Survivors of Racoon City were in, I exchanged medical supplies for information, my friend died and I left.

“And that’s basically everything that’s happened. Cities are now suicide to even get close to for most, Convoys of survivors are always on the move looking for more petrol and food and water, just staying ahead of the hordes. Last I heard, Alice’s convoy headed for Alaska, rumour had it that the Infection hadn’t hit that far but it’s just a matter of time. I’d rather stick around here where I know the territory and the threats.” The green eyed male explained, his voice going slightly hoarse at the end of his explanation, the black haired male coughed a little before digging into his bag and unscrewing a bottle of water.

“What’s a Far Rider?” Riddick asked after absorbing the majority of the information, looked like the Governments were at least partially right ‘Uninhabitable due to the wars of a lesser species’ was pretty close to what he’d just heard. His respect for Leo and any of the survivors – especially that Alice woman he spoke of – went up a solid notch or three.

“A Far Rider is a loner; we go around clearing out places like these of undead, hunting down watering holes, food and other supplies. We have our ears to the ground looking for survivors such as yourself as well. However, unlike other Far Riders, I take trips to the Cities in exchange for stuff. To be honest I’m probably one of the few who would survive going into City aside from a werewolf – they’re immune, but they can still be eaten alive.” He explained before offering the bottle to the Furyan who gratefully accepted the lukewarm liquid.

“Loner? So what happens to me?”

Leo sighed, “I don’t have the supplies for two, next convoy we hit, you’re their problem Riddick.”

The Furyan wasn’t sure what to think of about that.

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(1) You have noo idea how desperately I wanted to write: OMNOMNOMNOM right about there.