A Wish Is A Dream The Heart Makes.

A.N: Hey it lives! Sorry about the delay I've had internet and computer troubles. I've solved the internet problem, but the computer is still acting up. I have also had a bit of a problem concentrating on this story as a pernicious little plot bunny for another story has been dancing around in my head and distracting me from this story. I am going to take a little while to write a few chapters of that other story in the hopes of getting the damn thing out of my head so I can concentrate on this one again. Honestly it's driving me nuts! If it works out I'll probably post it on FF.net it's a LOTR story if anyone's interested... Oh and I blame Jezaeiri's 'For the Wild at Heart Trapped in Cages' over at TTH for my distraction check the story out it's awesome!!
I have ACTUALLY managed to watch C of R all the way through, I really enjoyed it and I will be including parts of it in this story... eventually. The next update will probably not be for a few weeks but it will come I promise. I now know exactly where this fic is going and there is NO chance of me abandoning it. If there's no update by the end of September feel free to shout at me, via a review!

Take care everyone,
Sajahi/Sam


Chapter 12: Live And Die By The Gun.

Riddick’s P.O.V

I run in front of them, wondering why I am bothering, why don’t I just grab the cells and my boy and leave these weaklings behind? They aren’t important to me, I sigh slightly; I gave my word. And my boy seems to like the holy man and the woman… Shazza. I would help them for those reasons, no matter how troublesome it was. I run slowly enough that they should be able to keep up, snorting at the sheer noise they make behind me. I can smell how much it is hurting my boy to keep to this pace, I know the jolting has to hurt him but he doesn’t complain or falter. I admire that in a man. After a little while I hear their noise increase again and shake my head slightly; not believing they ‘re already tiring, as if to agree with me I hear him, his voice barely audible over the others,


“Riddick,” I grunt to show I’m listening to him, “the others can’t keep up with this pace much longer. They’re starting to get tired and someone will make a mistake.”


“Fine.” I slow down to a walk, listening to him telling the others and almost laughing at the sound of relief from them all. We continue on at this speed and I notice that we are getting’ closer to the canyon, we’ve made it halfway, I concentrate on the creatures ahead of us… fuck! Not good . It sounds like they gather there, the canyon must be a prime feeding/hunting grounds for them. It’s also our only route to the skiff. How do we get through it? I decide to loop take us in a loop to give me time to think, keeping on the move is better than stopping, it’s not like any of them will notice except Xan and he won’t say anything to anyone. At the shouts behind me I stop and turn, just in time to see… Imam, dive and knock Shazza out of the way of an attacking creature. Seeing Johns bringing his gun up I crouch down, low to the ground, I don’t trust a frightened Johns. Fear makes him…unreliable. Checking on Xan I’m not too happy to see his lack of attention to a threat. I let out a demanding growl, pleased that he too drops to a crouch, obeying my command without fighting it. I hear and sent the impact of a bullet on flesh and tense fearing for a moment it was my boy before relaxing as I realise it wasn’t his scent. Xander yells at Johns to stop shooting and I feel my lips quirk slightly in amusement when he calls him a moron. When the light around them starts to fade my amusement died quickly especially when I realise that Johns’ fucking stupidity has put my boy in greater danger. I feel it is rapidly getting to the time when Johns no longer amuses me, I think as I run a hand over my shiv.


“Riddick you okay?
“Fine, who’s bleeding?” I asked my boy, not really all that interested in the answer, my voice loud enough for the others to hear. It turned out that Fry was the one shot, as Shazza fussed over her I made my way to my boy, shielding my eyes from the flare he still held, as I pressed into his back he lowered the flare and relaxing, settled against me. I took a moment to just enjoy his scent and the feel of his body pressing into mine, before I started to talk to him softly.


“Johns hit one of them slightly,” I gestured in the direction of the fights, knowing he could hear it as well as I could, “they’re tearing it apart.” I looked over at them watching as first one then an increasing number left the feeding crowds and stalked in our direction, “They haven’t forgotten about us though.” I tracked back to what they were focusing on and wasn’t surprised to see it was Fry that they were interested in, “Looks like I was right, Xan.” I felt him relax into me further, so I was now supporting most of his weight,


“Hmm?”


“They can scent blood.” We stood quietly, enjoying our closeness until the others were ready to go. I led them out at a faster pace and we had soon circled around to face the canyon. I heard the others stop but paid them little attention, moving forward to give me a better sense of what lay ahead, I crouched down to make myself a smaller target and focused all my senses on the path in front. The creatures still gathered there. I heard someone approaching me, smelt like Johns; I continued to stare ahead trying to decide what to do. My instincts were screaming at me to grab my soon to be mate and the cells and haul ass through the canyon as quickly as was possible. My head told me that that might not be the smartest option.


“Wanna tell me what the hell’s going on?” Johns said demandingly, I heard Fry muttering something but didn’t catch it over the approach of someone else… heavy steps… Imam, as if to confirm it he spoke,


“Why have we circled? Are we lost?” I could feel the fear and anger coming off both men but chose to ignore it, “Listen.” I kept my voice soft but spoke loudly enough that Xander could hear me, I needed another opinion, as my instincts were getting harder to ignore. All my instincts were demanding that I took my mate to safety and claimed him… before any other male did so. The other two men were not helping matters, they were too close. Johns’ anger was the worst; it felt to me as if he were challenging me for Xander, threatening my dominance and trying to take over my… pack. When they continued to crowd me I couldn’t take it and barely restraining the urge to ghost them both, I surged to my feet and whirling on them I roared, “Listen!” and glared at them both until they dropped their gazes from mine. Something that my… less civilized side took as submission that allowed me to relax slightly. I relaxed further when Xander ignored the other two men and after listening as I’d told him too, came to me for comfort. I ran a gentle hand down his arm now that my instincts were settling down I felt able to answer Imam’s question,


“Canyon ahead. I circled once to buy some time to think.”


“I think we should go now.” Imam offered.


“Oh… I don’t know about that.” I couldn’t quite contain my amusement that this man, obviously civilized agreed with my animal instincts; maybe they weren’t so different from my… I shot a look at my boy…our kind; I continued more seriously, “That’s death row up there. Especially with her bleeding still.” I let Xander explain to the others my earlier discovery; at Johns’ exclamation I turned and confirmed it to Imam,


“They’ve been nose-open for her ever since Johns got trigger happy.” I tuned out again as I tried to think how to get through the canyon I was aware of the growing tension but decided to ignore it beyond making sure that it wasn’t being aimed at me or my boy. When Xander started to edge closer I became fully alert and was in time to see Johns throw Fry to the ground and raise his foot to kick her. I snorted always knew he was that type of coward. I watched Xander as he got between them and punched Johns sending him flying backwards and stunning him. My boy was beautiful when angered. All that steel and fire in a pretty package. He followed the physical violence with a verbal threat and the promise of violence in his voice turned me on like nothing I’ve ever known. He looked at the others in the group calculating their reaction swiftly. They were frightened of him now I could tell and so could he, they were suddenly aware he too was a wolf amongst the sheep. Faster than I thought was possible he’d reined it in and he gave a goofy grin; fairly broadcasting non-threatening vibes. To my amazement it worked, they began to relax, thinking they’d been mistaken and he was again one of them; he increased the impression by shaking his hand exaggeratingly, as though in great pain before he turned to me,


“Owwie, Riddick you’ve got to teach me how to punch assholes without hurting my fist!” I snorted at him amused at how easily he disarmed them and hid his true self even when they had just been shown it; hiding the hunter behind the puppy and fooling everyone into thinking him harmless…at least until he struck. I turned and went back to scanning the area listening to him reassuring Fry and getting the group moving again. It was decided we’d get closer before we chose what to do about the canyon. I paced out in front and was shocked when Johns himself joined me. Fucker must want somethin’. I shielded my eyes from the light of the flare he carried and started to move past him.


“Ain’t all of us gonna make it.” He drawled quiet enough that only Xander would be able to hear it, definitely wants something.


“Just realize that?” I asked him, he was quickly becoming less amusing and was fast becoming annoying.


“Six of us here.” He said casually, “If we made it through the canyon and lost just one that’d be quite a feat.” I heard Xander snort behind us he could see where this was leading just as well as I could.


“Not if I’m the one.”


“What if you’re one of five?” He questioned, I almost laughed at the eagerness in his voice, and he really thought he was the one with all the cards. There was a sudden increase in the cries of the creatures and Johns jerked in fear. Riddick could hear Xander relaying what they said to the other three and slowing them down so they dropped back further,


“I’m listening.”


“Battlefield doctors decide who lives and dies, its called triage.”


“You kept calling it murder when I did it.” I heard my boy muffle a snort of laughter when he heard that, I turned my head away from Johns to hide my grin.


“Either way, I figure it’s something you can grab onto.”


“Sacrifice play.” I spoke a bit louder now encouraging Johns to speak louder too, while I knew Xander would repeat our words it would be more believable if they heard him for themselves. I could feel the tension in the group increase and Knew they could hear me, “Hack up a body, leave it at the start of the canyon… like a bucket of bait.”


“Trawl with it. We got extra cable on the sled.” He was speaking in an ordinary tone now; unaware that the others were listening, “We drag the body forty, fifty feet behind us.”


“Nice embellishment.” I knew I’d not been able to completely mask my disgust of the miserable fucker, but he was too caught up in his plans to hear. I was gonna enjoy ghosting this one.


“Well… I don’t want to feed ‘em. I just wanna keep ‘em off our scent.”


“So, which one caught your eye?” As I spoke I turned around and shot a quick look at my boy; warning him not to interfere, I just had time to see he understood before Johns noticed I was looking at the group,


“Don’t look!” He said nervously, “Christ. What the hell’s wrong with you?” I ignored the question and listened to Xander makin’ sure he got my message,


“Hey, everyone slow down.” His voice was soft and I could barely hear it, “Johns wants to kill one of us, I don’t think Riddick likes the suggestion, so in a minute I’m gonna shout and I suggest that we all get down. Johns is armed and freakin’ nuts!”


“Enough of this shit.” Johns said angrily stopping behind me, “You do whoever you choose and I’ll keep the others off your back. I suggest you do one of the walking wounded they’ll slow us down.” At that I stopped this… moron had not just suggested I kill my mate. Surely even he wasn’t that fuckin’ stupid?


“It’s not too big a job for you, is it?” Johns said mockingly, I turned to face him,


“I’m just wondering if we don’t need a bigger piece of bait.” I said seriously.


“Like who?” It looked like he really was that stupid. How the hell had this man caught me again? He looked me in the eye and slowly I could see that he was starting to catch onto my meaning. As soon as I saw that I spun and knocked the flare from his hand, the light gave him too big an advantage over me. I knew that by dealing with the flare I was giving him time to draw his gun but I was confident that I could deal with him armed. I heard Xander yell at the others to get down and then I focused on the fight, I deflected his gun by thrusting out with my hand and forcing it away from me. As I pushed it, he squeezed the trigger and the gun went off almost deafening me, we fought for control of the gun he was strong, but I’m stronger, he managed to hit me a few times but his angle was not good enough to put any force behind the hits. I decided to end the fight over the gun and shoved him away hard, wrenching the gun from his hands in the same motion. The force and the grip I had on the gun meant that as I did so I dislocated my lower arm. My throw shot him towards some bones that almost impaled him; he managed to catch himself in time. Good it would be a pity to end this so quickly. I used the time to put my arm back in place, the gun was out of the way now and Johns had lost a little of his confidence. Perfect. I started to circle the small clearing slowly taking off the lights I had strapped to me. The flare was starting to splutter and I knew it wouldn’t last long. He kept pace with me keeping the distance between us the same. The creatures starts up with there cries and he cast quick glances at the darkness around us then at the flare, before hurriedly looking back at me. When we’d circled enough that the flare was behind me I pulled the curved shiv he’d seen me with earlier and held it up, he fumbled at his vest trying to grab one of his own. When he was armed he started moving from foot to foot trying. I could scent fear rolling off him now,


“One rule.” I said calmly before darting forward faster than he knew I could move and in a few moves he was again unarmed and falling to the floor, in the shadows, I stood over him and continued what I was saying as if there had been no interruption,
“Stay in the light.” He fumbled something from his pocket and in an impressively quick move he’d swiped my legs out from me and thought he had me pinned. When I’d fallen I’d let go of my shiv and he scrabbled for it; he was still using his weight to keep me pinned…or so he thought. It was a bit of a surprise for him; that when as he went to ghost me with my own shiv I reached up and stopped his hand with mine. He continued to try and force the shiv down, grunting with the force he was using and straining to continue to move, “Remember that moment.” I said referring to our earlier conversation, his eyes widened at the evenness of my voice and it dawned on him that I was barely exerting myself to stop him, when he was using all his strength against me. He realized that I was toying with him and he was no match for me, I held him there for a moment longer before I twisted disarmed him flipped our positions grabbed my shiv and rolled to my feet in one smooth motion. Shaken he scrambled to his feet unaware that I was now behind him. I was bored of this fight now he wasn’t worth my time so I darted forward and sliced him diagonally across the back, just enough to hurt and make him bleed but not enough to kill him. He fell forward onto the floor and crawled towards his gun. I could hear the flare spluttering more and new it would fail in a few seconds. I scooped up the lights I’d taken off a few minutes earlier just as he reached the gun,


“You should’ve never taken the chains off, Johns.” I called out to him, “You were one brave fuck before.” The flare went out and he frantically reached for his belt to reload it, “You were really bad-ass.” I stepped back from him fading into the darkness as I spoke, “The chains. The gauge.” He’d finished reloading the gun now and started to stand, “The badge.” I faded into the darkness. He brought his gun up shining the light in the direction he thought I was, “I told you to ghost me.” I watched as the creatures scented his blood and began to surround Johns, who started to realize the danger he was in about the same time the first creature attacked; he managed to fight of the first two but the third one pierced his chest, then lunged forward and bit of his head. Beautiful. I turned and made my way back to the sled, back to my boy.