"Infinite Darkness" - Part Five

 

Part Five

            The Mud Demons measured their human prey for near a minute before one of them finally decided to spring. Fry and Johns opened fire, taking the ravenous creature out instantly. Their shots only encouraged the other Mud Demons to attack in retaliation, putting Fry and Johns on the defense with Riddick and Westlake. Imam and Jack took cover with Mandy, who carried the unconscious Clarence in her arms.

            Riddick made short work of the one Mud Demon he focused on, knowing where its weak points were. He was able to withstand a venomous bite to his leg, decapitating the Mud Demon while its jaws were locked on him.

            After a while, the Mud Demons were no longer able to stay out of the pools.

            They retreated back into the waters to avoid the risk of drying out.

            Johns, however, had a different take on the circumstance: “Looks like we scared them off. But, for how long, who knows? Except for obviously you, Riddick.”

            “You really think we scared them?” Riddick scoffed. “Nothing scares anything on this planet. We just got lucky.”

            “Lucky?!” Mandy barked, cradling Clarence. “Look at this poor child!”

            “It’s just a little venom,” Riddick casually dismissed. “He’ll be fine in a couple of hours.”

            “A little venom?!?!” Mandy roared, not accepting Riddick’s dismissiveness in the least. “We need to get to that station! They must have some medicine there, right?”

            Riddick let out an aggravated groan. “Yes, they do.”

            “Then we need to go there now!”

            “Let the kid ride it out, Red. He’ll eventually develop an immunity to it.”

            “Is that another guide from ‘Wilderness Riddick’? Did you have to go through something like this the last time you were here?”

            Riddick detected the obvious sarcasm in her tone, understandably spurred from her deep concern of Clarence. “As a matter of fact,” he began.

            “HE’S NOT YOU!!!” Mandy bellowed, her crystal blue eyes glaring daggers into whatever amounted to a soul inside of Riddick. Her stance on the argument was clear: they were taking Clarence to the mercenary station right that very second.

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            The trek lasted close to a week.

            By then, Clarence’s condition had worsened, just as Mandy feared.

            Along the way, the survivors came upon a jackal – another member of Not-Furya’s wildlife. Its look and behavior were similar to Earth-based jackals, with the notable exception of the quills on its back. The heterochromia of its eyes was evident, as it glowered on them, guarding the entrance to the station.

            “Riddick…” Johns beckoned, his hand inching towards his holstered gun.

            Riddick held his arms out – one to his group, the other to the jackal. “It’s O.K.,” he reassured. “This guy’s an old friend.” He held his hand out to the jackal, only to have it nearly bitten off when the jackal snapped its sharp teeth at it. Riddick’s quick reflexes were what saved his fingers, although he was more than a little angry over the lack of loyalty from his “old friend.”

            “Old friend, huh?” Fry derided. “She doesn’t seem to remember you.”

            “That’s ‘cause he’s not the one she’s grown accustomed to.”

            It was Riddick’s voice that the other survivors heard make the remark, but the words weren’t coming out of Riddick’s mouth. For a moment, Mandy wondered if he had taken up ventriloquism; but then she and the others witnessed someone step out of the mercenary station…another bald man wearing welder’s goggles…another Riddick.

            “Ho-lee mackerel!” Johns reacted, baffled and astonished just as much as everyone else – including their Riddick himself.

            This other Riddick appeared younger and even hungrier.

            The jackal went to him with more respect than the elder Riddick, licking the palm of the same hand that it almost bit off him. “You’re probably asking yourselves all the same question right now,” the young Riddick coolly said. “The answer’s simple: I’m the Ghost of the Past.”

            It didn’t take long for Mandy to deduce the situation. “The Anti-Angel brought you here, replacing you with the Riddick from this time.”

            “If you say so,” the young Riddick shrugged. “All I know is that I was crashing on the Hunter one second. The next second, I’m here for six months, dealing with one bad day after the next.”

            “Making you more of a vicious monster than you already were,” Johns remarked.

            Ignoring the topic of discussion, the elder Riddick stared rigidly at his younger counterpart and asked, “Did you activate the beacon?”

            The young Riddick smirked. “Now, why would I do a thing like that?”

            “DID YOU ACTIVATE IT?!?!” the elder Riddick shouted impatiently. Mandy and the others looked on him, seeing a side of this Riddick that they had yet to see – a man who acted as if he was backed into a deadly corner. There was intense desperation on his face, and they didn’t have to see his eyes to know that it was there for certain.

            The young Riddick continued playing coy with his future self.

            This merely drove the elder Riddick to charge at his past self.

            The two Riddicks brawled, both equally matched – although the elder possessed some extra tactics that the younger lacked, which left him dependent on speed and agility.

            While Johns relished watching Riddick attempt to kill himself, Fry and Mandy worked together in putting a stop to the counterparts’ brawl. It only ended with the thundering of ships overhead. Looking up, they watched as two disparate vessels descended – one branding a spotless militaristic design, whereas the other was battered and disused.

            “Well, I’ll be,” Johns approved of the sight. “Your young self did something that was actually worth it, Riddick.” His demeanor quickly shifted to dismay once he witnessed a familiar man walk out of the militaristic ship with his crew. “Dad?!”

            Colonel R. “Boss” Johns gazed on the young mercenary, frowning.

            “William?” he said in surprise. “I thought you were dead.”

            “What?!” Johns reacted with same frown as his father. “What’s going on?”

            “What’s going on is that we’re here for that man right there!” The captain of the other vessel pointed directly to one of the two Riddicks. He stepped forward with his seven-man crew, all of whom appeared as scruffy and barbaric as him, and did a double take once he realized there were two Riddicks in front of him. “Uhh…why’s there two of him?”

            Mandy leaned in on the elder Riddick and whispered in reference to the scruffy, barbaric captain, “Who’s he?”

            “Santana,” Riddick told her. “And, yes, he’s as dumb as he looks.”

            Hearing that, Santana drew his gun on him. “I don’t know which Riddick you are – the real one or an imposter – but that little comment just earned your head a place in my box!” He held up a translucent box that did appear big enough to fit a human head.

            “Two Riddicks, two crews, and one bounty,” Boss Johns surveyed the situation. “Sounds like an equal share with the bonus for my son coming back from the dead.”

            As the two crews made claim on the Riddicks, the elder Riddick took notice in something that no one else did: the night and the rain began to fall on Not-Furya. He also sensed something near that crept on them. It was too late to have warned the junior Johns, who was suddenly impaled by the tail of a Mud Demon. His father watched him instantly die, as his body was ripped in half by the creature.

            The Mud Demon didn’t come alone.

            Behind it stood the Anti-Angel, flanked by dozens more Mud Demons, as well as Bioraptors that had been brought to Not-Furya, all for one purpose:

            To kill.