Your Protector

Chapter 4

Sarah's POV

Trekking through the dessert we listened through the sounds of Imam and his children chanting as the children through rocks, I overheard him explaining to Fry that it was to keep the devil at bay. "So where were you headed to?" she asked as Johns went up ahead. I adjusted Ali who had fallen asleep, happy that someone was happy "New Mecca, Chrislam teaches that once in every lifetime should there be a great hajj, a great pilgrimage. To know God, better, yes, but to know yourself as well" he said with a smile on his face.

I walked over to John to see him looking in a certain direction, he turned his eyes to look over at me "here have a look at this, are my eyes playing a trick on me?" he said handing me the telescope. Looking through I saw something in the difference, it was hard to see clearly what it was "trees?" I said cautiously before looking back at him with a wide eyed smile "trees!" I said as the others drew their attention towards us. Trees meant water and possibly food.

We all raced through the rocks and the sand the boys seemed to get there first but stood motionless, we followed behind and also froze at the sight. The "trees" are actually the dorsal bones of a titanic skeleton, tinted green by lichen. Beyond is a sea of bleached animal bones. "Is this whole planet dead?" Fry asked as I shrugged my shoulders. One of Imams boys came up to him and spoke in their native language as Imam translates "he asks what could have killed so many great things?".

No one made an attempt to answer the question, we made our way into the bone yard. Everyone sort of broke off unsure what to do. I wondered through waking Ali to show him the incredible and sad view. Walking through I gazed up at the bones wishing I could capture the way the light sparkled through. I heard a small sound, something I wouldn't have noticed before but it came at the same time as a tight feeling formed in my stomach.

Following where my feet led me but froze when I came face to face with Riddick. "Oh gosh" I said pulling Ali close to me as he lifted his tiny hand and waved at the convict. Riddick titled his head as he spoke in a deep voice, enough to make any girls knees weak, "you know, it's not safe to stray from the pack. That's how you get killed". He lifted his arm and motioned for me to come closer, I shuffled my feet in the sand as I felt like I was going to throw up due to fright.

Pulling out my bag I spoke up trying to keep my voice even "I know it's not much but I figured criminal or not you are a person" I said holding out my bottle of liquor and my oxygen breather which only had like 2-3 hits left. He cautiously moved forward and grabbed it "thanks, but aren't you scared of me?" he said raising an eyebrow "yeah but I figure that if you are going to kill us you are going to do it at some point or another so I might as well try and tell you that everyone here are good people" I said.

Before he could say anything else, Riddick held his finger up to his lips signalling me to be silent. I cautiously moved closer to him to get out of view as Riddick nodded for me allowing to do it. Fry and Johns came up on the other side of the bones. " You know you could have stayed back with everyone else, because you know if we don't find water..." implying our soon to be death. "I wanted to come, I needed to get away" Fry said as I became curious about their conversation, "So I noticed. Never seen a 'captain' quite so ready to leave her ship" Johns replied as I had to stifle a giggle which I noticed Riddick smiling at me which caused me to have a slight blush form on my cheeks.

Fry began to move away when Johns spoke up again "What did Owens mean? About not touching the switch... before he died?" Fry turned and looked at him, I could only guess the look of shock on her face "promise you won't tell anyone? During the landing...when things were at their worst...Owens was at his best. He's the one who wouldn't let the pilot dump the passenger cabin" She said in a low voice obviously feeling guilty about almost killing us. "Guess I am luckier to be here than I thought" he said before walking away with Fry going in the opposite direction.

" I can't believe she tried to kill us" I whispered as Riddick turned back to me "yes well I thought that there was something going on with her, you might want to re-join them" he said as I nodded, not saying anything as I turned to leave "thank you for the stuff, it was kind of you" Riddick said as I looked over my shoulder showing him a smile before I left, my heart once again pounding in my chest.

I walked over to the group who were just about ready to talk again when Imam noticed me " Sarah there you are, we were worried that something had happened to you, are you ok?" he said as I noticed him looking at my flushed face "yeah I'm fine, just hoping we find some water soon" I said as he nodded. As we began to make our journey going through a narrowing canyon. Lined with rib bones, it makes us feel like we're in the belly of some beast.

The kids ran off again and by our surprise they came running back a few minutes later calling out "captain, captain" over and over again holding something in their hand. Fry grabbed it from them and held it up for us to see, clearing the sand off of the top. Suddenly with the light of the sun hit the object, powering it and causing it to move, it was then that I realised that it was a toy and toys meant people and possibly a way off of this place.

We raced our way out of the canyon and onto a hill that over locked a small settlement. We began to call out wondering if anyone was here. The settlement was made up of stacked shipping containments, it looked like they used what every they could with that they had. Walking around outside I took notice of the structures, this wasn't just some full shipping containers that crashed with people inside, this was done on purpose. The question was through, since they were here where are they now?

"Long gone. whoever they were" Johns said as we realised no one had come out to greet us. As we came up to a bulky machine I turned to Johns with a raised eyebrow "what is it?" I questioned "water... water was here" Imam said as Johns realised what he was saying " this is a water pump and by the looks it, it shouldn't take too much to get it up and running".

I turned to Fry as the men started working on the machine trying to work out what to do and what they needed, " Fry did you want to join me? I'm going to check out some of the buildings" I said as she nodded her head, sparing a glance at Johns and Imam. Walking into the closest building noting how dark it was "lights... lights on?" she said but there was no response to her command, it was then that I saw some metal shutters on the wall and looked back to the object.

Pulling them open, the light showed a mechanical device that shows the motion of planets around their suns. They only way I knew that it was this planet was because of the suns around the planet, it always seemed to have sunlight. Due to the sun coming through the window, it hit a solar pad causing it to start up, the planets started to creak as they came to life.

"No darkness. No lights because no darkness..." Fry said as I looked at her " Fry, this planet has water... they had shelter and everything looks as though they went out and just never came back. What's going on?" she looked over at me " I don't know Sarah..." Fry replied.

As we walked outside something in the distance caught Fry's eye, she had a closer look when she realised what it was. She took off running with me following. As we got closer I realised what it was, it was a skiff, a light-duty vehicle, part plane and part space craft. Though it looks tattered due to no upkeep, the ship its self-looked intact.