{"id":140,"date":"2022-09-09T19:12:34","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T23:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/?p=140"},"modified":"2023-01-14T14:10:39","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T19:10:39","slug":"the-slow-burn-chapter-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/the-slow-burn-chapter-5\/","title":{"rendered":"The Slow Burn, Chapter 5"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Title:<\/b> The Slow Burn<br \/>\n<b>Chapter:<\/b> 5 of ?<br \/>\n<b>Fandom:<\/b> Pitch Black<br \/>\n<b>Synopsis:<\/b> This is a reworked version of chapter 5 of <i>The Slow Burn<\/i>, which was my first attempt at fan fiction. It was semi-successful, but I stopped writing it after I found my real calling with Apprentice. Now I\u2019m revisiting it. The story adds an original character to the group of survivors, and this time around I\u2019m trying to strip away any and all Mary Sue qualities she possessed. In this completely new chapter, Riddick makes some changes to his plans\u2026 but maybe not in time.<\/p>\n<input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='6aabf2cba98d83088721321' value='6aabf2cba98d83088721321'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-6aabf2cba98d83088721321' value='This story has, overall, an X rating, and is derived from an R-rated movie. By clicking on this link to access the story, you are declaring that you are 18 years of age or older, and that this content is not illegal in your place of residence.'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-6aabf2cba98d83088721321' value='Hide the story again.'><button id='bg-showmore-action-6aabf2cba98d83088721321' class='bg-showmore-plg-button bg-green-button  '   style=\" color:#D9ECFB;\">This story has, overall, an X rating, and is derived from an R-rated movie. By clicking on this link to access the story, you are declaring that you are 18 years of age or older, and that this content is not illegal in your place of residence.<\/button><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-6aabf2cba98d83088721321' ><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;margin-bottom: 20px\"><b>5.<br \/><u>Riddick: Pouring One Out<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Well, <i>that<\/i> had been several exercises in futility.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">The inside of the crash ship was relatively cool and completely deserted. It was a good place to regroup and collect his thoughts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Riddick had seen a lot of things on his tours of duty, but he\u2019d never seen a planet with three suns before. Not one where people could survive on the surface. The disappointment and frustration over completely losing the cover of darkness was almost eclipsed by his sheer, absurd wonderment at the <i>existence<\/i> of such a thing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">He\u2019d shadowed Billy and his little brigade for part of their water hunt, but had soon found himself doubling back to check on the prospects closer to home. That merry troop had moved far enough away that they no longer posed an immediate threat. The ones who had been left behind, though, might be vulnerable. <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Not to him, in particular. Johns might like to tell stories about him killing indiscriminately, but that was far from the truth. He was more concerned about whatever was behind the bloody cryo locker and its missing contents. <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">The Englishman incongruously named Paris, he\u2019d soon decided, was the \u2019verse\u2019s worst sentry, too focused on his cigars and caviar to even notice Riddick\u2019s approach. When something finally did catch his attention, he proved even less impressive.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\"><i>Idiot,<\/i> Riddick had thought as he climbed up on top of the ship and watched Paris stalking toward the cargo container. <i>You don\u2019t desert your post. You sound an alarm and stay where you can see what\u2019s happening. Guess I\u2019ll have to do that part for you.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">He\u2019d vaguely recognized the man who was staggering toward the container as one of the unconscious-or-dead people he\u2019d seen in the cryo lockers he\u2019d unlocked. Not a threat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Zeke, however, creeping up behind the man with Johns\u2019 pistol drawn\u2026 <i>that<\/i> was a problem.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Resting now in the cool depths of the ship, Riddick took a small pull from the wine bottle he\u2019d liberated and considered his options. <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Zeke would be trouble. Paranoid, on high alert, willing to shoot without warning or provocation\u2026 and a damned good shot. His first order of business would have to be getting that gun away from him.  Then maybe they could have a nice conversation about what was really what\u2026 once he knew that the man couldn\u2019t shoot him. Until then, Zeke was a mortal threat, and not just to him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">One more sip from the bottle and he decided he was done. Any more and he\u2019d lose his edge. The wine was probably the only liquid they had to drink, but that actually made the alcohol in it more dangerous than ever. Better the others got tipsy first; he needed to keep his head clear. Especially because disarming Zeke might not be as easy as he would like.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">He carried the bottle with him to a rent in the ship\u2019s hull, on the side away from prying eyes. He was pretty sure the crazy girl had spotted him, but for whatever reason she had kept her mouth shut. Still, he\u2019d prefer not to have people aware of his movements. Not until he was in a stronger position, anyway. Not until he\u2019d dealt with Zeke.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">\u201cSorry about that, man,\u201d he murmured, lifting the bottle for a moment in a toast to the newly-dead. He wondered if any others would wander in from the tubes he\u2019d unlocked and hoped if any did, the survivors would be less jumpy about them. Tilting the bottle, he poured a little out for the fallen, whoever the hell the man had been. And, he thought with a frown, whoever had been in that bloody locker.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">He set the bottle down in a nice, shadowy, almost-cool nook of the crash ship before exiting. It was time to deal with Zeke.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">As he circled around the area Zeke had chosen for a burial ground, he felt a chill move through him. Some of the same whistling he had heard near the opened cryo locker was sounding through the strange formations nearby. And other disturbingly animal-like noises, as well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\"><i>That ain\u2019t just the wind,<\/i> he thought after a moment and frowned again. Zeke, dragging the body of the man he\u2019d shot over to the grave he\u2019d just finished digging, seemed completely oblivious to the sounds. So much for being on high alert.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Palming his makeshift blade, Riddick decided that he definitely needed that gun more than ever.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">A moment later he realized it was already too late.<\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: The Slow Burn Chapter: 5 of ? Fandom: Pitch Black Synopsis: This is a reworked version of chapter 5 of The Slow Burn, which was my first attempt at fan fiction. It was semi-successful, but I","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"\u201cThe Slow Burn\u201d chapter 5 by Ardath Rekha","bgseo_description":"Riddick makes some changes to his plans\u2026 but maybe not in time.","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fan-fiction","category-the-slow-burn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}