Being Simon’s girlfriend had taught Kaylee the basics of medicine, and she used all her knowledge to patch up River once they’d gotten back to camp and Riddick, the murderer, had finally let go of his grip on her and allowed Johns to take him to the ‘detainment facility’ as Johns had decided to call the little room where he’d been keeping him chained up.

Kaylee’s insides turned viciously as she got a better view of the cuts and obvious bite marks scarring River’s body, and the holes in her hands from where the teeth of whatever it was she’d fended off had sunken into her flesh.

Kaylee’s gaze went around them as she bandaged River’s hand, trying to stop the blood from flowing. While River had been biometrically enhanced to heal quicker than the average human, she still feared that the girl would bleed to death before her body could do its work.

Everyone was in an uproar, and they’d dismissed River’s ramblings as the words of a child in shock. They didn’t realize, of course, that River always talked like that---she’d hardly spoken after the crash. So while there was proof that something other than Riddick could be the cause of Zeke’s death and River’s injuries, they stubbornly wanted to put the blame on the murderer.

All except Shazza and Iman.

Maybe it was the fact that she was Zeke’s wife and knew that he wouldn’t go so easily and his body couldn’t have just disappeared as it had, and maybe she’d realized that when Riddick had held River it hadn’t been like a predator his prey----whatever it was, Shazza believed River’s version of the story.

Iman and his Chrislam students had listened to River ramble on and on once Fry and them had arrived, and the Holy Man said that in their Holy Book it spoke of devils that lived within the bowels of the earth, so her words could very well be true.

Paris, Fry and Johns were another story all-together though. They were all only too happy to lay the blame on Riddick, obviously the fear of something else out there was just too much for them to handle.

Paris