As the vehicles drew closer, Riddick could hear the sound of their tires screeching just outside the gate, with bright lights visible overhead. He let out a calm breath and crouched in a deeper pose while keeping his gaze fixated on the gate.
Meanwhile, inside the house, Jamie's alarm went off. It vibrated loudly, as the inside of the house was serenely quiet, with only the cool night breeze passing through the windows being audible.
Jaime begrudgingly woke up and quickly removed it from under her pillow and turned it off. She then turned to her side and saw that Johnny was too sleeping comfortably, unaware of what was happening.
She quickly sat up on the edge of her bed and opened up the messaging app. There, just as she was doing so, a message popped up.
Daddy Phil: “We're here, open up the gate."
To this, Jamie looked back toward Johnny, clearly a bit nervous, as this scheme she had set was now in motion. Seeing him still soundly asleep, she turned back to her phone and typed a reply.
Jaime: "It's already open. I'm coming downstairs to meet you. Johnny's still asleep, so you don't have to worry about anything."
Daddy Phil: "Good. That saves us the trouble since we're a bit short on men anyway. Come get your sweet ass out here before my boys come drag Johnny out. I can’t wait to see the look on his face."
Jamie showed the visible smirk at this statement; it almost seemed devious.
For how could someone so happily betray someone who gave them everything they possibly could? Regardless, Jamie was such a person.
Jaime: "I'm looking forward to riding you all night."
After typing that, Jamie grabbed her phone and walked over toward the closet opposite the bed. She quickly opened it and grabbed a coat before quietly exiting the room.
Upon entering the hall, she made sure to walk through slowly, going past her own daughter's door and that of Riddick. She couldn't help but glance at Riddick’s door, hearing no sound though, she safely assumed he was still asleep.
And so, she began to make her way down the steps. However, as she was doing so, she felt her leg step into some water. As she looked down, a frown appeared on her face.
"Dammit Johnny, he didn't fix those pipes well enough. Fuck, this is the shit I can't stand about him," she muttered to herself while adding, " *urgh* so stupid."
As she was doing so, she moved her hand against the wall, looking for the light switch so she could see where exactly the water was, and so she could move out from the house without bumping into anything or stepping into an area that was overly wet.
Her finger soon found the light switch, and she tripped it.
However, confusion struck her as the light didn't go on. It made her wonder, though, "Don't tell me he didn't even fix the damn lights right, that fucki- *AH!!*."
Before she could finish her statement, she shuffled her foot onto one more wet area with a metal mesh on it, immediately causing a surge of electricity to rush through her body.
*ZAP!* *crackle~*
Her figure was sent flying backward onto the stairs, and her puffy jacket immediately caught fire, while the entire front of her face, chest, and legs was charred.
As she hit the stairs with her back in a violent manner, breaking a few panels in the process, she let out a gasp. Her eyes widened in confusion; she could feel no part of her face, chest area, or legs, only a sharp stinging sensation.
And as if it couldn't get any worse, as she landed; she damaged her spine, and so from the neck down, she had no control over her limbs. She could feel the sensation coming and going but growing equally weaker with every instance, like life was fading from her body.
The panic could be seen in her trembling eyes that showed both her confusion and unwillingness.
Just what happened? How was she dying?
It made no sense; everything was supposed to be perfect…
Everything was going to be perfect, but now she was fading…
Her thoughts were in disarray, and her voice was so weak that it came out as sorrowful moan.
However, her initial scream had already caught the attention of Johnny, who suddenly woke up and turned to his side, only to see that Jamie wasn't there with him.
Johnny's immediate thought was that perhaps Riddick had preyed on her. Johnny may have been casual in how he handled clients, but he wasn't stupid enough to assume they were good people unable to do bad things, but due to mutual benefit, Johnny knew that it was nearly impossible for someone to risk ruining a job just for a woman in an OT community.
And he had been right as such an instance had never occurred, though this didn't stop the thought from arising first.
He quickly rushed out of his door and into the hallway. At that time, the lights within the house began to flicker.
The concern on his face grew as he yelled, "Jamie!" while rushing forward toward, running past both his daughter's room and Riddick's, immediately looking down to run down the stairs.
But just a few steps in, he came to a stop and gasped for breath as he exhibited a look of shock. His eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and he his hands trembled intensely.
He could only mutter, “… Jamie?”
It was then that the realization struck him, “Jamie!”, saying this, Johnny reached out to try and grab her body. However, electricity still coursed through her body, and thus it traveled to his body as well, and sent him flying back.
*Bam*
Though luckily for him, only his hand sustained minor burns.
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Pain coursed through his entire body, but it felt numb in the face of the tragedy before his eyes. He looked at his fingers, then at Jamie, and could immediately tell if he tried that again, he perhaps wouldn't be so lucky.
Looking down, Johnny could see minor electric surges in puddles at the bottom of the stairs.
“An electric fault?”
That was Johnny’s immediate guess. And thinking along these lines, he wasted no time and rushed toward Riddick's room, desperate to ask for help.
But as he banged on the door while yelling, "Riddick! Riddick!" he got no answer, and so he had to open the door and come inside. But he found no one.
Confusion once again dawned on him, but before he could even question the scene, the loud sound of metal screeching reached his ears: the sound of his gate opening.
He tried to look at his phone, thinking that he had perhaps overslept, and that his friend was here to do the fixing job.
But as he peeped out from Riddick's window, his face turned ashen.
"No, no…”
“Why now… ?"
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Meanwhile, outside, both Jaime's and Johnny's screams had reached Riddick, as he was only 30 meters away from the house, crouched silently under a car.
However, his gaze didn't shift away from the gate, regardless of what he heard coming from the house. This was because, when he had set the traps, he knew it was entirely possible for either Jamie, Johnny, or even their daughter to be caught in them.
But there was nothing he could do about this. His trap didn't discriminate. His intent wasn't to kill them, but if they happened to get caught, then that's just how it went. After all, Riddick's overall plan was to get rid of this impending danger , because even if Johnny, Jamie, and their child happened to die and Riddick was the only one who survived, he only needed to wait until the scheduled time for Johnny's friend to come by.
At that time, Riddick could simply play the role of a victim and still carry on and leave the OT community. Or if the man was unwilling to cooperate, Riddick could do everything himself. It was these possible outcomes that led Riddick to go about it this way, with a focus on preserving his own life while ensuring his enemies were dealt a heavy blow with as little direct effort from him as possible.
As the metallic gate cranked with the mechanical hum while sliding open, four sets of large, 20th and 21st-century modded 4x4s could be seen.
Because most companies dumped vehicles from that age in what was now known as Car Graveyards, people of the OT communities often scavenged in these yards and worked on the vehicles they could find there. So long as it moved and could handle the terrain, it was more than enough.
Looking at the vehicles slowly driving in, Riddick noticed most of them lacked windows and roofs, with numerous parts looking like they had just been welded on. The cars were completely dirty as well, covered in scratches, dust, and stains of blood, and weird accessories hanging from certain parts as well.
Riddick's attention, though, was focused on the car leading the four: a large 2046 Dome Ranger 4x4, a series vehicle that still existed to this day with a great reputation for its off-road capabilities.
But it wasn’t the car’s make that caught his attention.
Riddick's gaze was focused on the number plate, which read "Daddy Phil".
When faced with large groups, it was common knowledge that taking out a leader would always give one a favorable advantage, and thus Riddick set his sights on that vehicle.
However, it had four individuals inside. The driver had a shaven head and a tanned, reddish skin tone, like most people in the OT communities.
He wore grunge-stained clothing and had an unkempt beard with numerous tattoos on his hands and neck. All the others had similar styles, differences only being in perhaps haircuts and tattoo designs, but in builds and roughly their appearances, they looked very much alike, being tall and bulky.
Riddick then thought to himself, ‘he did mention a brother.’ Quickly concluding on the potential for relation, Riddick chose to observe longer.
If he took out the wrong person, he'd lose the element of surprise that he had. For now, it was better for him to see their reaction toward his traps. This would at least tell him if any superhumans were present and who exactly Phil was.
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At this time, back inside, Johnny was at a loss for words at what he saw looking out his window. He could see a band of
He was confused, desperate for answers, but he knew he couldn't slack.
Something popped up in his mind. "Sabrina, Sabrina," he muttered again before quickly rushing out of the door and into his daughter's room.
His felt a burden slip away as he saw his child sleeping comfortably in bed, unaware of the chaos that was currently building around them.
Without wasting time, Johnny woke up a groggy Sabrina, who woke up and rubbed her eyes in confusion. "What's wrong Pa?"
Johnny, still shaking with tears running down his face, hugged his child and lifted her from the bed.
"Nothing, nothing's wrong. Do you remember what I told you we’d would do if raiders ever came to the compound?
“You said to hide while you deal with it like you always did, right?”
“Right. So I'm going to do that, okay?" he said to her as he rushed into the bathroom and over toward the bathtub.
There, he began touching the tiles behind the bathtub faucet, well hidden unless someone had a fairly keen eye, or was searching for it.
As Johnny hit this tile, a clank was heard as a small square-shaped entrance opened right next to the tub. Johnny then quickly urged his child, "Go, go. No matter what you hear, don't come out of there, you hear me?"
A confused and frightened Sabrina nodded before she asked, "What about ma?"
Having lived in the OT communities, this drill was clearly something the child had experienced before, as Johnny had great defenses on his compound. For only after successfully fighting them off would a compound be considered relatively safe, as
And on those times, the child would hide with her mother. As the space in which she hid looked enough to fit at least 3 to 4 people.
Johnny wasn't sure what to say but thought fast and replied, "Mommy is hiding in another spot, okay? Just promise me, promise me one thing, okay?"
The little child nodded. "Okay."
Johnny nodded, unsure himself of what was going to happen as panic and fear truly gripped at his heart in a way it had never done so before.
He reached out to his child and kissed her forehead while roughing her hair, emphasizing once more, "Don't come out."
After saying that, he closed the raggedy entrance and rushed out of the bathroom and toward his bedroom. He quickly crouched under his bed where another hidden panel was present. And upon lifting it off, Johnny reached into a deposit of guns.
He took out nearly every single one he could, and afterward, he held the straps and put them all over his shoulder. His breathing had intensified, and his eyes were still trembling, but he couldn't afford to fall into despair because he had something to protect, and he knew that if the
Johnny immediately rushed out of his room, several guns hanging off his shoulder, before he burst into Riddick's room, whose window gave a better vantage point of the gate.
He crouched near the window and took out what looked like a marksman rifle. He reached into his pocket to grab bullets, but he fumbled, and they fell all over the floor as his hands were still trembling. Regardless, he fumbled and picked them up one by one and loaded them into the gun before peeking out the window and aiming.
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At this time, Riddick could see the cars come to a halt, with the leading car's doors opening as four figures exited.
Riddick's gaze settled on the man who exited the car first from the passenger seats on the right-hand side. The reason Riddick's gaze settled on this man was that the man was currently on his phone.
Riddick reached into his own pocket and brought out his own phone and looked at the still-loaded mirror profile and could see a message that just popped up from Phil.
Daddy Phil: "Where the hell are you, girl?"
It was then that Riddick could confirm that the person holding the phone was likely Phil.
However, he didn't look to be in charge as the man who'd been driving came to the front of the vehicle with an almost comically large gun strapped to his waist. He put his hands on his hips as he looked toward the house and then the cars, a grin appearing on his face.
He then turned to the other man who had been texting to say, "You done found us a good steal, brother. This is gonna be a great hau-. *PA!*"
Before those words could be uttered, the man's head was hit with a bullet that resonated on the scene and caused a horrific silence to follow as the man's large body thumped to the ground with a loud thud, catching both the intruders and Riddick by surprise.