Just a Little Favor for a Friend Pt. 16
Jayne Cobb's Resemblance to a Hyper-Violent Criminal
***
The third box that Simon had opened, the one he had slid the lid back on due to the smell, was still closed. The black room was lit in one streak by Kaylee's small handheld torch which she had been using to scrutinize the box she was salvaging. When they were not bent over their work in the bay, the white glow from behind the boxes barely rounded out the lines of Simon and Kaylee's cheekbones and knees. Simon peered into the shadow for any hint of the outline of other human limbs or eyes.
"They're awake?" Kaylee asked, staring at Simon, her back and shoulders shivering as she turned from the empty bays. "They're alive?"
"I ought to be overjoyed right now. They're dead, but not really dead."
"Oh, if they're alive, that's good, right?"
"Somehow I've never, ever been comfortable with that concept."
"Where d'you think they--"
Simon ducked abruptly, using his weight to pull Kaylee forward and down with him. She barely got her neck out of the way of a rushing force, and the upper part of her shoulder and lower side of her neck were bruised and scraped by fingernails and teeth. In missing a solid blow on Kaylee, the plaster-white naked figure lost his balance and fell over the cryo box. Simon shoved his foot past Kaylee, under her torso, and kicked at the bay panel to keep it from opening further. He then reached over her to push the panel repeatedly onto the attacker's ribcage. Kaylee screamed. The man's skin showed damage where Simon was intently battering him, but he was grunting and struggling backward. Kaylee tried to skitter away and turned to find a white face before her eyes, stepping into the vague light and opening its mouth soundlessly. Again Simon ducked, taking her with him, and the first man squirmed out of the bay, taking heaving gasps. The other one's glassy eyes widened as he reached with blackened fingertips towards Kaylee's head.
"Give me your wrench," Simon held out a hand to Kaylee. She slapped a small tool in his hand and he held it up, advanced, then realized how inadequate all this felt and tried to head for the door. The standing man feinted in the same direction. Kaylee whimpered and rubbed her shoulder. "Guns," said Simon. "We're armed."
"Oh, right." Kaylee lifted her pistol wrapped in both hands and squeezed her eyes shut, aiming in the general direction of the threat. She missed on several tries. Simon was more deliberate, taking a shot that grazed the man, but this meant the door was blocked, for the shot seemed to anger the individual and he came forward instead of going back. Simon fired again and laid him flat out. "Go over him to the door, Kaylee," he tried to tell her, wheezing as if he had been wounded. "We should by all rights be saving them. If they had been alive to begin with. Why in the 'verse am I shooting them?"
Kaylee went for the door, picking her way over the twitching, erstwhile dead man. "I hear bare footsteps," she quivered.
Every edge in the room seemed to move, yet it was eerily still. When he stiffened and listened, Simon heard only the hum of the working parts of the cryogenic bays and his own heartbeat.
"Your gun. Use your gun. Hold it up and give a warning. Fire into the corridor if nobody answers you."
"Our crew all wear boots!"
"Not always. Not my sister."
"Shit. Shit, Simon, shit. River didn't come with us."
River entered the room, lowering her gun. "I've come now. I killed one on the way down."
"Why did you leave Serenity?" Simon stared at her and ignored the drooling creature behind him whom he'd been slamming in the panel. River pointed. He turned, fired, and missed. River took several steps closer and fired point blank to the man's head before his hand could swipe her. Kaylee gasped at the head shot and when Mal and Zoe entered loudly, with proportional clumping of boots in the corridor, she flung herself across to Mal and clung to him.
"I came to save Kaylee," River answered her brother's earlier question.
Doc turned slowly from gazing at the man she'd shot and prompted, with dark incredulity, "And Simon."
River conceded, "And Simon. And to bring a message from Duck Pilot. She was sending me, but I didn't have time to get my boots, because of Kaylee."
"Your timing's good," Mal told her.
A shadow in the room moved and became lighter. It launched its splotched body at River, who nailed it in the cheek with a kick and sent it spinning across the deck. Mal gently unwound Kaylee with one hand and fired, flattening the attacker.
Simon gaped.
"Everything's alright now," River, her breath catching slightly, turned to Mal to say. Then she nodded at the corridor. "Behind you, Captain."
Mal came forward, in front of the new attacker's lunge. He stopped the onrush with a crack to the chin while opening a space for Zoe. The man wheeled back, groping, and Zoe fired. Down he went with a rattling growl. Kaylee ducked into a crouch and put one hand over her head, shivering.
Simon murmured, "My God, they're zombies."
"Easy, there." Mal kicked at the fallen one behind him to shine a yellow light on the face. The nose and upper cheeks seemed as if they had been stained with oily charcoal. "Ain't zombies. Just got their skin partly frozen by a faulty cryo containment system. That ain't a dead man. I mean, it is now."
Simon breathed, balancing with his hands on his shins and holding his head down as if he'd been running a far distance. "Why are they attacking us?"
Still in her covered crouch, Kaylee squeaked, "Are they evil? They're evil, ain't they. Like-- Reavers."
"Ain't zombies, ain't Reavers. They're just hyperviolent criminals in a confused state."
"Thanks, Captain, that's comforting," Doc found breath to say.
Zoe backed up to Mal to close ranks as another naked figure leapt snarling from the shadows. Mal re-cocked his gun. "Well, time to kill 'em."
Simon promptly hid behind his sister. River took pity and explained, "Simon, you have a gun. All you have to do to save the day is fire it off, like this." She lifted and fired in one smooth motion at a space that to Simon's eyes was empty. A clammy, dark body leapt in the moment River's gun fired, met the force of the shot, kept forward in the leap that became a twitch and fell motionless on the deck at Doc's toes.
This was enough for Simon. He scrambled for the door despite not knowing what other loose, thawed criminals may have gotten beyond it. He looked back for Kaylee, who was bunched with her gun in one hand and her other hand over her head. River was scanning the room. Mal and Zoe had moved in past the hatch just enough that Simon could dash between them and the frame, and he did so, exhorting Zoe to get Kaylee back to Serenity as he went. Zoe nodded, picking Kaylee up by an elbow.
Mal spoke to Zoe, low, avoiding Kaylee's hearing. "We ain't really goin' back to Serenity yet. Let Doc and Kaylee think so, let 'em go, but no reason to leave all these goods. Get 'em on their way to Serenity and just come on back."
Zoe nodded firmly. River watched their departure over her shoulder, gun at the ready.
"I could still shoot 'em," Kaylee told her as she trotted to keep up with the grasp on her elbow. "If they ain't real people any more."
Zoe saw Kaylee out to the main hatch of the infirmary vessel. The mechanic easily caught up to Simon on the rough terrain. They stopped at the open cargo door of Serenity.
Simon advanced with caution. "Why'd she leave this door open? Haven?" There was no answer from the gloomy ship's interior, so he went to the intercom. "Haven?" In the long pause, he looked at Kaylee, who shrugged.
Simon quickly became frustrated. "Where--"
"Hey," came from behind them. Simon jumped. Kaylee almost squeaked.
"Why'd you come back without cargo?" Haven asked. "Need help?"
Simon questioned sternly, "How long has the cargo door been open?"
"Since I sent River over. Why?"
"There may be intruders. Did you see anyone enter?"
Haven looked instantly alarmed. "No."
"They're sneaky," Kaylee alerted her worriedly.
Haven shrugged. "In that case, they're either not on board, or I've been fooled. Want to help me hunt them out if they're here? And did River tell you?"
"She said she came to deliver a message from you. Come on, Kaylee, I have to have a look at your shoulder and neck. You can tell us on the way, Duck-- Haven, and close this door."
"Kaylee's hurt? Close this door? But, Doc, the crew'll be wanting to get in on foot without the communicators," Haven kept a double-paced step to match his stride. "I had River go in the first place to avoid radio communication, in case the Alliance bird picks it up. We're playing junk ship, and she doesn't seem to be sniffing us out, but they're circling an awful lot like there's something they want lying down here. So we're gonna stay black. I shut down everything but bare auxilliary. Let me know if you'll need more in the infirmary."
"I sha'n't right now," said Simon. "And yes, Kaylee's harmed." Kaylee was trotting along, being pulled by the elbow once more.
"What's going on over at the scrap vessel? Why did intruders attack you? Did they know--"
"I don't think they know much of anything," Simon said grimly, and Kaylee furrowed her brow.
"Well, I'll just go back to the bridge." Haven gestured over her shoulder with a thumb and backed up. "Anything you ought to tell me about these intruders?"
"They're naked, mindless killers."
"Okay," said Haven.
Simon and Kaylee entered the dim infirmary. Lines of red light showed the edge of the counter and the outline of the hatch. "Sit on that stool."
Kaylee shuffled over. "Can it hurt me?" Kaylee began to rub at her bruise, winced and sat on her hand. "Can it really hurt me? Like-- like zombies turn people--"
"It's only a human, Kaylee. Mal says so, so it must be true."
Kaylee nodded in complete agreement at the infallible nature of Captain Reynolds' knowledge and information, yet resumed, with some hesitation. "In stories with zombies they can always--"
"Turn you into one of them, I know. There's always an antidote, too."
"Cap'n'll get 'em all, won't he?"
"Sure. Of course. Captain Reynolds, Zoe and my little baby sister are taking care of the violent part. Tilt your--"
Simon started and turned around to follow the gaze of Kaylee's widened eyes. He knew precisely where Jayne was located, but any motion other than Cobb's hitched breathing was unexpected and the shape looming over the med-bed demanded action.
Kaylee opened her mouth to speak, but Simon drew his gun. Then she let out a scream. After Simon fired, the familiar roar alerted him. He rushed forward to Jayne, who was leaning and clutching the air in Doc's direction. He watched him halting forward on the bed, raced through the potential effects of being in close proximity to a confused, now gunshot Jayne, grabbed the nearest back-up dose of anaesthetic and injected it. He tried to push Cobb back, but Jayne groaned and rolled off the bed. Simon tried to break the fall, but the tiger thunked to the deck; Simon grunted, trying to keep him up. Slowly Kaylee came and helped lay him out straight, then they looked at him. Simon shook himself and tried to find the bullet wound. "Go tell Haven I need full back-up active in the infirmary."
Kaylee used the intercom while Simon felt over Jayne.
"Did you hurt him?" Kaylee hugged herself.
"I knocked him out now."
"Did you hurt him with the gun?"
"I think so. I heard him shout. Yes--" the lights came up to part power and Simon glanced up, looked down, blinked several times, and peered at the slow-breathing Jayne. "Sit down on the stool, Kaylee. I'll see to your wounds as soon as I patch him as best I can for the moment. I hope he didn't get any harm in coming off the bed."
Kaylee sat.
"Here it is." Simon clicked his tongue at the trickiness of the spot, but was somewhat calmed by the minor nature of the damage.
"He wasn't gettin' any prettier, anyway," Kaylee chuckled nervously.
Simon gave her a defeated, pragmatic half-smile, then collected a bandage gun to patch the spot on Jayne's arm where he'd managed to hit him.
"Kaylee."
Kaylee perched on her stool, clutching her elbows. When some time passed she prompted, "What?"
"I'm not having a good day."
***
The third box that Simon had opened, the one he had slid the lid back on due to the smell, was still closed. The black room was lit in one streak by Kaylee's small handheld torch which she had been using to scrutinize the box she was salvaging. When they were not bent over their work in the bay, the white glow from behind the boxes barely rounded out the lines of Simon and Kaylee's cheekbones and knees. Simon peered into the shadow for any hint of the outline of other human limbs or eyes.
"They're awake?" Kaylee asked, staring at Simon, her back and shoulders shivering as she turned from the empty bays. "They're alive?"
"I ought to be overjoyed right now. They're dead, but not really dead."
"Oh, if they're alive, that's good, right?"
"Somehow I've never, ever been comfortable with that concept."
"Where d'you think they--"
Simon ducked abruptly, using his weight to pull Kaylee forward and down with him. She barely got her neck out of the way of a rushing force, and the upper part of her shoulder and lower side of her neck were bruised and scraped by fingernails and teeth. In missing a solid blow on Kaylee, the plaster-white naked figure lost his balance and fell over the cryo box. Simon shoved his foot past Kaylee, under her torso, and kicked at the bay panel to keep it from opening further. He then reached over her to push the panel repeatedly onto the attacker's ribcage. Kaylee screamed. The man's skin showed damage where Simon was intently battering him, but he was grunting and struggling backward. Kaylee tried to skitter away and turned to find a white face before her eyes, stepping into the vague light and opening its mouth soundlessly. Again Simon ducked, taking her with him, and the first man squirmed out of the bay, taking heaving gasps. The other one's glassy eyes widened as he reached with blackened fingertips towards Kaylee's head.
"Give me your wrench," Simon held out a hand to Kaylee. She slapped a small tool in his hand and he held it up, advanced, then realized how inadequate all this felt and tried to head for the door. The standing man feinted in the same direction. Kaylee whimpered and rubbed her shoulder. "Guns," said Simon. "We're armed."
"Oh, right." Kaylee lifted her pistol wrapped in both hands and squeezed her eyes shut, aiming in the general direction of the threat. She missed on several tries. Simon was more deliberate, taking a shot that grazed the man, but this meant the door was blocked, for the shot seemed to anger the individual and he came forward instead of going back. Simon fired again and laid him flat out. "Go over him to the door, Kaylee," he tried to tell her, wheezing as if he had been wounded. "We should by all rights be saving them. If they had been alive to begin with. Why in the 'verse am I shooting them?"
Kaylee went for the door, picking her way over the twitching, erstwhile dead man. "I hear bare footsteps," she quivered.
Every edge in the room seemed to move, yet it was eerily still. When he stiffened and listened, Simon heard only the hum of the working parts of the cryogenic bays and his own heartbeat.
"Your gun. Use your gun. Hold it up and give a warning. Fire into the corridor if nobody answers you."
"Our crew all wear boots!"
"Not always. Not my sister."
"Shit. Shit, Simon, shit. River didn't come with us."
River entered the room, lowering her gun. "I've come now. I killed one on the way down."
"Why did you leave Serenity?" Simon stared at her and ignored the drooling creature behind him whom he'd been slamming in the panel. River pointed. He turned, fired, and missed. River took several steps closer and fired point blank to the man's head before his hand could swipe her. Kaylee gasped at the head shot and when Mal and Zoe entered loudly, with proportional clumping of boots in the corridor, she flung herself across to Mal and clung to him.
"I came to save Kaylee," River answered her brother's earlier question.
Doc turned slowly from gazing at the man she'd shot and prompted, with dark incredulity, "And Simon."
River conceded, "And Simon. And to bring a message from Duck Pilot. She was sending me, but I didn't have time to get my boots, because of Kaylee."
"Your timing's good," Mal told her.
A shadow in the room moved and became lighter. It launched its splotched body at River, who nailed it in the cheek with a kick and sent it spinning across the deck. Mal gently unwound Kaylee with one hand and fired, flattening the attacker.
Simon gaped.
"Everything's alright now," River, her breath catching slightly, turned to Mal to say. Then she nodded at the corridor. "Behind you, Captain."
Mal came forward, in front of the new attacker's lunge. He stopped the onrush with a crack to the chin while opening a space for Zoe. The man wheeled back, groping, and Zoe fired. Down he went with a rattling growl. Kaylee ducked into a crouch and put one hand over her head, shivering.
Simon murmured, "My God, they're zombies."
"Easy, there." Mal kicked at the fallen one behind him to shine a yellow light on the face. The nose and upper cheeks seemed as if they had been stained with oily charcoal. "Ain't zombies. Just got their skin partly frozen by a faulty cryo containment system. That ain't a dead man. I mean, it is now."
Simon breathed, balancing with his hands on his shins and holding his head down as if he'd been running a far distance. "Why are they attacking us?"
Still in her covered crouch, Kaylee squeaked, "Are they evil? They're evil, ain't they. Like-- Reavers."
"Ain't zombies, ain't Reavers. They're just hyperviolent criminals in a confused state."
"Thanks, Captain, that's comforting," Doc found breath to say.
Zoe backed up to Mal to close ranks as another naked figure leapt snarling from the shadows. Mal re-cocked his gun. "Well, time to kill 'em."
Simon promptly hid behind his sister. River took pity and explained, "Simon, you have a gun. All you have to do to save the day is fire it off, like this." She lifted and fired in one smooth motion at a space that to Simon's eyes was empty. A clammy, dark body leapt in the moment River's gun fired, met the force of the shot, kept forward in the leap that became a twitch and fell motionless on the deck at Doc's toes.
This was enough for Simon. He scrambled for the door despite not knowing what other loose, thawed criminals may have gotten beyond it. He looked back for Kaylee, who was bunched with her gun in one hand and her other hand over her head. River was scanning the room. Mal and Zoe had moved in past the hatch just enough that Simon could dash between them and the frame, and he did so, exhorting Zoe to get Kaylee back to Serenity as he went. Zoe nodded, picking Kaylee up by an elbow.
Mal spoke to Zoe, low, avoiding Kaylee's hearing. "We ain't really goin' back to Serenity yet. Let Doc and Kaylee think so, let 'em go, but no reason to leave all these goods. Get 'em on their way to Serenity and just come on back."
Zoe nodded firmly. River watched their departure over her shoulder, gun at the ready.
"I could still shoot 'em," Kaylee told her as she trotted to keep up with the grasp on her elbow. "If they ain't real people any more."
Zoe saw Kaylee out to the main hatch of the infirmary vessel. The mechanic easily caught up to Simon on the rough terrain. They stopped at the open cargo door of Serenity.
Simon advanced with caution. "Why'd she leave this door open? Haven?" There was no answer from the gloomy ship's interior, so he went to the intercom. "Haven?" In the long pause, he looked at Kaylee, who shrugged.
Simon quickly became frustrated. "Where--"
"Hey," came from behind them. Simon jumped. Kaylee almost squeaked.
"Why'd you come back without cargo?" Haven asked. "Need help?"
Simon questioned sternly, "How long has the cargo door been open?"
"Since I sent River over. Why?"
"There may be intruders. Did you see anyone enter?"
Haven looked instantly alarmed. "No."
"They're sneaky," Kaylee alerted her worriedly.
Haven shrugged. "In that case, they're either not on board, or I've been fooled. Want to help me hunt them out if they're here? And did River tell you?"
"She said she came to deliver a message from you. Come on, Kaylee, I have to have a look at your shoulder and neck. You can tell us on the way, Duck-- Haven, and close this door."
"Kaylee's hurt? Close this door? But, Doc, the crew'll be wanting to get in on foot without the communicators," Haven kept a double-paced step to match his stride. "I had River go in the first place to avoid radio communication, in case the Alliance bird picks it up. We're playing junk ship, and she doesn't seem to be sniffing us out, but they're circling an awful lot like there's something they want lying down here. So we're gonna stay black. I shut down everything but bare auxilliary. Let me know if you'll need more in the infirmary."
"I sha'n't right now," said Simon. "And yes, Kaylee's harmed." Kaylee was trotting along, being pulled by the elbow once more.
"What's going on over at the scrap vessel? Why did intruders attack you? Did they know--"
"I don't think they know much of anything," Simon said grimly, and Kaylee furrowed her brow.
"Well, I'll just go back to the bridge." Haven gestured over her shoulder with a thumb and backed up. "Anything you ought to tell me about these intruders?"
"They're naked, mindless killers."
"Okay," said Haven.
Simon and Kaylee entered the dim infirmary. Lines of red light showed the edge of the counter and the outline of the hatch. "Sit on that stool."
Kaylee shuffled over. "Can it hurt me?" Kaylee began to rub at her bruise, winced and sat on her hand. "Can it really hurt me? Like-- like zombies turn people--"
"It's only a human, Kaylee. Mal says so, so it must be true."
Kaylee nodded in complete agreement at the infallible nature of Captain Reynolds' knowledge and information, yet resumed, with some hesitation. "In stories with zombies they can always--"
"Turn you into one of them, I know. There's always an antidote, too."
"Cap'n'll get 'em all, won't he?"
"Sure. Of course. Captain Reynolds, Zoe and my little baby sister are taking care of the violent part. Tilt your--"
Simon started and turned around to follow the gaze of Kaylee's widened eyes. He knew precisely where Jayne was located, but any motion other than Cobb's hitched breathing was unexpected and the shape looming over the med-bed demanded action.
Kaylee opened her mouth to speak, but Simon drew his gun. Then she let out a scream. After Simon fired, the familiar roar alerted him. He rushed forward to Jayne, who was leaning and clutching the air in Doc's direction. He watched him halting forward on the bed, raced through the potential effects of being in close proximity to a confused, now gunshot Jayne, grabbed the nearest back-up dose of anaesthetic and injected it. He tried to push Cobb back, but Jayne groaned and rolled off the bed. Simon tried to break the fall, but the tiger thunked to the deck; Simon grunted, trying to keep him up. Slowly Kaylee came and helped lay him out straight, then they looked at him. Simon shook himself and tried to find the bullet wound. "Go tell Haven I need full back-up active in the infirmary."
Kaylee used the intercom while Simon felt over Jayne.
"Did you hurt him?" Kaylee hugged herself.
"I knocked him out now."
"Did you hurt him with the gun?"
"I think so. I heard him shout. Yes--" the lights came up to part power and Simon glanced up, looked down, blinked several times, and peered at the slow-breathing Jayne. "Sit down on the stool, Kaylee. I'll see to your wounds as soon as I patch him as best I can for the moment. I hope he didn't get any harm in coming off the bed."
Kaylee sat.
"Here it is." Simon clicked his tongue at the trickiness of the spot, but was somewhat calmed by the minor nature of the damage.
"He wasn't gettin' any prettier, anyway," Kaylee chuckled nervously.
Simon gave her a defeated, pragmatic half-smile, then collected a bandage gun to patch the spot on Jayne's arm where he'd managed to hit him.
"Kaylee."
Kaylee perched on her stool, clutching her elbows. When some time passed she prompted, "What?"
"I'm not having a good day."