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Hammerbanghammerbang...
The smooth continuity of Mal firing his favorite pistol at the shooting range target fifty yards away made Mal somehow feel better about life in general. What definitely made Mal feel better about life was that he was shooting far better than David standing next to him.
"Since when did you get better 'n me, Malcolm?" David jibes with a grin. "I never said you was allowed to ever get better 'n me."
"If you'd practice more instead o' flirtin' with Mary Ann Patterson, I'd still be yards behind ya." Mal reloads almost gleefully as he compares his last shot's bull's eye with David's last shot, which veered ever so slightly right of center.
August 25 2005, 01:15:34 UTC 6 years ago
Gunshots. Gunslingers?
"Voices. Telling you that things happened one way, and another. And you won't know which to believe."
Roland's gone, but anyone can be here. Maybe even someone who could help, one way or another.
Cautiously, Lilly approaches the source of the gunshots - two young men with their backs to her.
August 25 2005, 01:19:49 UTC 6 years ago
Turning, he immediately holsters his gun. "Lilly? How...Why?" Mal can't seem to figre out what question he wants answered first.
August 25 2005, 01:29:50 UTC 6 years ago
"...Mal?"
She knows him. Grass skirts and tequila and teaching her to shoot, just like this. But the memory is slippery, they all are, and she isn't sure and she can't keep the uncertainty out of her voice.
August 25 2005, 01:48:58 UTC 6 years ago
Mal looks over his shoulder to point out David's presense, but David had disappeared. As well as the targets. The lights may be on in this particular setting, but no one is home except Lilly and Mal.
August 25 2005, 02:14:03 UTC 6 years ago
After a moment, she looks up and blinks again.
"Do I know you?"
August 25 2005, 02:15:19 UTC 6 years ago
"What? Of course you know me. Me, y'know...Mal? Reynolds? Captain a spaceship?
"Captain Mu Ji?"
August 25 2005, 02:29:13 UTC 6 years ago
Lilly clenches her fists, driving her fingernails into the half-healing cuts on her palms. They start to bleed again and the pain rushes through her body in a wave, drowning out never died grew up never left came to new york to la to milliways -not that- .
"What up, Captain mu ji?"
August 25 2005, 02:49:23 UTC 6 years ago
"Lilly?" Mal straightens his gaze into Lilly's eyes. "You with me? Mei-mei, I need you to tell me what's wrong."
August 25 2005, 02:56:29 UTC 6 years ago
There are tears welling up in her eyes.
August 25 2005, 03:16:57 UTC 6 years ago
August 25 2005, 03:25:37 UTC 6 years ago
"You can't find her, you can't hear her, I can but it's too loud and then I can't-" She breaks off suddenly, and freezes.
There's a noise, faint but audible, in the distance. To Lilly, it sounds like the howl of a maddened wolf.
To Mal, it sounds like a proximity alarm.
August 25 2005, 03:42:56 UTC 6 years ago
The lights in the cargo bay flip to black suddenly, but Mal can still see somehow Lilly's streaked face and the space between them. Through the proximity alarm, he hears the sound of removing the gun from his holster, ready for anything.
But not the stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp of Reavers comin' in through the airlocks upstairs.
toomanycan'tstopthemlillyohmygod
August 25 2005, 19:04:01 UTC 6 years ago
"Mal, I need to go. They'll leave if I leave, how do I get out of here?"
August 25 2005, 19:36:48 UTC 6 years ago
"Maybe we could get out by the shuttle..."
Nope, the stomp comes from that corner of the ship too.
"Ain't no shuttle left."
August 25 2005, 21:06:19 UTC 6 years ago
the man beside her with the gun -veronica holds the gun on aaron- but the captain -the sheriff- she has to tell him something but what
Lilly doesn't remember what she was going to say. So she doesn't say anything at all, just stands next to the stranger with a gun and stares into the shadows.
August 25 2005, 21:15:14 UTC 6 years ago
The reavers, in single file, are marching stomp stomp stomp stomp down the ladders to the main floor of the cargo bay.
Toward Mal. Toward Lilly.
Mal can't stop them. Any of them.
"Lilly - run. Hide. Go."
August 27 2005, 04:50:35 UTC 6 years ago
None of them are real. They're all real.
She doesn't move.
August 27 2005, 04:57:30 UTC 6 years ago
There's no one can help me
Help us.
The front ranks of Reavers that have reached the floor of the cargo bay are forming column and file, still keeping the stomp stomp stomp.
Mal fears. His gun is useless, his body is useless. There is no defense.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want..."
August 27 2005, 20:33:39 UTC 6 years ago
But this is a nightmare.
Wash is being tortured in a tower where Zoe can't find him, Kaylee's tied up in an engine room, Jayne's gone where the money is and Simon and River are stranded outside the ship in suits with only a little air left. No borrowed heroes from other tales either, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood and the Magnificent Seven are off having a smoke. No one's striding into the cargo bay with their long coat flapping in a dramatic if convenient breeze.
This is a nightmare.
Two of the reavers break rank and rush forward, screaming with sliced tongues in pierced faces, one brandishing a rusty jagged-edged blade. Mal brings his gun up agonizingly slowly, trying desperately to fend them off. It only serves as a distraction, as the weaponless one turns to sink his teeth into Mal's arm.
The one with the blade goes straight for Lilly, who's still frozen, caught in the confusion of shifting views and times and voices whispering this is -isn't- real -you're not here- you didn't die.
His sword scrapes roughly along her rib as he thrusts into her side, and this is a nightmare but for Lilly it is also suddenly, painfully, real.
August 27 2005, 20:57:41 UTC 6 years ago
My gun works I know it works shoot the motherfucker
Mal's arm is lead and his gun is iron, the combination of which makes training his gun on the Reaver seem like moving through quicksand.
The Reaver takes advantage and connects with Mal's wrist, tearing into the flesh of his bicep. Mal's vision flashes white shrapnel live shrapnel when the teeth sink in, and Mal's mind can't even connect to Lilly completely vulnerable behind him.
There are no green pastures here.
August 27 2005, 21:09:13 UTC 6 years ago
"Mal, come on! We have to go, now!"
There's a corridor opening behind them now, just as dark as the cargo bay but free of reavers. Lilly's tugging on Mal's hand, desperately trying to pull him towards it, towards the best chance of escape they've got now.
August 27 2005, 21:15:31 UTC 6 years ago
August 27 2005, 21:22:54 UTC 6 years ago
"Mal, you have to listen to me, okay?"
August 27 2005, 21:29:06 UTC 6 years ago
"What, Lilly? We gotta keep goin'..."
August 27 2005, 21:35:15 UTC 6 years ago
"They're not after you, they'll ignore you if I'm not with you. Just stay here, I'm going to go on and they'll follow me. Promise me you'll stay here, mu ji?"
6 years ago
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