It was the third day on an easy trip to Kerry. A scruffy, desert planet (Weren't they all?) with a few, dusty, run-down villages here and there. An easy trip to deliver a box or two of protein, and a cow. One cow. They didn't need any more herds of them.
Mal delicately landed Serenity on a plateau of sand and scrub. He deliberately set the boat down a good distance from the village, so that they didn't sneak over the hill and steal parts of his Firefly. It had happened before, and the ship had flown in circles until Wash got the piece back.
Simon, Zoe, Jayne, and he himself were about to carry the cargo (not the cow) over two miles of desert to get to the village. He figured he could have landed a little closer, but he wasn't about to lift off and try again.
He walked down to the cargo bay, where Zoe carried one bag full of protein, Simon (reluctantly) carried the other, and Jayne led the cow.
"Why do I have to drive the cow?" Mal heard Jayne grumble as he walked by. It was obviously because Zoe was stronger than him (would he ever admit it?) and could carry more protein at once, and Simon- well, they needed his hands to have non-broken fingers, just in case something bad happened and they needed doctor stuff.
Also, Mal thought privately, I ain't gonna put up with his complainin' if that thing craps on his shiny shoes.
Kaylee saw them off. "Be careful, Simon!"
No 'Be careful' for me? Mal thought, although he knew well why she had only said it to Simon, and he was fully prepared to accept the inevitable- if the two ever got around to it.
Simon told Inara to keep River safe, and then jogged to catch up with Mal, at the front of the group, and asked, "So, how far is this village?"
"Two miles, or so." Mal said conversationally.
Apparently struck speechless, Simon fell to the back of the group and silence fell over the little line of person, person, cow. Jayne seemed to particularly enjoy the silence, and Mal thought he could occasionally hear him muttering "Most gorram silence we ever get around 'im." Probably referring to Simon.
They trudged- eventually- up the final rise and stopped at the top, looking down at the dirty, dry little village. To Mal, it seemed a little quiet. The last time he'd been here it had been a bustling mess of grimy people building, eating, selling anything they could get their hands on. This time, there didn't seem to be any motion. It was silent, dead. To Mal, this said ambush, so he stopped and watched.
"What do you think, sir?" Zoe asked, knowing full well what he thought.
"Definitely gonna be a trap, or everyone down there is dead. Maybe we took too long getting the protein here." He watched for a flicker, a motion, any signal for a sniper to shoot them. Nothing happened.
"Should we go down, sir?"
"Yep."
Simon hurried to catch up with Mal and Zoe, who were going without Jayne because someone capable (not Simon) needed to watch the supplies and the cow. The three slid down the incline, sand in their shoes, grimaces on their faces, and a look of abject fear on Simon's.
They reached the village in a plume of dust. Coughing, Mal plunged through it.
He couldn't see for a minute- just brown. Something appeared through the dust. A person? He waved, waved again, moved closer. The person's shape became clearer. He was bending over something.
Mal walked right up to him, shook his shoulder. Nothing happened. Was he asleep? Mal slapped the man's face. No reaction. He checked for a pulse. Nothing. His heart lurched. The man was slumped over at a table, looking for all the world like he was asleep, but he was very clearly dead.
Zoe appeared through the settling dust cloud and said in a steady voice, "They're all dead, sir."
"I was right." He said softly.
"About the ambush?"
"No, about the dead. They're all dead. Zoe, they've been murdered."