Disclaimer: The 'Verse belongs to Joss!
Preface
I ran up the short stairs, and cursed under my breath frantically when I pushed the button on the inside of the pod and it refused to shut.
I whirled around to the cortex room, walking over the threshold pushed the button on the inside, letting the pressure hiss the thick steel closed.
I let out a choked laugh of relief at this one merciful barrier between me and them.
The last view I would ever have of Miranda was its twilight. The door compressed the beautiful purple hue sky into a horizontal sliver, and then was gone in a glaring white instant.
The grey reflective steel quickly replaced it.
When it closed, bringing together two halves of my face. Seeing it for the first time all day, I began to cry.
Red. Red everywhere.
The tears carved a path through the bloody layer on my cheeks.
Soon all I could see was skin blurred on steel.
My cries heaved breaths uncontrollably inward, not allowing me to take a real breath.
Their faces flashed unconsenting to mind; the blood, the chucks on flesh bitten and peeled off bone, the ripping, the raping, the snarling.
My voice whined in a cry, and I felt the hot tears, my body arching forward as if to squeeze out the ocean pour out of my eyes.
I stopped myself from pounding against the door, angry and horrified that the faces stuck there were none of my companions.
They were theirs.
The monsters.
No.
I stopped, suppressing the chopping waters inside with some gasps.
I couldn't take the risk of complete emotional release.
I couldn't let them hear me. Noise just attracts them.
They would find me eventually, but I wouldn't be the one to lead them here.
Still, my fists curled against the cool grey, and I sank to the grated floor, on my hands and knees. I compressed my body raking cries between my knees, holding my arms as if to keep myself from drifting away.
I felt it come up when the images kept sweeping through my mind.
Running to the head, I only just made it in time to vomit up bile and acid.
I didn't know what my body was trying to rid itself of, I had already spilled most of it throughout the day.
Shaking, I turned to the facet without looking at my reflection. I went to work scraping my face of any human remains.
When I felt a shard of bone glued to my wild strands of hair with blood, I felt my body threaten to heave up nothing again.
I shuddered it away.
Wetting my hands, I gathered my hair into a smoother style, drawing it back and tying it to the back of my head. The bangs on either side did not fit in the tail, framing my heated eyes.
I took deep breaths, and finally looked at myself.
The claw marks of human nail strung in red lines diagonally across my right face side. I could feel the first of them puffing thick on top my eyelid. The bruising to my left jaw was also protruding thick, weighing down my face. The steel punch outlined in red, but in the middle gave way to sickening rings of yellow and purple.
My neck still had smatterings of blood.
I swallowed down another sob, raising a wet towel and wiping it away frantically.
I wouldn't have them see blood soaked on my skin.
It wasn't how I wanted anyone to see me for the last time.
The last time.
My face contorted into cries again, and I tried to restrain it.
I didn't have time.
I had no idea of knowing when they would come to finish me off.
Too much time was already wasted on pulling myself together.
I walked into the cortex room, committing my thoughts to breathing and pushing the flash drive of pictures from earlier today.
Today?
I checked the time on the cortex.
It was dawn on this planet.
Twenty-for hours ago we were hitting atmo, and now I was here.
I took another breath, I just had to do it.
Just start talking.
People have to know. I'm the one who has to tell them.
There is no one else.
The light on the holo recorder blinked after I pressed it briefly.
And I let the words flood out.
"These are just a few of the images we've recorded, and you can see it isn't... it isn't what we thought."