Zoe didn't understand. Under the red lights she saw it happen. The relief, the turn, the moving of lips. I'm a leaf on the wind, watch how I— Then something else. A crash and jerk, then nothing. "Wash!"
She's out of the seat, some power other than her brain forcing her body to move towards her husband. He ain't moving. Why ain't he moving? Zoe's seeing, but there's a block. She's pulling at him now, his head falling limp in her hands. A single word manifests in Zoe, tearing everything in her apart. Dead. "Wash baby, baby no," she's pleading now, the red light of the bridge drowning her in blood. "Come on, you gotta move." She wills him to move, shudder, look at her. All those jobs gone south, all them scraps and bruises and bumps they'd had, all she needed was to see that man's eyes and Zoe would be steel again. "You gotta move, baby."
Plenty of times during the war, Zoe thought the world was gonna end. Not her world necessarily, but that the whole of creation would just disappear. Such thoughts were comforts those nights in the trenches, with only the stench of blood and sounds of explosions to keep Zoe company. She learned then that as much as you wished, things kept turning, friends kept dying, stories kept being made. Now, though, as Zoe's mind registered the signs, she once more longed for that end. Maybe that's why she didn't move from the spot. She needed to be with him if everything stopped, needed to be holding him. "Please—"
There was a shift in the air, some warning that maybe she'd get her wish, but then Mal was pulling her down. Another harpoon crashed through the ship, just where Zoe had been moments before. Perhaps if she'd been capable of comprehending, Zoe would have been furious. Captain shouldn't be playing god. The thing should've killed her too. All these thoughts, though, formed later, over days of lonely numbness.
Mal was dragging her now. He pulled her out of the bridge with such a force Zoe'd not even known that man capable of. "No," she struggled against him. She didn't understand. "Wash—" A shadow of pity passed over Mal's face, then a wall of resolve. Why wouldn't he let her go? "We have to go back! We gotta get him!" Captain shook his head, no words. Or at least none that Zoe heard. She tried pushing away from him again, but Mal's grip was all iron. Daze was replaced by fury. "Yi da dwei bun chou roh get the hell off of me!" She clawed at Mal's front, beating his chest in desperate thuds. "We have to— We gotta— He's— He's—" Mal's body was tense and unwavering, a hard truth hidden in his steely face. Zoe's arms dropped. She knew. He knew. There was nothing to be done.
And in that moment, Zoe died, leaving only a soldier in her place.