We sit in silence.
I'm not entirely sure how much time has passed since the blast doors slammed shut. I've been keeping myself busy. Partly because with Simon injured he can't treat the rest of the crew himself, and partly because it allows me to keep me from dwelling on exactly what might be happening on the other side of those thick, metal doors.
I found it quite easy at first to distract myself. River had thrown Simon's bag through before the closing the doors, and so I was able to occupy myself by administering the adrenaline to Simon, the calaphar to Kaylee, and basically just doing my best trying to patch up Zoe and Jayne, and of course trying to stem the blood flow coming from Simon's own wound. I found it a little ironic that it should be a stomach wound that he suffered, after our first utilisation of his skills, but in a way, it's good because I'm able to remember what needs to be done. And now, all is quiet, and we're all just sitting here, waiting for whatever's coming. In all likelihood, our deaths.
I look round to the elevator. I'm can't help but wonder where Mal's got to, and if he's managed to send the recording we found as a broadwave transmission.
I've noticed that encountering Reavers always makes me more aware of my own mortality. But this time it feels different somehow. I suppose it's because this time I know the truth about them. It wasn't choice, or even madness that created them. It was the Alliance, in their never ending efforts to create a compliant population, a population that blindly obeys whatever they are told to do.
We're unable to hear anything through the blast doors, and so I can't be sure what's happening. Ordinarily, I would think that River would have been quickly defeated, but thinking back to the recording of the security feed from the Maidenhead that Mal showed to me, and considering the amount of time that seems to have passed. Well, I don't think that I can be sure about anything anymore.
All I do know is, that after discovering exactly how the Reavers came about, and despite the fear and disgust which I can't help feeling towards them. I hope that eventually Merciful Buddha will let them rest, but more than that, I hope that he'll let all of us rest.