Hayden's ship rocked again, and the terrifying shriek of metal rubbing on metal as the Reaver ship slammed into us. This time the jolt knocked the two of us right out of our seats. I winced as my side hit the deck, feeling my almost knitted ribs pop again. Alarms and warning beacons started howling and echoing through the ship. "Mayday, mayday," I shouted into the radio. "This is the cargo ship Roxanne. We are under attack by Reavers. Mayday! Mayday!" I set the message to auto repeat along with a beacon so they could find us, not that I had much faith in the Alliance arriving in time. They didn't much believe in Reavers. Truth to tell until I'd seen the red painted radiation leaking ships flanking us, I didn't much believe in 'em either.
"Malcolm! You any good with that gun?"
"Good enough, sir." I said as I felt my hand touch the service revolver that had been at my side since the damned war.
"Good. If they get in, you take that gun and shoot everyone in the crew that you can. They don't take any of us alive. You understand me?"
"Not exactly." I could see the whites shining bright round his dark eyes, and knew that he was scared. Scared as much as any man I'd ever seen. "They really do all they say they do?"
"That and more, Malcolm." Hayden crawled back to his feet hanging on to the consul as the ship was knocked about again like a tennis ball hit by a huge racket. "Get down to the engine room. Make sure that Milly is all right. Ain't no reason for us both to be trying to pilot her now. We're trapped. You don't let them have my girl, Malcolm."
I didn't question him. I knew he had to be torn between keeping his place on the bridge of his ship against the wolves huffin' and puffin' at our doors, while he didn't know what was happening to his wife. The Reavers rammed us again, and there was an explosion somewhere on Roxanne. "Nee ta ma duh tyen-shia suo-yo duh run doh gai si." A blast of oily steam nearly cooked the skin off my face as a pipe ruptured. I barely ducked out of the way in time, with the steam only burning the hand I'd been using to keep myself steady.
"What's goin' on Mal?" my bunkmate asked. He was bruised and there was a big cut bleeding down the side of his face, but somehow the stupid hat he always wore was still on his head. If we lived, I was certain he'd be telling a story to the next girl he tried to bed that he'd gotten it from a Reaver's sword that he'd deflected with a pair of chopsticks. "Did we hit something."
"It's Reavers, an' they hit us. You get a gun. Protect the boat." I didn't stay to explain anymore to him. I had to get to the engine room.
The engine room was a mess. Steam and smoke were billowing out of it before I even found the hatch. "Milly?" I pulled my shirt up over my nose and mouth to keep the fumes from sucking the oxygen out of my lungs, and waded in to look for my friend. I found her against the far wall, she had a wrench in one hand and the other hand had been burned away to nearly bare bone. I didn't want to move her, but the air was toxic. If she was going to have a chance, had to get her out of the engine room and close the gorram door behind me.
"Mal?" She let out a raggedy sob as I grabbed her under the arms and started to pull her out. "We're dead in the sky. She's broken."
"Ai ya, wo mun wan luh." I said as I finally got her through the small door of the engine room as the ship was knocked off kilter again. "It's Reavers."
"Should 'ave left me to die with the engines, my pretty Malcolm," Milly rasped as she spoke, I could hear the fluid building up in her lungs, and that weren't never a good thing. "We're good as dead. You be a good boy and shoot me in the 'ead before they get to me now."
"I ain't goin' to have to shoot you in the head," I said as I tore off a chunk of my shirt to press on one of the bleeding wounds on her side. It soaked up the blood fast, much too fast, I could almost feel her pulse in it as I tried to staunch the flow. I knew from my time in the army that she was a goner, but I just couldn't leave her to die alone. Not after all she done for me. Her being hurt was my fault to begin with. "I wish y'all hadn't come back for me early, Milly."
"This isn't your fault Malcolm. Don't you blame yerself. You got enough guilt on your soul. Is Hayden all right?" Funny how the only time she ever managed to use an H was when she said his name.
"Yes ma'am." The compress seemed to be holding, but her face was so pale where it wasn't covered in grease, smoke and blood that I knew for gorram sure that she'd lost too much blood. "He's up top tryin' to fly us to safety."
"Liar," she chuckled then let out a grunt of pain while I watched her body spasm. "He isn't flying us anywhere. We're dead in space. You have enough bullets in there for both of us Malcolm?"
"Yes ma'am. I promised Hayden I wouldn't let them take none of us." As the words left my lips there was an explosion somewhere on the ship, and I could hear screams, gunfire and the sounds of boots on the deck. "One of them ugly fuckers shows up at that door, and I'll blow what's left of his face clean off."
"Don't waste your bullets killing them Malcolm. You gotta save one for you an' me."
I'd heard of Reavers. Even on Shadow they told us boogie man stories about them coming from the sky to rape, murder and eat settlers on the out lying worlds. Since I'd never seen them, I always figured they were some kind of urban legend created by the Alliance to keep us on the straight and narrow. Who'd go out exploring around the outer worlds if there were monsters hiding, and that sort of thing… I weren't too happy to find out they were real, and the stories were true.
When the first pair of them stuck there ugly ass heads into the door I had a hard time believing that it wasn't a walking dead man. It, and I say it, 'cause I couldn't tell what it was, had peeled off most of it's face, leaving a permanently leering skeleton's smile. It raised up an axe made of scrap metal and came charging towards us. I shot it quick, sending a spray of shattered teeth out front and brain out back. It crumpled to the deck still twitching like it didn't know it was dead.
The next came on just as fast, a bit shorter than the last, its face pocked and pierced. Don't know what could make someone do that to themselves, and it weren't like I could ask him neither. They weren't carrying guns, guess that's so they can eat us alive, dead meats not as tasty or something. He died as quickly as the first as his eyeball was blown out of his skull. I shot a couple more, never letting them through the narrow door, but I was almost out of ammo.
Milly was shivering next to me as shock set in. I could hear more of them coming, and brought up my gun up to her temple. "I'm sorry Milly. I don't have enough bullets to kill 'am all." I was about to pull on the trigger when the boat rocked again.
"Surrender and lay down your arms!" I heard the mechanical voice of an Alliance cruiser over riding all of the beacons and communications on Roxanne. "Surrender and lay down your arms! This is Alliance Cruiser Mitchell. You will be shot out of the sky. "Surrender and lay down your arms!"
"Well I don't believe it," I said leaning back, tucking my gun into the holster on my thigh where I could feel the warmth even through the heavy leather and my dungarees. "We're goin' to make it Milly. The gorram ruttin' Alliance actually showed up in time."
She didn't answer me this time. There was no laughter. No reply to me swearing at our saviors. Her eyes were staring towards the bridge, where I supposed she was sending her love to Hayden. I hoped that he heard her.