Chapter 18: Guts and Guns

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Oz ran into the cargo hold with his gun ready. And just for a second a flash of Sunnydale passed through his mind. He could see the slayer who had already been slayed once, his witch who was his world, the self named snack provider who was so much more, and the watcher who was a mentor as well. Then he snapped back to reality as he knelt behind the barricade that Wash was taking shelter behind.

Everyone's gun was trained on the cargo bay door. The outer door was already open and the reavers were trying to open the inner doors. Oz could hear the unsteady breathing coming from above, even in and out coming from Zoe, Mal, and Book, and the hearts of the reavers that sounded like they were about to beat out of their chests.

There were about thirty of them, maybe more. Oz could smell them, without his beads on, all his senses were even more heightened than usual. The stink of dead flesh, of coppery blood, and worst things that Oz didn't even want to consider. The screams were the worst though. The reavers were just screaming, not in anger or fear. Just as if that was all they could do.

Oz's grip tightened on his gun as the man eaters managed to force the doors open. "Now!" Mal screamed. And shots rained from above trapping the first five reavers in the door. But only for a minute two then the others were pushing past their dead shipmates. Oz shot every reaver that he saw but not all of them went down right away or if they did they got back up.

They kept coming and coming. It felt like there were hundreds of them just pouring into Serenity. The floor was soon soaked with blood and quite a few bodies. All of the bodies were reavers but not all of the blood was theirs.

The smell of smoke and blood filled the air. And it was driving Fenir insane. He wanted out. Now. Oz had been moving slightly back away from Wash and more towards his left to try to dim down the smell when,

"Click."

"Oh shit!" Oz moaned as his gun ran out of bullets. He looked over to see a reaver jump over the barricade and onto Wash.

"Wash!" Zoe screamed. She couldn't take a shot at the reaver on her husband cause if she did the reavers would be on her.

"Shit!" Oz screamed. 'Fenir!'

'Protect.' Fenir howled before the change rippled through Oz's body.