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Zoe strode along following her beefy guide. Her back was straight and her head up, not much frightened her now. Inside she shook a little but it was rage; rage and a tiny amount of fear seeping through her barriers.
She smelt the blood before the door opened. The air here tasted of metal and hung heavy and oppressive on her shoulders.
The man opened the door and a flood of ice flew through her, her heart almost burst, her head screamed, her feet walked forward, her face showed no expression, her head stayed up, eyes unblinking.
"Ahh Miss Washburne, so nice of you to join us!" The voice was joyous, gleeful even, how she wished to destroy it.
"Mrs.,"
"Sorry?" Niska asked, turning his pale face to her for the first time. Unused to being corrected.
"Mrs Washburne," Zoe replied, no hint of expression in her voice.
"Ahh yes of course, that is of course part of the predicament, is it not?"
Zoe inclined her head slightly.
Niska looked back at the room, with glee. Zoe felt sick, but she had to look. She glanced left first, and grimaced internally. Kaylee lay on a raised pallet her eyes barely open. Her clothes were torn and ripped. She had a thin layer of blood across the whole of her body, but Zoe looked at her with a critically eye. She seemed not to have any serious wounds, just a lot of torment.
Niska was now watching Zoe's face with extreme excitement. Zoe forced herself to look right. Her iron facade cracked for a split second, eyes narrowed, and mouth grimaced. Her beloved husband was lying on a pallet just like Kaylee's his eyes were open, expressive, but his mouth was so tightly bound no sound escaped at all. He was tied at arms and legs. His shirt was torn and bloody. There were wounds, bad ones, but all body parts seemed to be still attached. Quickly she looked straight to his eyes, she could see him in there under the pain and hurt. They shared a look, it conveyed a lifetime of love and trust.
"Oh yes, Mrs Washburne, I have a predicament for you." Niska said with a smile playing about his eyes.
"Yes," Zoe did not give him anything.
"Yes, I am going to kill one of your friends, but you are going to tell me which." Niska flicked his wrist and on command two men stepped out of the shadows with guns trained at the chests of the two.
"And if I refuse?" Zoe asked, she knew the answer, but it was always best to get all the facts.
"Ahh, that is the glorious part. I will kill them both!" He rubbed his hands as if he wished dearly for this to happen.
"Why?" Zoe asked, still playing for time but knowing there was no hope. The crew had all been taken, no one was coming to help.
"Because I want Mr Reynolds to suffer. It seems he loves his crew and suffers if they do. You are closest to him, so he will suffer the loss of a crew, as will you. You will suffer knowing you gave them the death sentence, then he will suffer because you are suffering and he put you all in this position." Niska smiled, it was a fox's smile. "When you have chosen you are all free to go, except the corpse of course!" He laughed at his joke.
Zoe merely nodded, kill Kaylee or kill her best friend in the world, the most important person in her life. Or kill the sweet, innocent, genius, who was always kind and would never hurt anyone.
"I see you need some help to decide," Niska walked over to Wash. He did not even flinch he just kept looking at Zoe imploringly. Niska ripped the binding from Wash's mouth. Before it was even fully off he was shouting, yelling, imploring.
"Choose me! I forgive, choose me! Don't let them kill Kaylee. I love you, please, please choose me." His breathing was erratic, but after the first burst, which took all in the room by surprise, he seemed to calm himself down.
He sought Zoe's eyes and she looked at his eyes. How blue they are, she thought. As blue as the ocean on their honeymoon. The captain had organised it, with the little of his savings he had. He sent them to a central planet for three days, the most beautiful sea. They'd swum, danced and laughed. It had been so perfect. So blue. Such a perfect blue.
"Zoe, my autumn flower, you don't want me now! All bloody and soon to be corpsified!" A smile played around his lips, even as tears came to his eyes. She looked only into his eyes, nothing else existed it was just them. A smile came to her lips and her eyes welled, threaten to spill. "I will love you always," he said, "and that is why you have to choose me now. I know we couldn't live knowing that we had let Kaylee die for us. I forgive and I love you." He smiled and she smiled too, the tears fell in cold trails down her cheeks.
"I love you too," she said, quietly, "I always will." Wash smiled at her his eyes like pools she could jump into, swim through forever.
"I choose him," she said, never taking her eyes from his, "I always have."
Niska shrugged, "That is your choice Mrs Washburne. Shoot the man." The gun made an unholy noise in the small chamber, the sound reverberating around the walls. It woke Kaylee who began to scream.
Zoe just walked towards her beloved husband and squeezed his hand as the blood bloomed across his chest. He smiled a little, then the light went from his eyes.
Zoe turned, "My crew please, now."
Niska shrugged, "Of course, Mrs Washburne a deal is a deal."
Zoe heaved Kaylee onto her shoulders and walked out with her head high. There would be a time for grief, but now there was a job to do.