1:23 Ch. 04

"Yes!" both woman yelled as one.

"This will be a first," he mumbled as he closed his eyes to think of something but all thoughts were drowned out by the sound of the eating skinnies. They made a weird wet collective clicking noise. He imagined fire ants making the same sound swarming over a big fat defenseless grub ... the skinnies sound like insects ... insects can fly ... if we were insects we could fly away ... flying insects in the sky ... bees, butterflies, mosquito, dragonflies ... fireflies ... in Ohio the fireflies came out in early summer ... around June ... near the Oliver River ... Fireflies ... Oliver River ... Firefly ... River ... Zoe, Inara, Kaylee ...

A roar from above drowned out the eating skinnies. Kent opened his eyes and looked up. To his astonishment he saw what Had to be a space craft slowly dropping to the rooftop.

"Good one!" Neffie yelled to be heard over the roar of the descending ship.

The little spaceship dropped landing legs and settled almost feather like on the the building top. Immediately, the loading bay hatch dropped and Zoe Washburne in all her curvy glory scrambled down the loading ramp, her wavy hair whipping around her head, a mean looking pistol hugged one hip. With inhuman speed, Zoe Washburne drew her pistol and pointed it at Kent.

"What the fuck!" Kent yelled.

The pistol went off with a deafening boom. Kent screamed. Something brushed the back of his legs. Still screaming, he jump forward and turned around. Zoe had killed a skinny that had crawled over the edge of the building onto the roof top. The vaguely black human shaped lay face down twitching. Zoe casually walked over and with the toe of her boot flipped the thing over onto its back. It looked way less human up close. It had no eyes in its lumpy head, its mouth gaped open full of jet black needle sharp teeth, its limbs were way too skinny and bristled with ugly barbs. Both hands and feet ended in long claws made for shedding. At the center of the thing's chest was a big gaping hole made by Zoe's bullet, the wound oozed luminescent fluid that looked like mercury. A weird slit ran across the thing's belly. Zoe gave it a hard kick in the ribs. The slit on the thing's belly opened, it was another mouth with more black sharp teeth.

"Time to clear out," Zoe said. She scrambled back up the ramp of the Firefly with Kent and Alice at her heels. In spite of his fear, Kent admire Zoe's shapely ass as he ascended the ramp close behind her. Alice stopped halfway up. Kent stopped too. Neffie was still standing on the rooftop at the bottom of the ramp.

"Come on!" Alice yelled at her.

"I have to protect my fold!" Neffie yelled staying put.

"With all my powers I couldn't stop this from happening to mine!" Alice yelled.

"You're a warrior, a fighter," Neffie said. "I'm not! My fold is small, I can hide it!" She looked so tiny and defenseless standing naked at the base of the ramp with her long dark hair whipping around her.

"Get on the ship, Neffie!" Kent yelled.

"She's not coming," Alice said.

"You can't let her go!" Kent yelled.

"It's her choice," Alice said.

Several skinnies spilled over the edge of the building but they were brutally driven back by a barrage of automatic gunfire from spinning guns on the wings of the spaceship.

"We have to leave NOW!" Zoe yelled from inside the ship.

Several more skinnies came over the edge.

Neffie turned and ran for the rooftop door and just like that, she was gone.

The ramp started to rise, Kent and Alice backed into the belly of the ship.

"Get us out of here, River!" Zoe yelled.

Kent felt the ship rise, spin then accelerate.

"What now?" Kent asked.

"We find Harriet," Alice said solemnly.