Warnings: Gen fic genre, rated NC-17 only for the warnings. Angst, dark fic, adult situations and violence. Character death, extreme violence, attempted non-con/rape.

Thanks to for the great beta and to for urging and advising me on.

Mercy

“I don’t want to hear your gorram excuses. Not now, not ever, dong ma?” Flexing his bound wrists, Jayne shot Simon a glare as he nudged the younger man to his feet and crawled to his own.

Simon would have been blushing at the scathing words were it not for the horror of their situation and the slight tremble that caught at the end of Jayne’s question. “They were going to leave you behind, Jayne.”

Simon wasn’t sure what else he could say. There were no excuses, just the chilling fear that pushed them both to a jog, needing no more prompting than from their bodies’ responses. Hands tightly bound in front of him, Simon’s eyes were fixed to Jayne’s, though the merc’s never stopped darting around, searching for cover--sanctuary perhaps-- anywhere they could hide out.

“Sounds like an excuse t’me.”

Jayne tended to talk less the more afraid he was, Simon noticed, but at least for the moment, his desire to survive was greater than his fear, something for which he was greatly thankful. It was when Jayne fell silent that Simon would worry. Normally Simon was the calmer person, used to pressures and worries and confident that every situation and problem had a solution. But not this time. This time, Jayne was Simon’s reassurance figure, insane as the doctor knew it was.

The town around them was eerily silent, as barren and empty as the arid land, almost lulling Simon into a false sense of security as his jog slowed to match Jayne’s, his eyes no longer on just the man but taking in that which surrounded them. Ghost town. It would be an apt description after the next few hours, a time which no stretch or length of ghastly imagination could conceive. There was something too calm about it all,