Part V

“People?”

“Guns?”

“River, what the tyen shiao duh are you talking about?” Mal asked, feeling the painkiller working, just taking the edge off the agony in his skull.

She looked into his blue eyes, trying to make him understand. “Men. With guns. Coming out of the graveyard. I could … not feel them, but I knew they were coming for us. So I took us away.”

“Away?” Mal knew he was sounding like an idiot, but he couldn’t help it. “Where to?”

“The dark side. Not far, but enough so that they won’t follow. We’re in a cave.”

“Oh.” Hank understood now why he couldn’t see the stars from the bridge. If the Firefly been sitting out in the open they would still have been visible, but in a cave …

“Who are they? These people?” Mal continued his questioning.

“I don’t know,” River said regretfully. “But you do.”

“I do?” He shook his head carefully, putting that aside for a moment. “And how come they ain’t gonna just follow us if we ain’t far?”

“Because they’re afraid of the dark. Of what lives here.”

“What lives …” Mal levered himself onto his elbows, ignoring the pain now. “What … lives here?”

River smiled. “Us, right now. And other things. But they can’t get in. I’ve locked us up tight.”

Hank had been getting more and more angry. “This is crazy,” he muttered, heading for the door. “I’m gonna take us back. Find Zoe.”

“You can’t,” River said. “I’ve changed the access code. And you’ll never guess it.”

He turned on her. “Tell me!”

She stood her ground. “No.”

Hank took hold of her arms, squeezing tightly. “Tell me, River, or so help me …”

“No.”

“That’s my fiancé out there …” His anger was still raging, but there was a terrible feeling of foreboding as well. “River, please.”

“No.”

“Let me take us back -”

“And do what? Charge into a situation where we don’t know what we’re dealing with?”

“Since when do we care about that?”

“Hank, much as it pains me to admit it, but River’s right,” Mal said, laying back