Capacity Chapter 5

Joly

Rated R for violence

The crew finally get to Markham, and of course, River was right.

I don’t own the crew or the ‘verse, I just like playin’ in it.

~~~~~~~

Zoe moved the mule along at a steady clip, trying to manage the terrain.

In the distance, Mal could see a camp with a fire sending smoke up into the sky. They got closer and a short-ish, dirty man approached them.

“You Barton?” Mal asked as Zoe eased the mule to a stop.

“Might be.”

“That ain’t particularly helpful to Barton. We got his goods. Ain’t givin’ ‘em up til we get our payment,” Mal replied.

“Barton ain’t here, had stuff to do in town.”

Mal looked from Zoe to Jayne.

“That’s funny, we were just in town and no one there’d seen him,” Mal said, jovially.

The three took the other men in, watched them finger their weapons, and spread out.

“Get down!” Mal shouted, unnecessarily as Zoe dove for cover.

“Gorram criminals!” Jayne added. “I mean criminals who ain’t us… Never wantin’ to pay.”

“Jayne, you bring them grenades?” Mal continued to shout over the din of gunfire.

“One or two,” the mercenary grinned and pulled said grenades out.

“Give ‘em a taste,” Mal said, popping up to fire into the other men’s camp.

Jayne pulled the pin and tossed it into the center of the group of other men.

“I said a taste, Jayne! I didn’t tell ya to blow ‘em to gorram pieces!” Mal shouted.

“They ain’t shootin’ at us no more, are they?” the big man replied.

Mal just shook his head and motioned to Zoe, who joined him in heading into the group.

Between the three of them, they finished off the stragglers and secured the area.

“Well, sir, they’re pretty definitely dead,” she said, taking in the scene.

There was a sound from further into the encampment.

“Sir?”

Mal moved towards the sound.

“You gonna go investigate a strange noise, Mal?”

Mal stopped and looked at the other man.

“You wanna get paid?”

Jayne gave him a ‘duh’ look.

“Well, come one.”

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