The air was so cold, so utterly chilled, that Zoe could feel the cool moving right through her body, making her organs feel as if they were quivering. Her teeth chattered non-stop, and she could barely see through the cloud of misted breath hanging about her head.

Snow blanketed the planet in all directions, and fell in fat flakes all around her, making her feel as if she were inside one of those balls that people shook up and watched the flakes fall over some rustic scene.

“Keep movin’ Zoe,” Mal’s voice said from behind her.

“C-can’t, sir. Can’t f-feel my feet.”

That was the truth, too. She couldn’t feel her feet. Hell, she couldn’t feel anything up to her knees.

“See that black spec?” Mal asked, pointing directly ahead. Zoe briefly wondered how he managed to talk without stuttering. His lips were blue. She looked away from them and followed where his finger pointed and found a black speck on the bluish horizon.

“Y-yes.”

“That’d be a cabin, that would,” he said. He urged her forward, and somehow her feet managed to plow ahead. “We’ll get inside,” he said, “and we’ll take turns soakin’ in a tub of hot water. I’ll even be real gentleman like and let you go first. It’ll be nice, you wait. We’ll drink hot coffee and eat some hot food, too.”

“Don’t,” Zoe said, forcing herself to take another step.

“Don’t what?”

“T-talk to m-me like I’m a gorram s-six year old.”

Mal managed a laugh. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Zoe did her level best to keep moving, but she couldn’t take another step. She was heavy and beginning to feel very warm.

“It’s not s-so bad, sir,” she mumbled. “I’m s-startin’ ta warm u-up.”

Mal suddenly grabbed her and turned her to face him. “You feel warm?”

“A l-little.”

“Damnit, Zoe, you know that’s bad!”

Mal couldn’t help but think that maybe Zoe saw the first tingles of impending death as a good thing. She’d get to be with Wash again if she died, or so she believed. Mal had felt some kind of worry for her every day for the past nine months, since Wash’d d