live and learn

Just another smoking town and hell if it weren’t but half-way to ruined already before they came and threw a little gun play into the mix. And grenades, there might have been some.
Kid wiped sweat from her brow, blood off her shirt and eased her piece back into the low-slung holster she wore, squinting up through the murk and the burn, up at her pa.

“So,” a question, “we’re good people?”

And Pa looked down, away from the mess. “We’re people. All there is. Just people.”

“But they were bad folk.”

“So the law says – and the law... well, here and now, that’s us. And we did a good thing putting them down. Making a difference. Bringing law where there aint been such. Town’ll sleep a mite safer n”-

No point in talking when your child is in the dirt. The shot had been silent and Kid made no sound as her heart walls blistered away. She just dropped. Pa had a gun up faster than a preacher rising come Sunday morning. Didn’t do a lick of good. Three clear shots, old school ballistics, a figure striding out from the smoke.

Mosquito buzz from the com link. “Job done?”

“Yes Sir,” looking down at the bodies. “I think they was kin,” hard to talk through the static, “small fact somebody forgot to tell us about.”

“What?”

“Family.”

“Well we aint hardly that. And it don’t matter a good gorram. Mercenaries, what counts is the job. We get the job done, we get paid, we live. It’s that simple. Is - the - job - done?”

“Yes Sir.”

“You’ll learn.”

Click the com to off. Walk away. Learn.

Yeah, thought Zoe, her youthful figure disappearing again into the shadows, I guess I will.

.....................

just riffing off of Byte's post about Zoe.

Ooh. I like the ambiguity here. Her first job, it's a little troubling, yet also considering Zoe realistic that she shot a girl about her age.

i think there has to be reasons why Zoe is attracted to the notion of a family, which is what the crew of Serenity (for all their bluster) so obviously are. But also she is who she is and does what she somewhere learnt to do...
So, ambiguity... a deal of, i reckon.
And i can't see Mercenaries as a warm and ethically simple sort of upbringing. Though i suppose it's possible.

Oh, my dear Wytch, this is loverly in the bestest way. You know how I feel about your writing style so I won't go over that again. Wait, I think I will! Ya got the flow, ya got the voice...and when you apply all that to Firefly, it makes Charlie a very happy person.

This Zoe story rings so true.

I was thinking 'who will it be? who will it be?' Thought at first it was Mal and his Kid.

When do you think this story takes place?

thank you charlie - it is fun going back to the verse.
gonna be some time before my scribbling can hold up in company, but the old enthusiasm is returning.. for which i owe ya!

becky, i imagine this as being when Zoe is young and the outer rim is getting out of hand. haven't worked it all out yet as compared to my old scheme (over in the character thread).

We ain't hardly that. Noticed this time around. Did Zoe join up with mercs young? Is this person a total hardass and denies the family organization of their mercs? I'm suddenly imagining this as one of her parents telling her they aren't family... and thinking that might explain a lot.

Bytemite wrote:We ain't hardly that.

I'm suddenly imagining this as one of her parents telling her they aren't family... and thinking that might explain a lot.

Yeah that was pretty much my thinking.

D:

Omigosh poor Zoe. No wonder. NO WONDER.

Bytemite wrote:D:

Omigosh poor Zoe. No wonder. NO WONDER.

See - your posts got my brain cogs turning... (and my typing fingers all itching) which is exciting for me actually, so thank you!