He Never Left Serenity

The warm summer sun invited my brother and me outside to play. It had been a long and harsh winter on Haven and we had been climbing the walls in boredom. After grabbing our water bottles and promising not to go far, we ran into the thick vegetation surrounded the settlement. We arrived on Haven last summer, but there was too much work to be done before winter to really explore. So today, we were determined to make the most of the warm weather. We tripped along, not really speaking much. Occasionally, one of us would find a scrap of metal or a broken bucket, the only signs of the last settlement. Rumor was that the former Alliance command ordered the settlement destroyed in retaliation for harboring known fugitives. Further into the brush, I stumbled over what looked like the remains of a book. “Hey Charlie! Come look at this.” We both studied the book and determined that it was a Bible. “It must have been out here forever.” I said. “Look how many of the pages are missing.” I put the book back where I found it and we kept going. Charlie plowed on ahead of me, while I lingered back, wondering about the Bible. It had looked like only certain passages had been removed and there were faint blood stains on the cover. “Cindy!” Charlie loud exclamation broke through my thoughts. I ran the few paces toward his voice and crashed through a wall of vines. The sight that met me took my breath away. “A ship, an old ship. From the look of it, I’d say its an old Firefly. They stopped making these like a hundred years ago!” Charlie could barely contain himself as he raced towards the ship. “Charlie! Stop! It might not be safe!” I called out as I followed suit. “The hull looks intact. Look, you can even still make out the name sort of. It says Serendipity or something.” He said pointing to the design on the side of the ship. “That says Serenity.” I corrected him, rolling my eyes. “We should start heading home.” “Oh come on Cindy. It won’t hurt anything to take a look inside. Don’t be such a baby.” There was a door leading to what looked like a cargo area. It took some work, but we managed to pry the door open. The air inside was heavy and stale. Chains hung from the ceiling and there was a large pit of some sort in the middle of the floor. There was a metal staircase leading up out of the cargo bay. We gingerly made our way up the stairs and into what would have been the galley. All along the walls,faded flowers peeked out at us from the layers of dust. There was a large table in the center of the room with eight chairs waiting neatly for the next meal. “This is weird.” I whispered to my brother. “Yeah, well I think it’s shiny.” “Shiny? Nobody uses that word anymore.” While Charlie poked his way around the kitchen, I made my way down a narrow hallway and up another few stairs to the cockpit. Everything seemed to be in its place. No loose wires, all the panels were intact. I turned towards the pilots chair and stifled a scream. There was a skeleton sitting there, bones gleaming white in the afternoon sun. The tattered remains of a red colored shirt and suspenders were still visible above the console. “Oh wow!” “Charlie! Don’t sneak up on me like that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” “What? You thought Cap’n Bones here was gonna get you?” He smirked at me as he went to closer inspect the skeleton. “Charlie, leave him alone.” I warned. “Look at this pistol!” He pulled the weapon out the skeletons hip holster and brought it over to me. “This is an awesome gun.” He pointed the barrel at the skeletons head, “We’ll be takin’ this ship now Captain.” “Charlie put it back now!” The cockpit had suddenly become very cold and the air seemed to stir with the memories of a thousand battles. “This isn’t right. Put the gun back exactly as you found it. We need to leave now.” “What’s your problem?” “Look around you. Nothing is displaced, nothing broken. This ship didn’t crash here.” I pointed to the pilot chair. “He landed here…and then he died. He didn’t leave the ship.” Looking closer at the skeleton, there was no evidence of how he died. No apparent broken bones, no bullet hole or slash marks in his clothing. “He landed here and then he died here.” I whispered. Charlie re-holstered the gun and we silently exited the ship. I turned back for one last look. “He never left Serenity.”