Yes Man

<snip>Jaxx obeyed, and got to his feet, Davie handed him a rifle.
"What are we doing Sir?" Jaxx asked, as he followed Davie and Jay along the corridor toward the flight deck.
"What we should have done from the start, going...shopping" Jay replied. "Seymours plan will never work, and theres too much riding on this to leave it to him....we need those supplies. Food, ammo....medicines.."</snip>

Alex watched them leave. In his pocket, his thumb rubbed the dual surface of Jacob's dogtags, gently alternating between the smoothness and the bumps. There was a pain in his gut which was nothing to do with his wound - not the fresh, physical one, anyway. He was glad they'd not taken him.
For a moment he wondered if Jay saw him as a Seymour yes-man. He looked down at his smart uniform and half-smiled at the thought. Maybe he was a Seymour yes-man. He ran a hand through his hair. ... Yeah right.
“What's the matter? Didn't your friends ask you to play?”
He jumped. “Would you stop doing that?”
“We're sorry, We didn't mean to startle you.”
She'd used the royal We. She'd not done that last time, had she? So, she was only in his head. Perhaps. Unless... maybe royal people didn't always do that. He couldn't remember their last encounter in detail, he'd been pretty strung out at the time, he wasn't strung out now though. She seemed both freakishly real and ghostlike. He would have prodded her to check her density but her cold beauty unsettled him.

“I think I know why you're here.”
Boring into his own, her blue eyes chilled his soul. “Indeed?”
“In... Yes. It's the drugs. I've taken so many I've finally lost the plot.”
“Is that so?”
“I reckon. That... Zazz was obviously the last straw.”
She lifted an eyebrow.
Hang on, he'd not taken any when he'd first seen her.
“Post Traumatic Stress, then.”
She snorted. “We're hurt that you'd dismiss us so easily.”
“Oh yeah, it's real 'easy' being nuts. Seymour finds out and I'm awarded with a nice strappy jacket and a rubber room for God knows how long.”
“God...”
He gave her a sideways glance, it was weird how much she looked like Cass.
“I'm going to think really hard now, and you're going to go away.” He closed his eyes.
“1... 2... 3...”
He opened them again. She had gone. He let out a long breath, ran a hand down his tired face then peered through the Arboretum door... Shit... What a mess. What a-

“Behind you.” A not-gone Brittany's voice warned.
He span and there in the corridor with him was an angry looking huzzard, Jaxx must have missed one. It was wiry and its left arm dangled lamely. You. It was the one who'd speared him.
They circled each other, the huzzard hissing all the while. Suddenly the creature launched itself at him but he dodged and its momentum carried it through the door. He could have slammed it closed but something compelled him to enter the Arboretum himself, and kick the animal's behind so that it staggered further forwards. He sent it to the floor with another slam of his boot. “Yeh. Your problem is that I know you're here this time.”
The scaly creature flipped over and with astonishing athleticism, leapt up and flew to his throat . It might have only had one working hand but its grip was like iron and it was trying to kill him. He groped, and twisted its dangling broken arm, it squawked in pain and let go. Alex gasped but couldn't spare a moment to get his breath so, lungs burning, barrelled into the wincing lizard, sending it sprawling backwards over a large solid plant which looked like a giant pineapple. He pinned it, with his knee to its chest and his hands vice-like on its scaly arms. It tilted its head and in a quick, alien movement, licked its own eyes.
“You are one ugly bastard” Alex told it. “No wonder you like lurking in the dark.”
Then there was pain. The creature had brought its legs up and with its sharp talons kicked into the wound it had itself inflicted a few days ago, tearing through the staples.
Alex let out an angry roar and slammed all his weight into the creature, squashing it between himself and the pineapple plant, too angry and pumped with adreneline to care or feel if he was also damaging his own body.
“You are gonna regret that” he promised, his own voice now a hiss.

Then the artificial gravity failed again, just as Holly had warned it might, and they floated upwards and apart.
“SMEGSAKE HOLLY!”
He gripped onto the huzzard's arm wondering how to propel floorward, there was nothing to push against, it was hard to think with the huzzard struggling and he began to lose his grip. A gory, headless lizard body bumped into them and the huzzard kicked it against Alex, who now lost his grip completely.
The gravity came back and the huzzard, the corpse and the angry man all smashed to the ground.
Alex was winded but dragged himself towards the scaly git, who also seemed winded, or at least stunned. He reached for its leg, planning to drag it towards him and punch it out, but it suddenly jerked into life and ran off, deep into the heart of the Arboretum.
“THIS ISN'T OVER!” Alex managed to yell. “This isn't over” he wheezily repeated.
----

Tired and bashed up, he sealed the door then limped along the corridor till he came to vending machine 233.
“Did you lose gravity?”
“Don't say 'hello' will you?”
“Did you lose gravity?”
“No.”
“Good, just localised, then.”
He breathed heavily for a moment, still catching his breath.
“Cigarettes.”
“You told me not to give you any cigarettes, even if you begged me.”
“I'm not begging.”
“But you're asking.”
“Telling.”
“You said 'under no circumstances...'”
“Just GIMME A SMEGGIN' PACK OF FAGS.” He smacked it on its smug JMC logo, not in the mood for arsing about. Several packets of Jenson and Reg's fell out, giving the impression that the vending machine had lost bowel control.
“Thank you.”

----

“You should give those up, you know. And you really shouldn't be doing it in here.”
Phi was working quickly to patch him up again, he couldn't bleed all over the inspector, that would be rude, and Seymour would blow a fuse.
He said nothing, just squinted a little at the pressure in his abdomen as she worked away and let a welcome, long awaited, smoky breath escape his lips. Ohhhh yeahhhhh.

"Hey, Smoky, I found you another, clean, uniform, will you put it on, keep Seymour happy?"
"Yes."

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