Viridian

by Susan Gates

  You couldn’t tell he’d ever been human. He looked like some fearsome alien warlord who’d come with his mutant warriors to conquer the Earth.

  ‘He’s a monster,’ breathed Jay. But he was also mesmerizing. You couldn’t take your eyes off him. His giant’s body seemed to glow with a fierce, burning energy that might have come from the sun itself.

  ‘Viridian! Viridian!’ the Verdans chanted, as the Cultivars moved among them, seeking out those who didn’t show enough enthusiasm, marching them away.

  Viridian raised a mighty arm, snaked round with writhing veins. The Verdans immediately fell silent.

  ‘Verdans,’ began Viridian. Even his voice seemed to have changed. It was deeper, sinister, more cruel.

  ‘I have called this rally,’ he told the crowd, ‘to warn you again about a threat to our very existence. The threat comes from Immunes. Seek out Immunes!’ howled Viridian, his voice exploding in fury. ‘They are terrorists. They want to destroy us!’

  ‘Seek out Immunes,’ the Verdans chanted back.

  Viridian raised a clenched fist for silence. His eyes blazed at the crowd below.

  ‘Do you know where an Immune is hiding?’ hissed Viridian, his voice dark with menace. ‘Do you know any Immune Sympathisers? If so, it is your duty to report them. I have imprisoned my own parents for their past friendship with an Immune. They are being punished as I speak. Even Cultivars can’t escape justice! There was a terrorist spy among us, I discovered – a high-ranking Cultivar! She was condemned to death by Etiolation! Even now, she is paying the ultimate price!’

  Viridian’s voice raved on. But Jay’s mind was in turmoil. Viridian had betrayed his own parents, condemned a high-ranking Cultivar to death. Jay felt sure it was Teal he was talking about.

  But he saved our lives, Jay was agonizing. Mine and Dad’s. If it wasn’t for him, the Cultivars would have killed us. He said me and him were blood brothers.

  ‘You must be vigilant!’ Viridian was shrieking like a madman at the crowd below, green spit flying from his mouth. ‘The Verdan standing next to you might be a spy! Inform on anyone you suspect. Immunes and their spies and sympathisers, you have no place to hide. My elite squad of Immune Hunters will track you down, wherever you are!’

  A squad of six Cultivars came marching out onto the balcony. They looked different to the others. Their chlorophyll skin seemed to have sprouted into strange, green, plant-like structures.

  Then two more Cultivars came out. Jay stared at the human prisoner stumbling between them.

  ‘Dad!’ he gasped.

  Chapter 10

  The Cultivars shoved Dad to the front of the balcony, displaying their prisoner to the crowd below.

  ‘This is the father of an Immune,’ Viridian explained to the crowd. Viridian’s frothing rage had disappeared. Now he was eerily calm, which, somehow, made him seem even more terrifying.

  ‘Kill the prisoner!’ the Cultivars screamed from the square, their eyes blazing.

  ‘Kill! Kill him!’ The Verdans obediently took up the chant.

  Viridian raised his fist for silence.

  ‘We shall kill him after he tells us where the Immune is hiding. We shall take him to the Research Station. He will talk then.’

  That was when Jay totally lost control. He barged his way to the front of the crowd. The Verdans parted, sheep-like, to let him through. The Cultivars were gazing up to the balcony, watching their Commander’s every move.

  Now Jay was right below the balcony. He threw back his hood so Viridian could see him.

  A Cultivar yelled from the edge of the crowd. ‘It’s the Immune!’

  Jay’s head whipped round in horror. The Cultivar who’d shouted was Thorn, who’d once been Jay’s human friend Mac.

  ‘Arrest him!’ shrieked Thorn.

  Jay screamed up to Viridian, ‘Let my dad go!’ Desperately, he pulled up his sleeve to show the towel, soaked with red blood. ‘I’m your blood brother. You said so! Please, let my dad go!’

  Viridian leaned over the balcony to look at him. Short, hooked prickles grew thickly across his chest and shoulders, as if he had his own personal body armour.

  Jay stared into those hypnotic green eyes. Then he saw Viridian’s thin lips twist into a ruthless smile. And he knew he’d made a dreadful mistake thinking this grotesque, power-mad monster would help him.

  Viridian turned to his squad of Immune Hunters. ‘Kill the terrorist,’ he said. Then he turned and strode off the balcony.

  ‘Jay!’ Dad yelled down. ‘Run!’

  There was red shrieking panic in Jay’s mind. He didn’t know what to do.

  ‘Run!’ Dad screamed frantically, as his two Cultivar guards dragged him away.

  Jay stared wildly around him. But the Verdans didn’t touch him. Even the Cultivars hung back. They were leaving him to the Immune Hunters.

  By the time the Immune Hunters came marching out of the town hall’s main entrance, Jay was gone.

  The Immune Hunters fanned out to search for him, moving fast on springy bare feet. Scientists at the Agricultural Research Station were trying to create Super Verdans, to take plant/human hybrids to new levels. And the Immune Hunters were the results of their latest experiments. Plant-like structures had grown on their chlorophyll skin: stinging spines, poison prickles, strangling tendrils.

  A gap opened up in the crowd. An Immune Hunter got a sudden glimpse of a shock of dirty blond hair, as Jay swerved, in a crouching run, between Verdans.

  The Hunter had leafy tendrils sprouting from her nose and ears and a thin creeper growing from her wrist, wound around it like fishing line around a reel, elastic, and strong as steel cable.

  It shot through the air towards Jay. Its whippy end waved frantically, seeking something to cling to. It had minute sticky pads on the underneath, to help it fasten on and suck nutrients from whatever plant it attached to.

  The Immune Hunter had been aiming the tendril at Jay’s neck. She meant it to wrap round and round, tighten and choke the life out of him. But the creeper missed by centimetres, twined three times round the strap of Jay’s backpack and immediately began to tighten.

  Jay felt something tug at his right shoulder. He wrenched his head round, and saw the creeper, its questing end writhing towards his neck, and the Immune Hunter at the other end of the long, whippy tendril, her green teeth bared in a snarling grin, tiny shoots growing from her gums and writhing out of the corners of her mouth.

  Then Jay was snatched violently backwards as the Immune Hunter reeled him in like a hooked, gasping fish. He tore his backpack off his left shoulder. As he staggered backwards, desperately struggling out of the right strap, he saw the creeper suddenly change direction, as if it had scented blood. It tried to loop around his wrist and burrow under the towel.

  Jay dumped the backpack on the ground and took off. The creeper unwound from the backpack and came snaking after Jay’s ankles.

  And it almost got him. But there was a sudden commotion on the other side of the square.

  ‘Get out of my way!’ Thorn was shouting, shoving Verdans viciously aside, as he plunged into the crowd. Verdans surged here, there, frantic to obey the Cultivar’s commands, but not knowing where to go. ‘I’ll arrest you all, you bunch of gutless cabbages!’ he howled.

  Panic spread across the square. The Immune Hunter lost sight of Jay in the jostling crowd. There was a shriek as the creeper clamped itself around a Verdan girl’s bare leg and started burrowing to tap a vein.

  In the mayhem, Jay ran from the square and plunged into the maze of cobbled alleys that was part of old Franklin.

  The Immune Hunter reeled in her creeper. It coiled tightly again round her wrist. The nutrients it had sucked from the Verdan girl’s leg were already coursing into the Immune Hunter’s body. She stared into Jay’s backpack.

  ‘It’s empty,’ she said.

  ‘I bet he’s looking for human food,’ said the Immune Hunter who’d just joined her. ‘Viridian said to keep an eye on the shipping cont
ainer, to see if he stocks up there.’

  The first Immune Hunter nodded. ‘Excellent idea. We’ll set up a watch.’ She added, ‘I would have caught the Immune but for Thorn. That new recruit doesn’t know his place. He could be a threat in the future.’

  ‘Hmm,’ said the other Immune Hunter. ‘Didn’t Thorn know the Immune before, when they were both human?’

  The first Hunter caught on straightaway. ‘I shouldn’t be surprised if Thorn’s an Immune Sympathiser, would you?’

  ‘No,’ said the second Immune Hunter, his green eyes flashing with cunning and malice. ‘That wouldn’t surprise me at all. I think Viridian should be told about him immediately.’

  * * *

  Jay finally stopped running. His head was swimming. He forced air into his burning lungs, panting like a dog.

  He dived behind a big gorse bush, scattered with yellow flowers. Opposite him, behind its screen of trees, was the Agricultural Research Station, the Cultivars’ HQ, the place where Viridian had said they were taking Dad. Its three huge glass eco-domes flashed in the autumn sun.

  Jay guessed that the Humvees would soon drive back from the town hall. One would have Dad inside. They’d have to stop at the entrance barrier. He had wild ideas of dashing up when they did and somehow setting Dad free. It was a crazy, desperate plan. But it was the only plan he’d got.

  Jay peered over the bush. There were no Verdans about. And he seemed to have shaken off the Immune Hunters. He collapsed back on the ground. In these silent streets he’d hear the Humvees coming a mile away.

  He breathed in deeply again, trying to stop his body shaking, and settled down to wait.

  The flowers on the gorse bush smelled like coconut. Jay was reminded of Bounty bars. Gran used to slip one in his schoolbag every day, for him to eat at break time. He used to protest, ‘Gran, I’m not a little kid any more.’ But he wouldn’t protest if she did that now. He wanted the old Gran back.

  Jay’s school was closed now too. He’d just cut across the jungly football field at Franklin High, running low through the long grass, and the school buildings were empty. Obviously Verdan kids didn’t attend school.

  Jay heard the snarl of engines in the distance: the Humvee convoy coming back from the square. Jay figured that the first one, flying the green flag, would have Viridian inside. Maybe Dad would be in the last one.

  The Humvees sped past his hiding place.

  His heart hammering, with no idea of what he was going to do, but desperate to do something, Jay got ready to break cover.

  ‘Don’t even think about it,’ said a voice as a hand clutched his arm.

  Chapter 11

  It was a girl. Her skin was pink and her hair and eyes were brown. She was human.

  Jay hardly had time to take that in. He was struggling to drag his arm away, but her bony fingers were clenched tight.

  ‘They’ve got my dad!’ he whispered frantically.

  The girl spoke fast, urgently. ‘You go out there now, you’ve got no chance. Wait until dark. We’ll help you rescue him.’

  Jay tore his arm away. But the three Humvees had already gone into the Research Station.

  He slumped back behind the bush. ‘How am I going to rescue Dad now?’ he said, his voice cracked with despair.

  ‘Don’t you listen?’ said the girl. ‘We’ll come back for him. You, me and the other Immunes.’

  For the first time, Jay focussed on her. She had very long, tangled hair and a thin, peaky face.

  ‘You an Immune?’ he asked her.

  ‘D’oh, yeah,’ said the girl, scornfully. ‘We’re the only humans left in Franklin now.’

  ‘My dad isn’t Verdan,’ said Jay.

  ‘He soon will be,’ said the girl. ‘They’ll make him. Unless he’s Immune?’

  ‘I don’t know if he is,’ said Jay. He felt like his head was going to explode. ‘I don’t know why I’m Immune. I don’t know why they want to kill me.’

  ‘Because of your blood, stupid.’

  Jay wasn’t listening. He was lost in his own tortured thoughts. What were they doing to Dad in there?

  ‘We’ve got to get him out,’ he said.

  ‘They won’t do anything to him tonight,’ said the girl. ‘They mostly rest when it’s dark because their energy levels are low.’

  ‘What, even Cultivars?’ asked Jay.

  The girl hesitated. ‘No-one’s sure what Cultivars do. They change all the time. I’m Toni Moran, by the way.’

  ‘Jay Rainbird. Did you say there are more Immunes somewhere?’

  ‘Yes. We’re in hiding.’

  ‘Take me to them,’ said Jay, leaping up.

  ‘No!’ said Toni pulling him back down. ‘How have you survived this long? Wait until the sun goes down. If a Verdan sees us they’ll tell the Cultivars.’

  ‘But you’re out in daylight,’ said Jay. ‘

  Yeah, well,’ said Toni, with more than a hint of swagger. ‘I know how to look after myself, don’t I?’

  Her confidence impressed Jay. Maybe it was best to wait, like she said. And he had to face facts. He probably couldn’t rescue Dad without back-up. He had no idea how to get into the Research Station, let alone what was waiting for him in there.

  ‘So, soon as the sun goes down, you take me to these other Immunes? Then we all go and get Dad?’

  ‘I said so, didn’t I?’ said Toni, turning away.

  Jay felt as if he could breathe again. He was still worried sick. But now he had a plan.

  ‘How long until the sun goes down?’ he asked Toni.

  ‘Maybe four hours.’

  It seemed like forever to wait. But he made a superhuman effort to keep calm.

  ‘How’d you find me?’ he asked.

  Toni flashed him a scornful look, as if that was a stupid question. ‘I was watching the rally. I followed you from there.’

  ‘Where were you?’ said Jay, amazed. ‘I thought I was the only human in that whole square.’

  ‘I was up high,’ said Toni. ‘In an empty building. Why’d you run out into the square like that? What were you saying to Viridian?’

  Jay didn’t want to admit how deluded he’d been to think he and Viridian had some kind of bond. So he said, ‘I was begging him to let Dad go.’

  Toni said, ‘Are you crazy? Don’t you know anything about him? He never, ever shows any mercy. That’s how he got to be Cultivar Commander. Where have you been all this time?’

  ‘Down a mine,’ said Jay.

  At last he’d said something Toni approved of. ‘Good place to hide,’ she admitted. Then she told him, ‘Before I take you to the other Immunes, I’ve got to collect some food.’

  ‘What?’ hissed Jay furiously. ‘How long will that take?’ He’d steeled himself to wait until the sun went down but not a second longer.

  ‘I don’t know. But that’s what I came out for. I’m not going back without food.’

  Jay saw the defiant tilt of her chin. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. ‘What kind of food?’

  ‘Berries and mushrooms and stuff,’ said Toni. ‘I sometimes catch rabbits.’

  ‘But that’ll take ages!’

  ‘We used to go on raids,’ Toni explained. ‘That was really quick. We stole food from closed-down shops, mostly tins. But there’s no tins left now.’

  For the first time, Jay felt he knew more than she did. ‘I know where there are hundreds of tins. If I take you there, do you promise to take me straight to the other Immunes?’

  ‘I promise.’

  ‘But we’ve got to go for the tins now,’ said Jay.

  ‘Now?’ said Toni. ‘It’s too dangerous.’

  ‘But you were out in daylight!’

  ‘I told you, I can take care of myself,’ said Toni.

  Jay was suddenly angry at the implications of what she’d just said, like he’d be a risk, or she’d end up having to save his life or something. He really resented that, after all he’d been through, all he’d seen.

  �
�We go now,’ he said, with a steely glint in his eye. ‘Or I’m not showing you where the food is.’

  Toni sighed. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘How far is this place?’

  He took her through the wood. They could see some Verdans straggling back from the town square into the countryside. But they were no threat. They walked slowly, scared that a Cultivar might pounce on them.

  There was no path through the wood anymore. It was choked by nettles. Tender plants had been suffocated by briars and spiny brambles. A tabby cat, gone feral, snarled at them from a thorn thicket like a fierce little tiger.

  Jay and Toni threaded their way through the clasping, prickly plants.

  ‘Careful,’ warned Jay, automatically. ‘Don’t get scratched.’

  ‘We’re Immune, remember,’ said Toni. She checked her arms. ‘Anyway, I haven’t been scratched.’

  Jay said, ‘Do you come out to get food often? I mean, alone?’

  ‘Oh yeah,’ said Toni breezily. ‘My dad knows I can look after myself.’

  ‘Is your dad an Immune too?’ asked Jay.

  ‘Yes, you’ll meet him soon. He’s a plant scientist.’ She laughed when she saw the alarm on Jay’s face. ‘Don’t worry, he’s not making freaky plant mutants. My dad is one of the good guys.’

  Then they were out in the fields, wading through long grass, still slippery and wet from the recent rain.

  ‘What’s that over there?’ asked Jay.

  On the horizon, plumes of thick black smoke were rising. Long red tongues of flame leapt up, licking the sky.

  ‘They’ve lit the funeral pyres again,’ said Toni.

  Jay could smell an awful stench of burnt bones, carried by the wind across the fields. ‘What funeral pyres?’

  ‘It’s cows,’ said Toni. ‘There’s been a mass slaughter of all the cows around Franklin and now they’re burning the bodies.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Viridian ordered it. He says all animals are dirty Polluters. He’s started by getting rid of cows.’

  ‘You mean, he wants to get rid of all animals on Earth? He wouldn’t do that!’

  ‘He’s a psycho. He wants to go back to a time when plants ruled the world. And guess who’s going to be top plant? Him!’