GREEN [complete]

CHAPTER 08: Sekam

One after another after another. Every door was marked with neon green spray paint. A single 'x' on every, single door. Window boarded. No signs of life. Sekam hoped the town had been abandoned—the alternative was too painful to think about. But the alternative was her reality.

"Do they deserve your sorrow?" Ahl asked.

Sekam wiped her tears and made an effort to harden her face. It didn't work. "Well," she said weakly, "they have it." They deserved all the sorrow the world had for them.

Ahl hummed his non-response.

Ahead of them, Bek's truck rumbled to a stop in front of a tall blue house with copper shingles. It was barred in by concrete sidewalks and wore the same boarded windows and green 'x' that the rest of the houses wore. Bek hopped out, checked her plants, then circled around to help Dylan.

Sekam jumped down from Ahl, broken glass crunching under her boots. She brushed her tears away with the back of her hand and straightened her shoulders; she needed to appear strong in front of the humans. She crossed the space between them, trying to ignore the foreign hardness of the sidewalks.

"I'm literally going to die," Dylan moaned.

Bek chuckled; a soft noise that was intended to comfort. "No, honey, you're not going to die. Not today, anyhow." She heaved Dylan out of the truck with a grunt, her hair smooshed into their shoulder. Even they looked tall next to her.

"I am, I can feel it." Dylan slumped into Bek, their face hidden under the shadow of their hood. Their remaining hand was stuffed deep in the pocket of their hoodie.

Bek had been surprisingly quick to agree to the amputation. "Well," she'd said, "it's not the worst thing I've seen." Then, she'd consulted her flowers and dug a medical kit from behind the seat of her truck—Sekam wasn't sure if standard medical kits were supposed to contain opioids and a bone saw, but she didn't complain. Dylan only started proclaiming their own death was quickly approaching after painkillers wore off.

"Well, I've got a nice, soft bed for you waiting." She pulled an exorbitant number of keys from her pocket, sifting through them. Each one had a flower on it—be it a rubber cover, a sticker, or a sketch. The one she ended up selecting had a bright pink orchid sticker. She inserted the key into the door, then looked back at Sekam. No—through Sekam. "Ahl, dear, I'm sorry, but I don't think you can fit up here."

His laughter rattled the few remaining windows in the buildings that surrounded them. "That is to be expected," he said.

Bek flashed him a grin, then waved Sekam in side. "This way."

Sekam followed her through the door and up a narrow set of stairs. At the top of the stairs, the hallway fell away into black with no windows to light it. Sekam was glad for her night vision. Bek passed the first door, coming to a stop in front of the second and pulling out her keys again. This time, she selected one with a rubber daisy on it. The door swung inward.

One wall of the room they walked into had all been windows once. Now, curtains covered the boards that replaced them. A grungy little couch was pushed up against one wall and a table took up the space in front of it. Thick carpet squished under Sekam's feet.

Bek set Dylan gently on the couch and pulled aside one of the curtains, letting slivers of light wash over the room. Sekam peered into the next room. A hard floor, blocky kitchen appliances, another boarded-up window. The hallway that lead in the opposite direction fell into a room with nothing but a bed and an empty glass tank with bright green water.

"Yeah ... I saw that," Bek said from under her shoulder. "But y'know, I can't touch the stuff and I figure if it's in the tank it can't be in me, right?"

"Yeah ... right." Sekam stepped closer to the tank and peered into the water. A long, slender body disturbed the water, nearly a foot long and pale as a ghost. Sekam looked back at Bek. "And what is that?" she asked.

"Oh"—Bek flapped her hand dismissively—"that's just Casper. He's harmless. Although I think he ate his tankmates. But don't worry! He would have done that even before the green! He's got a big mouth." She stretched her mouth wide to demonstrate. "Like this, but bigger," she said after she closed it again.

Sekam stepped back from the tank and gave Bek another long look. "Does anything upset you?"

Bek's face hardened. "If someone hurts my darling flowers ..."

"Don't worry, we're not going to hurt your flowers." Well ... "Unless Ahl eats them."

The hard expression dissolved into utter horror, and Bek flew out of the room, sprinting to curtain that she'd opened. "Ahl! Dear!"

"Yes?" Ahl responded.

"You won't eat my flowers, will you?" Her voice peaked, so high-pitched Sekam winced.

"Of course not."

Sekam laughed as Bek's shoulders loosened and she fell back from the window, settling from being perched on her tip-toes. "Thank the goddess!" She looked back at Sekam, her momentary panic gone. "We're going to be alright."

"Are we?" Dylan asked. They cradled the stump of their missing arm against their chest.

"So!" Bek said, plopping down on the table in front of Dylan, "what're you going to the city in the mountains for?" She set her hands in her lap and leaned forward, giving them her full attention. Sekam found a spot on the radiator next to the couch, pulling her legs up to cross them under her.

Dylan glanced at Sekam. "You know ORCTech?" they asked.

Bek shrugged. "Sort of. Tell me about them."

"Big tech company, lots of fancy toys. They make most of the mongrels now—and other things."

"Mmkay. Gotcha. So it's like an end-the-world evil villain company in the movies."

"Basically, yeah." Dylan sat up a little straighter. "A lot of people think they caused the green."

"What?" Sekam and Bek said at the same time—well, Sekam shouted and Bek asked with the same complacent curiosity she asked all her questions.

"I don't know," they said. "They seem fine enough. More interested in making weapons than diseases. I think they're actually—"

"The green is a weapon," Sekam snarled. Her sharp teeth flashed from behind her lips.

"Sekam ..." Bek said softly, "calm down. Dylan's not to blame."

She was right. Unfortunately. "Where can I find this ORCTech?" Sekam asked, trying to keep the growl out of her voice. She was going to burn them to the ground; that would surely end the green.

"That's where we're going," they told her. "ORCTech's main labs are in the city in the mountains—that's where Mars is." They looked up at her from the shadow of their hoodie. "Does this mean you want to help me now?"

"I already agreed to help you."

"But you didn't want to." They had a point. A point that Sekam refused to acknowledge.

Bek said, "Tell me about Mars."

"He's one of their experiments ..."

Dylan's voice muted as Sekam's mind drifted far away. ORCTech was responsible for the green, Dylan had said so themself. This was it. This had to be it. She'd found the path she was supposed to follow, and the end was quickly approaching.

Sekam exhaled an easy sigh, letting a smile come over her face. Soon, she would end the green. Soon, she would be liberated from this human skin. Soon, she would have her fur back.