GREEN [complete]

CHAPTER 17: Mars

"... follow this draw twenty miles south east." Sekam spoke softly, her words obscured behind a blanket of crackling and popping. Warm. Fire.

Cloth rustled as Dylan leaned in. "Twenty miles on foot?"

"Twenty, twenty-five—not too far." Her shoulders bounced up in a quick shrug.

"Oh, well, in that case, excuse me: twenty-five miles on foot?"

Mars pried his eyes open and drew a long breath that tasted of earth and smoke. The pleasant warmth tried to pull him right back to sleep, but he pushed his hands into the—dirt? His heart rocketed into his throat and all lingering traces of comfort and security were wrenched away in one painful second.

This was not his home.

Mars jolted away from the fire, rattle shaking. The world spun around him, a blur of green and brown and more green. It looked not like home. His forked tongue darted out to taste the air. It tasted not like home. It smelled not like home. This was not where he belonged. He needed to find his way—

"Mars! Mars, it's okay!" Dylan leapt from beside the fire and crossed the space between the with two long steps. They reached for him, their soft hand opened wide. "You're okay. It's not as scary as it seems. I promise. Here. Take my hand. Take my hand and everything will be okay."

"Where are we?" His hands trembled. His heart crashed. Coherent thought was a thing of the past.

Dylan looked back at their companion—Sekam. She sat cross-legged by the fire, elbows propped on her knees. "Near the Silver Bow," she said.

"Yeah, I have no idea what that means." They turned back to Mars. "We're out of containment. In the mountains. We got you out."

Mars sank deeper into his coil. "You took me away from my home."

He struggled to focus on Dylan; there was so much to see and hear and smell. Trees rose around them, their long branches binding together in a dark canopy over their head. Wind rustled through their needles, sending gentle vibrations into the air. In the distance, running water. Every movement he made disturbed the earth and the rocks and twigs that resided there.

"They were going to kill you." They crept closer to compensate for the Mars's retreat.

He retreated further, leaving the halo of heat the fire emitted. "Jones didn't know."

Dylan frowned. "What do you mean? What didn't she know?"

"That ..." The word fell away and his hands dropped. Jones didn't know that Warren wanted him dead—that Dylan had been there to kill him. "Do you know Warren?" He carved the name in the air: W-A-R-R-E-N.

"Warren?"

Sekam's ears swiveled toward them, but her eyes remained fixed on the fire.
"He told me 'Dylan made the mistake of caring about you'." His rattle quivered as his nerves danced. "Were you going to hurt me? Like he tried to?"

Dylan's face went white as the inside of the facility and cold overwhelmed their skin. "I ... I'm not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you." Their voice was ragged on the edges, their throat seizing around each word. "I didn't know you were ..." They choked and shook their head, their lips pressing together and shaping into something that could have been a smile but wasn't. "... were you. I didn't know you were you. I thought-fuck, I thought you were just like the rest of them." They looked away, then back. Tears threatened their eyes and their throat spasmed. "You weren't supposed to find out. You were never supposed to find out. They told me you were just like the rest of them. That's what they told me. But they were wrong. They were so wrong and I-I swear I could never—never—hurt you."