GREEN [complete]

CHAPTER 32: Sekam

The darkness rested heavy on their shoulders. The only sound between them was the subtle echo of their footsteps off the walls. Sekam's heart bounced off her ribs, faster and faster with every second that passed. She wanted to stop, to turn back, to abandon her path and find somewhere safe to hunker down until the storm blew over ... but she knew it wouldn't. Not if she didn't make it.

"Tell me everything is going to be okay." She spoke quietly, half of her hoping that Bek wouldn't hear her, that Bek wouldn't see her fear. Her weakness.

"I can't do that, doll," she said. "I can't lie to you like that."

Sekam caught the whine in her throat before it could come out. "You lied to Ahl."

"I told him I'll take care of you, and I intend to." Bek adjusted the strap of her backpack on her shoulder. "But that doesn't mean everything is going to be okay. That's just not the world we live in. The goddess has abandoned us."

Sekam wished she could be comforted by that, but she couldn't. "The rest of the gods have also abandoned us. All of them but Ahl."

They let the quiet wrap around them again after that. Everything was not going to be okay, and there was little they could do about it. But Sekam would get what Dylan asked for, and she would get it back to Mars. She would make sure he lived. If nothing else, he had to live. Protecting him was the only thing that mattered now.

Eventually, they reached the door in the wall.

Sekam tried to tell herself to breathe, but her lungs seized and her head spun. She was terrified. She'd always known she was invulnerable to human weapons, until she wasn't. Their lead bullets and steel knives couldn't make her bleed, but they had new weapons. Guns that could put her to sleep and sticks that could immobilize her. They didn't hurt her, not really, but they made her vulnerable when she'd never been vulnerable before.

"Are you ready?" Bek said, her tone suggesting that she was repeating herself.

No. No, she wasn't ready. "Yes. Open it."

Sekam expected a starry night, but when the door opened, light spilled into the hallway. A bright blue sky and a sun not muted by overcast. And humans, so many humans. They were everywhere, and they were so loud.

Sekam jolted backwards, her shoulders slamming into the back wall of the hallway. No, she couldn't do this. She definitely couldn't do this. The humans in the hospital were too much on their own, and there were less than a dozen. There were hundreds here. They were everywhere. Where was the darkness? Where were the stars? Where was the world that had first tricked her into believing it was paradise?

"Listen to me, Sekam. Listen to my voice. Can you hear me?"

She stumbled further away from the door, turning and starting away from the open door and all the humans that waited on the other side. Bek caught her arm before she get could more than a step. "Let me go," Sekam begged. "Please, let me go. I can't do this. I can't."

"What about Mars?" Bek asked. "He's depending on us."

"We can wait! We can wait until dark!"

"Mars can't wait much longer." Bek didn't let her go. "We can't afford another day."

"I can't go out there. Not with all those humans."

Bek skirted around Sekam to put herself in the way of the exit. "What are you afraid of?"

"They know how to hurt me."

"They know how to hurt all of us, doll. But we're smarter than them, and they don't know we're coming. And I promised Ahl that I will take care of you, remember? I know this place."

"We can wait," Sekam insisted again, but weaker this time.

"I know it's scary, but I'm going to take care of you." Bek offered her hand. "Just take my hand and we'll go together, okay? They won't even know we're here."

She stared at Bek's hand for a long time. Her heart pounded in her throat, and her ribs felt so tight it was a miracle they hadn't ruptured her lungs. Every cell in her body was shrieking for her to flee, to stray from her path and take care of herself. But Mars needed her, so she accepted. Her fingers slipped between Bek's and she let the false sense of security lead her out the door.

The noise of human activity roared around her. The motion around her was overwhelming; there were so many sounds and scents and so much motion.They all tuned it out, but she couldn't. She squeezed her eyes shut tight and let Bek guide her into the sea of bodies.

One foot after the other. They won't even know we're here. They won't even know we're here. They won't even know we're here. Sekam had to believe that Bek was telling her the truth. She had to believe that Bek was going to take care of her.

"You're doing great," Bek said, her fingers shifting to grip Sekam's hand tighter.

"I'm not," Sekam assured her. And she got a chance to prove it.

It started with a bell, chiming loud when a door opened. The piercing noise startled Sekam and she stiffened, stopping in her tracks. Someone crashed into her from behind and something sharp pressed into her back. In that moment, Sekam knew that they were going to hurt her and she knew that she had to stop them.

She pulled her gun and turned on them. They staggered, back, lifting their hands. Their mouth was wide open when she put a bullet in their chest. Their briefcase clattered to the sidewalk, and their body hit the ground soon after. The humans scattered. Some of them screamed, some shouted, others simply hit the ground and covered their heads with their hands.

"Sekam! Stop!" Bek shouted, two seconds too late.

Mongrels peeled out of the crowd, every set of eyes trained on her and Bek. Sekam's lungs burned, and the world swam around her. She needed to get out of sight, away from the mongrels and away from the people. She darted for the nearest splash of shade—a skinny alleyway that cut between a pair of buildings on the side of the street.

She was almost there when the first bullet hit her. It snapped her shoulder forward and jarred her movement. She crashed into the side of the alleyway. Nausea boiled inside her skull and the heavy weight of unconsciousness pressed in around her. She wasn't going to make it. She wasn't going to get out. Bek hadn't taken care of her.

Sekam fell to her knees before the next bullet came, her gun hitting the ground and spinning away from her. She tried to crawl for it, clawing through the dirt, but she didn't make it. The alleyway evaporated around her, and Sekam collapsed.