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Grey and brown, far as the eye can see.
Of course it is. Why would it be anything else?
Dys squints at the haze covering the sun—he’s been stealing looks at Uncle Tonin’s poison-reading thing all week to make sure he's got the cleanest air possible—and huffs.
They grow stuff in the compound, shrunken, shrivelled up vegetables poking out of crumbling earth. He didn’t think it could get much more lifeless, thought the adults were just talking up how bad things were outside in the same way everyone is always scared of enemies around the corner, enemies in the night, enemies shelling them from far away.
The dead soil falls between Dys’s fingers, settling on the ground like so much ash.
How does anything live out here? Even the trees—which he’s pretty much only seen on holo—look like dried out skeletons, white as bone and barren of leaves. Somewhere in this wasteland are people, bad people who want all of them dead and succeed often, but what are they eating, rocks? Drinking sludge from the dried out river he hopped a little while back?
“Dys!” a voice hisses from nearby, and he jumps.
Whirling around, he sees Solana poking her head between the withered bushes. “You followed me,” he says, frowning. Can't she ever just leave him alone?
“Yeah, ‘cause it’s dangerous.” She shimmies past the bushes and over to him, keeping low. Her pupils are very big, and her breaths are quick. He’s never seen her like this before.
“It’s dangerous in there,” Dys replies, flopping a hand back in the direction of the compound. “Anemone’s brother got shot in the head last week.”
Solana flinches, and Dys suddenly feels bad for some reason, even though what he said is true. “Least we’ve got a wall,” she mumbles. “And guns.” She clenches the stump of her right wrist in her left hand. “We should go back.”
“I didn’t ask you to come,” Dys complains. “I’m fine on my own.”
“You’re a kid.” Solana raises her voice a little, which for her is shouting.
“So are you!” Dys snaps.
“Oh, heavens, are you children alright?”
Dys and Solana both freeze. A figure slips out from behind a tree trunk on the opposite side of the clearing. It’s a man, skinny as wires, with patchy brown hair, a friendly expression, and a rifle in his hands.
Dys has never seen him before.
Solana doesn’t speak, and Dys follows her lead. The man steps further out into the open, cocking his head to the side. “You’re from the compound, aren’t you? Poor things, you must be lost.”
He’s speaking gently, but there’s something wrong in his voice, something hungry in the way he’s looking at them.
Dys’s eyes flicker to Solana’s. They’ve both been drilled. They both know. Don’t trust anyone. Don’t talk to anyone. If you see a stranger, run away as fast as you can. If you can’t run, punch and kick and scratch and yell.
Solana tenses. So does Dys.
“Hey, hey. Let’s not get any clever ideas, okay?” says the outsider, levelling his rifle. “I’ve got some friends nearby. We’d love to have a nice chat with you—”
His face explodes in a bloody crater. Solana cries out. The outsider rocks on his heels, then collapses, blood soaking the tainted soil.
Before Dys can quite process what happened, there’s a hand on his shoulder and a pallid, sweating face peering down at him.
“Thank everythin’,” chokes Utopia. “I found you two.”
Dys nods woodenly. Solana lets out a whimper. “M’sorry…”
Utopia shakes her head. Dys feels a tremble through her hand, and realises she’s terrified. An alien pit opens up in his gut. “It’s fine, sweets. Just as long as he didn’t hurt you.”
Dys manages to find his voice. “We’re okay,” he croaks.
Utopia starts to nod, then shouts ring through the air. Close. Utopia scrambles to scoop her weapon back up from the dirt, then turns back to them, breathing very, very fast.
“Get back to the compound. Run. Don’t stop. Don’t look back. Not for anythin’, y’hear?”
“But Pia—!”
“Now!”
Dys grabs Solana by the hand and takes off running, almost dragging her along. She’s crying and stumbling, fat tears rolling down her cheeks, and all Dys can think is please keep up please keep up please keep up
Behind them, the gunshots start.
-
“There you are!”
Dys jumps, swivelling from his cross-legged position so fast he falls over. Scrabbling onto his elbows and flushing with embarrassment, he scowls at the girl who just popped over the edge of his hill. “You followed me,” he says, feeling vaguely aggrieved.
Solana laughs, and Dys’s face burns even hotter. “You’re the one that showed me the pipe!” She parts two long plant fronds and strolls over to him. She’s splattered in mud and there’s a tear at the knee of her pants with a glimpse of red underneath, but she doesn’t seem to care.
Dys doesn’t know how to answer that. He did show her the pipe, but he was going ‘yeah right’ in his head the whole time. He didn’t think she’d actually go through with it. Solana’s one of the ‘good kids’, going to class or shovelling dirt or playing dumb games, not sneaking out.
“I guess,” he mutters eventually, staring at the dirt.
“I wasn’t following following you anyway,” Solana goes on, sitting down next to him with an oof. “I was exploring. It’s sooooo cool out here, even if it’s kinda scary.”
Dys can’t remember Solana ever being this enthusiastic about… anything. He glances at her cautiously. Her eyes are shining and she’s tapping her feet with excitement.
He hesitates. He doesn't... think she'll make fun of him if he tells her about what he's seen. “Um. I’ve found some other cool things. I can show you. If you want.”
Solana beams. “Heck yeah, I wanna see!”
Dys clambers to his feet and brushes himself off. He hesitates for a second, then helps Solana up.
“This way,” he says. “Keep up.”
And along she follows.