Viridian (14 page)

‘Dad!' said Jay, struggling to sit up. ‘Is it really you?'

A hand pushed him down again.

‘Course it's me,' Dad said. ‘Rest. Don't try to talk.'

Jay gazed around him. He was in the back of their old battered van, wrapped in sleeping bags. Candles cast a cosy, yellow glow over the inside. Jay smiled, still only half conscious. Dad was here.

He felt safe, protected, like a little kid tucked up under his duvet, after he'd been read a bedtime story. Everything was fine. Dad was here.

Jay relaxed and just let himself drift away into sleep again.

When Jay woke next, much later, he was more alert. He lay still in his cocoon of sleeping bags, piecing together what had happened.

He had got sick. That was it. He had set off for the mine on foot, and as he had walked, he had felt worse and worse. The dog bite on his hand had throbbed. Everywhere the pitcher plant had touched felt sore and hot. Soon he could barely think. He'd kept staggering along somehow. Finally he must have passed out.

Then Dad must have found him.

Wait a minute!
thought Jay.
How did Dad find me? They took him prisoner!

For a few panicky seconds Jay thought he'd just imagined Dad. That it had all been some feverish hallucination. He sat bolt upright.

‘Dad!' he screamed.

Dad climbed into the van and crouched by Jay in the flickering candle light.

‘Hey,' he said. ‘You look much better. You look almost human.'

‘You don't,' said Jay. Dad looked like a wild man. He had a long, straggly beard like Robinson Crusoe.

‘Want a drink?' said Dad.

Jay sat up, without feeling too dizzy.

‘I was scared for a while there,' said Dad. ‘You were really sick. But you're as tough as me. You shook it off, whatever it was.'

Jay sipped the water. He almost wished he was still out of it, floating somewhere in limbo. Because now he'd recovered, all his fears and worries came crowding back.

‘How did I get here? Am I back in the mine?'

Dad nodded.

‘How did
you
get here?' asked Jay.

‘I escaped in the confusion at the rally,' Dad said. ‘After they dragged me off the balcony I could hear all kinds of mayhem going on in the square.'

‘That was the Immune Hunters,' said Jay, ‘after me.'

‘Viridian sent his full squad out there, so I was left with this one weedy Cultivar guarding me.' Dad shrugged, but couldn't keep the hint of pride out of his voice, as he went on, ‘So I overpowered him. As for you, I found you in the scrubland, passed out. I think you'd tried to walk here. You had a fever. I carried you down to the mine, and I've been looking after you ever since. You had me pretty worried, son.'

‘How long have I been here?' asked Jay.

‘I don't know,' said Dad. ‘You lose track of time down here. About ten days?'

‘Ten days!' said Jay, appalled. ‘We've got to go right now. We've got to go and find Toni. She could be still at the Research Station. She might be in the Etiolation Cave.'

‘The what cave?' said Dad. ‘And who's this Toni?'

‘She's a girl I met,' said Jay. ‘She saved my life.'

* * *

Gradually, in between spooning canned peaches into his mouth, Jay told Dad everything. About the Etiolation Cave and the other Immunes and Dr Moran. About the carnivorous plants and Toni getting caught.

Dad gave a low whistle when Jay had finished. But all he said was, ‘You've been a busy boy.'

Jay said, ‘I went to the Research Station straight after the rally. I thought they'd bring you back there in the Humvees.'

Dad shook his head. ‘I don't think they ever meant to take me there. They planned to infect me with the virus. If I was Immune, they were going to finish me off right away. If I turned Verdan they were talking about punishing me for aiding and abetting an Immune. Probably by chaining me up in that Etiolation Cave.'

‘So
are
you Immune then?' asked Jay.

‘Don't know,' said Dad. ‘They never got the chance to try and infect me. Was your gran all right? Where'd she go, after you got out of the cave?'

Jay said, ‘I don't know. She just wandered off, you know, doing what Verdans do. I said I'd go back for her. But…' Jay frowned, shook his head. ‘What's the point? She's Verdan now. She doesn't care about us.'

‘Yeah, that's Verdans for you. Hey,' said Dad, ‘that green freak's freakier than ever, isn't he? I think he fancies himself as some kind of god. I couldn't believe it, you coming right up and asking him to let me go.' Dad shook his head in amazement. ‘You're a crazy, hot-headed kid,' he told Jay.
‘You remind me of me when I was your age. Want a can of sardines? That's all we've got left to eat.'

‘I hate sardines,' said Jay.

But Dad had already leapt out the van. Jay sat there, turning Dad's words,
You remind me of me when I was your age
, round and round in his mind, watching them sparkle, like they were a precious diamond.

It seemed ages before Dad came back with the sardines. Jay said, ‘We have to go and get Toni. Her dad won't. He says the only way to help her now is to find a cure for the virus.'

‘Maybe he's right,' said Dad.

‘What? You mean, we should just
leave
her there?' Jay put a wobbly hand to his head. Getting mad was a bad idea; it had made him dizzy again.

Dad said, ‘Look, calm down.' He thrust the can of sardines at Jay. ‘Eat those, get your strength back. They're good for you.'

Jay pushed them away. ‘I don't want any.'

‘You think a lot of this girl, Toni, don't you?'

‘Yeah, I do. I really like her.'

‘Well, she won't care about
you
any more,' said Dad, bluntly. ‘Now she's Verdan.'

‘We don't know if they made her go Verdan.'

‘Come on,' said Dad. ‘Don't kid yourself. Do you really think she'd have any choice?'

Jay's brain, still sore from the illness, felt tied up in knots.
He stared at Dad helplessly. ‘I don't know what to do.'

‘OK,' said Dad. ‘I'm going to say something you won't like. I agree with that Dr Moran guy. I think the best thing we can do is join those Immunes, find a cure for your girlfriend.'

‘She's not my girlfriend!'

‘Whatever. Where did you say these Immunes are hiding?'

‘Franklin High,' said Jay. ‘In the science block.'

‘Right,' said Dad. ‘We need to get out of this mine anyway. Sooner or later those Immune Hunters will come here.'

‘But – ' protested Jay.

‘We'll go to Franklin High first. Maybe this Dr Moran has already found a cure. You said he was close, didn't you?

‘No,' said Jay, ‘first we'll go to the Etiolation Cave, see if they've put her in there.' Jay didn't even want to think about the horrors of that – Toni, in the same cave where her mum had died. ‘Come on.'

He started struggling out of the sleeping bag, then paused. Even in his frantic impatience, he'd just thought of something. ‘I suppose we'd better wait until night time.' The dark didn't seem to affect the Cultivars much. But at least the Verdans would be dormant.

‘It is night time out there,' said Dad. ‘I just went and checked. So let's go.'

Dad knew the short cut to the cave entrance, across the scrubland, through those weird conical hills.

The night sky was wonderful, a vast, navy blue bowl upturned over Franklin, fizzing with shooting stars. But Jay
didn't notice the display. With every step, his dread was growing. ‘Dad,' he said, finally. ‘When we get to the cave, will you go down there? I don't think…'

‘Yeah, course,' said Dad, as if it was no big deal. ‘I brought a torch in my backpack.'

‘Thanks,' said Jay, gratefully.

The trapdoor was wide open, just the way Jay had left it, days before. Jay stared at it in surprise. Surely, if they'd put someone new in, even if they didn't bother to lock it, the Cultivars would have closed it?

‘Stay here,' said Dad, getting his torch out his backpack.

‘She's got brown hair,' said Jay. ‘It's short where I cut it off. And brown eyes.'

But Dad was already gone, climbing down the limestone blocks into the dark. Jay told himself,
Idiot. She won't look like that now, will she? Not if she's Verdan.

He waited at the top, his arms hugging his body, trying to calm himself down.

If Toni was down there, would she be still alive? How long had Teal lasted in that terrible prison? If Toni was still alive, would she come back with them? Or would she just slide away into the greenery like Gran? What would they do then?

Jay stared round at the derelict industrial estate. Some units were collapsing, invaded by strangling ivy and thorny bramble creepers. Jay half-expected to see Gran, crouched in some weeds, conserving energy until daylight came.

‘Hey.'

Jay nearly jumped out of his skin. It was Dad, just behind him. ‘Was she down there?'

‘No-one's down there. I checked everywhere. The cave is empty. Apart from that Cultivar you told me about.'

‘Is she dead?' asked Jay.

‘Oh yes,' said Dad, grim-faced. ‘She's dead, all right.' He put his torch away in his backpack. ‘Right. Let's go and find this Moran guy.'

‘You won't like him,' warned Jay.

‘Doesn't matter,' said Dad. ‘If he's found a cure for this virus, he's a hero.'

As they walked through the abandoned housing estate to get to Franklin High, they saw Verdans, hundreds of them, creeping out of the undergrowth.

‘They don't usually move around at night,' said Jay. ‘Where are they all going?'

Dad said, ‘They're not even looking at us.'

He walked right out into the street to prove it. The Verdans' green eyes didn't even flicker in his direction. They just flowed around him, staring ahead, all going the same way, trudging slowly.

‘Maybe Viridian's having another rally in the square,' Jay suggested.

‘At midnight?'

The Verdans were a sad, sickly bunch, creeping along like refugees in their own town. Their clothes were ragged, their chlorophyll skin scaly and withered brown in places. Some had even caught plant infestations: red spider mites running through their hair, greenfly clinging to their eyebrows and eyelashes, circles of orange rust mould on their skin. One
had a slug latched onto his neck. It had crawled up his arm, leaving a silvery trail.

‘Where are the Cultivars?' said Jay.

Cultivars would be easily spotted. They'd stand out a mile in this shuffling crowd, with their superior strength and extra height, their dark green skin glowing with health and vigour, their eyes blazing with ruthless fanaticism. But there weren't any.

More and more Verdans swelled the throng. It seemed like the whole population of Franklin was lurching along zombie-like in the moonlight towards the same destination, with Jay and Dad tagging along behind.

‘Look!' whispered Jay to Dad. Ahead were some Verdans with yellow skin. Some were ghostly pale, almost transparent, like wraiths.

‘Those must be the prisoners, from the cave.'

The prisoners dragged themselves along painfully slowly. The feeblest were crawling like spiders on long, etiolated limbs. Yet they all seemed intent on getting somewhere.

‘I don't understand it,' said Jay, baffled. ‘Before, they were so scared of Cultivars, they wouldn't leave even though the trapdoor was wide open. So how come they're going now?'

Jay plunged in among the etiolated Verdans. ‘Have you seen a girl called Toni?' he asked them. He grabbed one jelly-like yellow arm. ‘Was she down in the cave with you?'

But they just gazed at him with their spooky, pale eyes and plodded on.

At the end of the estate, the Verdans turned right, towards Franklin High and the Research Station.

‘They're going our way,' said Jay. ‘You don't reckon they know where Dr Moran and the Immunes are?'

But the Verdans didn't turn off at Franklin High.

‘Look,' said Jay, ‘there's loads more of them, around the Research Station.'

Dad glanced at Jay. ‘Shall we see what's going on?'

‘Yes,' said Jay, eagerly. ‘Toni must be in there.'

‘She might be,' said Dad. ‘Look Jay, don't get too excited. Even if we find her, she might not be alive.'

But Jay wasn't listening. He'd already dashed off. Dad raced after him.

The Verdans flowed through the lifted Security Barrier like a surging green tide. They surrounded the domes, pressing up against the glass walls.

Maybe they've come to overthrow Viridian
, thought Jay, excitedly.

But when he looked at them, he could see how stupid that was. This wasn't a mass uprising. The Verdans weren't co-operating with each other, or even communicating. They just milled silently about. Why had they come here? What were they waiting for?

Then Jay realized.

They were waiting for someone to come out of the domes and tell them what to do.

But no-one came. Not Viridian, or an Immune Hunter, or
even a Cultivar. The Verdans parted as Jay pushed his way to the front, peered into the dome.

The glass was covered on the inside with black slime.

Suddenly, he heard Dad shouting, ‘Jay, where are you?'

Jay dived through the Verdans again, until he found Dad, who clutched his arm. Jay had never seen him so excited.

‘Dr Moran's here,' said Dad. ‘He's found a cure! He's giving it to the Verdans now. The Cultivars will be out any second to stop him. We have to help.'

‘Something's happened inside the dome, Dad,' said Jay. But Dad was already striding away.

‘Come on,' he yelled back to Jay. ‘Dr Moran needs all the help he can get.'