Risking it Alll

GREEN IS A COLOR

GREEN IS A COLOR

Titan…

The green flames of the torch lick the pale thin face that stares wildly at me. My stomach acid threatens its way up my throat as I take in her sight. She is one of them … the ones they are collecting in the colonies… I take inventory of the fluorescent white of her garments that hang on her all-to-thin figure—looking more like a bed sheet held together by a rope around her middle.

Fuck, she looks as if she will break from the slightest touch. She’s as fragile as paper-thin porcelain …

“Green,” she mummers, her eyes flinging back to the torch. Her voice is raspy, surely from the lack of use. My vision sweeps over the sharp edges of her cheekbones to her cracking lips. As if she senses my stare, she takes in her full bottom lip and begins working it between her teeth.

My eyes flash to her illuminating emerald eyes sending a ripple throughout my limbs. “Green …” I mutter, her eyes flooding my subconscious, as I recall only ever seeing that exact color a few times in my life.

Her eyes flicker back to the flaming torch as she points a thin index finger and repeats the color as if a question. I shiver before clearing my throat.

“Yes, green. The green torch does not pick up on the night vision goggles. It also disperses our bodies' heat signature by absorbing it back into the earth’s energy,” I say matter-of-factly, attempting to speak monotone to evade the mix of emotions that swell within me. “Here, I have some nutrition packets. You need to eat.”

I pull at the snaps on my camouflage backpack and retrieve the substance before I shift and reach out to hand the sealed package. Her eyes widen as she jumps away from my movement with her arms encircling herself, she begins rocking.

My breath burns in my throat as I scan her, holding my hands in an upward position. “I just have some food here,” I state as I silently cuss myself for scaring her.

Twisting my wrist, I hold out the gray and white vacuum-sealed package in one hand and the smaller foiled mill bar that I retrieved for myself.

“I’m just going to hand you the meal packet. I’m not going to hurt you, but you need to eat something…” I trail off in a soothing tone. The same tone I use while training the horses that we use at the Oasis. What I wouldn’t give to have a horse from my herd right now, I think, knowing that it would make the journey that much quicker.

I let out a huff of air with the acknowledgment that we will be having to travel at a snails pace for her to make the journey.

A haunting chime echos off the blanket of the trees that surrounds us. She raises her pencil-thin arm in a straight motion over her head on cue with the second sound of the chime. A two-inch band brightens around her wrist with vibrant yellow digital lights that flash before the time reads around the top of her wrist, shining that’s, Nine O’clock.

“f**k,” I snap as I rip through my bag and pull the disarming wand in a jerking motion. I dart for her hand and grip it, flipping the on switch. Her eyes round as she lets out a mousy yelp and weakly tries to pull away to no prevail. “I have to deactivate your tracer. If they find us, they will kill us…” I say and dust the wand over her forearm. I release a shaky breath as the tracer signals the sound of disarming.

With my fingers loosely encircling her wrist, an electric snapping current courses up my arm. I drop my hold instantly as my eyes connect with hers. The pale hollows of her cheeks deepen to a rose color before she diverts her gaze back to the torch and mumbles the word, “green.”