Free Viridian by Susan Gates

hole between the green stems.
    â€˜There’s nobody here,’ he whispered to Gran.
    He wasn’t in the scrubland anymore, with those strange, round hills. He seemed to be in some kind of industrial estate – there were several of them on the edges of Franklin. But the whole place looked derelict. Grass was growing in the car parks. The units had broken windows with green shoots of ivy sprouting through. A fork lift truck was rusting away.
    Jay said to Gran, ‘I thought you said there were guards. They left the trapdoor open. You could have escaped any time.’
    â€˜Escaped?’ said Gran. She looked shocked and terrified at the very idea.
    And Jay knew then why there were no guards, why the Cultivars could leave the door unlocked. The prisoners were so brainwashed and scared, they’d stay exactly where they were told.
    â€˜Didn’t anyone even
try
to escape, Gran?’ said Jay.
    Gran shook her head.
    So why was Teal chained to a rock?
wondered Jay, then blocked all thoughts of Teal out of his mind. Dad was his priority.
    He stood up. No Cultivar ran out of the abandoned buildings, yelling, ‘Arrest the Immune!’ But why should they? Viridian had told them, weeks ago, that Jay was dead. They weren’t searching for him any more.
    There must be other humans left in Franklin. Jay could just blend in with them. With any luck, no Cultivar would give him any trouble. And, if they did, he’d tell them, ‘Back off! Me and Viridian are good mates. Blood brothers. He’ll tell you so himself.’
    Jay scanned the skyline, trying to get his bearings. It had stopped raining and the sun had slid out between grey clouds.
    â€˜We’re going to get Dad now, Gran,’ said Jay, without looking round.
    An image flashed through Jay’s mind, of Dad drowning in dark, swirling flood water. He crushed it, brutally. Instead he constructed another picture in his head. In this one, Dad was alive. He’d escaped the flood and he was sitting in the van, scoffing sardines. When Jay turned up he’d grin and say, ‘Took your time, didn’t you?’
    But Jay had no idea how to get to the mine entrance from here. He wasn’t even sure where he was now. Dad and he must have walked several kilometres underground to get to the cave.
    Then, staring over the low buildings on the industrial estate, Jay saw the two Gothic towers of the Victorian town hall rising over the trees. That was in the centre of Franklin, in the market square. If he headed for those two towers he could head out again to the plot by the motorway where the Diner had been. From there he was fairly certain he could retrace the route Dad had driven to the mine entrance.
    It would be a long hike. He’d need supplies from the shipping container. Dad had been pretty sure that would have survived the blast.
    â€˜You ready, Gran?’ said Jay, and turned round.
    Gran wasn’t there.
    For one horrible second, he thought she’d climbed back down into the cave to serve her prison sentence. But then he saw her, in a wilderness of plants, soaking up the autumn sun. She looked totally at home, almost lost in brambles, blackberry juice smearing her green skin, part of the plant world now, not Jay’s.
    Jay persisted: ‘You coming with me to find Dad?’
    Gran opened her green, glowing eyes. She said, ‘I want to stay here.’
    Jay didn’t know whether to be sad or angry. He said, ‘Well,
I’m
going. When I find Dad, we’ll come back for you, right?’
    Gran didn’t even answer. She closed her eyes again and lifted her face to the sun’s watery rays, alien, unreachable.
    Jay started off. He hadn’t wanted to leave Gran behind.But part of him was relieved. For the first time in his life, he didn’t trust her.
    â€˜She’s not Gran anymore,’ he told himself. ‘She’s a Verdan. She’ll betray you.’
    It felt like a person he loved