Green Team

Posted on Mon Mar 18th, 2024 @ 3:20am by Ombretta del Carlo & Glitch

1,854 words; about a 9 minute read

Pyra got in her school bus and laid the map out on a small table, the rest of the bus four bunks and the back of it was closed off by a steel door. "It ain't much, but it's mine. It looks like we're taking old Route Forty to Sixty-Four to Chesterfield and then to New London. Questions?"

Shine got in and looked around, his aloe plant that Flora had given him still with him as well as a backpack stuffed with goods. He shook his head, still wondering why he had volunteered to come.

"I didn't realize the old roads were still good enough to drive on," Flora remarked, looking over the map. Some places and shapes she recognized from her childhood, yet the different scribbles and marks on the map just informed her how much things had changed in the last few years.

"They ain't," Pyra said as she opened the steel door to reveal a boiler and several large glass bottles positioned at different heights. She shoved a few logs into the fire and looked at Flora and the kid. "You see this getting low, you shove in more logs. If we need more, tell me before we need logs."

With that, she fired a blast of fire from her hand and ignited the logs, then turned and headed up to the drivers seat. "But the roads will do in a pinch. Big Yellow will get us there. Beyond that, who knows?"

Shine watched her and where the logs were, then went to take a seat on a bench. "Do you really think we'll find something?"

Flora couldn't help but shrug. "I'm sure we'll find something. The real question is what exactly it is that we'll find. And if it's friendly." She picked up one of the logs and slowly rolled it around in her grip. Her eyes closely examined the bark, though anyone who knew her and her ability well knew she was really trying to listen for a song. For a moment, she thought that she heard something faint, but it turned out it was a small patch of moss hidden under some bark. "This is new," she remarked.

Pyra ignored the two in the back and headed to the front. "Hang on," she yelled out as she started the modified bus as the water began to boil off, the steam going through pipes and gears that turned pistons in a twisted maze of steam and technology. With a lurch, the bus started forward.

Shine grabbed onto a rail and took a moment to gather himself and his aloe plant. "What do you hope we'll find?"

"Me?" Flora asked. "I hope to find a new song. But honestly? I'm not sure. Part of me wants to jump out of this bus right now and get back to my plants."

Truthfully, she did want to see beyond her hometown. If she'd been able to accomplish so much with so little, then surely Mother Earth had been able to do wilder, grander things. Just the new moss beneath the bark on the log she was holding was value enough for the trip. "What about you?" she asked Shine.

"Something that can help us," Shine said softly. The young man looked far paler despite his constant sunburn. "This world isn't for us, Flora. It can't be."

"This world is the only one I've ever known," Ombretta replied. Her statement was only partially true. In fact, she barely remembered the earth that was. She was a young child when the sky came crashing down, and she'd lost everything. It was only through the plants and their song that she found meaning. "I don't know what I'd do if this world changed."

"You could help it change," he said. "It's all I know, too, but living in it hurts."

"And mold it into what exactly?" she asked. "A new rainforest or Amazon? Somehow, I don't think the change I want to see will be welcome."

"I dunno," Shine said quietly. "What would you want to see?"

"A society that cares for what it has," Flora gestured down to the moss on the log. "Life comes in all forms, and it's ridiculous to think that one has to be human or... someone like us in order to share the table. Sure, there's a pecking order, but that doesn't mean you can't respect the wildlife."

"That's a good point," the young boy said. "I just wish it didn't have to hurt so much just trying to get by. I didn't ask for this and I know you didn't. Does it hurt you to feel plants?"

Flora paused and tilted her head slightly to the right. She'd never thought about pain being associated with communicating with flowers and trees. "Hurt?" she echoed, still contemplating. "I... I don't suppose it hurts. I know it has changed me."

She held up her arms, which were definitely not a natural flesh color. "Each time I sing with plants, I receive part of them. I leave my hands long enough, they can turn just as green as they are. Sometimes, their cells bond with mine. I know my hands are beyond human description, like they've merged with what makes a plant a plant. Moss appears from my wrist up to my elbow. And, I've got aloe bracelets, which I prepared for this trip. I have to keep singing with them to keep them attached. I'm actually wondering if they might take root in my skin and never let go."

Flora looked at Shine. "What about you? Does it hurt when you... well, shine?"

Shine looked at her arms and listened as she talked. It was so amazing to the young man, but he had to wonder if her humanity was at stake, too. He looked down at his own sunburned arms and the small aloe plant he held. "Yeah," he said softly. "Every time I use it, I get burned. If I don't use it, I feel it inside me."

"Feel it how?" Flora asked, genuinely curious. "Does it like burn or heat up your insides somehow?"

"It feels like...like if it doesn't get out that it'll come out a lot hotter and burn everything,," he said after a moment.

"Damned if you do," Flora commented, "damned if you don't. Have you... have you used it for anything other than chores?"

Shine shook his head. "It's all I've ever done since they found out that I can shine. Who needs sunlight or lights when you have a kid you can push around to do what you want?"

Flora reached out and placed a hand on his right shoulder. It did feel warm to the touch, and she assumed that he was holding in his power even now. "You are your own person, you know that, right? Not a tool. A person."

"Thanks," he said with a slight smile. "But it's all I'm really good for. That and working off my debts."

She shrugged. "Well, maybe a future without debts and work is what awaits us on this adventure."

"Hey ya'll," Pyra called back from where she drove the bus. "Go check on the water to see if we need to switch up!"

Shine stood up. "I got it," he said as he headed back to where the sealed off room was not far from them. "Do you need water, too?" He asked Flora.

"Wouldn't hurt," Flora admitted, realizing that the heat in the room had made her a little parched.

After changing out the bottle for a new one, Johnny came back with two smaller bottles of water that looked fresh but was warm and handed one to her. "Want some light, too?"

It wasn't until he asked that Flora realized how dimly lit the inside of the bus was. She shook her head, adding, "Only if you really want to." She didn't want him to do anything that caused him pain.

"A little doesn't hurt," he assured her as a soft glow started to come from his right hand. The light from it gave off the same radiation and light that plants absorbed and provided the same stimulation for Vitamin D, but it was undoubtedly coming from the young man and felt as good as the sun.

Strangely, Flora could feel an unusual warm in her hands and wrists thanks to her proximity to Shine. In a sense, she felt brighter (not to use the word so savagely), but also energetic. The song she heard from her woven wristbands, and the faint song from the moss on the log, rose in pitch as well. "Thanks," she said, beaming with a smile.

"You're welcome," Shine said as he let the light continue to emit from his pores while he opened a jar of water and took a small sip. "Can you survive without sunlight?"

Ombretta shrugged. "Could you survive without plants?" She paused for a second, thinking about the question. "I suppose one could survive without light or plants for a while. I'd hate to think how damaging that could be."

"I'm sorry, that was a dumb question," Johnny said. "I meant like, are you dependent on it for stuff the plants need?"

"They're all I have," she replied simply. "I live for their song. I don't know what I would do if I could not sing with them."

Shine intensified his light output a little more with a smile. "I wish I could hear them, too."

"I haven't met anyone else who can," Flora said with another shrug. "Too many people have told me it's because of my gift. It does make me wonder though. If there's more out there like me."

"Have you tried...singing back?" Shine asked.

Flora smiled. "I sing back all the time." She held up her wrist where the aloe bracelet was wrapped and almost grafting to her skin. "As long as I'm near something green, I sing with them."

He looked at the living bracelet and smiled at her. "You are truly special, Flora."

If it were possible, Flora would be shining brighter than normal. Her beam, instead, was directed through her smile. "And so are you, Shine."

"Thanks," Shine said as he glowed a little brighter, almost like a blush.

"Bathroom stop in five!" Pyra called back. "We'll meet up with the others and take a break, then get on the road again. Stretch, walk, soak up sun, get water."

Flora wouldn't mind a good stretch or a walk. "Timely too," she said to Shine. "Ready for your first time away from a hometown?"

"I am," Johnny said with a smile. "It'll feel good to have the sun shine on me for a change."

She couldn't help but smile. "Who knows? Maybe we'll both get proper tans too."

Pyra pulled the bus to a halt and opened the drivers compartment before heading to the back. "Ten minutes and we're moving again."

Shine looked at Flora. "Shall we?"

Flora nodded and stood. "We shall indeed." With that, she led the way off the bus and out into an area she'd never been before.

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