Botanicaust

in an attempt to grasp her fingers with its pincers. Could such an alien creature feel pain? To mutilate before killing something seemed so … cannibal.
    She glanced at the green-skinned girls. Levi stood between the two, mediating even though he didn ’ t speak their language. Fortunately, Ana no longer screamed. Would the girls hesitate to eat her or Levi should the need arise? Their cannibal natures seemed to dominate. Yet, they had altruistically helped during the initial flight, and they shared the food they caught.
    The scorpion stopped struggling and hung limp from her fingers. Had it died of shock? She turned to the pack Levi had dropped, opened the water bottle they used to store insects the girls collected, and eased the scorpion inside. To her surprise, the creature immediately grabbed the beetle already in residence.
    A shiver raced down her spine as the scorpion gnawed off bits of the twitching beetle. Morbidly entranced by the life and death struggle, she squinted through the nuvoplast. Where was this thing ’ s mouth, anyway? A shadow moved through the amarantox beyond the bottle.
    Tula froze. Her heart squeezed tight as she turned her attention to the foliage. Was she seeing things? The hallucinations had subsided days ago. Had the full sun exposure made her visions return? Behind her, the girls argued shrilly in spite of Levi ’ s calming tones. She gathered the pack and skittered toward the rest of her party. “ Levi. ”
    Silence descended as they all turned to her.
    “ What is it? ” Levi lifted the pack and shoved an arm through one strap.
    She watched the amarantox. “ I think I saw … something. ”
    “ Where? ” His voice dropped several decibels. He ushered her behind him to join the girls.
    “ Maybe wind. ” It had been the wind. The grotesque struggle between predator and prey inside the bottle had made her paranoid. The figure had been nothing but a play of light and shadow.
    “ Let ’ s move. ” Levi urged them forward. “ Girls, no wandering. Tell them, ” he directed Tula, keeping his eyes on their back trail.
    Tula translated, and the twins trotted to her side, attention darting all around them. As she followed the cracked road along the river, she felt more and more silly. Levi stayed farther back, eyeing the way behind them, jogging to catch up, then observing again.
    She called back to him, “ Levi, it ’ s nothing. The sun makes me see things. ”
    “ We can ’ t take a chance. ”
    The tense afternoon turned into dusk. When the sun cast orange light against their backs, they stopped and made camp without a fire. Levi chewed raw cattail roots, and the twins split the scorpion between them. The last of the water was gone, but the edge of the river felt too exposed. Tula told herself she wasn ’ t hungry and wrapped the robe around her shoulders. The fabric weighed against her sun-kissed skin, and she wished she could see her own shoulder blades to make sure the chloroplasts were all right.
    She looked at the skin on her arm. Did she imagine the green around the pink scar had faded? Perhaps Vitus ’ s ripening wasn ’ t genetic at all, but a result of the tests the Fosselites had been performing. It would serve him right.
    But then it also meant her own chloroplasts were doomed.
    She took comfort that the girls had an advocate if something happened to her. Levi had taken to them, teaching them words, praising their gathering skills, worrying if they were warm enough at night. He could even tell them apart, where Tula had trouble discerning one from the other.
    Would Levi ’ s vouching for them be enough? He insisted his people would not harm them, but they were “ abominations. ” She sucked in a lungful of air filled with the scent of river and let out a sigh. With Dr. Kaneka ’ s experimental cocktail running through her system, she might not live through the year, anyway.
    Then again, she could live forever.
    She drifted to sleep with thoughts of burning red eyes set in emerald green skin.
    Deep into nightfall, she woke. The acrid scent of burning tamarisk floated through the clearing. Levi ’ s arm tensed around her as she shifted, senses searching for the twins. “ Where are Eily and Ana? ” she whispered.
    “ Thought they were going behind a bush. ”
    “ Do you smell smoke? ”
    “ I should go look for them. ” He sat up in the darkness.
    “ Don ’ t leave me. ” She gripped his arm. The twins would not have abandoned them for their own