Inherently Innocent

But Fallen Trees

They'd find them. They'd find her. And if they didn't shoot on sight, they might save her.
Liliac buried her hands under her armpits and pressed her lips. Why of all days would the skies choose that one to become grey and heavy?
Juniper and Aloe walked first, with others walking loudly behind. The great plains hid most of the noise, which was carried away by the occasionally howling wind.
When Peony's legs grew too tired and she started to drag her feet, Thyme was quick to notice. The boy effortlessly raised the girl up to his shoulders, and kept on walking with her on them. It didn't last long, since the moment they crossed another lonely tree on the way, he had to drop her back. The tree was too thin to cast a useful shadow, but such shade was not needed, everything everywhere tainted grey under the clouds. The young man held his shoulders with his own hands and looked back at the nymphs walking behind them. His eyes stuck to Liliac, but she avoided his stare.
Why had he tried to see her eye? It was offensive, invasive. Just thinking of it, Liliac's cheeks started to redden in shame. She couldn't waste her trust on him again.
"We're stopping here," Juniper raised an arm, propting everyone to slow down until that developed into a rest. "We all have to eat something before we go forth."
The human twisted her bag from her back to her chest, swiftly opening it and sliding her hands in to bring out a jar. The ishine walked next to her to start scrambling into her bag too.
A tanned-skin nymph with two braids over her shoulders did the same with her own bags. Golshan helped her as Aloe helped Juniper. Several others did the same, those not helping simply seated to rest their legs. Liliac joined the last group. Thyme and Peony did too.
"Peony, how do you sign I'm sorry?" He asked the girl.
She fixed her blonde braids behind her back and straightened her posture. Straight palm against palm in a cross shape. Then closing her fingers around the opposing hand, and bringing the figure close to her chest.
Thyme recreated the movement and nodded. Then turned to face Liliac, and did it once more.
She eyed him up and down. She ignored him.
"What are we going to eat when we run out of this food?" She asked Juniper as the girl walked around, offering a tiny piece of bread and chocolate to each nymph.
"We haven't run out of this food yet," She answered as if she had rehearsed the words. "And whatever happens, we have Golshan and Xochitl. Their guidances are mammals and plants. We just have to find a forest, or be lucky enough to find a wild fruit tree. They'll guide for us what we need."
"Be lucky enough," Liliac repeated ironically.
Juniper didn't say it, but she looked down at Liliac with a speaking stare. She had been lucky enough to be saved by them. Lucky enough to be there. Lucky enough to be alive.
And Liliac's reflects made her start to speak.
"You are all traitors to your kind. To your human parents. If only you had stayed, our sacrifice could have brought forth," Liliac rambled, but Thyme pushed her back to the ground. Her head hit the moist dirt before she realized what had happened. Her slice of bread and piece of chocolate landed on the grass.
The nymphs looked at her through their mouthfuls and remained quiet. Only Thyme's hand, tight above her heart, made a sound.
"You're human," Liliac cried out, looking at Juniper, "How could you do that to your people, your parents, when we have the power to heal the sick and care for the weak?" Liliac sat up, her throat dry and tearing apart like dry tearing lips.
Golshan pulled from Junipers shoulder and shook his head, walking forth alone.
"How many blood tests did you get done?" He asked, offering a hand for Thyme to stand up but giving only a frown for Liliac. "How many minutes did they force you to hold your breath underwater? Liliac, you're not a human. You're not the Host. You're one more of his victims. But you keep on acting like a withering lapdog," He pressed a hand against the girl's ankles and dragged her body forward, "You promised friendship when we were nine. You dragged me back to the pool when we were ten. You tried, but failed to stop me, when I was eleven." Golshan stood above beside Liliac, his face devoid of anger but flooded with pity. "You were brainwashed to help them. I'm not gonna forgive you, but man, can't you make an effort to help?"
Liliac spat out.
Golshan and Thyme audibly complained and walked off, sitting nearby to eat their rations together. Liliac sat up and looked away, grabbing her food from the ground before shoving it in her mouth.
The nymphs stared. Liliac panted.
There would be a day when humanity would thank her. When people would no longer drown. When people could survive in a cold climate without fire. When people could survive sickness and maybe even old age.
Her heart skipped a beat when she remembered Golshan's words. She wasn't a victim, she wasn't weak. She was the one that would help everyone, and the Host would forgive. Liliac felt her ribs press into her side, stinging her with shameful, dirty, poison.

She had been seven when she first got there. The first nymph after a wave of ishine prisoners. The building of the Program seemed taller back then, and its shadows much more liquid. Liliac hated how vividly she remembered the concrete, but she could barely grasp the idea of her mother's features. She should have had thin eyes and pale skin. Most likely straight hair, all as Liliac did. Both her parents had brown hair and eyes, but she couldn't remember the shape of their nose. Their chins must have been slim.
Liliac found herself doodling her thoughts on the ground below. Even if it was just movement above the grass, she "erased" the drawing with her palm.
She had met the Host that day. Maybe it was pity that guided him to take care of her. Of course, everyone had pity. He had been wearing a suit, that day and all others, even if it changed sizes every couple of years. Looking back, he had aged plenty. He had never been a child during her lifetime, but she had seen him age just as he'd done with her. And all of the Host's efforts couldn't be in vain.
She had met Golshan as a child, when they talked like friends. She had forgotten his face and his name. Even forgotten she'd met him. But that had been the start of her place in the program. When the Host took her apart to whisper how to stop those that tried to escape.
Why hadn't she stopped Thyme? Because he could move the earth. If he had been as weak as Golshan, she wouldn't have hesitated to drag him back inside. Him, the weed Aloe, and the traitor Juniper. All of them inside just to see the Host smile.
She had met countless children and teens, most who got dragged out of school or home to be shoved into cold water. To be kept under the sun for hours. To be locked in isolation for days.
The program wasn't just for experimentation. It was also to get workers that would work the fields better, and with no limited shifts. And it was also to remove dangers from the settlement. Imprison those who could tear down buildings with the palm of their hands. Keep an eye on those who could read minds. And at what cost? Not much more pain than a carrot would feel when you bit into it. The ishine and nymphs could not feel a fraction of the pain humans could, so why should their pain be considered?
Liliac's feet hurt from walking. But it surely was a fraction of what a human could feel, so she didn't care.
But if she was told over and over that she was not that, that she was a victim, maybe she could start to treat the callouses in her feet to try to heal.
"We should start walking again, reach a forest before night," Juniper raised her voice from her conversation with Aloe. "The west is an area of great plains, but we will find one eventually."
The nymphs started to stand, Thyme being one of the first. He hurried to offer Golshan a hand, and then Liliac. She looked at the callouses in his hands and wondered if they were the recent kind, the rough ones of change, or the ones who built up through years. She took the hand.