Green Eyes

Yen stared intently out from the shelter of an abandoned hotel into the rain, trying to catch glimpses of individual raindrops. She looked young for her 18 years, skinny, only 45 kilograms, but tall for a girl, about 170 centimeters. Her pale skin and splash of freckles made her look frail, but her deep green eyes betrayed an intensity borne of survival. Her hair was short spiky red, a common street fashion among the local scavenger gangs. Her black and grey clothing was an assortment of ripped and shredded scraps, worn so that there were no overlapping holes, although, nothing she wore lacked holes.

The raindrops fell as big globs of slimy water, smacking the hard concrete of the narrow street hard and loud. Yen had read somewhere that the terraforming process that made the planet Crimson capable of sustaining human life had, also created a harmless bacteria that drifted on the air currents, until the humidity reached a certain point. Then, the bacteria promoted rain, gathering moisture from the humid air, growing raindrops as they fell. Raindrops that formed at higher altitudes were naturally larger, hitting hard like marbles. Yen watched for these, hoping to see it collide with the concrete.

Suddenly, Yen saw one of the largest globs she had ever seen, a few centimeters across, shining dully in the grey light, streaking towards the street with almost impossible speed. Yen’s eyes flashed downward, following the glob in the split second before it crashed. Her eyes had barely enough time to widen, and she gasped with a sudden jerk of her diaphragm.

Smiling, Yen turned away from the street and looked sideways across her shoulder to where her brother squatted. Dala, her twin, matched her in height, short for compared to the other boys on the street, but he had more meat on his bones, weighing about 60 kilograms. He kept his hair black and at shoulder length, pulled back tight and tied with a long shoe lace. Anyone looking at their eyes, however, would know in an instant that they were siblings. His clothes were similar, being ripped and torn, but his colors were shades of black, faded and fresh.

Dala was staring out into the rain, but not up, not at the rain, but down the street, and he was not smiling. Yen followed his gaze and patiently waited, scanning the grey for signs of movement. It took a few seconds, but she finally saw what Dala was staring at.

Because the rain tends to fall in large heavy drops, people tend not to walk in the rain. It can be painful, and, after long exposure, it can be harmful. Even a quick sprint across the street was uncomfortable enough to keep most people from getting wet. But Yen and Dala watched as someone was walking slowly down the center of the street. They couldn’t see clearly through heavy rain, but it appeared to be a bulky man, and he was carrying something with both hands.

It was a soldier, wearing full body armor and carrying a weapon. Instantly, Yen’s stomach tightened. It was as if the moment she saw the man, her mind synchronized with Dala’s, fear binding them mentally. The twins slipped back, further into the recesses of the hotel lobby. The air was warm, but the ceramic floor was cold, and Yen’s thoughts echoed Dala’s. Was there a heat signature left where they had just been standing?

Yen and Dala looked into each other’s green eyes, then they both turned and ran. They did not speak, but moved as one, through the lobby, down the main hall, past the shadowy convention rooms, into a dark service corridor, past the dimly lit kitchen, and into an open rear service area which. The main vehicle door had long since been torn apart for the scrap metal. They snuck across the alley to the emergency exit of a building that used to be the headquarters of a major in-system bank. Two large doors hung on broken hinges, leaving barely enough room for a skinny scavenger to squeeze through without making any noise. They breezed through like a whisper, Dala first, into utter darkness. They felt their way along the wall until they reached a dimly lit teller lobby. They climbed the stairs to the balcony level and slipped into what was once an executive office overlooking the main street.