for, it won't be long, till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on
~
This world was all red and green.
The sun was a deep crimson-y orange, and much smaller than normal. It was abyssmally cold; Tara had thought that days upon days where she saw no one, and days and days of scorching heat with no relief, would be the worst thing that she'd ever see.
This world was all red and green. The red of the sun, the light hitting the water and the glass structures, the thick, thick green foliage hiding god knows what in the first few floors of skyscrapers, tinted red with the waning sunlight.
The green of the trees, and the red of the sun and the dead things.
Tara roasted an unidentifiable squirelly animal, and chewed the meat thoughtfully. Her hair was dirty, and her hands were dirty. She was never a Christian, even though for twelve years she went to a Catholic school and was warned of the evil and sin that she harbored. It had been a few months, and it should have been right around Christmas, with her friends and family around the tree.
Someone stepped out of the bushes and she looked up, wishing for the hundredth time that someone was still standing beside her, someone that she trusted.
A woman with a black dot over one eye, and a pale white face, cocked her head. She said, "Who are you?"
Tara swallowed. "Tara."
"Domino." The woman sat down, without being invited, and said, "It looks like you've been out here a while."
"Long enough." Tara hesitated, and then offered her stick of squirel meat to the woman. "It tastes awful, but."
Domino took a hunk, and looked around. She said conversationally, "This sure is festive, isn't it?"
Tara gulped. "Is it - I mean, time doesn't work, right, here, does it? So, I know it should be Christmas, somewhere, but, is it really?"
Domino shrugged. "Where I came from, a few people have Christmas trees up. Franklin even made it snow, for a few hours, so that the kids could make snow angels. He had to melt it all before the crops died, though."
Without thinking, Tara sat up, saying excitedly, "There are still kids alive somewhere?"
Domino smiled, and immediately Tara felt, a bit better. Domino was also incredibly pretty, and now saying, "If you want, you could come back with me. See if it's to your taste."
Tara had loved her family, at one point, and adored her mother more than anything. It had been her job to take care of the little cousins, always, because they responded to her, and Tara had loved kids ever since. "Really? Kids?"
Domino nodded, smiling quietly. "Kids. Brats, even," she added with a snort.
The world was red and green, and there was no one alive within a hundred miles of anything, except her and this woman. Tara suddenly didn't care about the hundred and one reasons that Domino could and probably was dangerous; she was picturing reading to excited faces around the fireplace, and presents, and maybe a tree that didn't have something dead underneath it.
She said, "Could I come?" with a shy smile.
Domino took another hunk of meat, and nodded. Tara had had about enough of the shifts and Christmas trees with no one around. Domino answered, "We're always looking for good people."