G R E E N

Like docile green cows, they were herded out of the deep Northern forest, put onto a truck and shipped back to civilisation to be tested. 

Even though they'd only scraped the surface of the boreal wilds, the expedition had been a huge success. 

A new species!

Of hominid!

Or so they thought.

The group of five beings appeared almost human but they were clearly not homo sapiens sapiens. 

Something older perhaps? Something mossier?

Tests done at the Down revealed something far more startling.

They did not have blood in them, these creatures.

They were full of chlorophyll.

That's why they looked green.

In fact they were more plant than human. 

Plant people. Green ones.

They spoke softly amongst one another in flowery notes and stared at the scientists milling round them made of flesh and blood. 

When one of the scientists cut himself they all gathered round and gawped at the red fluid pouring out. They sniffed it's iron fragrance.

"Blood!" they whispered, trying out the sound of the word.

Over time they learnt how to speak and dressed in normal clothes. A sixth member appeared overnight, a baby plant girl. 

The scientists weren't sure of the reproductive processes at play but they thought that the baby was a runner. She looked hungry.

The family of six became famous and were known simply as the Greens. After the boffins had prodded them enough they were allowed into society to integrate with the normal population.

They were given a house by the state and the two older children attended the local high school.

Everything was going well until one of the children, a girl, was cornered after school by a gang of boys.

"Hey, you green sket! What are you doing in our school? You should be in a fucking garden centre, not a school!"

They all laughed at this and grabbed the girl, dragging her back to their den in the woods.

"Light the camping stove!" Commanded the leader, Griddle, who took out a huge Bowie knife from his leather sheath.

"Grab her and hold her arm out on this block"

The gang leader knelt down, smiled at the girl and mouthed,

"I just wanna see if it'll grow back. Like a science project, yeah!"

He cut into the girl's forearm and sliced through soft green vessels and tendons. Chlorophyll surged out in gouts like lime milk. 

"Here, cut it into patties and fry 'em. Lets see what she tastes like. I bet it's like cabbage!"

They all laughed and the smell of cooking plant-life filled the den.

Once fried and crispy they all had a bite and were surprised how good she tasted. 

"Wow! You're tasty cabbage girl. We might have to have some more of you! Here have a try!"

The leader, Griddle, pushed a piece of her own cooked arm into her mouth and forced her jaws up and down until it was eaten.

The girl simply stared at her tormentors and they eventually got bored and told her to go home and not say a word to anyone or else.

Her family stared at the stump, where her firearm and hand should have been and looked at each other intently, as if thoughts were passing invisibly between them. 

At school, with her severed limb bandaged up, she told the Head that she'd been in a car accident and run over.

During the following weeks the whole family experienced insults and abuse wherever they went. 

In the shops, at work and back in school.

TV was full of it. What if more green people showed up? Where will they go? Who will have them?

As hostility grew and anti plant-people flags began to appear along their streets, the family was moved by the state to a redundant farm for their own good. 

Here among the abandoned poly-tunnels full of ripe fruit and overgrown veg beds they felt at home, communing with their own kind and passing messages back to the great forest of the North.

They also received instructions back as to the next phase. 

A specimen or several were needed before coming home. Time was of the essence. 

A plan was formed.

On the evening of their return to the forest the family snuck through allotments and wasteland, gradually making their way to the town wood and Griddle's gang's den.

They could hear the five boys inside, laughing about the cabbage girl and how good she'd tasted and maybe how she could lose a leg this week.

On hearing this the father led his family inside the den and with incredible speed and strength, each one grabbed onto a boy. Despite wriggling they simply could not get free.

The girl who had been tortured looked at Griddle, unable to move in her father's arms, and spoke directly to his face.

"Oh, what's this? Oh look, it has grown back!"

She revealed a fully formed green arm from behind her and smiled at the frightened gang leader. 

"I wonder though Griddle, will yours?"

The girl grabbed Griddle's hand and yanked his arm off from the shoulder down, the whole ragged limb coming away like a chicken leg.

The boy screamed and thick hot blood showered the onlookers, both green and human.

The greens all went "Yum! That's good!" 

The father licked his lips and ushered his family and captives out of the den and onwards towards the far forests of the North, where the plant people were getting sick and starving.

"This meat should help. All that delicious iron. I imagine we'll be back for more before too long!"

The greens held the screaming boys aloft and walked swiftly through the dark night home to the waiting trees.