Meaning of "Low down on the sky was a narrow band of apricot, all that was left of the daylight."

Question

This passage is from The Children's Bach by Helen Garner

The hostess at the open door showed her teeth. Vicki came out into the world. She saw the man beside Elizabeth and slowed down. That couldn’t be Philip. Philip couldn’t possibly look like that. Philip played in a band. She whipped off the rhinestone ear-rings and shoved them into her pocket. The freeway was dark. Vicki’s toes were so cold that they felt like rows of marbles inside her shoes. The strange boy was strapped into his car seat beside her. He mooed and murmured to himself. She stopped trying to listen to the conversation in the front, and stared out the window. Low down on the sky was a narrow band of apricot, all that was left of the daylight. Dexter threw back his head and laughed at something Elizabeth said. Vicki experienced the small prickle of power that comes to the one who rides in the back seat. She saw her captors as they would never see themselves: two silly heads of hair, two sets of shoulders, two unsuspecting napes. She hated them. She closed her eyes with hatred. Dexter saw her in the mirror and thought she had fallen asleep. Unresisted now, his tenderness for the whole world rushed to envelop her.

Is "Low down on the sky was a narrow band of apricot, all that was left of the daylight." metaphorical? and mean "Vicki is seeing a narrow light in the sky that was like a narrow band of apricot and because the sky was not still too dark"?

Dose "apricot" here mean "The light in color of apricot"?

Am I right in interpreting other parts in bold?

explain: Vicki has just deplaned in Melbourne airport

1. Does "VicKi came out into the world" mean "Vicki was seeing the new city and came out into the new city (Melbourne)"

2. Does "She saw her captors as they would never see themselves" mean "She saw her captors in a way they would never see themselves"?

3. Does "Unresisted now, his tenderness for the whole world rushed to envelop her" mean "he could not help himself not to feel pity for her and wanted with all of energy to sympathy just for her not for other people"?

Answer 1

Apricot here is a color, the color of the horizon as the sun was setting.