By Another Name (Editing)

Arguments

For Sarah, who introduced me to My Chemical Romance

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I didn’t wake up all at once, I came around slowly, vaguely becoming aware of my surroundings piece by piece. I was lying on the ground, there was a rock digging into my right leg so I moved it a few centimetres away. My head was resting on a folded up jacket and my face was chilled by the night air, but there was a blanket over the rest of my body keeping me warm. I could hear a fire crackling quietly and some people talking in low voices. I opened my eyes a crack and without moving my head looked towards it. There were five silhouettes sat around it, but I couldn’t make out any details without looking at them properly.

I closed my eyes again. I needed some time to think. That’s what my parents had always taught me: that when I was in a bad situation I should think logically about what I know and what it means before  making a decision. And this is definitely a bad situation.

I was in what was almost certainly the wastes, with a group of rebels. I couldn't go back home without the Officers catching me, and doing who know what to me, I obey the law and respect the State, but I have no illusions about what they do to suspected terrorists.

I could try to live away from the rebels, but on my own, in the middle of the desert, with no skills I wouldn't be able to survive. That left me one option I could think of that didn’t involve becoming a rebel. Hope the rebels would let me stay, and join them. As much as I disliked rebels, I still wanted to live. Perhaps if I learnt some skills from them, perhaps then I could go live on my own. I knew it wasn't very realistic but it was my only hope.

I was about to open my eyes again when I heard a snippet of the conversation.

"You can't expect us to keep her here"

"Why not?" replied an angry female voice.

"She's got no skills, what use will she be?"

"None of us, including you, had any skills at first, except for Crow."

"Yes, but we were all children when we were found."

"So if I was older, you would have just left me to die" this was a child speaking

"Maybe, if you had no skills"

"What was the point of rescuing her if we're just going to leave her to die?" said the female voice.

"Yeah, what was the point of risking yours, Statics, and Angels necks to get her if you’re just going to leave her to die out here?" agreed a new voice, defiantly a man, slightly older than the other two.

"The point was that we thought she might have been an insider. Now we know she isn't"

"So! that doesn't mean we can just abandon her" said the woman.

"Why not?"

Quietly, the man with turquoise hair spoke up "Because it's The State that abandons people who can't work for their keep, not us."

They all shut up after that.

I kept my eyes shut for another few minutes, so that they wouldn't know I'd been eves dropping then sat up, and groaned to make sure they knew I was awake.

"Are you okay?" said the woman anxiously, getting up and coming over "I'm sorry about your head, and nose I wish there had been another way. "

"It's okay, it isn't your fault. Thank you for rescuing me." I looked at them properly, there was the woman who was talking to me, a very tall black man, a child, maybe a boy, maybe a girl, a guy with close cropped brown hair and a little way off the man with turquoise hair.

"Crow, check her head again would you?" said the turquoise hair.

“Sure Static” said the black guy, who was presumably Crow, and he came over and started to probe my head, occasionally asking if something hurt.

“Crow's our doctor,” explained Static coming over himself “he’s called Crow because both him and the birds spend a lot of time with the wounded,”

"Though" Crow added with a laugh "for different reasons, now follow the pencil with your eyes" he moved a pencil, just a little way from my face

"Okay, you've got mild concussion, and a broken nose, but that’s it"

"Come here by the fire and have something to eat" said the woman, making space between her and the child, who was about ten or eleven.

"I'm Fallen Angel," she said "but everyone just calls me Angel." She was thin, but muscular, with dull brown hair and lightly tanned skin.

"I'm Cub, at the moment, but when I turn sixteen Static says I can change it to whatever I want. Static says I don't know enough about myself to chose a name yet, but I want to be called Lion, cause I'm so fierce."

"More like Kitten" laughed Static ruffling the child’s, scruffy blond hair, I think . "How long till dinner?"

"Five more minutes" said the man who had been arguing against me joining them, looking at the meat over the fire.  

"So you all chose your own names?" I asked

"Yes, I'm Fallen Angel because when I was younger-"

She was interrupted by a loud cough from Static who gave her a meaningful look and said "Meat looks ready to me, why don't you and Ice go get it off the rack, while me, and the New-be get plates and cutlery  and Cub you sort out the veg."

As it turned out the meat wasn't ready, though it was edible, and they all tucked in happily enough, the cutlery scraping loudly on the metal plates occasionally.

"You'll need to think of a name too." Angel said to me over her food.

"What's wrong with my old one?" I frowned, I liked my name.

"If we know each other’s real names it's too easy to track anyone we left behind down." replied Static, matter-of-factly.

"Oh."

"Don't worry, you don't have to think of a name just yet. It took me three days to work mine out." said Angel.

"That's good to know, thanks." I smiled nervously

"Static, when can I come on a raid with you lot?" interrupted Cub, saving us from an uncomfortable silence

"Not yet, little one" he said comfortingly

"But it's not fair!"

"I'm not having your head blown off, or letting The Officers catch you just because I let you on a raid when you were too young." said Static, angrily now.

Cub looked so sad at the thought of not being able to go on a raid that Static softened and said "Look, we'll practice shooting tomorrow, Newbe needs to learn anyway.” He looked at me, dareing me to argue.

I didn’t