By Another Name (Editing)

Laughter

This is for Lynne, who always makes me laugh

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Next morning I was woken up by Angel, ate my breakfast with the others around the fire, that Crow had rekindled. They were nice enough, but the only one who actually said much to me was Cub. He was all chatter, about everything and anything, and  after breakfast  he kept nagging Static to hurry up. Static on laughed and said “As soon as I’ve finished the washing up”. He filled a bowl with water from a half empty plastic container. It was huge, even half empty he struggled under its weight.

“Okay” he said, drying his hands on his trousers and tipping the now filthy water out of the bowl onto the dusty ground. “Ice, you’re coming with us, Angel, Crow, it’s about time we packed up, we’ll be back in a few hours, recon you can pack up by then?”

Crow gave him a look and said “What d’you think? How many times have we packed up before?”

Static grinned at him and said “Just checking.” Then he casually swung a lumpy canvas bag over his shoulder and addressed me and Ice “Come on, we’re walking”

It was only a ten minute walk, and the whole time Cub was practically jumping up and down with excitement, but I noticed the Ice was walking as far away as he could without it being obvious and when I walked closer to him he discreetly move away again.

The walk lead us around the back of one of the outcrops of reddish orange rocks that littered the landscape of the wastes, and on the side facing away from the camp it was curved inward, into a semicircle of rock, like a giant had taken a spoonful of it out of the landscape.

There was a faded target drawn in chalk at about head height on the rock. Static lowered the bag carefully and opened it. He pulled out two guns and some ammunition, and laid them out onto of the bag to protect them from the dirt. Then he quickly checked over one gun while Ice checked the other, and loaded it, all with the maximum efficiency, as far as my untrained eye could tell. He was perfectly at home with the gun in his hands, he knew how to handle it.

He proved my thoughts when he lifted the gun and firing in the same motion, hitting the target with ease. Then he unloaded it and gave it to Cub along with some ammunition.

"Okay, Cub, let's have a look."

Cub loaded it a bit more slowly, checking each stage to be sure he’d done it right before moving on to the next, and when he done he looked at Static, who nodded approvingly. Finally he raised the gun, aimed, and fired. He didn’t hit bulls eye as Static had, but he didn’t miss altogether either.

Static smiled and ruffled his hair. “Good work little one,” then turned to Ice “Ice, your teaching Newbe the basics, got that?”

Ice nodded expressionlessly. Static must know how much he hates me, so why have him teach me? Is this a lesson for me or Ice?

Ice came over and showed me how to load the gun, and I quickly memorised it, and he showed me how to fire and that was it. After that he left me to work out how to aim all by myself.

Eventually Static yelled "Ice! If you don't teach her properly I'll teach her using your head as a target!" after one shot nearly took his head off, when I forgot to put the safety catch on.

Don’t I think he mean it, but I wasn't sure.

However, it did make Ice get up from where he was sitting a few feet away from me and actually start teaching me the basics of safety. Not that he helped my aim.

"Okay that's enough" called Static "let's just see how you've both improved."

Cub went first, he took aim and fired, hitting the bulls eye.