The No Names

by Frank Albelo

  At the mention of fighting power, both men tensed. I hadn’t told them that we planned to find a way to get out of Dun Lund, but there were few things that would need fighting power outside of survival. Both our groups remained tense and silent. Time stretched as the man at the front looked between me, Koma and the other Digits with a cold calculating look. The man might talk like a brute, but there was more to him than met the eye.

  “Alright. We’ll talk things over.” With that he leapt forward, landing in the water surprisingly quiet, and extended his hand forward. “I’m 34, the tall brown fellow is 25 and that’s 34.”

  “I’m Alpha.” I shook the man’s hand as he looked between me and the others around him in confusion. A moment later he janked his hand back.

  “I thought y’all said you were Digits!” He began to back away slightly, hands gripping his spear.

  “Woah there! No need for all that. We gave each other names. No need to follow the norm. No terminals to use or Officials to punish us.”

  The man was stunned for the first time since they had ambushed us. His mouth gaped slightly as he considered what we had just said. I noticed his two companions leaning forward, shaking shocked looks between them. Before they could react somewhat more violently, I introduced everyone in out group.

  I imagined they assumed Koma was some kind of exception to the whole Digit thing, since I had mentioned his name early in the conversation, but the rest having names was too much. With how ingrained our use of numbers as names has been over the past centuries, it is somewhat odd that we cast out the convention. I didn’t regret it. The frequency with which the others also used their names told me they were also onboard.

  “Well, now you guys can start thinking of what to call yourselves. I could make some sugge—”

  “No no, I think we got this. I have an idea. A dream more than anything, but I think I will chose that.” The glazed over look in 34’s eyes told me he was in deep thoughts. The other two survivors came closer to our group, apparently losing any hint of fear they might have had.

  “Is it true? We can call ourselves with actual names? We can be Named?” The woman had a light shrill voice.

  “It's true! Alpha suggested all of our names, but we all got to pick. It was super exciting and I really like my name!” Beta was already addressing the survivors before I got the chance. Him and Gamma were extremely social within the group and I could only imagine how the presence of the youths would lead to trust building with the remaining survivors.

  It was several minutes before the excitement died down, names being exchanged back and forth between both groups. 34 approached me, extending his hand once again. “How’s we start again? I’m… Justin.”

  The man savored the word, casually repeating the word to himself before he actually shook my hand. Without being prompted for an explanation he went on about several musicians in the past with the name. He had found one of their music disks trashed in a recycler, but he hunted down working sound files to obsess over while working at the waste processor.

  I patted the man’s shoulder awkwardly. He looked to be a decent person, but his changes in attitude and mannerisms were definitely excessive. The other two survivors remained somewhat skeptical but they also brought up suggestions.

  The woman, newly-minted-Justin’s companion, wanted to be called Lara. The man opted for an odd name: Galileo. I had never heard of the name before, but he assured me in a very quiet voice that it was a good name. Happy to be meeting more people, but anxious to learn how they had survived the wilderness, I pulled Justin from the impromptu naming party the younger Digits had started.

  “I know this is moving somewhat quick, considering we met about thirty minutes ago, but I think it would be best for both of our groups to get together.” The look in the man’s face turned pensive, exhibiting that hidden depth I noticed earlier.

  “Agreed. Our camp is a bit far from here. This is the closest water that isn’t contested, but we should make it before night frost,” he said.

  I wasn’t sure what night frost was, but I could guess what he meant by contested and I assumed neither of those things were good. He turned from me, facing the rest of the group.

  “Alright everyone! I think it would be smart, as does Alpha here, that we head back to camp. 25… erm… Galileo; please lead the way.” The man corrected himself, getting used to having a name looked to have an adjustment period depending on the person.

  The soft spoken man moved quietly from the edge of the stream. I almost forgot about Marvin as our group cleared the roots into the forest once again. When I called the ATC forward, the survivors almost jumped in their skins. The surprise on their face was almost more than when we revealed that Koma and I were part mutant.

  “You all still have your Carrier!” exclaimed Galileo.

  After the initial exclamation, the man coughed to clear his throat. He explained that the ATC for his group had been bonded to him, but one of the experiments had taken hold of it and they had been forced to use it as a distraction. Justin said that while Galileo’s original group had not been able to kill and return a mutant, his had been. Their ATC, however, suffered a similar fate to Galileo’s. Galileo also told us that his ATC didn’t look as sturdy, even with all the scratches and dents, as Marvin. They all found it a bit funny that I had named the machine also, but were more than content to have the mech in our party.

  While Koma maintained watch with Delta and Lara, I told Galileo and Justin about the modifications I had made to Marvin. Elaborating on the potential to recharge the battery packs, they immediately recognized the benefits and we discussed future ideas.

  ● ● ●

  Time passed quickly as I gathered information from the survivors. Lara would sometimes switch with Galileo at the lead and I would do my best to include whoever was leading in the conversation. My main focus was extracting information from Justin. The man was somewhat hesitant to share his group’s information, but as I laid out everything my group had to offer he must have felt cornered.

  He explained that they had set up a camp near a small cave. The cave served them as protection, and they had lugged large logs to cordon off the ‘living area’ as they called it. He continued to elaborate that the only reason they had been able to survive was thanks to 82, who he insisted be called Hunter from then on for obvious reasons. The man had been born an Official, but due to some scandal he had been demoted and stripped of his name while young.

  As the man rambled on about Hunter’s exploits, I was able to gather that he had survival training and had been the one to take down a total of three mutants. Alone. I was eager to meet Hunter. I hoped he would be able to refine the mess that was my fighting style while also teaching us about living without relying on Starden’s scraps.

  As the light began to fade, we crossed a pair of the large redwoods we had seen in the distance. Not a few minutes later we noticed the signs of well worn paths and several cut trees. Justin took the lead after we passed the redwoods, doing a strange bird call out into the woods. When the path we were now walking on widened to about seven feet we saw a large rounded line of logs before us.

  The survivors had clear cut the area around their cave, giving them line of sight on their perimeter while also allowing them to stack makeshift walls. The logs they used were easily a foot and a half in diameter and they were stacked three to a section. I marveled at the sheer amount of work it would have taken just to get the logs cut and lifted. A man and a woman were standing at the opening between the logs, waving us over. When they noticed the rest of our group as well as the ATC they stopped, jumped behind their walls and peeked cautiously.

  Justin motioned for our group to wait while him and Galileo approached their base. Lara stayed with us, continuing to chat with Gamma and Zeta. I smiled, seeing as the ladies were now not quite so outnumbered. When I turned back to the survivors, the man I could only assume was Hunter was glaring at me. The intensity of his look was akin to Starden’s when he had
been interrogating me, but considering all the things I had seen since then, it was easy for me to shrug it off.

  When Galileo waved us forward, Lara jogged over to the other woman present. While we had become a bit more relaxed around the trio of survivors, I noticed that everyone tensed for any kind of eventuality. Justin was still talking to Hunter as we made our way closer and I overheard the end of their conversation.

  “...mutate. This is what you were looking for.”

  I chose not to comment on the odd man’s words. Instead, I smiled as widely as I could and tilted my head slightly up. I saw Hunter and the other woman flinch slightly as me and Koma came into full view. The latter had been keeping his extra pair of arms folded behind him, but he crossed them in front of him when I smiled at the survivors.

  Nice timing. I thought.

  I aim to please, brother.

  Finding it odd he kept calling me brother, but having a more pressing situation, I waited for the survivors to address us.

  “Welcome. Uhm… Justin here tells me you are another group of Digits?” Hunter had the gruff voice I had expected from him, giving even Delta a run for his credits.

  “Indeed. We are looking to join up with you all. Our friend Koma told us about you all, so here we are. As far as the name thing. I’m Alpha.” I extended my hand and Hunter shook it, gripping hard.

  “Right. Well, also from what Justin tells me, I already have a name. I suppose it will be the kick in the pants the USG deserve for dropping us in this wild shithole. I’m Hunter. 73 here is still thinking of a name.” The man motioned to the other female survivor who was talking with Lara. Other than the tension between Hunter, Koma, Justin and I, the rest of the group already looked to be unfolding.

  Beta, Delta and Epsilon were talking to Galileo about the walls and asking how they had managed to cut all of the trees. Catching on that particular topic, hoping to break the metaphorical ice, I asked Hunter how they had managed the relatively clean cuts.

  The man proceeded to give a highly detailed explanation that properly contained fire can be used to cut through wood. The general idea was that they chopped the bigger trees then used fire to turn the massive log into workable sections. I was inspecting their outer wall closely while he spoke, marveling at the ingenuity of it. I had had to rig several electrical systems, Marvin not included, as well as mining rigs while working for the Lunar Mining Company. The simple, yet strong construction tickled my engineering brain and I congratulated the group on their base.

  While Galileo, the one responsible for the actual structure, took the praise in stride, I could almost feel the suspicion coming from Hunter.

  While we all stood in the clearing around the survivor’s base, 73 decided on a name: Dana. I scratched my head, swearing I knew the name from somewhere. Before I could give that much more thought, Lara and Dana invited us beyond the outer walls.

  The inside of the base was simple. There were five short logs set around a large fire close to the entrance to the cavern. As we all stood a bit awkwardly by the smoldering fire, Hunter and Galileo rolled three logs that had been propped against the inside of the wall closer to the fire. As we took our seats, I conferred with Marvin briefly.

  “Are you able to sense any life, like with the sheep? I can only sense the mutants.”

  “Negative. Data input is significantly higher than on surface passage, life signs and indicators are unreadable.”

  I cursed silently and turned my attention to the group before they noticed the exchange. I made a bit of a loud display to tell Marvin to keep an eye on the entrance and the ATC moved over to the opening. It shut off its repulsors once it had transformed into its bipedal form. I hadn’t had a chance to ask the mech if it could sense the wildlife, but with odd coil snakes and the potential for other alien life form I was hoping it would have been able.

  Moving past the disappointing exchange I turned back to the group. Justin was talking to Hunter again, but stopped when they noticed me paying attention to the group again. It was obvious they were hiding something.

  If you overhear anything, let me know.

  Sure thing, Boss.

  I was pretty sure Koma thought some sarcasm at me, but I chose to focus on the survivors. Waving my hand, I got the attention of the Digits and the survivors short after that.

  “Well, seeing as we are all now introduced, I believe it would be a good idea to talk about the future,” I started. “We have established a ‘rationing’ exchange with the base that dropped us off. We were also able to get some information about what exactly is going on here on Dun Lund. We would like for our groups to join together and begin to think on short and long term options.”

  “I don’t know what you mean by long term.” Hunter was obviously not impressed with what we had accomplished or found out, but I answered his question nonetheless.

  “I hope that we’ll be able to find a way off planet eventually. I don’t pretend to know what the endgame of the Officials are, Starden in particular, but there has to be some reason we are all here. Or given these fancy suits and AI carts. It’s a possibility that if we find out what it is, we might be able to find a way out of our predicament.” I wasn’t sure if a peaceful solution was in the cards, but it was worth a try.

  “As far as short term, I think having a source of food not reliant on them would be good. I’m more than happy to hear that you guys have been surviving here for months without their support.” I smiled kindly at the other survivors, feeling my face twitch into a grim line when it fell on Hunter.

  “Right. Well, we aren’t in much need of anything. Y’all can just go back to your little city and figure out your own methods for sur—” Justin jumped forward, cutting Hunter off.

  “Now, now. No need for that my friend. These gals and fellows are just trying to make due. If we hadn’t found you to guide us through we would have been toast. Plus, having more hands in the camp would be more than useful. Might even get to do some of those bigger projects of yours.” The man was definitely charismatic; it was tough to tell who was the real leader of the survivor’s group.

  There was tense silence for a few seconds. Justin kept waving his hands back and forth in the air, apparently trying to usher an answer out of the stoic Hunter. Both groups were tense as the man deliberated, but with a sigh he turned to me.

  “I suppose cooperation will end up being beneficial. Let’s see what trouble we can cause.” A mischievous glint crossed the man’s face.

  I didn’t fully trust the situation, but I stood from my log and shook hands. The others cheered and conversation doubled up. Justin, expectantly, began to float around conversations. It was odd that our group had grown from six members to double that in the span of three days, but survival situations called for a united front. I could only imagine the amount of work keeping that front would take.

  ● ● ●

  Over the course of the night, the group got to know each other. I lingered at the edge of the group while even Koma got a hand in the action. The survivors showed the Digits a dance. It was odd that Lara knew how to dance, especially if she was a Digit, but she wasn’t from New Dust or a Lunar colony; there were less oppressive cities on Earth, but they were rare.

  While Beta and Gamma picked up on the odd shimming and hopping the older members had trouble following. This, of course, was supremely amusing for Justin and Lara who were executing the dance well, fluid motions and all. Galileo sat on his stump while talking quietly with Dana. Hunter was just inside the cave entrance. After watching for several minutes, I moved over to the secluded man.

  “So, life of the party are you?” I asked him, keeping my distance so as not to spook the man.

  “Hmph,” scoffed the survivor. “Those four have always been too lighthearted. They don’t deserve to die, so here I am. Stuck.”

  “Well, you don’t have to help them. Or us for that matter.” I wanted to figure out what the man’s contempt was for, since it would allow us to cooperate better. There were s
everal potential reasons for it, being a mutant topping that list.

  “Bit late to try to take our agreement back, don’t ya’ think?”

  “True, not if you want to save face with the others. All I care about is why you didn’t want to help from the beginning.”

  When I finished speaking, the man turned around to face me. He was holding a long section of metal that glimmered in the fire light. The metal had an edge that was visible even from my spot at the mouth of the cave.

  “Have you caught a look at yourself, son? You look like the spawn of a lizard that had fun with a human. How would you feel if a four arm freak and yourself showed up to the place where you are sticking it to the Government?” There was an accusatory tone to his voice, but I ignored it. The man wasn’t wrong, but I needed to dig deeper if I was going to trust Hunter.