A Ranger's Battle

==Intro==
The Earth was a peaceful place once. There was war, and battle and cruel, evil things in it but it was Utopia compared to what I live in.
They got rid of names. To be named something like Madison or James, you'd have to be a supercenetarian, and there aren't very many. Now we all have names like Significance, or Starlight. Trust me, I know people with those names.
I am named Estonia. That little country that was in Europe that you didn't hear much of. I live where Estonia was, now called Emmany. I speak Estonian and all their Dialects and languages, but I most commonly speak English.
It is required you speak English. If you don't learn how to at least have a basic conversation, you are imprisoned and shot in the head. This is what is supposed to be our Utopia, but it is a Dystopia. 
It is especially a Dystopia for my friends and I. We are Rangers, people who live on the outskirts of cities, who live in dilapidated buildings, or rubble. Rangers survive of stolen food, stolen supplies, everything that they have is stolen. We are theives.
And this is how the uprising started.
==Chapter One- Estonia==
I run away from the former schoolhouse, my feet flying towards the old ruins of an Estonian building, escaping and outrunning all of my friends. I've always been the fastest runner.
I hop over stones, and slide under our usual after-school meeting place. Clearly, nobody was hot on my tail, as it takes the first one-Significance-about two minutes to get here after me. Significance huffs and breathes incredibly fast. Starlight, Glass, Teal and Fire slid under about 5 minutes after Significance.
"You're too fast Estonia." Fire puffs, pressing his muscular arms against his knees. "Or maybe you're to slow." I retort with a victorious smile. Fire rolls his eyes.
"Where today?" I change the subject. "What about Nona's?" Glass smiles mischeviously. Glass is my little 13 year old brother, 3 years younger than me. "Woah woah woah. I know we've lived here and stole from some pretty big markets before, but nobody, nobody steals from Nona's groceries." Teal makes that crystal clear. 
It's true. Nona Chevrue, the only supercentenarian in Emmany, owns a store, and the last time a "Ranger" tried to steal something from it, he was at gunpoint within minutes. And who was behind the gun but 116 year old Nona Chevrue herself. Let's just say that he didn't make it out of the store.
"Sorry Glass, but even though we've all been Rangers since pretty much forever, I'd rather starve for a week than steal from Nona's."  I tell him. I don't want my brother to be hurt, but we kind of have to let him down. "Let's just go to the Suurex market." I say. Suurex is the easiest place to steal from, and it's huge. We all agree and head off.
We all snake around the ruins seperately, being as quiet and as quick as we can. We are going to Suurex market, the largest and the easiest to steal from market in Urbanne Suurex. Urbanne Suurex is the city that we live on the outskirts of. It's also the least guarded city in Emmany. 
I look ahead of me, waiting for Fire's signal. He saw some of the very little guards, so we all had to hide. He nods his head towards the colourful tents of Suurex. I sneak alongside Starlight, and we all move cautiously towards the marketplace.
When we get there, we split into pairs. One does the stealing, one distracts the awfully stupid store owners. I go with Fire, Glass with Teal, and Starlight with Significance. My forte is distraction. Fire and I walk to a fruit store, at least twenty shelves, all devoted to fruits and vegetables. I walk over to a shelf full of carrots, and stare at them. A young man walks up to me. "Can I help you?" He asks. "Oh, I was just wondering which carrots were best for cooking." I say. The man start going into a pointless explaination about carrots, so I tune out. I look behind Carrot Man, and see Fire nod.
"Thank you very much, but I have to go." I interrupt, and walk away. Fire has a black bag full of fruit, and another filled with vegetables. He quickly runs out to hide the bags in some ruins, and we find another store. 
There, I pretend to fall, and Fire steals a large fish and some bacon and sausages while the owner assits me. We hit one more store, and hide in the ruins where we hid the food. Starlight and Significance arrive first. "What'd you get?" Starlight asks with a hungry look on her face. "A useless explaination on carrots." I joke. "Fruit, fish and, a cake." Fire tells them what we actually got. I've had a crush on Fire since the day we met, 13 years ago. I've always thought he had a crush on me. I've seen how he looks at me when he thinks I'm not looking. He always laughs at my jokes even if they're horrible. I do the same to him though.
We wait for Teal and Glass, and then we leave to go to the rubble that is our home. I walk alongside Fire, and I can hear Starlight and Significance making fun of us. I roll my eyes, and keep walking.
Fire takes my hand in his, and I am pleasantly suprised. I look up at the boy who is much taller than me, and smile, as we walk all the way back to our home.
==Chapter Two- Fire==
I take Estonia's hand in my free one. She looks at me with her electric blue eyes, and smiles. I've had a crush on her for 13 years, but I think she feels the same way about me. We return to our pile of rubble/house, and I go shove the food in the coldest spot in the ruins. I smell smoke when I return, and smile at the blazing flames of a fire. The thing I was named after. 
I always remember my parents telling me they called me Fire because fire is strong. I only remember that, because I'm older than everyone else, at 19. I was 6 when me met. 6 when our parents were killed in a bombing. 6 when we became a family.
A spark falls on Significance's shirt, and she lets out a shreik, causing Starlight to cover her mouth. We can't afford to give away our location. We'd all much rather be theives than dead theives with bullets in their brains thrown in a burning pile outside the king's castle.
The king is an evil, heartless man who, exactly 24 years ago, started the Millenium War. It was a terrible war, destroyed evrything and killed at least 80 million people. It lasted 2 years, but there are still bombings everywhere and mass shootings in overpopulated, racist or areas with a lot of Rangers. Last year, 100 000 Rangers were shot, and burned when they were dead.
We've been lucky enough to avoid the eye of guards. Any Rangers caught, are shot in the head immediately. 
"Why the fire?" I ask, nervous of being discovered. "Because I don't want parasites." Starlight says, putting some cut up fish over a frying pan already filled with bacon. "Be careful." I tell them. 
"Hey Fire, can you get the tomatoes?" Estonia asks. "Yeah." I run to get the tomatoes from the cold spot.
I throw them to her, and she catches every one. She laughs, and cuts them up to fry with the fish and bacon. We've had to use a sharp rock for a knife, because no tents at the Suurex Market ever have cutlery.
"Food!" Starlight calls for all the people who are just sitting around. We all jet to her, and she leaves the food in the pan. We all dig in, we haven't had a meal like this in a long time. We stress our supplies until there is abseloutly nothing left. 
It's dark outside, and the starlight lights up the sky. Glass and Significance have already fallen asleep, out in the open, being only 12 and 13. Estonia is drifting off too. Teal is getting very comfortable with Starlight, her head on his shoulder, hiding behind the stone with us. They've liked each other for eternity. I've caught them kissing before, luckily they didn't see me. It's one of the benefits of being a Ranger, you get used to being unbelievably quiet, and unnoticeable. 
Estonia lies down, and falls asleep on my knee. I brush her glimmering black hair out of her face and lean back. I can tell she isn't totally asleep, because she moves off my knee, and cuddles up to my side. I put my arm around her, and she smiles slightly. 
Eventually, we both fall asleep.
• • •
We are awakened by screams. Not screams of joy. Screams of sheer, unmistakable horror. Estonia jets her head up, and sees someone being dragged away by someone else. She looks out a small hole in the stone we hide behind, and she leans back, her face so white, she could camouflage with the snow that comes with the harsh Emmany winters. 
I look at her as if asking "what?"
"Glass. They took Glass. They have Glass." She whispers. The guards captured Glass. Starlight's jaw drops to the ground. Teal's black eyes widen.
I see Significance's coppery hair hiding behind stone. "There's another one! Grab her!" A guard yells. There's more than one, and they've caught Significance. All I can do now is pray they don't catch us. 
I see Significance and Glass being dragged down the road, and when the guards backs are turned, Estonia runs out, not screaming, just running after Glass and Significance. I run out after her, if she gets taken, I do to. 
The little ones are thrown harshly into a black van. What are they doing with them? Why didn't they shoot them on the spot?
Estonia breaks down in tears, in the middle of the partially dilapidated road. I put my hand on her shoulder. She lost her parents, and now she's going to lose her brother.
And I'm going to do something about it.
Category:War
Category:Battle
Category:Adventure
Category:Army
Category:Romance