To the groupchat, with love <3

I walked in the trough between two tall sand dunes, sweating profusely under my mask and hood. My boots, the nicest pair I owned, had betrayed me about two days into my jouney and now and both my heels had massive blisters, the pain of which served mostly as a pleasant distraction from the agony of my sunburns and the aching of my legs from nearly a week of walking. I took a swig from my canister, emptying it, and threw the empty bottle back in my pack. I was towards the end of my reserves, but conserving water was a sure way to die quickly. Of course at this rate, dying quickly seemed like a nicer alternative to the more likely option of dying slowly. I pulled out another bottle, drank from it, and hooked it onto my belt.

A helicopter flew overhead, scanning the desert for life. It looked to be a corperate vehicle rather than a federal one, due to the lack of obnoxious American flag imagery painted onto the doors. Of course, all that meant was that the tech would be more advanced and the soldiers less lazy.

Lacking anywhere to hide, I pulled my hood further over my forehead. The hood had an obfuscation image printed on the top of it, which would convice most computer vision models that what they were viewing was just sand. It was fairly cheaply printed, but the onboard model would likely not be equipped with the latest models, so a simple print could confuse it. The helicopter kept flying, so I assumed it had worked.

The sun began to rise further, continuing to heat the sands. I stopped and looked around for a bit, but other than a black cliff in the distance, there was nothing to see. I pulled out my tent and crawled under its shade, not all that much cooler than the naked sun.

I began to prepare for my midday sleep as the nocturnal desert creature that I had become, when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and saw a masked figure walking down from the top of the dune in front of me.

They walked down the dune and leaned against the side of my tent with all the confidence of somebody with a very large gun, which they did indeed have. "So," they said calmly, "you've been in this area for a few days now. Any explanation as to why?"

I laughed nervously. "I mean... I'd rather be with you than..." I gestured to the open desert around me. The figure didn't respond. "I can't continue to live out there; things are getting really bad! During the last administration, I said I was going to leave, but I didn't have the money, and then... now I don't know where to go."

The person chuckled. "Did you say you were going to Canada?" I winced. That had been my plan, but it obviously wasn't an option anymore.

"I was hoping I could join you? I don't know how to hack, but I can do other stuff! I promise I can help!"

The figure put a hand on my shoulder. "Look. I understand you want to join us. But we don't have the resources to take in everybody that needs us. We would help you if we could, maybe someday, but right now we can't. Plus, there are other revolutionary groups out there. Perhaps you could find a home in one of them?"

I could. But everybody knew the other groups wouldn't last. These people had... something going on with them. I don't know what it was, but everybody knew that once the other groups had been wiped out by the fascists, these insane people would still be around. Wherever they were, I knew I would be safe with them. I had to find a way to make them let me in.

The figure began to walk back into the desert. "Wait!" I yelled, a crazy idea brewing in my head. "The cybersecurity team said I could join! I have been talking with them online for a few weeks now!"

A completely insane idea. But if I were allowed inside, maybe I could make friends and pretend long enough so that when they found out I was lying, they would no longer want me to leave. I just needed to get inside. The figure paused. "Who have you been speaking with?" Fuck.

I hesitated, which was enough to arouse suspicion. They turned back, raising the gun. "Were you trying to infiltrate us?" I backed into the tent; they followed, gun still raised. Fear crept into their voice. "Are there others? Are you trying to take us down from inside?" They aimed the gun at my forehead. "Tell me their fucking names, or I swear I'm going to fucking -" I interrupted.

"L-Luna?" I stammered, wildly grasping at straws. "Adrian? Aiden?"

The gun didn't move and I started desperately guessing. "Oliver Ash Ashley Elliott Kai Finn Winter Zoe Emily Summer Lilly? Somebody named after a Greek goddess or a celestial body? Sock?"

They lowered the gun. "Sock?" they asked, incredulous. Shit. I was so fucking dead. "Sock? Seriously? Their name is Punk, you idiot." They pulled out a phone."Hey," they said quietly, "this guy knows the cybersecurity team. Can we let him in?" They paused to hear the response and then put the phone in their pocket. The figure chuckled. "Okay, you can come with me. We should be at the hideout before it gets to high noon."

I followed the masked figure along the dunes, thinking of ways I could make myself too useful for them to kick me out.