TRAINING PART 4: Guns

A new day began. I woke up, brushed my teeth and got ready for training. The uniform they gave us was completely black. Leggings, a sleeveless shirt and a jacket at the back of which was written ‘federals’, the typical style for a training outfit from a Hollywood action movie. I liked it for the fact that it was black, and it suited my style. I especially liked the jacket, although I would take it off after ten minutes of training because I would sweat too much. I put on my shoes, tied up the laces as tight as I possibly could, and went to my training, remembering all that I had been thinking about the night before.

As I walked through the corridor, I notice the door of the other training room open, and Jace and Ryan in it, without their instructor. I noticed them talking, and unable to stop myself, I went and eavesdropped on the conversation.

Ryan – Listen, I still don’t trust you, and I still don’t think you deserve to be here with us. You do realise that that same girl whose love you betrayed saved your life?

Jace – I know. Ryan…

Ryan – Don’t mistake me talking to you for friendship. We’re not friends. But I’m willing to forgive you, for Quesiyah.

Jace – I don’t understand. If you’re forgiving me then why are we not friends?

Ryan – I’m good with you, no more fighting, no more comments. But the friendship will only be back when you prove to me that I can trust you with my life, and more importantly, Quesiyah’s.

And suddenly, they stopped talking and turned to me, watching me stand at the door. At this point, I was not exactly hiding. They saw me there smiling. As they ask me what I was doing there, I moved in towards them and hugged them both.

Me – Thank you guys.

Ryan – Don’t get too excited too quickly, alright. I told him I forgave him not that I trusted him.

Me – You forgave him, that’s already a lot. The rest will come with time.

Ryan – Well it may seem weird, but I do listen to you sometimes.

Me – I’m glad you did this time. Anyways I got to go before Tyler kills me. See you guys.

I went out, happy. Everything seemed to be getting into place. With Ryan forgiving Jace, things were going to be much easier. I went on to my training smiling.

As I reached there, I went in to see Tyler standing there with guns. I guessed that day would be shooting day, which I liked, because at least, during shooting, I would not get beaten to the ground and flipped around like I’m used to, that is if Tyler didn't mean to shoot me for lateness. I was getting better at fighting though, I hope.

Tyler – You seem happy.

Me – Let’s just say that things are finally getting into place.

Tyler – Great, so how about we see how you shoot then?

He said as he handed out one of the guns to me, a small one.

Tyler – So far, you only tried shooting with this kind of gun, small ones. But there are much bigger guns that you need to know how to use. Not just shoot, you also need to know how to reload as fast as possible. When you’re on the field, your enemies won’t be waiting for you to finish reloading your gun.

I laughed at his little sarcasm. I might be kind to people, but I can also be pretty sarcastic. My friends used to tell me I should get an award for sarcasm. So when one sarcastic meets another, it feels nice.

Tyler – Let’s just see how you shoot with this one first. At least we’ll see if you can aim.

He then led me to a place, and asked me to stand behind a table. At the end of the room, there was a target in the form of a human being.

The setting brought back memories from before the shelter, memories I tirelessly tried to obliviate. Tyler asked me to try and shoot in the middle, which I did. The bullet didn’t hit the exact middle, but it was quite close.

I tried to keep myself together, and prevent my relentless mind from distracting me. Those might have been cardboard figures, but when you’ve been through what I’ve been through, cardboard humans seem a lot like real ones. Every gun shot was a mental challenge I had to fight through, and I tried not to let it show.

Tyler – Not bad. Now try four shots to the head, and try to hit the middle of the target.

I executed the order perfectly, and hit exactly the point he showed me. I could tell by the expression on his face that he was quite impressed with my talent for shooting. He did teach me a few things that I was doing wrong, but mostly, he said I was doing it right.

I explained to him how I learned to shoot and reload on a trial-and-error basis. Once I was done with the small gun, and he realised I already knew how to use it, he lent me a bigger one, which I had never held before. It was quite heavy. He started teaching me the basics; how to hold it, shoot, reload, aim. I was a little stressed holding such a big firearm knowing the damage something like that could cause. During the day, he introduced me to many different firearms, some of which used to impress me when I saw them in action movies as a child. Back then, I never thought I’d ever see one for real, let alone use one.

I guess this training would be full of surprises.