B00C74WTKQ EBOK

by Tackitt, Lloyd

  Before the girls got to the part where they actually shot live ammunition Adrian was confident in their ability to act appropriately—and he was proven right, they were flawless in their safety. They also quickly learned to place their bullets on target. Two of the girls he discovered were nearsighted. There were no glasses, so he changed their rifles out for pistols and taught them to shoot at the limits of their vision.

  When they were all proficient he gathered them together and said, “You’ve all done very well, and are great target-shooters, but being a good shot goes to hell when someone is shooting back. Your heart races, adrenaline surges and your fine motor skills go out the window. So I’m going to teach you to shoot under stress. Be advised, this will not be pleasant.”

  Adrian then set Race up to shoot at a target. “No matter what happens, you are to remain focused on shooting. Control your breathing, make sure of your sight picture, align the sights, and gently squeeze the trigger…just like you’ve been taught. Ready? Go ahead and start shooting and keep your focus.”

  Race got into the prone position, and just as she started squeezing the trigger Adrian began slapping her on the butt with a piece of brush and screaming at the top of his voice. Race was so startled that she jerked the trigger, completely missing the target and turned her head to look at Adrian in surprise. Adrian shouted at her “Keep shooting! Don’t look away from the enemy, don’t look at me! Keep shooting.”

  When Race had emptied her rifle she had hit the target only once, and that marginally.

  Adrian told the other girls, “That’s what happens under stress,” Adrian said, both to Race and the other girls who were all gathered around. “That’s what happens when you’re being shot at. Race always hits the bull’s eye at this distance. Under stress her shooting went to shit. Now we’ll do it again, and again, and again until she learns to hit the target while under stress. Then each of you will do the same. Understand?”

  It took a long time for all of the girls to learn the lesson, but learn it they did. Eventually.

  During this time, Adrian was also teaching them everything he thought they needed to know. He was surprised at not only how fast they caught on to basic routines and drills, but how much they enjoyed them. The girls loved doing things in unison, and would march in close order drill at the drop of a hat, singing the heavily edited versions of the marching songs he’d taught them. Even during rest periods, one of the girls would call cadence and the other girls would fall into step.

  He taught them when and how to take cover—how to choose good spots for taking cover and position themselves for best concealment. He taught them how to spread out when moving across country, how to set up ambushes, making simple booby-traps and hiding them so they wouldn’t be seen until too late, and the best way to get out of an ambush. He taught them to infiltrate and to attack and fade-out guerilla style. The girls went on daily patrols of the surrounding area, with Adrian constantly drilling them on every aspect of their training.

  In addition to a gun, each girl carried a knife, concealed but accessible, at all times. He taught them basic knife fighting techniques that utilized their youthful speed, and stances that capitalized on their smaller height and weight. Armed with a sharp knife, the girls became extremely deadly in a close-in fight.

  Adrian’s goal was for the girls to be a well-trained, highly organized, and skilled operating unit by the time they finally got on the road again. They hadn’t been tested under fire, and Adrian hoped to hell they never would be—but he knew these girls were not going to be anyone’s easy victims again.

  Each evening Adrian and Bear went hunting taking two different girls with him, rotating each girl through as often as possible. He taught the girls how to stalk, to use the wind, what to look for, what to listen for. He allowed the girls to shoot the hogs that they found, letting them gain confidence in their shooting ability and seeing the death and destruction they caused firsthand. By the end of the fifth week, each girl had killed a wild hog, gutted, and cooked it. They had also killed and eaten countless squirrels and rabbits with throwing sticks and small spears. He showed them how to make atlatls—primitive spear launchers that would give them greater range with their throws—and how to chip stone to create simple but effective blades and arrowheads.

  In addition to hunting and self-defense, Adrian taught them everything he could about basic survival. He showed them every edible plant he could find, and described those that weren’t in this area, but which would provide valuable vitamins and micro-nutrients to go along with the meat they killed. They learned to build an almost smokeless fire without matches, and what woods to use for cooking, and which to avoid. They learned how to build temporary shelters and how important it was to stay dry and warm. He taught them how to find water and make it safe to drink.

  Adrian found that he was enjoying the teaching. He hadn’t realized how much he would enjoy it, but he was having a blast, and the girls were eating up the lessons and wanting more as fast as he could deliver. These were things they wanted to learn, knew they could use; lessons that freed them from being dependent on anyone, ever again.

  During the time that Adrian was teaching them, they had slowly learned to trust, and then to love Adrian. In a way, he had become a father to them– and grown very fond of them in return, almost as though they were his own daughters. He had become invested in their success at being self-sufficient. It was the best thing he could give them; he knew it, and they knew it.

  The day before they were to go back on the road, Adrian sent the girls on what he called a “Graduation Patrol.”

  “Ladies,” he said to the group assembled in front of him, “this patrol is your graduation. Do everything right, and you will no longer be just a group of girls, you will officially be a patrol unit, each of you a functioning member of that unit. Your assignment is to capture a flag from a designated location on the map. Race will lead the patrol. She will read the map, assign you to your positions and tasks, navigate the terrain and lead you in, get the flag, and lead you out. You are to assume you are in enemy territory from beginning to end, and act accordingly. I’ll be watching from various places. This exercise is to show me that you can do all that you need to do without my being present. Any questions?”

  The girls, faces and hands blackened with charcoal in a horizontal, tiger-stripe fashion, all shook their heads in silence.

  Adrian turned to Race. “Okay Race, take command.”

  Race called the girls into formation, checked their equipment and dress to make sure they were ready to go. She checked that they had their field rations, water, and ammunition. Checked that their guns were cleaned and loaded with one in the chamber, and safeties on. Then she outlined the mission, showed them on the map where they were going, how they would get there and the type of movements they would utilize.

  When Race determined they were ready, the unit moved out in two, single-file lines, spaced far enough apart to not make them close together targets, yet still remain in visual contact with each other.

  Adrian had placed odd objects along their route to simulate an enemy sighting. Whenever one was spotted by the point person, they gave the signal to drop and cover while the situation was sorted out. Race sent scouts ahead to check the route for terrain problems or enemies, and behind to watch their rear and flanks as they moved slowly and silently, almost invisibly towards their destination.

  The girls were absolutely silent, using the terrain to stay as hidden as possible. There was no talking, no whispering. They took this exercise seriously, graduating meant they knew what they were doing and that would please Adrian, failure was just unthinkable. From ten years old to seventeen years old, they treated this with the gravity of adults.

  The unit collected the flag and began their return. Per Adrian’s instructions they came back by an entirely different route, this one taking them over difficult
terrain. It included two stream crossings that required rope work. It also required scaling four steep rock faces to cross two deep ravines. Adrian had pre-warned Race that he had set up an enemy ambush along their return trail. She didn’t know where it was or when to expect it because he had only told her to expect it and to treat it as a live fire exercise—the girls would be firing live ammo. This was the most difficult and dangerous training the girls had been exposed to yet, and only Race knew it was coming.

  Adrian had made crude dummies of straw and twine. He had chosen the mock ambush location carefully, assembling the straw dummies into a classic ambush from higher terrain.

  Adrian watched as the patrol approached the ambush point. He raised his pistol and fired four rounds into the air. This was Race’s signal. She looked up where Adrian had fired from and saw the dummies he had set up to resemble the ambush team. Race looked back and saw that the girls had taken cover and had assumed a guns-out position, as they had been trained.

  “Ambush, Ambush!” Race yelled. “Take that hill! Advance and cover. Team One, put cover fire onto those enemy soldiers, live rounds, by turns now!”

  She was almost surprised at herself for automatically giving the correct instructions and by the fact that the girls performed exactly as they had trained to do.

  “Team Two, Advance under cover! now!”

  Again the girls performed flawlessly.

  It was, of course, obvious to the girls that this was an exercise, they were after all shooting at dummies. But it was a live fire exercise, shooting real bullets over the heads of their team mates as they advanced, then having live rounds shot over their heads as they leapfrogged past them and took up a forward position. It was exciting and extremely dangerous. One mistake and one of their beloved partners could be killed. The girls focused on what they were doing, and were very careful not to shoot each other. They shot the dummies to pieces, scoring direct hits with almost every shot they took.

  It was the work of only a few minutes to over-run the ambushers. The girls leapfrogged up the hill, pouring suppressive fire into the ambush as they covered each other.

  When the girls had taken the hill, Race looked around for Adrian but didn’t see him. She brought the girls together and had them sit while she critiqued the exercise. “Excellent work team! You followed orders and followed your training almost perfectly. There were one or two minor improvements that could be made, minor but important. Team One, you should not have advanced quite as far as you did each time, you left yourselves exposed to too much fire by trying to cover too much ground. Next time take less ground each time.”

  She turned to the second group. “Team Two, your rate of fire was a little too fast, slow it down just a hair and you’ll be that much more accurate and deadly. Not much, but slow it down just a hair. Okay, let’s move out, we’ve got a couple of hours to go before we get back. Keep your concentration, watch everything, and look for anything that doesn’t belong. Rita, you take point. Move out!”

  Adrian watched and listened from his hiding spot. He approved of everything the girls had done and the weaknesses that Race had identified. She is definitely officer material. When the girls were out of sight he headed straight back to camp. They were armed, and had their adrenalin up from the live fire exercise. This was a dangerous two hours, maybe more dangerous than the ambush exercise itself had been. He had listened to make sure that Race had made the girls put their weapons on safe, but it would only take a second for them to lay down a barrage of fire, and Adrian didn’t want them to spot him and spook.

  He waited at the campsite for them. They’ll be on their own soon. I could literally leave them right here and they would be fine, but they might be even better off in Corpus…maybe. Either way, I can leave them now and have a clear conscience about it.

  They would be back on the road the next day, and the girls would be tested soon after.

  Chapter 9

  Their first day back on the road was uneventful. When they camped that evening the girls automatically exited the back of the truck as though they were in enemy territory. The older girls went out first, rifles locked and loaded. They came out fast, ran, and spread out in a fifty-foot circle surrounding the truck, dropping into a prone position weapons at the ready. After waiting long enough to ascertain that they weren’t in immediate danger, they jumped back to their feet and searched the surrounding area silently and effectively, making sure that there were no nearby problems. As they left to perform that chore, the middle girls exited the truck and followed a similar procedure, completely surrounding the truck also. When the older girls returned with the all clear, then the middle girls moved outwards, making a perimeter of fifty yards around the truck. The younger girls exited the truck and moved out in a similar fashion as the other girls had—not so much because it was warranted, but as a matter of practice and discipline.

  Until Race gave the all-clear signal, all of the girls were on hyper-alert status, weapons loaded, safeties on. When Race satisfied herself that there was no imminent danger, she gave the signal and the majority of the girls returned and began setting up the camp. Four of the girls stayed at the outer perimeter as sentries.

  Adrian had done nothing more than observe. The girls have it down pat. They are a scary bunch. Feral girls actually. They have their weaknesses, aren’t close to invincible, but if they stay alert and follow procedure they’ll be safer than most people these days. One of their best weapons is surprise; no one is going to look at them and understand their capabilities until it’s too late.

  While the girls were setting up camp, four more of the girls left for a combination long range look-around and hunting trip. They would first scout the surrounding area out to a mile in each direction, then if all was clear they would hunt for as long as they could, knowing to be back just before dark. Two girls went north and two went south, moving out to the mile radius, then circling counter-clockwise until they reached the opposite compass point before they commenced hunting.

  Adrian had stressed that they should take every opportunity to avoid being surprised. Surprise should be their weapon, not one they ever allowed anyone to use against them.

  That evening he worked with some of the younger girls on knife-fighting techniques. They were pretty good already, but could always be better. He showed them how to use their diminutive size to advantage. There were two primary targets these girls could get to if they had the element of surprise on their side. First target was the femoral artery. Adrian drilled them on its location, and the best thrust-and-slash combination to cut that artery. Once the artery was cut the girl was to run, staying out of reach of the assailant until the blood had pumped out of him.

  The second target was the genitals. Adrian stressed that this target might or might not disable their opponent, but wasn’t usually fatal. This was to be used only if for some reason the femoral artery was blocked and unavailable. He stressed that it was a poor second choice. It was a shock weapon; an assailant that realized his genitals had been damaged might go into shock or might go into an uncontrollable rage instead, so it was best left as the last possible tactic.

  By dark the two long-range teams came in with one young feral hog, two rabbits and five squirrels which they would supplement with canned food. The girls understood the value of the canned goods, which could save their lives if hunting wasn’t possible, and were also valuable trade goods. They dipped into that supply as rarely as possible, and then they ate the least popular trade foods first.

  The girls took turns on night watch, two hours each, as the others slept. Night watch was a permanent routine now, and would be continued even if they ended up living in a nice house in town.

  When the first light in the eastern sky was apparent, the night watch woke up that morning’s cooks. This was another group chore rotated among the girls. Those on breakfast duty would stoke up the fires and prepare the morning me
al while the others got up, put their sleeping gear in the truck, took care of their morning nature calls, and washed up. As soon as the meal was finished the girls got to work cleaning up the dishes. Cleanup was performed by everyone who was not on an assigned duty at the time. The perimeter guards stayed on guard, their meal brought to them. Their dishes were collected and cleaned. They wouldn’t leave their posts until relieved or called in by Race. Without being in a rush, the now well-organized girls were ready to roll forty minutes after the guards woke the cooks. If they were in a hurry they would skip the meal and be loaded and ready to go in less than two minutes. This was an emergency drill that Adrian had taught them and that Race practiced frequently.

  Adrian had also been teaching the older girls how to drive the truck. He began by teaching them the basics of how each component of the truck worked, and then gave them simple problems to diagnose. When he was sure they understood the workings in a basic way, then he taught them the maintenance routines. Checking the fluids, belts, tires. What the dash gauges indicated and what would happen when they showed trouble. Only after they had all of that did he begin teaching them to drive.

  The girls were extremely fast at learning most things. They quickly understood the basics of internal combustion engines, and drive trains. They got into the preventive maintenance routine quickly and efficiently. But teaching them the physical skills required to drive the truck was fundamentally different. The girls struggled with it. There were practical reasons for their difficulty. The truck did not have power steering and required a great deal of upper body strength at times, especially driving off road. Their shorter legs made it difficult for them to reach and manipulate the foot pedals. Their shorter heights meant that they had less visibility directly in front of or beside the truck. All of these were unavoidable and Adrian could clearly see their impacts.