by Logan Jacobs
“Next rule, is to keep your finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard,” I said as I pointed to the trigger and trigger guard, “until you’re ready to shoot and are absolutely certain what you’re target is.”
“No shooting another hunter that you think is a bear,” Becka supplied.
“Exactly,” I agreed. “And that also means you keep the safety on until you’re ready to fire. The only people who walk around with the safety off are idiots and cops on TV. Though, I do admit that in our current circumstances, that rule might be subject to change.”
“I think I will feel better if we leave the safeties on,” Hae-won replied. “For now, anyway.”
“Good,” I said. “Okay, next rule is to never leave a loaded weapon lying around. If it’s loaded, it should be in your hands.”
“But we’ve been leaving loaded weapons by the door,” Becka pointed out.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “Which really isn’t good, but again, I think in our current condition, we can make exceptions. But when we’re not in the gallery, we should really try to keep the guns in our hands or at least close to hand.”
“Perhaps if we leave the safeties on, it will be okay to leave the guns by the door,” Hae-won suggested.
I nodded, though I had to admit that some of the rules might be hard to follow with acid spitting dinosaurs on the loose.
“Okay, last rule,” I said. “Always know where your target is, what’s behind your target, and if there’s anything that might cause a ricochet. Now, I know with these big dinosaurs, it’s sort of hard to see anything but the dinosaur, but you still need to follow this rule. Again, you don’t want to shoot one of us by accident, or hit one of us with a ricochet.”
“What can cause a ricochet?” Hae-won asked.
“In theory, anything,” I replied. “As long as it hits at a certain angle. But most ricochets are caused by a hard surface, like steel or heavy concrete.”
“Hopefully we won’t encounter any giant, armor plated dinosaurs,” Becka snickered.
We all froze for a moment and looked around the quad as if we expected Becka’s comment to make just such a dinosaur appear.
“Okay,” I said when nothing appeared. “Let’s go over the basic parts. We can do a closer look later when I show you how to clean a gun.”
“Oooh, just like the movies,” Becka replied.
“All right, we’ve covered the trigger and trigger guard,” I said. “Now, on this model, this is your safety. Right now, it’s in the on position, but if I move it this way, the safety will be off and you can fire the gun.”
I moved the safety a couple of times until both girls nodded.
“This is the magazine,” I continued. “This is where the extra bullets are kept. You press here to release it, but when you do, remember the gun will still have one round in the chamber, so be careful. To clear the one in the chamber, press this, then pull this back. See the bullet?”
Both girls nodded again, and I was happy to see that they both had a serious expression on their faces. I closed the chamber, checked the safety, then handed the first gun to Hae-won. I did the same thing with the second gun and handed it to Becka.
“Okay, the safeties are on,” I said as I pulled a box of ammo out from the bag. “Why don’t you practice releasing the magazine and clearing the chamber while I set up some targets. You can also load the ammunition, just make sure the casings are facing the right way.”
The girls both checked the safeties first, I was happy to see, and then they opened the magazine and the chamber. They repeated the drill a few more times, and then I left them to find a few targets for them to shoot at. I scouted the quad itself, but there wasn’t much there than a few benches. I dragged one into position opposite the girls, then looked around for something else. My eyes fell on the gallery, and with a ridiculous grin, I trotted back to our home.
I found what I was looking for in one of the lower floor galleries. It was a series of modernist paintings that featured bright splashes of color mixed with various geometric shapes. It would be easy enough for the girls to pick out a shape or color splatter to use as a target, and we could keep using the canvas until there was nothing left.
I grabbed two of the medium sized canvases from the wall and ran back outside. The girls were deep in conversation as I approached, though they both started and looked up guiltily when they heard me approaching. I smiled and pretended I hadn’t seen their reactions, though I wondered what they had been saying about me. I shrugged it off, set the paintings on the bench, then returned to my novice shooters.
“You want us to shoot the paintings? Hae-won asked in a shocked voice.
“They’re perfect,” I said. “Just pick out a shape or color splotch and aim for that.”
“But…” Hae-won started to protest.
“It’s not like this is art by someone famous,” Becka said as she lifted her gun and peered through the scope.
“Besides, it’s easy enough to replace a few paintings,” I added. “Not so easy to replace one of us.”
Hae-won finally nodded and slowly lifted her gun as well.
“Okay, I want you both to pick a spot on your canvas,” I said. “When you’ve selected your target, release the safety and fire three shots at the spot. Just tell me what your target is before you fire.”
“I’m going for the yellow triangle,” Becka announced.
“And I will hit the blue circle,” Hae-won added.
“Good,” I said. “Now, if you’re ready, release the safety.”
The world was silent for a moment, and then both girls clicked the safety off. Hae-won fired first, and Becka fired a half-second later. I didn’t watch the targets, but the girls instead. Even though they’d used the guns the day before, it was clear they still weren’t adjusting for the kickback properly.
“Here,” I said to Hae-won after the echo had died away. “Your arm is still popping up after you fire. That’s true for both of you. You need to brace yourself against the kickback. Don’t stand like you’re in a Die Hard movie. Keep your right foot back, like this, and keep your knees slightly bent.”
“Okay, Jason,” the Korean girl replied as she tucked her hair behind her ear.
Hae-won set her feet as I’d shown her, then gave me a questioning glance. I made a small correction to her left arm, checked that she was solid in her stance, and then stepped out of the way. The Korean drew a deep breath, looked through the scope again, and then fired two quick shots.
“I hit the circle,” Hae-won called out happily as she looked up from the scope.
“All right, Becka,” I said. “Your turn.”
The Brit braced herself as I’d instructed and peered through the scope. She fired her second shot, waited for a moment, and then lined up for the third.
“Hold on,” I said before she could pull the trigger. “You’re leaning too far back. You want the back leg to be a support, but you don’t want to start out with all your weight on it.”
“Um, okay,” Becka said as she tried to adjust her stance.
I moved around behind the Brit and placed my hands on her shoulders.
“Just raise your shoulders a bit and bring your back leg in closer,” I instructed. “Keep the end of the weapon in the center of your shoulder.”
“Like this?” the blonde asked as she shifted the butt.
“That’s it,” I agreed.
“And here, you want the end of the weapon to be in the center of your shoulder.” I reached by her arm and pulled the butt of the gun down so it was resting squarely.
Becka took her third shot, and I saw her eyes go wide as she felt the difference that those few small changes made.
“How did that feel?” I asked.
“A lot better,” the British girl replied. “It didn’t feel like I was about to fall backwards.”
“Good.” I smiled. “Why don’t we see how you two did?”
The girls started to run toward the bench until I made a ts
king sound. They both stopped, moved the safeties into the on position, then walked to the bench with the muzzles pointed toward the empty buildings. I felt myself smile as I followed after them, and that became a grin as the girls high-fived each other.
“Nice shooting,” I said as I looked over the canvases.
Hae-won had hit her target with all three shots, and one had even gone through the blue circle. Only two of Becka’s shots had hit the canvas, and the triangle remained intact, though her last shoot had gotten close.
“I can’t believe I only hit this giant canvas with two of my shots,” Becka sniffed.
“Don’t worry, you’re just starting out,” I said. “Now that you know how to brace yourself, you’ll find it easier to shoot. You want to take a few more shots?”
“You better believe it,” Hae-won replied enthusiastically, her previous concern for the artwork apparently forgotten.
We returned to our spots on the far side of the quad, and I lined up the girls one more time. I had them set their stances again before they removed the safeties, offered a couple of tips, and then nodded for them to open fire.
Hae-won went first, and fired two quick shots at the blue circle. Even from our firing line, I could tell that both shots had found their target, and one had been pretty close to the center.
“That’s amazing,” I told the Korean girl.
“Video games.” Has-won shrugged. “Koreans are good at them.”
“Ugh, okay,” Becka said as she lined up her shot. She pulled the trigger twice, though more slowly than Hae-won.
“I think your second shot hit the triangle,” I said.
“Yes!” Becka shouted. “I did it! I did it!”
The Brit ran over to me, and I was ready to give her a high-five. Instead, she leaned in for a sweet yet forceful kiss. I was startled, but my hand automatically found the small of her bare waist, and for a second, I held her against me. She pulled away a moment later, but she still had a huge smile on her face.
I struggled to come up with a witty and not at all dorky reply, but then I heard something I hadn’t heard in a long time. It took me a moment to even identify the sound, and when I did, I looked up in surprise. It was the distinctive noise of an approaching helicopter, and a large one at that.
Chapter 9
“What’s going on?” the blonde woman shouted over the noise.
“It looks like a military helicopter!” I yelled back. “They must be looking for dinosaurs!”
“What should we do?” Hae-won asked.
If the helicopter was staying in the area, it probably meant there were more dinosaurs nearby. Suddenly, being out in the open of the quad didn’t seem like such a good idea, even if we did have the guns.
“Let’s get inside,” I suggested as the helicopter made a slow loop toward the western side of the campus. “If they’re going to start shooting at something, I’d rather be somewhere where we can have cover.”
We ran toward the nearest building and plastered ourselves against the wall. Without thinking, we all tucked our guns out of sight before we started to work our way back to the gallery. I kept an eye on the helicopter, which had taken up a position over a block of modern buildings, and urged the girls onward. We only had a short dash to the gallery door when the helicopter lifted a little further into the air and sped toward a row of townhomes. Something fat, round and black fell from the bottom of the machine, and then a moment later the ground shook beneath our feet.
We stumbled, and I heard Becka gasp, but my eyes were on the spot where I’d seen the explosive drop. A brilliant flash of light lit up the sky, followed by a massive dust cloud and the rolling rumble of destruction. It seemed to drag on forever, but it couldn’t have lasted more than a minute at most. When the flash disappeared and the sound disappeared, I still felt like I was in a fog, despite the bright sunlight.
“What the fuck are they doing?” Becka said when we could hear again. “There could be people in those buildings!”
“The dinosaurs,” Hae-won suggested. “They are probably using that on the bigger ones.”
“But they’ll kill a lot of people as well,” the British girl replied. The blonde’s eyes were open wide in shock, though there was anger there as well.
“At least they didn’t hit the campus,” I said as the sound of another explosion reached us, much quieter than the first. “The fence is probably still up.”
“It’s crazy that they would do that without any warning,” Becka snapped. “If you can fly the helicopter over, then can you bloody well warn everyone to get out of the way.”
“These dinosaurs are big and move fast,” I pointed out. “There may not be much time to warn people.”
Secretly, I agreed with Becka. Randomly dropping bombs in the middle of a city seemed reckless and desperate, and a sure sign that the battle wasn’t going well. But that wasn’t a thought I wanted to share with the girls just yet, not with the helicopter still close by and probably more dinosaurs as well.
And I didn’t want them to worry more than they probably were.
“What do we do, Jason?” Hae-won asked. “Does this mean we can’t go to the dorm? I’m running out of contact lenses, and I can’t see without them.”
“What do you mean?” I pressed. “Can you see things close up? Or far away?”
“Only things that are close up,” Hae-won replied.
“How far away can you see things without the lenses?” I asked.
“Not very far,” she admitted. “I am not allowed to drive without them.”
“You probably won’t be able to shoot without them, either,” I noted.
“No, I won’t be able to see anything,” she said. “Everything will be very blurry.”
“We could take Timothy,” Becka suggested. “It’s armored, right? It’s built to stand up to this type of thing.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure how well Timothy would do against a bomb like the one they just dropped,” I replied. “It also means that we’d leave the campus wide open. We could come back and find dinosaurs roaming the grounds or townies picking through our stash.”
“We could try to fill it somewhere else,” Becka suggested. “I doubt there’s been a run on contact lenses.”
“I am not sure what the prescription is,” Hae-won replied. “I have twelve pairs there, it would be better to go get them, but we can wait until it seems safer.”
Another bomb dropped and the ground shook again. I spotted a second helicopter moving toward our area and shook my head.
“It may not get any safer,” I replied. “And if we wait, your dorm could be destroyed.”
“Yes, that would not be good,” the Korean girl agreed. “So, do we go?”
“I’m all for it,” Becka said. “We can get in, grab everything, then get out before they blow the whole thing into rubble.”
“All right,” I said. “If you’re willing to try it, this is probably going to be our only opportunity for a while. We’ll take the guns, and if one of you is willing to loan me your sword, I think we’ll be okay. We should reload the guns before we leave and then toss the ammo bag inside the gallery before we lock it.”
“Here,” Becka replied as she pulled the short sword out from her belt and passed it over to me. “I don’t want to be close enough to a living dino to have to use that.”
“Thanks,” I said as I tucked it into my belt. “All right, let’s reload the guns, lock down the gallery, and get ready to leave.”
“I’ll grab some of the sandwiches,” Becka announced as we retreated inside the gallery. “And I’ll bring plenty of water as well.”
“And I will help Jason with the guns,” Hae-won replied.
Becka trotted up the stairs while Hae-won and I sat on one of the gallery benches. I watched her check the safety on the gun and then release the magazine. She picked up several shells and dropped them inside, then held it up for my inspection.
“Perfect,” I said. “Good to see you didn’t put them in
backwards.”
“It’s not that hard to figure out,” she chuckled.
“You’d think so,” I replied. “Though I’ve heard stories about people putting the shells in backwards.”
“Really?” Hae-won asked in amazement.
“Well, admittedly, there was usually a lot of alcohol involved as well,” I said.
“So what happened when they tried to shoot?” the Korean asked.
“Usually nothing besides jamming the gun,” I said. “But when you’ve got large lizards chasing you, you don’t want the gun to jam.”
“No, that would be bad,” Hae-won laughed. “But maybe you could hit them with the gun.”
“I’m afraid I’m with Becka on that one,” I said. “I’d rather not get that close.”
Hae-won nodded and started on Becka’s gun while I reloaded the rifle. We were done a few moments later, and I carefully checked the magazines and the safeties before handing Hae-won her gun and setting the other two against the wall.
“Thank you for doing this,” Hae-won said shyly.
“I’m happy to help,” I said. “I mean, I’m really just helping.”
“Oh?” Hae-won asked. “How so?”
“Well, now you’ll be able to see when you shoot,” I pointed out. “And… well, there’s the whole birth control thing. I mean, we can still do… you know.”
Hae-won smiled at my awkward reply and placed a hand along one cheek. She studied my face for a moment and then smiled.
“Becka is interested in you, as well,” the Korean girl said.
“Oh, um, yeah,” I hemmed. “I sort of gathered that last night. Does that… bother you?”
“No,” Hae-won assured me.
I thought she might elaborate, but the Korean girl continued to smile at me instead. I was about to ask for a few more details when I heard Becka’s footsteps on the stairs.
“I’ve got the food and water,” Becka called as she descended. “Are you guys ready?”
“Yes,” I said quickly as I stood up and grabbed the ammo bag. “The guns have all been reloaded.”
“Should we take the ammo bag?” Hae-won asked. “What if we run out of bullets?”