by Mark Goodwin
Once the chores were completed, Danny and Steven grabbed their weapons and their gear and headed toward the barn. The girls joined them shortly thereafter.
JC, Melissa, and Jack arrived next, all wearing full tactical gear.
JC looked at Dana and Alisa. “Where are your weapons?”
“Right here.” Alisa patted the Glock on her side.
“Here’s mine.” Dana put her hand on the handle of the revolver in her pocket.
JC shook his head. “You don’t even have a holster?”
“No.” Dana didn’t seem to think it was a problem.
“I’ll find something for you. But you girls need long guns. A pistol is effective at close range, if you’re trained.” JC sighed, “We don’t even have enough ammo to train you to a level of proficiency where those would ever be more than a last-resort gun. Steven, if I give you my deer rifle to use, can you give Dana your shotgun?”
“Sure.”
“And Alisa, why don’t you take Dana’s revolver and give it back to Miss Jennie. See if she’ll let you use her shotgun.”
“Right now?” Alisa asked.
JC nodded. “Yeah, we’re waiting on Catfish, Korey, and Rocky anyway.”
Alisa took the revolver and walked briskly toward the house.
JC motioned to Jack. “Go get the .308 for Steven.”
“Be right back.” Jack hurried off toward the trailer.
JC drilled Dana on the basic functions of the shotgun. “Let’s see you unload and reload.”
She fumbled to find the pump release, but eventually depressed the small lever and pumped out the shells until it was empty.
“Could have been faster, but okay. Let’s see you reload.” JC stood with his arms crossed.
She picked up the shells from the ground.
“Make sure there’s no grass or dirt on any of those before you put them back in the shotgun.”
Dana carefully wiped each shell with her t-shirt before reloading it.
JC watched. “Tonight, practice unloading and reloading over your bed. Then you won’t have to worry about wiping the shells off every time. You need to do it until you can load shells without looking at what you’re doing. In a firefight, you have to be looking at who is coming at you, not your weapon. And this is different than when you trained to go get Alisa. That was close range. A shotgun is a good weapon at close range, but it’s not very effective over fifty yards. If you’re responsible for covering a particular area and someone is coming toward you, you’ll have to wait for them to be within range. It’s hard, but you have to do it. Peppering them at a distance might cause them to have to take cover, but it wastes ammo unless you know someone else with a rifle can get a kill shot from the maneuver.”
Dana looked like she was trying to take it all in, but it didn’t seem to be making sense to her.
JC patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, it seems overwhelming now, but we’ll go over and over all of this until everyone knows it inside and out.”
“Thanks.” She smiled.
Catfish pulled up next to the barn with Korey and Jason Reese in the truck.
“Hey, guys.” JC waved and walked toward the truck. “We’ll train first and help yous get the truck unloaded next.”
Catfish laughed.
“What’s funny?” JC asked.
“Yous. I ain’t never heard such Yankee talk. I reckon yous is Yankee fer y’all.”
“Are you kiddin’ me? Catfish! People in the South don’t even understand you. It’s like you’re just making up words as you go.”
Catfish spit with the accuracy of a sniper, sending tobacco juice flying three feet and landing precisely six inches from JC’s shoe. “Least my made-up words ain’t Yankee talk.”
“Whatever.” The look on JC’s face was somewhere between angry and amused.
Jack and Alisa returned with their respective weapons, and finally, Rocky came walking up from the direction of his house.
JC began talking. “The first thing we are going to do is range cards. We’ll have a card for each defensive position in the compound.
JC held up a clipboard with concentric half-circles at the top and several lines for writing at the bottom. “The first card will be for the barn loft lookout position. I think Catfish has labeled it the crow’s nest. It has a pretty good view over the cornfield, the back pasture, all the way to the woods. Each of these concentric half-circle lines represents a given distance. So let’s say they are fifty yards each. Most anything you can see from any position in the compound is going to fit on the card, if we say each ring is fifty yards.” JC paused to make a quick sketch. He held the card up. “So I’ve made a rough drawing of the cornfield, starting here at the 200-yard mark, and this is the tree line at about 100 yards back here. We’ll put in the fence, the hedgerow by the road, and then we’ll know how far away any approaching hostiles are. Why is that important?”
Jack answered quickly. “So we can adjust the elevation of our weapon to compensate for the drop of the bullet.”
JC nodded. “That’s right. Depending on the weight of your bullet, barrel length, and other factors, your bullet is going to lose altitude in its trajectory. As we all train with our individual weapons at different distances, you’ll learn how much you have to adjust for fifty yards, 100 yards, or 200 yards to still make the shot. Then, you can look at the range card for every defensive position in the compound and know how far away your target is. A 5.56 round won’t drop as fast as a 7.62x.39 round, and Steven’s .308 will be different than Catfish’s 30-30. We’ll learn all of that on the range after Nick wakes up. We’ll go over troop movement until then so Nick and Cami can get another hour or two of sleep. I’m sure when any of you have night watch, you’ll appreciate the same consideration.”
“Everyone who was on the raid to bring Alisa home will remember some of this, but bear with us for the sake of those who weren’t at that quick training. Other portions of the training will be new for most all of you, except Jack and Melissa. They know this stuff inside and out, so if you have questions, feel free to ask them.”
JC spent the next two hours going over hand signals then drilling to see how much the group was remembering. Next he explained formations. He split the group up into fire teams and drilled them on formations and maneuvers.
Danny noticed that his fire team, called Alpha team, consisted of Catfish, Steven, Jack, Korey, and Rocky, the likely members of the scavenging run. JC put himself as the team leader of the other fire team, which conspicuously consisted of Melissa, Dana, Alisa, and ten-year-old Jason. No one on that team was likely to be slated for the mission. JC regularly abandoned his fire team during the training to observe Danny’s team focusing on how they worked together as a team. Danny caught Alisa’s scowl and knew she’d figured out why such attention was being given to the Alpha team.
Two hours later, Nick walked up. “You guys started without me?”
JC quipped, “We were waiting for you to show us the important stuff, like shooting.”
Cami was close behind Nick. “Well, we do appreciate you holding off on that.”
JC put his hand in the air and addressed the group. “Everybody, take fifteen minutes, go get a drink of water, or whatever you need to do, and we’ll set up some targets when you get back.”
“I need to get our rifles. Danny, you and JC walk back with me to the trailer.” Nick led the way.
“Did you get a chance to think it over?” Danny asked.
Nick obviously knew what he was talking about. “I did.”
“Catfish knows where there are some travel trailers. It would be quicker than trying to load and haul storage sheds,” Danny said.
“Trailers would be more practical. What do you think?” Nick looked at JC.
“I hate it. But then again, I hate this whole mess. And I have that little girl to think about. I’ve got my wife to protect, a son to look out for, hopefully another one that will need a safe place when he finally gets home. The more I wonder about C
hris, the more I want to do to make sure I don’t have to worry about the rest of my family. I have to take all of that into consideration when I’m trying to figure out where the moral high ground is.”
“You said you have some money.” Danny walked close behind JC and Nick. “What if you took it, and maybe some provisions? We might be able to locate the owner and work out a deal for some trailers.”
“Or we could get there and find a band of marauders already using the location as a forward operating base to go on raids,” Nick said. “A place like that is a perfect base camp for a looting expedition.”
JC exhaled deeply. “If it’s not already inhabited, that makes the case for taking the trailers that much stronger.”
Nick opened the door for Danny and JC to go in the trailer. “I say we go for it. If no one is laying claim to them, we’ll be fortifying our own compound and reducing the resources of a potential problem location.”
“Yeah, I agree.” JC walked up the stairs and into the trailer.
Danny followed. “I’m in. If we can find the owner, we’ll offer to trade. If he’s not there I guess we just have to take them. It’s not like we could leave a note. Anyone could find that note and come looking for us. That’s just asking for trouble.”
“You got that right.” Nick closed the door behind them. “Due to the sensitivity of the subject, I think we should try to tell people one at a time. I’d rather not have to deal with an outraged group if we’re going to have a lot of opposition. Talking to everyone separately will allow us to address their individual concerns. A group uprising tends to give people who previously had no issues with the mission a reason to object.”
“I’ll break it to Steven and the girls.” Danny nodded.
JC stuck his thumbs in the top of his tactical vest. “I’ll talk to Rocky, and my family, of course.”
“Who should talk to Korey?” Nick asked.
JC shook his head. “Definitely not Catfish. Even if it weren’t morally questionable, he’d make it sound like it was. I guess I can talk to Korey. You guys ready to go shoot?”
Nick picked up his and Cami’s rifles. “Ready. Danny, will you grab that ammo can?”
Danny picked up the green, metal box. “Sure.”
Once back at the barn, JC set up targets at twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, and 100 yards. He set up two firing lines and assigned Nick to work one of the lines and Jack to work the other, coaching each shooter as their turn came up. Danny went first, and Nick worked with him as his coach.
Nick took Danny’s AK-47. “Your rear sight is adjustable. We’ll set it on the number one which represents 100 meters. JC is training everyone with yards, so that’s roughly 110 yards. If your rifle is shooting straight, you should be coming in just a hair lower than where you are aiming. So, for the seventy-five yard target, you’ll be shooting below the bullseye, and even lower for the fifty. Does that make sense?”
Danny took the rifle back and looked at the rear sight. “The number two is for 200 meters and the three is for 300? Should I change it if I have to shoot further?”
Nick scratched his head. “That’s the purpose of this range, so you can get used to your weapon and be able to calculate where you need to aim at different distances without making any adjustments to your sights. You’ve been in a firefight or two. Imagine having to make adjustments to your sights while you’re being shot at.”
Danny furrowed his brow. “Yeah, I see what you’re saying. That wouldn’t be good.”
“Okay, whenever you’re ready, start with the fifty-yard target.” Nick stepped behind Danny.
Danny took aim and fired.
“Dead center, good shot, but you’re a little high. You’ll have to aim a little bit lower, beneath your bullseye.”
Danny took another shot and hit very near the bullseye.
“Great,” Nick said. “Try for twenty-five yards.”
Danny continued to shoot at the varying distances, getting a feel for where the round was going and how much higher or lower he had to shoot. Two magazines later, he was able to toggle back and forth between the targets with a moderate degree of accuracy.
Steven was next. It took a while longer for him to shoot as he had to work the bolt action on JC’s .308 each time he fired, and reload the magazine after every four rounds. With a little help from Nick, Steven was soon shooting fairly close to the bullseye as well.
Steven stepped back so Nick could work with Catfish and his lever-action 30-30 for a while.
Danny patted Steven on the shoulder. “That was some fine shooting. We’ve got a little time; want to grab a seat under the tree?”
“Yeah. Sounds good. Training was kind of fun, but it takes a lot out of you.” Steven walked beside Danny toward the old oak around by the front of the barn. “You and Alisa seem to have made up.”
Danny nodded. “She doesn’t like me to be overly protective of her.”
“After what happened to her, it’s understandable.”
“I tried to explain that.” Danny reached the tree, leaned his rifle against the trunk, and took a seat.
Steven did the same. “Deep down, I’m sure she appreciates it.”
Danny looked over at Steven. “So, I think we can get some trailers, then the compound would be able to accommodate everyone.”
“Really? Where in the heck are you going to find trailers in the middle of the apocalypse?”
Danny proceeded to lay out the basic strategy of the plan as well as the reasoning behind the mission.
As he listened, Steven began shaking his head, slowly at first, then gradually more quickly. “No. No. No. That’s stealing, and it’s wrong, and I want no part of it.”
“But Steven, if we don’t take them, they’ll be used as a fortification for raiding parties.”
Steven looked stunned. “Danny, are you listening to yourself? You are the raiding party. The second you set out to take something that isn’t yours, you become the very thing you’re trying to defend against. Are you missing the irony here?”
Danny continued to explain the rationale to Steven but to no avail.
Steven sat with his arms crossed. “It sounds like you guys have already legitimized this mission in your own minds, so I can’t stop you, but don’t expect me to come along. And, I’ll highly recommend to Dana that she have no part in it.”
“Well, we can agree on that, anyway. If Dana went, which I doubt JC would allow anyway, then Alisa would want to go, which I definitely don’t want.”
“I sure hope none of you gets shot. That would jeopardize the entire group.” Steven stood up, grabbed his rifle, and walked away.
Danny could feel the coldness in Steven’s withdrawal. He felt bad that this was going to be an issue between them, but his mind was made up, and he’d already committed to Nick and JC.
Danny made his way back over to the group. Alisa had just finished shooting. “How did you do?”
“It’s a shotgun. You don’t have to be a sharp shooter to hit anything with this. I wish we had bought another rifle.” She looked at the AK hanging from Danny’s shoulder.
“I guess there will always be things we wished we’d have done differently, but in the end, we’re a lot better off than most people. I talked to Nick and JC. It looks like there’s definitely going to be a scavenging mission.”
“Have fun.” Alisa’s response was sullen.
“Not today.” Danny put his hands on her shoulders. “Steven is not at all on board with the mission. He really doesn’t understand the need. In fact, he’s mad that we’re doing it. I doubt he’s talking to me right now. I can’t stand to have him and you both giving me the cold shoulder. Who am I supposed to hang out with? Catfish?”
Alisa looked away to try and conceal her smile, but Danny saw it.
He ran his fingers through her hair. “So what do you say? Can we be friends?”
She took his hand with hers. “Just don’t treat me like a baby, Danny. I can take care of myself.”
&nbs
p; He gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “Okay, but try to understand that God gave you to me, and I feel a certain responsibility for keeping you safe, especially after what happened to you.”
JC walked up to Danny. “Did you talk to your people?”
Danny nodded and glanced at Alisa. “She knows; she understands why we have to do it. Steven, not so much. He’s completely against it. Did you talk to Rocky?”
“Yeah, he hates it, but he’s coming. Do you think Steven will come around?”
“No, I don’t. He’s pretty ticked off that we’re doing it, but I don’t think he’ll try to get in the way of us going.”
“As long as Korey comes on board, we should still be okay. I’d like to have at least a four-man security team, Catfish at the wheel and two people to cut the locks and get us hitched up.”
“How do you feel the training went today?” Danny asked.
“It went good. Everyone did their best. Some people still need some work.” JC grinned. “Let me correct that statement; most people still need a lot of work, but we’ll do the best we can with what we have to work with. I wanted to develop a minimum level of proficiency amongst those who would be guarding the compound. We’ll spend all day tomorrow drilling for the mission. Then, we’ll rest up on Sunday and hit the trailer sales lot at first light on Monday.
“Later next week, we’ll do another firing range, stretching the targets out a little further, 50, 150, 200, and maybe 250 yards. Then we’ll see how well those skills translate over for the group. We’ll set up targets at random spots out in the field, and people will have to use their range cards to figure out how far away the target is. I also want to build a small fortification around Miss Jennie’s front porch and make a range card for that position. It has a good view of the drive which is a very likely avenue of approach, due to the natural boundaries of the hedgerow along the road and the creek running up the side of the property.
“Our biggest concern with training is ammo. Nick is going to have Cami make an inventory sheet on Monday. She’ll spend the whole day going around to everyone and finding out exactly how much ammo we have so we can budget how much can be spent on training. We have to plan on never being able to resupply our ammo. I’ve got a ton of 5.56, so does Nick. I’ve also got a nice stash of .308 and shotgun ammo. You’re the only one in the group with an AK, so as nice of a gun as it is, you’re limited to how good you’ll ever get with it because of the ammo situation.”