2 days until Z-Day.
(I am having this weird feeling right now. The feeling you get when you see something that ought to be impossible, happening. Like seeing a person you never thought you'd see in your life or even a giant flying mecha that gives Newton the finger.
While I still get goosebumps every time I see somebody from the main 'cast' while in school, having Kohta walking next to me makes the sensation go to a totally different level. He's a character I always thought I would only ever see behind a screen, yet here he is walking next to me. I just hope that when I'll have to interact with the rest of the group it won't feel so weird.)
"Hey Naier, are we there yet?" Kohta asked while dragging his feet.
We must have walked a good thirty minutes since leaving school.
"Almost, about five to ten minutes or so." I say to Kohta while thinking about the gun range.
(The building is soundproof, so it could make for a good base post outbreak. As it would mask any sounds a survivor is going to make from the inside, but there's one problem. It is a shooting-range/gun shop, so everybody and my grandma will go there to get a gun. Meaning, it will be flooded with survivors before long, so there is a good chance this place will be either overrun, or house other survivors. That makes the place too unreliable to be placed in my priority list.)
"Hey Naier… are we really going to… you know, shoot any guns?" Kohta turns his head to me.
"Hmm, if you think that I might be lying then why did you come along with me in the first place? As for your question, yes we are going to have some target practice, don't worry." I say to Khota making a thumbs up gesture with my hand.
"Oh, s-sorry I didn't mean like that. It's just, you are being awfully kind, it's a little weird for me. Sorry." Kohta was now looking at the ground again, hands in his pockets.
"Don't worry bub, I have no intention of lying to you. But, words are just words after all, so the best way to prove my word is for you just see it for yourself. So, speaking of our future activity, are you a good shot?"
"ehh...I'm ok." Kohta said while scratching the side of his head.
(Ok, my ass. If you are half as good as what the anime portrayed you to be, you are either undermining yourself, or trying to catch me off guard.)
"Right… I'll keep that in mind. By the way, we're here." I turn my head around and point at a rather small corner building.
The building itself was plain, no signs or flashy big letters with the exception of a large window that took about half of the storefront. On the other side of the window were different types of crossbows and air rifles. Kohta eyed the display for a little, then opened his mouth to speak while I was looking at my phone.
"This is a..."
"Good time to take a break" I interrupt Kohta before he can go on a derailing gun rant again.
"We've arrived a bit faster than I expected. The gun range won't be open for the next fifteen minutes, so we have to wait for a bit. Anything you want to do till then?" I look back at the chubby boy while putting the phone back in my pocket.
"We can go inside and check the guns out, I bet they hid the better stuff inside." Kohta said as he was about to walk inside.
"We are not going inside yet, come on, let's go wait on a bench for now." I turn around and start walking away with Kohta following behind me, occasionally turning his head towards the storefront.
"But… but… the guns."
I sat on a nearby bench with Kohta following suit, he looked rather...sad. Then again this guy is addicted to guns and I just denied him his fix soooo, yeah.
"So how did you learn so much about guns anyway? I mean I like guns as much as the next guy, but you blow me out of the water with your knowledge on the things, at least that's the impression I got with that impressive rant of yours." I folded my arms and leaned back on the bench.
"...Well, I read about guns a lot. I also had a… friend that knew a lot about guns. He taught me for a while, he was also the reason I managed to shoot some as well"
(Friend? I'm pretty sure he never mentioned that he had friends in Blackwater USA when he said that to the group, or did he? Though I suppose he doesn't want to stick out too much by saying that he had training by a private military company in the US.)
"I see, well I hope he taught you well enough, you'll need it."
"I will?" Kohta was scratching his cheek, with a curious look in his face.
"You'll see what I mean soon enough don't worry about it." Turning my away from Kohta I started thinking about my plan for tonight.
(Once the sun is down I'll have to 'visit' the school, thankfully all my clothes are either black or… dark gray? So it should let me blend in with the shadows. I suppose that the guards will be holding flashlights so I should be able to spot them faster than they can spot me.
As for telling Kohta that he will need to shoot 'good' soon, that was actually with double meaning. Sure, one is for when the shit hits the fan. But the second one is actually for right now. If the owner sees Kohta shoot, and he is as good as he should be, he will be interested in a match, or I hope he will be.
The owner is a foreigner like me. Maybe it's also one of the reasons he accepted my offer in the first place, the other being that the paycheck itself was rather fat. Now, so far he kept his word and for one hour he'd let me use or check the guns out in the range, along with some boxes of ammo to use. All of that after closing time so other people won't see me. As that would only cause trouble both for me and him. He probably won't be too happy with Kohta being here today though. I could tell him I'll pay extra? Although that would be a lie as I don't have any more cash to spend, and he would want the cash right there and then.)
After ten silent minutes, I get up, gesturing for Kohta to follow me.
Arriving outside of the store I motion Kohta to wait and head into the store myself.
"Hey kid, last day you come here, as per our agreement" The owner glanced at me while he was fiddling with the register. He was of average height with a buzz cut haircut. His gray cargo pants covering his boots and a plain white T-shit on his torso.
"Indeed it is, but before we go on I got to ask you something" The owner hearing my request folds his arms and cocks his head to the side, gesturing for me to continue on.
"I have a guy with me that might be a better shot than you, interested in checking him out?" The owner instantly smirks a little at my statement.
"Ohhhh a better shot than me you say. Kid, I shoot here daily. Can I even take this 'offer' seriously?"
"Well how about this, you check him out right now, if he is good enough to prove a challenge, then you let us stay. If he turns out to be a fluke, I leave now and you can close the store early and go home, you already have the payment for today so you don't really lose anything."
The owner thinks for a bit putting his finger on his temple
"Very well kid, I'll bite. Bring the guy at the gun range downstairs and then get ready to go home early." The owner turns around and walks towards the underground range laughing at his own 'amazing' joke.
I walk back out to find Kohta twiddling his thumbs.
(If I didn't know better, I would begin to panic right about… now.)
"Well bud come on, it's time to sink or swim." I motion for Kohta with my hand to enter the store.
The moment he entered his eyes started shining, his head darting left and right like an excited puppy to all the guns on the displays. While Kohta was busy with that, I was changing the door's front sign from open to closed and locking the door with the key that was on the knob.
"THAT...THAT'S THE REMINGTON 870." Kohta shouted before he ran to the other side of the store.
"AND THIS… YES THE BENELLI NOVA… THEY EVEN HAVE SOME WINCHESTER 1300 AND, AND, AND."
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Before Kohta could blow up like a hype bomb I started moving towards him.
"You can stay here and drool over the hunting shotguns if you want, I'm going downstairs to see some real guns."
I guess the word 'real' struck home as Kohta snapped out of his gun fugue and quickly followed me.
Heading downstairs we reached a glass door with the gun range on the other side. It was not too large, with stands for 5 people, and a range long enough to effectively be a challenge if the targets were in the farthest part of it. Next to the range was a small room with a desk and some chairs along with a small tv for spectators and a locked door on the back of said room leading to the range's armory.
I walked through the glass door and the owner turned to see me, his face slowly turning to a frown.
"Is this your idea of a joke kid? You told me you found a GUY, he's a god-damn school kid for god's sake!" His eyes narrowed as he stared at me.
"And my offer still stands, let him take one shot, if he's not good enough we leave. You save ammo and you can go home early." I respond as I fold my arms.
(I hope he takes the offer, since he has all the right to refuse the challenge and just send us all home. But, I was hoping that he would at least give me this much as it was my last day here anyway.)
"Ughhhh… one shot kid, no more. If this turns out to be a joke, you two will leave immediately." He puts his hand on his forehead while covering his eyes, exasperated.
"So Kohta you up for it? If you want to shoot more than once you just have to..." I didn't manage to even finish my sentence as Kohta had moved past me.
(Ohh boy is Kohta in spec ops mode because the owner said he can actually shoot?)
"Show me what I'm going to use and what I'm shooting."
(Yep he's gone full commando, and not the no pants type one.)
The owner snickered a bit and moved to the range with Kohta following behind him, his eyes slowly widening when he saw the gun that he was supposed to use.
"This is a Remington Model 700, personally customized by me. You got one shot chubby, farthest target, surprise me." After handing Kohta with the gun, the owner walked back to me with a shit-eating grin on his face, we then headed towards the chairs in the spectator room.
"Well kid it was fun working with ya, but you should learn not to make bets with things you don't understand." He then puts his hands on the back on his head with the grin still on his face, waiting for Kohta to take his shot.
"This is a Vortex Optics Viper PST with a custom stock and a custom body made out of carbon and fiberglass. I need to calibrate the scope to make sure my shot will find its mark, the stand here does not have any bipods to place the gun while I aim. So, I will have to crouch down and use the stand itself."
Kohta was mumbling to himself as he moved himself into a crouching position while fiddling with the scope...that mumbling though, seemed to have caught the owner's attention, as he was now staring at Kohta, his smirk slowly disappearing.
"That kid, he knows what he's doing, he has used a gun before?" The owner asked. Judging from his expression, I'd say he was starting to take the bet seriously now.
"Yes. I did tell you that he's a good shot. Did you forget? Now, it was my turn to grin.
"I'm ready." Kohta, now in a crouched position, turned to look at us with his hand in the air in a thumbs up motion.
The owner nodded and Kohta lowered his hand, placing his finger over the trigger. He looked through the scope once more, and a couple of seconds later, he pulled the trigger.
The owner's eyes went wide as he looked at the screen.
"Bullseye on his first try… " He then got up from his seat and walked towards Kohta.
"Not bad chubby, guess your friend was right to trust you. It's a challenge then" The owner then turns to me.
"Ok kid, he can stay. We'll have that match." He nods as he looks at me, then turns his head back to Kohta.
"Well, let's see what you really got chubby."
The owner takes the gun from Kohta and heads towards the locked room, unlocks it and goes inside closing the door behind him and locking it back again.
I get up and walk up to Kohta, who had left the stand and was walking towards me.
"Good job." I slap Kohta on the shoulder lightly.
"Ehehe, thanks... Man I can't wait." Kohta then took a seat and looked at the screen.
"Well, now I can officially say that I have kept my word, no?" I lift one eyebrow while looking at Kohta.
He turns his head back to me, smiling.
"Yea and right now I'm very glad I actually came along, thanks Naier."
"Don't mention it."
The sound of the back door unlocking caused both of us to turn our heads. The owner walked out of the locked room with three unmodified Remington 700 with him and three small bags of ammo.
"Alright kids take your positions, I'm going to wipe the floor with ya." He hands both of us a gun and an ammo pouch and then goes back to lock the door while we head to the range and get ready.
"This match will be for as long as you are here, meaning it will last for forty-five minutes. We will have a five-minute break every fifteen minutes to check scores and restock if we run out of ammo." With that, the owner picks his gun and points at the target with it.
"We will be aiming at the furthest targets on the other side of the wall, bullseye will be a hundred points, each circle around it will be twenty points less the farther it is from the bullseye. So 80 for the nearest, 60 for the one after and so on and so forth. The gun holds 4 rounds, three in the magazine and 1 in the chamber. We'll each have 50 rounds to use, I'll be surprised if you manage to use it all though. Get ready we start on three"
After taking some ammo from the bag and placing them in easy reach all of us took our guns and took aim. The owner was standing upright, Kohta was using his previous position and I used my elbows to balance the gun on the stand putting my cheek on the stock.
"THREE, TWO, ONE"
"FIRE"
Sounds of gunshots echoed in the soundproof room. I had no idea how I was doing since the target was rather small from this distance, but I got to admit. I was having fun.
*15 MINUTES LATER*
"Time up, guns down!" Shouts the owner.
After the first round was over we left the guns and headed to the spectator room to see the targets and checked our shots.
Owner : 10 Bullseye, 14 second circles, 12 third circles, 7 fourth circles, 0 on the fifth circle to a total of 2540.
Kohta : 13 Bullseye, 20 second circles, 0 third circles, 0 fourth circles, 0 on the fifth circle to a total of 2900.
Me : 11 Bullseye, 6 second circles, 2 third circles, 0 fourth circles, 0 on the fifth to a total of 1700.
I looked at Kohta, who had a wide grin on his face.
The owner was actually smiling as well.
(I guess he did find the challenge fun, huh.)
"Kid, you're falling behind, chubby here is leaving you in the dust." He snickered as he turned to face me, I laughed a little through my teeth.
"Tell me that when you're winning, you're still in second place."
The owner heads back to the locked room with hasty steps and comes back with another bag full of ammo.
"Refill your ammo pouch with this, after that we go for the second round" The owner hands us the bag.
I took the bag first as I was the farthest away, then gave it to Kohta who then gave it back to the owner who, after refilling his pouch, headed back to the door and left the bag inside.
"Alright ladies on your posts we start on… three, two, one, fire!" The owner shouted the count down once more and the guns lit up again.
(Honestly, I do not expect to do any better now, getting bullseyes means that my aim is good enough to hit a dead man in the head from a good enough distance. That's what I need right now.)
Keeping my eyes on the target I continue to take shots, reloading the gun after every time it empties.
*15MINUTES LATER*
"Time's up, guns down!" Shouts the owner once more.
Kohta and the owner quickly walk back to the room to check their scores with me following behind them.
OWNER : 14 Bullseye, 17 second circles, 4 third circles, 6 fourth circles, 0 on the fifth circle to a total of 5280 with the last round's score added.
Kohta : 16 Bullseye, 14 second circles, 0 third circles, 0 fourth circles, 0 on the fifth circle to a total of 5620 with the last round's score added.
Me : 13 Bullseye, 9 second circles, 1 third circle, 0 fourth circles, 0 on the fifth to a total of 3780 with the last round's score added.
"Well chubby, looks like you were worth the challenge, you actually won. We have five minutes left but I don't think I can pass over you now." The owner was smiling while looking at the screen.
"And kid, what did I tell ya about being too slow, you fell way behind. Your score is just sad" He turns to me folding his arms, still smiling.
"Well if I could be as good as the pros with so little training it would be cheating no?" I lift my hands up in a surrendering gesture.
"Huh whatever, I did not expect us to make so much of a mess so I will have to ask for you two to leave now, I'll have to clean this place. Take it as your friend's prize that I'm not making you gather the cases. Now shoo get outta here."
The owner points at the door with his finger.
We both nod and start heading towards the glass door, after Kohta is heading up the stairs I turn around and speak up.
"We can't lock the door from the outside so you might want to come and lock it." The owner stared at me for a bit.
"Yeah, you're right. Just go up I'll be there to lock the front door in a bit" He leaves the bag he had on his hands and looks at me.
"Very well. Also thanks for taking up my offer, both now and when we first met." I say to the owner while nodding.
"The paycheck was good, now get out of here kid. I have to close shop." He points his finger once more towards the stairs behind me.
"Gehh, way to ruin the moment, sir-ass-sir" I turned around, laughing while walking up the stairs. I think I heard the owner laugh too?
Heading back to the front of the store I looked at Kohta who was drooling over the shotguns again.
"You just can't have enough, can you" I say to Kohta while moving to the door, unlocking it.
"Nope." He starts moving towards the door as well, his head still turned to the shotguns.
After we both exited the gun range, I took a deep breath and started walking. Motioning Kohta to move along.
"He told me he will be up in a bit to lock the door, so we can just leave." I turned to look at Kohta.
"So had any fun?" I ask.
"You kidding, that was amazing. Most fun I had in ages." Kohta says happily while he clapped his hands together.
"You know. If you are coming here again… could you, you know… let me join again?" He asks as he turns to look at the floor.
"Sure thing." I answer.
(Sure thing… sure thing. Wish I could do such a thing but in two days we'll be running for our lives. Well… at least the 'shooting guns' part is going to happen again i guess.)
We continue walking for a couple of minutes till we reach an intersection.
Kohta then stops and looks at me.
"Well, I'll be going this way. My house is over that direction so I guess we'll split up here" Kohta points at a road to my right that climbed up a hill.
"Alright Kohta, take care." I held out my arm. After he looks at it for a few seconds he smiles and grabs it for a handshake.
"By the way Naier, the owner of the store… what's his name?" Kohta asks as he lets go of my arm.
"Oh, I… got no idea, he never told me" I raise my arms and shrug.
"Really, he lets you use the gun range, yet he didn't tell you his name?" Kohta tilts his head in confusion.
"He doesn't know mine either. We had an agreement but that didn't make us buddies." I lowered my arms down and looked back at the gun range.
(I still wish him the best of luck for what is to come though. Even if he did take all my frigging money.)
"Anyway I should get going too, it's getting a bit late. The sun won't be out for a couple of hours but I still haven't even opened a book to study today" I say to Kohta, which causes him to react in the expected fashion.
"CRAP YOU'RE RIGHT, HOMEWORK!" He screams as I nod at him. I turn around and start walking down the road, as I hear running footsteps behind that slowly started to fade away.
(Wonder how long he will be able to run up this hill… Well whatever, I got my own 'homework' to do as well.)