Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Chapter 101: 101

“Whoa! Hold on! You used birdshot! That’s cheating! I’m not handing them over to you!” he shouted.

“Tatiana, did I cheat?” I asked with an angelic expression but with a devilish smile.

“Negative. The agreement is that a graze is enough. Everyone here heard it, correct?” She explained.

“…” Everyone else. They are having mixed expressions and the crowd is divided.

“Wha- wait! I didn’t agree to t-that! I thought we were both using slugs!” he was flabbergasted.

“You did agree to that dear. Now hand him the keys. You should listen to what everybody else is saying from time to time.” Marisha said with a smile while her daughters have weird expressions.

“S-sis… isn’t this like last time?” I heard Olivia said.

“Y-yeah, I remember that.” She replied.

“Remember what?” Marisha asked.

“It’s a funny story, forgot to tell you about that earlier mom. I’ll tell you later.” Kaley said.

I looked back at Matthew and he’s still processing what happened. He seemed reluctant to hand the keys over.

“C’mon, this is me making myself the bad guy now! Just accept the loss to save some face!” I said to myself.

“I can’t accept that! Use the same gun and ammo that I did!” he bellowed as a few in the group nodded in agreement.

“Sure… it’s a bit cheeky using the birdshot anyway. 32.3 seconds, right?” I said.

“If there is a buckshot hidden there…” he said.

“Hah! I won’t find a loophole this time, you’ll still lose though.” I said confidently.

He snorted with disdain.

We reset the targets and he handed me his shotgun. It’s a 7+1 tube magazine, so I laid the slugs neatly on the table, just a finger’s width apart so that I could grab four at a time.

“Shooter ready?” Tatiana said.

“Always.” I replied.

“Stand by…” she trailed.

“Hoo~” I exhaled.

“Go!” she shouted.

*beep*

When I heard the timer beep, I quickly aimed up and I unloaded each one. The shotgun resounded throughout the open area and good thing is that everyone is wearing protection gear for their eyes and ears or else they would have hearing problems.

I aimed first at the 8 plates and it fell one by one. Then to the poles and then to the human-shaped targets. When I fired the 16th shot, I grabbed the last two slugs from the table and I immediately fired the first one. The only target that’s left is in the middle but I would paused after every pump that I made by a short moment. The pause was barely noticeable and you’d only know if you’re familiar with my rhythm.

“Hmm?” Kaley said from behind.

“27… 28…-” I counted in my head and then I pulled the trigger.

*BOOM*

The group was confused at the pause at first but the only one who immediately understood what I did was Tatiana.

“Time?” I asked with the expression I did before.

She is wearing a helpless smile then she shook her head and said, “2-28.2…”

“Woah!”

“That was too close for comfort!”

“Why did he pause for a bit though?”

“Pressure, of course. You need to make the last shot hit.”

“Oh? Is that so…”

“That was still awesome though!”

“Yeah!”

“Are we gonna still practice though…?”

“F.u.c.k the practice! I’d like to try as well! Wait, that doesn’t make any sense… f.u.c.k it!”

“This is just a show of strength to get our blood pumping! Like when we trained in CCW.”

“Right, right. I remembered that.”

I give a faint smile and then I cleared the chamber and handed the shotgun to Kaley’s dad.

“Looks like I got lucky! This is a great gun!” I exclaimed.

“F.U.C.K! That was too close! Fine! The equipment there is still mine though! I’ll get it back soon! Just leave it there for the moment!” he exclaimed as he gave me a set of keys.

“He didn’t notice huh?” I said to myself but as I looked around, Kaley, Marisha, Jared, Lois, Daisy, Jay and Nicole had solemn expressions.

“These people have good eyes.” I said to myself as I winked at Kaley.

“Show off.” she mouthed at me as I shrugged my shoulders.

I asked someone to reset the targets once more and I noticed that the group I was about to teach has excited faces.

“The little bet actually fired them up huh? Too bad that we’re always starting on a lecture first.” I said to myself.

“Are we gonna do the same thing you guys did?” Lois asked with gleaming eyes.

“Of course, but we’ll do a short lecture first.” I explained as the gleam slightly fades the same as everyone else except Esther.

“I really need to introduce her to somebody.” I said to myself.

I grabbed each of the bullets that I brought out and I laid each one in front of the group. I laid a .22, a 9mm, a .45 ACP, a .38, and a .357 magnum. I explained each one and though I have more different kinds, I only showed them what the others looked like but the focus will be on the more common ones.

“See these two pistols here? They are both 1911s but they are chambered differently. One is for the 9mm and the other one is for the .45 ACP.” I said.

“How do we know which gun uses which round then?” Dong asked.

“Check the side label on your M9 that I gave you. What does it say?” I asked.

“Hmm, oh! It says 9mm here.” he replied.

“Okay, then you could load a 9mm round there like we always do.” I explained.

“What would happen if you use a different round then? Will it explode?” Russel asked.

“In some cases, it will. That’s why we need to be very careful.” I explained.

“What are the other cases then?” he asked a follow-up question.

“Wait here, let me get this .380 ACP.” I said as I pulled a smaller round than the 9mm.

“This is much smaller right? But take a look at this.” I said as I loaded a round of 9mm in the mag and that .380 ACP next then I placed another 9mm one on top of it. I pulled the slide to place a round in the chamber and then I shot it at one of the targets.

*ba*ting*

The shot hit the target while the slide successfully loaded another round in the chamber when it got pushed back.

“Okay, the .380 is now in the chamber, watch what happens.” I said as I aimed at the targets again.

*ba*ting*

“It works!” Russel exclaimed.

“It’s much quieter though.” Lois said.

“It’s because it’s shorter and has less gunpowder inside. However, this is where you could see the problem.” I pulled the slide over and I let them look at the chamber.

“Hmm? Why is there no round there?” Jay asked.

“Is it because of the smaller round?” Daisy asked as well.

“Yeah, it could definitely shoot a round but the power it gives is not enough to slide it all the way. So, what happens is that it can’t chamber another round. You would need to slide it manually again so the 9mm round will load into the chamber. There are a few more instances of this but let’s leave it at that for now and let’s start on shooting practice. The rest of you seemed eager to try what we did earlier so I’ll give you all 3 magazines worth of ammo, it has different capacities so let’s just say 30 rounds each. Try it normally the first time, then try do it much quicker than you can like we did. Then lastly, do it normally again to get the proper feel of it before we stop. We’ll go one by one again and we’ll analyze what the person did. Let’s be critical in our observation and don’t hesitate to ask questions.” I explained.

“Wait! Can I try as well?” Jared asked.

“Well, you brought your own gun so have at it first. Trying to put pressure on the others, eh?” I said.

“Well, somewhat. I kinda want to see my best time as well.” He said.

“Hah! You’ll never beat me in speed and accuracy though…” Lois said from the back.

“Try to shoot something from 500 yards before you say anything to me okay? You’re just a bit faster but I definitely could shoot farther.” Jared chuckled.

“Well you trained for it; this is talent… talent I tell you.” Lois said as he waved his hands around.

“What? Making your finger twitch?” Jared retorted.

“It’s more to it than that you know. Our times will actually tell who’s better in this case!” Lois rebutted.

The two kept on bantering on while the rest prepared the guns that they would use. The two are now pushing each other to see who would go first on the table.

“Just freakin’ toss a coin yeah?” I said to the two.

“I definitely should separate these two when we practice. However, it’s a healthy competition… it just takes too long before they start.” I said to myself.

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