Chapter 68: 68
Johnny’s family finally finished loading up their vehicles and we opened the gate and cleared a few on the street before we started to drive towards our compound. The trip has been uneventful and we safely reached the fences. I saw that the side where the fences was connected was reinforced and the fences themselves were also. It was made heavier by adding another roll of the chain-link on it and attaching a metal strip to hold it together. It’s sturdier than the earlier version of it though it is much heavier. We parked Raphael’s pickup inside the compound while Johnny parked their vehicles outside.
“This is the place. From this fence towards the end is a safe zone. What do you think?” I said.
He gives a solemn expression and Oscar came outside to meet them.
“Col. Oscar Goodman, US Army Veteran. You must be Sgt. Johnny Smith, Marines, right?” they both shook hands.
“I’m retired too, very recently. This place is definitely much better than ours.” he said.
“Oscar, I’m thinking of letting them stay at your house, there’s nine of them and I think a single room might not fit them.” I said.
“How about the other houses here then? Are they all occupied?” Johnny asked.
“Right, we can let other people stay in the other houses now.” I said to myself.
“Most of them are looted though, we did a run by them for a few days. The electricity and the water are still running in the other houses though we don’t know for how long. Just flip the main switch on since we turned them off. We have panels in the compound though we’re gonna start on conserving the usage of electronic devices to further the lifespan on the panels in the future.” I explained.
“I think we would like to settle in one of the houses here. Can I pick anything?” he said.
“Sure, there are only two occupied houses here. The one near the court and the gated one near the fishing areas.” I explained.
“Hey, can I stay inside the compound?” Bobby asked.
“Sure. Just pick an empty room when we go inside.” I said.
I made a small orientation on how things work here. Johnny and his family picked the house where we found the cat that was left there. We left them to their own devices for a while and I said that we have a meeting after dinner and he said he would come with everyone. Their supplies other than their guns were taken to the storage area though everything is accounted for in the inventory that Rin made. Bobby went to the room next to Allan’s and Jenny’s since the third room has no one occupying it since the two became a couple.
Oscar told me the details of the broadcast and it’s the same details like yesterday.
There’s still more daylight to burn so I invited anyone that who would like to join a class for basic firearms training. I brought a few pistols with me to the court and I started on training a few. Alex, Esther, Jonathan, Nicole, Alicia, Mark, Dong, Lois and Russel came to the training while Kaley came to watch.
“Hey, Lois is Jared’s brother, right?” Kaley said.
“Yeah, why?” I asked.
“Can he shoot like his brother?” she asked.
“Well, he’s a special case. He’d only excel at things when his interest is piqued. When he starts to get bored of it, his performance suffers.” I explained.
“Really?” she said.
“Yeah, he’s a quick study too, the only problem is that he gets bored easily. That’s why his brother goes to lengths like even taunting Lois just to get him to move.” I said.
“What made him want to go to practice now?” she said.
“Not sure, we’ll know later.” I replied.
We assembled on the concrete bleachers once more and I gave a small lecture, the same as last time to drill into their minds the importance of proper handling and discipline when operating a firearm. Since there were exactly nine of them, I brought out the .22 pistols which are all the same Walther P22s. Instead of them shooting at the same time, what I did was I let them go one-by-one so that they could observe the first one first and ask them what they observed from it. We could then have a discussion on what the person did wrong and what improvements on their posture or grip can be given.
“Lois, go first yeah?” I said.
He grabbed the first one, laid it in the table, stripped it and assembled it again. He loaded the magazine with the bullets provided and he aimed at the target and took a shot.
*BANG*
Right at the head. He exhales and he fired another shot.
*BANG*
It hit the torso this time.
“Go two shots per breath now.” I instructed.
*BANG* *BANG*
One hole near the earlier one in the head and one a bit off in the right but still at the head area. He exhales and fires the other two.
*BANG* *BANG*
It hit the torso once more but one is very offset.
“Good job, you really don’t want to join the scouting team?” I said.
“Hmm, maybe, but I’d like to stay at home though.” he said.
“Okay, no problem there’s plenty of us anyway but I might drag you a few times. Try using your left now.” I instructed.
“What? I haven’t tried that yet. This is gonna be bad.” he said.
“Just try it.” I said.
He made a couple of attempts but the distance is way off compared to the shots he made earlier. A few hit the target though and I gave him another full magazine to get his rhythm back with using both hands. The groupings are now much better than before and we heard the click that the gun is empty. I looked at the group in the back and they have a mix of expressions.
“He’s good.” Kaley said.
He just smiled and he took a seat after making a bow.
“So, what can we learn from that?” I said.
A few of them gave their answers and we started to discuss.
“In the future, I’d like you all to at least be able to do what Lois can. He’s already in the next level, even more if he continues to practice, which he doesn’t. What we learned from his display is that if you make shots in succession, the accuracy of the following shots starts to move away from the intended target. What we need to do to counter that is that we keep a steady grip and a proper position so that the successive shots won’t go too far. Someone go next yeah?” I said.
The rest of them took turns and we discussed every time someone finishes. We continued on training until it was starting to get dark.
“Sky, I noticed that the guns we’re using gives less noise and it kicks less.” Russel asked.
“Yeah, it is a lower caliber and it’s best for practicing not like the shotgun you let loose in the gas station.” I said.
“Oh, that was fun though!” he exclaimed.
“Yeah, that was crazy.” I said.
“Hey! I haven’t got the trade for the shotgun I gave you yet. Can I have this instead?” Russel said.
“Sure, I can give you a holster for it. But always keep it in check, that never leaves the holster unless there’s an emergency and keep it out of your little sister’s reach yeah?” I said as he happily took it.
Nicole then approached me and she said, “Hey, when can I have my own gun then? I’m doing pretty good, right?”
“You are, I just think that it’s still not time yet. If Lois wasn’t here, you’d be the top student. That little brother of yours is something else. I can give you the pistol but without the bullets though.” I said.
“How can that help then?” she asks.
“You can practice quick aiming and field stripping for starters, what most of you struggle with is aiming properly. It would take you guys a few seconds before you properly aim with the sights. What you need to practice is that when you raise it or draw it from the holster, it’s already positioned and ready to go. That would be the difference of life and death in the future.” I explained.
“Really? I’ll keep this one then.” she said.
“Clean it first yeah?” I added.
She nodded and we tidied up. We then headed to the compound. We found that Johnny’s family is inside there, chatting with everybody. He waved at us and we joined them.
“So, you trained a few of them?” he asked.
“Yeah, there’s a few promising ones and a few needs to train normally to get better.” I said.
He just nodded with a solemn expression.
“How about your family though? Do you want me to train some of them?” I said.
“My wife, son and Marco knows how to use them. I just want the rest of them to stay here and be safe while we protect them.” He said.
Oscar and I looked at each other but Oscar said, “That’s fine, but it wouldn’t hurt them knowing a few things.”
“Does everyone in your compound know how to use firearms?” he asked.
“No, but we plan to train everyone in the future.” Oscar said.
“Do you guys even have enough ammo for that?” he asked.
“It doesn’t have to be just guns. I’ve been meaning to teach close-combat weapons or hand-to-hand for a while.” I said.
“I disagree, I’d rather have my family not be conscripted as soldiers. They could do other things but not fighting those things.” He replied.
“I’d rather teach them to have the knowledge to protect themselves when they need it than needing to protect themselves but don’t have the knowledge to. I learned that the hard way.” I said earnestly.
“I…” he was finding the words to reply.
“Better to have and not need rather than to need and not have.” Oscar and I said.