Dave kept the rifle pointing at the store across the street while handing the rifle to his left where Jane was standing.
"Good," said Jane taking control of the rifle. Dave noticed that Jane had placed one of the boxes of bullets on top of the wall and opened it. She picked up one round from the open box and placed it inside the rifle. "Did you see what I did?"
"Could you repeat that? I wasn't expecting you to do something like that."
Jane gently pushed the rifle bolt mostly forward and then partly back. She rested the fore-stock of the rifle on the crook of her left arm so that she could put the fingers of her left hand over the ejector port of the rifle. Then she used her right hand to gently snap the bolt fully back. She caught the ejected cartridge in her left palm. She transferred the cartridge to her right hand.
She then grasped the fore-stock with her left hand and held the butt against the left side of her hip. The rifle being angled up at forty-five degrees. She held the twenty-two round in the finger-tips of her right hand and showed Dave.
"Now watch this. I'll try to keep my fingers as clear as possible."
Jane tilted the cartridge vertically and maneuvered its rear into the breach of the rifle. She pushed it against a movable plate within the magazine and pushed the cartridge down. She then turned the cartridge forward and it clicked into place.
"That looked fiddly," said Dave.
"And it is," said Jane. "I was just demonstrating what happens inside the rifle. Normally, to load this rifle you need to take out the magazine."
Jane turned the rifle on its side and pressed a button near the trigger guard. The magazine popped out a small distance. Jane grasped the magazine with her right hand and pulled it out. She showed the top of the magazine to Dave.
"Do you see the round that we pushed in before?" asked Jane.
Dave nodded.
"Okay. Let's put that magazine back in," said Jane reversing the movements and giving the magazine a simple jab to cause it to lock in place. "Remember that click sound. That's tells you that the magazine is now firmly in place. Although it's a good idea to give the magazine a quick pull to check that it is actually in place instead of just relying on sound. Sadly, this magazine is flush with the rifle body and it's hard to give it a good pulling.
"Now let's take a shot with it. Firstly, let's put our ear muffs on. I'd like some safety glasses as well but I didn't see any. We'll just have to risk it for now. Watch how I push the bolt forward and camber the round from the magazine. This here is the safety. It's currently off and I'm going to ignore it. Read your book and practice using the safety on your own. For now remember your four safely rules that you quoted before and study up later. Now watch this."
Jane lifted the rifle, took aim across the street and fired. She lowered the rifle butt to her hip and worked the bolt open and back, causing a smoking casing to flick towards Dave.
"Sorry about that," said Jane, "but now it's up to you. Take this rifle and let's do some shooting."
Dave took the rifle from Jane and held it on his hip like Jane had done.
"I don't know how comfortable you find that pose," said Jane. "I was doing it because it's easier for both of us to see what is happening. I normally load my rifle while it's on my shoulder and pointing forward. But that's because my rifle can do that while doing a simple mag change. A bolt action is a little more fiddly."
"Tell me about it. At the moment everything seems fiddly."
Jane laughed. "And that's why we're going to practice shooting for a bit. Try to take out the magazine and hand it to me. I'll load a single round into it and let you fire that. When you get used to that we'll let you load the magazine. And not just one round at a time but fully. That will pick the pace up substantially."
"I'm feeling rather overwhelmed."
"Don't worry about it. I'm right here. If you make any mistakes I'll just point them out. Keep focused and we'll make good progress."
"Sounds like a plan," said Dave smiling. "Let's get into it."
* * *
It was mid-afternoon. Dave and Jane we sitting on some foldable chairs and resting. Their day hadn't been a physically demanding one, but Dave had to learn a lot and he was glad to get off his feet and let his mind start to rebuild itself.
"You really picked things up quickly today," said Jane.
Dave looked over his shoulder to the stretcher where he slept. A twenty-two rifle lay there on its side with the bolt open. Also on the stretcher were a few boxes of cartridges. One box was mostly used up.
"I feel pretty overwhelmed," said Dave. "I hope that I remember it all."
"Don't worry if you don't remember everything perfectly. Keep practicing and it will become second nature."
"You certainly have a lot of faith in me."
"You're doing something that I'm sure isn't being attempted by other people. You are trying to understand what has happened. I'll not go so far as to say that you are deeply scientific about it. What you are doing is building an initial intuitive overview of the topic. But it's an overview that we need. It will give us a place to start and it could very well bring hope."
"Now I know you're exaggerating. I don't really feel like I'm doing anything amazing. I'm just letting my curiosity get the better of me. I'm just the same old useless fool that I've always been."
Jane looked straight at Dave with a serious expression. "I never knew you before all this, but know that you really are important. It's been
