“Oh yeah! Bonnie Parker here at your service!” She yelled, holding the gun in the air.
“Please don’t shoot me,” I said.
She laughed a little bit. “Well, just make sure that you are a good boy and nothing bad need happen to you,” She said with a maniacal look in her eyes.
Zach showed me next, putting the gun in my hands, “Alright, now squeeze the trigger.”
I did. A light pop erupted from the gun as a shot fired off. The casing bounced and clanked on the pavement below. “I think I have the gist of it,” I said to him.
“No, you don’t,” He replied. “You have only shot one bullet and your hand is less than steady. Here,” he pointed over to targets that he set up. Zach pulled us over to them, placing us behind a white parking line about twenty feet away from the targets. “Shoot these from here. Once you hit a target, take three steps back. Just keep going until the targets are all gone.”
I looked at the targets. One was a glass bottle void of the soda that it once contained, there were two Styrofoam cups weighed down by water, a milk jug, a pint orange juice bottle filled with murky water, and a playing card, the three of diamonds, that Zach managed to wedge into the wooden planks that held the targets up.
“Alright, now you guys shoot those without killing each other. I will be over by that security car, trying to siphon anything that I can from it,” Zach said and was off before we could reply.
“What a hasty escape,” Chelsea said.
We both quickly lined up our weapons, taking aim at our respective targets. I wanted the glass bottle to by my first prey. I aimed up the sights, took a deep breath, and BANG! The glass bottle erupted in a fit of shards flying through the air, the bottle falling off of the wooden beam. I looked to Chelsea, “I was aiming for that!”
“Well you should have fired first. Don’t be upset that I’m just a better shot than you,” she said, taking three steps back. “You can take your turn now princess.”
I made a fake laugh at her, though I was amused by the joke. I steadied my sights on one of the cups, releasing my breath, and pulling the trigger. My eyes flinched at the noise momentarily, but when they focused on the cup again, it was unscathed. I grunted in anger and was about to line up the sights again when the top left portion of the cup that I was aiming at flew into the air and onto the ground. I turned to see Chelsea fully smug with her accomplishment.
“Chelsea: 2. Daryl: 0,” She counted off.
“Daryl hasn’t gotten a second shot off yet,” I replied in the third person. Not waiting for a reply, I raised the gun again, pointing at the milk jug. I was not ready to embarrass myself again by missing. It was also a waste of ammo, though we did have a lot.
The milk just was a lot easier to get on target. Zach was right, my hand was not steady by any means. I do not know if it was the late fall chill or my inability to hold things steady, but the sway of the gun was far more difficult to account for than I would have thought. I waited, holding the gun up at the milk jug, trying to time when I pulled the trigger with the sway of my hands. I squeezed the trigger, my eyes flinching once again. When I looked back, the milk jug was leaking its contents all over the ground below. I let out a light whoop and leapt into the air.
“Daryl: 1, Chelsea:2,” I said in a mocking tone. I took three large steps back, placing me slightly farther than she was.
Chelsea took her three steps back, “Don’t think that I’m going to let you off easy,” She said, raising her gun. She fired and the orange juice bottle burst from the side and fell over. “Chelsea: 3, Daryl: 1,” She said before taking three steps back.
“Doesn’t matter, I’ll be taking the rest,” There was only the cup and three of diamonds playing card remaining. I took sights on the playing card, breathed, and fired. The top of the card had a mark on it, the card fluttering back and forth from the impact. “Does a graze count?”
Chelsea raised her arms, “Well, I guess the objective is to hit it, and you did hit it, so why-“
“Doesn’t count!” Zach yelled from the other side of the lot. “If that was a contaminated, it wouldn’t be dead. Clean hits or bust!”
I shook my head and gestured for Chelsea to take her turn, but a hissing noise was coming from around the building. I looked to Chelsea and she heard it too. The sky was getting darker, my watch saying four thirty-seven, which made it hard to see where the contaminated was coming from. I turned around and looked to Zach. He hadn’t heard it and was still pumping. I whistled to him doing my best impression of a bird.
