Heroes and Wolves [book 1]

Chapter twenty-one

Layla

I look at the guns on show and consider what to do. Should I do this? I know a few things about guns but I have never taken a shot out of one. I'm a bit unnerved from seeing this collection.

     "These ones are non-lethal by the way" Zack informs, probably seeing my hesitancy. "The lethal ones are in those crates. Here" he picks up a pistol. "You can have this one" he hands it to me as he takes another one for himself.

     "Thanks"

     "You can take off your bag and place it down here if you want?" he suggests. 

     "No, it's fine" I want to keep it close to me. 

     "Alright then. Let's start. Just aim and pull the trigger. Don't worry about your score" he reassures and Abbey loudly tuts.

Zack presses a button on the wall near the archway and a white hologram shines onto the same wall as well as the side of each cabin. Our names are listed.

     "Your score will show up on this leader board. There's no pressure to do well since it's your first time" he calmly smiles.

     "Oh, for god's sake. Put the number on two Zack since we all seem to have pistols" Abbey sneers at me.

What is her problem?

     "What does the number mean?" I ignore her look.

     "It's where the targets are placed and how they move. The smaller the number, the closer and slower the targets are and vice versa. It's technically the difficulty. As we all have pistols it'll be easier on a lower difficulty" As Zack explains, Abbey walks into the first cabin.

     "Just start Zack!" she begins to aim.

Zack goes over to the wall and pushes the second button that's within a horizontal line of ten. A lever is above them all. Coloured targets soon rise from the ground closer to us while the ones further back sink into the ground out of sight.

     "Ready?" he yells after I walk into the cabin next to Abbey.

     "Ready" me and Abbey both say in unison and I get ready to aim.

Zack pulls the lever and the targets begin to move. The sound of cogs and mechanisms chime around as the front targets slowly move from left to right, whereas the ones furthest from me move back and forth, increasing the distance I have to shoot from slightly. 

I focus on the targets, closing in on a green one as a start. I pull the trigger but get whiplashed by the recoil of my pistol and my shot didn't even hit the target. I glance at the leader board to see minus points besides my name. Really!

     "Haven't you ever seen a gun before?" Abbey fires and of course the bullet hits a blue target right in the middle. Her points go up to sixteen.

     "I should have told you this before but you have limited ammo, so aim accurately and precisely" Zack informs me over the sound of bullets clattering and shots firing.

Right okay. I start to get used to the feel of the gun, using both hands to help steady myself and I fire towards the same green target. It hits just above the middle square and my points go back to zero.

I shoot again, anticipating the recoil this time but my shot goes way out of range from any target and I hear Abbey snigger, sparking the fuse for my anger that I've held in.

     "Was Maylock serious when he thought you could be a Guardian? He should have just left you in the woods!"

I bash my gun on the side of my cabin out in frustration from her spiteful words but this makes a bullet accidentally fire out and ricochet off the metal surrounding of the cabin and I have to duck to get out of the way until it clatters to the ground.

     "Wow, I can't actually believe Maylock found you to be a Guardian" she laughs and fires out her gun again. Her shot hits the middle of a red target making her points go up to forty. "These bullets are non-lethal and you cowered like a baby."

My heart is thundering, each beat forces heated blood around my body causing my vision to blur for a second. I'm literally steaming up inside from rage. I need to simmer before I explode. 

Taking my gun off the counter, I aim for a yellow target and pull the trigger but my shot hits the side.

     "You can't even shoot straight! Where did Maylock find you?"

That's it! 

I lose myself in my anger and slam my gun down on the counter in front of me making sure I don't fire out a bullet, but it wouldn't be so bad if the bullet was 'accidentally' shot in her general direction. They are non-lethal bullets anyway as she so politely stated to me.

I scrunch my fists. How can she talk to me like that? What is her flipping problem? We have literally just met each other! I want to punch her; she is a horrible human being. That's how I used to resolve arguments in school, albeit I always got into trouble but at least they didn't start on me again.

     "Why don't you just give up? I am way ahead of you" her points go to fifty-six as she hits another red target.

     "Shut up!" Boiling over in fury, I whip my gun up off the counter and use one hand this time. I focus my aim and shoot at a green target and then a blue one. 

When I move my aim to another target, there's a change in my eyesight. It has suddenly got more enhanced and impeccably clearer making the targets move at a much slower pace which is odd. My left shoulder begins to throb as I take a shot and it hits a red target right in the middle but I just keep on shooting, hitting targets with such ease and my points stack up.

After a few more shots, a click sounds from my gun when I pull the trigger. There's a blue zero at the side of the gun. I'm out of ammo.

All of the targets sink down into the ground. I place my gun on the counter and breathe out heavily to try and process what just happened with my eyesight. My heart is thumping and my ears are ringing with a constant bell.

     "Nice score for a newbie" Abbey's voice instantly clears the high-pitched tone from my ears.

     "Abbey, that's enough" Zack looks at her but she rolls her eyes.

     "What did you get?" I ask out of curiosity but mainly out of annoyance and anger, mostly anger.

     "I got ninety beating my own previous score of seventy-six. I am so good" after a cackle and swish of her blonde hair, she walks back into Miscellania but Zack stays behind.

He goes into the cabin Abbey was in and takes her pistol out and does the same with mine.

     "Don't take any notice of her" he places the pistols in their holders.

     "I'm fine" I dismiss him.

     "Really? Well from what I could see, she was really getting to you"

     "She wasn't" I snap back.

     "Okay, if you say so but I wasn't the one who went for her when we were inside and I wasn't the one who slammed down their gun only to pick it back up and be awesome." he smirks. "You were wicked. I even stopped shooting just to watch you" he smiles. "but don't worry about Abbey. She will kill me for saying this, but she is just annoyed at you because you get more attention from Maylock than she does. She fancies the socks off of him"

     "Well, that explains a lot" I follow him up the stairs as we head back into Miscellania.