Terra Nova

Chapter 6: First Day At Work

I woke up quite early so that I could get ready for the day ahead that would lead to me becoming a sheriff. "Sophie I'm going to work," I said with a quiet tone. "At 5:00 A.M." She said looking up from where she was sleeping on the couch. "Well I want to meet Mr. Shannon early," I said. "Ok well don't wake me up again," Sophie said as she threw a pillow at me. I walked out of the house and trekked through the mud caused by heavy rain to Commander Taylor's place and walked in. "Commander Taylor, sir," I said as he turned around. "So I hear you're going to be the new sheriff," He said looking at me. "Well I'm just working for Mr. Shannon, sir but I hope to be good at it," I said trying to hold back my nervousness. "Shannon will be here in twenty," Taylor said. "Thank you sir," I responded. 20 minutes later Mr. Shannon walked in with two guns and two vests. "Put this on and put the gun in the holster around your shoulder and back," Mr. Shannon said. "Yes sir," I said terrified. "Listen kid, I'm not going to kill you so there is no need to be terrified," Mr. Shannon said. "Mr. Shannon, real quick. Okay, so I really like Maddy and I don't know if she is with anyone right now but I would like to take her on a date some time," I said staring at the floor. I told Mr. Shannon that because I really liked Maddy and I hoped he wouldn't have a problem with it, and surprisingly he didn't have a problem because Mark apparently was cheating on her before the 12th pilgrimage. "James, I'm her dad not her hit man just don't hurt her as bad as Mark did," Mr. Shannon said. "Thank you sir," I said with a smile because it made some of my nerves relax. We walked to an area of Terra Nova where there was an open field and I had to run five laps around the entire field. Needless to say I fell over when I got done. "Good job but how's your accuracy," Mr. Shannon asked. "Not great," I said quietly. "Well we can fix that, get in," Mr. Shannon said as he motioned me into his vehicle. "Do you have any water," I said with a gasp. "Oh yeah, here," Mr. Shannon said as he handed me a canteen. "Thanks," I said as I gulped down the entire canteen. We drove to the soldiers parade ground where there was a shooting range and an obstacle course I would have to run. "Alright take out the pistol I gave you this morning," Mr. Shannon said as he took out his pistol as well. "Power it up and fire at the targets," He told me as I flipped the lever on the side. I pulled the trigger and hit all three targets almost perfectly. "Great now you need to run the obstacle course twice and then you can put on the badge because I've tried to train quite a few people and none of them did as good as you," Mr. Shannon said. "Thank you sir," I said smile. I ran the obstacle course twice quite fast. When I got done Mr. Shannon handed me a leather jacket that symbolized our badge and then he drove me home where I could evaluate how to ask Maddy on a date.