Blogbuster - A comedy-laced blogger sci-fi thriller

10 - Pull the Trigger

Click. Print. Gun.

“This is going to be our best one ever.”

Trigger was in the house. He wiped his hands and took a long breath. He wanted to play it cool, but under his layer of thick skin, his cells buzzed like spitfires.

“Looking good, T, the lower receiver is almost good to go,” Nick said. 

He held his eScroll straight at Trigger.

“Yes, looking good indeed,” he said.

Trigger stood in front of the 3D printer, listened to the humming sound of the mighty machine. Fzzz, vmmm, noises that dripped like melliferous honey into Trigger’s ears. He watched the printing a thousand times and could anticipate every part of process, just by listening to the different tunes of the technology. A win-win connection between man and machine. 

Fzz, vrrrm, zmmm.

Trigger turned toward the printer’s thirty-two inch screen. Touched the display to make the real-time printing menu pop up. A digital blueprint of the AR-15 rifle and its printed parts appeared.

Upper receiver.

Lower receiver.

Barrel casing. 

Barrel.

Magazine.

Butt. 

Grip.

Printing time in total : twelve hours, forty-five minutes. Trigger whistled. Not too long ago, it would have taken a couple of weeks to 3D print these parts. But now, half a day sufficed. Technology, Trigger wanted to make love to it today. But before that would occur, he wanted to take his new baby out for a test shoot. 

Seventy-five seconds later, he was able to. 

The 3D printer finished the process. The hatch slid sideways and revealed a shiny new lower receiver part, the last puzzle to his highly customizable AR-15 rifle. Trigger’s eyes opened up. He felt like a child awaiting Christmas morning. Nick recorded every bit of it — his facial reaction, the humming  of the 3D printer, and the revelation of course. 

“Are you filming this in 3D ?” Trigger said.

Nick formed his lips into a ‘mmm’ sound, because d’uh, he didn’t spend two and a half thousand credits on his eScroll if it came with a crappy 4K cam. 

No way.

Trigger held the lower receiver. Thousands of fans tuned in.

“What do you say, folks, is it pretty, or is it PRETTY ?”

In the blink of an ADD eye, his real-time community unleashed a comment volley.

“Pretty as pretty can be.”

“A damn fine dame.”

“Boom, your baby brings me the bromance, Trigger.”

And a hundred more comments that Trigger couldn’t read now, because damn, he was shaking from excitement. Like, shaky shaky.

He turned around, stared into Nick’s eScroll and blasted out the biggest smile.

“The best presents in the world are the ones you print yourself.”

“Amen,” Nick said and captured a close-up shot of Trigger taking the lower receiver and putting it to the other AR parts. They were stretched out on the table plate, ready for speed assembly. Trigger wiped his hands and assembled the pieces together like a magic puzzle that couldn’t wait to fit into the greater whole. Click, clack, clank. He did it a hundred times, and with the new stick-ready components, it worked faster than ever.