Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

"Whoa! Hold on! You used birdshot! That's cheating! I'm not handing them over to you!" Matthew shouted.

"Tatiana, did I cheat?" I asked with an angelic expression but with a devilish smile.

"Negative. The agreement is that a graze is enough. Everyone here heard it, correct?" Tatiana explained.

"..." Everyone else. They were having mixed expressions and the crowd was divided.

"Wha- wait! I didn't agree to t-that! I thought we were both using slugs!" Matthew was flabbergasted.

"You did agree to that dear. Now hand him the keys. You should listen to what everybody else is saying from time to time." Marisha said with a smile while her daughters were wearing weird expressions.

"S-Sis… isn't this like last time?" Olivia said.

"Y-Yeah, I remember that." Kaley replied, glancing at me and Tatiana.

"Remember what?" Marisha asked.

"It's a funny story, forgot to tell you about that earlier mom. I'll tell you later." Kaley said.

I looked back at Matthew and he was still processing what happened. He seemed reluctant to hand the keys over.

"C'mon, this is me making myself the bad guy now! Just accept the loss to save some face!" I shouted in my head.

"I can't accept this! Use the same gun and ammo that I did!" Matthew bellowed as a few in the group nodded in agreement.

"Sure... it's a bit cheeky using the birdshot anyway. It's 28.3 seconds, right?" I said as I placed the new shells in the table.

"If there is buckshot hidden there..." Matthew trailed while raising his eyebrow.

"Hah! I won't find a loophole this time. Well, you'll still lose though." I said confidently.

Matthew scoffed but everyone was watching what I would do next.

Russel reset the targets and Matthew handed me his shotgun. I tried to familiarize myself with it first before I arranged the shells I've placed down. I don't have the shell holders for quad-loading so I have to make do with the table. I laid the slugs neatly on the table, pairs of shells just a finger's width apart so that I could grab four at a time. I went into position after loading it with eight shells.

"Shooter ready?" Tatiana said.

"Always." I replied.

"Stand by..." she trailed.

"Hoo~" I exhaled.

I waited for the timer.

*beep*

When I heard the timer beep, I quickly aimed up and I unloaded each one. The shotgun resounded throughout the open area but good thing was that everyone was wearing protective gear for their eyes and ears. If they didn't they would have problems if they continued like that.

The first eight targets I aimed at fell one by one. After that, I aimed at the dueling poles and then to the human-shaped targets. When I was about to fire the last couple shots, I grabbed the last two slugs from the table and I immediately slid them inside after turning Matthew's shotgun sideways. I immediately fired after getting in position and the steel target resounded. The only target left was in the middle but what most of them weren't noticing was that I would pause a little bit after every pump that I made. The pause was barely noticeable and you'd only notice if you were familiar with my rhythm. Despite that, my time was still faster and I had to make the last pause longer by a second and a few milliseconds.

"Hmm?" I heard Kaley's voice.

"27... 28...-" I counted in my head and then I pulled the trigger.

*BOOM*

The group was confused at that pause but the only one who immediately understood what I did was Tatiana. A few of my people noticed what I did later on but they didn't manage to catch on it the first time I did it. Kaley noticed it at the last pause because this was the first time she saw me use a shotgun.

"Time?" I asked with the same expression I did before.

Tatiana was wearing a helpless smile then she shook her head and said, "2-28.2..."

"Woah!"

"That was too close for comfort!"

"Why did he pause for a bit though?"

"Pressure, of course. You need to make the last shot hit."

"Oh? Is that so..."

"That was still awesome though!"

"Yeah!"

"Are we gonna still practice though...?"

"Fuck the practice! I'd like to try as well! Wait, that doesn't make any sense... fuck it!"

"This is just a show of strength to get our blood pumping! Like when we trained in CCW."

"Right, right. I remembered that."

I gave a faint smile and then I cleared the chamber. I turned around and I handed the shotgun back to Matthew with a smirk.

"Looks like I got lucky! This is a great gun!" I exclaimed.

"FUCK! That was too close! Fine! The equipment there is still mine though! I'll get it back soon! Just leave it there for the moment!" Matthew exclaimed as he gave me a set of keys.

"He didn't notice huh?" I thought to myself but as I looked around, Kaley, Marisha, Jared, Lois, Daisy, Jay, and Nicole had solemn expressions. Tatiana already knew what I did so she was already faintly smiling the moment she pressed the timer.

"These people have good eyes." I thought to myself as I winked at Kaley.

"Show off." Kaley mouthed at me as I shrugged my shoulders.

I asked Russel to reset the targets once more and I noticed that the group I was about to teach had excited faces.

"The little bet actually fired them up huh? Too bad that we're always starting with a lecture." I thought to myself.

"Are we gonna do the same thing you guys did bro?!" Lois asked with gleaming eyes.

"Of course, but we'll do a short lecture first." I explained as the gleam slightly faded from everyone else's eyes except Esther.

"I really need to introduce her to somebody." I thought to myself.

I grabbed each of the bullets that I brought out and I laid each one in front of the group. I laid a .22 Short, a .22 LR, a 9x19mm, a .45 ACP, a .38 Special, and a .357 Magnum. After that, I laid three shotgun shells which were a Birdshot, a Buckshot, and a 1 oz. Slug. I then explained what each one could do and where each one goes. I have more kinds available for pistol and shotgun rounds but the focus will be on the more common ones. I didn't bring rifle rounds this time because I would leave that for another lesson.

"See these two pistols here? They both look like the same gun but they are chambered differently. One is for the 9mm and the other one is for the .45 ACP." I started.

"How do we know which gun uses which round then?" Dong asked.

"Check the side label on your M9 that I gave you. What does it say?" I asked.

"Hmm, oh! It says 9mm here." he replied.

"Okay, then that means that you could load a 9mm round there like we always do. Most guns would have it machined on the gun but we need measuring tools and we need to know what kind of gun it is first to make sure. Unless it's a really old one or someone filed it off with the serial number, it would be there usually." I explained.

"What would happen if you use a different round then? Will it explode?" Russel asked.

"In some cases, it will. That's why we need to be very careful. Well, some wouldn't even fit in the barrel so that's a non-issue." I explained.

"What are the other cases like that then?" he asked a follow-up question.

"Wait here, let me get this .380 ACP." I said as I pulled a smaller round than the 9mm.

"This is much smaller length-wise but they have the same diameter. To further my example, take a look at this." I said as I loaded in order a 9mm, a .380 ACP, and another 9mm in the magazine of my pistol. I pulled the slide to place a round in the chamber and then I shot it at one of the targets.

*ba*ting*

The bullet hit the target and the slide successfully loaded another round in the chamber when it blew back after the recoil.

"Okay, the .380 ACP is now in the chamber, right? Watch what happens next." I said as I aimed at the target again.

*ba*ting*

"It works!" Russel exclaimed.

"It's much quieter though." Lois said.

"It's because it's shorter and has less gunpowder inside. However, this is where you could see the problem." I pulled the slide over and I let them look at the chamber.

"Hmm? Why is there no round there?" Jay asked.

"Is it because of using the smaller one?" Daisy asked as well.

"Yes, that's correct. This gun specifically uses 9mm cartridges but if you're in a pinch, you could use a .380 ACP. However, as we saw from that example, the .380 ACP round couldn't give enough force to push the slide all the way. If the slide wasn't pushed all the way back, it wouldn't be able to chamber the next round and we need to slide it manually to chamber the next one. Whereas if we use a 9mm round, it could push it all the way, making sure that the next round would be chambered. There are a few instances of the gun not chambering another round even when using the right cartridge for it but it's because of the ammo type or a malfunction. There are a lot more examples but let's leave it at that for now." I explained.

They understood my explanation but I'm not sure by how much because they were giving out different expressions. I figured that I would just need to repeat the same lesson every single time until they got it. I answered a few questions for clarifying their thoughts and the lesson continued.

"Okay, let's go to our practical lesson. The rest of you seemed eager to try what we did earlier so I'll give you all 30 rounds each to practice with. Try it normally the first time, then try to do it much quicker than you can like we did. Then lastly, do it normally again to get the proper feel of it before we stop. We'll go one by one again and we'll analyze what the person did. Let's be critical in our observation and don't hesitate to ask questions." I explained.

"Wait! Can I try it as well?" Jared asked.

"Well, you brought your own gun so have at it first. Trying to put pressure on the others, eh?" I chuckled.

"Well, somewhat. I kinda want to see my best time as well." Jared said.

"Hah! You'll never beat me in speed and accuracy though…" Lois said from the back.

"Try to shoot something from 500 yards before you say anything to me okay? You're just a bit faster but I definitely could shoot farther. Also, talk back to me the moment you beat me while using the same rounds. You won't be able to practice long shooting if you kept on using that Ruger 10/22." Jared chuckled.

"Well you trained for it; this is talent… talent I tell you. I just need to practice a bit then I'm gold!" Lois said as he waved his hands around, mocking his brother.

"What? Making your finger twitch?" Jared retorted.

"It's more to it than that you know. Our times will actually tell who's better in this case!" Lois rebutted.

The two kept on bantering while the rest prepared the guns that they would use. The two were now pushing each other to see who would go first on the table. They decided to use the same gun so their match today would be purely based on skill.

"Just freakin' toss a coin, yeah?" I said to the two but they're now arguing to who would toss the coin.

"I definitely should separate these two when we practice. Well, it's a healthy competition… it just takes too damn long before they start." I thought to myself, shaking my head.