Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Lois reluctantly grabbed his radio and phoned his sister in.

*bzzt*

"Sis..."

*bzzt*

"She's not answering bro! We better get going with the training! Who's next?!" Lois exclaimed.

"Ah- Ah- Ah- don't turn that fucking radio off! Wait for her to answer! Dial her for a few times since she's in the compound." I said as I widened my eyes at him.

Nicole finally answered the radio and we found her walking to our place with Alicia. They both brought their guns which has now the bullets for the magazines and a few extras. Nicole still has both the Glock 26 and the Walther P22 I gave her before and Alicia still the same Walther P22. The guns were on their respective holsters that we're all using that is strapped to our belt where another strap runs from the holster then under our legs.

"Lois said you called for us?" Nicole asked.

"Yeah. Remind everyone, how many times have you two fired your guns?" I asked her.

"Hmm? Maybe less than four magazines worth? Three for the .22 and one for the 9mm. Why? " she was curious.

"I've only fired mine about a magazine worth." Alicia said.

"Not the exact numbers but it's okay, but tell us, how many times do you practice dry-firing?" I asked them.

"The what?" Alicia asked.

"The thing where we fire them without any ammo where you say it's really boring." Nicole answered.

"Oh, I see... I see. That's what you call it." she replied.

"Besides doing that, you practice drawing from the holster, holding the gun properly, correct stances, and target acquisition, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, like you told me to, we do that every single day. We can't practice clearing the jams properly though since it's weird to clear a jam when there actually isn't." Nicole said.

"That's good. Let's see if it paid off, shall we? Walk to that direction..." I told her a few instructions.

She's standing on a much shorter distance than what Jared did earlier and it's about 5 yards. However, this time there are three targets in front of her. The moment I pressed the timer, she drew the Walther P22 from her left holster and then she fired a shot towards the left and right targets once.

*bang* *bang*

It made a hole a bit offset from the center on the 5-inch sqaure that represents the head of the cardboard targets. A small eruption of dirt from the back accompanied it while she switched to her Glock 26 to fire two shots on the target at the center after switching magazines.

*bang* *bang*

She holstered her Glock 26 and then switched back to her Walther P22 and fired a single shot to the center target and then she rested her stance. Her movements are fluid and it only took a few seconds. It's fast for a person with only a few weeks experience with guns but she's definitely much faster in handling them than Brian and the rest. Nicole's a bit struggling on the recoil since I could notice her gun would sometimes raise up since she's not holding it properly. It's understandable since it's a minor problem when you mostly practice with dry-firing and only get to fire with live ammo a few times.

I made her repeat the drill a two more times and she's slowly getting the hang of it by the last try on that drill. Alicia was a tad slower than Nicole but she's quick on the draw and she would acquire the target much faster than most people. Recoil on her isn't much of an issue since she's using a .22 caliber.

"That enough bro?" Nicole and Alicia asked.

"Yeah, thanks. Just get your refills from Rin." I told them as they are in the middle of doing something when Lois called for them. I don't know what happened between Lois and Nicole but I saw Lois breathing a sigh of relief when her older sister finally left our range.

"See? Dry-firing works, right? You'll only need to get the hang of the recoil when turning back to live ammo but aside from that, not only you'd shoot faster, you'd perform the other things like mag switches, jam clears, target acquisition, and etc. if you practice that every day when you have the time. You don't need to copy the exact exercise but if you decide to do something by yourself, time yourself first and slowly try to do it quicker." I said as I looked at Brian and the rest.

"Are there any shortcuts though?" Brian asked.

"Heh. There's one on the top of my head that would involve no skill at all." I said, smiling.

"What?" he asked as everyone grew curious.

"Use a fucking automatic. Just spray and pray like an idiot." I said.

"..." everyone else but Oscar was choking, laughing.

"THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU KID?! I THOUGHT YOU REALLY INVENTED A WAY! HAHAHAHAHA!!!" he exclaimed while still laughing.

"Honestly though, there're a few tricks but if you still don't put the work on it, it's still useless. Kaley, you're next." I said.

Kaley went next and she started to break off a few slices from Jared's record. She shoots much faster with her AR-15 than her Maxim 9 not only because she's more proficient in it but I taught her a little trick in recoil control. I actually did teach it to a few too but Kaley managed to learn it first. Jared was scratching his head in frustration every time Kaley beats his record. Even if Kaley is using a lighter gun than him, he still couldn't believe she learned it faster than him.

Even if the stock is tucked properly to your body, if your supporting hand is not holding your gun properly, it would shoot up. The small trick to shoot faster was instead of waiting the gun to get back on the same position after a recoil, you push it with your supporting hand back in place. It's a very minute movement but doing that could shave a lot from your time.

It's like moving your mouse down when you fire a weapon to shoot again when the cursor starts to go up. Instead of waiting for it to stabilize slowly, you make it stabilize yourself. There're a few more ways to control recoil but it does the job for now.

*BEEP*

*psshew*

".45 seconds, again." I said, smiling.

*BEEP*

*psshew*

".39 seconds, again."

*BEEP*

*psshew*

".29 seconds, holy fuck!" I celebrated.

"Shit." Jared and Lois muttered.

"That's some crazy reaction time." Oscar said.

Kaley did the same exercise Jared did earlier and she beat him flat out. The crowd is amazed by the display and even Oscar gave her a look of approval.

"Damn, kid. The fuck are you teaching her? Hah!" Oscar exclaimed.

"What I teach everybody else. She's just that good. Okay, Kaley, next one." I said nonchalantly.

The next drill is just using your pistol. There are two targets present and I made her aim at the targets already instead of it just being in the holster earlier. Each time I press the timer, she'd fire a shot and switch to the next target. The challenge here is to react fast enough after hearing my timer and I made it difficult by pressing it at random intervals. I went slow at first then I gradually bring it up and would abruptly slow it again to make them wait for the beep first and not shoot when they thought that I was about to press the timer. We're training for reaction time, not anticipation.

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".33"

...

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".35"

…

…

…

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".41"

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".43"

…

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".30"

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".35"

…

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".41"

…

…

…

…

…

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".49"

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".40"

…

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".39"

…

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".25"

…

*BEEP*

*bsshew*

".29"

She's making consistent shots and everyone is watching her shoot. Kaley just holstered her pistol after she went through the whole magazine and she gave me a bright smile.

"Show off." I said to get a reaction from copying her.

"*giggle* I like this drill from the rest we do." she said.

"Well, we need to make things fun too. Great job though. We'd need to work a bit more on some things but this is crazy progress." I said, smiling.

She pursed her lips to a smile as she steps to the side for the next person.

"Alright, the next one step up to that spot and you'll do the drills. Try it normally first while gradually increasing the speed if you're still unfamiliar with it." I explained.

Each one of them started to line up but the movements for the drill is adjusted to their preferred weapon since we're using different kinds. Oscar started the baseline for the people using shotguns and like me, he definitely showed off to get everyone fired up. He showed them how to Quad-load and it piqued their interest when he showed them the steps to do it.

"Well, uh, you grab this shit here by this thingy here and uh make sure to fucking tuck them properly while you fucking push those motherfuckers in the receiver..." Oscar tried to explain it with passion while the trainees are either confused or have surprisingly... understood him.

"Now that is something I can't explain on how that explanation works." I thought to myself.