Aries (#Wattys2018)

Chapter Seven

After much struggle, Azah managed to convince the medics at the infirmary that she was well enough to leave for training, and no, she wouldn't overexert herself, and no, it didn't involve any more water (probably).  By the time she arrived at the training grounds, she was ten minutes late, but unsurprisingly, Captain Abboud hadn't shown up yet.
  Instead, she found the rest of her class ogling at some wooden targets that had been set up at the end of the field.
  In place of the neon stakes that used to be stuck in the dirt to signify how far six and half metres was from the wall, there was a line of at least a dozen human-shaped targets, with red bull's-eyes painted across their chests.  Each target was at least five and a half feet tall, with no other details except for the red circle and mounted on wooden poles.
  'Hey!' Azah called as she got closer to the field.  'What's going on?'
  'Hi.' Amal responded, smiling lopsidedly.  The rest of their class had noticed that she was there, but none of them mentioned what had happened the previous day, which she was grateful for.
  'We just showed up this morning and those were there.'  She jerked her thumb behind her back.  'I think we're going to be training with actual guns today.'
  'Aren't you nervous?' Ommer asked quietly, scuffing his shoe on the ground.  'We're just kids.  Hardly qualified to be using weapons meant to kill other people ...'
  'OH YES YOU ARE!' shouted Captain Abboud, leaping off of the roof suddenly and causing Ommer to scream and jump backwards.  In her left hand she clutched a giant cardboard box, and she was grinning widely.
  'For your information, soldier, you actually are qualified to use guns, and you will!'  She dropped the box on the ground and pulled the flaps open, but didn't remove anything from inside of it.
  'Today,' she pulled a long rifle out of her belt, eliciting a few gasps, 'I'm going to be teaching you all how to shoot.'
  She reloaded the magazine and clicked it into the back of the barrel, before pointing the gun in front of her.  A few people quickly stepped out of the way, not wanting to be caught in the woman's line of fire.
  'Longer barrel.' she said, piercing a hole straight through the center of a target with a deafening crack.  'Further range.'
  'Unfortunately, you only use handguns at your rank.'  She nodded towards the box a little ways away.  'You'll get the chance to try shooting with semi-automatic pistols and revolvers today, both of which can hold six rounds instead of the ten I have in my rifle.  Figure out which one you like better and get used to it.'
  Captain Abboud slid her rifle back into it's holster and dumped out the box's contents, allowing the rest of them to see the handguns and belts it held.  It also included a bunch of rectangular boxes that made Azah's heart skip a beat when she realized what they were.
  'Alright, line up behind Laila.  Put on one of the belts and choose whichever gun you want to start with, doesn't matter.  Then put at least two ammo boxes in the left side holster, right side if you're left-handed, and stand as far away as you can from one of the targets.'
  Azah accepted her belt, pistol and ammunition with shaking hands, and couldn't help but stare at them for a few moments.
  What if she actually had to use these someday?
  To kill another human being.
  To end their life.
  With the same weapon that had ended the life of her father.
  She fastened the belt around her waist and found that with it's black colour, it blended in almost perfectly with the rest of her uniform.  She pressed a small button on the side of the hand grip, and the magazine popped out of the bottom hatch.
  'Now that you have these belts on, never take them off.' Captain Abboud warned.  'It could be a matter of life or death someday if you run out of bullets.  Also, when you're reloading, insert them one at a time with the rounded side forwards.'
  'Which way forwards?' Myrna asked, just as he lost his grip on his box and sent the little pieces of lead rolling all over the grass.
  'Forwards, Myrna.' she sighed as he scrambled to pick them all up.  'As in, the direction that the barrel is facing.  Otherwise, the ammunition will shoot out backwards and cause less damage than it's meant for, giving your enemy the chance to seriously injure, disarm or kill you.'
  Azah dropped one of her boxes into her right holster and opened the other one, inspecting the small killing device and turning it around and around in her hand.  It was copper-coloured, and so shiny she could see her own face in the reflective surface.  How could something this tiny, this insignificant and innocent-looking ...
  She quickly pushed six of them into the magazine with her thumb and forefinger, clicked it back into the handle and held the pistol out in front of her face experimentally.  It felt ... wrong in her hands - cold and foreign.  Most of Azah's classmates were trying to keep their handguns as far away from their bodies as possible.
  'Alright, get to your starting positions!' Captain Abboud commanded as she finished handing the last person their equipment.  She approached the closest target to her and waited until they were all looking before pointing at the vibrant circle painted in the centre of it's chest.
  'You know what this is?  The thoracic cavity.  The centre mass of a human, so to speak.'
  She paused for a moment, before sighing and running a hand down the side of her face.
  'I'm not going to lie to you.  You're soldiers.  At some point, you'll be forced to kill someone.
  'It doesn't make you a bad person.  Sometimes you just have to, to protect yourself, your comrades, your country.  And if you're ever faced with a situation like that, you need to aim,' she jabbed the centre of the circle, 'Here.   Where the heart is.'
  She continued talking, like she wasn't instructing them on how to become murderers.  Like at that very moment, they weren't children, holding fully loaded pistols and revolvers, they were soldiers.
  And their personal feelings and guilt didn't matter as long as the job got done.
  'The problem is, even if you destroy someone's heart, they still have full cognitive and physical ability for twenty to thirty seconds.  And it's nearly impossible to destroy someone's heart with just one bullet, which means that you need to know your protocol and shoot until the threat ends.
  'That's when you can go for a headshot.'