noun;
the activity of shooting at targets. (= circles with colored rings around them) in order to improve your skill.
1) "No, look at the grouping. Target practice."
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Everyone was asleep waiting for the tide to come in so they could finally get to go home from this nightmare, that they have been living for far too long. They all furrowed their eyebrows when they heard footsteps on the deck.
Everyone's eyes snapped open and they stood up quickly. The ones with guns pointed towards the opening where they came from just in case it was a German soldier. Everyone started to shush eachother when there was too much noise.
They all looked at the ceiling and followed the sound of the footsteps on it. They mentioned to the closest one to the opening to pull the man down when he came close, and that closest person happened to be Tommy.
He sneaked to the side of the ladder and looked up waiting for the person to come down there. Alex had made sure that Ava had stayed as behind as she possibly could, out of the way of danger even tho they were in a war zone so it was quite impossible to stay away from danger.
Tommy pulled the man down to the floor when he was close enough for that. The man spoke in a different language at first, of course in surprise, at the soldiers in his boat, whilst he had his hands up in a surrender way.
"Are you German?" Alex asked with a deep voice, whilst pointing at the man, who was breathing heavily, his gaze going from soldier to soldier. "No, Dutch. Dutch!" The man said making the soldiers look at eachother and then back at the man, shushing him for being too loud.
"Merchant navy." The man continued whilst breathing heavily, with his eyes still widened. "Here to pick you up. To help you." The man continued his sentence, whilst trying to catch his breath. "Why'd you leave your boat?" Ava asked whilst moving closer to the mass of soldiers and the man who wasn't a threat to any of them.
"In case the German come." The man said and looked at Ava, who put her hand on Alex's shoulder making him loosen up and stand up along with all the other whilst they helped the older man up from the floor.
Alex looked down at the small girl and wrapped his arm around her waist and looked towards the man, who brushed the dirt off of his outfit. He looked from each soldier to another, his gaze staying the longest on Alex and Ava. He gave the couple a small smile, he was happy how the two had found eachother in such an bad place.
"We wait up the beach. With the soldiers. Wait for the tide." The man continued to say, whilst looking at each of them again. The soldiers lowered their guns when they realized what the man had just said to them.
"You came back. The tide must be in." One of the Highlanders said to the man his eyes slightly widened about the fact of being able to go home. "Coming. Coming, yes." The man said making everyones face fall and they all let out an sigh.
"But more hours till we float..." Ava said and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, whilst looking all the soldier in the boat. "Hours?" Alex asked and looked down at Ava and then back at the man with his eyebrows furrowed.
"Why'd you come back?" Alex asked again, taking a step forwards but was stopped by someones grip on his jacket not letting him get close to the man. "Not so heavy when I left." The man said to Alex whilst he packed away in fear of the fury on Alex's face.
Suddenly a gun was fired and a bullet hit the metal of the boat. Everyone quickly ducked down and covered their heads. Alex had his body covering Ava's from any harm, whilst they were all breathing heavily from the scare they just got.
They all looked towards the front of the ship seeing a bullet hole on the wall. They all ducked down again when another bullet hit the spot next to the first one. Ava took an fistful of Alex's shirt and then looked towards the area where the bullet hit but quickly hid her face again when another hit the same area.
Everyone that had a gun started to load their weapons and started to get up from the floor. "No! Then they'll know we're here." Tommy said to them, whilst he had an arm out in a stop motion to the soldiers ready to go shoot the Germans.
"Why else are they shooting at us?" A Highlander asked whilst his expression was mad at the statement Tommy had just made. "Look at the grouping." Tommy said and nodded his head towards the pattern that he was looking at.
"Target practice." Ava said whilst she looked at the pattern. No one said anything but ducked down again when a bullet hit the ship.
After about fifteen minutes of silence, something started to drip into the boat, making everyone's gaze snap towards the water dripping from the bullet holes. Everyone looked at eachother with wide eyes.
"Go. Plug it. Go, go." One of the Highlanders said to another, the guy hesitated for a second but went to plug it anyways, which turned out to be a bad idea when another shot was fired and the bullet hit the guys hand.
Two soldiers were quick to move towards him to silence him. Ava did the same so she could help the man with his wound. She was quick so Alex had no time to do anything before she was at the soldier holding his hand, looking at it, seeing how bad it was.
Ava glanced at Alex who looked from her to the bullet holes, that were now dripping more water than before. "We have to plug it." Alex said angrily whilst looking at everyone. "After you, mate." One of the Highlanders said his gaze on the bullet holes.
Five more shots were fired making new holes into the metal wall. Everyone ducked down, not wanting to get hit by a bullet now when they were almost about to get to go home. The water kept coming faster and faster into the boat, making everyone start to panic when the floor started to fill with a lot of water.
"You ready?" One of the Highlanders asked after they had stood up and leaned against the wall of the boat. The three others, who were helping, nodded their heads at his question. "Go!" He said and all of them rammed against the wall of the ship multiply times.
"How do we get off?" Alex asked from the owner of the ship, whilst he was crouched down not wanting to hit his head onto the ceiling. "Do we need to ditch some ballast?" He asked and furrowed his eyebrows. The man looked at Alex with pure confusion on his face making Ava stand up and walk towards the spot next to Alex and then lock her gaze onto the man.
"Weight. Do we need to lose weight?" She asked from the man who nodded his head at her. "Weight. Weight, yes." The man said and looked around the small area that barely held anything besides the soldiers and some small pieces of stuff.
Alex started to look around the area also, until his gaze looked down at Ava, who was looking up at him with worry written perfectly crystal clear on her face. Alex furrowed her eyebrows and looked back up at the soldiers.
"Somebody needs to get off." Alex said making everyone look at him with wide eyes. "Well volunteered." The Highlander said to Alex, who then looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. Ava knew he was getting angrier by the second.
"We don't need a volunteer." He said and looked from the Highlander to the one on his right and then down to Ava. "I know someone who ought to get off." He continued and turned to look at Gibson and pointed at him.
"This one." Alex said making Gibson's eyes widen, whilst he looked around in fear, not wanting to go out there, knowing well enough that he will get killed the second his puts his head out of that opening.
"He's a German spy." Alex said with clear anger in his voice. "Don't be daft." Tommy said and looked at Alex with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion of Alex's statement. "He's a fucking Jerry." Alex said angrily at Tommy, whilst Ava put her hand on Alex's shoulder trying to calm him down but he just pushed her hand off of his shoulder.
"Have you noticed he hasn't said a word?" Alex asked whilst looking around the small ship from soldier to soldier. "'Cause I have." Alex continued whilst Tommy looked at him angrily.
"He don't speak English." Alex said whilst glaring at Gibson, who just looked back at Alex with a scared expression on his face. "If he does it's with an accent that's thicker than sauerkraut sauce." Alex continued angrily his voice wavering because of the anger.
"You're a daft." Tommy said to Alex and then turned to look at Gibson. "Tell him." Gibson looked at Tommy with wide eyes when Alex took an hold of an gun and pointed it at him. "Yeah... Tell me." Alex said and loaded the gun and kept it pointed at Gibson.