The Academy

Part One: Chapter Five

The ringing in my ears slowly dulls, then comes to a stop. If I thought the lightweight machine gun I started out with last week was awesome, then these higher calibers and heavier ones are...there are no words. It's really freaking loud, but it's worth it. These babies are pure power at my fingertips. 

We've moved from handguns and beginner machines to heavier duty ones, stronger ones. I can feel the metal in my hands, I have so much control and it's really getting my adrenaline going. If I feel like this during training, I can only imagine what it will be like for real.

My hours of extra practice last week paid off, Lacey and I both. We're killing it. I even helped Liz some, and when I had a few minutes to watch her group, she was definitely doing better than everyone else, and it made me proud. 

Obviously, each gun is a bit different, but once you learn the basics, you can apply it to each one. They taught us all about gun safety like we're a group of teenagers. Yes, I get that it's important but reviewing the same rules before I can get my hands on a gun is quite annoying. 

The new class is here. It's early, and when my group came out to the gun range we passed them all standing in the courtyard in front of their instructors, looking terrified. I really hope I didn't look like that on my first day, but it's funny watching them struggle to get the hang of things at first.

Six months left in the academy. It seems like forever, but I'm dying to get out in the real world and work. I do know that if I went now, I would be incompetent. There's a lot to learn in the next six months, and I'm ready for anything. Specifically, hand to hand combat. I've caught Finn Alvarez and a few of the other guys catcalling us women before, and it's taken a lot of self-control to not jump them right then and there.

When I can beat them up and teach them a lesson for training purposes, they're going to be sorry. I sit back, leaving my M240L where it's set up, and take a drink. It's getting colder, but somehow I'm still sweating. 

Looking around me, I see Skipton leaning over Lacey, correcting something in her form at her gun. I can't put my finger on it, but there's definitely something off about Skipton. I've tried to push away my doubts and fill it with school and training, but there are always those thoughts lingering. I don't know. I really don't. I have no real experience, I don't know if I can trust my gut or how to listen when it's trying to tell me something. My gut is irrationally afraid of spiders, which logically I know are not a threat, but it makes me wonder how reliable my "gut feeling" is. 

I have headphones on to block out the gunshots firing around me, but they don't work completely. I can still hear every bullet leave the chamber of every gun. I keep my eyes on Lacey, watching as she fires again, Skipton lingering over her. He gives her a nod and I look at her human-shaped target and smile. Kill shots. She'd put bullets in the heart, carotid, femoral, and the head. She's going to make a hell of an agent, but she's gonna have to watch her back, because so am I.

I'm out of magazines. I was about to reload and continue, but I don't have anything left. I have no idea how I got through all my ammunition so quickly, but I did. I have been practicing reloading my gun, getting smoother and faster, seamless transitions that I have no doubt will come in handy. Maybe that's part of the reason I went through it all so fast. 

Camilla is next to me, moving quickly. She likes to keep to herself, and I don't blame her. if she's ever talking to someone, it's me and Lacey or her roommates. She's older than the rest of us, I can tell, and she has a tattoo on her shoulder. I've never been able to fully see it, but it looks like an army symbol or something. I'm guessing she has a military background. I can see it in her movements, she's quiet but confident in everything she does like she's done it all before.