Red Skies- Book One [[ DRAFT ]]

Chapter Five

Rodney Bancroft locked his eyes on the target across the room. He cocked his gun and pulled the trigger.

BOOM

It blew the target to bits. He stood there, still balanced. The shock absorption was working nicely. He turned to face his audience.

"Now, you each take a gun from the rack and I'll have you practice," He said. A man in a uniform rolled in a cart. Everyone stood up and retrieved a gun. Cherry grabbed hers, not expecting the weight-she nearly dropped it. It felt like a cinderblock. Lacee had the same reaction. Hina flinched a bit but held on. Wynn and Acker didn't struggle at all.

"How in the hell are we supposed to shoot straight? It's so heavy!" Hina said.

"Yeah, they seem pretty heavy, don't they? But wait till you see this part-" Rodney walked over to Hina and pressed a blue button on her gun. Something resembling a wrist brace shot out of the handle and wrapped around her wrist. She gasped. She held up the gun effortlessly.

"What is it?" Cherry asked.

"It's... weightless," Hina said, waving the gun around. Cherry pressed the same button on her gun and the same thing happened.

"Woah, this is like a sci-fi movie!" Cherry commented. The rest of the group followed suit. Rodney pressed a button on a remote. Multiple targets rolled into the room.

"Okay, who wants to go first?" he asked. Everyone raised their hand but Wynn stepped in front of everyone and cocked the gun.

"Okay then," Hina said, rolling her eyes. Wynn pulled the trigger on the gun, a flash of light shot out. She missed the target. She tried again and missed.

"There's something wrong with the gun," She hissed.

"Actually... there's not. They're just... quite difficult to manage. That's why we're practicing because you won't get it right away," Rodney said. Wynn glared at him.

"You all pick an area in the room- I'll get you set up and you can practice," He said. Everyone went to a spot. Acker, Hina, Cherry, and Wynn all tied their hair back.

Cherry set eyes on her target. She cocked the gun, put her finger on the trigger...

BOOM

She missed. Right. She took a deep breath and tried again. Missed. On about her fourth try, she was about to give up, until that familiar deafening BOOM sounded, followed by the sound of contact.

It wasn't hers- she glanced across the room. Dr. Acker had hit the target, completely destroying it. She sighed and went to take a water break.

"Pretty difficult, isn't it?" Hina asked her, also taking a water break. The two girls sat and watched the others for a few minutes, then got back to it. After about an hour, everyone had hit the target at least once.

"Okay... the next segment: moving targets," Rodney said. Almost everyone groaned.

"Do you want to save the world or not? That's right. Before we start, Dr. Acker has informed me on his research findings and we have come up with a plan," Rodney said, then glancing at Acker.

"We're going to fly out to Nevada tomorrow morning, to the base. Richard Vance is in charge of the project, Jack King-Cherry's Father- is second in command. We don't know if they'll be there, but nonetheless, we're going to get in and try and reverse this," Acker said. Everyone nodded in unison. The group dispersed and made their way back to their stations, but before they could begin to practice more, a loud alarm started blaring and the lights went as red as the sky outside.