The Zombie Train New Horizons

Chapter 11: The Selection

I awoke with a start. Sasha was blowing an ear piercingly loud whistle.
"Alright you little dumb pieces of sh#t! Get your butts to the range! Pronto!"
I donned a new shirt, I slept in work jeans. Grabbing my Springfield, I rushed out, following the crowd. We lined up on a line drawn on the ground, a bright yellow strip. Sasha inspected the line, moving people forward or back to put their shoes right on the end. I stood right on the mark. After he went down to the end of the line, he wiped out his pistol, firing down the line. I flinched when the round came thundering past, then the metallic ring of rounds striking their target. I breathed a sigh of relief, if I had been not half an inch forward I would've been shot.
"Good! Onto the range."
We all lined up to our stalls. The soldiers went to their assigned areas, I took the last one after Afonasii and Morrow, in order. On the bench was an AKM and two mags. I had my Springfield in hand, I raised it to firing position, but I was shot down.
"Jerez! Why are you aiming that glorified stick of wood! Pick up your rifle and shoot!" Startled, but holding my tongue, I set my loaded rifle down on the firing bench, picked up the AK. I set a mag in the magwell, pulled the charging handle back, letting it fly, clambering a round. I raised it to my shoulder, leaning into the rifle to mitigate recoil. I slowly breathed to steady the iron sights, keeping pressure on the trigger. I let one fly. I saw the tracer fly and hit the metal target, with a metallic plong.
"Jerez! Why did you fire without any orders!"
Jesus man, what do I have to do to get you on my side?
I brought the gun down to resting position, looking to Sasha for orders. He promptly gave the order to open fire. I went through the rifleman's checklist for an accurate shot again, squeezing them off, make 'em good. The light rifle rounds weren't the hardest in means of recoil, but they still kicked somewhat. Once I had expended my last magazine, I waited for orders. Sasha announced the range was cold and went to collect our targets for inspection. He handed mine, nodding. I had managed a quarter grouping, I compared it to Vlad's. Nearly identical. Sasha then came back with a cart of weapons. From looking at it, he was gonna assign us our roles in the squad. He laid an AK-47 with an under barrel shotgun next to the cart, probably for himself. He then pushed the cart up to our lines. Pavel, Maxim, Sergei, and Afonasii, all got AK type rifles. Afonasii was lucky, his featured a grenade launcher and PKA-S optic. Ivan, arguably the most physically fit out of all of us, got a RPK light machine gun. Eyeing Morrow, he calmly handed him a AS VAL silenced assault rifle. Now it was just me and Vladimir. Vlad was first, Sasha handed him a Dragunov, I overheard, "Meet me in warehouse B."
Sasha took one look at me, my rifle, then nodded.
"Meet me in warehouse B."