Guardian Angel

OLD HABITS

"Good! And just in case, you can switch to your sidearm if you run out of ammo or your rifle jams. Remember, switching to your pistol is always faster than reloading."

"Understood, Instructor!" The young and energetic volunteer reloaded his weapons and restarted the drill again.

"That's Instructor Mercury to you."

After the new guy understood the techniques of shooting drills, I took a backseat and watched him train himself.

I finally got to being approved as a shooting instructor. Not quite a professional one, but enough to use my experience to teach a new guy. Soon enough I'd prove that I wasn't just capable of fighting the bad and the ugly - but showing the bad and the ugly how bad I could be.

Just as the rookie walked over to me I got the idea to show him how it's done.

"Nice job. This time, I'll give it a run so you can see how I do things."

He handed me the SIG MCX PATROL rifle I lended to him. His palm sweat drenched the grip a little, but I could handle it. I also took my service pistol back from him, my SIG Emperor Scorpion in .45 ACP. On the table there were fully loaded magazines for my guns and I loaded them, preparing to hit some targets.

My trainee took the shot timer on the table and stood behind me. "Stand by..."

I kept my feet at shoulder width, rifle pointed to the ground. As soon as the shot timer beeped I engaged the first target instantly shooting it in the head twice, then brought the weapon to my hip, shooting one down directly beside me.

The timer continued to run down. I switched shoulders and aimed down the holographic sight, walking towards a trio of five-inch plates, harder to hit, but no big deal. After they were down, I got behind some ballistic sand boxes for cover, then peeked again to gun down another human sized target. Now that the first part of the range was down, I let the rifle hang from the sling and ran into the CQB room, pistol in hand.

I put my shoulder to the wall, preparing to breach - a process I was familiar with many times before but never got a chance to do without the right tools. Entering the room, I put a shot to the torso and head, then moved to my point of domination, scanning for hostiles before dumping three more rounds into a target in the opposite corner. I pulled a magazine from my mag pouch and did a quick tac-reload while moving into the final room.

Three more metal targets showed themselves in three corners of the room. I put a swift headshot in two of them and had a malfunction aiming at the third. Frantically I racked the slide one more time and shot the target once more in the head, as the trainee stopped the timer.

"Twenty-three seconds! Great job, Instructor!" He was about to take the weapon off me, but it wasn't

"Nah, I've seen guys do it in fifteen. Don't inflate my ego."

I took the magazine out of each weapon and emptied the chambers so they were no longer hot. Before I could put the guns away, I was confronted by a Hawaii, muscular, shaved, and wearing sunglasses.

"Miss Mercury... I'm going to need you to give me your weapon." He had a strong Polish accent. The end of every consonant had a kick of spit to it.

"What?" I felt my face shrivel and shrink.

"I'm Paolo. Known as Lovec's assistant and head of security. I have to seize the firearms at the shooting range and stores as we're going into lockdown, to look for traitors."

"Traitors? We're the only ones to fight back against them. We are the security of this compound, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

"We are not in America anymore. We don't live by American amendments. We are the Hawaiis, and you're safe only when you let us take care of you."

"You think I'm not capable? Wanna watch me shoot? I'll dust you on the range, watch me."

"I'll just take your gun, and you can get it back when heat starts to die down. I promise."

I gave him my SIG MCX and he walked away. But he didn't see the SIG Emperor Scorpion in my shirt, and I planned to keep that for myself anyways. It was unfortunate that my gun had to go, but at least I had my pistol. Paolo also took the ammo on the table though, so I wouldn't have any shots anyways.

"So how do I defend myself?"

"What do you need one for anyways? It's our job to keep you safe."

"Just 'cause I'm a girl I can't be responsible for my safety?"

"It's a man's job to take care of you. You're safer just helping out around town, alright?"

He denied that I was even able. Able enough to hunt and kill, which was something even kids knew to do in these times.

I was lucky to have a gun with me. Maybe I'd show him what I can do somehow.

He walked away and I gave my trainee a pat on the back for his work before closing up shop and going home.

I believed my back was in pieces by the time I got home. The chairs I sat on were always awful for posture. I hit the lights and made a quick banh mi sandwich to keep my energy up. Before going to sleep I did some laundry and washed my work uniform and casual clothes, then hung them out to dry for tomorrow.

Feeling far too stressed to focus on the state of relaxation, I hopped in the shower and let the hot water do the work. I leaned against the wall, then slid to the floor, dozing off a little with fatigue. I mean, the hot water was so relaxing!

After a while, I got to washing my hair. I put hard pressure on my scalp running it through the seams, hurting it a bit, but I needed to make it really clean. I got out and dried myself off, using my desk fan to dry my hair, since I didn't have one of those hair dryers.

The sun hadn't set yet, so I figured I'd make some tea and read for a while, like I always do. My body wasn't in the mood to do any more work, even if it would save me a lot of trouble later. The break would give me a real payoff, though - if I got up dead tired tomorrow morning, I'd be in an exponentially worse condition to work and I'd get less done.

I was slowly falling asleep over my book - to try to stop myself from nodding off, I checked my phone for messages, and minutes ago, Lynx sent me a message.

I was wondering how he even got my number. I guess, if he knew my workplace, he would've been able to check for the list of employee phone numbers.

I opened his texts. My screen was flooded with a wall of text.

LYNX

"Hey"

"Please"

"I need to see you"

"They took my knife. I have no guns. Can you get me one? I know you can get a good weapon for me."

I had no problems with that - I was sure the range still had some. I don't know who took his knife, but to guess that Lovec was seizing knives as well as guns had me guessing that it was gone too.

I scrolled down.

LYNX

"I really need a drink, but the bars just closed. If you could find any good alcohol, bring it over and we'll finish it together."

The man had nothing but good ideas.

"And some caffeine... I just ran out and, well, can't buy any more beans. Please, Mercury... could you help me?"

Immediately I got up and grabbed my stuff. I didn't have any of my flashy clothes clean, but that was fine. I had a dark grey hoodie and black tights that could keep me hidden. Under my hoodie I fastened my belt, with it I kept my slingshot and lighter that I brought back ever since our cave bonding time. And I had an unloaded SIG that maybe I could grab some ammo for.

I wouldn't do much good in a fight, but I couldn't bear being alone any longer. I wanted to see Lynx too. And if it took squeezing blood from a stone, then I'd do it. He sounded really depressed in that moment, and I regretted not running out of my room earlier.