"And lastly, that's Madison, or Mads, my little sister who is also trying to climb up the broken lifeguard tower. We're only a year apart. When she's not doing some odd job for extra cash she is on the HMS Pogue with the rest of us. Most loyal perso...
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"This is stupid," Madison adjusted her stance once again, getting more and more annoyed that she couldn't hit the target. "Tell me again why JB gets to go fishing with JJ and I have to shoot tin cans?"
Big John let out a deep breath, removing his glasses to run a hand down his face before putting them back on the bridge of his nose. "You never know when it might come in handy. And Bird will get his chance. The way you two have been going at it recently I didn't want you to end up shooting him instead."
"Wouldn't matter I can't hit the freaking can," the youngest Routledge mumbled under her breath. Everything else had come so easily to her like when she learned how to pick a lock or how to hold a knife the proper way.
He stood behind her as she raised the gun and aimed ready to get this over with, "Remember, you're gonna hold it, not grip it, and when you go to shoot you pull the trigger. Don't squeeze it."
"I know, I know. It's just not working." She had heard him say it a thousand times. It wasn't like she was trying to suck at it. It was actually pissing her off that she couldn't hit the dumb can as it sat on a couple of overturned milk crates just mocking her.
He lined her up, adjusting her elbow and her stance once more until he was happy with it and then took a step back, "Go on, Maddie bear, breathe out as you pull the trigger."
Ding.
She did it. She actually hit the can. She wasn't overly confident since she missed the next three before hitting another one but there was something about a gun that made her feel powerful, unstoppable, and almost untouchable.
"That's enough for today, gotta save some for your brother tomorrow," Big John took the gun back from her and clicked the safety on. He needed help with the hunt for the Royal Merchant, for the gold, and it wasn't going to be easy. He knew somewhere deep down that they were just kids, that he should have been protecting them, but he needed soldiers. He needed them to blindly follow him and be able to protect themselves. "When you shoot, you shoot to kill. You miss, and they'll seek revenge, they'll come after you. You understand?"
"Yeah, dad, I got it."
He stepped in front of her, using their height difference to show her how important this was, as he peered down at her through his glasses. "I'm serious, Madison. I need to hear you say it."
"When you shoot, you shoot to kill," she repeated, not wavering under the look he was giving her. If this was what he needed, if this was what they had to do to find the gold, if this was what would finally get him to stay home and be the father he was supposed to be, then that was what she was going to do. And she wasn't going to let anyone or anything get in her way.
