Elevators Through Time - Book 1

Part 29: How To Shoot

Part 29: How To Shoot

Year: 1990

Time: 4:52pm

Location: "Sydney's Tower", Sydney CBD, NSW, Australia.

Level: Lobby

We followed Jed back to the elevator and went down to the lobby. From there we went through a set of doors past a desk, which Jed waved us through. We took another elevator and exited to a large white gallery.

Kate and I gasped at the vast space that was here underground. If it wasn't for the dividers and the massive racks for guns and other armaments that were only used for shooting ranges I would mistake the space as an art gallery.

We followed him past a few others who were using the booths. One was shooting a powerful Raging Bull handgun, the other was shooting a new version of the classic pepper box guns I had only seen on documentaries.

Jed told us the number of our booth and gave us a pair of sound-muffling ear-tickling ear muffs.

Kate laughed when she turned to look at me.

"You look like a monkey," she laughed as she pointed at me.

I resisted the urge to make monkey sounds just to amuse her, but I simply acknowledged her by agreeing with her observation.

Jed took a step back and said,

"Okay, I will let you two fire a few rounds. The rules for this place are on the wall to your left. Please respect other people's concentration here and be aware of the danger being in here presents. With that said, I'll be around, just take the elevator back to the lobby and call for me when you're done here, okay?"

"Okay," Kate and I said in exactly the same time.

Jed stifled a chuckle.

"Thanks Jed," Kate and I said together. This time we looked at each other.

We turned to the gallery and then to eachother.

"Okay Kate," I said, bringing the gun out to hand to her, "First thing to learn is how you hold it and how you aim."

I demonstrated it myself with the safety lock on.

'Future guns still must have a safety mechanism,' I smirked to myself.

I explained to Kate where and why my finger was out of the trigger hold.

"When you aim, make sure you make the gun rail level with the rail closer to you. It also works better if you hold it with two hands."

I demonstrated how to do this and what pose, which uses one hand, to use to aim as straight as possible.

"Okay, your turn." I said as I handed the pistol to her.

Kate tentatively held the pistol, hesitated, then copied the gripping and finger placement that I showed her. I helped her with the more high tech aspects and how she ought to wrap our fingers around the gun. I caressed her hands in mine to align her gently. She accidentally tripped the safety switch with the tip of her thumb and I quickly grabbed the top of the gun to prevent a stray shot from going elsewhere than the range.

A boom for the Raging Bull nearby had startled Kate and she squeezed the trigger.

The pistol glowed momentarily and a sliver of solid ice shot through the air, diagonally across the range and pierced the shoulder of a ballistics gel mannequin that belonged to the user of the advanced Pepperbox Gun.

The man was startled but collected himself, carefully put down his gun on the nearby desk, then leaned back to raise an eyebrow at us.

We were a fair distance away so the both of us made a 'sorry' gesture and hid in our booth.