Keep Your Eyes Open

Guns and Sexism

Each day passed with little action. We made the cellar the dog's playground and the third floor my cat's area. Every day I researched a little more on Natasha Ross and her vaccine formula.

I also was on YouTube a lot, trying to learn how to hack into someone's computer.

I hadn't told the rest of the group about Natasha Ross, it was only me and Harri who knew.

I found out she was convinced that the human race could become even more perfect, that's why she made the vaccine. After reading yet another article, I begun to wonder if she was smart enough to create an antidote. Of course she was, how stupid of me. I then began to wonder if she was still alive.

It would be pretty ironic to succumb to something you made, well, not ironic. Everyone makes something and everyone succumbs to it. I shook my head and closed my laptop.

"You alright?" Vaseva asked.

"Oh, yeah," I said, nodding, "just tired is all."

"I miss Beth and Ady and Annalyse," Vaseva shook her head. "We aren't going to survive this, are we?

"Hey, don't be so pessimistic, we've managed to get this far."

"I know, but barely anyone is alive, it's only us and we're still young!"

"Yes, but I know how to drive a car and most of us know how to shoot a gun, thanks to our fathers," my throat tightened and I coughed to clear it. "Speaking of which, we need to practice. Do you know where we put that target?"

"Downstairs in the room with everything to do with weapons," Vaseva replied cheerfully.

"Right, let's get everyone together and we can kill a target," I said happily.

"GUYS! COME DOWNSTAIRS!" Vaseva yelled.

"WHHYYYY?" Lennon replied.

"WE'RE GON SHOOT SOME GUNS!" Vaseva yelled back. Multiple soft thumping sounds sounded from above. "They're attacking! Run!" Vaseva laughed with me as we opened the cellar door. We ushered the dogs out and into the living room. Lennon, Prasan, Rhys, and Harri all clambered down into the cellar; me and Vaseva followed. We shut the heavy door and walked into the room with all the weapons. So we basically had an armoury. I stood on the small crate full of ammo.

"Quiet! Welcome to our armoury. Who wants to shoot somethin'?" I get a cheer from my peers. "Right, we'll start with a pistol... Anyone know the risks for this?" I held up a pistol of some sort, I'd never really been into guns too much.

"Nope, let's just put some bullets in, release the safety and then clear the room and then shoot the target," Lennon exclaimed.

"Fair enough, who wants to go first?" I said.

"Me!" Yelled Prasan. I handed him the pistol and some blanks. "Why only blanks?"

"It gives the impression of an actual bullet and it also does small amounts of damage at close-range and so we don't waste actual bullets," Harri explained. Prasan grunted but went along with it anyway. We all stood against the opposite wall to the target and Prasan. We each had a pair of noise-cancelling headphones which we also took from the army base.

"Whenever you're ready, Prasan," I said when everyone was ready. Prasan stood with his legs apart, he had his eyes trained on the target. He brought his hands up and steadied them. I watched him as he took a deep breath, held it, and pulled the trigger. His hand jerked backwards with the kick of the gun. A small indentation was made in the target where the shoulder is marked. "Good job Prasan, next!"

And so it continued. Vaseva shot the target in the groin. Both Rhys and Harri shot the target in the head. Lennon shot the leg, and I shot the throat. So not too bad I suppose.