NightTide: The Girl With Red Eyes

Jessica was in the room with me, it had been about a week in a half and the scabs had healed. They had all fallen off and the skin was pink, but it was there.

Emilia came in, she had bandages but no alcohol. “Hello Red, this should be the last day we need to wrap your hands. It’s merely a precaution for the day.” She walked over and swapped out the bandages. “You can leave the infirmary today. Jessica will be taking you home.” She walked out after finishing up.

Jessica was smiling. “Finally, all healthy… It’s been to long since I’ve seen you healthy.”

The door opened and Chuck walked in. “Ah, hello Jessica. I came to talk to Red.” Why was he here?

I guess Jessica had the same question. “What for?”

He smiled. “I was wondering if she could come with me again. I feel she may be able to help me train a batch of recruits.”

Jessica was blank faced for a bit… “Oh… Uh, well I have to take her home first, is it okay if she comes later?”

He nodded. “Yes, it won’t be till later today anyways.” Then he walked out…

I was confused. “That was strange, I though helping him was just a onetime thing…”

Now Jessica was confused. “What? You helped him? Why didn’t I hear about this?”

I answered her. “He asked me before to help him. We went to a firing range and shot at clay discs. He had a bunch of recruits there and I got the most discs.”

She was blank faced again. “Oh… Well put some clothes on and let’s head back.”

Jessica didn’t bring anything since I had those army fatigues, I put them on. We headed out after. I still had those gloves, I liked them. The fabric was black and the metal was silver-ish…

While we were walking Jessica had some questions. “So, how was it?”

It was kind of fun actually. “Fun, I guess I like competing with people.”

She smiled at me. “That’s good to hear… did you stomp-em?”

I was trying not to smile. “Kind of… I shot all forty of the discs with a pistol and the highest they got was thirty-two with a shotgun.”

She froze… “Dayum! You really are a good shot then!”

It made me smile. “Thanks!”

We talked for a bit, not really about much though. At least until we I got tackled by Elizabeth.

She was far to cheerful. “RED! YOU’RE OUT OF THE HOSTPITAL!”

She was sitting on me… “It’s good to see you to! Can you please get off!?”

She got up, after I stood up she hugged me. Jessica was just watching it all.

Shortly after I heard someone shout towards us. “Hey, it’s the sharp shooter!” I looked over and saw a recruit walk up.

Jessica was confused. “Do we know you?”

Elizabeth stayed quiet, I said hi. “Hi.”

He was smiling. “I heard you might be helping train us?”

I wasn’t sure myself. “I was asked, I’m not sure yet.”

It was just a normal guy, he didn’t have sharp teeth. “Well, I hope you do. You’re kind a cute.”

I felt something angry behind me. It had to of been Elizabeth. “Oh no! She’s mine buddy!” She grabbed me rather tightly.

The stepped back. “Oh, Sorry! I didn’t know you were already taken! I’ll be on my way then!” The guy walked off rather quickly.

I was confused, Jessica was laughing. “Looks like some people might be encroaching on your territory Elizabeth!”

Elizabeth twisted her head towards Jessica. “They’re in for a fight if they try!”

I was still confused. “I have no idea what’s going on…”

After Jessica finished laughing we started walking again. Elizabeth was holding onto my arm the whole time though… We got to our rooms. I guess all three of us had to share one, this can’t end well… When we got there I saw two beds…

Jessica sighed, “You two have to share one… don’t make me regret this.”

Elizabeth sounded cheerful. “Gladly!”

I went and sat on the bed, it was soft… though it was a bit springy, I guess these aren’t made out of that foam. Elizabeth flopped onto the bed and bounced a little bit… She seemed tired.

I was curious what they had to do. “So, what do you two do all day?”

Jessica answered first. “Most of my time is spent approving repairs to base one, I may not be there but I still have paperwork to do…”

Elizabeth sighed. “Helping the officers deal with the recruits, I can’t actually take part in the training though.”

That sucks. “Sounds boring.”

She groaned. “It is!”

I finally got some clothes on that weren’t itchy, it’s weird changing in front of people. Jessica doesn’t really care, she just looks away. Elizabeth was staring at me… I went from an itchy green outfit to a not itchy green outfit that looked exactly the same… I guess I have to wear it around base? There was a knock at the door.

I opened and I saw chuck. “Ah, Hello. Sorry to bother you, training starts in half an hour I was wondering if you’d like to join?”

I didn’t have anything else to do… “Ok…” I turned to Jessica and Elizabeth. “I’ll be back.” Jessica said bye, Elizabeth let out a groan… I guess she wanted to spend time with me.

We walked to the firing range again, there weren’t as many people this time… I didn’t recognize them so I think this was a different group.

Chuck yelled out to them. “Afternoon recruits!” They were all standing at attention, it was odd. He turned towards me. “How about we show them what a sniper can do?” I nodded, not really sure what was going. “Alright, today we have a guest. This is Red Krauss. She’s a sniper from base one, your goal is to beat the distance she makes a bullseye… She will take three shots, for every distance marker, you will also have three shots. If none of you can beat it, then you will be spending the rest of the night trying to.” That sounds harsh… He motioned for me to follow him, he led me to a sniper… It was a Barret, though this was modified… “I figured something your somewhat comfortable with would be best, we simply updated the gun to current technologies. It has an effective range of four-thousand yards and a maximum of nine-thousand.”

He walked away, and I was left with this rifle. I picked it up, it felt a bit heavier… The barrel did look a bit thicker as well. I looked down the sight, it was clear… There wasn’t much else to do.

I decided to ask a question. “Do I get any practice shots? I haven’t fired this particular gun yet.”

He scratched his chin… “Hmm. Three practice shots, after that you can show these recruits what a sniper can do.”

I took my three practice shots, I figured out that raising the sight about what looks like a centimeter meant a one-foot bullet raise. One to one ratio was good adjusting one tick on the scope’s nob resulted in a two-foot adjustment… the wind wasn’t blowing so I didn’t have to worry about that. I fired at the five-hundred-yard mark, one foot to low, I raised it up and fired again, I hit the center. I went to the one-thousand-yard mark, the first shot landed two feet too low. The second shot hit the center. Next was two thousand, the first was three feet to low. The second was half a foot, the third hit the bulls-eye. Then it jumped to five thousand, I got lucky and hit it the first try… I heard a gasp. Six thousand, got on the third shot. Same with seven thousand, I missed all three at eight thousand. My heart was pounding again and I was breathing heavily… I got up and turned around, Chuck was fine but the people standing there has their jaws hanging down…

I scratched the back of my head. “Sorry, I couldn’t make it farther.”

Chuck just uttered in what sounded like a shocked tone. “Impressive… You see that recruits! Modern technology makes it so that this sniper is able to reach her fullest potential!”

One of them was angry. “Sir! Permission to speak freely!”

Chucked was debating on it. “Permission granted.”

It was guy. “I understand she is a very good sniper, but I doubt we will be able to match a sniper that can almost beat the world record in a day.” Record?

Chuck smiled. “Then you better get practicing. I’d expect the snipers of the ones that attack us are just as skilled as her, she used to work for them you know.” I heard a universal gulp come from the recruits…

One of them asked me a question. “Ma’am, may I ask? What were the training conditions over there?” Chuck glared at him but let it slide.

I guess I should answer. “Fine, they had a large room that would make holograms we shot at… It was pretty brutal, everything in there was a hostile target, sometimes the guys running it would have fun and make it so that birds would shoot at you…” They didn’t say anything after…

After that Chuck told them we would be leaving and that they had to at least reach seven five thousand meters, they didn’t have to get a bulls-eye just hit the target.

We were walking, he seemed disappointed. “You could have gone easy on them…”

What was he talking about? “Huh? I didn’t know you wanted me to, I thought you wanted me to shoot the targets.”

He sighed. “I supposed that is my fault then, I don’t imagine those recruits will be happy with you… Though if you would have made that final shot, you would have broken the record… I guess that is best then… I’ll escort you back to your quarters, I’m sure your sister would like to hear about what you were able to do.”

We walked back to the room, Jessica opened the door wide eyed. She yanked me and closed it. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?”

I didn’t know what was going on and she scared me. “I-I don’t know! Did I do something bad?!”

She turned on the tv in the room, it was playing back a video of me shooting… “The whole base is talking about this! Why didn’t you tell me you could shoot like that!?”

Why am I being yelled at? “I don’t know?! It never came up so I didn’t talk about it!”

She calmed down a little… “Red, you have no idea how valuable being able to pull off shots at that range is! I mean holy shit! Taking out a target at over two miles way! That’s insane!”

I looked over Elizabeth giving her a help me look. She started laughing and looked away.

It took me a second to realize, did I impress Jessica? “Wait, did I manage to impress you?”

She cleared her throat and immediately calmed down. “Ahem, um… Yes. You did.”

I hugged her. “That’s good to hear. So, will this cause any problems?”

Jessica paused for a moment. “No, but if I ever have to go on a mission you’re coming with me from now on…” Oh… It was getting dark out… “We should probably get to bed.” I nodded and went to change…

Elizabeth stared at me again, it was uncomfortable… “You’re cute when you’re blushing.” Elizabeth was complimenting me?

Where did this come from. “Oh uh, thanks?” I hope this doesn’t end badly, it’s the first time I’ve slept in a bed with Elizabeth since she got me drunk… I climbed under the blankets. Elizabeth hugged me and pressed my head on her chest, I could hear her heartbeat… It was soothing, I ended up falling asleep pretty quickly.