Only mid afternoon and the swamp continued to heat up. The manual labor caused the two siblings to sweat heavily and the humidity made them tired. Both had shed their outermost layer of clothes leaving Marcus in his long sleeved shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows with his plaid shirt tied around his waist. Elizabeth was left in her tank top with her jacket tied around her waist also. They had just started on the boards in the large hut, starting on the top level. Blood stained the floor in large splotches and flies buzzed around recently slayed zombies. Marcus dropped the boards he had left on the ground next to him, sighing as he dropped the heavy load. Elizabeth handed him the hammer and four nails. She held the board while Marcus pounded in the nails one by one.
Tank and Nikolai walked up the stairs looking for the two. He spotted them at the other end of the hut and started walking over. "Hey!" He shouted as Marcus pounded in the last nail. The siblings looked over, their hearts speeding up a fraction out of nervousness. "We've decided to keep you two around." Tank said as he closed the space between them. "Tak and I helped your cause,no need to thank us." The two were still on their guard despite having their safety secured, Tank had them up against the wall and if they could scoot away from him further they would. Nikolai stood to Tank's side, "Awe, they look like scared kittens." He said, he chuckled after he made his statement. "Better not say that front of Takeo, he might cut off their tails." He said and made a slicing motion and noise. Tank chuckled back. "Man fuck cats I'm more of a dog person anyway, as long as their not freak hounds that is." Nikolai gave a 'Da' in response and reached for his bottle. Marcus looked at the two men in confusion, "So you're keeping us?" He asked in attempt to get the two men back on track. "Yeah! But you're not gonna last long out here if you don't have one of these." Tank swiftly pulled out his pistol from his holster and cocked it. Elizabeth and Marcus' eyes widened in surprise.
"Nikolai take care of the rest of the windows." Tank said motioning with his head towards the boards and nails. Nikolai sighed in response and walked over to the boards, "You mention you were carpenter once and everyone want you to fix windows." He picked up the boards and can of nails, he held out the can to Marcus and Marcus dropped his hammer in lightly. Nikolai left down the stairs and Tank started walking to the other side of the hut. "Follow me." He said. Along an empty shelf he lined up empty perk a cola bottles for target practice. "Which one of you wants to learn first hand how to handle one of these babies." Tank said showing off his pistol. Both were silent until Marcus spoke up again. "I've already been shooting before so maybe you should teach my sister first." He said putting an arm around his sister. Elizabeth looked at him with wide eyes, clearly in opposition to her forced volunteerment. "Yeah? What'd ya shoot?" "My dad taught me how to shoot a BB gun for dove hunting season." Tank shrugged, "Eh. You barely scratched the surface there, but it's better than nothing." Tank turned and walked closer to the bottles but still a way back to still offer a challenge. "Alright girlie, you're up." Elizabeth swallowed but stayed in her spot, pretty much frozen. "Come on, I'm not gonna bite ya." Tank said crossing his arms. 'Unless you want me too' he thought, he smirked at his unsaid flirtation. Elizabeth walked over next to Tank but still timidly shrank next to him. "You." Tank pointed to Elizabeth's side to Marcus who was sitting on a wooden crate and resting. "Uh, yes?" Marcus said raising an eyebrow. Tank started making 'Mmmmmm' noises, trying to remember Marcus' name. "Marcus..?" "Marcus! That's your name! Sit tight and watch her. After I'm finished with her I'll have you come up and shoot off a couple of rounds see if you learned anything." Tank turned his attention to Elizabeth and his expression softened. " And you were? I remember you had an awful pretty name." He said. In the back of his mind he reprimanded himself for flirting with a girl after literally just barely knowing her for maybe two hours, but he thought he might as well cut his losses. She was the first girl he'd seen in a long time.
"I'm Elizabeth." She answered back, she put a hand on her sternum to reference to herself. "Well I guess I was right, that's a beautiful name for a beautiful lady." Tank said smiling. Elizabeth blushed and giggled just a little bit while Marcus rolled his eyes at the attempt at flirting. Tank took out a different pistol and handed it to his trainee. "I had two, they're Colt pistols. And that." He pointed at the gun. "Will be your best friend from here on out. Now I want you to load it." He demonstrated, ejecting his magazine from his gun and then loading it back in. Elizabeth mimicked but her gun magazine didn't slip out. "Don't be gentle with it." Tank said. He took Elizabeth's helped her eject the magazine. With more force Elizabeth slammed the magazine into place and shook her hand back in forth afterwards in pain. Tank chuckled "Not too hard though, we need those hands to kill maggot sacks." Tank said as he took Elizabeth's hand in his and inspecting it. Marcus watched on, half of him actually wanting to learn and the other half wanting to be protective or his sister.
"Next." Tank stood legs apart and pistol firmly in his grip. "Stand like this and look down the iron sight." Elizabeth pretty much did the exact opposite, legs together and holding her gun sideways. "What the fuck are you doing?" Tank said looking at her with a confused look on his face. "What? I feel more comfortable like this. What does it matter how I stand if I have a bunch of those things running at me at once?" "It won't matter then, but I'm teaching you now because knowing how to hold a gun right is our fucking foundation or whatever. That and if you hold it like that when you shoot you're gonna get hit in the face with your gun." Tank turned Elizabeth's gun upwards so that it was held normally in her hand. Then he tapped her foot with his to signal her to spread her legs. She sighed and did as she was told.
"Now hold on tight to it and keep your arm straight, like I said before if you don't you'll hurt your self. Go ahead and shoot." Elizabeth pulled the trigger and barely hit the bottle, knocking it off the shelf. "Damn, that's not too bad. You might just be a natural." Tank said, actually impressed she could shoot that straight. "Thanks, I barely hit the damn thing but at least I got it." "Do it again this time hit the bottle dead on or shoot off a few rounds really quick, bang bang bang!" Elizabeth adjusted her stance and readied herself to fire. "Wait hold up." Tank said lightly tapping her on the shoulder. Elizabeth turned her head and looked with a raised eyebrow silently asking what he wanted. "I can see your knuckles turning white. I know I told you to hold on tight but don't act like you're strangling someone." Tank said with an amused tone. Elizabeth loosened her grip and starting shooting.
Three shots went off and hit the next bottle dead in the center, knocking it off the shelf and shattering it on the floor. The next shots came in quicker succession and Elizabeth went from bottle to bottle. "Don't close your eyes you gotta see what you're shooting!" Tank yelled over the gunfire.
The last bottle fell and Elizabeth relaxed and stood normally. "Not too bad, doll. You sure you never used a gun?" Tank asked, he tossed a new magazine from his pocket to Elizabeth who caught it with her free hand. "I know a little here and there but I've never been out shooting, no." Elizabeth answered reloading her gun with a fresh mag. "Doll?" Marcus asked, protective instincts starting to show. "Yeah, I'm more of a nickname person so I'll be calling you two a bunch of names. By the way I wasn't properly... What's the word? When you meet someone for the first time?" "Introduced?" Marcus said as he stepped next to his sister and crossed his arms. "Yeah! Sorry I'm have a bad memory, the Kraut gave me a shit introduction." Tank turned towards Elizabeth and gave her a charming smile. "I'm Tank Dempsey. U.S. Marine and resident badass at your service." He extended a hand out to Elizabeth and she gave him hers and they shook hands. "Although you might be giving me a run for my money." He said to Elizabeth. She playfully rolled her eyes but Marcus groaned. "So are you going to let me shoot or what?" He asked stepping between Tank and Elizabeth. "Oh yeah, sure kid; let me find you a gun." Tank walked off around a corner and started rummaging for a spare gun.
"Why am I kid and you're a doll?" Marcus complained. "Don't start now please." Elizabeth said as put her hands to her temples. "That dude is fucking flirting with you." "He's being nice to me." "Bullshit. 'You might be giving me a run for my money hur hur hur.'" Marcus imitated and Elizabeth snorted and giggled, "Behave god damn it." she said and playfully hit Marcus on the arm.
Dempsey cam back with another pistol, "Here, now just do what she did." Marcus nodded and started shooting. Almost every shot hit right on its target and when he was finished he reloaded with ease. "Damn kid, you're a crack shot. Better than your sister." Tank thought for a second, wondering if he had time to teach the two how to use an actual rifle. He walked off for a second looking for the rest of his crew. "See, he's just being nice." Elizabeth said from her seat on the crate. "Or do you think he's flirting with you too?" "Oh yeah he was totally flirting with me, he pinched my ass and everything you just didn't see it." Marcus replied sarcastically
Tank came back a few minutes later with a Gewehr in his hands. "Well, no ones come back yet so...who wants to shoot a rifle?"