Mike was right in the middle of demonstrating the proper way of holding and firing a handgun for the girl's benefit, when Nick and Chad arrived at the small closet area.
"What's up, guys?" Mike asked lowering the Beretta M92 pistol, as he and the three girls turned their attention to the two guys as the entered the room.
"Mike, we need to speed it up. We're going to get Molly as soon as we're ready.", Nick said simply and sharply.
"When will that be?" Mike questioned, eagerly. He was most certainly ready to see Molly again.
"When we're ready." Nick repeated. "Mike, I need you to go and get any of your mother's jeans and long sleeve sweats both shirts and pants. Nothing short. I also need you to get a pair of scissors." Nick paused, thinking of what else, "Mike, also get yourself a pair of pants. Those shorts aren't going to protect you much."
"Got it." Mike reported, leaving the room to collect what Nick had asked for.
Nick turned to the girls. "Im sorry, but you all need to remove any jewelry and leave it here. If you have a watch, you can keep it in your pocket." Nick paused. "We also need to cut all of your girl's hair, to make it shorter then shoulder length, at least."
"What, are you crazy?" Ashley asked. "Im not getting rid of any of it. Sorry."
"Same.", Tracy said, as she stroked her near-waist length auburn-hair.
Ali didn't say anything. Her red hair was already pretty short. Losing a couple inches of it wouldn't bother her too much. The other two girls, well, they weren't so ready to part with theirs.
"We need to cut it off. So it won't get in the way. It also just puts you in danger." Nick said calmly, trying to reason with them.
"Sorry, no fucking way." Ashley said, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, sorry." Tracy muttered, siding with her best friend.
"Oh, what the fuck?" Chad muttered, looking at the ceiling, as though something more interesting was going on there.
Nick paused. "Uh huh." he said, as he checked to make sure the M4 was secure on his back. Then, without any warning, he lunged forward and grabbed both Ashley's and Tracy's hair, giving it a forceful tug. This caught everyone by surprise, including Chad.
"Ow, what the fuck is wrong with you!" Ashley nearly yelled, as Nick painfully yanked her hair. Tracy just gave a small yelping sound.
"Shut up!" Nick snapped, his forceful tone of voice immediately quieting the two girls. Nick breathed deep, and recovered his calm and quiet voice. "You didn't listen to me, and now you're dead." He said quietly. "Those things'll grab you using whatever they can get. Watches, bracelets...hair. We saw it happen not ten minutes ago."
"Fuckin' A." Chad said quietly. He had recovered from his friend's sudden and surprising move.
Realization set into the girls faces as Nick looked at them with a pleading face. "You want to survive this, right?...Right?"
Both girls nodded, something a little difficult, considering Nick hadn't at all loosened his grip on their hair.
Nick nodded as well. "Well I want you to survive, too. And Ill do anything it takes to make sure you do, but you have to listen to me, okay? That is what we agreed on, right?"
Both girls nodded again.
"Kay, check all of this over and see if everything's her-" Mike stopped talking instantly as he saw the strange sight before him of Nick clutcing both Ashley's and Tracy's hair, as he re-entered the room with an armful of clothing.
There was an awkward silence as everyone turned to see the bewildered look on Mike's face.
"What, the fuck, did I miss?" He asked, turning to view each of the other five teens one by one, and putting extra emphasis on each line.
"Nothing." Nick let go of the girls' hair, and took a big step back, "Just trying to make a point." Nick stared at the girls. "Did I?"
"Dude, do you got some pent up anger problems I don't know about?" Chad asked smiling.
"I hope not." Nick muttered back.
"Yeah." Tracy gave a nervous laugh. "Just whatever's wrong with you, please don't do that again."
Nick nodded. "In a few minutes, I won't be able to." He turned to Ashley. "You alright?", he asked, actually caring.
Ashley nodded. "Did you have to pull so hard?", she said, giving a small smile
"Well, the point was made, so yeah, I kinda did." Nick smiled, and shrugged slightly, "At least I didn't bite you."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twenty minutes later, the six teens were as close to ready as they could get. Each one of them had a fully packed bag, either their own, former school backpack, or a pack that was supplied by Mike, who had several in storage. Nick's, Mike's, And Chad's bags all had their particular weapons' extra clips and/or ammo. Also, each bag had some of the cleaning tools needed to maintain the weapons in the field. In addition, the bags also had a little bit of food and water. Nothing perishable, and all water was in unopened bottles. The food was mostly cans. Each teen had several each, and Chad had complained that they weighed 'an assload'.
The girl's hadn't been assigned weapons yet, so that's the only thing that their bags lacked. Nick told them that extra clothing would be unnecessary. All the girls where now completely stripped of all jewelry, even earrings, and had their hair cropped to less then shoulder length. The guys didn't say it out loud, but the girls still looked pretty damn good.
"Alright, Ashley, pick up the Ithica shotgun, would you?"
Ashley bent down, and retrieved the weapon from the middle of the living room floor, where Mike had laid out all of the guns that hadn't been assigned yet. He had done so after packing the huge, dull-red hiking backpack, that he would use. Mike still wore his pewter sweatshirt, but had a lighter grey one underneath for another layer of protection. He had switched his black short for a pair of faded blue jeans, and his tennis shoes for his light brown, leather hiking boots, which he said were the most comfortable things ever.
Chad had put one of Mike's dad's old grey-ish sweatshirts over his black T-shirt, and that was all that was different about his outfit. That and the leather, extra mag pouch for his M1.
Nick, had requested anything black, and had gotten lucky when Mike had dragged out a black pair of jeans that had belonged to his dad. Nick had put them on, then put his camo shorts over them. Even he admitted that it looked a little ridiculous, but he refused to part with his shorts, which had more pockets on them then anyone cared to count.
The girls, had had the most drastic change of outfit. Ashley had put a grey sweatshirt over her white T-shirt, and other then that was fine, as she already wore jeans and a pair of tennis shoes.
Ali, had only need to put on on of Mike's mother's sweatshirt as well, she wore a tight, but not too tight pair of jeans, and a faded T-shirt. She now wore a blue sweatshirt over it, and even though Mike's mother wasn't all that big of a woman, the sweatshirt was still pretty big on Ali's small frame. She wore a very tiny pair of white tennis shoes as well.
Tracy, had received a pretty big costume change, as her skirt was replaced with a pair of Mike's mom's old blue jeans, and She had added one of his mother's blue long sleeved shirts to her own pink one. Like the other two girls, she also wore a pair of tennis shoes. She had deposited her watch into one of the pockets of the old pair of blue jeans she now wore.
Nick had told the group to re-tie they're shoes to make sure they stayed on. He also told them to double-knot them.
The six teens ended up kinda looking like the jogging team from hell. It was a strange sight to see a bunch of gun-totting teens wearing sweats and jeans. The group was also pretty warm under all the clothing, but it wouldn'a matter too much when they left the house.
The weather where they lived wasn't all that warm.
Ashley stood up, holding the smaller shotgun like it would violently attack her at any moment.
"It won't bite you." Mike said nearly letting out a laugh.
"Ashley, you're the biggest of you three, so Im giving you the largest weapon with the hardest kick." Nick said. He turned to Mike, "Do you think she can handle the recoil?"
Mike nodded. "I think so. If not at first, she'll get used to it."
Nick sighed. "I don't suppose any of you three have actually fired a gun before?", he asked, looking at the three girls.
"'Fraid not." Tracy said, matter-of-factly.
"Nope." Ashley said, as she stared at the Ithica with the same semi-frightened look.
"Ali?" Nick asked, waiting for an answer.
She looked up, "Once." She said softly.
"Oh kick-ass, we're making progress." Chad smiled.
"What kind of gun?" Nick asked.
"A rifle. A small one."
"Probably a .22." Mike said, checking his large dull red bag, making sure that everything he needed was there.
"Yeah." Nick agreed, looking at Ali.
"Alright, Mike give me the MP5."
"Righto." Mike picked up the smaller gun, and handed it too Nick.
"Oh, Mike, is there any other shotgun bandoleers? Ashley's gonna need one."
"No, only the one." Mike responded, as he tapped the bandoleer of crimson shotgun shells that he was currently wearing. "We do have a belt though."
"How many shells does it hold?", Nick looked at his larger friend, hoping the answer would satisfactory.
"Um, twenty I think. It's just like the bandoleer, except it's a belt."
"Good," Nick said, "Get it, please. Ashley's gonna need it."
"Gottcha." Mike left the room to retrieve the belt.
"Alright, Ali, come here, please."
Ali did so, just a little timidly.
"Okay, this is an MP5, it's chambered in 9mm auto, which won't do shit against them unless you get a head shot, you got that?"
She nodded.
"Right. You have a clip of 30 in there right now, and nine other clips. You will only, repeat: Will only fire this on semi-auto, that's one shot per trigger pull, and the setting for that is here on the side. Red dot for safety, one white dot for semi-auto, and three whites for fully automatic."
Mike arrived back in the room holding the black shotgun shell belt.
Nick looked up, "Okay, this applies to everyone: No one will fire in fully automatic. if the T.V.'s right, only a head shot will make any difference, so it'd just be wasting ammo. Mike and Ashley can't fire in full-auto, so you two shouldn't have too much to worry about."
Nick breathed deep, "Mike, please give Ashley shotgun 101. Show her everything, okay? Also, get that belt loaded on on her, would you?"
"You got it."
"Chad, teach Tracy what you know about holding and firing handguns. I want her to use one of the Barretas. I don't know if she could handle the kick of the Colt."
"Alright, man." Chad responded.
Nick looked at Ali. "And Im gonna teach you what I know about MP5s."
Chad an Mike got their assigned weapons and girls, and set to work.
Ali just sat their silently, staring at Nick.
"Okay," He began, "This is the bolt. You put in a clip like this, then pull on the bolt. This puts the first round in the chamber. alright?"
"Okay..."
"Alright, now you try..."
It was nearly thirty minutes later until Nick was satisfied enough with the progress of the three girls to call a stop to the learning process.
All the girls were now fully equipped with their new weapons. Ashley with the .12 gauge Ithica 37, Ali with the MP5, and Tracy with one of the groups two Beretta M92s. The girls at least didn't look afraid of their weapons anymore. They actually looked pretty ready. The guys had taught them everything they needed to know about them. But learning them was one thing, and firing them another. Nick hoped they'd be alright.
With everything packed up now, all the guns and supplies the group would need, Nick gathered everyone in the living room again.
"Alright, all of you with guns that take clips, try to pocket the empty ones before reloading. We only have so many of them."
Nick looked at Chad. "Especially you, man. I'd like to know where we'd find more mags for that gun."
"Yeah, really." Chad replied, thinking of the aging M1 carbine.
"It shouldn't be too much of a problem, though, because that leather pouch holds six of them, and you only have six clips. so you'd always have a free spot to put the empty, before going for a new one.", Mike spoke up.
"That's true." Chad said.
Nick made an "mmhmm" noise, then faced the entire group.
"We are now presented with several options. Option one. We go out on foot to get Molly. I wouldn't recommend this, because those things could be everywhere. We'll get an update when I call Molly again. Which will be in just a few minutes. See how bad her neck of the woods is."
Nick took a breath, "Option two is we take the bus. The bus is louder, and they might follow the sound. This means that coming back here may not be the smartest move. We could put ourselves under siege if they follow us back. Either way, we move as a group. No splitting up."
"What to you think, man?" Chad asked, mulling the options over.
"I think we pack up as much stuff in the bus as we can, drive it over to Molly's, get the bus as close to her house as we can, get her, and get the fuck outta there. We'll then have to find another location to go to."
Nick turned to Chad, "How much gas does that bus have in it."
"Aw fuck, I didn't check. Shit. Sorry, man."
"It's okay, we'll check when we get out there."
"Shit...Kay, man." Chad responded, a little disappointed that he didn't check how much fuel the bus had left."
"It's alright. So..are we all for that plan? The bus one, that is?" Nick asked the group.
"You tell us, man." Mike said solemnly. "We're with you all the way."
Nick nodded, "Right, pack everything up that we'd ever need. We leave as soon as we're ready." Nick pulled his cell phone out of one of his many pockets.
"Let's see what's going on with Molly."
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Is the build-up intense? God, I hope so...
Anyway, I had a compliant that I went too in depth with the guns. Now, Ive read a few zombie fics, and that was one thing that always bugged me: That the writer would just say "shotgun" or "assault rifle" and let the reader fill in the blanks from there. I, on the other hand, think the weapon itself is as much of a character in the story as the person that wields it...Just my humble opinion...So for anyone who's a little in the dark on firearms, look them up on google or something. Those websites would be a LOT more helpful then I could be.
Any other complaints or questions, please feel free to speak up. I WILL answer.
Oh, and on a rather satisfying note: I found the spell-check website that I used to use. This is the first chapter of this story that was run through a spell-check!