Dark Explorations

(Alan POV)

It’s necessary to rest every once in a while. When you work hard for multiple days straight, your body grows tired, your mind weary, and your life unhealthy. It’s the reason that the ancient Jewish people invented the Sabbath and the socialists bargained for the weekend. I am similarly a believer in such times of rest and find myself the perfect opportunity this Friday. May eighth is the final day of exams and every student who would turn Morgantown into their personal party is instead running back to whichever hometown they come from. Traditionally packed with young adults looking to show off their skills or lack there of, my desired experience was only showing its regulars whose experience and skills were abundant.

The outdoor shooting range had not changed much since I last came when I was in high school. It was essentially a field with a parking lot next to it. You could rent your own weapons or bring your own and this was my first with my own. Ironically it was also the first time I went with a woman. It was a common date location for a certain breed of university student and the irony never fully hit me until I arrived and a female employee gave me a curious smile that took a few too many moments to understand.

When I offered the idea to Sofia, she first asked why I was going. That answer was simple and as explained before it was some necessary relaxation after a week of work. It also served a secondary purpose of allowing me to gain some necessary practice with the Mini-14. She followed up that question by asking why I was asking her to join me. I felt it would be rude to not ask a violence enthusiast to join me at the range. It would also seem to be a good use of Sofia’s energy so I may keep the body count in Morgantown low. Her third question was when we would leave. That answer was this afternoon when the sun would be setting behind us, which currently was right now.

I got my rifle approved and went to the rifle distances. Multiple targets were down range set up on haybells and a corresponding distance marked in yards. I adorned the noise-surpressing earmuffs and shouldered the rifle in the manner I had done before in high school with rented rifles and described by the salesman. I looked down at the sights and steadied my breathing to slow the natural roam which my untrained hands had. They were not shaky, but I could never be a surgeon. I flipped the safety off and aimed at the first target at a hundred yards and pulled the trigger. The federal government mandates that all civilian weaponry shoots only one bullet per pull of the trigger and as such a singular shot was made. A puff of hay came out of the haybell target and I could just barely tell that I had made contact. I clicked the safety back on and lowered the rifle to sit on the table which separated me from the range. I made extra caution to assure that its muzzle remained downrange in the unlikely chance of a misfire. I reached for the travel sized binoculars I brought to see exactly where I hit on the dummy only to realize they were no longer there. I looked to my right and saw Sofia had already grabbed them to see.

“Right in the forehead. That was an easy shot though. My turn.”

Sofia handed me the binoculars and I stepped aside as she moved to take the same shot. I quickly checked to confirm her statement and there was indeed a hole in the middle of the forehead of the paper target which mimicked the shape of a human being. Sofia didn’t bother with the earmuffs and in a fluid motion hoisted the weapon, turned off the safety, and pulled the trigger. The shot was a few inches below mine and went right between the eyes. She looked over to me and gave a shit-eating grin as I confirmed what she already knew.

“Bullseye, ten points.”

She did a fistpump before reshouldering the weapon and aiming for the next target at the two hundred yards target. She took a few seconds to focus her aim before pulling the trigger. A puff of hay and a metallic noise released as I donned the binoculars to check her work. She looked at me smugly and I informed her of what I saw.

“About the left eye, nine points.”

She gave me an unpleasant look with a turn of disgust in her lip. She reshouldered and fired again after a few seconds of focus. This time it went perfectly between the eyes of the target. She placed the Mini-14 on the table facing down range and gave me the usual smug look.

“There, beat that.”

I reached down and turned on the safety.

“You gotta turn on the safety, it’s the rules.”

She rolled her eyes and reached to grab the gun. I decided it was not the best idea to let her make whatever statement she felt was needed with it and grabbed it myself before she could. She scowled and scoffed annoyed.

“I wasn’t gonna shoot someone. I was just gonna make a point.”

“Then you can explain your point. You don’t have to be theatrical with a loaded rifle.”

She just shook her and pointed behind her at a slightly overweight man firing his rifle. He didn’t notice as he focused down range. A quick glance saw that no one was really even watching us. The sole exception was a security camera which seemed solely focused on Sofia and I. Alice must have found a nice vantage point.

“I could blow that guy’s brains out and no one would even realize I did it. Do you really think I’d get in trouble for not putting the safety on?”

I shook my head and sighed.

“That’s not the point. You wouldn’t get in trouble, but I could. I don’t have the same protection. They’d know it was my rifle which did it. I’m trying to avoid getting caught up in whatever storm you bring.”

I shouldered the rifle myself and aimed down the range. I saw Sofia fold her arms disapprovingly, but not counter my argument. I turned off the safety, slowed my breathing, and focused at the two hundred yard target. I took a little longer to gain my focus than Sofia did, but when I pulled the trigger I saw the hay fly out and I looked towards Sofia who had the binoculars raised to her eyes.

“Top lip-ish, eight points.”

I turned back on the safety and started setting it down as Sofia turned confused and sternly told me.“Go again. I did it twice.”

“That was right in the face. Would have easily been a kill.”

She shook her head and grabbed the gun and handed it to me.

“We’re at the range, not a fight. The point is the points on the target. If getting a kill was what mattered, you’d be dead already."

I looked over a bit confused.

“And why’s that? It was a headshot both times.”

Sofia shook her head and pointed at the Mini-14 in my hand.

“Two things; one is that you haven’t added a switch to it. You’ll need automatic fire against someone like Vikky. Two is that you take far too long to fire and hit accurately. Roxane would’ve domed you before you even had shouldered the rifle.”

She grabbed my arm and made me shoulder the rifle. She held her hand on my trigger hand and forced me to steady. I could feel her warm breath against my cheek as she held onto my hands and controlled my stance, not my aim, just how I breathed and how I stood. She turned off the safety and finally let go. I took a steady breath before firing. Sofia pulled up the binoculars.

“Better, nine points. The problem isn’t you’re a bad shot. It’s the fact you only fought in controlled settings. You have no instincts for a fire fight.”

I clicked back on the safety and set the rifle down. I looked towards her, a little surprised by the mentorship. She had never given me advice in this way. I found myself usually the one lecturing her oddly. She just didn’t have the natural inclination to take care of her own home and I found myself essentially mothering her. Simple things like laundry being left in random places or dishes left out without being cleaned. This was an odd display by her and left me a little confused. I guess combat was her expertise and I should listen when a teacher was speaking.

“So what should I do to get those instincts?”

Sofia thought for a moment, she then grabbed the rifle herself. She quickly turned off the safety and moved with the same clean and nature finesse of a veteran. She skipped the three hundred yards, the four hundred, and landed directly on the longest distance, five hundred yards. She didn’t even hesitate at the over double increase and pulled the trigger twice. In two consecutive shots, I could barely even tell that hay flew. I grabbed the binoculars and was shocked.

“Both were bullseyes. Right in the head and the heart.”

I don’t think I’ve ever hit a bullseye from that distance. She lowered the rifle and turned off the safety as she sat it on the desk. She looked towards me and my shocked expression and showed a slight smile, before returning to a serious look.

“You don’t learn those instincts. You get them from experience.”

I was taken aback and stumped to get out my words after recovering from what she just did.

“What? What if I need to fight? Like- I can’t just not fight back if Roxane or Vikky attack.”

Sofia shook her head and pointed towards me.

“I never said don’t fight. I said you don’t have the instincts for it. You're like a mutt trying to fight against wolves. You’re not winning. Those instincts were bred out of you. Use your head.”

I was taken aback a bit at her chastising correction. Her final sentence threw me off a little bit.

“Use my head?”

“You can sit behind a computer screen and predict Roxane’s next step. If you figured out how to do that in a fight, you wouldn’t need instinct. Probably wouldn’t even need to fight.”

Sofia was now pointing directly at my head and gave me a playful flick to my forehead. I pulled back, surprised that it hurt more than anticipated, rubbing the spot of contact. I guess it was theoretically possible to learn enough about a person to outwit them in combat. I had never studied someone’s fighting style before though and that seemed a bit out of reach from my experience. Not to mention that these people have magical powers given to them by demon contracts, that threw out everything I could have previously assumed. The only thing that remained consistent would be their personality and inherent psyche, those traumas and deviancies which defined their lives. Wait a second, that’s a great point. Those are exactly what I know. Sofia grabbed the rifle and handed it to me.

“Stop spacing out, it’s your turn to shoot the five hundred.”

I returned to reality and realized the difficulty of the shot in front of me.

“Oh fuck.”