Chapter 119: Stepping up

Once his check-up was over and he explicitly told Annette that Rebecca could know about any findings about him from the results of any tests, Rick left the lab to check the armory. He wanted to see if there was any magnum using .50 cal available. It turned out, to his surprise, that yes, there was. Multiple types on top of that.

John had pulled out a few models for him to have a look. The man had been more than happy to answer any questions Rick had about the differences between them.

“The Desert Eagle is… pretty and looks cool.”

Rick waited for more but nothing was coming. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.” John nodded solemnly.

“John.”

Reluctantly, John was more forthcoming with his answer. “It’s a piece of shit. Sure, it’s one of, if not the most, powerful semi-automatic out there but it’s seriously not worth it. It’s ammo sensitive. If you use anything but completely copper-plated bullets for the gun it won’t survive. And I’m not just talking about jamming, it would be completely useless.”

“No, Desert Eagle then.” Rick understood. .50cal already being rare, finding the proper bullets of the caliber or the gun may become useless was a huge disadvantage on the field and dangerous for his survival. It was a hard pass.

“No, not if you want to use it to kill BOW. Revolvers are the way to go with a big caliber.” John put the Desert Eagle back down on the counter and set it aside to pick up a gun Rick was intimately familiar with. “Smith&Wesson 500. Very reliable, capacity of 5. Makes a big boom. The cons are, it’s really heavy and honestly… it’s not that much powerful compared to the .460 model and is limited to only .50.”

“Yeah, yeah, give me your speech about the .460 already.”

A smirk on his lips, John set down the S&W500 next to the DE and picked up the S&W460. “Less powerful but you can also use .45lc, .454, .460. Any BOW that will survive a shot of this will survive a shot of the 500.”

“Why bother with the 500 when the 460 does as good a job but is more versatile? Alright, I get it.”

“The price of the ammo is lower too. Around $2 for the DE and the 500 at the minimum. For the 460 it’s $1.30.”

Rick looked at another revolver to the side of the counter. “Bottom barrel?”

John grunted. “Give up on it. That shit is even worse than the DE. Sure it looks cool but you need to change your usual grip so your finger won’t be blown off by the gas discharge when you fire.”

That left one other revolver that John brought out. “It’s the Taurus Raging Bull. Not a bad gun by any means but everything it does the S&W does it better. If you want to buy one it’s certainly cheaper but for the price you’re putting it’s better to go the extra mile and buy a 460.

“You know, you could just have put the 460 in my hands and told me this was what I wanted.” Rick smiled in amusement.

John gave him a deadpan look. “Where would be the fun in that?”

Once again being reminded that the man in front of him was a gun nut through and through, Rick didn’t comment. He took the S&W500 and had a good look at it. Like the previous day, he found no problem at how practical the whole thing seemed to be. When he shot with it he hadn’t had the time to pay much attention to the feel of it.

“Give me a box, I’m—”

A box of ammunition landed on the counter before he could finish his sentence. Looking at John, Rick saw a fake innocent smile on his face.

“Speed—”

This time two speed loaders and a few half-moon clips appeared right next to the box. Narrowing his eyes, Rick said nothing, grabbing the box with the tools and walking toward the fire range.

Taking a booth, he set everything down on the counter. Opening the box he put bullet after bullets where they were supposed to go. One speedloader and two half-moon clips were filled, leaving five bullets for the revolver he loaded last. Rick took a paper target, hung it and moved it to a good twenty feet distance.

He picked the gun in hand, took a firing stance, aimed and began firing. Only once at first to get a feel of the gun and the recoil. It wasn’t negligible and understood why Claire sprained her wrist when she used it. There was no concern from him however, he could handle it no problem and the damage incurred by repeated shooting would simply be healed in a heartbeat.

With his eyes he saw the shot landed right where he wanted: between the eyes. The question now was if he could maintain the accuracy with consecutive shots. Pulling back the hammer, he shot four more times. All made a hole within two inches of the first one.

‘Not bad.’

The pain and numbness in his hand subdued quickly and Rick decided to test the revolver a bit more in that regard but also the loading speed. Knowing that John was watching from behind him he was careful to not be too fast.

Doing the clips first, he was pleased by how easy reloading had been and a bit less with the fact the bullets weren’t staying straight on it. The clip being very thin, the metal had bent a bit and one bullet had been slightly out of the axis. A problem the speedloader didn’t have but the thing was more cumbersome and took slightly longer to use. Considering the price of the thing he couldn’t discard it either.

Out of ammo, he put the gun down and brought back the target. All the empty bullet cases ended on it and he folded the paper to hold them all. Turning around he saw John but also Barry looking at him.

“Barry?”

“John called me saying you were finally taking a step to the big gun category. I had to see this.”

“Nothing wrong with .45” Rick shrugged and walked towards the men. “But yeah some things need a bit more punch. Angela and I were lucky in Canada. We found a Colt 44 and a Winchester 357. It helped a lot with big BOWs.”

“How’s the wrists? You shot them like you do a 9mil.” John asked when Rick handed him back the Magnum.

“Not doing anything strenuous with them for a few days, that’s for sure.” He lied. “They’re still numb and I bet I’m going to feel it soon enough. Keep one with my name on it though?”

John nodded and began to walk back behind his counter. “You got it.”

“Satisfied then?” Barry had a smirk on his face.

“Honestly? Yes. I wasn’t expecting that much accuracy but then again Smith and Wesson are experts in the revolver category.” Rick opened his target above the garbage can for used cartridges to discard them all, then tossed it away to its own can.

“I’m partial to Colt but yes, they do some good work.”

They said goodbye to John who waved at them and left the armory to go back to the office.

“Is there any news regarding the pairs? Did O’Brian change anything?”

“Not that I know off.” Barry pushed the button of their floor inside the elevator. “Beyond, Parker and I being paired back together since Rachel can more than handle herself, I mean. Why?”

“Angela is ready. Far more than ready in fact. We were separated during our investigation. Underground lab. Did very well to survive lickers, hunters, spiders and new BOWs. Didn’t get hurt at all. I told O’Brian as much when we got back and I thought he would have assigned her to you or Parker to diversify her experience.”

Barry shook his head. “I don’t know anything about that. Rachel and I came back two days ago and I heard nothing. Parker would have told me.”

“I guess Angela will be partnered with Rachel for a bit, then.”

“Why not you?”

That was a valid question. “Mentor-mentee relationship, I suppose. It won’t do well if subconsciously she depends on me beyond the basics of a partnership. Beside I got a feeling O’Brian wants me to teach for a bit.”

“Your manual you wrote?”

Rick nodded. “Yeah. The new recruits we have proved they could fight but their survival instincts are… Poor.”

Barry understood that something had happened in his last mission. He had heard from Jill before she left with Chris to the West Coast that Rick had called for back up. “Oh? What happened in Canada?”

“Angela saved their asses. Idiots weren’t on their guard because they thought they were safe inside a lab after she and I cleaned up the whole complex. A Licker burst through the vent. A variant with two tongues. Thankfully she was there and dealt with it otherwise…”

“I really wonder what the hell they were thinking at the FBC. Training must have sucked severely.”

“They were just trained to shoot from the bit Rachel shared. Apparently Lansdale's policy was to just send numbers.”

That didn’t seem to please Barry who frowned even deeper than he already was. “Quantity over quality huh. Not a bad thing but highly situational."

“Yeah. Terragrigia? Good thing. A single complex?” Rick shook his head in consternation.

The elevator stopped and its door opened. Walking out of the cage, they went back to their respective desks. Angela was already behind hers and looking at the BSAA news.

“Everything is alright?” She asked Rick as he sat down in his chair.

“Hm?”

“You disappeared three days ago with a military officer.”

“Yeah. Some people wanted an oral report of an old mission for an investigation. It took a while.”

She knew it was a bit bullshit because ‘a while’ in this case turned out to be three days. For an investigation it was way too much. Considering it wasn’t a secret the kind of mission Rick did in the military and what she knew she could do, whoever called him away from the BSAA must really have needed his talents for something important. That Rachel didn’t show up at work while Barry did gave her the idea that they may have even been deployed. In the end Angela decided to let it go.

Around 10:00 am Rachel showed up at the office. She left her jacket on the back of her chair and came to Rick’s corner to sit on his desk after greeting Angela.

“You could have—”

O’Brian’s loud voice interrupted her. “WALD! Foley, Miller, my office!”

Rachel snorted at the difference of tone used between Rick’s name and Angela and hers. “We’re back today, what did you do?” She teased.

“I exist.” Rick’s response was devoid of any emotion.

Angela chimed in. “I know I didn’t do anything to anger him.”

“He’s probably pairing the two of you together.” he said non-chalantly and went through the door.

O’Brian had heard him. “You’re correct. Miller, you’re ready to act solo from what your evaluation said. Heck that’s the best eval which ever graced my desk.”

At this, Angela gave a curious look at Rick and picked up the file O’Brian tossed in front of her. She took it and would have a read later.

“That’s why I’m pairing you with Foley.”

Rachel gave him a skeptical look. “That’s not really a good reason, sir.”

“I have a solo job for Wald. A long one” He shifted his attention from Rachel to Rick.

“Training the new recruits in survival? I was talking about it with Barry.”

“Again, you’re correct. I got your manual reviewed and approved for use a while back. Copies are being delivered within the week here and to every BSAA main HQ in the world.”

“Damn.” Rachel sounded impressed.

“By the end of the day, I want a list of everything you might need for a crash course. Paper clips to weapons. I need a timetable for how long it will last too.”

“You’ll get it.” Rick answered and left the office when O’Brain pointed at the door for him. Clearly he wasn’t done with Rachel and Angela.

Sitting back at his desk, Rick opened a blank document to do the task but was stumped. He had no idea how to go about it. It wasn’t his thing. Since it was something important, he decided to ask for help. Picking up his phone he made a call to the one person he knew would know what would be needed.

“Hello, ma’am?”