Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

With how Ella uniquely dresses herself and acts like a brat or a young deer who was bred in captivity all her life and was suddenly released into the wild—weird metaphor, I know—but there was no fucking shot she could hold her own against Kaley who was only next to yours truly.

This was a pure fucking battle of reaction time coupled with one's mechanics in handling firearms and I was fucking impressed.

And even if Kaley was using a sporting rifle chambered in .22 LR which was something she wasn't used to or rarely uses, they were both using the same thing at the same time and they were fucking neck and neck.

In addition, there was a reason I was this astonished because this randomizing mechanism I made for the steel targets to move around well, randomly, was fucking random in its own right—within reason, of course—because if you'd ask any person familiar with numbers, a person might think they were being random or trying to be, but everyone follows a pattern or a certain style.

'I say within reason because it has at least a few thousand combinations of where each plate might go… It's somewhat random but to a normal person… You know how it is… I can predict where some of them might go but not all at the same time… It's more fun that way though I still have a slight edge hence why I'm at the top of the leaderboard— which means Kaley is actually at the top— which also explains my astonishment because Ella is technically at the top too…'

June, Edith, and Nancy—who actually followed me behind—could only sit at the back and watch how the two duel it out and it didn't take long before the match ended.

Ella exclaimed as she lost feeling in her legs, "Haaaah! I'm exhausted! I can't beat you, you're too good! H-Howww~!"

Kaley just smiled while clearing her gun before offering Ella a hand, "You do know you've hidden yourself pretty well— If he knows that you— Ah…" she stopped herself as she finally discovered I was just standing by the door, "Umm… Ahaha… Whaddayouknow? Ella can actually shoot guns!"

Ella never looked so panicked, "H-HI! Ahaha… Ha… Haha… Kaley's a really~ great teacher—"

I chuckled eerily as I suddenly bridged the distance and smushed her cheeks, "You're an awfully good liar, huh? Who told you to hide yourself like this? Huh?"

She tried to break away but all it did was to stretch her cheeks even more, "I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!"

Kaley tried to get me off Ella, "H-Hey! It's not like she hurt anybody! Let off a bit!"

I finally let go as I put on puppy eyes and clutched my chest, "She hurt my kind and loving heart, you know?!"

Nothing got past Kaley as she rolled her eyes, "Doofus. She has her reasons, alright? Besides, she can't handle recoil pretty well, that's why—"

I just nodded, "That's why she sticks to the .22. Oh, I know," I picked up my rifle and handed it to Ella, "Try this. Still a .22, no? A .223/5.56 but just more powder—"

Kaley tried to cut in, "But she—"

"I just want her to try, see if I can offer some help."

"Okay…" then she turned to Ella, "You okay with that? I know you're scared to shoot larger calibers but—"

Ella just nodded while slightly glaring at me, ignoring my rifle, "Cheeks still hurt…"

I flicked her forehead, "You— It kicks a little more since not only it has more powder but as you can see, the barrel's shorter than that sporting rifle. However, you just need to dig this fucking stock between your chest and front shoulder while using your other hand to pull back and stabilize the whole thing by gripping this foregrip as tight as you can.

Don't forget to control your breathing too and keep your body tight so you won't get bothered with the recoil."

Ella glared at me, "Y-You— I-I know what to do! It just s-scares me, you know?!"

"Then don't get scared. Easy—"

"I wish it were that easy! You don't get it!"

I waved her off, "No. YOU don't get it."

'Even you don't even know what you're actually scared of.'

"H-HOW CAN YOU KNOW BETTER THAN ME?! IT'S ME WE'RE TALKING ABOUT! I'M ME! I KNOW ME A WHOLE LOT!"

I flicked her forehead again, "If every person in the world knew what's wrong with them, doctors wouldn't have any jobs—"

"T-THAT'S DIFFERENT!"

"I know."

"Y-YOU—"

"But trust me on this. Shoot it once and you'll see, trust me."

"..."

"Please?"

"F-Fine…"

At this point, I didn't think I'd have another lesson that would correlate with the things we uncovered earlier but it do be like that sometimes. So yeah, while Ella was psyching herself up just for a single shot, I gave Rin a quick call to retrieve a couple of things for me, and I even asked her to use one of our electric bikes so she could get here faster.

But yeah, as soon as Ella took a deep breath, followed all my directions to the letter, and finally squeezed the trigger, her small but stacked body jolted from the 'recoil' or something else altogether.

And obviously, she quickly cleared my rifle before turning around and glaring at me:

"WHAT NOW?! I SAW SHIT!"

I nodded in agreement, "Obviously, you fucking deer."

"Wha— When did I get a new nickname now?! A deer?!"

I ignored her following outburst as I turned to Kaley, "You saw, right?"

Kaley looked confused, "H-Huh?"

"I said you saw, right?"

"T-The recoil?"

I shook my head, "Her body jolted back a bit, right?"

She nodded a few times, slightly unsure, "Yeah… From the recoil, right?"

"Nope."

"Then—"

Rin arrived at the right fucking time:

"I-I'm here! B-Brought the things you asked for—"

"Thank you, Rin," then I threw one of them to Ella, "Wear that."

She looked confused as well, "But I'm already wearing eye pro—"

"Want me to flick your forehead again? And gimme my gun back for a bit, I'm showing you what's wrong with— I mean, what's special about you. You'll see."