Book 1: Ch 2

I woke up later feeling like shit and opened my eyes to see everything still spinning, a wave of intense nausea then hit me like a truck and I fought all I had to keep myself from throwing up. I shut my eyes closed and groaned, rolling over to my side when I noticed that everything has cooled down. Fucking hell, it must’ve been heatstroke after all. I then took the hose leading out of my camelbak pouch and bit the end, flooding my mouth with the best tasting warm water I have ever tasted. I gulped down mouthfuls of water and gave a sigh, feeling partially refreshed.

I then heard retching sounds coming from someone who was heaving out with his empty stomach. “Ron? Nick? You guys okay?” I called out, unable to get up, even open my eyes and was only left to rely on them replying to know if they were okay.

I lay there for a while, feeling helpless and stupid, hearing the sounds of someone emptying his guts out. “It’s me, Nick. What happened?” he asked.

“I don’t know, I’m no doctor but I think its heatstroke. Can you open your eyes? Can you check up on Ron for me?”

I heard him groan, followed by some scuffing on dirt. “I can, feeling kinda woozy but I think I’ll be alright.” A pause “Ron’s on his side, breathing steady, the blood coming out of his nose is all dried up. He’s warm, not hot, I think he’ll be alright.” He said followed by the sound of him lying back down on the ground.

I rolled over to my back and laid my head down, sighing with the feeling of relief from the knowledge that we’re all somehow banged up but still fine.

A few minutes later, the feeling of nausea has died down to a manageable level. I got up feeling like shit and made my way to Ron, who was still laying the same way Nick described. He had drool running out of the side of his mouth, and was breathing loudly which I then realized was snoring. The fucker was somehow sleeping so I guess he’s fine.

I looked up and saw the sun covered up with clouds which is what might have saved us there. If the cloud wouldn’t have been there, we might’ve fried ourselves in the desert heat. I looked down to the parked trucks on the base of the hill and judged that I could make it. Maybe drive up my truck up the hill get the two in, button up and turn the ac on.

I stumbled my way down the hill and reached my truck, it was parked on the side of the dirt road in between Ron’s and Nick’s truck. The interior was hot when I got in and turned it on, I then closed all the windows and turned the ac full blast. The feeling of the cold air touching my skin felt like heaven, as I slowly made my way up the hill and parked the truck right beside the laying figures.

“Get in!” I yelled over the open window. Nick got up and went inside, flopping down in the seat with a heavy sigh. Ron was unresponsive, I got out and went around to his side, I judged myself rested enough to carry his ass to the truck so I squatted and tried to put get him in a fireman’s carry. It turned out that I couldn’t so I just half carried- half dragged him inside, I then went in to bask myself in the cool interior of the car not giving a care about the gear we left out in the heat. They’re rated for heavy outdoor use, they’ll be fine.

I woke up later with Nick shaking me awake, the sun was just starting to set. I was still feeling really tired while being wide awake at the same time, then stretched myself with the best I could afford in the driver’s seat and looked at Nick “What’s up? You hungry?”

“There’s some guys hanging around our trucks on the base of the hill” he said nodding towards the direction.

I opened the window and looked down the hill and saw the guys, I couldn’t make up what they’re wearing in the poor light but they had rifles hanging sticking out their shoulders. Glancing at Nick, I could see that he had the same concerns as mine. Nodding, I got out the car and so did he.

We walked down the hill towards the guys checking the trucks, there were three of them and armed with long boltguns, one was looking under the truck while the other was peeking in the windows, while the thirds was just watching the two do their thing. Our rifles were still on the road but were still wearing our vests where we keep our sidearms in a crossdraw along with two spare magazines. We then approached them in a way to have the trucks away from the line of fire, you know, just in case.

The third guy in the group turned around as he noticed us, then called for the others. Nick and I stopped in our tracks and almost went for our sidearms as we saw that all the three were wearing some ugly masks while hanging rifles on their shoulders.

All of us stared at each other at a standoff in the dying light, “Can I help you guys?” I asked. In which the three responded by reaching for their rifles.

You see, there’s a thing called a 1-5 rifle drill in the tactical shooting ring. There are three targets set up side by side, it’s started by a cue then the shooter will follow it up by shooting the target at the edges once, usually the left one, followed by two on the center, then three on the other side, the shooter then will go back going to the left adding a round fired on each target by one until five is reached on the first target. Time is measure at the end with everyone going for the fastest.

My record time with a rifle is just under three seconds, second only to Ron who had his on a little over two and a half.

My hand shot towards my chest, pulling my sidearm in a very swift and efficient motion, only achieved with hours of repeated training, flipping the safety off as I pointed my pistol at the leftmost target and fired, doing the 1-5 drill with a pistol. The guy on the left flinched as I hit my mark, hitting him in the base of his jaw and a puff of dust forming on the ground behind him. I moved my aim to the guy in the middle who just got his rifle off his shoulder and is raising it to our direction, I took my second shot and hit him somewhere, causing him to press the trigger on his rifle and it went off with a loud bang, the round heading off into the sky and I gave another shot on him as he fell down. I heard another bang and felt the heat of the bullet shot on my face as the third guy missed his shot, probably due to a multitude of reasons that I am grateful for. I then transitioned my aim at his direction only to see him charging at me, his rifle raised to bash my head in using the gun’s buttplate, the rifle was a bolt action and the shot he missed is the only one he got. There was still fifteen feet between us and I already had my gun drawn, it only took a millisecond for me to aim at his center mass on this distance, I squeezed the trigger and fired. The guy staggered, and I took two more shots before I realized that he was already going down and slamming his body on the ground and skidding to a stop just a few feet shy of me, his rifle thrown somewhere behind me, carried by his momentum as he let go.

I took my finger off the trigger and lowered my gun, just as Nick pulled his sidearm off its holster and leveled it at the direction of the three. “Fucking hell.” Was all me managed to say as he also lowered his weapon.

“You saw it right? They were wearing masks and went for their guns.” I said, looking at Nick. “It was clearly self-defense.” I felt the shakes coming as I was coming down from the adrenaline high the situation brought. I would say that at the time, it felt good getting to use your training to save your life along with others, and I know it was my primal part that overrode all the cognitive process of my brain and threw everything else away except my ability to fight or flight. I had the ability to fight the danger, to protect life and property and I did it by eliminating the threat.

But now that the danger has passed and the primal state of my being has been banished for another time, the consequences of my action are now bombarding me with questions of how it could have handled the situation better. I know I couldn’t, but somehow something is telling me that I could have done something else but failed to do so, only that same thing keeps on keeping silent whenever I asked it how I could have made the better decisions, how I could have been the better man.

The sound of someone running took me out of my introspection and I whipped around pointing my pistol at the new arrival. It was Ron, “Whoah! Whoah! It’s me! It’s me! Don’t fucking shoot!” he yelled raising his hands.

Flipping the safety off, I lowered my pistol the second time. “Sorry, I was feeling jumpy, you know.” I said.

“Don’t worry bro, well make sure you won’t get in trouble for this.” He said as he brushed past me and patting me shoulder, making a beeline towards his truck and opening the door on the driver’s side. Not even giving a glance at the bodies lying on the ground. He lit the cab of the truck and rummaged around his truck coming up with a laptop and booted it up, the blue light of the screen reflecting of his face. He then reached over his dashboard where he kept his dashcam.

Realizing this, I immediately got into his truck and sat beside Ron was currently looking at the timestamps on the camera as I got in. I waited in worried anticipation to the video, when he yelled “Got it.” and played it.

The video showed my truck in the dim light, along with the three coming in and out of the frame as the rounded the trucks for a few minutes and stopping with the two out of the frame with the third one just as the edge, talking at someone out of the frame. The camera used to have a mic, but Ron took it out since he thought it too tedious to take out the sounds of his sexual exploits in his car. But now, oh how much I wished that he kept it there just to know what the three were talking about.

A moment later, the car in the background opened and two men walked downhill and stopped about fifteen feet behind the three. The guy at the edge of the frame turned around and stood there looking at the two for a second, only to suddenly reach for the rifle hanging off his shoulder. It then showed Nick and I reaching for our weapons, and me drawing it a lot faster than Nick who somehow had it snagged off something in his kit. The video recorded eight muzzleflashes and the two of us left standing.

“Damn bro, that was some Robocop shit you just did right there, you didn’t even flinch when they shot at you, just killed them dudes.” Ron said, smiling as he looked at me. The smile then vanished and he cleared his throat, “I think we got sufficient evidence for the court to immediately throw it off as justifiable self-defense, if not, I could call in some lawyers to rain down some legal hell to whoever would think otherwise.”

“Thanks man” I said as I patted his shoulder. It’s a relief that I am safe from the law and that someone is looking out for my wellbeing, but the fact that I still took a life with my hands nags at my emotions. Ron must’ve caught my inner turmoil which is why he decided to just keep the silence with me in the cab.

Through the windshield, we saw Nick approaching the truck holding a phone in his hand. “My phone’s not working, can you guys try calling the cops?” he said coming up to my side of the window.

We each pulled out our phone and checked the signal strength, mine came up empty. Weird, it used to be able to reach two bars this far out but it seems that it couldn’t anymore. “Mine’s gone too.”

“Me too.” Ron said reaching and booting up the GPS on the dash. The words NO SIGNAL is all that came up on the screen. “Hmmm, what are the odds of that? Tell you what, how about one of us would run down to town and get the cops to come here while the other two will guard the scene. Cool?”

I nodded. “I guess there’s no other choice in the matter but as the one involved, I couldn’t be the one to go. It’s either one of you two.” I said to the two.

Ron looked at Nick who was looking inside the car while leaning the car door. “Nick, you go. Tell the cops you we had a self-defense incident involving guns here. Nothing more, nothing less, ill baby sit Adrian and make sure he doesn’t fall off his chair and hurt himself.” He said, grinning as at the second part.

I threw a jab on his shoulder in which Ron checked with his wrist, deflecting it away. “Well, I guess you better go then Nick, it seems like Ron’s feet hurts too much for such a trip. Better take your car too, and all your IDs since they might want to check all that before coming with you.”