The Tales of Sorath (part six)
"Here." said Delilah while holding a Model SP66 Mauser to Veronica. "What do you want me to do with this?" she asked while grabbing it. "Hit those three cans over there. You get three shots." she said while pointing to three soda cans full of sand about 800 meters downrange. "Okay." she said as she squeezed off her first round and it hit three inches too far to the left of the left one. "Where is the shell casing? Isn't it supposed to come out after I shoot the gun?" "Ugh." Delilah said as her tail slowly started moving back and forth.
"You're thinking of a semi automatic. This is a bolt action. You have to raise up the bolt, pull it back, push it forward, and then push it back down." "What is that supposed to do?" "When you raise the bolt up and pull it back it ejects the spent shell. When you push it back forward it loads a new round. When you push it back down it locks the bolt back in place so that the bullet doesn't push the bolt back and tear up the gun." "Okay." Veronica said as she did each of the steps slowly. "Hurry up." said Delilah as her tail started twitching even faster. Veronica then took another shot and missed them. "Try to remember the word BRASS." "What does that stand for?" asked Veronica with a puzzled look on her face.
"It stands for breath, relax, aim, and squeeze. Do the steps in order to get good shots." Veronica then tried to shoot the last can and hit in the ground about ten meters ahead of the can. She then ejected the last shell onto the ground. "Move." said Delilah as she pulled out three more round from her pocket. She then loaded the rounds one by one, prepared the gun for firing, and fired the three rounds in quick succession. Once the dust settled Veronica noticed all the cans were missing. "How did you hit those cans so fast?" "I adjusted for the wind and pulled the trigger. That's all it takes."
"What now?" asked Veronica with a questioning stare. "Now we try and find something you might be able to shoot properly. Follow me." Delilah said while walking towards the hangar. As she looked back she saw that Veronica was trying to tell her to come back over there. "Why should I?" asked Delilah with her tail moving very quickly. As Delilah looked to where Veronica pointed she ran from the jet as it landed right where she just stood.
---------- "We're here Sorath. Sorry but I forgot your earplugs so you will just have to deal with Delilah without them." Bill said as he opened up the cockpit and jumped out. Sorath and Zach also jumped out in unison with Zach behind him. "Sorath behind you!" yelled Delilah as she threw a knife at Zachary. "He's going to be joining us." said Sorath as he caught the knife by the blade. "He's not one of us though. How can we just let him into our family?"
"We change him. Go get the bag out of the supply room that I brought with us when we broke out of the facility." "I will after I check all those wounds of yours. What the hell happened to you? You look like you jumped from a plane onto a bed of nails." "My captor went trigger happy and Zachary told me that the injuries are just superficial since nothing important got hit." "And you trust him?" "He didn't kill me or Bill when he had the perfect chance so that tells me I can at least trust him a little." "Fine. Since he was right, as far as I can see, I'll go get your bag. But the first time I see him try anything then I will cut his throat." Delilah said as she marched off to the hangar. "I see that things are going smoothly between you two." Bill said to Veronica.
"Yeah about as smooth as sandpaper."she said as she turned around and followed Delilah into the building. "When Delilah gets back tell her that me and Bill are in our rooms getting the blood out of our fur, okay Zach?" "Okay." he said as he watched them walk into the building and leaving him alone outside. "I guess you must be the new guy that Delilah was mad about." Jack said while walking out of the building. "I guess so." Zachary said while looking down. "Whats wrong? Are you scared of me or something?" asked Jack when he got beside Zach. "I'm kinda scared that you guys are just gonna kill me." "Why would I kill you? I now have somebody to joke around with." said Jack as he held Zachary up by his shirt collar. "What are you doing to me? Put me down, put me down, put me DOWN." Yelled Zachary as he dangled helplessly in the air.
"I'm taking you to your room that you will be staying in." said Jack as he walked towards the building. "This just looks like a large hangar though." "It 's both that, our house, and our base of operations." "How did you get a fuckin' stealth bomber?" Zachary yelled as he gazed at the B2. "The same way we got our Raptors and Blackhawks. We find them in a base that we raid, we remove any tracking devices and we fly them here to put our personal touches on them." "What do you mean by personal touches?" "I will show you that after your transformation." said Jack as he lowered Zachary to the ground. "This is your room." he said as he opened the door on a room with only a bed in the corner. "Don't you think that this room is kinda under decorated." "Make a list of what you want and we will give it to our external contact who will buy them and give them to us. Now if you want to walk beside me for the rest of the tour then you can or I can carry you again." "I'll walk."
"Okay then follow me." He said while closing the door. "This is Delilahs room, this is Sorath's room, this is Bills room, that is my room and that one is Veronica's room. Yours is right in the middle. You don't go in any other persons room without their permission. This," he said while opening the door on Delilah "is the supply room. You already met Delilah and the rest of the group." "Stop with the tour for a minute and help me find that damn bag Sorath was talking about." "It's on the top shelf to your left. Sorath wanted me to tell you that him and Bill are getting the blood out of their fur." "Okay then. I will be waiting in the lab." "Okay then." said Jack as he and Zach walked off to continue their tour. "The lab is the third set of double door on the right. This is the weapons room. We have every type of weapon you can think of in here except for blades. Speaking of which you need to tell Sorath what type of blade you want made for you. Those little knives he gave you are for decoration only." "How do you know he gave me some knives." "I can see them through the pocket of your lab coat. Speaking of which this is the clothing room. We have everything from bulletproof vests to T-shirts. All are modified for us to wear comfortably. Next is the ammo room. This holds loose bullets, loaded magazines, unloaded magazines, shells, and grenades for our grenade launchers. This is our explosives room which holds everything from the very stable explosives, such as C4, to the very unstable explosives, such as pure nitroglycerine. We never have any big batches of unstable explosives so that we don't accidentally blow this place up. We also have the dining hall right here with the kitchen next door. Breakfast is served once everybody is awake while lunch is at two and supper is around seven." "Don't you mean dinner?" asked Zachary.
"No. I call it supper like almost everyone else here does." "Okay." said Zachary looking embarrassed. "It's okay. Go and grab a gun so that we can see how well you shoot. I'll go set up your targets." said Jack while patting Zachary on the back. He went to the weapons room and decided on an L42A1 rifle. He then went to the ammo room and grabbed five 7.62 magazines and went outside. He then found a note on the door. It said that Jack was showing Veronica her room and that he would be back in a minute. No sooner had he finished reading the note than Jack walked back out of the door. "At least you found my note. Let me set up your targets. We need to know your skills as a human shooter before we find out what you're best with. I already figured you were going to choose a sniper rifle so I brought the other gun types along. If you wanna see them then look against the wall inside." Jack said as he walked off to set up targets.
Zachary looked on the inside of the wall and saw a lot of guns. He saw an M16 with an M203 grenade launcher attached, a Mossberg shotgun, a Lahti anti tank rifle, a LAW, and a few regular grenades. "Your targets are set up." said Jack over Zachary's shoulder as he snuck up behind him. "Don't do that!" screamed Zachary as he regained is breath. "Fine. Hit as many of the targets as you can with one magazine. Go" said Jack as he watched. After the shooting was done he saw that Zach had hit six out of ten. "Next weapon is the M16. Go grab it while I set up your targets again." Jack said as he went back over to the box of tannerite covered cans. As Zachary came out holding the rifle in his hands he realized that it did not feel right to him. "You have ten shots with the rifle. After that shoot one grenade in that car. Go." As Zachary held down the trigger he accidentally fired off all his rounds. "Just like I thought." said Jack under his breath.
Then Zachary aimed above the car and shot, missing it by a few inches. "I was afraid that would happen. Go grab the shotgun." Jack said as he grabbed the cans and put them out. Once Zachary came out this time he liked the feel of the gun in his hands. "You have ten shots with buckshot. Aim a little further down on your target than normal since the guns kick makes the barrel move upwards before the shot comes out. Go." Zachary then fired shot after shot hitting all the cans except for one. "Nice shooting. Grab the LAW and then get back here. You can use the car that you missed with the grenade." Zachary then grabbed the LAW and Jack moved the Lahti out of the building. "Why are you moving that out here?" "So that you can grab it and help bring it to the left side of the building where you'll be shooting it." "Fine." he said as he aimed the rocket. He then shot it and watched it go over the cars hood and over the desert. "CRAP." yelled Zachary. Jack then pulled a detonator out of his pocket and pushed the button. They both watched as the rocket exploded. "Grab the Lahti and lets go." said Jack as he grabbed the ammo. "This things too heavy for me." "Okay, then just carry the ammo." Jack said as he hefted up the gun and cradled it like a baby.
Once they got to the other side of the hangar Jack layed down the rifle, loaded two shots into it, and put Zach behind it. "Shoot those two cars covered in tannerite and thermite." "Did you say thermite?" "Yes. We need to get rid of the cars so we use thermite." "Okay." said Zachary as he aimed. The first shot missed while the second one hit the left car and set it ablaze. "Wow." said Zachary as he looked at the burning car. "Here try this. You got one shot." said Jack while handing him a Glock 40. Zachary, in one fluid motion, grabbed the gun, raised it, and shot the drivers side door dead center. "I've seen enough." Jack said as he grabbed the Lahti and LAW while heading back in with Zachary behind him with the rifle slung across his back and the Mossberg and M16 in his hands.
---------- "What the hell is this Sorath?" screamed Delilah after Sorath opened the bag. "It's the formula that transformed us. I thought that was obvious when I told you we would change him and to go grab the bag." "Why the hell did you take this stuff?" "For purposes like this. When I find someone wants to be one of us." "I can't believe this shit." "Well you should because it's right here. Go get him because the sooner we give him this the sooner you and Bill will stop complaining so much." said Sorath as he filled a syringe with the yellowish fluid. Delilah let out her claws and slashed him across the face, knocking him down.
"This is insane. I bet that you haven't even told him about the possible problems." "It is not a good idea to pick a fight with me Delilah." "I don't care. I will fight you outside after supper is over." "Fine I accept your challenge. A one on one match with no weapons, toxins, or poisons. Just teeth and claws. What do you want if you win?" "You kick him out of here." "And if I win?" "Then I will not say another word against this matter." "Okay then. Lets go eat shall we." said Sorath as he put the syringe on the table and the mutagen in his bag.
---------- "That was a great meal Bill." said Jack as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Where did Sorath and Delilah go anyway?" Bill asked looking around. "I don't know. I thought they told you." "They said something about a challenge." said Zachary as he put his plate into the sink. "Shit." said Jack and Bill in unison as they rushed out the door into the hangar. "Where are you guys going?" asked Zach as he tried to follow them.
"Sorath and Delilah are going to have a fight. We need to stop them." "Why do you need to stop them?" "Fights around here have no rules or limits. The only way to win is to incapacitate your opponent or for them to give up. Neither of them ever give up and incapacitating each other is nearly impossible without a chance of death." "Oh." said Zachary as he walked out the door.
---------- Delilah was the first to try and strike. Sorath dodged the strike and countered it with a knee to the gut. As she had the breath knocked out of her he followed up with a kick to the face, knocking her into the building wall. He then ran at her and aimed a punch for her face. She ducked and his paw went through the metal siding. She then punched his stomach, delivered an uppercut, and attempted to kick his knee. He grabbed her foot and twisted it. She jumped up off her other foot and delivered a spinning kick to his face, landing on her hands and feet. He ran at her and gave a low kick. She jumped up and took a punch to her back after he slid under her. He then jumped on top of her back and clawed her face. "You might as well give up. You know you aren't going to win." "No. I will never submit." "Fine."Sorath said as he got off her back. As she was getting up he kicked her in the back of her head and knocked her unconscious. "I win." he said as he picked her up.
---------- "I hope we aren't to late." said Bill as he opened the final door to the outside. "Perfect timing. Put her in her room and wash the blood off her face." Sorath said as he handed Delilah to Bill. "Jack you come with me to get Zach ready for his transformation." he said as he walked towards the lab. "Get ready for the most painful experience in your life." said Jack to Zach as he walked to the lab behind Zach. "What about pain medication and morphine, don't you have any of those kind of things?" "We have plenty of those. They won't work though. When your body temperature heightens they will become almost completely useless."
"Oh. Does that mean that that they don't effect you guys?" "They barely effect us but they still lessen the pain a little bit." said Jack as he closed the laboratory doors behind them and locked it. "Why did you lock the door?" "So that you don't run out before we finish the injection." "Why would I run out?" "As soon as the first drop goes into your system you'll know why. Sit down in this seat." "Okay." as he sat down Sorath and Jack clamped locks over his arms and legs.
"What the hell?" "We can't have you running around. You are weakest and most vulnerable to injury during the transformation process. You will also most likely pass out from the pain and regain consciousness a few times before the day is over." said Sorath as he picked the needle up from where he layed it. He then pressed the needle point to the crook of Zach's arm and pushed it in. He then pushed down the plunger, pulled the needle out, and covered his ears to block out the screams of pain.