Shooting Lessons

Posted on Thu Apr 11th, 2019 @ 3:50am by Civillian Ravi Azad PhD & Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus

Mission: Interlude 1
Location: Jeremy's Room and a Shooting Range

After the group had returned from the “planet of wolves” as Ravi thought of it (he couldn’t remember its proper name) he decided it was time to learn how to shoot a gun. He had felt useless while wolves attacked his friends and he felt that if he could at least handle a gun, he could have at least been a last line of defense.

And so, it was time to learn. Guns weren’t really that scary. As long as you didn’t point it at anything you didn’t want to kill, everything would be fine. Right? Right.

At least he hoped so.

And who was the best person to help? Obviously, it was Jeremy. Therefore, Ravi found himself knocking on Jeremy’s door a few days after they had returned.

"Hold on!" Jeremy called as he made his way across the room from the desk to the door. He left the crutches where they were, thinking the distance wasn't that bad and he still had to do his physical therapy for the day anyway. Finally, dressed in little more than PT gear (at least now he had sweats thanks to their ski trip), he made it to the door and opened it, unsure who it was at the door. If it were Major, he wasn't sure the knock would have been answered by polite waiting. "RAVI!" he said, brightening as he saw his friend at the door. He limped to the side, opening the door wide in the universal 'come on in' gesture.

"You should probably use those crutches, you know," Ravi pointed out with a grin and a nod to the crutches. "How are you feeling?"

"Just a moment," Jeremy said as he grabbed the remote off the only slightly crumpled, but otherwise expertly made bed. The only oddity from military precision was the large lump toward the middle for the propping up of a leg. He turned off the television then gingerly sat back on the bed, leaving the desk chair for his guest. "Doing miserable, you? How's your hand, any problems with it? Did it get infected? I'm sorry, too many questions, I know, but I haven't seen you since we got back and nobody at the hospital would tell me anything."

"It's okay," replied Ravi, taking a seat. "You're not going to believe this, but by the time we got back, there was a neat scab on it. And now look!" he added, holding up his hand to show that most of the scab had sloughed off and left an angry red scar in its place. "Whatever I scratched it on must have had healing properties. No infection or anything. Hopefully, we can get back there and find out what it was. I think I must have awoken and wandered off in a half daze for a few minutes, then collapsed again, so it's not as if I can retrace my steps. Oh, well, perhaps it's not for us to have." He sighed. "Do you need anything? Can I help somehow?" he asked suddenly.

"A time machine, just for about a week?" Jeremy said as he tried to settle his leg over the lump in the middle, letting it contour to his bent knee. "Otherwise, I'm good. I've got a pile of work to do, reports to finish and something about an OSI investigation but, things seem to be going well. And as for you, Mister Dad, I'm told I'm supposed to go short stretches without using the crutches for physical therapy. So there." He settled the pillow behind his back. "Unless you're finally going to go shopping for some decent clothes? I'm realizing that I can't keep trying to set my one extra set of clothes out for laundry every night."

"Tell you what," replied Ravi with a grin. "I'll go shopping with you if you teach me how to shoot."

"You want to learn to shoot?" Jeremy asked, moving his leg so he could sit up straighter and face Ravi. "Did something happen? Why do you want to learn to shoot?"

"You know, just in case," replied Ravi. "What if the wolves had taken out all of the military types? That would have left everyone else completely vulnerable. Or else we'd have had to try to figure guns out on our own."

"First, we are the best, Ravi. Nothing gets past us. Nothing at all. You'll never have to worry about that, you'll be dead long before we are." But, he folded his arms. "I could teach you, that's not a problem. Part of my job really, but are the higher ups going to allow you to go armed?"

"I do not have to actually go in armed," Ravie explained. "Just as long as I know how to work guns and accurately point and shoot things. That way, we are prepared for the impossibility that you lot all get taken out."

"Well, since you want to prepare for the impossibility, that's actually a good idea. It's always good to prepare for the possibility." He smiled as he shook his head. "Tell ya what, there's some bookwork that has to be done first. Firearm care, maintenance. Safety. And I'd like to go to town and get something to wear that's not mistaken for pajamas whenever I leave my quarters, and it seems odd to be in uniform with only one boot. You can drive, right?"

"Absolutely," agreed Ravi. "Are you sure you're up to wandering around a mall already?"

"A mall?" Jeremy asked, wrinkling his face. "I've never liked malls. We've got a huge one back home and it's just...way to overpriced. Plus, I don't make enough to just splurge on epipens. A department store like Walmart or Target, maybe JC Penny or something like that?" He didn't realize he was close to begging. "Plus, I just want to get away from here. Away from all this for a little bit. I'll even spring for dinner, at a reasonably priced place."

"That might be a better idea, anyway," replied Ravi. "Walmart or Target, I mean. Less walking. Well, come on, let's go," he added, standing. "We can take my car."

"Ah, yes! Thank you!" Jeremy said, scooting to get off the bed. "Give me just a few minutes to get some stuff together. I'll access the shared drive to get the safety lessons and...you can listen and drive at the same time, right? I mean...I've seen movies and smart guys are usually all neurotic and anxious when driving. Is that you?"

"I can listen and drive at the same time," Ravi assured his friend. "I have been driving for over 20 years now. I have not been nervous since the first time I drove to work."

"Yes!" Jeremy said, as he grabbed his tablet and looked through the shared drive for the appropriate lessons. It took about five minutes to find them and then download them to his tablet. Then, all that was left was to grab his wallet, his phone and put on the one shoe and walking boot. "I really appreciate this man," he said as he limped to the door, doing the 'last pat down before he left' dance, just to make sure he had everything. Which he didn't. He went back to the desk and grabbed his sunglasses, just in case it was bright and sunny out. With all this snow, it would be even brighter. "Okay, I'm ready, you ready?" Jeremy said, limping back to the door and opening it. He again checked to make sure he had his keys.

With a sigh and a shake of his head, Ravi crossed the room in three strides and retrieved the crutches. "You are not going to want to hobble around for much more than ten minutes without these," he pointed out.

Jeremy sighed as he took the crutches and mumbled a perfectly perfunctory "thank you", just as his parents instilled in him that you showed politeness and manners when someone did something nice for you. But Ravi was correct, it didn't take the full ten minutes, but by then he was already wishing he could take some more painkiller, but they were being tightly controlled, being narcotics, and he wasn't due another for a few hours.

Shopping went quick, not nearly as long as it took to get to the car, drive to a store (Ravi chose a target rather than Walmart, which was okay). Jeremy bought several pair of pants, shirts, undershirts, socks, underwear and stocked up on jerky. It was a pricey trip, but his pay was going into a checking account and he didn't have a lot of call to spend it in the Mid-East. He also bought necessary toiletries, just to make sure he had them. And new shower shoes, and slides to wear when he was just going around the base. He tried to buy something for Ravi, as a thank you, but got flatly refused, which annoyed him, but he determined he'd pick up the tab at lunch.

[Firing Range, Cheyenne Mountain]

"Okay, there's two schools of thought regarding shooting stances, isoceles and weaver," Jeremy said, then proceeded to demonstrate both, which was primarily in foot placement. "What's more important will be grip control and arms locked out. That's going to help absorb the recoil and keep you on target." He again demonstrated, using his preferred isosceles method of feet shoulder width and perpendicular, arms punched straight out and locked. "Okay, ready to give that a try?"

"Ac-actually shooting?" Ravi stammered. Yes, he felt that he needed to learn how to shoot, but that didn't make him less nervous. "Or, or just standing properly?"

"Well, yes to both actually," Jeremy said, leaning on the shooting bench to take weight off his leg. "But one step at a time, learning how to stand, hold the weapon and breathing. Breathing is very important. And eventually, you'll actually have to pretend those cartoon people on those targets down there said some unkind words about your mother and thus they deserve to be filled with new ventilation."

Ravi grinned. "Okay," he said, almost as if stealing himself. He carefully planted his feet shoulder width apart and lifted the gun to point at the silhouette of a human being. It felt wrong, somehow, but decided that if he just pretended the silhouette was an alien about to eat his sister's facce, perhaps he could stomach it. "How does this look?" he asked.

"Pretty good, pretty good," Jeremy said, as he moved over. "But plant your feet, concentrate on digging in with your heels so that when you lean forward, your weight is centered on the whole foot. Then really punch those arms out, locking the elbow." He manipulated Ravi's arms to show what he wanted. "You don't know it yet, but you'll actually be much stronger in this position, even though it feels really weird."

Ravi immediately straightened his elbows and concentrated on his heels. "Better?" he asked.

"Much, you're doing great." Jeremy said, shifting his weight. "Now, I want you to just slowly squeeze the trigger. We don't care about hitting the target anywhere but the target. Okay? Just take in a deep breath, hold it, then as you slowly release, squeeze the trigger."

"Okay," said Ravi, taking a deep breath. He aimed carefully at the target and slowly let out the breath as he squeezed the trigger. The shot made him jump, but after a few seconds glancing around, he realized that both he and Jeremy were whole and he as able to breath a sigh of relief. "Did I hit it?" he asked, spinning back to check the target.

"WHOA! Stop action!" Jeremy shouted, grabbing Ravi and settling him. He took the gun out of his hands and set it on the shelf before them. "NEVER, never, ever, wave a gun around like that! You've just muzzled half the range and, well, that's a lot of pissed off airmen. When you're done shooting, you put it safely down on the shelf or you holster it. Got it?"

"Sorry!" said Ravi quickly. "Sorry! I panicked. I wanted to make sure I didn't hit a person or break something or... something."

"Okay," Jeremy said, actually sounding a bit embarassed for yelling at the older man. "I mean, you're doing good, you really are, it's just we need to have safety as paramount. Without it, someone could get hurt by some stupid accident. And being hurt in a stupid manner is my job." He hit the button to pull the target toward them. When it arrived, there was a hole high and to the left. "Okay, a few techniques to fine tune, but that's what practice is for, right?"

"Yes," replied Ravi, still a bit wide-eyed at the whole experience. "Yes, practice." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm his nerves. "At least I hit the board, anyway."

"And learned that a gun only hits what it's pointed at and when the trigger is pulled. It doesn't jump and shoot itself. It gets sent to bed without supper if it tries that crap, and guns really, really like their supper." He smiled as he joked. "Okay, this time I want you to use your shooting stance, shot twice to the center mass and then once toward the head. Take your time, use your breathing and slow trigger pulls, recenter on the target after every shot, okay?"

“Yes,” agreed Ravi. This time it wasn’t so frightening. He still jumped a bit with each shot- almost wincing involuntarily- But at least he wasn’t worried he was going to shoot himself this time.

"Better, better," Jeremy said taking a look at the target. "It's going to take a lot of rounds downrange to get good. But you're going to make some good progress. Want to move on to a rifle?"

"I think so," Ravi replied. "Just to get an idea of how it feels."

"Okay, just a moment," Jeremy said as he hobbled over to the range desk to sign out two carbines. Because he was going to be carrying two rifles, he left his crutches at the shooting bench with Ravi. It didn't take very long before he was back, carrying the two rifles, an extra magazine for each and several boxes of ammo.

"The recoil will feel less because the cartridges are smaller and produce less explosive force. Don't be fooled, though, these travel at high velocity and can do a lot of damage." He set on of the rifles on the bench. "The stance is about the same, only you're going to really socket the butt of the rifle into the hollow of your shoulder." He demonstrated, wrapping the sling around his left arm while pulling the rifle deep against his shoulder, bracing the front with his left hand. "You still want to concentrate on the front sights." He continued to demonstrate with an empty rifle, then told Ravi to give it a go.

Now feeling more confident, Ravi did exactly as Jeremy had showed him. He took a moment to get the feel for the rifle, shifting his feet slightly, moving his hand a quarter inch forward or back, settling the butt a bit lower and shaking his head before replacing it higher. He looked down the sights as instructed. "This is actually more comfortable," he said, still sighting at the target.

Jeremy nodded. "Many people find rifles easier and more accurate."

“It’s just... it feels like another arm, you know?” Ravi said.

"I've never thought of it like that," Jeremy said, "at least not that I recall. Dad started teaching us about firearms as soon as we were able to safely hold it up, starting with pellet guns then moving up to BB guns, twenty-twos and so on. But the fundamentals are going to be the same as the pistol, good form, good breath control. Place the front sight where you want it and then, for now, slowly pull the trigger. Right now, we just want to work on getting used to the motions and feel of firing the weapons, while reinforcing safety. We'll work on accuracy and speed later."

Ravi did as instructed, taking his time and firing a couple shots at the target. The rifle felt almost natural to him. He could already tell he'd have to work with the handgun more to make sure he was comfortable with it. "This is much easier," he commented.

"Yes," Jeremy said, as he continued to provide instruction. He was a bit envious, he wanted to shoot some rounds as well, but he was on narcotic pain medication and that was just a bad combination. But, by the time they got through the rounds Jeremy originally brought over, Ravi seemed to be improving. Some more time practicing and he could be to the point where he doesn't get one of his teammates killed.

"Well, I suppose that is enough for today," Ravi said a bit regretfully. He didn't want to force his friend to stand too much longer. He carefully set the rifle down before turning to his friend. "Thank you, Jeremy," he said. "For being patient with me. I appreciate it."

"No problem," Jeremy said, "training is actually part of my job and I'm not NCO enough to be a jerk about it yet. Plus," he shrugged, "it's nice to have someone on the team that I can actually talk to and doesn't make me feel like a complete waste of oxygen."

"I do not think anybody thinks that," Ravi assured him. "If anything, after those wolves or whatever they were attacked, I'm pretty sure you're considered the most valuable members of the team."

"No," Jeremy said, collecting the weapons and detritus of their shooting lesson. "I'm actually considered even worse than before. A bigger screwup. You're lucky, y'know? You're a smart guy and get to do smart guy stuff. People can see that. They can go, wow, he really knows about smart guy stuff. I'm just a grunt that got some really good training."

"And we would all likely be dead without you," Ravi pointed out. "I guess everyone else just does not appreciate still breathing today."

"Nah, you're forgetting about O'Connor and Captain Hawk and Major Asher. They would have made sure you all got through safely." He had all their gear and was ready to return it. "Would you grab those for me?" he asked, referring to the crutches. "We can set up another time in a couple days to come back down if you'd like? We can get here sooner since, y'know, I have clothes now."

Ravi grinned as he grabbed the crutches. He felt his friend though too little of himself, but arguing wasn't going to help. "Yes, it is good to wear clothing in public," he said. "I am fairly certain you can get arrested for not wearing clothes."

"I'd make sure of it," the rangemaster said from behind the counter. "Though, I'm betting I know a few guys that wouldn't be so unhappy about it. If you guys weren't together anymore, that is."

"Oh, we're just friends," replied Ravi with a good-natured laugh. It wasn't the first time he'd been mistaken for gay. At least this time, it wasn't by another man hitting on him and refusing to take no for an answer. "He's totally available."

"Who's available?" Jeremy asked, making sure that he had everything back on the counter. "Anybody I know?"

“A lot of people,” replied Ravi with a laugh.

"Oh, anybody good? I get the feeling O'Connor is looking for a good guy to hang out with," Jeremy replied as he leaned on his crutches. "But it has to be somebody decent who'll treat her right." The last was pretty much a growl. After all, he had to practice for when his sister was older and could start dating.

“Never mind,” Ravi chuckled. “Let’s go.”