AZ Mystery - chapter 4
Date: 2/25/2024,
Categories:
Science-Fiction ,
Alien,
Author: Limnophile
... reinforcement. A third of a kilo should do it.” I used a half, just in case. Corporal Rogers would have used all ten kilos, “just in case”, which is why we didn’t let him near the explosives anymore.
I pushed the button, covered my ears, and five seconds later, indeed there was a loud ‘boom’. I was a little surprised there was a three-meter hole in the wall, instead of it falling down, but one meter would have been enough.
The other three led me to the old lady, who had injured her legs. She sat on a log by the fire. She offered, “We have some food if you’re hungry. Carrots, coconut, avocados.”
I passed her one of my four bags of candy, and the little girl’s eyes lit up as she smiled.
“There’s a lot of food and some clothes back where I was. Weapons too. Are any of you firearms qualified?”
The tall Hispanic man, Pedro said, “I’m a park ranger, and I was in the national guard a few years.”
“Park Ranger and Army Ranger. Nice.” I passed him my pistol.
The old lady Anna looked at my belt and said, “I’m a good cook. If I can cut meat well, I can cut other things, if we really need. That’s a nice knife.” I took the sheath off my belt and handed it to her, and she tossed aside a twisted piece of metal.
I looked at the old guy, Sam. He was shaking his head slightly, and said, “No. Just no, not me. Violence isn’t the way to solve things.”
I asked him, “Have you tried talking to a terrorist fanatic, or talked a lion out of biting? If you want, I have other ...
... weapons back there.”
He kept shaking his head. “No, I … I don’t even know how.”
“Okay. Let’s go get some clothes for these two, and bring some of the food over here.”
We walked back to the pile of gear. When he saw it, Pedro immediately smiled and said, “An M107! 50 cal! Nice! I never got to shoot one of those! I’m pretty good with a rifle. Mind if I take it?”
“Go ahead! I’d rather use something with more than ten rounds, that doesn’t weigh half what I do.”
He laughed and picked it up easily, then cleared and loaded it. I thought the other three might not be much help, but Pedro would be good backup. I also liked his muscular arms. He was kind of handsome. I was glad and disappointed at the same time, when he put on one of the spare uniforms.
I picked up a pistol and offered it to Sam. “If you take it with you, you can decide not to use it. But if you leave it here and change your mind later…”
He reluctantly took it from me and looked down the barrel. He had no idea what he was doing. I grabbed it away from him when his finger touched the trigger. “NO! NO! Never point it at anything unless you want to kill it! Keep away from the trigger unless you’re ready to shoot. The safety is here …” I gave him a basic lesson, until I was halfway confident he wouldn’t shoot one of us by accident.
As the sun was starting to go down, we had moved everything useful to their camp. We set up a couple of tents, but there was no wind or weather, and the temperature didn’t ...