Free Pet From Hell (Infected Series Book 1) by Justin Gowland Page A

Chris was in. Jay came over and sat opposite me and I could see that he wanted to ask me something but was finding it hard to voice his words.
    “What do you want to know?” I asked giving him the opening he needed.
    “What’s it like out there? We sort of lost communication early on and never seemed to get it back.” He said.
    “Well the last time I heard anything was that it had spread right across the country and that they had rumoured outbreaks in Europe and the U.S.”
    “How the hell did it get that far?” He asked shaking his head.
    “To be honest I don’t know, from what I saw it doesn’t show straight away and that sometimes it takes hours for someone to become one of them.” I said pointing toward the moans we could hear from the roof top.
    “It spread like wildfire through the Garrison, they didn’t seem to take very long before they came back as those things.”
    “Like I said, I don’t know how it happens, maybe if you get killed by them then you change quickly or if you have multiple bites. Like I said this is all guesswork.”
    He looked at his hands and then looked up and said “Do you know how to use a rifle?”
    “I did a six year stint with the R.A.O.C (Royal Army Ordnance Corp) a few years ago, but I was trained on the SLR and you lot use the SA80 now don’t you?”
    “Yeah, but it shouldn’t take much to get you up to speed with one. It’ll also help because we will have three shooters and it will make our security a lot easier.” He said with the first smile I had seen on his face since we first met.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Fifteen
     
    Standing up he walked over to the pile of gear that Chris was lying beside and picked up a rifle and carried it over to where I was sitting. Together we sat for the next few hours going over how to strip and clean the rifle. He then took me through how to use the optical sights. When I had trained on the SLR I had been trained how to use the iron sights and if you showed proficiency then you were shown how to use an optical sight. I had never been anything more than an average shot and therefore never used anything but iron sights. Just as I was practicing how to load the magazine Chris woke up and looked over at what we were doing. I half expected him to come steaming over and snatch the rifle from my hands but he just rolled on to his side and watched.
    “Jay you showing a civilian how to use our weapons?” Chris called out.
    “Fuck you Chris, this civilian used to be a blanket stacker but only knew SLRs.” He said smiling.
    “You were in the R.A.O.C?” Chris said pointing at me.
    “Yeah, did six years before buying myself out.” I replied.
    “Well I’ll be dipped in dog shit.” He said standing up laughing.
    He picked up another rifle and walked over to me and said “Come on let’s get you reacquainted with things that go bang.”
    I stood and followed him the edge of the roof. He lay down with the rifle pointed over the lip. I followed suit and managed to remember how to lie in the prone position, which he smiled at.
    “Right remember that this is going to be different than the range that you learned on. You are going to be shooting at moving targets and you have to hit the head. Like you said earlier body shots don’t do shit. The other thing you are going to have to think about is counting your rounds. The mags hold thirty rounds and you can go through them quicker than you think. Before we get down to actually firing I want you to show me how to load and unload the rifle. The last thing you will want to happen is you dropping a mag or getting it jammed.”
    For the next half hour I practiced loading and unloading the rifle, till Chris was happy with my reloading.
    “Ok that’s enough, I think you have got that sorted. Let’s try some shooting out, see if you can remember what you were taught in basic training.” Chris said.
    I lifted the optical scope to my eye and aimed at a large man bashing