Now things had gone from bad to worse to some category Omar wasn't quite sure where to put it. Other than some Spanish words that were very very impolite that he wasn't inclined to use in front of such young kids.
So: one typical California-child with blond hair and blue eyes. Weird that he had whisker-marks on his face but - California. Loud and complained a lot. Nothing special there.
Pink-haired girl but nowadays you saw a lot worse. Professional dye job though, so rich family? Seemed the academic type. Probably honor student.
Black-haired boy, had a sort-of Eurasian look. Seemed to brood a lot, not talk much. Might be in shock or saw his family go zombie. That'd sure scar a kid that young.
He'd at first thought the Asian-looking girl was Korean-American and blind from the way her eyes looked. Not contacts though and not blind. Really good eyesight in fact. One of the shy types maybe. Tended to let others do the talking. When she did have something to say, she tended to stutter and act all self-conscious.
They called themselves ninja. Whatever got them through a zombie apocalypse though was probably good. Worry about correcting them later. May have to show them some ninja movies so they'd at least dress the part.
"Loud noises and light attract them. So we'll avoid those. I know you guys have those little knife-things. The blood and saliva are main ways to get the virus, so we don't want to use little knives." Omar held up the device and noticed not one of them seemed to know what it was. "I saw where National Guard had a truck out and they got overrun. IF they had used their guns they wouldn't have gotten overrun nearly so easy. Do any of you know what this is?"
"A gun?" asked the blond kid.
"Come on. NONE of you have seen any action movies?" Omar asked. Sure, some families were pretty rabid anti-gun types but these were twelve year old kids!
"Uhm, no, we haven't," said Sasuke. "What is it?"
Omar shook his head. "Okay. We're going to have to go over what I managed to loot from that truck. One item at a time. I have LOUSY aim. You need a steady arm and be able not to flinch. My hands aren't as steady as they used to be and I tend to flinch. You do not want to be anywhere near a target if I have to shoot something. I got the basics. Who has the steadiest aim?"
The Eurasian boy stepped forward. "If that's a weapon, let me try."
"Okay. THIS is a gun. I looked it up. This is what is called an 'M4 Carbine' and don't ask me what 'carbine' means. Internet is down and I can't look up details. What I do know is that this is the selector here. You can fire a burst of three shots or one at a time. This is a really important switch. It is called a 'safety' - you do NOT flick this switch until you are damn sure the gun is not pointed at something you don't want broken."
"A kunai is simpler," said Sasuke.
"Wait till I'm done, try it, then tell me about your throwing knives," instructed Omar.
He went over each detail, how to eject and load the magazine, but allowed there were a lot of details he did NOT know about the gun. Prior to this, he hadn't really thought about the subject that much. Now, of course, it was a survival skill.
Sasuke was contemptuous of the device up until he sighted the target and followed the directions. Then put a hole in the target. Then put a burst into the target.
"Damn. You do have good aim," muttered Omar.
"That can was metal and the shot penetrated it," noted Sasuke. "What happens to a human body that gets hit?"
"They tend to fall down and stay down," explained Omar. "As long as you hit something vital. If I can find a manual for the thing you can read that."
"I want to try it!" declared the California kid.
"Okay, let's each of you try," said Omar. "One shot, one burst. Don't have too much ammo so no more than that."
"Never ever again," said Sakura.
"I heard you the first time," complained Naruto.
"NEVER," restated Sakura.
"I can't believe he shot the jeep. It was way over THERE," said Omar, still twitching. "It wasn't even CLOSE to the target."
"It's not my fault!" declared Naruto. "The gun thing twitched!"
"I agree with 'Sakura' there," said Omar. "You don't get the gun. Any gun. Unless we manage to take control of a gun shop with a shooting range and we get your control down."
"But-"
"You're not even getting a water pistol at this rate."
"But-"
"NO!"
"Where?" asked Sasuke.
"Asleep, his room, locked," said Hinata.
"Hn," indicated Sasuke. "So. Do we go along?"
Sakura let out a deep breath. "We might as well. I don't think anyplace on this world is really safe. This guy has a plan that gets equipment and supplies. Both of which we need if we're stuck here for awhile."
"I don't want to just leave the guy, he doesn't seem like a bad sort but this is kinda a BAD situation," understated Naruto.
"We could strike out on our own," said Sasuke. He paused then continued. "But I agree. This plan seems largely reasonable. He views us like we were civilian children but he also isn't insisting we stay somewhere safe. He's made the offer to try and keep us out of combat but he's also reasonable enough to realize he can't do everything himself."
"And he's nearly a bad a shot as Naruto," said Sakura.
"That too, but he's a lot better at fixing machines than any of us," said Sasuke. "A useful skill in this environment."
"So - an assault on this distribution center," said Sakura.
"I can use shadow clones to scout," said Naruto, forming three copies of himself. "They're solid so they can open doors and stuff, and if they get bit they'll just go poof - no zombie clones to worry about."
Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata all began to smile at the concept.
"My range with the Byakugan isn't very good, but I think I could see the zombies as well," said Hinata. "Though it's strange..."
"What's strange?" asked Sakura.
"He doesn't have chakra," said Hinata, pointing in the direction of their host. "He has physical energy and some spiritual energy but they're very low. They don't mix to form chakra though."
"Civilian, though you'd think he'd at least have low levels of chakra," mused Sakura.
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(Posted Sat, 02 May 2015 17:50)
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