Chapter 7 is here y’all! For my regular readers, I want to explain something about this chapter. I’m switching up my voice just a touch. No, my accent is still all Kentucky (Love living in Kentucky!). But I’m going to switch it up from a first-person point of view to a third person narrative. That’s for two reasons. The first is that this chapter is going to be pretty heavy on the “Tina’s daydream/fantasy” side of things. I’m thinking third person might make more sense for those kinds of stories. But also, I’m embarking on some PURE fiction writing projects, so I wanted to shake some of the dust off of my third person story-telling muscles.
OK, all that out of the way, we’re starting off with a 99% real telling of a “not too extraordinary” day at the range from not too long ago. I honestly don’t remember exactly when because it wasn’t all that big a deal. Let’s say it was 2019, give or take.
Hang on, I might not have mentioned this before, but I’m something of a firearms expert. No, seriously. I teach firearms and defensive tactics classes at a number of peace officer academies in Kentucky and Ohio. But I just do that for free range (firearms range) privileges and for free ammo. Shooting is an expensive past time, people! How’d I get into guns? First, I’m not “into guns.” I’m into self-defense. And when you’re a 5’3”, 120-pound female, if you’re into self-defense, your options are guns or bodyguards. Second, I raised on a farm in Kentucky. Learning to handle firearms safely wasn’t optional. Now, how’d I go from basic Kentucky-girl firearms familiarity to teaching hard cases how to quick throwing rounds all over the place? That’s not part of THIS journey. You might need to hit me up in chat if you’re interested in that…
And now for the third person narrated 99% real story of Tina at the range sometime around 2019 (give or take)…..
Tina looked left and right to verify she was alone. She always arranged to train before the range opened. Not only did she need all 10 firing lines to complete her courses of fire, but she was also tired of the other patrons complaining that she was exempted from some of the rules that applied to everyone else. The main on being a prohibition on “fast draws.” If Tina needed to draw, it was going to be fast. The only time someone wouldn’t be drawing fast is if it was premeditated. And Tina didn’t dislike anyone THAT much, at least not anyone with a pulse.
Satisfied that the range was safe, she stepped up from the 30-yard line to the 15. Tina reached up and touched both the noise cancelling headphones and the clear protective goggles she was wearing. You always touch them. You never take safety for granted. Tina kept her eyes downrange where the “threat” would be. While she waited for the threat to present itself, she reached her right hand inside her long brown leather jacked and lightly touched the hilt of her 9mm Glock 27 semi automatic pistol. It was secured on hip but slightly around the back and angled just a bit so that it wasn’t perpendicular to the deck. Female shooters had to position their holsters this way for a smooth draw due to having hips.
Tina blinked. She took stock of her breathing. Felt normal. Her pulse was only slightly higher than a resting pulse. She allowed her arms to hang, relaxed, at her side as though she were standing, socializing, at a party, or a bar, or at a park, or anywhere….
The 10 targets at the front of the range suddenly sprung up. Each target was a large carboard “backer” covered with a paper silhouette of a “blocky” looking human with shrining concentric circles of different shades of blue, starting with the center mass of the body and working their way out to the extremities. Tina wished the Point-Blank Range would offer targets with actual images of human threats. Shooting at “block people” was like shooting at a video game. A person might be inclined to hesitate when confronted by a person if they only train with silhouettes. Anyway, as quickly as Tina’s brain received the input from her eyes that the targets had presented themselves, her muscle memory took over…
Tina side stepped to the left and forward and continued walking rapidly, heel to toe, toward an overturned large plastic rain barrel. At the same time, Tina’s right hand dipped inside her open jacket, slid down the zipper, flipped it up and back uncovering the previously concealed Glock and wrapped her fingers around the handle of her weapon. Her thumb hit the retention button allowing her to smoothly extract the pistol. As she continued walking, she drew the pistol straight up out of the holster, almost dragging it up her rib cage in an efficient draw stroke. Just as the muzzle cleared the holster completely, she began rotating the barrel down range toward the threats. Still with just her strong hand, and till moving toward the cover of the rain barrel, Tina squeezed the trigger twice sending two rounds center through the center ring of the closest target, immediately in front of her. Tina brought the weapon over to the center of her body where her support hand met it and assisted her grip. As Tina pushed the weapon out away from her chest, she let off two more rounds at the target to her left. Both rounds found center mass. Arms now fully extended, Tina was in a preferred firing stance. She closed the final few steps toward the cover of the rain barrel and let off two more rounds, center mass, and two head shots on the target to the right of her position. Tina crouched down behind the barrel which represented a bullet resistant wall for this training scenario.
Tina kept her eyes up and alert in case a threat came into view around her cover. She knew that wouldn’t happen because her threats were paper targets, but to play the way you practice. Taking advantage of her relative safety, Tina pulled a fresh magazine from the back of her 2-magazine pouch on her left side. Tina hit the magazine release with her index finger and the half-spent magazine slid out of the handle and into her support hand. While catching that magazine, Tina also slid the fresh magazine up in the handle. Tina held the weapon up eye level as she performed the magazine exchange so she could see what she was doing without taking her eyes away from the potential threats. Tina tapped the underside of the magazine that was seated in her weapon to make sure it had slid all the way and was locked in position. It was. Then she put the old, half-used magazine in the back of her magazine pouch. “Always put the partially loaded magazines in the back, fresh ones in the front,” Tina said to herself, just as she does every single time she performs a combat magazine exchange.
Tina raised up just enough to quickly peak over the barrel and see her threats. Had the threats been real people instead of paper target, they’d now have their sights trained where her head had briefly become visible. Tina sprang up from the side of the barrel instead, walking heel to toe, controlled but quickly, forward and toward another set of overturned rain barrels, laying down suppression fire, taking out two more paper targets with center mass hits on her way….
As Tina was finishing this course of fire, a small group of mean in a pickup truck and an SUV arrived. Unbeknownst to Tina, they were turned away by the employee at the office. They were not especially pleased to find out that they had arrived before the range opened and that this female was using all of the firing lines, and that they’d have to wait. They went back to their vehicles and waited and plotted.
(OK readers, sorry for all of the technical gun jargon. I hope it wasn’t too hard to slog through. Anyway, the 99% real part of this chapter is finished, and we’re moving into the daydream part. FYI, this is not the kind of daydream I’d WANT to actually happen. Like, when you daydream about winning the lottery. You WANT that to be real. But when your mind wanders to what would happen if you lost control of your car and you plunged into the river and how you’d get out while it was filling up with water…. it’s more like one of those. Wait, you’re saying you don’t have daydreams like that…err. That’s embarrassing for me….)
The four rednecks had managed to get the upper hand on Tina, but at least one of them was headed to the Emergency Room. And it was still early.
Tina’s mistake was pulling over on her way home to give Jimmy a ride. Tina and Jimmy went to GRC High School together. Tina didn’t REALLY know Jimmy. He was a class behind, but he took advanced classes and was in some of Tina’s classes her senior year, which was Jimmy’s Junior year. Jimmy was smart and quiet and as far as Tina knew, never got into any trouble. And most boys who stuck around Paris, Kentucky for very long after high school found all kinds of trouble. It was for the reason that when she saw him walking on the side of the road carrying a gas can that Tina pulled over. Tina and Jimmy chit chatted a bit. Jimmy actually had a good sense of humor. Tina wished she’d known that 7 years ago when she was a bored high school student. Maybe they’d have hung out.
They had to stop at a railroad crossing to let a train pass. Everywhere you go in central Kentucky, you’ll encounter train tracks. Jimmy was telling an especially detailed and engaging story when Tina sensed something was off.
“Shhhh. Hang on Jimmy.” The train made it hard to hear each other, much less anything outside of the vehicle. Tina hit the power locks. Most cars automatically lock when you start them, but Tina liked to drive older cars. That particular safety feature wasn’t standard on her vehicle. Tina had listened to her instincts just in time. Two of the four men from the range burst from the bushes on either side of the road.
“Oh shit!” shouted Jimmy. “That’s Able and Mo. Fuck. They’re after me.” Tina went to shift into reverse but as she looked up in the rear view, she saw the truck from the range barreling full tilt behind them. The truck screeched to a stop, sliding into Tina’s rear bumper. Tina slammed the gas, spinning her wheels but she was already wedged behind the much larger truck. Able and Mo were trying the handles and pounding the glass.
“What did you do, Jimmy?” Tina accused. Tina shifted in her seat so that her weight was on her left hip and her body pivoted 45 degrees to toward her door. Tina grabbed the “Oh shit” handle over her door for balance with her left hand and wrapped her right hand around the handle of her Glock. But as she went to draw, Jimmy grabbed her by the wrist. Tina tugged but Jimmy had a firm grip on her. She glared at him with surprise at first, which was quickly replaced by anger.
“I’m sorry Tina.” Jimmy really did look sorry. “I’m sorry too Jimmy,” Tina thought. Tina pushed off the floorboards with her left leg and launched into Jimmy’s body, lowering her forehead squarely into the bridge of Jimmy’s nose. Jimmy cried out from the pain and recoiled against his door. His grip on Tina’s hand had loosened but he hadn’t let go. Jimmy hit the lock released on his side of the car with his right hand. Tina was leaning into Jimmy sprawled across the center console. Blood started streaming down Jimmy’s face from both nostrils. He grabbed his nose with is right hand, but he still held Tina’s wrist with his left. “OK,” Tina thought, “address the threats.”
Able pulled Tina’s now unlocked door open. At the same time, Mo opened the rear passenger door behind Jimmy. Already up on her side, Tina drew her left leg into her core. As Able started into the car, Tina launched a hard straight kick into Able’s throat. Able dropped like a broken folding table outside of the car. Mo slid behind Tina. He reached up over the seat and wrapped her arm around Tina’s throat. Tina knew by committing to addressing the first threat she was leaving an opening for Mo. Tina tucked her chin down hard to keep Mo from being able to get her into a choke hold. Her defense worked but Mo still leaned back and pulled Tina firmly against her seatback.
Tina pulled her door closed and hit the door locks again. No need to let Able re-engage. Jimmy’s broken nose had finally transmitted its pain message all the way to Jimmy’s brain, and Jimmy’s grip on Tina’s right hand released. Unfortunately, Mo had Tina pulled back hard into the seat and she wouldn’t be able to draw. Tina swung her right hand around and found Mo’s ear.
“Don’t you scratch me you bitch!” Mo grunted. Tina wasn’t going to scratch him. Just under the earlobe is a soft spot called the Mandibular Angle where the tendons attach the jaw to the base of the skull. It’s one of the four more painful pressure points on the body. (Try it on yourself. It’s breathtaking.) Tina’s thumb dug deeply into the nerve-rich tissue eliciting a high-pitched wail from Mo. “Mo has a low pain tolerance,” Tina filed that information away for later. Mo released Tina’s throat and used both hand to push Tina’s hand away from his face.
Tina grabbed the seat release lever on her left side and pulled it all the way out and recline her seat back hard into Mo, sending him back into his own seat. Tina grabbed the 4-inch fixed bladed hunting knife from its scabbard in her visor with her right hand and she spun in her seat, so she was facing backward at the semi-prone Mo. Able has back up and trying to pull open the driver’s door. “He’s the next threat,” Tina thought. Tina plunged all four inches of the blade into Mo’s thigh. His screech was much louder but less high pitched than before. Tina left the knife in Mo’s leg, knowing if she pulled it out, he’d bleed out in minutes. Not that she’d mind him bleeding out. She just didn’t want to start the clock yet.
“Click, click.” Those were the locks. “Jimmy…”
Tina’s right hand made another try for her pistol but the surprise attack from a still dazed Jimmy was enough to prevent her from reaching her weapon. Able jerked open the driver’s door. Tina was prone on her reclined seat facing backward with Jimmy half climbed onto her back. Tina had no room to maneuver and no leverage.
“Get her hands Jimmy,” Able shouted, now himself halfway in the car. Tina flexed her arms but knew she wasn’t going to win. Jimmy and able pulled her arms one by one behind her back and zip tied her wrists. Soon, she was pulled out of the car onto the ground. Able sat on top of her. Bound and outweighed by a lot, Tina didn’t have options. Ben, the driver of the truck, was now also on the scene. Tina didn’t know why she’d been targeted and especially why Jimmy was part of this. She was down, but this was far from over….
To be continued….