Sapphire

Chapter 5

It was a wall of guns.

Big guns, little guns, all kinds of guns. Shay didn't know what any of them were. She just knew they could kill people.

"Do you wanna shoot one?" Noah was standing behind her as she stared fixated at the cage in the basement. She was glad it was locked so not just anybody could get one.

"No."

"Why not?" They had just finished training for the day and Noah seemed to be interested in teaching her something new. Shay didn't know why. She had only been learning to fight for a couple weeks now and was still struggling. 

"Cause I don't like them." Shay replied.

"Have you ever seen one before?"

"Yes." Shay's parents had a gun. Just one, but it always stayed in the drawer by the door of the trailer. Shay found it one day when she was snooping around, not long before they died. She wasn't sure why, but she didn't want to even come close to one. She'd been around enough death to last her lifetime.

"Want to come outside and watch me shoot it?" Noah offered. "It could be good to get rid of your fear."

Shay didn't say anything, uncertainty causing her to go mute.

"Please, I'd feel better if you knew how to shoot one. Someday, anyway." Noah pressed.

With a sigh, Shay nodded. The amount of trust she had in Noah was extreme for not knowing him for long, but each day she felt it growing. Val might have been a mother figure to her but Shay didn't relate to her as well. Val was awkward and didn't know how to show affection. Shay found more comfort in the nineteen year-old boy with no emotions than she did from Val.

Plus, she was having too much fun getting under Noah's skin.

Noah punched some numbers into the computer screen on the wall, unlocking the cage door. Stepping inside, he grabbed a rifle and some ammo before stepping back outside and locking it behind him. He then led Shay back upstairs where they exited the house from the living room and onto the porch.

Fifty feet from the house, there was a shooting range. Shay had seen it before on her walks but didn't know what it was until now. At one end, there was a hut set up with an opening cut into the wood that was big enough to fit a couch. The other end had a couple of stakes in the ground with a huge pile of dirt behind it. After Noah set up a target on one of the stakes, he took her into the hut.

"This gun I have is a Marlin bolt action .22." Noah explained as he started loading the clip. The bullets looked so small they wouldn't even be considered a choking hazard. Shay had seen pills that were bigger than those. "Bolt action means you have to manually put the bullet into the chamber by pulling this lever." After putting the ammo into the gun, he showed her how to get it ready to shoot. ".22 is the caliber of bullet, and .22 is very small. It's basically a step up from a BB gun."

"Can it kill someone?" Shay inquired.

"Yes. All guns are capable of killing."

Shay looked at him with pursed lips. He had propped the Marlin or whatever he called it onto the table, looking down the scope at the target fifty feet in front of him.

"Why does Valerie have so many guns?"

Noah didn't respond right away. He looked too interested in lining up with the target to pay any attention to her.

"She just likes to collect them." Noah stated. Somehow, she didn't believe him.

"That's bullshit and you know it."