Yeshua Kotson in "Enemies Of The People"

     "This isn't my first time using a gun," I told myself under my freezing breath. But it was my first time using anything other than 20 gauge or a .22, because those were the only rounds we could afford at the time. It was evident that this gun was made for mammals with larger paws than I. The trigger guard is big enough for me to fit my entire fist into and the trigger itself is about as long as my index finger. Someone had been kind enough to fit it with a shorter stock, although I'm not certain they didn't just take a hacksaw to it and screw the butt plate back on. I line up my shot, which proves difficult as they cut the barrel down and poorly reattached the front blade. Once I am confident in my aim I slowly squeeze the trigger until the gun barks and the barrel jumps, almost as if the barrel itself was spooked by the gun firing. The recoil wasnt even close to how bad I thought it would be. The bullet missed the center of the target by a good 3 inches to the left and about an inch too high. I tried again and got a similar result to the last time. The front blade definitely wasn't doing me any favors but I wasn't an amazing shot in the first place. I messed with the rear sight a little bit and tried again. It seemed to fix the deviation to the left, but it was still hitting high. I resigned to the fact I'd have to aim low and practiced that to good effect.
     At some point they switched out the circle targets for more people shaped targets. They had multiple differently sized and shaped targets that they swapped between at random. They had the usual tricks: Hostages, civilians, children holding sticks. Penalizing any time you hit an innocent until you could reliably shoot only the bad guys without a second's hesitation. That I would have the same behavior against an actual person was something I could not guarantee yet. They say that next week we will be shooting at each other with low-velocity wax rounds. Sounds like a more adult version of paintball. We are basically just going to double up on normal paintball armor and old riot helmets. They say it's to better prepare us for an actual combat situation. I think it sounds fun.

***

     They drove us out to some mining town that died after the mine dried up. It looks about the same as any ordinary town in Bearuskia but it's completely abandoned. Well, except for the military camp just outside the town. There was a fence, maybe fifteen feet tall, surrounding the small town. When we got to the camp they told us we were going to have two days to train with the guns we would be using and then we'd suit up and split into teams of four. The guns were our standard assault rifles but with some things changed. They changed the recoil spring for a lighter one so that the far less powerful wax rounds would cycle. They've got shortened versions for mammals that are too small to be effective with bear size. After a little time practicing I noticed that the sights were actually properly lined up on this rifle. The wax rounds were color coded to the corresponding team. The battles would take place between two teams at a time. The way it worked is if you got shot in the head once you were out and had to lay down, if you got shot in the torso three times you were out, and if you got shot in a limb then you had to not use that limb anymore.
     I was eating breakfast with the guys on my team when we got the call. There had been a riot at a maximum security prison that had escalated into a full scale takeover of the prison. The prisoners had already killed the wardens and most of the prison guards. Fortunately one of the guards had managed to enable the emergency lockdown which amounted to a half foot steel slab descending over all the exits. Despite that it was only a matter of time before the prisoners broke out. We were the closest to the prison so we stopped what we were doing and got geared up.
     I went and put on my jacket and hard plates. I grabbed my pack and hung my rifle from my shoulder by its strap. My sidearm was already in its place on my belt. I met my team outside and we hopped in the back of the transport truck. After everyone else had gotten on the truck we rode off to the prison. We were briefed on the situation while in the back of the truck by an officer who was put in charge.
   "You are to issue one warning and then shoot to kill, anyone remaining peacefully in their cell ought to have their name recorded so they could be rewarded for good behavior. The guards still alive have barricaded themselves in the armory but our first priority is to stop the riot."
     After about an hour of driving we could see the prison. There was dark smoke rising high into the sky and as we got closer we could hear the sounds of the riot inside. We all jumped off the truck and split into groups of five. It wasn't a very large prison, maybe a hundred or so inmates, but these were maximum security. There were twenty-five of us and my group was tasked with entering from the front, the others went around to the other doors.
     The first problem we had to deal with was the giant fuckoff steel slab that was sealing off the front door. Our demolitions guy, his name was some variation of Ivan, got some shaped charges from the back of one of the trucks. He had us place them at specific points on the door, after which he wired them all up and we took up positions behind a rock.
     "FIRE IN THE HOLE" Ivan shouted. There was a loud explosion and some yelling. We all stood up with rifles pointed at the massive hole in the door. Smoke was billowing out of the hole, it's source being a fire inside, as we watched for anyone moving. We put on our respirators, not enough to allow total safety from smoke inhalation but good enough and it had a full facemask, and our headlamps. After which we carefully approached the opening and peered inside. I could make out the shape of a bear lying on the floor, his body horribly contorted, and I felt a little sick. We stepped in and I checked the bear only to discover that most of his face was missing, he was in standard prisoner garb that had been burned off at some points. I stepped back from the bear and followed my group. The reception area was somewhat less smokey, but still dark as hell, there were a few piles of burning mattresses along with some... corpses. We had to almost scream over the sirens as we yelled to anyone in the room "Come out with your paws up! Surrender or we will shoot!." Certain that the main room was clear, I walked over to a closet and slowly opened the door. Empty. I left the door open and marked it with a glow stick. We weren't issued glow sticks but I like them so I brought my own. After checking a few other places in the room I set a glow stick in the middle and we moved on to a corridor.
     We were getting closer to the sounds of the riot and I could tell that everyone was getting nervous. As we rounded a corner I saw a reindeer with antlers resembling ram's horns. There was blood spattered on his jumpsuit but certainly not his own.
     "Put your hooves where I can see them asshole!" I shouted. He did as instructed and I slowly walked over and cuffed him. He had some keys with him, probably stolen from a guard. We moved him off to the side and continued until we reached a security gate. The door was mangled and hanging off its hinges. It was then that we heard the sounds of the other groups breaching into the prison, followed by gunfire and shouting. We reached the canteen where we could hear most of the rioting coming from. I tried the door but it was jammed shut with part of a table.
    That's when Ivan got another bright idea and put shaped charges across the door. We stepped back and took aim. "3! 2! 1!". The doors exploded inward, taking out a few inmates, exposing the main bulk of the group. They were all holding shotguns taken from the guards so we immediately opened fire on them. As I watched the inmates dropping after each few jets of flame I started to get a weird feeling. At first I thought I was feeling sick but then... after a few more inmates fell... it started to feel... good. These were the scum of this country and my comrades and I were cleansing the land of them. We stormed in and shot the few that weren't part of the main mass. I was the first one into the kitchen, shooting the lock and kicking the door open. I shot three more inmates before they could even raise their guns. My group walked in and helped clear the last few hiding in the freezer. Hiding like the worthless worms they were.
     After we left the canteen we walked to the main cellblock and cleared that. I started to feel different though. I shrugged it off and attributed the feeling to the smoke. We met up with the other four teams in the common room where we restrained all of the inmates there. I could see the fear in their eyes as I not-so-gently cuffed them. Most of them had witnessed their fellow piles of filth being shot. Having secured the prison we moved to the armory and shot the last inmates still trying to gain entry. After which point we radioed to the guards that we had solved the problem and shortly afterwards they unblocked the door and opened it.
     It was a mess in there. Lockers were on the floor after being removed from the door and most of the guards were covered in blood or wounded. We helped them walk out of the prison. Each team had left a guy at the door to make sure no one got out. When we reached the outside I saw that paramedics had arrived. We handed off the staff to the medics and took off our headgear. Upon looking down at myself I saw in the light that there was a considerable amount of blood on me. I suddenly felt an overwhelming need to puke and so I did right in front of everyone. Eventually I stood up and wiped the remaining puke from around my mouth with a rag given to me by one of the medics. It had taken us about two hours to fully retake the prison. We suffered no casualties on our side and killed seventy enemies of the people.
     We rode back to camp and after debriefing and changing clothes I went to our canteen and had lunch of dried meat mixed with nutrient rich paste. Didn't taste bad. After that I smoked two cigarettes and drank an eighth of a bottle of vodka to help me sleep. The next morning I discovered that all of the guys who were with me had recommended that I go and see the camp physiologist. I agreed with them.