EPISODE FOUR-
GUN SAFETY

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2021

"Who are you texting?" Josette jumped at the sound of Lucia's voice. She had sorta forgotten that she let her stay the night. "I'm not texting anyone...I was trying to call Taissa or Shauna but none of them are answering. I was gonna tell them you're back in town. That you and me both got a letter. But they don't pick up the phone anymore. "

Josette was pissed off. She didn't want to believe any of them sent out the post cards. But someone said something to make this happen."I mean, can you blame them? You left us all after we got rescued. You were in town for a little bit. But everytime I tried to visit you or anyone did your parents turned us away. And then we were told you moved all the way to Nevada. You didn't contact us. You didn't even say goodbye."

Josette didn't know what to say. The woman let out a sigh as she rubbed her forehead, "That's- that's not it. After I came back we sorta caught up...but we aren't friends. Though we still talk about things like this. This is something important that I need to talk to them about."

She needed to know if it was happening to them too.

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1996

The girls sat in quiet. That was until Josie heard Van's voice."Hey! You don't know what the hell you're doing with that!" The brunette looked over to see Travis holding the gun and Van holding it down.

"He's being fucking stupid." Josie agreed with Jackie's remark. He didn't know what he was thinking."No, what's stupid is the fact that we have a gun and we're not fucking using it." Travis aimed the gun up again and shot it at the squirrel. Though he missed and it just hit the tree, making Josie jump at the unexpected gunshot.

"What the hell?" Nat walked over and then Josie saw Coach Ben walking out. "Give me that." The man demanded, but Travis didn't hand it over. "Travis, give me the gun." He finally stood up and gave the gun to Ben once reaching him.

Shells of the gun hit the ground. "This is a dangerous weapon, and we will handle it as such. We understand?" Everyone nodded at his question. "All right, that said, Travis is right. We're out of food. We're all feeling it. The good news is my father used to take me deer hunting every year as a kid. The bad news..."

They knew the bad news." yeah, I am down to one fucking leg. Which means that if we want to eat, one of you is gonna have to learn how to use this thing." Everyone looked around at each other  making Josette slightly back away.

"Yeah, well I'm no help to this." She mumbled to herself, talking about her arm. Even though she wanted to help, she couldn't. She couldn't learn how to use a gun with one arm.

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Josette sat on the back of the porch for the cabin. As most sat in the front. "Slow breath in... then full exhale, then go." Ben instructed Tai who wa the first to hold the gun. Misty put the penny on the gun and backed away. As soon as Tai tried, the penny fell off and hit the ground.

"Damn it." Tai whispered under her breath as she lowered the gun. "It's okay, you guys. Hey. It's not a competition." Ben reminded them as Jackie walked over. "Uh, but there is gonna be a winner, right?" Tai handed the gun to her at that and walked off.

"All right, Jackie. You're up." A couple cheered and as soon as Jackie tried, the penny fell. Jackie lowered the gun as Tai started to laugh, Josie having to hide a smile on her face. "Okay, this is literally impossible." The brunette complained.

"All right, come on, let's keep it moving. Martinez. Let's go." Travis quickly took the gun from Jackie and looked to his brother. "Uh, yo. Javi, come try this." His brother didn't even look at him as he got up, instead he cursed at him and walked off.

"Nice going, Flex."Someone commented making Travis face forward and hold the gun up. "Let's go." Misty put the penny on it, the gun clicked and the penny stayed on. "See, and that, ladies, is how it's done." A couple flipped him off and Lucia rolled her eyes as she stood up slightly.

"Nat, you're up." Travis handed Nat the gun and a couple encouraged her, Josie being one of those people. The penny went on the gun, "Come on, nice and easy. Like the man said." And it fell. Nat turned to Van and handed it to them.

"That's a shame. Now, you know what, next time we can just stick to something you're actually be good at, like folding laundry, or sucking..." Josie stood up at that and Van yelled at him.

"I'm going again." Nat took the gun back from Van making a couple question if she can do that. "Yeah. I'll allow it."

"This is bullshit." He swore.

"That's enough."

The penny went on, and the gun clicked. Making everyone cheer. And Ben moved on. "Okay. Lucia, let's go." The girl nodded as she walked over and took the gun from Nat.

"Since when could you shoot a gun?" Jackie commented, making Josie look over at her sister. Lucia didn't answer.

The penny went on, the gun clicked.

"Since now."

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They were further away from the cabin now. They were more out in the woods. "Now that we've narrowed down the field, here's how this is gonna go down. One final round for all of the marbles. You got five targets, five shots each." Ben explained and looked to Mari.

"Mari, can you start us off?" He asked the girl who didn't have a chance of answer, "Um, just a thought. Shouldn't we be saving bullets, you know?" Laura Lee caught coach Ben's attention, Mari got the gun while Laura Lee was talking and was getting ready." Uh, yeah, in theory, but lucky for us, the nutjob who lived here before was apparently hoarding for the apocalypse."

As soon as Ben finished, Mari started shooting. Though she kept missing."The cans. You're aiming for the cans." Travis made a remark, "Shut up!"

"Do you like being this way?" Nat asked the guy who made another remark to her just before Mari shooter again, only to miss. And then hit it on the next try. "Good job, Mari." Ben complimented the girl who handed the gun over to Travis.

He hit the first couple of cans, and missed on the last. "So close, Flex." Nat called him the name Travis was known by and the boy quickly turned, aiming the gun at her. "Don't fucking call me that!" The gun was pointed right at Nat.

"Travis! Put the gun down." Ben ordered and no one said anything. Travis didn't even say anything, instead he went back to the cans and shot at the last one. "All right, that's, uh... yeah,
that's good shooting, Martinez. But don't ever do that again," Nat walked over to take the gun from him.

"Don't choke, again." Travis whispered the last part as Nat just took the gun, trying to ignore him. Nat keep shooting and hit them all. "Wooo! Nice job, Nat!" Lucia smiled at the girl as she was handed the gun.

"Good luck," She nodded at Nat's words.

Lucia missed right on the first try. But Josie noticed something, she had missed on purpose. She had it aimed right but moved it the slightest inch right when she shot.

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While Travis and Nat were going out hunting, some were wondering around the woods. "You missed on purpose," Josie shouted after Lucia as she followed after her. Lucia didn't answer the girl as she continued walking through the woods. "So what I missed? Nat deserves it more," She actually sounded honest to Josie.

"Okay. Maybe she did, but still why would you miss on purpose? You could at least hit one," Lucia didn't know why Josie was pushing on this. It didn't matter, "Stop following me Josie." Which made Josie pause for a second. They were going to the same place?

"We're going in the same direction though?" Lucia didn't answer Josie and kept walking, and went to catch up with Jackie. Josie looked back when she heard Akilah scream at Misty to not eat something. "Like, kill you poisonous, or like, trip your ball off poisonous?"

Akilah was obviously caught off guard by that question. "What? I don't know. My Girl Scout troop leader didn't get all that specific about it," Was the answer Akilah gave. Just before Tai spoke up,"Akilah." The girl gained her attention and everyone looked over to see her looking at most berries.

"Okay, now, those I know for sure will make you puke. Don't touch it." Akilah quickly made Tai let go of the berries and she did. "Well, could you just show us something that's actually edible so we can get going?" Misty questioned and Josie didn't understand why she was rushing.

"What's the big hurry?" Tai asked when she stood back up. "Coach need a sponge bath?" Tai and a couple others laughed at that as Misty walked off. "I'm sorry. Whatever," Misty didn't listen and continued walking off.

Josie didn't listen to what they were saying when noticing Lottie slightly walking away. "Um, guys?" Jackie's voice from a far was then heard. The girls yelled after her as they followed after her voice. "Hurry up!" Lucia's voice tuned in making them hurry.

When they got there they saw the two standing in front a small plan covered in so much. "What is this doing here?" Tai questioned as they walked closer. "It must've belonged to the dead guy." Jackie smiled to herself and Lucia backed up as she started. "We might have found a way home." There was hope in the girls voice.

"I wonder if it still works." Laura Lee got into it and though Josie had doubts on that, she still hoped. "Guys, this is it!" Jackie yelled as Laura Lee started it and the engine rumbled. And it started moving, "Back away!" Jackie pushed Van out of the way.

Everyone yelling to turn it off. Laura Lee yelled that she was trying. It got right in front of Jackie until it stopped. "Are you okay?" Josie quickly went to her sister. She nodded but there was still a look of shock on her face.

"It didn't want him to leave."

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They were sitting on the porch when Josie saw them coming back. "Oh my god!" Van exclaimed as they all got up and went over. Nat and Travis sat the deer down as Ben congratulated them.

"It was all Natalie," Travis told them. "So, What do we do with it now?"Nat asked, waiting for an answer from anyone. Coach Ben was the one to answer. "Well, first thing we got to do is bleed it out. Who wants to try?"

Ben looked around at all of them as he held up the knife. No one answered at all for a moment. "I'll give it a try." Shauna's voice was heard as she looked up. They watched as she took the knife from him and Ben instructed what to do.

Shauna kneeled down in front of the deer and cit into its throat.

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authors notes!
hiii im finally back!!!