The Girl in the Middle

A Gun in her hand

*Tom*

The speed Ambers changes has happened in is physically impossible. Except that it is happening right before my eyes.

In a matter of four months she has changed from being a to slender, scared girl that couldn't look me in the eyes into a strong, independent and stubborn young woman. Like with Kattie, nothing is impossible any longer in her own mind and she does everything to prove people wrong if they tell her she can't do something. She looks everyone straight in their eyes and she talk back if she disagree.

She never loses focus during training. She never complain about sore muscles or complicated training schedules and she never ask when she can move on to the next level. She works her butt of in silence and when she isn't training she pull her weight in her own gang by making inventory of weapons and medicine and bringing their orders to me.

She had pretty quickly gotten to a good time on her runs and because I didn't know what else to do, I asked her to run two laps and then three. I have sent her through the outside obstacle course several times. The first times she was hesitant and it took all my willpower to keep the hard facade and let her figure it out by herself. It would have been so easy to tell her how to do it, but then it wouldn't train her mind and I know it is in as much need as her body.

I have build an obstacle course inside in one of the bigger training rooms, one where I can change the difficulty. And even though she has fallen down several times, I refuse to help her back up. She has to learn to pick herself up no matter how much it hurt. Her life could very well depend on it. I won't safe her life by being nice. Not now.

Amber has the potential to go far. It is just about her getting the right challenges. So even though Clay only pays me to handle her physical training, I have started working on the mental part as well. Not only by asking her to figure out the obstacles course herself, but putting her in situations that forces her to think. I throw stupid questions at her during her training, learning her to focus on the necessary. I also often try to trip her during her runs.

By now she jumps agile over my leg, when I try tripping her suddenly. A couple of times she has even tried for revenge, trying to trip me, she hasn't had any luck yet though. She has solved any problem I have thrown at her and she seem to thrive with it.

"Tom ?" Amber stop halfway through the course, looking down at me. She is standing on one of the transverse beams and is supposed to let herself fall 15 feet and trust the net to catch her and well trust me as I have made the net. It is a new obstacle.

"Come on just jump". She is still a bit hesitant at new things.

"It's not that". She puts her hands on her hips like an impatient kid. "Isn't it about time that I learn to use the knives and guns ? And my muscles for a matter of fact. I can't fight of Zombie by getting through an obstacle course".

This is what I have feared. The moment we enter the last stage of her training and I get one step closer to having to let her go and send her out in the real world. I have to admit that I enjoy having her here. Probably a lot more than I should.

"Fine then. If you think you are ready, then lets us go down to the shooting range and continue there". I can't see her face, but I can see the confidence in her movements when she without hesitation stepped out into the air and drop 15 feet. In seconds she is down from the net and stands before me with a confident smile.

"I am ready". She announces. Her voice is a bit harder now and much more confident. She never stutters or second guess herself anymore.

I know very well that she is ready. She has been for weeks. There is nothing skinny or fragile about her any longer. No sign of the upper-class left, except for her own hair colour growing back out.

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I don't give her real ammunition as it is her first time. It would be a waste of money letting her use expensive ammunition for shooting past her target. She get home made plastic bullets instead. They can easily go through the cardboard target, if she can hit it. But should she accidentally shoot someone they will only get a bad black mark.

As I hand her the gun she reach for it and her fingers close around mine. Making me pull my hand away like she burned me, making her almost drop the gun. I am staring at my hand, unsure what has just happened.

When I look up Amber is looking at me, he mouth slightly open, her eyes dilated. I have no doubt she felt it too.

Trying to change the mood, I just point at the target and step away. I don't explain anything. My pulse is still racing uncomfortably.

"Are you not going to show me what to do ?" She look at me with a surprised expression. She is still flexing her fingers that touched mine.

"You point the narrow end at the target and press the trigger". I smile at her. "You told me you were ready".

She get a very focused expression as she turn toward the target and raise the gun. It is on purpose I don't correct her, but let her empty the gun before taking it from her, reloading it.

Like with every other person shooting a gun for the first time, she didn't calculate for the push the gun would send into her body and therefore she didn't tighten the right muscles beforehand.

"If you start by holding with both hands, you double your chances that the gun stays were you want it". I say casually. "And you see twice as good with two eyes compared to one". Standing behind her I actually didn't know if she had closed one eye, but most people did in the beginning.

"The others only uses one hand". She point to a couple of my members that is training farther down on other lanes.

"And they have funnily enough fired just a bit more then ten shots in their life". I hand her back the gun, making sure not to touch her this time. "When you can hit the target without aiming, then you can shoot with one hand".

After another ten shots I show her how to reload the gun with the plastic bullets and then I leave her to herself. There is no reason for me standing there watching her. No legitimate ones anyway. She has plenty of motivation to handle it alone.