Growing up was really a fun and I had in-delectable memories of my childhood life. As the last born of my parent, I was given the free hand to do many things like going out to play on the street, attend birthday parties as well as many children related activities with other kids. I was just seven anyway and my elder siblings were all there to do all the house chores. In fact I was never exposed to doing those stuff even when I opted to do them but one thing I was notorious about was my adventurous spirit.
‘’why are you this fearless Chi?.
Mummy had told me many times that I behave like my dad whenever we disagree on certain things but I never gave thought to those.
Immediately I had misunderstanding with any of my sibling or they want to trick me not to embark on something I insisted on doing, there is one thing that they will use to calm me down and it works like magic. Guess what?, playing video games. I was really a bad guy whenever a lay my hand on the game pad playing my favourite adventurous games like Assassin creed and mortal combat. I rather not eat than not finishing any stage I set my target to get. Such was my love for adventure but one thing had kept bordering me while growing up. That is not being about to replicate my feats in the video games in the real world. Ya, of cause I was a bad guys whenever I handled the gun. I could sense the position of an enemy without waiting for the system to tell me about it before firing a couple of bullets in that direction and surprisingly when I get to that point, I will see an enemy lying down. My instinct was top notched even it real life.
I was so a popular guy in school because of my guessing accuracies. Many at times some kids come running towards me to ask some brain teasing question but I kept answering them absolutely. That made me so popular I could guess correctly the answers to my mathematics teachers’ multiplications, additions and subtractions before she could say Jack Robinson. No doubt I got to attend many school debates and competitions when it comes to common reasoning, mathematics and physics.
After my college, I was eager as well curious to handle gun. That informed my decision to join the military. With my physical build up and knowledge, getting to enrol into the military school was very easy. Taking this decision didn’t come easy for mum because she resisted all move for me to join the military. She told me a day before I left for boarding school that she lost her only brother in the military who had gone to one of the Middle East countries for UN Peace Keeping Mission and up till today that she was yet to set her eyes on his corpse, and that whenever she remembered the scenario, she couldn’t wish her enemy to be in the military talk more of her biological son. I quite understood her point but I had made up my mind to pursue my cause and she knew she could stop her son whenever he makes up his mind on doing something. She sobbed and bided me good bye. It was really painful to see her sob because I love her so much more that anything in the world. She would always pampered me and even defend me when am wrong unlike dad that will talk tears out of my eyes to be a strong man.
My experience in the military school was not easy as I thought but I endured all my trainings with joy and persistence knowing very well that one day am going to wield the guns. When it was training section for shooting, I always came over all best due to the attention I pay to it. It got to some extent that I was measuring my targets with wind direction and sound without having to look at them. Such was my ability that I was nickname ‘’KING SNIPER’’ by my mates. Captain Jon was really my mentor and model when it comes to shooting. I was able to follow him to many shooting competitions where we won medals together before I graduated from the military school.
Before passing out from the military school, there was this ritual of going out for ‘’battle testing’’ as it is called. Here, the about to be graduated students are shared in groups and are release into the field for the final test. This was the test every sniper must pass to be part of the ‘’classic snipers’’ in particular. There were the most dangerous and most respected of all groups in the military and I wanted to be part of that class. So I had indicated in my form the group I will like to join. The test is always with rubber bullets and everybody had a chip that is used to tract him or her as well as to know the closeness on an enemy.
The test began smoothly as we began going after are enemies so to speak on that freaky Friday evening. It was to last for 3 hours with other artificial obstacles set up on individual’s path as part of the experience. I was very adventurous with my test. Knowing very well that it wasn’t a live bullet that we were using, I had no mercy for my targets.
‘’Is either you get killed or you are killed’’ Captain Jon will always reminds us.
There are words one had to understand and failure in the test will cause me to join the normal combatants and defeat my objective. So, I embraced it with no mercy. The test ground was so crowned that you find enemies as close proximity. About 30 minutes to go, all my partners had been taken down and I was left to face three notorious shooters that had given me a tough time in training. This was an opportunity for them to eliminate me from join the ‘’Classic Snipers and quench their jealousy.
The micro chip embedded on back of our necks were trackers indicator used to locate an enemy within a given area and its always red for an enemy and blue for a partner. These guys had located me as the only survival and was given me a hot chess. I have been surrounded going by what my tracker has indicated and I was left with one option I never envisaged. There I was facing a river I don’t know it depth and in all my life have never being to a river.
I was unfortunate so to speak coming from a land lock region of my country. The other part with water is inhabited by people in the south with boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. So, there were a lot of water tributaries and river at the mouth of the ocean. I never had the opportunity to visit this part and I wasn’t a fan of swimming pool as I had nearly drowned on my first attempt. So, water was a bigger enemy to handle than anything else, you can call it absolute water phobic. Since then, I never crossed part with water even during training I have dodged the few times we were about going for water training where I always claimed to have fever.
I was left with no option that to make use of the river. It was my last bait because I knew I couldn’t survive their onslaught. Is either I faced them or cross the river to beat them with time. However, if I happen to cross first then I stood a better position to take them down. I found myself between the devil and the blue sea. Immediately, I headed towards the river side as my instinct instructed me. On getting to river was another enemy hide out at the middle of the river. I was so surprise that I couldn’t see it on the tracker.
‘’Was he among those dudes that will always want to cheat’’ I thought within me.
I fired 3 shots at the shield as was being close up on. There was no time to guess. Does it matter if it was a partner? It was a struggle between my destiny and regrets. I entered into the water and kept moving fast as I could. Fortunately for me, the river was not deep as I anticipated and so there was no need to swim. The water velocity had reduced my speed by 80%. This was very necessary to avoid causing a steer from the sea ducks which will send I quick signal to my enemies that I was crossing a river. They didn’t know about the river width, I guess. After 45 seconds, I was able to cross over and take a good position waiting for them to dare put their legs in the water. I was an open space and hardly can anybody survive in such an open area with the snipers. As a sniper, we aren’t meant to shoot at random like the combatant. We much make sure that every shot counts and must be the right target. Any mistake on this can be vital to a mission or kill the wrong target.
I was patiently waiting for them in my hide out and I was very compulsory that they get me down with their numeric advantage. I sensed their fears from behaviour exhibited by my first victim as he had rushed out of the woods and dive into the water. I knew him as a good swimmer and he can remain submerge in water for God knows how long. I kept my focus on the surface of the river where he will dive forgetting he zigzag movement tricks. He jumped from a distance not too close to the river and I waiting some 30 nano seconds before pulling the trigger to the sea surface he was about landing. The last I heard of him was a deep groaning that echoed on the woods.
This must have sent a freaking cold down the spine of the two others. The same fate awaits them. The time was running fast and I wanted the two remaining to be part of the classic snipers. They were so good. So, a kept shooting at their direction at interval to prevent them from coming out while the clock ticks. May be they got the signal and waited until I got a signal on the tracker that the test was over. I came out and signal them to cross over which they did. From that day we became close friends in the unit.
The following day was the formal induction into the various unites. Mum and dad including Nancy my childhood friend were all there to grace my day. I happened to know the parents of Pete and Steve on that day likewise they met my parents. I was really happy to achieve my dream of a freaky Friday and today am now a classic sniper in the US military.
This is my entry for @pete contest for freaky Friday organised to encourage upcoming bloggers on scormucommunity and others who find the contest interesting to enter through the link below. It has been a keen contest I find pleasure in written and I pray God it continue as sponsors are highly encouraged to lend a helping hand.
https://scorum.com/en-us/shooting/@pete/welcome-to-freaky-friday-december-14-2018
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