Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

The diagnosis for Ella's problem would've been easy if everything was black and white but in the end, we discovered that it came from multiple facets.

While it was true that she couldn't handle recoil, from the time it was actually real to our current time, there may have been a point where she was able to overcome it and her body just remembered the knee-jerk reaction the first time she felt it and continued as is.

Because as far as I remember, continued practice eliminates certain things you want to get rid of but Ella feeling scared the first time probably dug deep in her psyche—and one of her triggers was the muzzle flash from a gun she probably shot that time.

"Before I answer, what was the gun you shot that made you scared of shooting large-caliber rounds?"

Ella didn't take long to answer, "U-Umm— I-It's one of those o-old guns that PINGS! A-After the last bullet on the clip! I-It's after my usual firearm training too and e-everyone laughed at me! C-Can you imagine?! I-I wasn't even in high school at that time!"

"When you're still in elementary—"

"J-JACKASS, I WAS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL! I was in the first year but— WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ME, HUH?!"

I patted her head which instantly calmed her down, "Ah, shit— My bad, my bad, we didn't have middle school in this country that time, we start from prep, kinder, elementary then straight to four years of high school before college. Still, that's a little dumb—"

"I-I'm not dumb!"

"I wasn't talking about you, alright? I mean the person who made you shoot an M1 Garand—"

"That's the one! ARGHHH!!! I hate it so much! They kept saying it was the coolest gun ever but it just scared the living crap outta me! Dad and his old friends are the worst!"

I facepalmed, "Yeah, yeah, that's pretty bad. Oscar and I used to mess— I mean, we still mess with people by letting them shoot hand cannons but before we do, we're that sure that they could take it. I don't wanna say anything bad about young girls or anything but even with proper training, they should be really careful about handing them those kinds. A .30-06 is fucking loud, you know?"

"IT IS! IT REALLY IS! T-The noise scared me the least b-but the f-fire and the k-kick knocked me off my feet! IT'S EMBARRASSING!"

Kaley then gave her a pat on the head as well but she turned to me to pat her head again, "I-I'm dealing with trauma here! It's the least you can do!"

"Pfft— Alright, alright… Here you go…"

Ella nodded a few times while giggling before she went back on the subject, "Mmhmm~ W-Well but— Why did you tell me I'm afraid of circles?"

I chuckled, "Not circles per se, but the muzzle flash itself. The time you got your surgery probably coincided with your firearms training and even if you're used to it to some degree, photosensitivity kicked in and gave you the fright—and the recoil from the M1 piled on.

The blast must've been amplified a few times in your perspective that's why it's rooted deep in your head and body—even making smaller calibers with flash hiders and suppressors do jack shit for you even if the flash was already small or several times minimized."

"Ohhhh~ I-Is that really, really what happened? M-Makes sense with the surgery too— It's around that time when I'm recovering and tried to go for firearms training just to see!"

"I mean— I could still be wrong but when we switched in the muzzle brake, it just blasted to the side and altered the circular shape of the flash—gave you less recoil—and it's the best thing as you've said. But once you got the confidence back, we made you shoot my normal setup and it went on just fine—after a few times of getting used to it, of course.

The tinted glasses might've helped to some degree too but the way you are now, it'd just help with the shade, heh."

"..." Ella was fucking speechless as she was just looking straight at me.

"Ella—" Experience more on empire

And all of a sudden, tears just slowly fell from her face as she wrapped her arms around me. I was a little taken aback at first but this small fix for her problem might've been a very huge deal for her.

Of course, she already said she was traumatized from her past experience—which was why she had the need to hide her expertise about using guns—but yeah, I guess we have another shooter on our crew and I'd be more confident if she'd be relied on to hold the fort each time we were away.

Then again, it was one thing to help someone with their problems by simply saying "get good", "get over it", "it's just the way it is, suck it up", or something along those lines—and yeah, usually it'd work for us guys but half the world aren't us and sometimes that type of machismo shit doesn't work on all of us as well.

One way to help was to actually find the root of the issue and try ways that could help the person with the problem their own way—and yeah, this type of thing was a luxury at this point and I'm not saying we should be vulnerable at all times, but if we could afford and be comfortable with it, why not?

As I said, it was one of the ways, not a broad-spectrum antibiotic that could help with several issues at once.

Though there may be times to simply collect our winnings and not push the issue even more but yeah, I'll fucking strike the iron while it's fucking hot.

"So, Ella…"

"Hmm? Yes, Da— I mean, yes?"

"You've probably improved by leaps and bounds by now…"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna shoot a Garand now to spit on this trauma of yours?"

"Wha— I just overcome my— You know what? Why the fuck not?! Let's do it!"