When they came back to the tent area---Aloj was beginning to think of it as "Headquarters"---they saw the other men lined up for the evening meal. 511Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmCFQ3fgpcP
Again without thinking, Aloj and Tokar lunged forward, only to have Davor stop them in their tracks.
"Hold the line. Now--stack your rifles here---against this tree. Be sure you can find yours when you come back."
Aloj and Tokar placed their rifles side by side. The several guns stacked against the tree made it look like a Christmas tree without the star at the topo. Aloj thought he would be able to recognize his due to the Bordurian symbol, the black mustache against the red field, was starched on the handgrip with cheap house paint. Then Davor signaled them to join the line where plates of food were being handed out.
Aloj was so hungry that his hand shook as he took his tin plate, and his coffee slopped a little. Staggering with fatigue and weakness, he made his way to the same spot where they had eaten earlier in the day. Tokar followed, and Kszar and Vladisar.
When the meal was done, Aloj thought their duties for the day would be over as well. He was shocked to hear, as the recruits stood in an aimless cluster near the Headquarters tent, that they were to gather for more training.
"Now?" he muttered as Davor signaled them to move toward a clearing near the gun tent.
"Now," said Davor. "Get your rifle."
They retrieved their rifles and trudged up the slope toward the clearing, where two small propane lanterns made a pool of light on the trampled ground. Directed by Davor they dropped to sit in no particular order, except that all of them faced the lanterns and Sergeant Oluja, who squatted next to them with a rifle in his hands. Aloj could not find a comfortable way to sit holding his rifle and started to lay it on the ground but was stopped by a glare from Davor. "Rifle out of the dirt!"
Oluja rose to his feet. "These are AK-47s, which you have been issued," he said. "You will carry these for now. We have very little ammunition for them until the next shipment can be airlifted in, so there won't be much target practice. AK-47s are automatic weapons capable of firing as many as 600 rounds per minute. This is the magazine." Deftly Sergeant Oluja removed the curved metal case that thrust down and forward from the center of the rifle. His hands were broad and blunt and looked clumsy, but Aloj could see that he was enormously skillful in handling the rifles. "It is loaded this way---inserted this way. Now---remove your magazines---reload---remove...."511Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhqyV7AwdQH
For several minutes they practiced removing the magazines from their rifles and reinserting them. After several blunders and some pinched fingers, they started to do it right. Then Sergeant Oluja took a small handful of bullets out of his pocket, handed exactly one to each recruit, and showed him out to load it. Again the minutes passed as they practiced inserting the single shell into the magazine, removing it, and repeating the move, over and over again.
"Now," said the sergeant, "do it with your eyes shut. And don't make a sound!"
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