Targets Are Acquired
Frank and Matt
New Mexico
May 5,2013
A piercing, sharp sound filled the darkened room and was quickly followed by a deep groaning. An arm made its way out from under the covers of a soft bed, reaching over to the dresser; The fingers fumbled around until they felt the familiar rectangular shape of a cell phone. The hand grabbed the phone and brought it over to its body, quickly disabling the alarm and soon dropping the phone on the bed. There were a few seconds of peaceful silence before an “Uuugghhh. Fuck,” was mumbled out from the bed and a man lifted himself up above the dark green covers. The man with simple brown hair scrubbed his hands over his face a few times, attempting rub the sleep out of his eyes. His shoulders were drooped and it was obvious that he had little motivation right now.
Half an hour later, he had completed his morning routine of getting ready for the daily lie. Yes, the daily lie; the one where he tells everyone that he’s okay-doing great. That things are looking up, which he would prove with a big smile and a fake laugh at the stupid jokes others tell. Why the daily lie? Because it was a hell of alot easier to fool people than it was to try to explain the constant feeling of anger and thirst for revenge. At least once every night, he had the nightmare of Mary dying and the memory of how it felt when he saw the news footage of the Green Monster that had killed his cousin, Henry. Ù had immediately called Matt, screaming into the phone. Then, he’d seen the blond hair and the red cape. It was him, the asshole that had gotten Mary killed.
The psychiatrist had told him he was wrong; Mary had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. ‘Bullshit. Mary would be alive if he never would have came there,’ he thought.
Frank had then changed the story, electing to tell people that the man brought the robot there and that he’d wanted to fight it in the middle of town. This adapted story of the events included the man laughing at Frank holding Mary’s dead burnt body-making BBQ jokes- and that all the M.I.B. had done was threaten to arrest anyone that would not comply. The final detail he added was that they had ripped Mary out of his arms and had thrown him down on the ground. He hadn’t been able to believe his eyes when he saw that murderer smashing the aliens, trying to act like a hero. ‘You think this will clear you of your past crimes? Fuck you! I will hunt you down and kill you!’
After his talk with Matt, they’d come up with the game plan; They would make a new bullet. a version of the Raufoss Mk 211 high explosive round. The head of it would be made of silicon-carbide vibranium alloy, with the feet per second of the round, and the accuracy of a Barrett M82 50 cal.
It would change the world forever, and in Matt and Frank’s eyes, for the better. Frank had worked as a bullet manufacturer for a few years. He had been doing okay there, but then everything had happened. Now he had a new goal, a more righteous goal. He’d begun studying everything he could to learn about how to make bullet heads so that he could make the heads and attach them. The manufacturer had noticed his sudden drive, so they’d sent him to a nice shrink for the typical conversation just to make sure he wasn’t crazy. Frank had easily convinced them that he was okay, that he just wanted to do better in life. The doctor had signed off on him-not actually caring about Franks-and he had soon been promoted for his hard work.
Over the next few months, he had learned everything about what needed to be done; when Matt actually came through and got what they needed, Frank would be ready to go. It was going to be a long process, and he wanted to make sure everything was right; there was a lot riding on this. Matt had done his end, and Cindy was getting the hitman, or hitmen. She was putting up a lot of money, more then Frank had even known she’d had. Frank knew he had to do his part and succeed. He was going as far as to take other metals to test making the heads, so that way he knew exactly what he was doing when it was time to make the reason for all of his struggle; his true hope, his true revenge.
May 7, 2013
Matt had finally brought the materials to him, and the two of them began working long hours in their obsession to finish the bullet.
Frank could only sleep a couple of hours at a time before he was bursting with the urge to go back to work. Eventually, his late night and early mornings lead to mistakes, something Matt didn’t appreciate. “Frank, you can’t do it all, right now. You’re going to end up screwing up and ruining everything we’ve worked so hard to achieve," Matt told him honestly.
“I can handle it," he replied, stubbornly. “Relax. It'll be fine."
“No, I’m not taking any chances here." Matt stated, he refused to allow Frank to mess this up. “I risked everything-including going to a federal prison-to get this stuff to you. Now, you’ve got the time to work carefully. Use it!” Matt ordered.
“Okay, fine!” He sighed before admitting to himself something needed to give. “I’ll take some time off."
“Good. You’re not allowed to work on this until you get a good night of sleep. We need to be perfect here." “Fuck you! You wouldn’t know this shit from a hole in the ground. You need me. You can’t do anything without me. If I can’t work on it, then neither can you," Frank replied, paranoid after so long without sleep. “I’m not the one that’s falling asleep at work and at the wheel,” Matt shot back. “What would happen if you died in a car accident or at work? Goddammit, you selfish fuckball, I’ve lost enough family already."
“Fuckball?!? What the hell is a fuckball?” He let out a light laugh as he finally realized the complete truth, this was one of his only family left and Frank wasn’t going to push him out. “You always were creative with words. What the hell does that even mean?"
“Fuckball? I have no idea.” Matt said, his posture a lot more relaxed. “I love you, Frank. You and Cindy are all I have left," he said, baring his soul.
“I know. I’m sorry, okay? I’ll go in tonight and then take some time off and get a good night of sleep," he promised. “All right, good. Just to make things fair, I won’t do anything until you get back home." Just as they reached a consensus,
Matt’s cell phone went off. Ring. Ring. “Hello… Hey, Cindy, what’s up? Really... Excellent... Yes, we’re making progress. Hopefully by the end of the next month, we’ll be able to go... Really?... Wow, that’s good to hear!... No price yet? That’s odd… Yes, we trust you... Okay, Cindy… Yes... We love you. Stay in touch." Click.
Frank stood there, waiting patiently for Matt to explain the phone call to him; It had sounded positive to him. “Cindy said that her contacts are really expensive, but she thinks she can handle that part.
Frank, she really believes that these are the right people for us," Matt said with a hopeful tone that he hadn’t had for a long while. “Good. The last thing we need is for some rookie to mess things up." Frank took a deep breath. “Alright, I’m going to go shower and take a nice long nap. We can pick up tomorrow night after dinner, deal?” He looked Matt in the eye. “Yes, deal," Matt agreed earnestly.
-----------
Later that night, as Frank got to work, he submitted three weeks of time off. His boss was glad to see him take time off, since the last time he’d taken time off was when Mary had been killed.
Frank had been asked where he was going to go and answered that he might go east. ‘Oh well, what’s another lie?’ he thought, far calmer about this than he should have been.
24 hours later
The two cousins felt recharged after a day of catching up on sleep and eating a good dinner- finally homecooked.
By the next morning, they had completed it; the first bullet had been created. They were beyond excited. This was their entire life now. They both had hurried outside to their makeshift gun range, and Frank brought his Barrett M82 out-he named it Sally. After a tension filled with a few seconds of deep breaths, he opened the chamber, put the bullet in, and loaded the gun with a smooth click.
Matt stood to one side with a fire extinguisher, not that it would really do any good if the gun blew up in Frank’s hands. Needless to say, they weren’t all that confident that their first version would work.
The target was an old car that was parked about four hundred feet away. It had already been pretty shot up, but would be ideal for what they needed it for today. Frank rested the gun on a picnic table on the left side of his house. There was so much hope and so many prayers that had gone into this moment.
Frank lined up the site with target. With a glance at the ribbon tied to one of the trees, he observed that there was no wind. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Within a second, his eyes snapped opened.
He felt good about the shot, as he liked to every time he fired a gun. His finger was on the trigger with the safety off. With a small tug, their future shot off. There was a loud crack that had Frank cringing. For a second, everything stood still. Then there was the flash of the explosion going off in the engine block of the car.
Matt yelled out with joy, shouting out his overwhelming emotion.
Frank just closed his eyes, letting his breath out. They had done it. The first test was a success. It was a true hope, the first they’d had in over a year. A smile actually formed on his lips. His only thought was, ‘Enjoy breathing, you monsters. Your time will end soon.’ They both knew that they had a lot of tests to go yet, and they were many possible failures to come.
May 5,2013
A piercing, sharp sound filled the darkened room and was quickly followed by a deep groaning. An arm made its way out from under the covers of a soft bed, reaching over to the dresser; The fingers fumbled around until they felt the familiar rectangular shape of a cell phone. The hand grabbed the phone and brought it over to its body, quickly disabling the alarm and soon dropping the phone on the bed. There were a few seconds of peaceful silence before an “Uuugghhh. Fuck,” was mumbled out from the bed and a man lifted himself up above the dark green covers. The man with simple brown hair scrubbed his hands over his face a few times, attempting rub the sleep out of his eyes. His shoulders were drooped and it was obvious that he had little motivation right now.
Half an hour later, he had completed his morning routine of getting ready for the daily lie. Yes, the daily lie; the one where he tells everyone that he’s okay-doing great. That things are looking up, which he would prove with a big smile and a fake laugh at the stupid jokes others tell. Why the daily lie? Because it was a hell of alot easier to fool people than it was to try to explain the constant feeling of anger and thirst for revenge. At least once every night, he had the nightmare of Mary dying and the memory of how it felt when he saw the news footage of the Green Monster that had killed his cousin, Henry. Ù had immediately called Matt, screaming into the phone. Then, he’d seen the blond hair and the red cape. It was him, the asshole that had gotten Mary killed.
The psychiatrist had told him he was wrong; Mary had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. ‘Bullshit. Mary would be alive if he never would have came there,’ he thought.
Frank had then changed the story, electing to tell people that the man brought the robot there and that he’d wanted to fight it in the middle of town. This adapted story of the events included the man laughing at Frank holding Mary’s dead burnt body-making BBQ jokes- and that all the M.I.B. had done was threaten to arrest anyone that would not comply. The final detail he added was that they had ripped Mary out of his arms and had thrown him down on the ground. He hadn’t been able to believe his eyes when he saw that murderer smashing the aliens, trying to act like a hero. ‘You think this will clear you of your past crimes? Fuck you! I will hunt you down and kill you!’
After his talk with Matt, they’d come up with the game plan; They would make a new bullet. a version of the Raufoss Mk 211 high explosive round. The head of it would be made of silicon-carbide vibranium alloy, with the feet per second of the round, and the accuracy of a Barrett M82 50 cal.
It would change the world forever, and in Matt and Frank’s eyes, for the better. Frank had worked as a bullet manufacturer for a few years. He had been doing okay there, but then everything had happened. Now he had a new goal, a more righteous goal. He’d begun studying everything he could to learn about how to make bullet heads so that he could make the heads and attach them. The manufacturer had noticed his sudden drive, so they’d sent him to a nice shrink for the typical conversation just to make sure he wasn’t crazy. Frank had easily convinced them that he was okay, that he just wanted to do better in life. The doctor had signed off on him-not actually caring about Franks-and he had soon been promoted for his hard work.
Over the next few months, he had learned everything about what needed to be done; when Matt actually came through and got what they needed, Frank would be ready to go. It was going to be a long process, and he wanted to make sure everything was right; there was a lot riding on this. Matt had done his end, and Cindy was getting the hitman, or hitmen. She was putting up a lot of money, more then Frank had even known she’d had. Frank knew he had to do his part and succeed. He was going as far as to take other metals to test making the heads, so that way he knew exactly what he was doing when it was time to make the reason for all of his struggle; his true hope, his true revenge.
May 7, 2013
Matt had finally brought the materials to him, and the two of them began working long hours in their obsession to finish the bullet.
Frank could only sleep a couple of hours at a time before he was bursting with the urge to go back to work. Eventually, his late night and early mornings lead to mistakes, something Matt didn’t appreciate. “Frank, you can’t do it all, right now. You’re going to end up screwing up and ruining everything we’ve worked so hard to achieve," Matt told him honestly.
“I can handle it," he replied, stubbornly. “Relax. It'll be fine."
“No, I’m not taking any chances here." Matt stated, he refused to allow Frank to mess this up. “I risked everything-including going to a federal prison-to get this stuff to you. Now, you’ve got the time to work carefully. Use it!” Matt ordered.
“Okay, fine!” He sighed before admitting to himself something needed to give. “I’ll take some time off."
“Good. You’re not allowed to work on this until you get a good night of sleep. We need to be perfect here." “Fuck you! You wouldn’t know this shit from a hole in the ground. You need me. You can’t do anything without me. If I can’t work on it, then neither can you," Frank replied, paranoid after so long without sleep. “I’m not the one that’s falling asleep at work and at the wheel,” Matt shot back. “What would happen if you died in a car accident or at work? Goddammit, you selfish fuckball, I’ve lost enough family already."
“Fuckball?!? What the hell is a fuckball?” He let out a light laugh as he finally realized the complete truth, this was one of his only family left and Frank wasn’t going to push him out. “You always were creative with words. What the hell does that even mean?"
“Fuckball? I have no idea.” Matt said, his posture a lot more relaxed. “I love you, Frank. You and Cindy are all I have left," he said, baring his soul.
“I know. I’m sorry, okay? I’ll go in tonight and then take some time off and get a good night of sleep," he promised. “All right, good. Just to make things fair, I won’t do anything until you get back home." Just as they reached a consensus,
Matt’s cell phone went off. Ring. Ring. “Hello… Hey, Cindy, what’s up? Really... Excellent... Yes, we’re making progress. Hopefully by the end of the next month, we’ll be able to go... Really?... Wow, that’s good to hear!... No price yet? That’s odd… Yes, we trust you... Okay, Cindy… Yes... We love you. Stay in touch." Click.
Frank stood there, waiting patiently for Matt to explain the phone call to him; It had sounded positive to him. “Cindy said that her contacts are really expensive, but she thinks she can handle that part.
Frank, she really believes that these are the right people for us," Matt said with a hopeful tone that he hadn’t had for a long while. “Good. The last thing we need is for some rookie to mess things up." Frank took a deep breath. “Alright, I’m going to go shower and take a nice long nap. We can pick up tomorrow night after dinner, deal?” He looked Matt in the eye. “Yes, deal," Matt agreed earnestly.
-----------
Later that night, as Frank got to work, he submitted three weeks of time off. His boss was glad to see him take time off, since the last time he’d taken time off was when Mary had been killed.
Frank had been asked where he was going to go and answered that he might go east. ‘Oh well, what’s another lie?’ he thought, far calmer about this than he should have been.
24 hours later
The two cousins felt recharged after a day of catching up on sleep and eating a good dinner- finally homecooked.
By the next morning, they had completed it; the first bullet had been created. They were beyond excited. This was their entire life now. They both had hurried outside to their makeshift gun range, and Frank brought his Barrett M82 out-he named it Sally. After a tension filled with a few seconds of deep breaths, he opened the chamber, put the bullet in, and loaded the gun with a smooth click.
Matt stood to one side with a fire extinguisher, not that it would really do any good if the gun blew up in Frank’s hands. Needless to say, they weren’t all that confident that their first version would work.
The target was an old car that was parked about four hundred feet away. It had already been pretty shot up, but would be ideal for what they needed it for today. Frank rested the gun on a picnic table on the left side of his house. There was so much hope and so many prayers that had gone into this moment.
Frank lined up the site with target. With a glance at the ribbon tied to one of the trees, he observed that there was no wind. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Within a second, his eyes snapped opened.
He felt good about the shot, as he liked to every time he fired a gun. His finger was on the trigger with the safety off. With a small tug, their future shot off. There was a loud crack that had Frank cringing. For a second, everything stood still. Then there was the flash of the explosion going off in the engine block of the car.
Matt yelled out with joy, shouting out his overwhelming emotion.
Frank just closed his eyes, letting his breath out. They had done it. The first test was a success. It was a true hope, the first they’d had in over a year. A smile actually formed on his lips. His only thought was, ‘Enjoy breathing, you monsters. Your time will end soon.’ They both knew that they had a lot of tests to go yet, and they were many possible failures to come.
