First Blood - Part 5

While I was waiting for the call to complete and trigger the fireworks, I ran through my shooting sequence. I figured I would do 2 shots on target #1 then go after targets 2 -6 and then play it by ear for the remainder of my 60 second shooting window.

Well I'm proud to say that the "fireworks phone" functioned as desired. The Roman candles fired off in sequence and as expected, the party goers all stopped what they were doing and turned to watch the fireworks. Just as the 3rd Roman candle launched I fired my first shot at Mr. Big, the party host. I got him "body, center of mass" and saw a dark wet patch wink open on the chest of his white suit as he began to collapse onto his well manicured lawn. I pulled the rifle bolt back, ejected the empty casing and then put the bolt forward to chamber a fresh round. Even though I was fairly sure my first shot was fatal, I wanted him to be made an example and shot him again in the torso.

A couple of people near him had just noticed something was not right and were moving toward him as the last Roman candle went off. Target #4, dressed as a pirate, was one of these people. I shot him, in the upper chest just as he started bending down to help and as the fire crackers started going off. This time the other people nearby could tell he had been shot.  From their body language some of them were reacting and maybe even screaming in horror. My element of surprise would soon be gone.

I panned over to Target #2 who was dressed as a Prince. He didn't know anything was wrong yet so I quickly took my shot and dropped him.  Those were my first 4 shots and now I had to reload.  I pulled the bolt back, pressed in 4 rounds and then closed the bolt.  I put my eye back up on the scope, picked up Target #3, a Viking, snapped off the shot and then moved on my next 2 targets, the Star Trek twins. They weren't near any of my earlier targets and so didn't realize anything was amiss.  I shot twice and didn't miss. The string of fire crackers was ending and I used my last round on the propane tank of one of the portable heaters and started reloading again - 4 more rounds. The propane tank didn't instantly blow up like in the movies but the venting gas did spin the entire heater around and there was an impressive tongue of flame when the propane flume reached a neighboring heater.

Of course now everybody knew something bad was happening but many still didn't know exactly how and were mostly looking around confused rather than running for cover. I zeroed in on the guy dressed as a bundle of cash and shot the wad in the ass. Remember I wasn't sure exactly who this guy was so I wasn't shooting to kill. He was in a cluster of people and many of them could tell he had just been shot. He very well may have shouted out this fact as he fell. They started running away and screaming and like a flock of birds shifting in formation, I could see the reaction ripple through the party crowd. The guy wearing the wooden barrel and body stocking wasn't able to run very fast and he was an easy shot. I opened up another bung hole in the barrel by his butt. He went down and the barrel rolled him into the bushes.

Things were pretty jumbled now and I had to pan about to find another target. The Money Tree guy was huddled down by an ice sculpture of a large swan. I wasn't sure if this was a good or dumb move on his part. His branches still stuck up fairly high with some brightly colored decorations so it's not like they were providing brilliant camouflage.  He couldn't run very fast in his costume either and lucky for him, I couldn't get a clean lower body shot. So I shot the golden ice goose. The body shattered, the goose neck snapped, the head went spinning and Mr. Money Tree showed prime interest in improving his rate of escape. I shot him in the ass as well and he went down near the barrel guy.

I reload again - probably for the last time - I couldn't find any of my other targets. I figured the fountain pen guy would have been another slow mover but he had vanished. So I shot out 2 large plate glass windows in the mansion and another propane heater. I used my last round on the chocolate dipping fountain. It kicked up an impressive brown splash and toppled over, rolled off the table and onto the ground.

I noticed a small fire had started where my fireworks went off. I love it when a plan goes smoothly. It was time for me to go.