One Shot

One shot

A long long time ago, an older and seemingly wiser man told of the sniper core to an ignorant boy.

“They get a single bullet for their target” explained the know it all.

“One shot, and then hit or miss, they pack up and leave”

Years later, that boy grew into a soldier himself, and now its far more complex then that simple picture of a single bullet and single trigger pull to be a sniper.
Yet, in some things, the analogy still rings true.

~~~

The soldier prones on his lofty perch, he’d been here for a long time now.

Watching, listening, waiting for the perfect shot.

More than once he thought the target lost, yet he stayed on, a silent mix of
determination and desperation.

He reaches into a neck pouch and fishes out a single 7.62mm round...

Studying the grain of the metal jacket, the crimp of the outershell to the projectile core, he hums softly as he as wipes the pointed object.

Satisfied the round is clean he gingerly loads it into the breach of his single blot action rifle and slams it shut with a well practised movement.

Laying down in the prone position and brings his eye to the scope once more to make sure its still calibrated.

The solider eyes the terrain through the multi tiered cross hairs of the scope, consciously slowing his breathing to a steady rhythm, in doing so creating the steady tidal movement of the rifle barrel.

Rise...fall....rise...fall...rise...fall.

Flexing muscles in his legs, stomach, shoulders and arms in a different syncopation he fights the body’s natural fast twitch reflexes with endurance and willpower.

Trigger finger completely tensed, yet completely relaxed, sitting on the outside of the trigger guard, he knows he is ready.

Counting the heart beats he waits for an unknown signal.

One bullet, one shot, one chance.