And Yet So Different

Y/n POV:

Dancing, dancing and more dancing. It has been a week and all we have done is dancing. Every day we had another routine and today is the seventh day. I dont know the date, just that I have been here for seven days. I got food on 4 of these days. The other 3 days I was making mistakes so I got punished.

Our routine was simple: The light turns on, a neatly folded uniform on the right side of the table. We stand up and put it on, make our bed with our night clothes on the bottom left of the bed, go out of the door and down the hall, we arrive at the room and stand in a line until we are ordered to move. Then we do what we are told: dance.

Hours of dancing with only one break after 8 hours so we can eat, then another 6 hours of dancing. After those we get to have a meal, then take a shower and then we go straight to bed, to sleep for exactly 8 hours.

Not today tho. Today I stood up, went over to the table, but I didnt find dancing clothes. I found something like an allrounder training suit, so I figured I would put that on and head down the hall but when I arrived there it didnt quite look like the hall we were in yesterday. There were targets on the one wall and glasses that parted the room 1/5 to 4/5. On the smaller sode of the room were a few tables with guns. All pistols in the first row, sniper rifles at the back row. Everyone stood on their assigned number, so I looked for mine: 593. There is was.

I stood right next to Natalia. She gave me a quick glance, checking my uniform. I mirrored her position and Madame B came into the room: внимание! (attention!) she yelled and everyone was stiff and standing in front of the tables with their numbers, facing the targets, looking straight through the glass.

She stepped into the room, in the middle of the row, facing us and gave us instructions. She gave them in Russian, I learned quite a lot in those past 7 days here.

Вы видите Ганса позади вас за столом. Вы уже все на своих назначенных номерах, поэтому, когда я закончу говорить, вы возьмете пистолет, встанете перед стеклом, прицелитесь через дыру в нем и выстрелите в середину этой мишени! вам будет разрешено идти раньше, когда вы попадете в цель 200 раз в черной середине с нормальной позой и 100 раз со сменой рук после каждых 5 выстрелов. (You see Guns, behind you at the tables. You are already all at your assigned numbers so when i am done talking, you will grab the pistol, step in front of the glass, aim through the hole in it and shot in the middle of that target! you will be allowed to go early when you hit the target 200 times in the black middle with the normal pose and 100 times with switching hands after every 5 shots.)

Oh shit that is tough, I thought to myself. How are we supposed to do that. But she wasnt done talking quite yet:

у вас есть ровно час, чтобы попрактиковаться, хотя вы должны закончить это через пять минут. после этого часа мы собираемся пройти через вас задом наперед, и все попытаются выполнить это упражнение. если вам это удастся, вы можете провести день, как хотите. если вы потерпите неудачу, вы попытаетесь снова после окончания раунда. не успеете ли вы ко сну, не будет ни еды, ни душа, ни перерыва! (you have exactly one hour to practice now, even though you should be done with it in five minutes. after that hour we are going to go through you back to front and everyone will attempt that exercise. if you succeed, you are free to spend the day however you want. if you fail, you will try again after the round is over. will you not have succeeded by bedtime, there will be no food, no shower and no break!)

The anxiety in my body built up really quickly. How are we supposed to do that? Didnt matter. We needed to do it, I needed to do it, I didnt need to starve again. We all turned around and grabbed the gun. I eyed Natalia now to see how she loaded and held it. Then we all stepped in front of the glass, like she said. No one was starting to shoot yet so waited for some kind of signal, which indeed came. Madame B yelled GO after she inspected everyones position, looking to the watch on her wrist.

They all started shooting, but we wore ear protection so I didnt really hear all of it too loudly. I started shooting and I did not even hit the target in any way. Natalia on the other hand always shoot in the middle ring or the ring next to it. And so did most of the others. This was clearly not the first time they shot with pistols. But I figured it was their first time shooting this exercise because Madame B wouldnt have explained it if it wouldnt have been the first time they did this.

That hour was over more quickly that I could even think about switching my hands. I hit the middle ring of the target in approximately 20 shoots out of 500. In my left hand the statistic was even worse. We all had to stop shooting and all the girls stepped three steps behind, except from the girl that was first. I think her name was Irina. After her five minutes were up, she got 182 out of 200 and 90 out of 100 with switching hands but she did not quite get it all so she had to stay. The next two girls got it on the first try nearly not having enough time.

Next was Nat. I knew she was good but holy. She hit them all, in a row, in three minutes an 50 seconds, the fastest I have seen today or really ever. She was free to go, just as the other two girls she locked the pistol, placed it neatly back on the table and headed out to the shower room.

Next was me ugh Madame B came to stand behind me, giving me permission to step to the glass and position myself. You have three minutes for the one handed exercise and two for the 100 shots with switching hands. She gave me the start sign and I started shooting. I hit nothing, for like a minute. Then , something in me switched and my concentration floded into every bullet. I fired about 150 through the exact same whole. Then after the first three minutes were up I changed my position to frontal and didnt hit the target again. This time there was no hyper focus. I failed.

158/200 and 13/100. I felt so bad because I felt so much confidence and then I fucked it all up. I could clearly sense the tenseness in Madame Bs voice when she that I had to stay and try next time.

hi guys, i am very sorry for all the people that were/are interested in my story that it took me so long to update but i wasn't doing very well lately but today i had the motivation to write something for you. i hope you guys like it :P