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Sniper's Oath

In the western United States, there is a small town called Locust Tree Town, which is famous for being full of locust trees.

By EmilyPublished 2 years ago 13 min read
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Scary killer

  In the western United States, there is a small town called Locust Tree Town, which is famous for being full of locust trees. One day, on the road outside the town, an unshaven man was walking alone. His name was Thomson, a veteran.

  Thomson was walking when suddenly, a young man was driving a motorcycle and passed him like a flash. At this time, not far from Thomson, there was a gunshot. Thomson crawled on the ground like a conditioned reflex, and the young man on the motorcycle fell off the motorcycle like he had been punched hard.

  Everyone on the road gathered around. Thomson stood up when he saw that there was no danger around. He did not go to watch the fun like everyone else, but quickly walked towards his house.

  Thomson's home was impoverished, with only a few simple pieces of furniture. Thomson closed the door, walked to the writing desk, leaned down and looked at the ground carefully, then breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on the sofa.

  That afternoon, Sheriff McCann of Locust Tree Town knocked on Thomson's door. He told Thomson straight to the point: This morning, there was a murder on the road outside the town, and Thomson was seen at the scene., and hurried home after the incident. After the police investigated the scene, they found a bullet casing where Thomson had fallen. So they're going to conduct a search of Thomson's home and ask Thomson to cooperate.

  Thomson nodded in agreement. Taking advantage of the police's search, McCann took out the photo of the deceased. Thomson was stunned when he saw it: between the young man's eyes, there was a round bullet hole. Such a high-speed moving target, the killer can kill with one shot, and the location is so accurate, it's terrifying. Thomson pointed to the bullet holes in the photo and said, "At the time of the incident, I was about ten meters away from the gunman, but I didn't see him. But the sound of the gunshots sounded very familiar to me, it should have been from the M40 sniper rifle."

  McCann nodded and asked him to continue, Thomson said: "When I was a soldier, I used the M40. In Hollywood war movies, American heroes also used the M40. Some of these guns flowed into Folk, it's hard to find, but there aren't many people who can shoot with such precision. I've seen one in my life, my comrade-in-arms Creel, but he's already died on overseas battlefields."

  The police search was soon over, but nothing was found except a delicate medal of valor. McCann played with the medal and said to Thomson: "Very well, Mr. Thomson, your analysis is very reasonable. From today onwards, I will send two police officers to monitor you, and I hope you can cooperate with me. Work."

  Thomson was stunned: "You suspect that I am the murderer? You know, from the first day I was a soldier, I swore that I would never shoot at civilians."

  McCann smiled coldly and said, "I didn't say that, but according to the records, you are also an excellent sniper on the battlefield, and your level is not lower than that of Creel, right? Creel has become a ghost, and you are the only veteran in town who has been a sniper. You say, I suspect you have no reason?" After speaking, McCann threw the medal on the table and turned away.

  Looking at McCann's back, Thomson's face was ashen. He picked up the medal, suddenly threw it heavily on the ground, then grabbed his hair tightly with both hands, and lay down on the table in pain.

  Lost medal

  The next morning, when Thomson got up, he opened the door and saw two young police officers sitting on the lawn outside the door. When one of them saw Thomson coming out, he hurried over and introduced himself: "Hello, Mr. Thomson, my name is Levy, if you need anything, we can help you."

  Thomson sighed and said, "I don't need anything. The temperature in Locust Tree Town is very low at night. You can come to my house, and I won't be able to run away."

  Levy shook his head, and he could see that his eyes were full of vigilance. Thomson had to step back, he moved a stool and sat at the door, and began to close his eyes to recuperate, but his mind couldn't calm down. The familiar gunshot of the M40 kept echoing in his ears, taking his thoughts back to far-flung overseas.

  At that time, Krill and Thomson, as the only two snipers in the company, were ordered to lie in ambush on the mountain, one left and one right, specializing in sniping enemy militants. Krill's marksmanship is very accurate. Every time he fires, a figure must fall, and the bullet hole falls right between the opponent's eyes, and then he will give Thomson a thumbs up excitedly. After the battle, Thomson killed 5 people and Krill killed 13 people, but in the end Thomson returned and Krill fell in the jungle overseas. Thomson's spirit was hit, he retired early and settled in Huashu Town, far from his hometown. Unexpectedly, the familiar M40 gunshots suddenly appeared here again, and he became the focus of the police's suspicion...

For three days in a row, after dinner, Thomson sat at the door, and the door was not closed at night so that the police could see him. However, in those days, no gunshots rang out in Huaishu Town, and Thomson's heart was very contradictory: if the killer appeared, someone in Huaishu Town would be killed; if the killer never appeared, he would never be able to wash away his wrongs.

  When it was dark on the fourth day, Thomson packed up his stool and went back into the house. He turned on the light, and suddenly found that someone seemed to have entered the house. He looked around and found that only the Medal of Valor was missing. Thomson smiled bitterly: It's really hard for that thief, there's really nothing more valuable than a medal in this room.

  At night, Thomson couldn't sleep in bed, and Krill's thumbs-up, staring posture was always dangling in front of his eyes.

In the middle of the night, Thomson suddenly heard a gunshot in the distance. The sound was extremely slight, but Thomson knew it was the sound of the M40 as soon as he heard it, and the ghost killer finally appeared again! He got up excitedly and wanted to rush out. As soon as he reached the door, he stopped again. He is now being watched, and if he rashly goes out, I am afraid it will cause misunderstandings. It is better to wait for the police to come and return his innocence.

  At five in the morning, Thomson was about to get up when McCann and four police officers rushed in and held him at gunpoint. McCann pulled out an evidence bag, shook it in front of Thomson, and said, "Mr. Thomson, what else do you have to say? There was another shooting on the road outside town last night, which we found at the scene."

  Thomson was stunned. The evidence bag contained the medal of valor he lost. He stammered: "Mr. Sheriff, I think you have misunderstood. Yesterday, a thief entered my house and this medal was stolen. Last night, I didn't even take a step out of the door, how could I go out and kill people? If you don't believe me, you can ask Levy and the others."

  McCann turned to look at Levy, who said for a long time, "Sheriff, we were here last night, but, you know, the two of us haven't slept for three days, and Mr. Thomson is also very cooperative, so last night we... fell asleep."

  Thomson almost wanted to rush up to give Levy a few punches, but McCann kept pointing the gun at him. McCann said: "Thomson, although you have fought bloody battles for the country, you should understand the truth of killing for your life. Now, hand over Your M40, follow me to the police station, and prepare to be punished."

  Thomson's face was very ugly, and after thinking for a while, he said to McCann, "Okay, I'll go with you, but I have to tell you: I didn't kill people. In fact, after the first case happened, I Just guessed the name of the murderer, his name was..." Thomson's voice fell, and he wrote quickly with his fingers on the dusty table.

  McCann and Levy leaned over to the table and carefully identified Thomson's scribbled handwriting. It took McCann a lot of effort to see that the word was "idiot", and just as he was about to get angry, Thomson had grabbed him and Levy by the necks and slammed their heads together. With a "bang", both of them passed out. The other three police officers rushed up when they saw this, but Thomson's fist was faster, and after a few rounds, they all fell to the ground.

  After an unknown time, McCann woke up and found that they were all sitting on the ground with their backs tied. And Thomson changed into an old military uniform and sat on the chair opposite them. The writing desk in the room was pushed aside, a rectangular hole was opened in the ground, and some torn oil paper was scattered around, and Thomson was holding a polished M40!

  Seeing that McCann woke up, Thomson said indignantly: "Originally, I had buried this love gun in the ground together with the memories of that hateful war. I left my hometown and came here to make myself forget the past completely, but You have to wake me up. I've always believed that you can give me my innocence, but you don't trust me at all. Well, let me meet this master, and you won't know I'm innocent until his bullet pierces my head!" After speaking, Thomson kicked open the door and walked out.

  Master showdown

  Thomson drove McCann's car to the outside of town and climbed up the hill. Both murders took place on the road at the foot of the mountain, and the murderer would definitely leave a trail on the mountain. When Thomson was halfway up the mountain, he suddenly heard gunshots coming from the town, it was still an M40! The direction seemed to be his own home, one shot, two shots, three shots, four shots, five shots, a full five shots! How could the killer appear in town? You know, there are five police officers tied up in his house! Thinking of this, Thomson suddenly woke up, McCann... McCann and the others are done! This time, even if he jumped into the Pacific Ocean, he couldn't wash it off.

It didn't take long for a sharp siren to sound throughout the town. At dawn, Thomson saw that the foot of the mountain was full of troops. The military set up a loudspeaker and shouted at the mountain: "Thomson, you have been surrounded, go down the mountain and surrender immediately!"

  Thomson fell to the ground in annoyance. Who was it that pushed himself into this abyss?

  Suddenly, Thomson felt movement behind him, he jumped up suddenly, turned around, raised his gun and aimed backwards. In the scope, an old man in his fifties appeared, who was the new neighbor who moved in half a month ago - gray-haired old Simon, he even held an M40 in his hand! The posture of raising the gun and aiming made Thomson quickly think of a person - Krill! In addition to their different ages, the faces of the two people are somewhat similar. More importantly, the eyes of the two people facing the target are almost identical.

  Old Simon looked at Thomson angrily and said, "Young man, I've been looking for you for five years. Five years ago, you shot my son Creel to death. Although the military covered up the truth, my son The bullet hole in the M40 on his forehead tells me that you were jealous and killed him! Because in that battle, only you and Creel had this kind of gun!"

  Thomson understood: everything that happened recently was manipulated by old Simon, he did the shooting, and he was the one who stole the medal and put it at the scene of the shooting!

  Thomson nodded and said, "You guessed right, I killed Krill, but I'm not jealous of him. Krill doesn't deserve to be a sniper! He has no humanity! In the last battle, he killed 13 people, 9 of them were panicked women and children! On the battlefield, I have my creed, that is, I will never kill people who do not wear military uniforms, so I shot him... After returning from overseas battlefields, I have been waiting for you to come to me for revenge, but why did you shoot bullets at people who had nothing to do with this?"

  The old man smiled: "Young man, I used to be a soldier too. In my eyes, a sniper only has a target under the muzzle. Creel is all my hope. He mentioned you many times in his letters to me., he trusted you so much, but you killed him with one shot! Today, even if you can escape my bullets, you can't escape the round-up of the army. Hundreds of guns are aimed at you, and you can't argue! Ha ha......"

  Thomson nodded and said, "I've been waiting for this bullet for a long time. Unfortunately, you didn't wear a military uniform, otherwise, we could have a real duel!"

  With a "bang", the two M40s rang at the same time. Thomson's body fell straight back, and the bullet hit Thomson's head, leaving a round bullet hole between his eyes. At this time, old Simon also closed his eyes. He didn't expect this Thomson's technique to be so quick that he could pull the trigger at the same time as him. He thought that today's result was to die together. But after waiting for a while, he realized that he was not injured. He touched his forehead and there was no scar at all. He quickly ran to Thomson's side, picked up Thomson's M40, pulled the bolt, and exited the bullet, only to find that it was filled with empty bullets without warheads!

  Old Simon was stunned, Thomson's words echoing in his ears - snipers can't kill people who don't wear uniforms! Snipers can't kill people who don't wear uniforms!

  Old Simon knelt down beside Thomson. He felt that he had lost, and Krill had lost. Thomson would rather be killed than break his oath.

  After a while, old Simon stood up, raised the M40 in his hand over his head, and walked down the mountain step by step. On the mountain road, the army with live ammunition had already outflanked it, and then old Simon discovered that the locust trees all over the mountain had bloomed, and the clouds were as white...

Short Story
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About the Creator

Emily

Enjoy solitude and like to write quietly alone.

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