Isekai Family Robinson: A slow-burn Isekai

Matty had thought that the first thing to do was to do an inventory of the Dilligaf, find out what stores they had, what tools, what resources. Or to sit down with Olivia, who was practically vibrating, and get her take on just what the rules of this world might be and if she had any insight into how they might work.

And while Alejandra agreed that it would soon be necessary to do exactly those things, there was one very specific thing that was of greater importance right now.

She stood before her family and Dinah–No, she chided herself, just her family. If it was true and there was no method for them to return to Earth, then Dinah was officially an adopted member of this family now and forevermore–with a large rock that was serving as an improvised table between her and them.

And on the rock were guns.

"Wait, seriously?" asked Bel, eyeing first Alejandra and then the firearms in disbelief. "You want us to carry guns around with us?"

"Si," Alejandra said, nodding once.

"I'm in," Lucas and Olivia said immediately and simultaneously.

"Allie," Matt said, frowning. "Are you sure–"

"Did we all see it when a giant crab came out of the water and nearly killed us all?" she asked bluntly, looking at everyone in turn. Everyone winced.

"If Olivia is even half-right," she continued in a gentler tone, "then that means this world we have been thrust into is dangerous and possibly actively hostile to us. Which means we must be able to defend ourselves. Which means," she added, glaring at the two younger children, "that I am going to trust you with these very dangerous weapons. They are not toys, they are not 'very cool'. They are for killing, and if you do not take them seriously it will not matter to them who you accidentally shoot."

"Uh…" Lucas swallowed, suddenly seeming much less enthusiastic. "Maybe I shouldn't–"

"But,"Alejandra drove over him, "if you treat them with the respect they deserve, and follow your father's and my instructions, then they may also be what saves your life, or the life of tu familia. So before I give these to you, I will show you how to respect them, and how to handle them, and how you fire them. Comprende?"

A chorus of unsure 'yes's was her answer. She took a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly.

"Wait, do we even need the guns?" Olivia asked, frowning. "Dad's got that cool new Warden thing, that we don't know what it does," she added pointedly. "Maybe it gives him some offensive abilities. Maybe we should all get one, then we could take care of ourselves?"

"I got it by accident," Matty said before Alejandra could speak. "We don't know what it would take to trigger others like it, and we don't know what abilities it gives us. It could take all day, or a week, or a month to get one for everyone. And in the mean time, we still need to defend ourselves."

"And I know how these work," Alejandra agreed, patting the stock of her rifle.

"But sometimes they don't work like you think they should," Olivia said. "In the books, sometimes monsters are so strong that only skills and stuff from the new world are powerful enough to damage monsters from that world."

"Oh, like Dragonball Z," Dinah said, perking up. "Like how guns don't work on Saiyins because they're just too strong?"

"Right!" Olivia pointed at her friend. "Exactly like that."

"We managed to kill a crab with a rock in a shirt," Matty said. "Guns should work just fine, right?"

"Okay, point," Olivia conceded. "And I guess they'll probably work against low-level enemies. But I wouldn't count on them being really effective if we wind up having to fight a dragon or something."

"If we have to fight a dragon, I'm just gonna hide," Lucas said decisively.

"True that," Isabel said, reaching out to fist-bump her little brother.

"You guys have no sense of adventure," Olivia grumbled.

"Alright, now that we've got that settled," Alejandra said with a raised eyebrow, "can we focus please?"

"Yes mom," came the chorus, with the harmony of 'yes Mrs. Albright' from Dinah.

It's just like teaching basic firearms to the Cherries, she told herself.

Right.

She looked down at the guns arrayed on the rock. And there were a lot of them. Some of them old friends, some of them new additions she'd picked up specifically for the trip to Hawaii.

She had three pistols, including her personal Sig, all chambered in the same caliber. Because if there was one thing the army had taught her, it was uniformity of ammunition. There was no worse feeling in the world than reaching for a mag and discovering it was the wrong ammo type for the weapon you were currently using. It was why NATO had standardized all their calibers across the various member countries decades ago, so that Joe Frenchman could fire Jack Irishman's ammunition and vice versa.

Luis's pistol had not been among the firearms returned to her when she selected her boon. She assumed that was because it wasn't technically 'hers'. Although how whatever entity was powering this weirdness had come to that determination, she hadn't the foggies.

There were two hunting rifles, both bolt-action. They were designed for hunting large game. She'd bought them for herself and for Matty just before they'd left. Hunting was legal on the Big Island of Hawaii, and the feral pigs that made their home on that island were in season all the time and required no license. The government had declared them a nuisance animal–rightly so, given the amount of property destruction they could cause–and encouraged residents both native and haole alike to take down as many as they wanted.

She had planned to take her whole family hunting as a bonding exercise when they got to the island. Something to maybe quiet down the shakes in her hands and the hypervigilance in her mind and the damned paranoia that was killing her marriage. She had not expected that decision to suddenly appear to be utterly prescient.

God truly did work in mysterious ways.

And finally–not counting her AR-15 which was hers and hers alone to wield–there were the shotguns. Two of them were pump-action 12-gauges, classic hunting weapons and great for people who weren't excellent marksmen. The last was a single-shot shotgun that she had purchased specifically for Lucas. It was shorter and lighter than the others, and fired less powerful rounds that would suit his smaller frame much better than the heavier weapons.

And again, she had not expected to be giving it to him in this particular set of circumstances.

She also had boxes of ammo for all of them–although now seeing the dozen boxes stacked there next to the weapons and thinking about the crab, and whatever else might be out there right now, suddenly the supply seemed woefully inadequate. She'd need to see what other methods of self-defense they could come up with if they were truly going to be spending a prolonged amount of time here.

Olivia might have some ideas on that. She resolved to give her youngest daughter the stage soon so they could all pick her brain about just what exactly was in those books she'd been reading and how they might apply to this world.

But first things first.

"Alright," she said, taking up one of the shotguns. "I'm going to give you an accelerated course in firearms safety. Y tu tambien, mi corazone," she added to Matty, grinning at him. He returned with a wry smirk and edged closer. He had never taken to guns much when she had brought him to the range, but he had already done the firearms safety training she'd asked of him.

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A refresher never hurt though.

She quickly went through the basics: Treat every gun as though it were loaded at all times, never point it at another person even if you know it's not loaded unless you intended to shoot them, all the major points. Then she told each of them to pick up and handle the unloaded weapons to get a feel for them, to see how heavy they were and how they fit into their hands. She also kept a weather eye on the kids, and had to step in several times–with Lucas especially–to ensure that they followed the safety rules as she'd just explained them.

It was when she was telling Lucas to point the barrel of the shotgun away from his sisters–again–that she noticed Dinah standing slightly off to the side, racking back the bolt on one of the hunting rifles to peer into the breech.

The girl's hands moved with practiced motions, clearing the chamber, checking to see if it was loaded, flicking on and off the safety, then racking home the bolt and bringing polymer stock back to her shoulder to peer down the barrel, lining up the sights on something only she could see. Her stance was broad and braced, and her trigger pull was smooth and unhurried. When Alejandra heard the 'click' of the trigger breaking and the firing pin snapping forward, she knew instinctively that Dinah's stance would have allowed her to absorb the recoil of the shot almost effortlessly. And almost as soon as the trigger broke, the girl threw the bolt, ratcheted it back to eject what would have been the spent round from the chamber, slid the bolt back home and snugged it down into the firing position.

And she did it all like she wasn't even thinking about it.

"Dinah,"Alejandra said, stepping closer to the red-haired girl. Dinah started and turned to face Allie, an almost guilty look on her face.

"Yes Mrs. Albright?"

"You've handled a gun before, si?"Alejandra nodded at Dinah's stance, and at how even when talking to her she was handling the weapon safely.

Dinah blushed the approximate color of her hair. "Yes Mrs. Albright," she said, dropping her gaze in embarrassment. "My dad and brothers used to take me hunting. They showed me how to use a gun, and how to be safe with it."

"Wait, Di, you were a huntress?" Olivia stared at her friend with wide eyes. "You never told me that!"

"Well, I mean," she mumbled and shuffled her feet. "It's kind of weird, right? Besides, if it ever got around to the other kids at school, they'd probably call me a murderer or something."

Alejandra winced. Yeah, California was still California, and living in Long Beach and sending your kids to private schools there meant that you were going to get very specific types of individuals in your immediate circle almost without fail.

"Would you like to help me, then?" she asked, beckoning the girl forward.

The blush got even redder, but Dinah stepped up next to Allie, trying not to meet anyone's eyes.

The next ten minutes passed in relative silence as Alejandra and Dinah ran the rest of the family through the firearms, gently correcting when mistakes were made, and pointing out the differences in the weapons. Finally, the guns were returned to the rock, and Alejandra stood before them all, once more in her Sergeant mode.

"Next," she said, taking a deep breath, "We're going to load each of these and practice firing them."

She didn't like it. They had maybe three boxes of ammunition for each type of weapon–anywhere from 60 to 150 rounds, depending on which gun specifically she was talking about. The rifles had the fewest rounds, the pistols the most. If she had taken that amount of ammunition with her back in the Desert, her lieutenant would have frog-marched her back and demanded she at least double that. Triple, if they were going on a combat patrol.

On a gun range, 150 rounds was considered 'a warmup'.

But it was what they had, and she wasn't going to let her family carry around weapons that they hadn't fired.

Isabel was big enough and strong enough that she would be tried out on all three weapon types. Matty she already knew was a lousy shot at anything past close range–bless his heart, he had tried so hard–and Lucas was too young and under-strength for anything besides the shotgun she had purchased for him specifically, so that made it a bit easier. Dinah had already laid claim to one of the hunting rifles, and from the look on her face the only way Alejandra would get her to relinquish it would involve a crowbar and a team of large, possibly suicidal, men.

She stood back and waited as her family came forward and took up their first guns and started loading them. She offered advice where needed–and once again told Lucas to not point the damned barrel towards anyone. She said it in her Sergeant's voice this time, and punctuated it with a rare curse that made the boy go white as a sheet and his eyes wide as dinner plates. But this time, it seemed to sink in.

Once the weapons were loaded and safed, Alejandra pointed at the nearest tree on the edge of their clearing.

"That's your target. I want each of you to fire at it once, just to get a feel for your weapon. Just once, and then we'll switch weapons, and fire again. And then again, until everyone has had a chance at every type of gun we have. Then we'll see which one you felt most comfortable with, and we'll try again. This is not about marksmanship, not yet. I want you to concentrate on how the gun feels in your hand, how it feels when you fire, and how you feel."

She beckoned Lucas forward first and bent down to look him in the eye. "Lucas, you're the only exception, because that gun is specifically for you. So I want you to concentrate on how it feels and tell me what it's like, so I can help you get comfortable with it. Okay?"

"Yes mom," Lucas said, the smile gone from his face at Allie's serious tone. "I promise."

"Good. Now, butt against your shoulder, aim down the barrel, find your target, line up the sights…" she patted him on the shoulder and took a step away and behind. "Fire when you're ready."

Lucas took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. The sound of the shot was surprisingly loud in the clearing, and sent a flock of some kind of birds squawking and squealing as they burst into flight from the trees deeper in the jungle. Lucas rocked back on his feet, almost lost his balance, but recovered. The buckshot crashed into the tree, about half of the heavy pellets missing the mark but the rest pock-marking the bark in a random pattern.

"Excellent," Alejandra said, smiling at her son. "Next time, brace for it, feet a little more apart, and don't jerk the trigger, it will ruin your aim. You want it to be smooth. Si?"

"Si mama," Lucas said, eyes wide and shining as he stared at his gun.

"Good. Next up!"

Isabel stepped up next, with one of the pistols. She proved to be a surprisingly decent shot, and had natural instincts about handling the recoil and bring the gun back down for another shot. She looked almost surprised, then looked back at Allie. "Wow. That's actually kinda fun!"

Alejandra just smiled and beckoned the next shooter forward.

For the next twenty minutes the clearing rang out with periodic gunshots as each of the family came forward to fire the different weapons. By the end of that time, Alejandra had come up with a tentative weapon assignment.

She would keep her rifle and one pistol, because she was the most combat-effective member here and the weapons would do the most good in her hands.

Matty would keep his shotgun, but no pistol. He truly was hopeless with anything that required actual aiming.

Isabel would take one of the hunting rifles and a pistol. Alejandra had been surprised at her eldest daughter's proficiency with the weapons, though Bel claimed it was the first time firing any kind of gun. She had seen recruits like that before, who just seemed to have a natural talent for firearms. Some of them had been her finest soldiers.

Granted, some of them had been her most stunning screw-ups, too.

Dinah clung to her hunting rifle like it was a lifeline, but eschewed any attempt to offer her a pistol. Her hands were too small for the larger weapons, and she was clearly uncomfortable handling them.

Olivia received the second 12-gauge shotgun and the remaining pistol. She was only fair with the pistol, but she was careful with it and not prone to excitement, which honestly shocked Allie. But she made it clear that the pistol was a backup weapon, and that the shotgun was to be her first form of defense if it came to that.

And lastly came Lucas, with his single-shot 20-gauge. What it lacked in pure firepower, it more than made up in forcing the excitable young teen to take his time to line up his shots and aim carefully because he only had a single round at a time.

They stood before her in a ragged row, their new weaponry slung over their shoulders or holstered at their waists. They did not look like an army, or even like the recruits of an army. Isabel stared straight back at Alejandra almost defiantly, shoulders back and chest out

Olivia was a little fidgety, wobbling from side to side and kept touching the new pistol holster on her belt like she wasn't exactly sure that it would stay there. Dinah just stared at her feet, and Lucas was switching back and forth between excited and nervous as he kept looking back over his shoulder at the shotgun's barrel.

"Alright," Alejandra said, nodding. "We'll train more with those later, but right now you all know what it feels like to fire a gun, and how to do it safely. We don't know what's on this island, except that there's probably more dangerous things out there, so I want you to keep your guns with you at all times. Practice drawing them and putting them away–with the safeties on, please–so you know how to get to them in a hurry."

"You mean," Lucas said, "we're gonna have to fight monsters?"

"I hope not," Alejandra said quietly, catching Matty's eye. "I hope that if anything does come out at us, your father and I can take care of it before any of you need to worry about it. But I am also not going to lie and say that will always happen no matter what. So yes, you might have to help us fight monsters."

"So cool," Olivia whispered, touching her pistol again.

"But only if you have no choice, or if your father or I tell you to," Alejandra said sternly. "It's Chronicles of Narnia rules right now. These are your weapons, but they are to be used only in times of greatest need. Understood?"

"Y'know," Olivia said like she hadn't heard a word Alejandra had said, "if this were one of my books, right now would be the time when a big monster comes bursting out of the woods and we'd all have to fight it off with our newfound skills."

There was silence as all eyes turned outward to the jungle, only now starting to sound alive again after the gunfire had stopped.

Nothing happened.

"No monsters," Matty said with a wry smirk. He glanced over his shoulder at the grounded yacht. "But we do have a couple hours work taking stock and shifting supplies ahead of us though."

"What a ripoff," Olivia muttered.

"But before that," Alejandra said, looking back at her youngest daughter, "now that we're armed and fed, let's talk about this 'system' thing."

Olivia brightened up.