Eyes and Ears

"Jake, check this out. Jake. Jake! Oh, god...bless him." With a curse cut short and more than a slight annoyance, Jacqlyn left her spot on the firing line and made her way to the observation deck. As usual, the armorer was defeating the point of a sound proof room by playing music overly loud and not looking out the ballistic glass. Heaven forbid something go wrong on the line.
"Jake!"
"What?"
"You should be paying more attention! Especially to the one on the far right - AB-3097.."
"The one in red?"
"Yes?"
"What is so imporatant - its a reanimate just like the rest."
"And its using a bolt action rifle."
"So? Thats what we normally do. Its hard enough to teach a human proper care, fire discipline, and how to clear a jam in a fight - you expect those half dead things to use an assault weapon?"
"I know standard procedure Jake. What I don't know is how it can do that. I haven't thought it anything!"
"Its using a rifle on its own?"
"I don't know if it somehow already knew how to use a weapon, or if one of the others decided to teach it. It was just supposed to be here to get used to the sound, and see the guns are not some sort of club. There it is again - working the bolt, checking down the sights - is it trying to adjust them?"
"They're teaching or already know. Too smart for their own good, just like the aliens. Pretty soon the radio is going to interview them too."
"Interview the aliens, yeah right"
"No, they already talk to the aliens - I mean the reanimates on the radio. Dead from New York its..."
"Where did you hear aliens on the radio?"
"Recordings are being circulated, its from somewhere out West."
"You're not supposed to be listening to that stuff."
"I'm just trying to get some news of the outside world."
"The outside world isn't worth knowing about. What you're listening too could be spiritual corruption in audio form. How do you know its safe?"
"Because I'm me, I know my self."
"But do you know your spirit? That would be something to ask a minister about. Doctors and scientists thought they knew themselves, can look ingot their minds, and with advanced imaging techniques into their patients. Look what happened from their hubris. That thing over there, that can use a rifle instinctively, and never needs to compensate for heavy breathing disrupting its aim."
"Buying into the party line much?"
"Jake - I'm willing to accept not everyone is comfortable here. But I'm not willing to see the Committee of Right Thought coming down on my friends, and then turning upon me and my family because they are wary of how far such opinions have traveled. Part of me says, don't threaten the guy who can remove the firing pins from all of my weapons before a mission - but lets be abundantly clear - I'm not going to get dragged down with you."
"Loud and clear commander, loud and clear."
"Speaking of firing pins - think I should use a 38 to wipe AB-3097 back to factory condition?"
"I'd go for a .45, but this might be worth watching. Waste not want not."