he was forced off onto a narrow wooden pier and made to line up single file and then made to run toward the city , past a staging post where the second phase of his military training took place : two quartermasters were doling out loaded rifles and spare ammunition clips in an endless alternate sequence and chanting what later struck the zec as a poem , or a song , or a hymn to complete and utter insanity , over and over again without pausing : the one with the rifle shoots the one without follows him when the one with the rifle is killed the one who is following picks up the rifle and shoots .