Chapter 30 Carl

I’ll Train Him Myself!

30: Chapter 30: Carl…

I’ll Train Him Myself!

Chapter 30: Carl…

I’ll Train Him Myself!

Seeing that everyone finally understood what he meant, Magnus Vane nodded in satisfaction and raised one finger.

“One week.

For the next seven days, everyone who hasn’t personally killed a walker is going through training.” His gaze swept across the group without making exceptions for age or gender.

“Everyone here needs at least enough skill to protect themselves when nobody else is around.” Magnus began assigning instructors based on what each person was actually good at.

Rick and Shane could handle firearms, basic tactics, and safety from their years as King County sheriff’s deputies, while Daryl and Glenn had plenty of experience moving through walker-infested territory without getting trapped.

Maggie had already shown she could kill walkers herself and knew the surrounding land better than most of the newcomers.

Between them, Magnus had more than enough experienced people to teach the others without throwing anyone directly into unnecessary danger.

He deliberately left Merle out of the main training rotation.

Merle was capable, but Magnus could already imagine what a full week under his instruction would produce.

The last thing he needed was Carl, Sophia, Beth, or anyone else coming back with Merle’s vocabulary and his habit of insulting someone every third sentence.

More importantly, assigning Merle to perimeter security would keep him useful while forcing him to spend time around the larger group and gradually become part of it.

Then Magnus looked toward Carl.

A grin appeared.

“As for Carl, I’ll train him myself.” Carl’s expression immediately became a mixture of excitement and nervousness.

Magnus had just spent the morning radiating enough aggression to make several adults uncomfortable, and the Stone Sledgehammer sitting beside him didn’t exactly make him look approachable.

Still, Carl had watched Magnus fight at the quarry and had been fascinated by him ever since.

Having Magnus personally teach him sounded terrifying and incredible at the same time.

Magnus had several goals behind the week of training.

Shane needed to stop seeing him purely as a threat, Lori needed to understand that protecting Carl didn’t mean keeping him helpless, and the two groups needed to learn how to operate together before attempting something as dangerous as the prison.

By the end of the week, Magnus wanted fewer strangers sharing a campsite and more people who could actually function as a team.

If it worked, they would arrive at the prison much better prepared than they were now.

The meeting broke up more smoothly than anyone might have expected after the earlier confrontation.

People scattered to gather weapons, ammunition, supplies, and whatever else they would need for training.

Before Magnus could leave, however, Rick and Hershel approached him together.

Hershel looked considerably less pleased than Rick.

“You should’ve talked to us before announcing all of that,” Hershel said.

“For a moment there, I honestly thought you were going to hit Shane with that hammer.” He hadn’t personally seen what Magnus had done to the raiders in town, but he had seen enough of Magnus’s fighting ability to know exactly what the Stone Sledgehammer could do to a human body.

When Magnus stepped toward Shane earlier, Hershel had nearly expected the meeting to end in blood.

Rick shook his head.

“He pushed too hard, but his point isn’t wrong.

We don’t have months to ease everybody into this.” He frowned and looked toward the bright morning sky.

“Things are changing too fast.” Hershel turned toward him.

“What are you talking about?” Magnus answered before Rick could.

“The walkers are spreading farther out from the cities.

I warned you about that when we first arrived.” He gestured toward Rick’s group.

“They ran into a large herd before they reached the farm.

Something that size crossing this property would overwhelm what defenses you have here.” Rick nodded grimly.

“He’s right.

We barely got through it ourselves.” Magnus continued, “Atlanta had hundreds of thousands of people before everything fell apart, and the surrounding cities add millions more.

Those walkers aren’t going to stay inside downtown forever.

They’re already drifting along highways, through suburbs, and out into the countryside.” His expression became serious.

“We need somewhere stronger than this farm, and we need it sooner rather than later.” “The prison,” Hershel murmured.

“The prison,” Magnus confirmed.

“But before we go there, everyone has to be ready to fight.

I’m not losing half the group because somebody froze the first time a walker got within arm’s reach.” Hershel still looked reluctant.

His crops weren’t ready, the farm had been his family’s home for decades, and the barn remained full of people he stubbornly believed might someday be cured.

Leaving all of that behind wasn’t something he could accept after a single conversation.

Magnus saw the hesitation but didn’t press him further.

“We’ve got a week,” Magnus said.

“Use it.” For the training itself, Magnus trusted Shane more than he was willing to admit aloud.

Whatever their personal friction, Shane was competent, alert, and experienced enough to keep inexperienced survivors from doing something catastrophically stupid.

The coming week would also serve as a kind of graduation test for the group.

Before anyone went near the prison, Magnus wanted them to have faced the dead intentionally instead of surviving only because someone stronger happened to be nearby.

If regular training wasn’t enough, Magnus was prepared to make the final test more direct.

He could isolate walkers, restrain them if necessary, and force the inexperienced members to perform controlled kills under supervision.

He wasn’t going to throw anyone blindly into danger, but neither would he allow someone to claim they were ready after practicing only on empty air.

The prison would not give them that luxury.

Hershel eventually walked away, still visibly troubled.

Magnus watched him go before turning toward Rick.

“What about you?

You don’t trust me with your kid?” Rick remained silent for several seconds.

Then he nodded.

“No father is completely comfortable putting his son in somebody else’s hands.” The answer didn’t offend Magnus.

Rick hadn’t known him for long, and most of what he had seen involved Magnus turning walker skulls into paste with an oversized hammer.

From Rick’s perspective, there were plenty of reasons to wonder whether Magnus’s definition of training might be a little too extreme.

The possibility of Carl coming back acting like a miniature version of Magnus probably wasn’t comforting either.

Magnus placed a hand on Rick’s shoulder.

“I’m not going to throw Carl into a herd.

I’ll be watching him the entire time.” His expression turned serious.

“If something gets too close, it gets through me before it gets to him.” Rick studied his face.

Magnus meant every word.

If a walker somehow slipped past him during Carl’s training, Magnus would put his own body between its teeth and the boy without hesitation.

The system’s antibiotics had already proven capable of eliminating Magnus’s infection once, something no ordinary survivor could rely on.

That gave him a margin of safety nobody else possessed, and if the choice ever came down to Carl taking the bite or Magnus taking it, there wouldn’t be a choice at all.

“Besides,” Magnus continued, “Carl won’t stay a kid forever.

One day he’s going to be somewhere you can’t reach him.” He paused.

“Better he learns what to do before that day comes.” Rick’s expression tightened immediately.

His eyes seemed to say exactly what he thought about Magnus casually discussing his son leaving him someday.

Magnus almost smiled.

After another moment, Rick looked away and adjusted his shirt.

His thumb rubbed absently across one of the buttons.

“Carl sewed this one on for me the first time he tried doing something like that himself,” he said quietly.

“I’ve kept it ever since.” Magnus didn’t interrupt.

Rick touched the brim of his sheriff’s hat next.

“Same with this.

Some things matter because of who gave them to you.” His eyes returned to Magnus, and the meaning behind the words was obvious.

Carl wasn’t another member of the group to Rick; he was the most important person in the world.

Magnus lifted the Stone Sledgehammer onto one shoulder and met his gaze without flinching.

“Carl won’t get hurt.” His confidence left no room for uncertainty.

“I won’t let it happen.” Rick watched him for a long moment.

Then he raised one hand.

“Carl!” The boy immediately hurried over.

Carl stopped in front of them and looked between his father and Magnus, clearly realizing the decision had been made.

Rick crouched until they were eye to eye and placed both hands on his son’s shoulders.

His expression became the same serious one he used when explaining something Carl absolutely needed to remember.

“You stay with Magnus,” Rick said.

“Listen more than you talk.

Watch what he does, think before you move, and do exactly what he tells you when there’s danger.” Carl nodded slowly while Rick continued.

“He knows how to handle walkers.

If he gives you an order out there, you treat it the same way you would if it came from me.” Carl glanced toward Magnus.

Then back to his father.

“Yes, sir.” Rick held his gaze for another moment before standing.

It was a level of trust he didn’t give lightly.

Magnus understood that if he had shown even the slightest uncertainty when promising Carl’s safety, Rick would have refused immediately, even if it caused an argument between them.

But once Rick decided to trust someone, he was willing to commit fully instead of hovering over every decision.

Magnus looked down at Carl and grinned.

“All right, kid.” He adjusted the Stone Sledgehammer on his shoulder.

“Let’s see what you can do.”