Chapter 31 Wait

Me?

31: Chapter 31: Wait…

Me?

Chapter 31: Wait…

Me?

After giving Carl his final instructions, Rick stood and left with Lori.

She kept glancing back every few steps, clearly still uneasy about leaving her son in Magnus Vane’s hands, and Magnus couldn’t help giving Carl a light pat on the head.

Then he noticed someone else watching them from beneath a nearby tree.

Shane stood with both hands on his hips, glaring openly at Magnus.

The moment Magnus ruffled Carl’s hair, Shane’s jaw tightened hard enough for the muscles along his face to stand out.

He looked irritated enough to march over and take the boy back himself.

Magnus saw the reaction and smiled faintly.

So far, everything was going exactly as expected.

Shane could be ruthless toward strangers and even toward himself when circumstances demanded it, but Lori and Carl remained his greatest weakness.

That attachment made him dangerous, loyal, emotional, and predictable all at once.

Magnus didn’t consider Shane incapable of leadership, but he did think those feelings could cloud his judgment whenever Lori or Carl were involved.

In Magnus’s eyes, Shane was better suited as one of the strongest pillars supporting a group than as the only man expected to carry it.

“Already getting worked up?” Magnus muttered under his breath.

“We haven’t even started yet.” Carl looked up at him.

“What’s getting worked up?” Magnus’s teasing expression disappeared instantly.

His hand came down in a light tap on Carl’s head.

“Ow!” “I said we’re wasting daylight,” Magnus replied without missing a beat.

“Come on.

Training starts now.” Carl rubbed his head and hurried after him toward the fire engine.

Magnus climbed into the driver’s seat and unlocked the passenger door, watching as Carl carefully climbed the tall steps into the cab.

The moment the door shut behind him, the boy released a long breath he had apparently been holding since the meeting.

Magnus noticed.

Still too sheltered.

Carl had already seen more death than any child should, but Lori had naturally tried to keep him away from the worst of it whenever possible.

Magnus understood why a mother would do that, yet the world no longer gave parents the luxury of controlling when danger reached their children.

Rick’s son needed to learn caution without becoming helpless, and confidence without mistaking himself for invincible.

Magnus leaned across and fastened Carl’s seat belt securely.

“Ready?” Carl nodded.

“Then let’s go.” The fire engine rumbled away from Hershel’s farm.

Shane watched the truck disappear down the road.

He paced several steps beneath the tree before driving the heel of his boot hard into the trunk.

One hand settled near the handgun at his waist almost without conscious thought, his anger simmering beneath the surface.

Everything about watching Magnus drive away with Carl irritated him.

“Shane.” Lori approached from behind.

“They’re starting the training over there.” She barely met his eyes before turning toward the camp again.

Rick was still nearby, and whatever complicated emotions existed between her and Shane, neither of them was prepared to bring them into the open in front of him.

Shane bit his lower lip and stared after the fire engine for another few seconds before finally turning away.

This Shane had not yet become the man he might have become under different circumstances.

Carl had never been shot.

Otis was still alive.

Shane had never been forced into the desperate choice that would have hardened him further, and the darker part of him had not yet been pushed completely into the open.

For now, he was still Rick’s closest friend and one of the group’s most capable protectors, no matter how complicated his feelings toward Lori had become.

There was another reason he stayed where he was.

Magnus was dangerous.

Shane had a gun, but that didn’t automatically mean he controlled the situation.

If he acted and failed to end the confrontation immediately, the consequences would tear apart the camp and possibly destroy his relationship with Rick, Lori, and Carl all at once.

Shane looked back toward Lori’s retreating figure, forced down his anger, and headed toward the others.

Carl sat in the passenger seat while the fire engine rolled along the road, his head moving slightly with every bump.

His eyes stayed glued to the scenery outside, filled with excitement he was doing a poor job hiding.

This was the first time he had traveled this far from camp without Rick or Lori beside him.

“Where are we going?” Carl asked.

There was curiosity in his voice, along with the faint rebellious excitement of a kid who had suddenly been given more freedom than usual.

Magnus glanced at him before returning his attention to the road.

“You’ll find out when we get there.

First, put this on.” Magnus reached into his system inventory while keeping the motion out of Carl’s direct view, then produced a complete Wooden Armor Set and handed it over.

The pieces had been crafted through the system and fitted closely enough to Carl’s size to be usable, covering him from the upper body down through protective leg pieces.

Carl immediately began examining the material and construction.

“Why wood?” “Because it’s light, tough enough to matter, and won’t slow you down too much,” Magnus answered smoothly.

“You need protection you can still run in.” That explanation was true.

It just wasn’t the entire truth.

At the moment, wooden armor was simply the practical armor Magnus could reliably craft through the system.

Against a walker’s fingernails, teeth, and grasping hands, however, even a basic layer between Carl’s skin and a bite could make an enormous difference.

Magnus had no intention of sending him anywhere dangerous without every advantage available.

About half an hour later, the fire engine entered the same small town east of the farm that Magnus had already scavenged.

The engine rolled to a stop.

Silence returned as the diesel rumble faded.

Carl, now wearing the Wooden Armor Set, looked expectantly toward Magnus.

He still remembered Rick’s instructions clearly: listen, watch, think, and treat Magnus’s orders seriously whenever they were in danger.

Carl might be entering the age when challenging his parents became natural, but his trust in Rick remained absolute.

For today, some of that trust had been temporarily handed to Magnus.

Magnus studied him for a moment.

“Carl, what do you think is the most important thing for somebody who hasn’t killed a walker yet?” Carl tilted his head.

“Shooting straight?” He had seen Rick and the others preparing firearms training before they left the farm, so the answer made sense to him.

Magnus shook his head.

“Not even close.” Carl frowned.

“The first thing you learn is how not to get caught.” Magnus pointed through the windshield toward the abandoned street ahead.

“You won’t always have a gun.

You won’t always have enough ammo.

Sometimes fighting is the dumbest thing you can do.” Carl listened more carefully now.

“This world is full of walkers that don’t get tired, don’t get scared, and don’t care whether you’re exhausted,” Magnus continued.

“If you’re trapped outside, you need to be able to keep moving, watch where they’re coming from, avoid getting surrounded, and know when to run instead of trying to prove something.” He tapped Carl lightly on the chest armor.

“Stamina keeps you alive just as much as a weapon does.” “So before you learn how to kill one,” Magnus finished, “you learn how to stay away from one.” Carl’s shoulders dropped.

“Oh.” Magnus laughed quietly.

The disappointment was obvious.

The boy had probably imagined swinging weapons, firing guns, or learning some secret technique Magnus used to smash walker skulls.

Running away clearly sounded much less heroic.

“Don’t look so disappointed.” Magnus opened his door.

“Get out.” Carl blinked but obeyed.

Once both of them were standing beside the fire engine, Magnus pointed toward the far eastern end of town.

Abandoned cars, broken storefronts, scattered debris, and wandering walkers filled the street between them and the distant intersection.

Some walkers were alone, others drifted in loose groups, and enough open routes remained that somebody paying attention could theoretically weave through them.

“Your first exercise is simple,” Magnus said.

Carl looked down the street.

“Run from here to the far end of town.” Carl’s face stiffened.

“Then turn around and come back.” His expression became even worse.

Magnus folded his arms.

“I’m not clearing the road for you.

I’m not distracting them.

You get there, turn around, and safely return to this fire engine.

That’s your first day of training.” Carl slowly looked at Magnus.

Then at the street.

Then back at Magnus.

His eyes widened.

“Wait…

me?” Magnus almost smiled.

Carl pointed at the walkers wandering between the abandoned cars.

“You want me to run all the way through that, reach the other side of town, and come back?” His face was covered in disbelief.

Magnus wished he had a camera.

That expression deserved to be preserved until Carl was grown enough to deny he had ever made it.

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