"Move your fucking asses this instant, anyone who wants to leave training prepare to take a bullet in your head!"
Merle wasted no time and began shouting angrily, his eyes roamed over these people who until recently depended on his security. Now each of these people will be able to protect themselves personally, so from this moment on they are under his orders.
As trainers, they were all divided into different groups to start training. The training that Airon thought of and was approved by the other people is very simple, an instructor will have to face a soldier with protective gear.
The confrontation consisted of the soldier not being able to drop his weapon no matter what, the instructor will wear nothing but the protective suit. While the instructor tries to take away the soldier's weapon, the soldier must try to defend himself with special techniques and at the same time subdue the enemy.
When the soldier drops his weapon or pretends to kill the instructor, the training is over. This ensures many things, experience, strength, persistence, control, endurance and many other factors that determine the outcome of a confrontation.
In an open space, large, long, soft mats were laid out so that no one would be injured due to the concrete floor. All outsiders to this training were interested in what was being taught, and came closer to observe.
In one corner, Airon was holding a standard piece of equipment as he looked closely at the twenty people in front of him.
"In your hands you have a standard M4 that the best soldiers in our army employ, it weighs 3.52 kilograms with a thirty round magazine."
Saying this, Airon took an M4 and showed it to his group. After doing the demonstration, he continued, "It has a length of 756mm with stock retracted and 838mm with stock extended."
"The great thing about this weapon is that you can attach accessories to it of everything you can imagine, so it's perfect and mostly employed before the end of the world by our military."
From time to time, Airon glanced sideways at the crowd watching his explanation and in the distance he saw a female figure that caught his attention a lot. As if remembering something, he smiled slightly and concentrated again on training.
"If I succeed in taking away their weapon, the training ends. You guys can employ any technique to prevent that from happening, as long as they don't drop their weapon. On the battlefield it doesn't matter if they are walkers or people, if they drop their weapon they will be dead."
"Any doubts?"
Airon looked at everyone in front of him, once the training would start everything would be much simpler. A young man stepped forward and said, "Commander, you said we can do anything to stop you from taking our weapons, will there be no consequences?"
Hearing this, Airon turned his head towards the sound source and smiled. Everyone present didn't scoff or anything like that, after all they weren't children playing soldier, they were survivors wanting to survive.
"Of course, they can do any kind of technique. However, if you drop your weapon your next training will be in a different form."
After saying that, without waiting for anyone to speak, he pointed to the center of the mat and said, "You will be the first, hold your weapon and walk pointed, I don't want you to look at me."
"Yes!"
Walking with the barrel of his rifle raised, this young man pointed forward and silently waited for the instructor's attack. Seconds passed and this caused him more and more nervousness, and just when he thought something had gone wrong, someone advanced on his back with such force that he knocked him to the ground.
At this moment, Airon was wearing gloves and a helmet that protected his head completely. In the first instance, he attacked this recruit from behind and knocked him to the ground, seeing that he had not dropped his weapon he smiled.
The body of the young man who was being suppressed by Airon, writhed on the ground trying to avoid the weapon being taken away. No matter what, he tried to hit Airon and aim his rifle to complete the test.
However, just when he thought he was doing well, a strong arm pressed his neck persistently and as he tried to remove that arm with the strength of his right hand, the rifle in his left hand fell to the ground.
"The training was over!"
Everyone watched this in silence, they didn't know how long they could hold their weapon so they immediately became nervous.
"Well done soldier, for 53 seconds alive, if this was real combat they would have been dead in half the time with your poor fighting skills."
The training continued and after two hours, the training was over. Everyone began to clean the place in silence after being instructed by Airon there was no one who exceeded two minutes.
As Airon wiped the sweat from his brow, he looked at a teenage girl in the crowd who was about to turn around. However, eye contact with Airon caused her to stop.
"Your name is Enid?" Airon asked after approaching her.
"Do you know me?" Enid was a little surprised when this man called her name, she had arrived a week earlier to this place so she was very surprised that someone knew her.
"So it was you, no wonder..." Airon muttered and said, "I think I have something that is yours, follow me..."
Saying this, Airon didn't wait to give her explanations. When he was near the Alexandria community, he remembered that the things he had found in the backpack inside that building that was attacked by the Wolves was unexpectedly Enid's.
He remembered something about Enid's family, but he didn't know now how they ended up in that situation that put them in direct danger with people, but he was really surprised that the situation had moved this way.
When he entered the modified RV, it took a few minutes before Airon pulled out a backpack containing the things he had collected in that building.
Enid, who was waiting silently, froze at the sight of that backpack in Airon's hands and can't help but ask, "How?"
"I found it in a building, there are some interesting things and the most important thing is the picture of your family. At first I didn't think it was you, but you look a lot like your mother."
When Airon saw Enid start to cry unconsciously, he felt a little strange and handed the backpack to Enid before turning around and saying, "Check the backpack well, when you recover we can talk."
Without waiting for a response, Airon went back inside the modified RV. He was tired, plus he needed a bath urgently due to the sweat and that he hadn't had a proper bath in some time.
"Thank you..."
Enid hugged the backpack tightly in her arms, she didn't know how this man had the backpack he had lost when his family died, but she didn't want to wait and ran to a secluded place to check the contents of this backpack.
...
Three days later, Alexandria community.
Airon did not give his group time to rest, they were all training with the soldiers in formation and slowly increased their capabilities. Although everyone was very tired and busy, in the end he gave them all half a day's rest.
Meanwhile, his mind was still working on what to do next. Time was moving very fast, so he had to make the most of every second and minute he had.
Deanna called all the members of Alexandria for important meetings in these last days, but Airon concentrated on training his people and did not care.
In the morning, he conducted physical training with everyone to increase their physical capabilities. Deanna, who was walking on the side, watched Airon's group jogging without stopping.
"Don't stop, those who stop or stop moving will not get their lunch!"
"Yes, sir!"
After saying that, he left what he was doing to meet Deanna's group. When he arrived, he wiped off his sweat and saluted without much formality.
"Airon, I took the liberty of observing you during these last few days while thinking about what you mentioned to me. I don't think the people here can adapt to the problems you mentioned right away like those people, but still we can't stand idly by, so if I may, may I ask you one thing?"
"What is it?"
"Next time you go out, can I trouble you to take some members of Alexandria? I want them to experience the great difference in experience between your group and them."
Airon looked at the people behind Deanna. He knew them all and this was what he was looking for. Simply put, they turned out to be the main fighting force of Rick's team. Although Alexandria's problems were manifold, he was confident that if he took care of these people in the future they would be unstoppable.
Deanna, seeing in silence from the other side, quickly explained, "These people are the most experienced in our community. If you can't convince these people of your vision, none of this community will be willing to change."
Following Deanna's narration, Airon saw that the only one who looked serious was Aaron, so he knew that these people for now were just rookies who had to adjust.
"No problem, since you're giving me your most experienced members, I'll leave enough protection so that their absence won't be felt in this place."
"Of course!"
With that said, Deanna turned around and pointed to the people behind her and introduced, "This is Aaron, Tobin, Eric, Heath and Rodrigo."
"As we discussed earlier, you five will act alongside Airon from now on. You are to obey orders and pay special attention to your safety."
They all agreed. Airon's eyes passed over these people, completely ignoring any kind of expressions, and he said directly, "There is only one important thing you should know. Once out of Alexandria, you will have to obey my orders and if you think you can't do that, from now on it's a good time for you to leave."
After waiting for a while, not seeing that no one left, Airon nodded and his tone softened a bit, "Since no one left, you will be members of my group, let's have breakfast together since we will be leaving as soon as possible."
...
The modified RV drove down the road without stopping. This time Airon's target was a nearby town marked on the map. Heath and the others watched the whole procedure without being able to say anything. They had already searched the nearby towns. It could be said that they took everything they found in that place.
This was the reason why they were going further and further to collect supplies, but Heath and the others did not interfere in the decisions of these people, they were in fact happy to laugh afterwards as this group of arrogant people understood that this is not their refuge.