Merle Dixon's A+ Parenting

Courses And Codenames

"Wake up ya little shits!" Merle yelled, slamming the door to the bedroom open, startling the teens awake. The five sat up sharply, knives out and ready to attack. When they saw it was just their one armed leader they groaned, Ronan flopped back down onto the mattress, flinging an arm over his eyes "Fuck off" He growled. "Up!" Merle barked, stomping to Ronan's side of the bed. The others rushed to move away but Ronan stayed put, big mistake.

Merle hooked his hand and the blade of the prosthetic under the side of the mattress before flipping it over completely, throwing the brunet off. "What the hell?!" Ronan groaned as he landed face first onto the ground "I told ya ta git up, yer fault fer not listenin'" Merle scoffed, though there was a smirk present on his face. "Go get food, we're going out in thirty minutes" The man said lifting the youngest off the ground and pushed him toward the door. 

"What time is it?" Alice yawned looking out the kitchen window, seeing the sun barely peaking over the horizon "7:30, ya need ta learn ta git up at earlier times. Now's the best time ta get started with yer trainin'" Merle responded as he used the knife to stab open a can of peaches. Adrian groaned as he faceplanted onto the table "I hate mornings" He whined, lazily grabbing at the granola bars in the center of the table.

Connor snickered as Warren moved them further out of the blue haired boy's reach, while Alice and Ronan sluggishly made their breakfasts. Merle was wide awake and loudly thumping around the house as he got thing ready to start training. "Hey kid," He called but all the teens turned to him "Uh, Ronan, did ya test this thing ta see if it can kill the Walkers?" Ronan furrowed his brow "Is that what your group called them? No I didn't get a chance to test it, it should work though" He stated with a shrug as he sat beside the still struggling Adrian, pulling that box from Warren and slid it back to him.

He made a appreciative noise as he dug his hand in pulling two out and tore them open. They ate, slowly waking up as the sun rose and Merle herded them outside when they were dressed in clothes they didn't really care to ruin. The teens noticed the targets set up throughout the back yard as they were handed guns. It looked like an army obstacle course, things to go around, a bunch of wood pallets being held up by small logs to crawl under, logs laid on the ground. Some were held up by other logs of different heights. A tree at the end of the yard had a frayed rope tied up in it with knots going up it and an airhorn taped to the branch the rope was on. "When did you build this?" Warren asked looking around.

"While y'all was inside snoozin'. I'll show ya then ya redo what I do" Merle stated as he walked forward, using the prosthetic to hold up the gun in the notch in the middle of it and shot the first target. Merle was ducking around and hiding behind them as he hit the targets dead on. After he hit all the targets he dropped to his stomach, army crawling under the pallets before getting back up and jumping over the logs being held in the air. He then ran to the rope an managed to climb it with one hand, using the metal piece to hold the rope against his chest as he went up and honked the horn.

When he was done he strutted up to the group "Only, yer gonna be timed. I want y'all ta git through the entire course in under one minute by the end of the month" He stated holding up a stopwatch "Hey, that's mine" Ronan pouted looking at the green timer that Merle strapped around his neck "At the moment it ain't. Line up" The teens stood in a line from Ronan, Connor, Alice, Adrian, Warren. Merle paced in front of them, eyeing them all.

"Y'all know I was in the Marines so tha's how this is gonna be treated. When I say jump y'all will ask how high. You will follow the rules. I am training ya kids how to survive on yer own, so ya won't need me ta stick with ya." Merle pointed to the course with the stump "There are rules for this course. I covered the bottom of the pallets with oil, so I know if yer goin' low enough ta the ground. If ya come out with paint, ya get back in line ta restart the course. If ya fail ta finish in five minutes ya get back in line ta restart the course. We will continue until you get it right" Merle ordered with a wicked smirk.