Our first chapter comes from none other than the exemplary thematsaidwelcome. She has written over 20 Richonne stories and is an expert on all things that is Richonne. She starts off our story with humor and witty comebacks in the introduction of Welcome To Training.

Be sure to check out her other works on her FF page.

-We're The Ones Who Write

Chapter 1: Welcome to training

"Alright you sons of dicks, congratulations you've made it to training. I was told that you have been hand picked by the leaders of your communities to go through this intense six day training. Those of you who make it to the end of day seven will make up the first graduating class of Elite Force ZA. Tasked to protect and uphold the laws of the ASZ, The Hilltop, The Kingdom and anything else that needs our expertise and skill. I am Abraham Ford and I'll be handling your gun training as well as basics. You'll meet your bad ass knife skills trainer, Sasha Williams later on today as well as Jesus, your hand to hand combat trainer. You must be proficient in all three skills in order to graduate. Look around you, not everyone is expected to make it. Only the best will be able to call themselves Elite Force, the rest will tuck tail and take your asses back home. Since it's the first day, I'm being nice and letting you get familiar with things before the fun starts tomorrow morning. Head over to the Main Hall and get your bunk assignments and handbook. Have a good evening folks, see you bright and early in the morning."

"Well he seems like a lot of fun."

"What did you expect Maggie?"

"I don't know Rick, maybe a little more smiles and less hardass. I mean he said it himself, we're the best in our communities, can't he seem a bit more happy that we're here?"

"He's just trying to weed out the weak ones babe, don't worry bout it too much." Glenn reassured Maggie looking around at the other faces in the group. "See anyone you recognize Rick?"

"I've seen a few of em, none of them look too intimidating."

"Hey, there's that Michonne chick, the one with the sword. I've heard about her. You ever meet her when you were up at the Kingdom, Rick?" Maggie asked.

"Nah, I've never spoken with her. Seen her take down a few walkers with that sword though. She's pretty good." Rick nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders downplaying Michonne's impressive skills. He's seen her take down three walkers at a time when he visited the Kingdom, and not even break a sweat. A small herd had found their way near the community and Rick went out to help, having to shoot a couple when his knife got stuck in the skull of one of the undead. He was so impressed with her precision, he walked over to her to tell her as much, but she walked right passed him, not even acknowledging that he was there.

"They say you've got to be well rounded to join the force. I hope she's as good with a gun as she is with that sword." Glenn said. "Or she'll be back at the Kingdom with over the top King Ezekiel and his tiger." Maggie laughed thinking about the king and his pet tiger.

"Come on guys, let's go see where we'll be sleeping." Maggie told Glenn and Rick.

"Who you bunking with Jerry?" Michonne asked him as she glanced up from the paper that had her roommate Maggie Rhee written on it.

"Some dude named Rick Grimes, from ASZ. You know him?"

"Never met him. Hopefully y'all can get along."

"Hey, you know me; if he's cool. I'm cool. If this training is as intense as Ford makes it out to be, I'll only be in the room long enough to sleep anyways, so I hope he doesn't mind my snoring."

"I guess seven days together will let you know." Michonne looked around at the other people in the main hall.

"Yeah. We'll see. Where'd they put Noah?" Jerry asked her.

"Man, they got me with 2 other dudes. I hope these rooms are big." Noah said coming up to them.

"Shit, Michonne, how'd you and Jerry luck out and only get one bunkmate?" Rosita complained. "I hope these chicks don't cause me any problems. I've heard about the ones from the Hilltop, they can be... difficult."

"Might as well suck it up buttercup. Michonne told Rosita as she placed a hand on her shoulder. "If this works out the way it's supposed to, we'll be up close and personal with all of them for a long time."

"Hi. You're Michonne right?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Maggie Rhee from ASZ, nice to meet you." She offered her hand for her to shake and Michonne took it returning the gesture.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too. So these are our new digs for the week huh?"

"Yeah. We lucked out, no bunk beds like the other girls. Hope you don't mind, I took the bed on the right."

"No, that's fine." Michonne walked to her bed and set her bag on the floor beside it. She looked around the sparsely furnished room seeing only a desk and chair as well as a dresser that was also in the room. She walked over to the desk and picked up the thick booklet that sat in the middle of the desktop.

"That's the handbook. We're supposed to read it tonight and sign it, then turn it in tomorrow."

"Hey babe, you all settled in? We're about to go grab dinner from the mess hall." Glenn said, entering the room.

"Yeah, just give me a few minutes to unpack." Maggie picked up a pile of clothes from her bed and walked them to her dresser. "Michonne this is my husband Glenn." She looked over his shoulder at the new arrival to the room. "And this is our good friend Rick."

"Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Rick Grimes." He stuck his hand out to Michonne, hoping she didn't notice the way his eyes scanned the length of her body, taking in her tight black cargo pants and fitted tank top."

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Michonne." She returned his handshake and quickly looked away from his blue eyes and to Glenn who was standing there smiling at both Rick and Michonne since neither one of them had let go of the others hand yet.

"Hey Rick, I thought you were headed to the mess hall man."

"Oh hey Jerry, yeah, I'm just waiting on Glenn." Rick answered, letting go of Michonne's hand.

"And I'm waiting on Maggie." Glenn said.

"Hey, Chonne, you met my roomie I see." Jerry grinned widely at both Rick and Michonne.

"Yeah, just now." She glanced at Rick who had a sly grin, then looked back to Jerry. "Did you get settled in alright?" She asked Jerry, giving Rick a side eye wondering why he had that smug look on his face.

"Yep. All unpacked. I'll read that handbook before bed." He pointed to the one still sitting on her desk.

"I've got mine with me. We can go over it while we eat dinner." Glenn fanned his face with the thick booklet looking smug and concerned that he was the only one who thought to bring it with him.

"Glad, y'all found the Mess Hall alright. It's pretty easy, just follow your nose to the delicious smells created by my good friend T-Dog here." Abe pointed with his thumb towards T-Dog who was standing behind the counter. "He'll hook you up with 3 squares a day, all he asks is that you bus your own tables and tell him how pretty his head is." T-Dog laughed at Abe's joke. "This table in the center of the room is for you. We have you sitting together, because you need to get to know each other. If this goes well You all will be eating and living in close quarters and we need y'all to get along. If you can't do that, then we might be cutting ties sooner rather than later."

The group stood against the wall waiting for Abe to finish his speech, watched as three newcomers walked into the Mess Hall and stood next to Abe. "Let me introduce you all to your other trainers and the infirmary doctor. This here is Sasha Williams, she heads the knife training course and is an all around badass. Don't fuck with her or she will cut you." Abe rubbed his bicep with his hand and smiled at Sasha. "Trust me, I know first hand." Sasha waved her hand at the group standing on the wall and offered a faint smile.

"This gorgeous man here is Jesus, he'll be teaching you hand to hand techniques. No matter what you think you know, you know nothing compared to what he knows. He can kick your ass fifteen different ways before you even know what hit you." Jesus just stood with his hands behind his back and nodded his head at the group.

"And this little lady is Denise." Denise waved at the group and then adjusted her glasses on her nose. "You'll see her in the infirmary. She'll be there to patch up boo boos, stitch up cuts, ice sore balls and wrap up sprained ankles. She can do way more than that if she needs to, but let's not have her need to."

He looked at the group from left to right, nodding when he got to the last one." Alright, just so you know, we always eat first." He chuckled as Sasha, Denise and Jesus walked off towards the food that T-Dog offered. "We'll see y'all bright and early in the morning. Have a good night."

"So what does the handbook say Glenn? Shit this is good." Shane said pointing with his fork at his food. "That T-Dog can burn, this is a lot better than anything I've ever had at Hilltop." He finished chewing and swallowed. "What's it say?" He asked again as Glenn starred on in disbelief of Shane's lacking table manners.

"Oh...well it says that each day starts at 6am. Breakfast from 7 to 7:45. Basic training starts at 8am and lasts till 10. Gun training starts at 10:15 and goes till 12:15. We come back here for lunch at 12:30, that lasts an hour then we go to knife training at 1:45 for two hours. Then the last training of the day is hand to hand at 4 and that lasts until 6. Dinner is served at 6:30."

"Damn. We're gonna be some tired as fuck sons a bitches."

"We do all that in one day?" Noah asked Glenn.

"Yep. You up for it kid?"

"Yeah, I've never backed away from a challenge." Noah responded.

"I'm worried about you ladies." Shane looked at Andrea, Michonne, Rosita and Tara. "You sure your delicate bodies can handle such a long day?"

"Dude, We got this." Tara motioned with her finger between her and the other ladies. You and pretty blue eyes over here are the ones who need to watch out for us. You know Andrea is practically a sharp shooter, and I've heard about what these two can do with a knife." She pointed to Michonne and Rosita.

"Oh, sounds like a challenge." Jerry said with a wide grin.

"I'm not challenging these women." Shane said. "What kind of fair fight is that? Besides." Shane looked at Rick. "I would hate to mess up such pretty faces." Michonne scoffed at his asinine statement and rolled her eyes as Rick looked on.

"What do you think, Rick?" Andrea asked him.

"I don't see anything wrong with a little healthy competition." His eyes never left Michonne's as he spoke and she didn't back down from his stare. "What do you think?" He asked Michonne.

"Competition's good. It can even be healthy. But what's the point when you're only doing it to show off or prove how big your gun is." Michonne had seen Rick before at the Kingdom when he visited and ended up helping clear a small herd of walkers. She was almost impressed until he pulled out his Colt and started firing on the walkers. She figured someone like him, would know better than to shoot when he didn't have to, he was just flaunting and she was not impressed.

"Oookay." Andrea said slowly. "What else does it say, Glenn?"

"Not too much." He thumbed through the booklet. "It says we all might not make the cut. We can't be late for anything." Everyone watched as Glenn continued to scan the handbook, looking for anything else to share with the group. "Oh shit."

"What?" Maggie asked looking worried.

"It says no fraternization while we're here."

"Really?" Noah shook his head at him.

"Hey, that's seven whole days I don't get to be with my wife. You ever seen her take down a walker? It's a complete turn on." Glenn looked over at a blushing Maggie.

"Well shit." Shane laughed. "I guess Denise really will be icing balls."

Day 1 of Training

"Alright you pansy asses, lets see how fast you can climb this wall. Remember, you're a team and no one gets left behind. Once over the wall, you've got to run through the mud pit, crawl under the rope obstacle and then head over to that building over there. I need 6 heads brought back to me. As a team! When I got all 6, I'll send you over to Jesus to get hosed down before your gun training starts. There's no telling what kind of shit is in that mud."

They were in the last 45 minutes of basic training and they were all already tired from the exercises and running that they had done earlier. They heard Abe blow his whistle and they all scrambled to the wall to figure out the best way to get them all over it. They decided to lift Jerry first as a collective, then, the women went next followed by Glenn, Noah and Rick. Shane went last since he was the tallest and with a running jump was able to reach the top of the wall on his own. The rest of the group helped to pull him the rest of the way over the wall.

Abe was impressed by their teamwork and speed. They all ran through the mud pit with no problems, kicking up muddy water and clumps of wet dirt as they went through. When they got to the rope obstacle, Jerry went first, flanked by Noah and Tara so they could lift the ropes over Jerry's large body so he wouldn't get stuck in the ropes or in the thick mud that they had to crawl through. Next came Rosita, Andrea and Maggie followed by Michonne and Glenn and then Rick and Shane went last.

Once they were all done with the ropes, they made their way to the building and split up into three teams, each looking for 2 heads each. The four story building had been outfitted with booby traps. Each team had to be careful to not set off any or they would be considered dead and the rest of the teams would have to pick up their slack. Luckily past experience had taught them that working together and moving as a coordinated unit, would help them to retrieve all the heads and return them to Abe without incident, which they did, faster than he had anticipated.

"Well, shit. You pretty boys and girls even beat my time. I am grade A impressed." He clapped his hands together a few times. "Go get hosed off and I'll see you on the gun range in 35 minutes." They all gingerly walked toward the side of the building that they just came from and were greeted by the smiling faces of Sasha and Jesus.

"Alright, hands up." They stood in a line side by side and all followed Sasha's instructions and once she saw everyone's hands up, she and Jesus pressed the handles on the hoses they were holding. Jesus smiled at the sounds that the group made as the cold water hit them.

"Ugh. Is there a warm setting?" Shane asked.

"Oh hush. It's just a little water. Don't be such a baby." Sasha told him. Once they were all hosed off of all the mud and unknown bits from the mud pit and rope obstacle, they were handed towels to dry off as much as they could.

"Although I'm soaked, I feel so much better." Maggie told Michonne.

"Mud has never been something I liked, but it's a lot better than being covered in walker guts." Michonne tried to dry her hair as best she could with the towel as she spoke.

"You've been covered in walked guts?" Tara asked Michonne.

"Yeah, I thought everyone has."

"No." Maggie answered as Glenn and Rick walked up to them. "Hey Glenn, you ever been covered in walker guts?"

"Sure, Rick and I both have. You haven't?" He asked both Maggie and Tara.

Are we the only ones who haven't?" Glenn looked at Rick and then back at Michonne, who just shrugged her shoulders. Rick noticed that the cold water from the hose had made her nipples hard. He quickly looked away searching for something in the sky to focus on.

"Man, come on, we got 2 minutes to get to the range." Noah told the group as he walked off towards the large grassy area to the east of the building.

"Nice to see your nice smiling faces again." Abe boomed out. "Since it's our first time together at the range, I just want to see how well you handle a piece and how accurate your aim is. I'm not looking for perfection, but I'd hope you'd hit something today."

He motioned for them to follow him as he walked over to two long tables, filled with handguns. "Look over what we got, pick them up, hold them in your hand, caress them if you feel like it, just pick one." They all went to the tables and surveyed what Abe had to offer before picking out the best one for them. "When you got one, go find a mark in the grass and stand on it. We're gonna start with a distance of ten yards and them keep moving back until we reach a distance of thirty yards. You might find out that the piece you picked up doesn't offer the shooting power that you like at a longer distance, tomorrow I'll have you choose two, so that you've got everything you need when you need it. Later in the week we'll pick out some long range and assault rifles."

Abe watched as each person found a mark to stand on and then got into position to start shooting at the targets that were set up.

"You sure that's not too heavy for you darlin'?" Shane asked Rosita. She mumbled something underneath her breath and got into her shooting stance.

"Shoot!" Abe shouted and everyone took one shot at their wooden target. "Not bad. Lets see if we can get closer to the center with the next shot."

Only Grimes hit the bullseye.

"You're really good with that sword of yours." Rick said to Michonne as they sat eating lunch in the Mess Hall. She was across from him with Rosita to her left and Jerry to her right.

"How do you know?"

"I've seen you in action before at the Kingdom."

"You have?" Michonne thought back trying to remember if she'd ever seen him in her community before. "When were you there?"

"Some months back, I would have said something, but you seemed kind of busy…."

"Taking out multiple walkers with one swing." She finished his sentence.

"Somethang like that." He took a bite of his lunch and swallowed before talking again. "Your gun skills aren't as impressive though."

"What do you mean?" Michonne asked with raised eyebrows.

"At training earlier, you seemed to miss a lot of your targets. A little off to the left or to the right, most times. You're thinking about it too much, most likely. You need to relax more."

"I need to relax?" She pointed to herself. "If it's just an inch or two to the left or right, then I just need to correct my aim. I don't need to relax."

"I guess we'll see tomorrow then." Rick watched Michonne as she stood up from the table and walked to put her tray in the wash basin. His eyes stayed on her until she left the Mess Hall.

"She always so fun?" Shane asked Jerry and Noah who were still sitting at the table.

"She grows on you." Noah replied.

"Hey, speak for yourself dude. She grew on you." Jerry said pointing to Noah. "She's always liked me."

"How long you've known her man?" Shane asked the likable Jerry.

"A few years now, I guess."

"She got anybody waiting for her back at the Kingdom?"

"Didn't you come here with your somebody, Shane?" Rick asked him with an annoyed tone.

"I'm just asking man. It's not like we're married. Shane said lowering his voice so Andrea wouldn't hear what he had to say next. "We're just fwb is all."

"You're an ass, you know." Rosita chimed in. "For your information, she doesn't have anyone waiting for her. She's not interested in having a somebody and even if she was, it wouldn't be you." Rosita got up just as the five minute bell began to ring, signaling the end of the lunch hour.

"Damn, did all the women come with an attitude or is it just their time of the month?"

"Dude." Jerry shook his head slowly at Shane before getting up too, followed by the rest of the group headed to the next training session.

The day was long and after knife training, and hand to hand training with Jesus, the whole group was ready to just fall into bed. They shuffled slowly to the Mess Hall and ate dinner in silence because they were too tired to move their mouths for anything other than chewing and yawning. Once done with dinner, they made their way back to their rooms to grab what they needed for showers and the guys headed one way while the ladies headed to their own separate showers.

"I'm so tired I don't even know if I can make it back to my room." Andrea could feel every muscle in her body tense as she moved down the hallway after her shower.

"I'm right there with you, I've got just enough left in me to get me to my bed." Tara was two steps behind Andrea as she spoke.

"Y'all ladies, rest up good. We do the same thing tomorrow." Shane said as he walked passed them, swatting Andrea on the ass as he went by.

"Shit, Shane, can't you see I'm sore, why do you think I'm moving so slow? And how do you have so much energy?"

"That shower refreshed the hell outta me. I feel like a new man." He did a little shuffle with his feet. "I've worked you out better than this sweetheart." He winked at her when he turned around, walking backwards. "Don't tell me you can't handle this. This is nothing."

"Go to bed Shane." Andrea scoffed at him.

"Sweet dreams ladies." He told both her and Tara before he turned around and entered his bunk.

"You doing okay, Mich?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing a good night's sleep can't cure."

"Okay, girl. Well I'm gonna head on to bed. You have fun brushing your teeth for thirty minutes."

"Very funny. Good night Rosita, I'll see you in the morning." Rosita left the bathroom headed to the room that she shared with Andrea and Tara. Michonne spent the next 15 minutes brushing her teeth and tying up her hair for the night. She took her time, liking the sound of silence that filled the empty communal bathroom. Her body was a bit stiff, but nothing that she couldn't handle. When she finally emerged from the bathroom, turning her head to flip the light switch off, she ran into Rick who was walking down the hall to get to his own room. She nearly fell over as their bodies collided, but his quick reflexes caught her around the waist before she could hit the floor.

"Shit. I'm sorry, Michonne. I shoulda been paying better attention."

"Oh, it's not your fault." She had instinctively grabbed onto his arm that was around her waist as he steadied her. His strong arm fit nicely in her hand and she unintentionally trailed her finger along the protruding vein that raised from under his skin. "It's so quiet, I thought I was the only one still up." She planted her feet and nudged his arms from around her, feeling a bit uncomfortable by his proximity.

"Looks like it's just the two of us." He looked down the empty hallway and then motioned with his hand for her to walk, he waited for her to take a few steps before he stepped to walk beside her. "How'd you feel about today's training?"

"I think it went good. We've got a good group here. We all seem to be taking to the training pretty well, without too many complaints." She looked at him as she stopped outside her door. "Except that whole thing about me not being a good shot." Rick chuckled and looked down at his feet, shaking his head that she was still holding onto his remark.

"It was just day one." He lifted his head and looked her in the eyes. "You'll get better. I'll make sure of it."

"See you in the morning Rick."

"Goodnight Michonne." He waited until her door was closed before walking down the hall to his own room for the some much needed rest.