"Wake Up, maggots!" someone yelled.

Billy and Mandy wake up with a start, shooting up like a root in the spring. He looks around and then at Mandy, who gives him a confused look. He gets up and stretches his back and turns around, seeing bunk beds all around. He then notices his shirt's gone, revealing nothing but a tank top, and his jeans were replaced with camouflage cargo pants, and his shoes were replaced with boots. He looks around again and notices everyone else was in the same clothes he was wearing. Billy's mind began to pull itself together and he realized he was in a boot camp.

"Hope you bat shit brats had a goodnight sleep." The voice said.

Billy looked around and grabbed a pack of cigarettes from a nightstand adjacent to his bed. He then stepped out and saw a teacher, wearing a white lab coat and brown slacks, with armed guards ten feet away from him, walking down the halls, waking any kids who were asleep. Billy looked towards Mandy, who shook her head in disbelief.

The teacher wrote the letters BR 2: Time for War on a chalkboard, and turned around. Billy instantly recognized the face; it was Mr. McIntosh, his 8th grade science teacher.

"Welcome to camp, fellow warriors." Mr. McIntosh said, "I am Mr. McIntosh, some of you might recognize me some of you won't. As you know, I served in the First Gulf War, and I came back with a purple heart."

"Great… not another war story." Billy said to himself.

"Be quiet, Billy! Or you'll answer to one of the guards."

The guards quickly aimed their guns at him, to which Billy looked away from and back at the teacher.

"Now then…if there won't be anymore interruptions, let's begin. I served in Iraq, and I saw the harshness of war. Men killed, bombs exploding, and buildings crashing to the ground. I've been through hell and back to get to where I am today."

He paused as the other kids looked at him, and he looked around the room, a smile growing across his face.

"Men and women just like you have laid down their lives to keep this country alive, whether it is for peace or maybe to prove themselves…men died or came home with severe injuries that they needed special care. Those who came back prove they were strong; proved that they were the ones keeping our kids, you young adults alive, proved to be the ultimate idol to many people."

Billy looked at Mandy again and shrugged, and Mandy returned the shrug, not wanting to give away her position.

"The men here are active duty soldiers in Somalia and China, fighting the terrorists that plague our city."

"It's men like you who plague our city" Sperg interrupts, "Who needs teachers?"

Mr. McIntosh flicks his hand at Sperg, and the guards surround him and open fire, until their clips were empty. Sperg's body laid there, full of holes and part of his chest was opened up, and his eyes rolled back into his head, turning ghostly white. One girl screamed, while Pud'n tried to make his escape, which in turn ended up getting him shot. After a brief silence, two simultaneous beeps began to go off, and they turned around and saw two kids wearing collars on their necks, running around to try to convince someone to help them. It took about thirty seconds before their collars exploded, gushing a red substance from their necks, killing them instantly.

The kids stopped screaming and stood there, too frightened to move a vocal chord. Irwin was trying to embrace Mandy, who in turn punched him in the face. Billy turned around at him and pointed his finger at him, which in turn made him back off.

"Now, class…that little incident there must've given you a vague idea about what's going on today."

The kids looked at him suspiciously, and Mr. McIntosh smirked and said,

"Men and women have laid their lives down to keep you free…now it's time for you to return the favor…."

Silence gripped the room as Mr. McIntosh said,

"Your lesson today…is to become a warrior. You're going into battle."

Billy caught his breath, Mandy narrowed her eyebrows, Irwin checks his pants to see if he didn't defecate in them, and the other kids looked on in shock.

"You were selected because you're all nothing but a bunch of delinquents…which also makes you the perfect soldier. The government realized this after the program last year, where the kids of Peach Creek, as you might've known, fought each other, but five kids survived and went rogue….your job is to search for them. Take a look at the collars on your neck."

The others grasped their collars, wondering if they would be like them. Billy began to pull on them, but Mandy put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head, indicating that they shouldn't. Billy follows her advice and listens in.

"These collars were designed to fit your neck, to keep you in check. Some of you might go rogue on this mission, so if that happens…Boom…it explodes. Also, you'll be paired up in partners. If your collar explodes, his or hers explodes, got that?"

The others nodded, fearing for their own lives.

"Gentlemen, bring in the packs."

The soldiers that shot down Sperg and the boy who tried to escape walked out of the building and immediately came back with a moveable rack. On the rack were bags, with designated numbers on them. Mr. McIntosh removed one of the bags and put it down on the desk at the end of the building, and opened it up, revealing the contents inside.

"When you're names get called up, you will each receive a pack like this. Inside your pack is a jacket, a vest, a helmet and some ammo. You'll put this pack on your back like the ones you carry to school. Or you can get rid of it, I don't care. Once you get suited up, you'll go out these corridors."

Mr. McIntosh pointed behind them, and the kids looked back to see two corridors going down.

"One of them is for the boys; the other is for the girls. Now, once you get to the end of the corridor, you'll get a weapon. This weapon will tell you what your specific job will be."

Mr. McIntosh picks up a shotgun from the side of the table.

"Like this…if you get a carbine rifle or in this case a shotgun, you're going to be the close quarter combat specialist. If you get a rifle, like those two, you're regular infantry. And, if you get a sniper rifle, you'll be from a distance."

Two of the kids looked on enviously, as if they had lost their minds. The others looked on shocked.

"You will also get a pistol. When you run out of ammo, you'll use this. You'll all become real soldiers, just like the ones on TV."

The soldiers at the end of the hall began to form in formation.

"Ten, hut!" one of them yelled.

The two soldiers then marched to the front of the building in front of the desk. Mr. Hardwick stood up, not removing his hands from the desk.

"Now, when you get in line, the girls will get in line from one to two. Check the tags on your clothes to see what position you'll be."

Billy turns his tank top around and looks at the printed tag on the back, and it says the number twenty one. Mandy asks Billy to check her back and it says twenty one as well. Irwin tries to smooth talk his way to getting Mandy to take off his shirt, but instead she backhands him and knocks his glasses off, which he picks off the ground. The rest of the kids get in line, with the numbers 1 and 5 missing. Billy and Mandy get in the back of the line.

"Mandy…" Billy says.

"Yeah?" she responds.

"Do you think we'll make it back home to see the Black Socks win the game?" he asks.

Narrowing her eyebrows in disbelief, not realizing it was a joke but trying to make sure she doesn't lose her friend, she says,

"I don't know, Billy. But it's going to be one hell of a ride."