Sorry I have been missing for so long. First, I had a great hol, going to the coast with some friends. I got back feeling awful. I put it off as a case of food poisoning. Luckily my room-mate's mum is a nurse. They dragged me to the hospital-where I found out I had chronic dehydration (laymans terms- my body was shutting down from lack of water). Great. Then a week later one of my friends got appendicitis. It's been a scary, exhausting couple of weeks. I'm sorry for the wait, and if this chapter is not up to standards.

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Alex sat in the tent with four other boys. He went through the motions. Eat, sleep, train. Try to ignore the moans from outside the labyrinth of fences. Sometimes Alex remembered Before. Before the end. Before MI6. Before finding the silver car rent with machine gun fire.

Then he would come back to the present. In all honestly, he wasn't prepared. A month with Scorpia was nothing. His accuracy with a handgun was seventy-five percent. Great, but he was not a master. Karate could only get one so far, fighting those who felt no pain. Alex still practiced though. For something to do.

A sharp sting forced Alex out of his thoughts. The fly buzzed away. It was swollen and black and moved quickly in the morning light. Alex squinted. One of the boys near-by rose. He walked forward with care and sat next to Alex. He was ignored.

"No one blames you, you know."

"I know." Alex didn't look at the boy. It had been three weeks. It wasn't mentioned anymore. An accident. They happen.

"I'm Nick." The boy offered.

"Fantastic."

Nick was grinning, Alex guessed. How annoying.

"What do you want?" No point in being friendly.

"Well," Nick leaned forward. "I want to discuss our mentors."

Alex took a bite of the sandwich. Stale rye and turkey. "Why?"

"Because mine is a Pacifist."

"That's great Nick. You must be the best of friends."

Again, Nick ignores the sarcasm. "Not really."

Alex stiffened a sigh. He did not want to get into a deep emotional conversation. Hell, he hadn't even spoken to his mentor since…the test.

"Do you want to know why?" Nick asked.

"No."

Alex was ignored.

"Well… my mentor is under the assumption that you should kill a zomb as quickly as possible."

Alex was amazed at the different names for zombies: zomb, moaner, Zed, muncher, chomps, even 'dead heads'. But that reminded Alex of Jack, so he ignored that train of thought.

"Right. Safer that way."

Nick shook his head. "He says it's because they feel pain."

Alex snorted.

"I'm serous!" Nick shouted, looking like he was going to burst into laughter. "He feels bad for them!"

The other boys were watching to commotion. One boy piped up:

"You have it lucky." He paused for emphasis. "Mine's a Rager."

A few of the boys flinched in sympathy.

"She likes to use the blunt tools. Her fav is the hammer. Gets blood every where. And I have to do her laundry."

A few snickers followed that.

Alex thought of another Blunt that would be useful against zombies. If he was still alive.

Nick grabbed Alex's shoulder. "Who have you got?"

"Yassen Gregorovich."

Nick sucked in a breath. "Stone Cold."

A few of the boys murmured in sympathy.

"What's that?" Alex had a sinking feeling.

"Well, the Rangers are very careful about the future…" Nick began. Alex noticed a few of the boys coming closer to hear.

"They want the world to function, as well as it can. To be a safe place- the safest place- it could possibly be.

So they pick the kind of people they want. They have a check-list. A certain number of Pacifists, certain number of Ragers, and certain number of Stone Cold bastards.

That's what we turn into. There are others, Teachers and Doctors and the like. But the people who fight… you have to fit a mold."

Nick looked around. "We all do."

Alex ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach. "And what to Stone Colds do?"

Nick shrugged. "My mentor calls them the avant garde."

"Are you sure? He said avant garde?"

"Yah." Nick nodded. "Totally."

Alex felt weak and shaky. His body felt cold. Avant garde. Front lines.

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Again, sorry for the awful quailty. May be better in a few weeks and do a real chapter. I wanted to let you guys know I was still alive-and chapters that are only author's notes are kinda lame... :)