Hey guys...unfortunately I'm back at school soon but I'm gonna try get this out before I go :)

It was a lot easier to slip out of the huts at night than Alex had thought it would be, everyone was knackered and they'd all pretty much fallen asleep the second their heads hit the bed – most of them hadn't even bothered getting changed. Jogging into the woods that surrounded the camp he stole a last glance at the hut he'd just left, if he got his way with MI6 then he wasn't coming back here, now all he had to do was convince Blunt that he really needed Alex for a mission. Shouldn't be too hard, the man seemed quite happy to send him off places where he could die at every second whenever it suited his purposes so he could bloody well do the same when Alex needed an escape. Not that he'd thought this through very well, was there even a phone up at the house? Or internet? Internet would be good, he could find out some more about the Henderson's kids, and hack MI6's network. Theoretically he should be able to manage, he knew Mrs Jones' password – she had apparently thought he hadn't been watching, why he wanted to he had no clue, but he supposed it'd be fun to send Blunt loads of spam jokes and annoying viruses that would stop him being able to work.

The house was silent, a fact Alex was extremely thankful for, as he crept towards it. He'd seen the tell tale signs of an internet connection and a phone line and felt a sense of elation, at least he'd be able to do something before he got caught. Like ringing MI6 to get him the hell out of there. He wasn't exactly bonding with his schoolmates, they were all in separate groups – he couldn't really even talk to Tom, the other teen being in the other hut. And he was seriously getting sick of Wolf's attitude, so he deserved some of it but the man was picking on him – honestly, it wasn't his fault that MI6 had sent a load of kids back here again. Actually it wasn't his fault for a lot of stuff that had happened but he still seemed to get the blame.

Slipping inside an open window and inwardly thanking God he was small enough to fit, Alex looked around and headed off in a random direction. He had no idea where anything was so was just going with the flow, he'd stumble across a phone soon enough surely. The place had to have more than one, it was pretty big, he didn't even care if it was so archaic it barely worked, he just wanted a phone. Internet would be better but a phone would do. Alex wandered around the house extremely pissed they weren't allowed to stay here, the place had heating! It was fantastic!

Finding a phone and cheering as he did so Alex punched in MI6's number, he'd forced Blunt to give him it after the Damian Cray incident, and waited impatiently until someone picked up.

"Put Blunt on now, tell him it's one pissed off Alex Rider who will be on his doorstep and using what Scorpia taught him if he doesn't talk to me."

Alex's voice was flat and cold, effectively scaring the newbie who was monitoring the phones into doing what he wanted and patching him through to Blunt, besides even he'd heard of Scorpia and if this guy had been trained by them then...

"Good evening Alan. I want out."

"But Alex, this is important for you – you need more training and you can see your friends in the process."

"See my friends!? Are you kidding me Alan? I'm at a fucking SAS camp in the middle of nowhere training with kids who rather shockingly can actually keep up with me – surprise surprise none of them are my school mates."

"Well that's MI5's doing. Whine at them not me Alex – is there a real reason behind this call? One that caused you to threaten my new secretary with Scorpia? Or did you just want a rant?"

"Actually, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I want a mission. I want out of this hellhole and I'll go to Alaska if you want me to, just get me out of here. Wait, what do MI5 have to do with this?"

Alex could just feel Blunt shift uncomfortably, "There is no need for you to know that fact Alex. I am sure you'll figure it out on your own, think of it as a test, a mission if you will."

"Fat lot of good you guys are, mind you it's the same when I always need you. I'll see you when I get back – but don't expect me to be cooperative."

"I wouldn't expect anything less Alex, I wouldn't expect anything less." Alan Blunt smiled, yes the cold hearted man actually smiled, as he put down the phone. He knew Alex Rider was a good catch even if he was coming close to losing him. Now however he just had to hope that the blonde teenager didn't find out exactly who those other teenagers were, he didn't doubt that Alex knew thousands of painful ways to kill him.

Morning came much too soon for Alex Rider, all he could console himself with was that every morning he woke up meant one less days left in the hell hole called Brecon Beacons. Only 20 days more, he could live with that, he just had to get through 20 more days of hell surrounded by SAS men who were out for his blood after the paint ball incident. Yippee. Oh yeah, and 20 days surrounded by kids he'd never see again but he still had to hide who he was from. For at least the hundredth time he cursed Alan Blunt to an eternity in a fiery hell. It was no wonder the man didn't have a life outside of work.

Eagle once again looked way too cheerful for this early in the morning. A glance at his watch before he left the hut had told Alex it was 5.30am. They better have a damn good reason for waking him up at this time, he'd only gotten back from the house at 2 having tried and failed to find a computer connected to the internet. Of course Blunt had been annoyingly vague when Alex rang him again an hour later to grill him on Henderson's. Rather annoyingly MI5 kept popping up – what the fuck did they have to do with a school!?

"Listen up kiddies, we're getting bored of babysitting you so guess what? You're going on a weeklong survival camp in the wood. Backpacks and rations are over there. We'll find you if there's any problems – oh and Adams, Wolf needs a word." Eagle grinned at the expression on James' face as he realised that a big scary SAS man was going to talk to him, alone. Well it was either that fact or the evil glint in his eye as he'd been speaking.

As the 59 other teens went to grab packs James made his way over to the burly SAS soldier.

"One of you delightful brats has injured my cousin again – if your sister had anything to do with it this time then she's out. Surprised she got to stay after the last time to be honest, I wanted her out – bloody brat. Should have told you this a while ago, wasn't going to bother at all actually but I had a change of heart. Any involvement in his injury and she's out – and you're not allowed to leave. You got that?"

"Yes sir!" James said hurriedly, backing away as he spoke, he grabbed the remaining backpack and sprinted off to catch up with his friends. There was a time and a place for him to think about the news Wolf had just given him – at an SAS camp just about to go on a survival camp/trek thing was not one of those times and places. Actually even thinking about the possibility Lauren might be booted and he'd have to stay wasn't at all high on his list of priorities. In actual fact it was very near the bottom, just above school work.

"Get your ass moving James! Not gonna wait any longer for you – you can camp alone, god knows your head's big enough that you probably think you can."

James gave the boy the finger and jogged towards the group of them that were left, most of the kids had all gone into the woods already. A whole 5 of them had decided to wait for James – the other 14 CHERUBs relishing the opportunity to escape him for a while. Not that he'd pulled rank yet but...

Alex had quickly grabbed the opportunity to spend some time with Tom, the one person who knew that he'd been here before and about his missions. He was getting desperate to have a good moan, especially after the night before's failed attempt at getting out of the camp. Well he wasn't going to moan exactly, that was too girly for a Rider, but he definitely wanted to rant – in the most manly way possible of course, he couldn't tarnish the Rider tradition.

The two teens had started hiking straight off, the plan being to get as far away from everyone and everything as possible before setting up a camp. Then maintaining that distance for as long as possible and putting off the inevitable someone coming into their personal space and destroying the tiny bit of peace they had. Besides, if they accidentally got too far away they could 'get lost' and 'not be able to find their way back'. Well that was the plan. Unfortunately the Henderson's kids seemed to have had the same idea and were making a lot of noise as they trampled through the woods behind them. Alex groaned and pulled Tom onto a nearly hidden path that headed straight for the perimeter of the camp – and if they were really lucky a way out. Alex had enough money for a hotel for a few nights and Tom could buy food, they'd be fine for a week or so...

"What the hell Alex? Where we going?"

"Away." Alex ground out still dragging Tom behind him by his shirt. "Just away."

Tom shrugged and allowed himself to be pulled further into the woods; he'd leave questioning Alex until later, after all they had a week to do whatever the hell they liked – no SAS hounding on them every two minutes. Tom smiled, at the minute life was pretty good and he liked it. Even if life did involve him being at a constantly raining SAS camp with no chance of escape. Thinking about it, maybe life wasn't so good.

Alex forced on through the woods, shoving branches out of the way that would swing back and hit a rather annoyed Tom in the face prompting many exclamations of pain and "Jesus Alex, what the hell? I am here you know, please don't hurt me!" he stopped those after a while though, Alex turned and gave him a death glare and Tom wasn't overly eager to experience what would happen if he said it again, the other teen was a black belt in karate after all.

Spying the perimeter Alex finally stopped, throwing his bag on the floor and leaning against a tree. It was barbed wire, he was not impressed. His eyes closed and he groaned. Sensing they'd be there a while Tom copied Alex and 5 minutes later both teens were asleep relishing the opportunity to get a chance to do so undisturbed.

Crap ending but cos of English coursework this has been pushed back and back so I decided to get it out before some of you killed me :P hope you like it anyway

Ldf x