"Oh my god..." I said. Just staring at Edward I knew I had made the right choice about coming to get him. Just looking at what they had done to him put any doubts out of my mind.

"Nick?" Edward choked. He tried to push himself up but collapsed almost immediately and broke into a coughing fit. His body racked with chokes. When he finished there was black liquid all over the white padded floor, not blood, something else.

"Oh god, Edward. Oh god. Oh god," I whispered, sinking to my knees next to him. His eyes were drooping all the time like he wanted to go to sleep but he didn't let them drop. He kept jolting and grunting. Then I realised that the security bracelet must be shocking him to stay awake and hurt him at the same time. "Edward the key! Where is it?" I said.

"The...the panel....outside...code...0...5....7...3," he rasped. Every word was hurting him. "Frost...changed it...didn't think...you...were...coming." I jumped to my feet and slammed on the panel so hard I thought it might crack. Edward must have seen the code when they took him back to his cell.

I crouched down next to him again. "I'm going to get you out of here. Now," I said. I was about to pick him up when he grabbed my wrist.

"Tess...?" He gasped. I silently cursed myself. I should have told him straight away.

"She's fine. And waiting for you," I reassured him. I lifted him up easily even though he was a sixteen year old boy. He groaned and whimpered when I did. "What did I do?" I asked frantically. He only shook his head. He needed medical attention and now.

I stepped out of the cell and closed the door. Cain and Caleb suddenly appeared in front of me. "Where is..." Caleb started until he saw Edward in my arms. "Oh..." Even Cain looked shocked at what they did to him.

"We have to go. We need to get him back to the chopper," I said. "I have medical supplies on there but he has to get back to the base." Caleb nodded.

"The lights are still out but-" there was a sudden crack that cut Caleb off. The lights slowly turned on, illuminating the corridors. "Damn it. I thought it would hold a bit longer!" Caleb cried.

We ran down the corridors, me leading the way. Edward was wincing in my arms as my feet thumped the floor. I knew this had to be excruciating for him but I had to keep going.

We made it back to the door where we had come in. There were still no guards around which made me uneasy. This was way to easy for them to just let us go. After checking the coast was clear, we ran across into the woods. There were still no guards following us. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

We scrambled back to the helicopter and fired up the engine as quickly as possible. Apparently, and I didn't know this, but Cain could fly a chopper and wordlessly he took to the controls while I was tending to Edward. "Caleb!" I yelled as the chopper got over the tree line. "Put some pressure on them cuts over his stomach!" Caleb reached out and room a towel from the medical box and leaned on the wounds. Edward's breath rattling was the only sound other than the helicopter. He was still coughing up the black stuff. I didn't know what the hell it was, only that it couldn't have been good.

"Hang on, buddy," I said to him. "We're almost there." I was so busy trying to fix up Edward that I didn't realise that we were landing back at the Changed base. There were many people holding torches waiting for us on the landing pad, including the Commander. There were also doctors waiting with a stretcher. I scanned the crowd looking for Tess but she wasn't there.

As soon as we touch the ground I flung open the doors and yelled at the doctors to get the stretcher over. They sprinted towards me while two other soldiers helped me ease Edward down. His chest was moving up and down rapidly now. "Give us some space!" I yelled at the crowd.

The soldiers picked up the stretcher and ran down the stairs towards the infirmary. I was swiftly behind them with the doctors behind me. When I got to the infirmary, the soldiers had already got Edward on the bed. The doctors pushed past me. "We need to operate immediately," one cried. "On his arm first then his ankle and collar bone!" I didn't even know Edward had broken anything . I stayed by his bed side. He gripped my hand like he was scared when they were plugging the heart monitors on him and inserting the drip. Then they injected anaesthetic to make him fall asleep. "Too many needles..." He was mumbling. "Not again..."

"Its fine, Edward," I told him. "They're going to help you." Suddenly there was a scream from behind me and Tess pushed me out of the way with amazing strength. I almost toppled over. "Ed? Ed! You're okay. You're okay," she whispered in his ear. He gripped her hand and smiled.

"Now I am," he choked out. He smiled then closed his eyes. "I love you, Tess," he whispered.

Then the beeping stopped.

 His heart monitor had stopped beeping.

 His heart had stopped.

"Ed," Tess sobbed. Then she cried louder. I grabbed her just as the doctors were about to try restarting his heart using electric shocks. I carried Tess over my shoulder as she beat my back, trying to get me to put her down. The soldiers behind me shut the door.

I set Tess down by the viewing window and hugged her tightly until she calmed down. "He's dead," she cried. "Is he dead?" I glanced in the viewing window and saw to my relief that they had got his heart going again.

"No. No he isn't dead. Just sleeping," I soothed her.

 I showed the window where she saw the heart monitor going again. She took deep breaths slowly and watched the doctors operate on Edward. I stayed with her until she dropped off asleep, leaning on the wall. I stayed wide awake watching them work on Edward. It was in the early hours of the morning that they finally finished. One of the doctors came out to speak to me. "How bad is he?" I asked him. He gave me a look.

"Very bad," he said. "Three broken ribs, a broken arm, broken collar bone, broken ankle and a cracked sternum. Not to mention having to sew up the deep gashes on his stomach and the monstrous bruises."

"What about the black stuff he was coughing up?" I asked.

"We're not sure. We think it was some sort of torture weapon that attacks from the inside but we think he got most of it out though there is no way to tell for sure," the doctor sighed. "If I'm totally honest, he is very lucky to be alive right now. He'll be in a coma for a while though we're not sure how long."

He went with the other doctors out of the infirmary and off to bed. They must be exhausted. I carried Tess to her room but then went straight back down to Edward with a chair and a blanket and sat there watching him. I didn't even feel that tired, I just wanted Edward to be okay. He was covered in bandages and casts but you could still see the blackened bruises all over him.

What he must have gone through but I still didn't think that the Government put up much of a fight when we got him. It seemed so wrong. I stared at Edward taking breath after breath. I wasn't sure how well Tess was going to take the news on how bad he was but I'd tell her tomorrow. But now I was going to make sure Edward was alright.

I sat there till way past dawn.

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Wow!!! That was a stressful chapter to write. Sorry if it goes a bit fast but I was so excited to write the last two chapters.

Comment and vote please!!!! They always mean so much to me!!!!

CricketCat