Apologies if this chapter may seem to move a bit haphazardly. My dogs were driving the hell out of me and I had to keep dashing away from the computer to tell my puppy to be quiet.

Amber gasped and jammed the key into Alex's hand. He fumbled with the padlock before finally getting it to spring open. They pushed on the heavy door, stumbling into the cell.

'No,' Amber whispered as she saw Hex's still body. She knelt by his head, tears in her eyes. 'What do we do?'

Alex shook his head, wishing Paulo was with them. 'I don't know. He must have been given a new drug.'

'We have to get him out of here.' Amber stroked Hex's cheek, willing his eyes to open.

'How?' Alex felt angry. Not at Hex but at himself. He had no idea how to get Hex out or what to do next. 'We can't carry him out.'

'A gurney,' Amber said. 'There are a couple of gurneys in the storage room.'

Alex nodded, relived to have a plan and something to do, before running out of the cell.

Amber squeezed Hex's hand tightly. 'Don't worry, Hex. You're going to be ok.' She willed Alex to hurry up. As though he heard her, Alex appeared in the door way, a rickety old gurney in front of him.

'Let's get him out of here.' Alex moved into the room and knelt next to Amber. A frown crossed his face as he looked at Hex's chest. Alex put a hand just in front of Hex's mouth and his eyes widened as he felt no breath.

Amber read his expression and shoved him out of the road before starting CPR on Hex. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she pushed on his chest. 'Come on, Hex! Don't you dare die on me.' With increased desperation, Amber did the compressions.

Alex watched. He had never felt so helpless in his entire life. All he could do was sit and watch, hoping that Hex would start breathing again. He had no idea how long Amber had been doing the CPR but he felt sure that Hex should have started breathing by now. 'Amber.' He touched her arm. She shook him off. Alex grabbed Hex's wrist and felt for a pulse. He checked again. Panic grabbed Alex's heart. 'Oh God,' he wailed.

Amber's tear streaked face turned towards him. 'What?' Her eyes fell to Alex's hand, still gripping Hex's wrist. She shook her head in disbelief. 'No way. He can't...'

'Amber,' Alex repeated. 'We can't do anything else.'

'No,' Amber sobbed again, still performing CPR. 'He's not dead. He can't be.'

Alex gently pulled her away from Hex. She gave a sob and buried her face in his shoulder. 'It's ok. It's ok.' He put his arms around her and looked at the still body of Hex, knowing that it was anything but ok.

Paulo had been studying the faces of the kids. They were all exhausted and some of them still had a haunted look about them. He grabbed some blankets from the passenger seat and spread them out in the back of the van, making a thick surface for them to lie down on.

Li wandered over and smiled at his handiwork. 'Perfect.' She craned her neck to see out of the van and called, 'Bedtime!'

Eight tired youngsters staggered over to the van. Freya was gripping Keira's hand tightly, not wanting to let go of her younger sister for a second. The three boys seemed to have the most energy; they grinned at Li and Paulo before jumping up into the van. Sophia was matching her pace to Phoebe, watching the older girl carrying little Mia. Phoebe was only eight and was having trouble holding onto the heavy toddler. Li hurried towards her and gently lifted the sleeping child from Phoebe's arms. She smiled reassuringly at the two girls and led them back to Paulo and the van.

'Hop in.' Paulo gave the two little girls a dazzling smile and they giggled.

Li rolled her eyes and would have pushed Paulo if she hadn't been carrying Mia. 'Don't make his head any bigger,' she warned. With difficulty she joined the kids in the van and sat down in a corner, Mia in her lap. Around her, the other children were settling down, relived to be able to sleep peacefully and fully stretched out for the first time in weeks.

Paulo climbed in the van and sat next to Li. She leant against him and sighed, hoping that Alex and Amber had found Hex and were on their way out.

Alex frowned. Was that a slight movement of Hex's chest? Or had he just been imagining it? Still holding onto Amber, he stretched his hand out and felt for a pulse again. His face broke into a huge grin. It was very weak and beating erratically, but Hex was alive.

Amber seemed to notice Alex's change in mood. She pulled away from him and stared at Hex. 'He's breathing,' she exclaimed.

Alex had kept his fingers on Hex's wrist, monitoring his pulse. 'It's getting stronger and steadier.'

Amber smiled and stood up. 'We have to get him out to Paulo as soon as possible.'

Together, she and Alex picked Hex's limp body up and placed him on the gurney.

'We better move.' Alex moved to the front end of the gurney and manoeuvred it out of the cell before grabbing the side of it. 'Ready?'

'Yep.'

The old gurney moved surprisingly fast and steady. In no time at all they were in the tunnel, speeding towards the trapdoor and freedom. When they reached the steps, Alex put poked his head out and swivelled it, trying to see Paulo and Li. 'Hello?' he called. 'Could do with some help here.'

Two grinning peered back at him. They spotted Hex lying on the gurney and Amber's distraught face and the grins vanished.

'What the hell happened?' Li asked, shocked.

'We think Hex was used as a test subject.' Alex moved out of the way to let Li and Paulo down. 'Can you give us a hand getting him up top? Then I think we need your medical expertise, Paulo.'

When Hex was lying on a blanket on the grass, Paulo carefully checked him over. His three friends watched in tense silence, hoping that Hex was going to be ok. When Paulo eventually stood up, a smile on his face, they all let out sighs of relief.

'He should be fine. I don't know what they gave him and we should get him to a doctor once this is all over, but his breathing and heart rate are normal. He should regain consciousness soon as well.' Paulo grabbed another blanket and covered Hex up, making sure he was warm. They had been going to put him in the van but decided that he'd be better off outside as it was very crowded in the vehicle.

Amber turned to look at the van and was surprised to see four faces peering out of the open door. She walked over to them and they looked at her with huge eyes.

'Is he going to be ok?' Hamish asked in a small voice.

'Yep. He'll be fine.' She smiled at the little boy, but she was puzzled. Why did he look so familiar? Amber felt like she'd forgotten something but Josh's next comment made her completely tune out to her intuition.

'My brother was taken away by the frog people. I haven't seen him since then.' Josh looked sadly at Amber, as if she held the answer to where his brother had gone. She gave him a hug, feeling sick. She had a very good idea of where his brother had gone and she did not want to have to tell a six year old kid.

'Li said we were going somewhere safe,' Sophia piped up.

'We will,' Amber reassured her. 'As soon as Hex wakes up we'll get out of here.' This time she couldn't help frowning. What had she forgotten?

Hamish saw her frown and his eyes went wide. 'What?'

'Nothing.' She smiled again and looked at Hamish. What had she forgotten? Something about Hamish reminded her of-

'Amber!' Li bounded up and threw her arms around her friend. 'Hex is waking up!'

Amber hurried towards Hex, a huge grin on her face. Hex turned slightly as he heard her footsteps approaching and smiled weakly. 'Hi.' As Amber sat down next to Hex, Li casually moved away. Paulo and Alex took the hint and followed her. They walked down to the van, ushering the kids inside, before climbing in and shutting the door.

Amber shook her head and said slowly, 'We thought you were dead.'

'Takes more than an untested vaccine to kill me.' Hex grinned, feeling much better. It was so strange; one minute he had been unconscious, struggling to live and the next he felt relatively normal. What a weird drug, he thought.

'I'm glad,' Amber whispered, squeezing Hex's hand.

'Me too.'

You didn't really think I'd kill Hex, did you? How could I? Without him, Alpha Force would be Alpa Force, which hardly sounds impressive. More like a secret society for alpacas.