A/N- A happy new year to you all! Sorry for the slow update, new years & xmas is a busy time for my trade. Second to last chapter though, so here it is!

-Grey.


Drops of blood seemed to fall from Hex's bent body in slow motion as Amber ignored the tearing in her side, her wounded friend and focused on dealing with the imminent threat.

A second round clipped past her as she brazenly charged and behind her a fleshy impact sounded and was followed by a gritted scream of pain as Hex was hit by another round. Amber's hands closed around a pistol for the second time that night and she fought for control, once more in déjà vu of her earlier struggle with Miguel.

Hopefully this time, things ended better for her.

Blood soaked through the bandage on Amber's wrist as the muscles in her forearms contracted in the effort of keeping a grip on cold heavy weapon. Deafening rounds erupted to the side of her head as she held herself clear of the deadly lead spitting muzzle.

Amber heard no further cries from Hex, whether that was a good thing or not she was unsure. Concern for her wounded friend and a long night of pent up anger gave her courage in her movements and lent power to her tired limbs.

The wounded Russian fought the bold girl with his last reserves of strength, but was overcame by her spirit and the pummelling he had recently received.

Stumbling backwards on his dead comrade, Ivanovich's grip loosened on the pistol as Amber fell on top of him and the weapon discharged one final time. The cold, lead herald of death punched through his broken ribs with ease before the barrel floated free from its temporary halt against his chest, the damage done.

An autopsy would later show that a single 9mm bullet entered Dimitri Ivanovich's chest just below his 6th intercostal space to drive through on an upward angle. It proceeded through to rupture the left ventricle of his heart, killing him almost instantly from the massive cardiac trauma and the irreversible disruption to circulation it caused.

Amber of course, could know none of this; all she witnessed was the discharge of the weapon into the stout chest of her falling opponent as they tumbled through the air.

The body that broke her fall was a relaxed one, having expended its grip on life and shuffled off the mortal plain almost straight away.


Amber pushed off the corpse without a second glance or a hint of remorse, all her thought and concern was for the teen behind her.

She found Hex behind her sprawled at a sitting, clutching his right arm as if it were a newborn baby, his clenched teeth and strained face indicating his obvious pain. A crimson cloud had spread across one side of his dark shirt.

Amber pushed her forehead against his and her hands explored his body searching for the entry and exit wounds. Her fingers and his breath caught as she found the bleeding track that traced his flank, evidence of the glancing blow he had received from one of the bullets. Just scraped him, a narrow miss and another scar, Amber concluded in relief. When she had first seen the bloodstain spreading on his shirt she had immediately feared the worst, what she had just found was not serious.

His arm was a whole different matter, a messy wound that carved through his forearm flowed with blood in a steady stream and striations of raw muscle were visible through the open wound. Hex felt light-headed, almost drunk from the surreal amounts of pain that were radiating from his forearm. Jagged shards seemed to gouge into his flesh from around the wound but they paled in comparison to the direct injury left by the bullets wake.

The immense destructive energy of the bullet had created a cavity from one side of his arm through to the other; to make matters worse it was not simply a straight line either. Where the bullet had entered on the top of his right arm was a small hole slightly smaller in diameter then a small coin, the thin creek of blood that leaked from it was in no way an indication of the damage that had been dealt. Unseen was the displacement and shearing of tissue that the high velocity projectile had caused in its journey.

On the underside of his arm was the location of the exit wound.

Unlike the entry wound, this hole was much larger and messier due to the change in the force profile, which occurred with the bullets initial impact and travel through Hex's body. Through the ragged hole a bare lace of white tendons could be seen stretching and contracting among the steady flow of blood, as the agonised teen reluctantly tried to clench his fist in experiment.

Amber felt physically sick at the sight of the gruesome exposed anatomy and she pressed Hex's hand firmly over top of it to cover up the larger hole.

Surges of pain sparked through his newly cavernous arm distorting his vision with the intensity of it. His quickly draining colour was hastened when he looked down and noticed that his injured arm bowed excruciating in the middle around his firm grip. Trying his best to support the unnaturally bowing limb, Hex slid the wrist of his other arm under his paling hand to help keep it in alignment.

The distant sounds of sirens screened through the squat building as Amber hooked under his good armpit and helped Hex to his feet. The teen was absolutely filthy, covered in blood, both his own and that of others. Gritty cement dust had settled onto ever surface and made their sweat stained faces stiff and unresponsive.

"Broken," Hex hissed in diagnosis through a painful grimace as Amber gently helped cradle his wounded arm, squeezing firmly as she did so to try and slow the bleeding.

"No computer games for a while huh?" Amber panted dryly with her breath stolen by her painful flank. Hex looked up at her with an appreciative grin despite his pain, for her not making a big deal out of the injury or being too grossed out. A pulse thumped heavily in his temples and he took a moment to brace himself for the agonising act of further movement.

Slowly the pair limped together to the door, their arms linked in mutual support, eager to leave the room of death behind and reunite with their friends.

"Just kill me now." Hex moaned, sweating fiercely from a combination of pain, blood loss and the thought of being unable to use his computer.

Amber's ragged breath arrived in spurts on his bare neck as she struggled to move and converse while enduring her painful fractured ribs.

"I knew you would come." She uttered, out of breath as they finally made it to the door and stopped to regather their strength. Despite the circumstances she leaned deeper into his shoulder and planted a lingering dry kiss on his cheek.

Filled with regret, Hex resisted the temptation to stop and turn the kiss into something more and instead focussed on pushing the door open with his one good shoulder.

His look said all she needed to hear and quite suddenly she didn't seem quite so concerned by her aching side as they entered the next room.


The sight that met them was grim indeed.

Li and Alex lay on the floor, their skin as grey as the cement that coated the walls, beside them Paulo and Camilla knelt looking exhausted and overwhelmed.

They were both in various states of undress as they cut strips of their clothes to better bandage their friend's wounds. The dust had finally settled and revealed the grisly aftermath of their earlier conflicts. Bodies, blood and gore strew the floor seemingly at random and the survivors themselves looked like corpses reanimated.

Cutting across any greetings Paulo got straight to the point. "Ambulances are coming but they are maybe too far away." He admitted forlornly to his newly arrived and equally wrecked mates.

Amber was split with her emotions, the joy of seeing her friends again, the fear for her two critically injured comrades and the guilt that they were in this state because of her.

"The main hospital is only a few blocks from here." She suddenly blurted out as she orientated to where they were by looking out the large hole in the wall.

Hope flowed back into the group in a cascade with the prospect of a plan.

"All right we drive ourselves." Hex decided for the group, unable to bear the thought of losing a friend because they waited for help to arrive. The idea of a bumpy van ride with his shattered arm was a grim thought indeed, but paled when put in the context of Alex or Li's enduring survival.

"It will probably be faster." Paulo agreed and he hefted Li's prone form over his shoulder in a sturdy fireman's carry. Whispered curse words tumbled from her lips, deteriorating into groans as she bounced away on his shoulder while he carefully made for the exit.

"Follow me!" He called, trudging through the hole in the wall at a fast walk, the first rays of the sun catching on his sweaty skin.

"Come on sleepy head up ya get!" Amber encouraged Alex shaking him roughly and sitting him up.

"Wha? Huhh.. Ammber?" He mumbled struggling to lift his burdened eyelids.

"Yea it's me, your plan worked and now we are getting out of here, so stand up you Geordie git." Amber commanded firmly as she and Camilla took a side each to help him up.

Alex's feet scrabbled to find purchase until they lifted him up and he was able to share his weight across them. His head abruptly lolled back on his shoulders at the sudden fluid shift caused by the position change and he passed out again.

"Come on, we'll just have to carry him out like this." Camilla decided, her concern for Alex was ever growing and it seemed the quickest way to extricate him. Slipping one hand each underneath his bottom they formed a makeshift carry chair with their linked arms, their second arms joined across his back as a backrest.

Satisfied that they were capable of moving Alex without him, Hex gingerly picked a path through the debris back to the van and the girls followed on.


Knowing the local topography, Amber jumped in the driver seat straight away after offloading her patient into the back. Keying the ignition she stiffly crunched the van into gear and pulled out of the abandoned alleyway they had parked in.

In the back, Paulo jerked forward with the sudden lurch of speed while he tore open the small first aid kit to get some proper bandages.

Holding Hex's useless arm, Camilla started bandaging the wounds just as carefully as she could in the moving vehicle. The stoic hacker shuddered and grimaced with every bump the van rode over and every slight change in direction. Silent tears of pain leaked gently down the creases of his winced face but he still refused to make a noise of complaint.

He felt as though his arm was doing enough screaming for the both of them.

Paulo worked on the two more critical patients, struggling to work within the cramped confines of the vehicle and further hindered by the instability of Amber's driving.

"Maybe we should have waited for the ambulance after all." Hex suggested only half jokingly when the van ran over yet another pothole in the road. The tight bandage on his arm wasn't doing anything to help the biting, punctured pain in his wrist and his mental fortitude was being pushed to the limit.

Paulo couldn't help but wonder if his friend wasn't wrong as he was rolled onto his butt once more by Amber taking another corner too quickly. A horn blared outside as she cut off some early riser on their way to work. Turning back to his patients he tightened Alex's makeshift tourniquet and got to work binding Li's injured leg to her good one.

Camilla had just tucked in the ends neatly on a crepe bandage that held dressings on Hex's arm when they heard Amber yell from up front.

"We're here!" She announced triumphantly before yanking hard on the steering wheel to send the van into a screeching right hand turn. Embarrassed by the rough turn, she palmed the van into reverse and in a more careful manner, backed the van up as close to the emergency department doors as possible.


The entire emergency department erupted into action the instant Paulo walked through the automatic doors with Li lying limply in his arms.

Gurneys were rushed over for the two critical patients as the entrance boiled over with doctors and nurses.

Alex and Li were wheeled into separate resuscitation bays where the practiced medical teams began hooking up various monitors and performing a myriad of assessments. Hex was guided into a wheelchair and carted off to a side room for a specialist examination of his damaged hand. Amber of course went with him, presumably to hold his unbroken hand during the process.

That left only Paulo and Camilla to haunt the hallway outside the resus area to try and catch snatches of information about their loved ones. The once friendly doctor finally got sick of their dogged persistence and assigned the pair a room with a bed each and ordered they get some rest.

"We will let you know if anything changes with their conditions." The man in the white coat assured them briskly, before ducking back into his medical bay to coordinate the treatment.

Resigned to his fate and suddenly feeling the press of exhaustion, Paulo had made himself comfortable and fell into a deep sleep.

In the bed opposite him sleep wouldn't come.

Camilla lay with her eyes open staring at the blank white ceiling, her mind in turmoil. Thoughts, memories and emotions tangled into a chaotic jumble, harsh ideas seemed to stick with her periodically as if her head was housing a tangled coil of barbed wire. Conclusions and concepts that she had been so comfortable with barely hours ago were raised again in doubt, re-examined with uncertainty.

The overriding theme or emotion that seemed to shroud all the rest of her thoughts was her worry for a certain teen from Northumbria. It seemed the only constant in her thoughts at the moment and the implications of that fact weighed heavily on her mind.

Distracted by the cacophony in her head, she barely noticed as Amber limped into the room timidly, treading lightly so as not to wake Paulo.

On becoming aware of the other girls presence she quietly called out to her.

"How's Hex doing Amber?"

Amber turned suddenly; unaware that the other girl had been awake she forced a hollow smile before answering.

"Hey Camilla I didn't realise you were still awake," She seemed to pause after the greeting; with a trembling lip she struggled to express what exactly was happening to Hex. "They gave him something for the pain but his arm is in pretty bad shape."

"Oh," was all the blond could find in reply to the unfortunate news.

"He's.. he's… he's in surgery now." Amber revealed, her voice warbling as she carried on into the room before coming to a halt at the side of Camilla's bed.

"The bones are shattered and a whole bunch of the nerves and tendons are damaged too. The surgeon in the consult was unable to say whether he would ever regain full capacity with it again."

Camilla didn't know what else to do so she pulled the distraught teen into a hug, allowing her friend to sob against her shoulder.

Amber appreciated the act of comfort in her time of need and felt slightly guilty that hadn't always been the most welcoming to the girl who had entered Alex's life.

"It was just so sad, the look on his face when the surgeon told him that, it was look of a defeated man, someone who's lost the most important part of his life. It's the first time I've ever seen Hex cry and I just felt so helpless to fix him." Amber recalled in stark desolation, the memory tearing her up inside.

"You did all you could for him Amber," Camilla reassured, "Hex is a tough guy, if anyone can bounce back from this it will be him. But it's not going to be easy and I think that's when he is really going to need your help."

Amber nodded at the truth in her words, taking hold of the seeds of hope they planted and watering them with her eyes.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" a soft voice asked from the door.

Both girls turned to see a tired looking ED nurse standing at the threshold holding a clipboard.

Amber determinedly wiped tears from her dark eyes before responding.

"No not at all, please you have news about our friends?"