Edit | #Wattys2016

Nineteen

I open the door of the room, my heart pounding a mile a minute. And there he lays, a few tubes inserted in his skin, his face wan, his eyelids half-closed.

"Chance," I breathe, rushing to the bedside, ignoring the pain in my shoulder. "Chance," I repeat, taking his hand. His eyes slowly focus on me, and a small smile spreads on his face.

"He's too weak to speak now, but give him a day or so, and he should be fine," the man says, and I force a nod, holding back tears at the sight of my Chance so fragile and weak. Pressing a kiss to Chance's forehead, I close my eyes, and let myself relax. He's okay. The worst is over.

The truth is, the worst has just begun.

"You should go get some sleep," Carmen suggests from behind me. I look at Chance, and gently kiss his cheek before standing up, reluctant to let go of his hand. After a moment, I lower our intertwined hands and slip my hand from his, before heading out the door.

I've no appetite to eat anymore, even though I know that Chance is going to be alright, so I collapse on my bed and fall asleep immediately.

----------

"Amber," someone calls my name. Slowly, I open my eyes, adjusting to the light in the room. Dustin hovers over me, his face grave. My heart stops. Did something happen while I was asleep?

"Nah, nothing's the problem, just that we may have gotten a few more people on board, and we might have to eat a tiny bit less than yesterday," Dustin says, "not that you ate or anything."

"Who?" I straighten up.

As if on cue, the door opens, and someone barrels straight at me, wrapping his arms around me. Troy. I bury my nose in his hair, inhaling his familiar scent, the scent of home and love and comfort. He's removed his Edit somehow, maybe through the sacrifice of more blood, but I don't care. As long as he's safe and sound and breathing, nothing matters anymore.

"Amber," he tightens his arms, and I pull back far enough to kiss his forehead. His eyes glisten with tears, and my heart aches. I haven't seen him in forever.

"How have you been?" We ask at the same time, then laugh together before I gasp.

Because leaning against the doorframe is Sharlynn, Shaylee, and Caden. They come over and wrap me in their arms, and a tear escapes my eye. They know about the plan. They are willing to sacrifice themselves for it, too. But what's the best and most heart warming is that they are here. In the flesh, and alive. If Edit got hold of them, I'd never forgive myself.

After much hugging and talking and laughter and tears, Dustin explains that there will be two batches of us going in at different times, so we'll have to land at two different places for Edit to take them. The first batch consists of Sharlynn, Dustin, Caden and Carmen. Apparently Sharlynn and Caden have been taking care of Troy for me, and they couldn't leave him alone when Carmen contacted them, through the same way she got hold of Dustin-through a comm, like the recorded message Sharlynn sent me at first, but smaller and it self-destructs so that no one gets hold of the message-so they decided to take Troy to us, too, and he and Carmen have switched places. Shay's going to stay in the pod as well, and Sam is more than happy to have kids around.

The second batch is Chance, Dakota, Xavier and I. We'll be entering from the East side of the Outer Cities, and the others from the South. We'll be communicating through comms, since Carmen and Xavier both know how to operate one, and it'll be much easier than meeting each other at the camp, which is located at the West.

After the plan is outlined and discussed, we're handed breakfast which I wolf down, and then left to finish whatever we need to. I head towards Chance's room, my stomach turning.