The End

Awake

Through the blackness I could hear noises.

Slowly the noises seemed to be becoming more coherent as slowly I began to feel my body returning to my control. The noises seemed to be voices talking softly and along with the voices the noise of machines whirring softly sounded from next to me.

As my body began to wake up however a dull and heavy ache emanated from my left side sending waves of pain washing down my body. The pain made me grimace and I let out a small groan. Suddenly the voices stopped, and after a moment I heard one of them talk and I recognized Myles's voice as he spoke. "Did he just groan?..." Slowly, with considerably more effort than it usually took, I opened my eyes.

I was lying in a brightly lit room lying in a hospital bed dressed in a green hospital gown with an IV line inserted into my arm and electrodes attached to my chest. As I looked around I saw that two people were sat either side of my bed, a frozen and staring Myles and a bewildered looking Ray both in black military fatigues. A little annoyed at their lack of response I said "of course I groaned, I have shrapnel in my side!".

With that the two men either side of me burst out laughing, roaring with hearty laughter. As they both laughed I began to get annoyed, "what's so funny?!" I asked indignantly as the two men continued to laugh. Ray managed to stop laughing long enough to gasp "dude! You've been in a coma for 3 months now! and you just wake up and make a pissy comment!!" And Ray burst back out laughing.

During the laughter however I was stunned. Three months!!!! It felt like I had just blacked out for a minute! "Jeez!" I said amidst the laughter "you could've woken me up or something!" And the two men laughed even harder. Suddenly however a middle aged woman in a nurse uniform came around the curtain that surrounded my bed. "Boys!!" She said sternly looking at them "keep it down! What are you two laughing about??". Apparently she hadn't noticed that I was awake, "sorry nurse Chase" panted Myles "but Jason just woke up and the first thing he is did was yell at me!". Nurse Chase leant around Myles and gasped as she saw me sitting up slightly in my bed looking awkward. "Hey" I said unsure of what to do, "Why didn't you tell anyone he woke up!!" Demanded the nurse and Ray replied "he just woke up though!".

The nurse shook her head and turned to leave saying "I'm getting Dr.Greene" and with that she swept off around the curtain. "Should I be worried?" I asked the other two, who had finally stopped laughing, and Ray answered. "Nah" he said with a smile "Dr.Greene is a great guy, he's the one who stitched you up and kept you alive". I sighed heavily a little relieved, the pain in my side had subsided somewhat as well and overall I was feeling much better than when I was laying down, I was still weak though.

After a moment in my thoughts however I spoke up drawing the attention of my friends. "Where am I?" I asked and Myles answered, "NATO's main base hospital. You managed to make it to the complex with your pilot friend, albeit with a bit of a cut, so in short welcome to Bastion". "Bastion..." I said slowly feeling the words on my lips, it sounded heartening and strong.

At that moment a dark haired man in green military fatigues and a lab coat threw back the curtain around one side of my bed and beamed at me. "Jason!!" He said sounding delighted that I was awake. He strode to my bed and pulled Rays chair under himself and glanced at the machines next to my bed nodding as he took in the readouts. "How are you feeling?" He asked me as he reached out for my arm and took my pulse manually. "Err a little weak I suppose, and my side hurts." I said and the doctor laughed "that's to be expected" he said with a smile.

So far he was giving off a very good first impression and I already liked him. "I heard you kept me alive" I said to him and he smiled at me again "it was my pleasure Jason, I am happy to help the man who kept my sister alive". The doctor went about his checks again and for a moment I sat there trying to make sense of what he just said, Sister?

Suddenly it clicked, "wait, what?" I said as the doctor started to fiddle with the tubes in my arms "you mean Hannah?" But I winced before he could answer as he abruptly pulled out the tubes in my arm. "Sorry" he said apologetically as I rubbed the sore spots where the tubes were before. "And to answer your question, yes Hannah's my sister", he continued smiling warmly. "I just want to thank you for protecting her out there, I saw the handiwork you did to patch her up and I must say I'm impressed. She also told me how much you helped her to keep it together...." he paused looking at me carefully "thank you." I smiled back at the doctor and nodded "my pleasure" I said and his smile widened.

"Great!" He said loudly and he reached out to shake my hand "My name is Russell! But you can call me rush, everyone does". I took his hand and shook it "thanks rush" I said and he nodded "so from now you can take care of yourself, so you can go to the bathroom yourself eat and move around but we still need to keep you here until your wounds have fully healed, so don't stress yourself!". I nodded my understanding.

From then an hour passed with Ray and Myles filling me on on what had happened since I was wounded. Conrad and his tier 0 team had managed to get all the captured data back to NATO during the evacuation of Phoenix and as soon as NATO got the data they had started trawling through all the research data and started their engineers working on the various schematics and blueprints. Apparently they had only just finished the construction of the 3 dimensional atomic conversion fabricator or the 3DACF for short. This would allow NATO to make anything from anything meaning infinite fabrication options.

I sat there dazed by all the progress that had taken place in my absence. A freakin 3d printer?? Awesome!! As I sat there though Ray looked at his watch. "Y'know what" he said looking at Myles, "I think it's about the end of the schedule" and Myles nodded. Mystified I looked at both of them and Myles filled in the blank. "Everyone here works on a schedule during the day, and when that schedule ends that means you're on free time!" He said brightly. "So I think I know a few people who might want to come and see you" said Ray giving me a sly look and I sat up a little, "Oh yeah the others!" I said smiling "It'll be nice to see them". "Oh I'm sure" said Ray with a chuckle and Myles was grinning as well.

"What??" I asked seriously annoyed they kept holding things out on me now and they smiled at me. "Lets just say that Hannah and Geneis have been very eager to see you" said Myles and the the two guys burst out laughing as I sighed heavily and held my face in my hands.