I would have preferred to gather my gear and leave the city straight away, but I knew my duty to my people and scavenging team. I joined the ranks and organised trucks to be filled with food and water tanks. But then I realised Rose wasn't by my side. I don't know why I assumed she would be there. I mean I normally only see her few times a week, but working next to her today felt natural. I turned to Dan, assuming she would be with him, but she was nowhere to be seen. I was confused for a second, puzzled about where she could be. Then I remembered about Emma.

I knew it was unreasonable to be annoyed, but we need Rose here and instead she was most likely to be in danger. I soon worked out that the machine was going to hit them before it got to us, so I ran over to an empty truck and started the engine. Dan looked up.

"Rose is with Emma. They're gonna be killed if we don't get there now," I shouted to him. He cursed loudly. I had forgotten how much of a bad mouth he had. Most of the time he was calm and friendly, joking around. But he could switch into commander-mode in an instant. And when he was like that, he cursed like a sailor in a storm.

At the moment he looked like he could strangle someone. His team jumped out of his path as he strode over to the truck, ordering three others to join us and appointing a new temporary leader. As soon as they were in the vehicle, I raced off, driving recklessly. Dan was sitting beside me and I could hear him muttering under his breath still. A glanced over and he caught my eye.

"Drive faster. Their lives are on the line."

"Yes sir!" I responded sharply and stepped on the accelerator. I took the main roads where very few people lived, so I did not have to avoid pedestrians. While we hurtled along, I snuck another look at Dan. He was sitting on the edge of his seat, leaning forward, as if wishing we could go faster. He had now stopped making threats and an expression of concern could be detected in his frown. Even though he occasionally tried to hide it, he cared a lot for the Whitbournes. I knew that when Emma went into a coma it almost killed him,and he viewed Rose's well-being as his responsibility.

We reached their house just as the machine was only a few streets away. It was too close. If it got much nearer we might not make it back out alive. We ran into their house and I left the engine running. One of the people Dan had brought with us leapt into the driver's seat. As we ran through into main room, we passed Rose's mural and I was amazing at how detailed it was; I never knew she was an artist. I saw a pile of luggage ready to go and picked it up. Then Rose appeared, waving away clouds of dust and coughing. She stood in the doorway and beckoned us through. Dan and the others ran in and started moving Emma. But as he past her, Dan cuffed Rose on the head, none too gently. I grabbed Rose by her arm and started dragging her through the crumbling house to the waiting vehicle. We were both coughing our lungs out as I opened the back of the truck and lowered the ramp. I chucked the luggage up to Rose and then turned back to see Dan and the others maneuvering the bed through the rubble. I ran up the ramp to grab the end of the bed and once it was in,Rose and I hauled up the ramp. Dan slapped the side of the vehicle and jumped in as it started moving.

The hatch on the back of the truck was open and as we drove away (as fast as we could), we could see the machine destroy the buildings behind Rose's house. And then the metal monster had swallowed it. Rose looked away. As we drove the machine shrank in the distance until we could see the full length of it. It was a fearful sight to behold.

The sunlight glinted on the edge of it as the last few rays of the day shone. Before the machine came, the sun would have set hours ago, hidden by the skyscrapers and tower blocks. But the sun was behind the machine and it had leveled the cityscape, so the shine had only just been hidden for the night. Slowly, I stood up and closed the back of the truck. I looked away, glancing around. The three members of the team were in the front, talking amongst themselves. I could see through the front windscreen and saw that we had joined the other vehicles evacuating the city. I then looked at Dan and saw that he was sitting next to Rose and they were examining the keys. I went over to help and for five minutes we were all huddled on the floor sorting out the keys. We didn't speak, only exchanging looks to ask if "this is the right key?".

Eventually, we had narrowed it down to four. Rose passed them to me to compare with the lock. I stood up and went over to Emma's bed. The first one was the right shape and size, but the electric veins running through it didn't match the pattern above the lock. I put it into my pocket for sale. The second one was obviously way to thick when compared to the entry slot, despite it looking the same as the other keys; that one went into my pocket as well. I took a breath. Third time lucky, as it always is in films. However, I could slip it into the keyhole, but the lights above it didn't turn on. I took it out and gave a wry grin as I proved the movie experiences wrong. But I was puzzled why it didn't work, and as I examined it, I saw that one of the veins was missing a millimetre off the silver currents.

I picked up the last key and slotted it into the machine. It fit. The lights went on. My finger hovered over the button to activate the wake up sequence but then I turned to look at Rose. I stood up and backed away from the bed.

"You do it," I whispered. She looked at me, her eyes wide and unsure.

"Just, take your time." I went and sat against the wall of the truck. She took a breath and made to stand up, but then sat down again and buried her face in her hands. Dan stood up and started pacing.

"Rose, what's wrong? Why can't you do it?" I questioned her quietly, so Dan wouldn't hear. She glanced up and whispered back to me.

"What if she's not the same? What if she's lost her memory? Jay, what if... what if this doesn't work? I need her back Jay." She started to cry. Now I felt awkward. I'm not very good in emotional situations, but before I could do anything she calmed down again, steeling herself with a few deep breaths, and this time approached the bed, with a look of determination in her eye.

Dan came over and as Rose's hand hovered above the button, they huddled around the bed, apprehensive. Despite knowing the Whitbournes and Dan for years, I hung back. They never looked away from the bed. Finally Rose pushed the button. As the oval, metal-grey plastic slid and clicked into place, the bed's hum grew louder. A row of lights, which had never been lit before, flashed on in a sequence, and the monitors started beeping. Emma's heart rate picked up slowly, until it was racing. I realised what was happening and dashed over in time to flick a switch before all oxygen in the pod was consumed. There had been a steady dribble feeding into the plastic dome, but now Emma's body was trying to start up again, it was going to need more than it was getting.

I saw Rose's hands clench into fists as she watched her sister with eager, desperate eyes. Dan had one arm folded around his body, hand cupped into his elbow as his other hand pressed nervously into the base of his neck. They were terrified but wanted Emma to wake up more than they had wanted anything else.

And finally she did. She took a gasping breath as her eyes flew open. Her fists clenched the sheets beneath her and her chest heaved as she took her first proper lungfuls of air. Tears started to course down Rose's face and she and Dan fought briefly with the clasps on the pod. They shoved it open and Emma struggled to sit up, still breathing deeply. But then she was suffocated by hugs as Rose and Dan clung onto her for dear life, not willing to let go of this precious person who they had lost. I smiled gently at the scene, genuinely pleased to see them so happy. But for a second, I also felt scared as Rose's fears projected onto me and Emma sat there shocked and confused. Her frame stayed rigid as Dan and Rose still hung onto her, and she did not relax into their embrace and I feared that Rose might have been right, that Emma would not remember, that her brain would have been damaged by being dormant for so long.

But then she croaked,"Rose?"