The corridor is cold enough to see my breath billowing in front of me as I creep towards the sound of incensed voices. Breathe Jade. You can do this.

Woah.

As I pass the first of the lock-up garages, I suddenly jump back in surprise. The girl they brought in after me—the heavily pregnant one—is up close to the glass panel of her makeshift cell, her dark face pressed against the glass so her lips seem larger than they are.

'Help,' she mouths.

I rattle her door handle. It's freezing, and locked tight. Even if I could smash the reinforced viewing window, she'd never fit through.

'Help me,' she mouths again, edging further back and cradling a perfect beach ball bump.

So young. So pregnant. I rattle the door handle again.

'I'll come back for you.' It's all I can offer. And it's empty. Meaningless. I can't break through locked doorways and I can't save people.

The voices ahead are loud and garbled, oozing out of a room whose entrance is on the side of the corridor, at the far end. I motion towards the stench of beer and cigarettes. The bare bulbs overhead are still, casting shadows on the bare breeze block walls as I walk.

'I said calm it!' a voice is shouting as I nudge around the edge of the doorframe. I search for Blue amidst a sea of padded jackets and woollen hats. He's standing at the far side of the room by the door, facing the crowd, and he's addressing his audience like a leader. 'Calm it!' He says, again.

When they brought me here, the room seemed vast, but counting eleven people across it's widest point, it is really only a small storage space. Despite the cold, the tension sends a hot sweat up my spine.

'We're getting sidetracked,' Blue says, running his hand through his blunt hair. 'Exposing these girls will get us nowhere.'

'It will bring shame on Prosper,' a female voice rings out. 'Show them up for who they really are. Plant the seed of doubt to all those zombies who blindly follow them, show them that it's possible, that we don't need to be shackled by Prosper anymore!'

The crowd roar.

'Kate, that won't help what we're trying to achieve here,' Blue says.

'That's not what you said when we came here,' another voice yells. This one is a male voice. Gruff. Old. 'You wanted them to pay. We all want them to pay!'

Amidst another round of jeering, one of the padded coat men nearest to me picks up a grey plastic waste paper bin and beats it. A hollow drum sound resounds.

I edge into the doorframe. Blue is climbing onto a chair, waving his hands in a downward motion to calm the crowd. It's a wooden manoeuvre. There's pain in his movement, which is concealed all but for the crease of his brow.

I'd never considered the effect that the birthing scheme and the baby crisis would have on men, but the few women here make up a minority. Certainly men have to pass the tests, but they aren't subjected to the same level of scrutiny as women. Their involvement starts with a pen and ends with a plastic cup. Perhaps they were denied entry at the Clinic for mundane reasons too? And a few have got a goddamn low IQ, Dr Jenkins had said.

'We all came together because we believe,' Blue continues. 'We're lucky we've had help to enable us to be here. Ridley has a sponsor, who told us about this place and in return we must provide them with research and information. That was the deal. We are here to establish the facts which will change the world. But the minute we hurt these girls, we cross that line. We can't expose them. We have to learn from them, and we have to find out what they want with them. Ultimately, we have to be able to give life.'

With my eggs.

What he is suggesting is butchering. He's not protecting me. He never planned to release me.

'I say different,' a dark voice rings out.

The crowd stirs. Blue turns, his eyes narrowed at someone amongst the tangle of people. I nudge out farther to find the source of the new voice but already I know who it is.

'What would you do, ladies and gentlemen, if I told you that our little golden girl out there has not just a few, but thousands of active eggs?' Ridley's voice rings out. 'She's the one we've been searching for.'

A gasp rises through the crowd turning my blood cold. Blue runs his hand through his hair. It's an old habit, as it's not long enough to move.

'That's right,' Ridley continues. 'Her eggs aren't damaged at all. It's not just a one-off or a fluke. She can conceive over and over again. She's how women should be. A natural.'

'That's enough!' Blue says, climbing down from the chair, but a murmur has already started; the bud of uncertainty has started to blossom.

'To hell with this backer,' Ridley says. 'I'm not seeing pavements made of gold or anything. We're not benefiting from this little arrangement any longer. We need her to be the example, the way to tell the masses what Prime Minister Seaford is so vigilant to cover up. Imagine how quickly the press would pick up on it. With her husband. With their political links. It would spread like wildfire to every man, woman and child across the globe!'

'How do we do it?' the same girl from earlier—Kate—shouts out.

'No!' Blue bellows.

He no longer commands the audience. They're enraged, muttering amongst themselves in angry whispers that rise and pollute the air like cigarette plumes.

'Time is wasted,' Ridley says, his voice rising. I search for him amongst the crowd, but cannot pinpoint his location. 'Time to stage our protests where they will hear. Time to put our evidence where they will see. Time to make a sacrifice for the greater good. We do it like Dover!'

Dover?

The others are hollering now. Drum-man is banging his waste paper bin again. A roar of stamping feet and the scraping of chairs fills the room. Then Blue's eyes settle on me.

My heart stops beating.

Sweat pricks at my brow.

Fear breathes at my hairline.

The guilt in his expression makes his nostrils flare.

'No!' he shouts again, breaking our eye contact. 'Guys listen.'

No one is listening. They're chanting a blurred mixture of sour messages. He clambers down from the chair, and pushes past them towards me. I twist so my back is flat against the brick, staring at the corridor walls.

Blue rounds the corner panting, his chest heaving.

'Dover,' I utter, shuffling along the wall away from him. That word has been broadcast so heavily. It's a word associated with foreigners, terrorists, news reporters and film studios glamorising savagery and pain.

'That's not what they meant,' he says, 'They were using it as a comparison.'

'Blue, tell me you weren't a part of that attack on Dover that killed all those people?'

He opens his mouth to protest but nothing comes out. Stolen Fertility—of course it was them. Who else would it be?

'Tell me you weren't there,' I say, more forcefully.

'Shush.' He pulls me down the corridor with a staunch grip of my arm.

'They closed the borders,' I say. 'People can't get in or out of the country or get home for Christmas. They put iD tags everywhere. They watch our every move and monitor births and make women go to Clinics and sign on and have their lives checked. First, there were solidarity marches, and then the riots started, and we're hiding in a hospital in the middle of God knows where—all because of Dover!'

'Don't you think I know that!' he snaps.

I try to pull away, to run, but he doesn't let go. I realise he can't. Because I know why he ran from me on the Heath that day. I know where he went.

'You were there, weren't you. Just tell me you were there!'

He looks back to the room at the end of the corridor. It's door is still open, but we're out of view. I keep pulling Blue farther away from that room, but his grip on my arm doesn't waver.

'Tell me Blue!'

'I was there!' His eyes meet mine and his grip of my arm subsides. 'I was there okay. I was there. I was in Dover on the day the Fertility was stolen. I saw it with my own eyes. I. Was. There.' His eyes glaze slightly, but I don't let our eye contact drop. 'But you have to understand me when I say this, none of this was supposed to happen!'

'But it did,' I whisper, our scared eyes trapped in a stagnant gaze.

What has he become? For a minute, the stark realisation that he kidnapped me from my home sharpens with such force that I'm momentarily winded.

They're still shouting in the room at the end of the corridor, and I will the white noise to subside so I can process this revelation.

'Jade? This is me: Blue.' He pumps the area around his heart, flinching when his fist touches his chest. 'I am the one who promised last night I would save you.'

'But who's going to save you?' Both the malice and energy have drained from my voice.

'Hey, how did she get out?' a voice says. A man has turned the corner, his long grey hair tucked loosely behind his ears. Others follow. A young woman with stark red cheeks. Another few with scowls and shouting obscenities, deep lined foreheads and greasy tangled tresses. They're angry. Blue's expression has changed, too. His eyes have become wider, deeper. His lips twisted.

He pushes against the crowd.

A girl breaks to the front, the blonde skinny one called Kate in the oversized clothes. She's holding a small wooden chair. At first I think she's simply moving it out of the way, but then she twists one of the wooden spindles off the back of it and raises it towards me.

'Need to contain her!' she says.

'Then get her!' Ridley shouts from somewhere behind her, though I still can't see him.

Blue doesn't turn, but I think I hear the words, 'Get out of here.'

Kate is close, her arms raised. Behind her, the others advance.

'Run!' Blue shouts.

Say you didn't Blue? Oh no, you did. Yes, you were at Dover. But why? Find out....the next chapter is now LIVE!

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CAST LIST

Jade Lively - Lilly Collins (the protagonist)

Blue - Liam Hemsworth (the protagonist / anti-hero and Jade's ex-boyfriend)

Dr Pam Jenkins - Emma Stone (the doctor working with Blue at Freedom) 

Terrence Ridley - Mackenzie Crook (one of the pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean)

Belinda - Lindsay Lohan (fellow kidnappee)

Adrian Lively - Alex Pettyfer (Jade's husband)

Marcus Lively - William Fichtner aka Alex from Prison Break (Adrian's father)

Mikey Drosner - Jack Black (Blue's lawyer)

Detective Pike - Viola Davis (Blue's prosecutor)

Prime Minister Christopher Seaford - Gary Oldman