Elena
I scream when I see Harry falling down into the water, my heart dropping to my stomach in utter shock. I'd stumbled down onto the ground and tore my hand from his, but he didn't stop running as if he wasn't aware what was in front of him. I'm certain he had another flashback.
I don't think twice before running toward the edge of the waterfall and jumping down, diving into the water after being in the air for a few seconds. My body drops into the water legs first and I'm so grateful it's not too shallow, it appears to be at least three to four metres deep because my feet didn't touch the ground. My hair is sticking to my face and I push it away, blinking a few times to clear my vision. My eyes frantically search for Harry as I keep turning around, swaying my arms to keep myself on the surface.
When a thought he's most definitely underwater strikes me, I dive in an instant, my eyes having a blurry vision of what's underneath, but enough to detect him. I'm thankful our uniforms are black because I spot his floating body with ease, directing all of my energy into my arms and legs to push me toward him as fast as possible. My lungs are soon begging for air, the pressure in my chest strong, forcing me to get some air.
I manage to reach Harry, my hand grabbing his wrist and pulling him toward me, my hands grabbing him underneath his armpits as my legs are swinging with a large force to get us both toward the surface. When my head emerges out of the water, I immediately take a deep breath, air filling my lungs blissfully. Harry's body weighs me down, but I ignore it, turning him around and wrapping my arm around his torso, making sure his head is above the surface of the water. I use one arm and my legs to swim while keeping him close, adrenaline being the only thing preventing me from collapsing.
Luckily, the shore is near so I don't have to swim for too long before my feet touch the ground. I turn and grab Harry's arms, pulling him out of the water while moving backwards, breathing heavily as I struggle to do so. I drop down to my knees, panic slowly taking over me as I realise his chest is not moving, his lips already becoming blue from the oxygen blockage and water in his lungs.
"No, no, no," I mumble, quickly positioning beside him and placing my hands one over another onto his chest while interlocking my fingers, beginning to do heart compressions rhythmically to push the water out of his lungs. Despite being tired, I manage to find enough strength, putting as much force into it as I can. Giving up is not an option.
"Don't think I'm going to let you die like this," I say through gritted teeth. "You'll be safe, everything will be okay," I try to assure myself, not wanting to let my feelings get the best of me. He's going to be okay.
Seconds pass and there is no reaction from him, but I keep putting pressure on his chest, getting weaker with each compression, my heart pulsating in my ears, a burn in my strained muscles reminding me I'm getting weak. I begin altering between giving him mouth to mouth breathing and heart compressions, praying my strength can last long enough.
"Come on, Harry," I mumble, grunting in pain, sweat breaking on my skin. "Come on!" Tears slowly brim my eyes.
His lips suddenly part and water shoots out of his mouth in spasms as he coughs, his eyes snapping open. A long, sharp breath is inhaled into his lungs, his hands pushing him up into a sitting position, green eyes wide, his pale, ghost looking face already getting some colour. His palm presses against his chest as he keeps coughing. He gets an urge to vomit a few times, but manages to keep it all in, panting heavily.
A huge wave of relief washes over me in those few moments, I can't help but laugh, placing my hand over my chest and breathing deeply as if I was the one lying half dead moments ago. I close my eyes to calm down, giving Harry time to catch his breath and recover. When I notice he seems to be okay, I can't contain myself and basically tackle him, my arms wrapping around his neck, pressing him tightly to me. He lets out a cough and a surprised gasp, his back hitting the ground from my sudden action.
"Hey bunny, I almost suffocated and I think it's bound to happen again if you keep squeezing me so tightly," Harry says and coughs once again, humour in his voice.
I don't say anything, just keep holding him, slightly loosening my grip on him while I bury my face into the crook of his neck. He hesitantly wraps his arms around me as well, not urging me to get off, only holding me silently. I blink away the newly gathered tears in my eyes, giving myself a couple of more seconds to collect myself before pulling away.
Both of us sit up and my palms push away his damp hair sticking to his face, green eyes locking with mine. My hand slides to the nape of his neck and I pull him to me, pressing our lips together in a firm kiss, showing him how much I'm glad he's okay. And I am, I am more than glad, I'm scared to think what would've happened if the situation had turned out differently.
He places his palm where my jaw meets my neck, breaking the kiss so he can look me in the eyes. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" I ask as my eyes search his face, taking in every single detail as I silently appreciate he's alright.
"For scaring you," he says. "This is the first time I've ever seen fear in your eyes and I hate to be the cause of it."
I leave a quick kiss on his lips then let out a breathy laugh, shaking my head. "It's definitely not your fault. But for the sake of both of us, let's stay away from water."
"Agreed, I can't swim for shit." He chuckles, running his hand through his soaked hair, drops of water sprinkling around as he does it.
"Are you sure you're alright? Can you breathe properly? Is there a bruise anywhere? Do you need-"
"Easy there, Tiger," he says, leaning in to kiss my cheek. "Everything is okay, I'm safe."
My heart almost melts when he uses the soothing words I always say when he has one of his episodes or to calm him down in general. I can see by the look in his eyes and his gestures that this calming effect is exactly what he was aiming for, a breath of relief pushing past my lips.
"Wait a minute, where the hell are we?" I ask as it strikes me we're basically in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but trees, grass, and water. I'm still shocked by what has just happened, but I'll deal with that later.
"In deep shit, obviously," he mutters, pulling his earpiece out, shaking it and tapping it with his fingers. "It's dead, water has damaged it. We can't call for help now."
I check mine too, seeing it's broken, so we end up chucking them into the water, giving ourselves some time to think this through. We can't go back since those soldiers are most probably looking for us, or at least expecting us to be there if we call for help. Well that, and we have no idea which way we used to get here.
"I only hope they made it back to Hazard safely," Harry mumbles, a frown on his face.
"Of course they did, I bet they're looking for us as we speak," I tell him, a reassuring smile on my face. "How much you wanna bet Alex and Niall are freaking out right now?"
"Your crazy brother is probably rambling about us dying in some horrific way," he says and snorts. "Oh no, I bet they're all alone and unprotected, Lenny has probably broken all of her bones and H has amnesia and thinks his name is Howard!" He imitates him, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead dramatically.
I burst out laughing so loudly and obnoxiously, I'm glad no one but Harry can hear me. It's come to that point where no sound is coming out, I'm just flapping my hands awkwardly while my mouth is open, tears brimming in my squinted eyes. The fact I can imagine Alex's reaction so clearly is making it worse.
"Should I perform CPR on you now or?" Harry asks, unable to help himself and bursting into laughter as well, throwing his head back and pressing his palm to his stomach.
"According to David, you'd only kill me faster so, no thanks."
"Well I should practice mouth to mouth, don't you think?" He quickly retorts, making me laugh.
"I'm cold," he says, wrapping his arms around himself to somehow warm himself, his teeth chattering.
"I know. The right thing to do would be to get our clothes off, but we have nothing to change into," I say. "It's a risk to stay in this, but we don't have much choice."
He nods, slowly pushing himself up into a standing position. He looks down at me then gives me his hand to assist me and I grab it, taking him by surprise and tugging him down. He falls to his knees with a surprised gasp, my laughter rumbling around us as I quickly stand up.
"Wow real mature," he comments with a smile, standing up again.
I imitate his signature blank face, snapping my fingers like he sometimes does. He grins and pushes me away playfully, a frown suddenly appearing on his face. "Hey, what are we going to do now? We mind as well walk to keep ourselves warm."
"Well we followed the river to get here, maybe we should use it to go back," I say, pondering over our options. "We need to reach Rogue as soon as possible and Ace's soldiers are patrolling these borders quite often, so we can maybe catch a ride with them."
"How do you know they won't kill us?"
"Once we tell them who you are they won't. Besides, they would imprison us either way."
"Smart," Harry mumbles, smiling at me. "Maybe we shouldn't go back on the road, I'm sure those Vortex soldiers are still there. I have an idea on how to follow the road without actually walking on it. Follow my lead my lady." He bows playfully.
"Well then, lead the way, kind sir." I smile.
. . . .
"Are we there yet?"
"Not yet."
"Come on, it's night."
"You're very observant, Harry."
"Not a single soul in sight. No humans, no houses, no food. Nada."
"Once again, an excellent observation."
"Are you sure this is the way to the closest village?" Harry asks for what it seems to be the hundredth time.
"Yes, I have this part of the map memorised, we should be there soon," I repeat, letting out a tired sigh.
"Your nerd skills weren't that useful when you said soldiers are patrolling these areas often because, newsflash, we've been walking for hours and-"
"Stop complaining, it's not like I'm enjoying this. I'd actually kill for some cake right now."
"Well why don't you ask the soldiers patrolling around these areas often- oh wait, that's right! You can't because they're not."
"I thought my brother is the ultimate drama queen, but here you are."
He's silent for a few seconds. "Are we there yet?"
"Yes!"
"Really?"
"No."
After another, at least, half an hour of pointless bickering, we reach a village I knew would be here. Since I once had to be a leader, I had to learn all about each army and their territory since being an army leader means knowing how to strategically plan the attacks. Who knew I would be using my knowledge for something like this one day.
Each house in the village has a fence around it, a spacious backyard, some even have barns and farm animals. I'm surprised to see how well these people seem to be living and how developed the village is, but then again, Rogue doesn't really have any enemies, at least not the ones that attack it almost every single day like Vortex attacks Hazard. We're far away from Rogue, but this was the best option for us, we need to find a shelter and rest, then we'll go talk to Ace in the morning.
Harry and I choose a random house, hoping the people living in there are going to let us stay and are not psychopaths. I rely on Harry's charm to get us a place for the night, I can't deny it seems like he hypnotises people, it's impossible to dislike him.
The fence door screeches creepily when we open it, walking toward the door silently, my eyes scanning the surrounding in case a dog jumps out of nowhere. To disguise ourselves, we ditched our jackets, leaving us in nothing but black pants and plain black shirts. According to Harry, it's a well enough disguise even though we're still dressed too dark, but these people might not make a connection with Hazard considering they're civilians. When we reach the front door, I knock on it a few times, both of us fixing ourselves and putting smiles on our faces.
"Remember, your name is Ella and I'm Jordan."
I sigh. "Are fake names really necessary?"
"Code names," he corrects me. "Do you know nothing about secret missions?"
"I don't think this exactly qualifies as a mission-"
"Yes. Yes it does," he interrupts, sounding offended. "It's our mission."
For some reason, his words make me smile. "Alright, Harry, it's our mission."
"I'm Jordan, I don't know any Harrys." He gives me a hand, pursing his lips.
An older man and woman suddenly open the door, serious expressions on their faces as they take a few moments to inspect us. "Alright, this ought to be good," the man is the first one to speak.
Harry and I begin speaking at the same time, sticking to our story of how we got attacked by Vortex soldiers while peacefully driving through the woods and now we have no vehicle and we're too far away from our own village. Our dirty clothes and tired postures go to our advantage.
"So now, my- my, uh, husband and I really need a place to stay for the night," I say. "We can use your barn, really we'll be gone in the morning. Isn't that right, pudding?" I turn to Harry.
He narrows his eyes at me as if he's wondering what the hell am I doing, but then he forces a smile on his face, looking at the old couple. "Why yes it is, peanut."
"Wait, husband?" The man asks. "Soldiers can't get married. You two have those typical soldier postures and expressions."
"Soldiers? Pfft nooo, we're deserters," Harry lies with a nervous smile. "Yep, we ditched the reckless lifestyle to start a family, have eight children and a cat. You know, one of the fluffy puffy ones." He makes a gesture with his hands.
"As the matter of fact, I'm pregnant," I blurt out. "Yeah, with little-"
"Howard," he finishes for me. "And Harriet. We're having twins."
The woman smiles and the husband squints his eyes, looking at us suspiciously. "Aww Pat, we gotta let them stay, look at them," the woman gushes at us suddenly. "But no funny business, kids!" She points a finger at us.
"Oh no, the funny business has been done." He places his hand on my stomach.
Pat and his wife quickly cross themselves, the wife reaching for a cross hanging around her neck. I pale and swat Harry's hand away. "Okay my pumpkin pie and I will go and sleep in a barn now, thank you."
"Nonsense, we can't let a pregnant woman and her twit of a husband sleep in a barn," she says.
Long story short, they introduce themselves and give us a spare room and even clothes we can change into. I'd rather not talk about Em's (the wife) wardrobe filled with nothing but dresses - grandma dresses. The husband, Pat, is definitely not convinced with our marriage story, but he couldn't do much against his wife, so he just silently cursed and flicked his hand carelessly.
"Howard and Harriet? Seriously?" I whisper as I get comfortable next to Harry, the bed awkwardly creaking as I move.
"I panicked okay, you said you were pregnant, I had to do something!"
"Howard was actually one of the name options I'd thought about before you finally told me your real name," I admit, suddenly finding it funny. "And Henry, Hunter, Hank, even Harold. Harry might've crossed my mind, I can't remember."
"Gosh, anything but Hank."
"Alright, Jordan."
I laugh, muffling my laughter with my hands, not wanting to annoy our hosts. Exhaustion catches up to us soon, the result of a hectic and stressful day both of us had. Just when I slowly start drifting off to sleep, Harry's voice keeps me alert.
"Lena?" He says quietly and I hum to let him know I'm listening. "Thank you for saving my life today."
My heart clenches when I remember the unfortunate event, knowing the fact he could've died so easily will haunt me for a while. The fact I could've lost him. "And thank you for saving mine."
"But I didn't-"
"Oh trust me, you did. Getting back into that base is worse than death for me, so what you did saved me."
"I want you to know. . . I don't despise you," he suddenly says, making me look at him in confusion. "When I. . . when I attacked you the other day, you said you feel like I despise you. I don't, I never could."
My hand reaches for his and I squeeze it slightly. "I know, it's okay."
"Why didn't you defend yourself?" He asks. "I know you're capable of throwing a serious punch, even taking me down, but you didn't do it. Why?"
"It's dangerous to fight a person when they're in that state, they could hurt themselves," I say. "I knew you're strong enough to resist it at the end, and I was right."
"You shouldn't have taken that chance." He frowns. "I was capable of killing you. I want you to fight if that happens again, I don't want you to hold back because of me."
"Harry-"
"Promise me," he presses. "Promise me you'll stop me no matter what if it happens again."
I'm silent for a few moments before letting out a sigh. "I promise."
He visibly relaxes knowing I'll do as he asked, pulling the cover to his neck, still holding my hand while he shifts to the side so we're facing each other.
My half opened eyes look at him, seeing a matching tired expression on his face. "Good night, sugar plum," I say jokingly with a smile.
"Good night, peach," he replies and both of us snort.