The Hostage and the Wanted

“Damn it Louis, you’re a heavy bull. You know that?” Harry muttered as he half dragged, half pulled his friend up the few steps to get inside the door to the one story ranch house. It had been a long drive, even longer trying not to panic when Louis didn’t regain consciousness.

He knew he had to go and find a doctor, luckily there was a hospital not too far up the road. Harry guessed about six kilometers. (Four miles)

He finally managed to drag his friend awkwardly into the open door before struggling to find a light switch while awkwardly balancing his friend against him.

“Bloody fucking hell!” Harry swore as Louis fell down onto the hard floor. He felt around the wall, finally landing on the switch about a foot from the door. When he switched the light on he discovered, much to his dismay that nothing happened. “Christ, please let something go right. Just for today, please!” He begged toward the sky, going back to the car, opening Isabella’s door and pulling her out.

“Come on luv, you’re home.” Harry murmured, hoisting the girl over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and walking into her home, going in a little further until he saw something that resembled a chair, setting her onto it and ripping the tape from her mouth.

Isabella cried out, frantically looking around, her eyes wide. She seemed somewhat surprised that of all the places they could have chosen to run, running back toward the place her ex employer’s henchman knew she lived was the last place she wanted to be.

“Why aren’t the lights working?” Harry demanded, forcing Isabella’s face up toward his.

“We got to get out of here, they know where this house is! Why do you think I was at the convie-aah!” Isabella cried out when Harry’s hand hooked in and pulled her hair up.

“Lights?!” He yelled urgently, his face a mere inch from hers.

“The breaker is in the kitchen, straight ahead! Bloody fuck you’re a brute!” Isabella exclaimed as her hair was let go and Harry followed straight ahead with his feet. He saw the breaker bod on the wall alongside the refrigerator on the wall. He went over and flipped it on, allowing light to pour in through the living room. He went ahead and turned on the kitchen light as well.

Isabella flinched as the room lite up, her eyes not use to the brightness.

“Thanks luv, that wasn’t so hard now was it?” Harry retorted the question sarcastically, going over to get his friend, dragging him over to the couch and lifting him onto it with the last strength of assertion.

“Is he ok?” Isabella asked, seeing the blood trail, and then thinking the less she said, the better.

“Does he bloody look ok? You stupid cow.” Harry snapped, picking up the tape he had ripped off and forced it back over the girl’s lips, running back out to the car and bringing in the remaining bags, he needed to secure the girl and get to the hospital. He didn’t want to dig himself in any further than he already was but Louis was in trouble.

Not even pretending to hide his annoyance, he grabbed the roll of tape from the bag and unpeeled it.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, luv, but I’m fully blaming you if anything happens to my friend and I will personally make sure that your death will be a long and slow drawn out one. You shouldn’t be afraid of those guys chasing you, you should be afraid of me and what I’m going to do to you if Louis dies.” Harry promised and leant forward, placing another layer on her mouth, wrapping it around her head twice and biting off the end.

He then proceeded to walk in front of her and kneel down, securing the sticky film over her already bound ankles before moving to the back and finishing up with her wrists, securing the tape over the flexi-ties and using some to tape her upper body to the chair.

“Get comfortable, sweetheart, I need to go and find a doctor.” Harry muttered, going over to Louis and checking for a pulse. Luckily he was still breathing, abet shallow but his pulse was still there. With no more time to waste he turned the lights out and headed back toward the car, rushing off in the direction of the hospital. He had no idea how he was even going to pull this off. He just hoped he got a doctor who was afraid of guns because that would be the only way he’d get one of them to help.

His mind raced at the possibilities of how he was going to do this but he drew a blank. His best bet was wait until a doctor came out, clock him on the side of the head and threaten him. Harry hated violence but sometimes it got the job done.

It was about ten minutes before he pulled into the hospital entrance. He figured his best bet was to park near the doors and wait.

As he pulled up, with the stroke of luck or sheer perfect timing, not even a minute later; a group of three people walked out. They wore white coats, which meant that they would be able to help him –if he planned it right. He had a roll of duct tape he had grabbed with him, the same roll he had used to bind Isabella and he was not below borrowing these three to help Louis. After all, three brains were better than one and he right at the moment he needed all the help he could get.

So he parked his car and shut it off, getting out of the car.

“Evening mates, fancy the weather about today, yeah?” He asked casually with a smile as he watched them in the process of lighting up a cigarette, the one’s back turned to him.

His smile widened, he’d definitely be the easier target.

“Horrid rain, I don’t fancy nothing about this miserable weather as of late.” The one who remained facing away replied as Harry moved to join their circle, his hand at the back and readying the gun.

“Neither do I.” The other spoke up, sounding somewhat indignant. “Is there anything we can help you with? We only get a ten minute break and this is sort of our time so unless you need something I’m afraid you need to –“

His words were cut off by how subtly Harry took his gun out and pointed it at the group, making the one talking instantly shut his mouth. It was then the dark haired stranger turned around to see what was going on, his eyes lighting in recognition almost instantly but faltered some at the sight of the gun.

“Harry, mate, it’s been awhile, yeah? Guys? Would you excuse us? My friend’s been drinking and he sometimes gets a little irrational with his toy guns. Crazy as a fox and all that, yeah?”

Harry growled but seen the other two doctors relax considerably and stomp their cigarettes out.

“I need help, my friend, he’s back at –Zayn? You need to help him.” Harry pleaded, stammering on his words as Zayn gave the other two doctors a wink and put his arm on Harry’s shoulder, walking him back to his car, speaking lowly in his ear.

“What’s up, Harry? God, the fuck is going on? You two are wanted in the whole North of England, mate! I been watching the news and –“He started to explain, his voice a hiss of a whisper, trying to wrap his brain around the antics his former friends got themselves into.

“Louis has been shot, it’s pretty bad and he’s not waking up! I have him at the girl’s house, she’s running from these psycho lunatics in a white van and I don’t know what fuck all is going on but I need help! You gotta help him!”

Zayn rubbed Harry’s back comfortingly.

“What do you need me to do? Will you put the gun away? You know those things make me nervous, it’s bad enough I got to deal with Niall and Liam getting arrested every other week but I don’t need to watch your trial of the century too. Put it away mate and tell me what’s going on with Louis, I’ll try my best to help.” Zayn promised, watching Harry hesitate before doing as he asked.

“Lots of blood loss, bullet still in the shoulder, needs stitches? I don’t know, he’s been bleeding and he needs help, the girl has a deep cut on her face from when we slammed her head into the wall.” Harry explained, running his hand through his hair.

“You slammed a girl’s head into the wall? Wait, that hostage the police telecom captured you forcing into the blue ca –fuck me, that one!” Zayn exclaimed, pointing at the exact one he had seen an APB on.

Harry followed his finger, now clearly unamused.

“Looks like I’ll have to steal another car. Zayn, we’re wasting time, please? Any chance of you stealing some hospital supplies and coming with me? We’re wanted, a hospital isn’t exactly practical!” Harry hissed as Zayn looked back at his coworkers, smiled and did a dizzy motion with his finger, which made them laugh.

“Do that again and I’ll shoot you, ignore them and get me what I need! If you don’t know what I need then guess!” Harry urged but Zayn just continued to stare at him as if he lost his mind.

“Mate, ok, first off where is the bullet wound?” Zayn questioned, relaxing a little as his other two coworkers rolled their eyes and went inside.

“Shoulder area, a little near to the chest, left side.” Harry answered, trying to calm his beating heart.

“Ok, after he got shot, did you lay or wrap him in anything? It’s supposed to reserve –“

“No, I laid him down in the car because he wanted to stuff Ella in the boot.” Harry answered, wondering why his friend asked such stupid questions.

“Ok, so he was laying down with nothing covering him?” Zayn confirmed as Harry nodded.

“Ok, and how did you stop the bleeding?” Zayn asked, mentally ticking off a list of things he was going to have to get.

“He used a few scarfs to press against the wound but that didn’t help much.” Harry frowned, scratching his head to try and conceal his annoyance.

“Ok, did Louis drink anything after getting shot?”

Harry shook his head.

“No.”

Zayn smiled and pat his friend’s arm.

“Ok I think I knew what I need to get. I’ll pick up a few extra things in case it’s needed. How bad is the girl?”

Harry glowered, Zayn should be more focused on Louis, not the hostage.

“She’s fine. I left her tied up to a chair next to Louis. A bit scratched up but she’s fine. Louis is my main concern so please –we need to get back to him.”

Zayn nodded and left Harry to go back inside to get the supplies. He knew exactly what would be needed.

Harry paced for a few minutes before going to sit down back in the driver’s side of the now very wanted blue car.

“Fuck me, Louis is going to be pissed when he finds out. This is such a mess.” Harry muttered, slamming his fist on the steering wheel, seeing Zayn rush towards the car.

“Mate? You’ve been spotted. Go.” Zayn told him calmly, throwing the bag of whatever supplies he managed to grab before overhearing his coworker calling the police. He knew he was looking at accessory to harboring a fugitive but Zayn never was one to play by society’s rules. As a doctor, he was clean cut and honest –as a person? Well, his guess was that the police were going to frown once they knew he was harboring the whole gang of miscreants.

Harry floored it at Zayn’s words of encouragement. He could not believe he had gotten so lucky as to run into his old friend.

“Thanks Zayn,” Harry murmured as they sped off back toward Isabella’s house. “I just hope we’re not too late.” Harry said, sending a silent prayer toward the dark and silent skies.

Notes