Wild Side [h.s au]

Chapter 57

Harry

He is here. He is really here. The person whose death has haunted me countless of times in the past two years, whose face has been a constant in my nightmares and hallucinations. My brother, the person I thought I lost, the person that died before my eyes.

Zayn.

"I- I can't- what is- how. . ." I stutter as I press my palm against my chest, hoping my painful heart palpitations will stop. My eyes are teary, but I manage to keep any tears from sliding down my cheeks. I ordered my soldiers to go back to their duties, leaving only Niall, Louis, and Liam with me.

My eyes trail to Elena, her hazel eyes I've missed so much looking at me worriedly, my arms itching to wrap around her body and hug her, but I can't focus on that now. Not now when Zayn - my brother - is standing before me. Alive.

"W- we have to go," Zayn says quietly, glancing at Elena.

I can't stop staring at him. He hasn't changed one bit, he looks a bit more mature perhaps. This is too much for me at the moment, the scene making me freeze in my spot, complete shock overtaking me. Maybe none of this is real after all, it seems too good to be true. 

"You've got to be kidding me," she tells him harshly, her eyebrows pulling in a frown. "You're Zayn? You're his- I- what?"

"There's no time for explanations, I- look-" before Zayn can finish his sentence, a string of loud explosions booms from above us, shaking the walls, the lights starting to flicker.

"Harry, they're fighting back," I hear David's voice coming through the earpiece. "Americans. . . there's so many of them, they have planes and they're dropping grenades."

My eyes widen and I momentarily forget about the shocking discovery my brother is, in fact, alive and Elena knows him, turning to face my team, blinking a few times to clear my vision.  I'm trying so desperately to stay calm, my mind refusing to deal with this unexpected turn of events because it would surely result in me breaking down completely. "We- we have to go up there right now."

"What's going on?" Elena asks me softly.

"Americans are attacking us," I tell her, feeling sorry for having to leave her again. "Just. . . just go. Run and be safe."

"Wha- we're just gonna leave them all here?" Louis asks, widened blue eyes meeting mine. "Zayn is standing right there! Zayn! And- and Elena, Alex. . . come on, I'm fucking shocked."

"I know how all of you feel, but this is the most unfortunate time for dealing with this," Niall says, directing his harsh glare at Zayn. "But once we win this war, we'll deal with all the unresolved issues."

"Let's go," I order, watching as they reluctantly turn around, starting to move down the hallway. I don't feel happiness nor sadness at the moment, I simply feel numb, every cell in my body rejecting the possibility of any of this being real. Maybe if I convince myself I'm hallucinating I could get out of this mess sane and alive.

"Harry," Elena calls after me, making me look at her over my shoulder. "Take care."

My heart clenches and I nod, giving myself a silent promise we'll see each other really soon and I'll ask for her forgiveness. My eyes trail to Zayn, giving him one final look before running ahead, leaving them behind me as I decide to fight with all I've got. We've come here to win and that's exactly what we're going to do.

. . . .

My eyelids slowly open to the half, a throbbing pain in my head making me grimace, a groan rumbling from my chest. Everything around me is a blur, a lot of white surrounding me. I blink a few times, realising I'm lying on a hospital bed, all kinds of wires attached to my arms while the liquid in infusions flows into my body, my heart beat heard from a monitor aside. I raise my hand, noticing bandages over what appears to be burn wounds, tentatively touching my head only to realise there's a bandage around it too.