United We Live

Eight

When the 48 hour minimum had passed, it became another storm.

Police had started to become a constant in the hospital as they once again got statements out of all the boys, especially after Harry revealed his horrifying realization from the previous night.

Search parties were beginning to be formed, and everyone including management began to participate when they could spare the time amongst everything.

It had Louis' head spinning, rather literally at points, but that could also be the raging migraine he had been battling. His cold was only getting worse, but in his opinion there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't have the time to make sure he was taking the medicine at regular intervals.

There were still parts of the woods that he hadn't double checked.

So, he trudged on, wrapped warmly in a heavy coat in the autumn rain, shaking from what was probably a fever. Liam and Zayn were only a few feet ahead of him, following a few officers and two German Shepherds that were sniffing away at the ground.

Liam had long since given up trying to verbally force Louis to stay at the hotel and recover, and since he was still ill and couldn't be in Harry's hospital room, Louis was given the free pass.

That still didn't stop the two singers from stopping every once and a while to stop and check to make sure he was keeping up. Especially when he had to pause to hack a horrible coughing fit out of his lungs.

At least he wasn't poor Harry, who was still bed ridden and high on morphine.

"I don't know," Zayn suddenly murmured under his breath, as he fell into step with the Doncaster singer. "I feel like we've traveled too far away from where he went missing to actually find him at this point."

Louis eyed his companion through watery eyes as he sniffled.

"It's been days, who knows how far he could have gotten."

"We already have every mode of transportation searching the area, even helicopters. I feel like we would have found him if he was still wandering the woods at this point. Besides, what about what Harry said? What if he's been kidnapped or something? We could be wasting time."

"We're not giving up until we've torn this forest apart, Zayn, and then if we haven't found him, we will keep searching. We have an army of fans around the globe, as soon as the police release his missing person's profile; there will be no place in the planet where people aren't looking for Niall."

"That's another worry I have. The fans aren't going to take the news that Niall is missing easy. It may cause a world-wide panic that's going to do more bad then good."

Louis watched his feet as he continued making his way through the fallen branches after the sounds of the dogs. He knew Zayn had a point, but that didn't make the situation any easier.

Zayn seemed to sense that the conversation had ended, and picked up his pace to catch up with Liam, failing to notice that Louis had completely stopped.

The singer was beginning to feel an uncomfortable itch rise in his throat, signaling another coughing fit was on the way when something caught his eye across the waterline they had been following.

Sharply lifting his head, Louis froze attempting to see what had moved across the bank.

He swore he had seen something move.

There!

His eyes narrowed as he observed something that seemed to be shuffling across the leaves right next to the water, just far enough away that the Doncaster teen couldn't exactly make out what it was.