Savages

Meghan gasped, her hand covering her mouth in shock, and her blue eyes wide in fear. The seven of them stood along the edge of the River Thames with their hopes of escaping completely shattered.

Every single bridge that lead across the river had been destroyed.

"We're fucked," Zayn blurted running a shaky hand through his dark hair.

"Let's just double back and see if we can't slip through," Paul offered with a glance over his shoulder. The group slowly backed away from the street and jogged down an empty ally, trying to block out the echoed screams and cries from people stuck in crumbling buildings.

Niall gripped onto Meghan's hand tightly as they turned a corner only to stop dead in their tracks.

"Where d'ya think yer going?" Crooked teeth were exposed as the man talked, his hands gripping onto a rather large baseball bat. Meghan quickly looked over her shoulder and felt a sense of panic rush through her when she spotted a group of four Savages approaching from the other direction.

"We've got orders to bring you's in," the second man spoke.

"Trucks on its' way!" Someone shouted from behind.

"Don't make any sudden moves and you's won't be hurt," the man with the bat said before swinging the wooden piece hard into Paul's left leg. "Too bad anyway."

Louis and Liam reached forward for their friend only to be waved off by the bat. Paul struggled to keep himself together while holding onto his leg in pain.

"It's time to see if your little friend is as strong as we hear she is."

.........

I was consumed.

Every single particle vibrating inside my body was fueled by one emotion, rage.

It was like my normal state of mind was trapped inside a cage and no matter how hard I pushed against it, the rage wouldn't budge. Deep down I was scared of what might happen, who might have to suffer, but on the surface there was only one thought coursing through my head.

Find the leader.

I could hear the screams, feel the terror that spread like wildfire through the streets, and still found my feet carrying me forward. The energy that pulsed through my veins made everything that was in a ten foot radius move away from my body. My hair whipped around my face from a non-existent wind as pieces of rubble and sidewalk lifted from the ground only to be dropped once I was far enough away.

Trees bent backward, water hissed and evaporated, and animals stayed as far away as they could. My bare feet weren't even touching the ground, defying gravity completely as I walked on air, eyes narrowed, and my focus wrapped around the park that stood several blocks away.

"Thirty-seven!" Meghan's voice rippled through the air and I suddenly found myself in the middle of the park. Within the blink of an eye I had traveled faster than I thought capable, faster than I had ever ran before, and it scared me.

"Elle!" Whirling around in the direction of Harry's voice I was now in front of a fountain.

"ELLE!" A growl left my lips when a collective group of voices weaseled its way into my head, my eyes narrowed as they scanned my surroundings.

"Come and get 'em."

"Holy shit!" Three men jumped backward from the man now dangling inches off the ground. My hand continued to squeeze the man's throat before I threw him as hard as I could. Not even needing to look at them, the three other Savages were shot into the air, their screams disappearing with their bodies.

"Elle?" Blue eyes met blue eyes and the fire inside only grew in intensity.

"Where are Meghan and Harry?" I stared down at the five people tied together and quickly analyzed that two were missing.

"It's a trap. They want you to choose," Niall said in a quick breath.

"Choose what?!" The ground shook and all of them gazed at me in shock.

"You've got to choose, number thirty-seven." I slowly turned my head in the opposite direction, that voice sparking something in the depths of my brain. "Save the one you love, then save the world."

"Henrick."

"Who?" Liam asked while rubbing his wrists where the restraints had previously been. I had merely waved my hand and the ropes had snapped.

"Henrick James. He created me."

"You don't sound like yourself," Louis pointed out. "And you certainly don't look like yourself."

"Where are they?" I ignored his statements and turned away from them.

"We don't know. We were over by the river when they cornered us and threw us in the back of a truck."

"Elle, are you alright?" Niall reached forward to touch my arm but instantly pulled back. "Fucking hell!" He waved his hand in the air and then blew on the newly burnt skin, my eyes drifting to my arms to find them red hot.

"It's time, thirty-seven. Make your decision."

He was close, his voice louder than it had been previously, and I found myself turning toward the London Eye. Narrowing my eyes I could make out his figure in the white lab coat with another man to his right in all black at the very top of the Eye.

Something inside me ignited, hot, red, and dangerously evil. A snarl ripped through my throat and the ground under my feet cracked when I moved.

They didn't have time to move, to think, to even blink, their faces full of shock once the glass of the compartment shattered upon impact. The entire structure shook from the force, groaning under the pressure, and shifted slightly off balance.

My arm was outstretched and holding the man in black off the ground while my other arm produced an invisible energy that pinned Henrick to the floor.

"The Savages will die," I hissed to the man I was holding, his skin turning a sickly blue from lack of oxygen.

"So will Harry and Meghan."

"You do not speak!" I whipped my head around to Henrick and applied pressure to his chest.

"Killing him won't save them."

"I said DO NOT SPEAK!" The structure shook, the compartment basking in the red glow from my skin, and he finally closed his mouth.

"Don't you get it?" I turned my attention back to the man struggling against the hold I had on his throat. "This was his plan the entire time."

"What are you talking about?" My voice was low and full of hatred but I found my hand loosening enough for him to continue.

"This rage, this anger, he knew it would consume you, blind you." He took a slow breath through his nose and I watched his eyes move to the scientist. "He gave you the right push and look where we are. You're barely human."

"Because of you!" I reapplied the pressure to his throat.

"The Savages might call me their leader, but he calls the shots."

I dropped the man and fully turned to the scientist. Henrick kept a straight face during my approach until I hoisted his body into the air.

"Is he telling the truth?"

"Does it really matter?"

"Tell me the truth!" The compartment shook once more and I saw the flash of panic run through Henrick's eyes.

"Yes. The entire time I tested you, pushed you, created you, I was leading the Savages. I wanted to test you to your full potential and reached out to the organization with hope that they would take the bait. I conjured up this entire scheme to see how far you would really go."

"Why?"

"To build an army that nobody could stop."

"Then what am I in all of this?"

"My experiment. Proof that under the human exterior you're a monster. A deadly weapon. A savage."

.........

Meghan had tears in her blue eyes when she saw the top compartment of the London Eye explode in a bright red flame. A sudden breeze caused her long hair to wrap around her face and temporarily block her vision. Bowing her head she watched the large red numbers count down and bit her bottom lip.

She had been trained for hand-to-hand combat, interrogation, weaponry, and she even knew how to operate a helicopter.

But there was just no way you could train for this.

Three packs of dynamite were wrapped around her torso with a timer that had started ticking forty-five seconds ago.

That left her with three minutes and fifteen seconds.

Her body was tied to a pillar at the top of Big Ben facing the London Eye, or what was left of it. How she had gotten up this high in the first place she couldn't remember. A bag had been thrown over her head and she had been tied up as soon as they were thrown into the back of that truck.

Taking a deep breath through her nose she closed her eyes and thought about the last few months. How she had first met Niall, picked up a complete stranger from the airport who had unnatural abilities, and fallen in love.

She knew though, that if it meant her life versus one of the boys', she would be the one to sacrifice. Taking another deep breath she opened her eyes and searched the many buildings along the river.

"If you can hear me, Elle, go for Harry. You've got to finish your mission."

Glancing back down at the timer she felt the tears slip along her cheeks, now with only two minutes left. Her lip was trembling as she tried to hold herself together, her teeth sinking hard into the flesh to keep the sob in her chest.

Squeezing her eyes shut she pictured Niall's face, the way his eyes crinkle when he laughed, the way his nose scrunched up when he disagreed with someone, and the way his voice sent shivers down her spine. She remembered the way his fingers would caress her face when he kissed her and the way he whispered, 'I love you,' before bed.

The timer let out a shrill beep, catching her attention, and her eyes focused on the red numbers.

Ten seconds.

"I love you!" She screamed, praying that on some off chance the blonde may have been able to hear him. Her chest was heaving with panicked breaths and her eyes were wild with fear.

"Tell him in person."

"Elle?!" Her voice reached an octave she didn't know existed as my arms wrapped around her small frame. Pushing away from the structure with relatively all my strength, I pulled her free from the pillar and we began a free fall toward the river.

"Goodbye Meghan," I said above the howling wind, hearing the timer shriek once it hit zero, and listened to the fuse ignite. Harnessing every ounce of energy that I could, all of my abilities pulling together in the center of my body, I focused it around Meghan just as the dynamite exploded.

Our bodies were flung apart from each other, her scream echoing into the empty air, her body protected from the flames by the bubble I had wrapped around her.

The cold water enveloped my form and I welcomed the chill that spread along my skin. The current from the river caused my body to tumble in the dark, murky abyss, my lungs craving oxygen, until the dark spots in the corner of my eyes became a shadow that swallowed me whole.

........

"Over there!" Louis cried out. All their heads snapped in the direction he was pointing in before their feet began to move.

Harry was in front of the group, jumping down onto a platform alongside the river, and wrapping his arms around my torso. Paul reached down to help pull my body from the water and soon everyone was crowded around.

"Oh my gosh," Meghan gasped into her hand. Niall wrapped his arms around her and she buried her head into the crook of his neck, the image of my injured body still coursing through her mind.

"Elle, please God, Elle," Harry sobbed. Pushing hair out of my un-moving face he lowered his ear to my mouth to listen. "She's not breathing." Taking a deep breath he tried to control his shaking hands as they moved along my charred chest, the clothes I had been wearing black and burnt. Wiping at his eyes to keep the tears from falling he tilted my chin upward and parted my lips, his other hand pinching my nose shut before he exhaled a deep breath into my lungs.

"She has to wake up, she has to," Liam mumbled with his fingers tangled in his brown locks.

"She told us she would save you both, that it wasn't just about the mission," Niall whispered into Meghan's ear. She cried harder into his shirt as he rocked her back and forth. "She said you taught her more about being human than any of us and that she owed it to you."

"Come on, Elle, breathe," Harry urged. Angrily brushing his curls from his eyes he leaned down to blow air into my lungs again, his fingers trailing along my jaw.

"Harry," Zayn's voice cracked. The curly haired boy shook his head, freeing several tears that hit my dirtied skin. He wouldn't give up, he couldn't.

"Come on, mate," Louis said after Harry tried for what felt like the tenth time.

"No! She can't die! She's indestructible!" His voice was hoarse and he pushed his fist down into my chest. "No." He dropped his head to press our foreheads together and let the tears go, not caring about the others around him.

"Harry," Louis muttered.

"I love you, Elle. Do you hear me? I love you, you can't leave me. Not like this." His green eyes stared down onto my un-moving features and his fingers traced each crevice they could touch. Slowly he pressed a kiss to my lips and pulled away, feeling a hand rest on his shoulder.

"She's gone." Getting to his feet he took one last look at my burnt body before turning to the others. Louis kept his arm around his shoulders as they walked, all their hearts breaking with each step they took.

Once they were back on the street they examined the damage that had been done, saw several people scattered about harboring their injuries, and no sign of the people that had threatened their lives.

They all shared one last look over their shoulders, all with the same thought running through their minds.

Elle was a hero. Not just their hero, but the world's.