Savannah's PoV

Tears had long since stopped flowing; I didn't have anything in me left to cry out. Pain, sadness, fear, all those had been drained away and now the only thing I felt is numbness. Regrets were all I thought about, regrets about Harlow, for not being a better friend to her. Regrets about Andrew for not showing how much I cared about him. Ash, for telling her to be quiet all those times she looked at me with huge, adoring eyes telling me what she thought of stuff. Felix for teasing him about Ash all the time, regretting it because he always took my teasing and never fought back.

And of course, regrets about Chase. I didn't regret falling in love with him, never would. That was something I really couldn't help. What I regretted was breaking things off with him, trying to fall out of love. Which didn't work; at all. The quote "out of sight, out of mind" was probably the farthest possible truth right now, because his absence made my heart grow fonder. If I survived this and somehow escaped, or if my precious flock came to rescue me, I would never feel the same way about them again.

Biting back a moan of pain, I pushed up against the floor to get to my hands and knees and sit back on my raw heels. My whole body ached, it'd never known pain like this before. When I looked around my small, cold cell, I only moved my eyes because shards of pain would shoot through my skull if I tried moving my head, and it wasn't worth it any more. Slowly I managed somehow to drag myself over to a different corner of a room, one that didn't have dried blood on the floor. This was the first time I'd moved in two days.

Then, suddenly, I noticed something I'd never have before. There was a patch of light shining on the wall, about the size of a dime. My eyes followed the trail of ray across the cell and to a little window on the ceiling, mostly covered by slime and dirt. I reached up my hand, painfully, and touched the golden light. Maybe it was just my imagination, but my fingers almost felt warmer and for just a quick, peaceful second, I didn't feel quite so bad.

But then the familiar, clomping sound of boots echoing down the hallway shattered my moment, and I wrapped my arms around my legs and pulled my knees to my chest, mentally preparing myself for the second the next person threw open the door to my cell. I realized I was holding my breath, and carefully I let it out, shakily and wearily. There were voices talking rapidly in a language I didn't understand, and it made me wonder for the first time where I actually was. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but for some reason it seemed very unimportant. I tried listening harder, and I picked up on a few Spanish words. Then I heard the voice of Vladimir, his cold, cruel voice, and every mental preparation I had going for a minute vanished. He was the only person that I was really, truly scared of.

His guards didn't matter. They did the same thing every time: come in, use whatever torturing device they had that time, and leave. The convulsion didn't even matter anymore, it was just something, that no matter how much it hurt, it didn't at the same time. It was as if the numbness from my mind spread to my body.

"Why hello there!" Vladimir said in a pleasant sounding voice. "How are you feeling?" His voice was drowning in sarcasm but his face was neutral. "Like crap." I muttered, "You just about done with this torturing thing? I'm obviously not about to break."

Vladimir shook his head slowly. "You will give in. We have our ways." His voice was like a snake: slithery and deadly. Then he snapped his fingers and the guard stepped in, dragging someone by their elbow behind him. The guard dropped the figure next to me, and when I peered closer, it appeared to be a boy, who's age I couldn't tell. His face and body were too bloody, bruised, and disfigured to tell. "Who's this?" I asked, voice wary.

A smirk formed on Vladimir's lips. "This is Colden. He is an example to you about what will happen if you do not assist in my plans." Then he did his signature turn on his heel, motioned for the guard to follow, and strutted out of the room. Then something very surprising happened. The guard turned to look at me, and just for a moment, I thought I saw a look of sympathy on his face. Then the door shut, and I was left alone with this person.

Actually, when I took a closer look, it made me feel like I wasn't hurt so badly and my cuts and bruises pained less. I was nothing compared to this boy. Gingerly, I moved a lock of hair away from his face and gasped. His eyes, pure blue and unblinking, were staring what seemed right through me. "Hello." I whispered, which was all I could think of to say. The boy's lips moved, but no sound emitted.

Dried tear streaks were trailed down his face, but the scariest thing was that he looked dead, in a way, but still alive. Alive yet dead. "This is...what's...going to happen...to you." Colden choked, voice cracked and hoarse.

And that was exactly what I'd been thinking myself, even though I didn't allow myself to. This was exactly why Vladimir put him in this cell with me, as an example. "Does Vladimir want you to be part of his Holocaust too?" I asked, lightly touching his face, examining his severe injuries. Colden's eyes weakly opened again. "Wanted. Not anymore." Then his eyes filled with tears. "I'm almost dead."

My free hand lying limply on the floor squeezed into a fist, and I felt the warm, familiar feeling of anger and adrenaline run into me. "You are not dying." I hissed, gripping his chin in my hand. "My friends are going to rescue me, and you too. You'll come with us. You'll make it."

Colden's lips turned up in the faintest ghost of a smile. "No." He said, then his eyes fell shut. Horrified, terrified, I gathered his head and upper body into my lap and watched, frozen, as he died in my arms.

Chase's PoV

"Alright, this is it guys!" I called, hovering at least a thousand feet over somewhere in Peru, South America. It'd taken two long, anxious days, but we'd reached our destination. It took about three hours of intense Internet research, but we'd finally figured out where the possible location where Savannah was being held.

Harlow had googled "recent kidnapping in Peru", and though we'd found so many results, she'd narrowed it down to a bunch of articles about kidnappings that had happened in the last month by apparently the same person. The key thing we'd found that was interesting was that only certain people had been kidnapped, ones that were children, and children that were physically and emotionally different from other people. Immediately we'd thought of us, because we were different, we were mutants.

After that we'd looked up the name of the possible kidnapper, Vladimir Gustof, who the Peruvian police have been suspecting, and found a column about him.

Police are searching frantically for Vladimir Gustof, suspected in the kidnappings of several different teenagers across Peru. Gustof, a middle aged man with a checkered past, has chosen unusual targets for his apprehensions: all of his victims have either seemingly mental illnesses or displayed severe antisocial behavior for unknown reasons, and /or withdrawing from society. Thus far, none of those kidnapped have been located or rescued, despite a months-long manhunt for them and Gustof. With the kidnappings scattered all across the country with seemingly no locational pattern, police never know when or where Gustof will strike next, and are forced to simply react to each new case. Gustof's face has only been captured a few times in the last decade, making it difficult to accurately portray him. Furthermore, Gustof leaves hardly a trace when he strikes, giving police scant evidence or clues

From what police can gather about his past Gustofs Russian born parents who moved to Peru to escape economic pressuress in Russia were gruesomely murdered when he was a young child. This presumably caused great trauma and turmoil in his life as he moved from foster home to foster home. According to school records, the young Gustof was a recalcitrant student, always causing trouble and pulling pranks, yet performed brilliantly in certain classes. When he graduated, Gustof chose not to attend college, and from that point, the record is fuzzy, yielding only small tidbits of secondhand information. Gustof possibly engaged in petty crime while he worked as a systems analyst for PlusPetrol-the largest oil company in Peru. Rumors that he was seen running a small computer repair business in downtown Lima have also spread throughout the country.
The national police have offered a $10,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of Gustof or the finding of any of his victims. Government officials are encouraging anyone with tips to call the tip hotline 24-7

"Woah" Harlow had whispered. "I think we found our guy." Ash and Felix, who were seemingly slower readers, finished a few moments later with puzzled looks. "I didn't understand half of that." Felix said, "but is this the guy that kidnapped Savannah?" Ash crossed her arms. "It looks like it. The guy said that this Vlada-somthing only kidnapped people who were like, special. So obviously, since we're mutants, they took Savannah, right? It makes sense!"

I had nodded. "That's exactly what it sounds like, and Lima, Peru, is the right place to start."

So now we were here, and everything had seemed so great except for the fact that we didn't know exactly what we were going to do once we got here. "The article said that our badguy is rumoured to own a computer repair shop? Is that where we should start?" Indy asked, still looking like she hasn't totally gotten over her fear of heights.

I raked a hand through my hair and was almost surprised not to see pieces coming out. "That article was a few weeks old. Wouldn't that shop be the first place the police would look if they had a lead like that?" Then Indy glared at me. "I hate your stupid logic! We should just look freaking anyway!" She growled, looking like she wanted to kick me. Then she took a deep breath. "Sorry." She then said, calmly. Ash giggled. "I agree. Like, we should just check there anyway. As you said, it's the only lead we have."

The only downside to our new plan was that there were a grand total of 9 million people in this city, and the odds of us not being spotted were stacked against us. We flew for at least seven miles, searching for a spot that we'd probably not be seen, and ended up having to walk to get back to the inner city. Then, of course, we ran into another problem.

"If we can't understand a single person here, then how on earth are we going to find her?" Felix asked, reached for Harlow's hand. I felt bad because he looked very uncertain and very young, and to tell you the truth, my heart was pounding a little faster too. Ash's eyes were huge as she stared at anything and everything we walked past, too distracted by the lights and glam to be scared of being virtually alone, except for her flock. Even Indy walked a little closer to me, I think. "We will." Harlow reassured Felix. "We'll try to find someone who speaks English, and ask for some sort of directions."

"Doesn't that seem a little simple?" Felix asked. "There's got to be someone around here somewhere that knows English." I said, a little doubtfully. Then, deciding randomly to take a chance, I approached someone on the street. "Hello." I said, slowly. "Do you speak English?" The man, who looked around thirty, raised an eyebrow at us and backed off, and I heard Nudge giggle. "He thinks you're a creeper."

I turned around and rolled my eyes at her, looking for someone else to ask. "Do you speak English?" I asked the younger woman. She smiled a little and tugged my arm, motioning me toward someone else. "He speak English." She pronounced carefully, as if she'd been practicing for awhile. I looked over to where she was pointing and saw another young man who looked similar to the first. My flock trailed after me as I hurried to this person, smiling. "Do you speak English?" I asked .

The man looked up from where he'd been weaving some sort of cloth. "Hello." He said, reserved. His eyes flickered over to Harlow and then back to me, and then I knew that Harlow was using her odd skill to make the man like her. "We have a question." Harlow said, bending a little to meet the man's gaze. "Do you know of any privately owned computer-repair businesses in the area? It might have to do with some sort of crime."

The man's face turned very cold and very closed-off very fast. "Who wants to know?" He almost snarled, looking around quickly as if someone was overhearing us. "We do." I replied, motioning toward my flock. The man rubbed his hand through his short black hair and leaned in close. "Do you mean Vladimir's supposed business? Take my advice, stay away from even thinking about that. Do NOT get involved."

With his accent it was sort of hard to understand him, but we all got the message loud and clear. Were we going to listen? Heck no...

~

Even though the man had given us little information besides that Vladimir was obviously our culprit, we still didn't know where we'd ever find him. The man on the street didn't know where the exact address was, but he did know it was in this city, which we already know. Ash brought up the idea again about going to a library to look it up, but if everything was in Spanish or Aymara, we couldn't understand it and it'd be pretty much pointless.

We began walking in another direction, deciding to go try and ask help from another person, when Harlow tucked her arm through mine. "I hate it here." She whispered to me, so only I could hear. "I feel so lost."

What she said reminded me so much of what Savannah would do that it made me feel sick and anxious all over again. I gave her hand a tiny squeeze. "I know. We'll get Savannah and go." I muttered back, grateful for the support. It was super nice to have a close friend like Harlow to hang on to when things were hard, but it was so much better when it was your best friend and love of your life. And right now, even though I missed her more than ever, it was okay. You know why? Because I was going to rescue her tonight.

"Excuse me? Ma'am?" Felix must have said for the thousandth time, smiling up at a lady who looked somewhat-American. "Yes?" The lady asked, turning and smiling down at him. I almost laughed at the expression on Felix's face when she spoke back to him...Nine out of ten times the people frowned at him and moved on, not understanding him. "Uh...I have a computer that needs fixing, is there a computer shop nearby?" He asked with a totally innocent face, and even I was impressed. The lady smiled a tiny bit, but had the same weird expression as the man before. Did everyone know about Vladimir?

"Uh, well, there's one a few blocks away from here, actually." The woman said, relatively normally. "What are a bunch of American kids like you doing here by yourselves in Peru?" She asked, pretending to scold. Felix fidgeted. Indy stepped forward. "Our parents sent us out looking because they felt sick. Would you maybe please tell us where this shop is?" She said, in a pleasant voice.

The lady gave us directions but I was only halfway listening because I was so amused by Indy. She could seriously turn on the act when needed, but it was so weird at the same time. "...And then it'll be the first shop on that street." The lady instructed. We turned to go but then I felt her grab my elbow. "Oh, and honey?" She said, eyes boring into mine, "mind your own business, kay?"

A cold shiver went through my spine as we trooped off down the little streets, towards the shop she'd given us directions to. After about ten minutes or so with Harlow leading us, we stopped. "Well, this is it." She declared. Then her eyes casted down to Andrew, and back up to me. What are we going to do with him? Her eyes asked. This was our first "mission" and it'd be pretty much stupid to bring a four year old with us, no matter how much training he'd had. It'd be like bringing kitten on a battlefield.
"Harlow, Indy," I said, very quietly, making a split-second Leader Decision, "you stay with the kids. I'm doing this mission alone."

Okay! So, I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS STORY! I've been so busy yet kicking myself every single day to write this, and I PROMISE I'M GOING TO FINISH. But here's basically my daily schedule: Wake up, 5am. Leave for school, 5:45am. Weight training, start school at 7:20, get out of school at 1:30, dive practice from 2pm-4pm, homework from 4:30 till whenever I'm done, usually a couple of hours, and by THEN, all I do is be with friends for what little time I have left of the day. Ugh. So again, I'm SOOO sorry, but I WILL finish this story, no matter what.