Chapter Two : Malice

Before all means of communication were cut off four hours after the explosions had started all around the globe, the first information Iceland recieved was that one sixth of all populations on earth - as far as the terrified people had counted - was dead.

Two hours after the start, a massive earthquake shook the whole earth. Its power was terrifying, more than anything Iceland had ever experienced in his life. He could see buildings falling apart from it even though the center of the earthquake was estimated to be somewhere around Italy and Greece. All he was sure about was that now, somewhere there, something horrible was happening.

Half an hour later another tremor shook the earth. The cruel, yet so familliar smell of smoke and acid slowly got it's way into the country's house, forcing him out of the state of fear and shock he was in.

Iceland ran outside of his home and looked up at the volcano. To his terror, a tall tower of dark grey, almost black smoke was rising into the sky slowly. It brought with itself the dread promise of the one thing Iceland was most scared of.

His hands stopped trembling as they fell lifeless next to his body. He couldn't move even though his brain was screaming at his body to run far away. He simply stood there, dead frozen at the sight of the smoke tower.

It seemed like ages to him before he realized that from the peek of Grímsvötn a curtain of black and grey mist was slowly, as if carefully and gently trying it's way while floating down, coming from there.

The television got cut off.

Icy calmness flooded him, clearing his mind out of all worries. Indeed, in the back of his mind, he was afraid, but something in that mist, so familliar and yet so alien, always made him calm like an iceberg.

He stormed into his home, knowing that less than two hours were left before the mist reached the first houses, and with all the panic around he was absolutely sure that people would notice when it was too late.

In the main room of his home, on the wall near the table, was located one red button under a plastic panel, with "Volcano Emergency" written on it with bright yellow letters. Iceland went over to it and with all his power hit the panel with his fist, shattering the plastic apart.

As soon as the panel was broken, he pushed the button. Around his home and the whole town, sirens were started. The people were startled when the sirens were turned on, but then few of them noticed the black smoke. Like a shockwave everyone suddenly stood up one after another. Many people ran into their cars with the surviving members of their families and drove away from the volcano, towards the port.

Apparantly, the port in Hof was too small for that many people and boats. Less than half of them were able to get on ships with destination Bergen, Norway. Iceland himself was one of those people.

He curled up in a corner of the bed in the room on the boat he got (he was the only one with a room and that was only because he showed the boat's captain an ID card that showed that he was a person of high importance whole life must be kept at all costs). The small square leather suitcase he brought and his phone were on the bed, right next to him, in case Norway or someone else of the Nordics called.

The teenager looking country hugged his knees tighly, digging the nails of his hands in the leather pants and his skin, as well. His white-silver hair was messy and some hairs were looking like the Italy brother's curls. His face was hidden as his head was resting on his knees. His hands clenched slightly as a quiet noise came from him.

He was trembling. Iceland's hands were holding onto his legs, trying to force him to stop shivering that much and get a hold of himself. His eyes were tightly shut while the ship was slowly travelling over to Norway. He remembered in the back of his head that this was only the third time he had ever been like this.

He felt so weak, so powerless against the chaotic thing that was slowly getting it's way into his home, his land and his country. He felt scared about the other countries as well.

What was going on in Norway? What about Sweden and Finland? Will Denmark be okay?

At the last question he smirked slightly as the obvious answer came to him. Denmark might will be too drunk with the quantities of beer he drinks to ever notice, so probably he'll be alright.

Suddenly Iceland stopped trembling and froze as his eyes shot open at a sudden thought.

What about Sealand?

Sealand is still too young and innocent to be alright after all that was happening around the globe (and is still happening). Maybe if he is with England or Sweden he'll be alright, but if he is all alone on his port... What could have been going on out there?

For the rest of the trip all that Iceland could think of were flashing images of Sealand dead or alive in the worst possible way, or probably currently drowning in the cold sea... Iceland could't help thinking that Nor or Finland were either dead or something even worse.

He was unable to check the television for news as he didn't have a screen, and his phone was one those phones that are waterproof, but without the option for 4G that America had suggested for Iceland to try out. It was not a good phone, by America's standarts at least.

So he was curled up in his bed in the middle of the sea between his island and Norway, with no connection to the outside world, and with terrible endings for his friends and brother's lives flashing in his mind, making him wanting to cry.

He managed to refrain himself from crying by the time the ship trip ended. Barely seconds after the ship had docked in Bergen Iceland jumped out of his room and ran towards the city. His purple eyes were looking around the seemingly normal city. But that was before he noticed the marks of the explosions.

Almost every building and street he ran throught heading in direction of his brother's house, had the burned marks of the explosions the blue flame caused by touch. The horrible,faint scent of burned up flesh was linging in the air as Iceland slightly choked while running.

The corpses were still there. Many of them had been slightly moved from the places they exploded, but others were still smoking, showing that they were still fresh. Many missed hands or legs, some didn't have half the bodies, and some were turned into a literal human explosion. There was dried, burned up blood everywhere.

Iceland tried not to look at them, but was terrified by the power of those tiny, cute looking blue flames. Suddenly a noise came from under his shoe. The country froze before slowly stepping backwards.

What he had stepped on was a child's toy, one of those fluffy bears. It was a bit burned up and an ear was missing, but otherwise it was in a good condition. Then Iceland looked infront of him. His eyes filled with tears he couldn't let flow.

A tiny girl was laying on the pavement, the marks of dragging and explosion further behind her. Her two hands were missing, leaving only the torn up sleeves and shoulders behind. Her long, golden curly hair was burned on the edges and ashes were in it, but it was still possible to see that the girl was a beautiful child.

Her eyes were what scared Iceland the most. They were a deep, but still light blue color. The feeling that they gave off send chills on Iceland's back.

They seemed still happy, even in death.

The girl must have been really happy before the deadly explosion got her, Icelans thought. Then his eyes widened as another thought went through his mind.

It could've been Sealand instead of this child.

Slowly he went around the corpse before speeding up again towards the end of the town. The bodies started becoming fewer and fewer, as less people had lived in this area before. In fifteen minutes or so, when he finally stopped running.

In front of him, a large stone building was standing. It didn't seem to have taken a lot of damage, maybe few larger cracks from the earthquake. Panting, Iceland slowly walked over to the door and pushed it open.

With a loud creek, unusuall for that kind of oak doors, it opened slowly.

The air was a bit damp, a thing Iceland couldn't explain to himself. But they were near the sea, so it wasn't that unusual for the air in the homes to be a bit damp.

Iceland slowly stepped inside, looking around the large house his brother had, in comparison with the small villa Iceland owned. Nevertheless, he knew every single corner of this building as if he was the one to build it. He went over to the switch for the lights and pressed it.

Nothing happened. But he expected that much. First of all, he had noticed that the part of Bergen he ran through while heading for this house, was pretty much abandoned. Not a single light had been turned on, not a single person - at least alive - was to be seen. He had assumed that first : the electricity had been cut off, and second : every Norwegian in the city had ran to the safer parts of the country.

Of course, he had his doubts that Nor had also ran away to either Denmark or Sweden, but he still needed to check for any clues in case of something.

He recalled from the memory of the call he recieved from Denmark that it sounded as if the two countries were in the library. He took a deep breath and walked towards the end of the house, where his brother's library was located.

He pushed its door open.

Everything inside of it was a complete mess. In contrast with the rest of the house, in the library it was visible that books had been thrown or dropped on the ground, papers had been tossed around and even some books had torn from pages.

Iceland slowly walked over to the nearest of the books. He kneeled down and left the small suitcase near him before lifting the small, clothed in leather book.

The old, yellowish pages slightly crumbled under Iceland's fingers as he went throught them. After half a minute of doing so he looked at the label of the book.

"The Øresund Bridge"

The boy suddenly smirked as he knew exactly where Norway was heading to now.

Denmark.

Of course.

Standing up, he left the book down from where he lifted it and took his suitcase again. Then he looked at the library and smiled gently at all the books.

"Norway will miss you all..." he murmured before leaving the home.

In his mind he felt reassured about Norway being alive. With his brother, they always had a secret to their game of hide'n'seek when Iceland was young. Always the first book Iceland sees while searching for his hiding brother, had a clue to where to find him. Either a piece of grass on the cover, meaning that Norwat was in the garden, or a picture of food to guide Iceland to the kitchen.

With a slight smile he shook his head. All those memories made him nostalgic about the old days, and right now remembering them all wasn't a good thing to do. He had a more important job now.

To find where Norway was, and to find safety as well.

While walking through Bergen, this time he took his time to look arround the streets. He noticed several buildings in ruins, and many others on their way to crumble apart. Iceland noted to himself that it might have been due to the earthquake.

While walking to the center of the town he noticed many cars wrecked or with missing parts, possibly due to the flames. Closer to the center he got, more cars he saw. He continued looking around until he saw a good looking car.

He walked over to it slowly before looking inside. To his relief, this car was clean from any dead people or blue flames. He pulled the handle. Locked. Obviously.

With a sigh, he took out a screwdriver and after few minutes the door was unlocked. With anotherdeep sigh he got inside the car, which to his surprise, as he noticed just as he got in, was a Range Rover, of the old ones, 2014 series.

Let's see if I actually remember how to drive those...

After a couple of attempts he finally got the old car going and soon he was driving on the highway towards Oslo, where he planned to spend the night before heading to the Swedish border and Malmö, from where he could get on the bridge and from there to Copenhagen, where he was sure that he would find his brother or at least Denmark (who he was sure to find easily).

While he was driving at full speed as there were only two cars he encountered on the highway. He was surprised that there were so little people in Norway, but the other hand he remembered how many died in the explosions. He also assumed that many of the survivors were already in Oslo or in the mountains, hoping for survival.

Then he remembered that there was a radio in the car. He reached out and turned it on.

"-rgen, as far as we know, is completely abandoned. Not a single living soul, except a young boy the age of seventeen, as far our helicopter camera person could tell, has been seen in the last hour. Our information goes as far as to say that he arrived from the ship from Iceland that came in the port in Bergen two hours ago," a female voice loomed from the speakers speaking in Norwegian.

Iceland stared at the radio with huge confused eyes. How didn't he hear the helicopter if they had seen him in Bergen?!

For ten more minutes he continued listening to the news before he heard something that made him grab the wheel hard enough for the bones on his hands to be visible.

"As far as we know, over half the population in the whole country is dead. The survivors have fled for the mountain bunkers or Sweden and Denma-"

The radio got cut off.

The rest of the trip was spend in dreadful silence.

Late at night Iceland arrived in Oslo. To his surprise, the lights on the streets of this huge town were still working. But the earthquake and the blue flames hadn't spared this town either. Every third building was either in ruins or about to fall on top of the car as Iceland passed by them. As far as the dim lights allowed him to tell, there were even more dead than in Bergen. It looked like a ghost town to him.

He stopped at a gas station. After ten minutes of figuring out what he had to do, he finally got the Range Rover filled with petrol. Then he went into the shop. With one look around he managed to determine that it was raided long before he got near it. But then he saw a can under a table. With an alarmed look around him, he walked to it and lifted it.

An unopened Monster can.

Iceland stared at it for two seconds before taking it and walking outside of the building and went into his car. With the Monster beside him, he now knew what he would be able to drive all night, but he wasn't planing to do so. Instead, he drove out of Oslo and hid the car in some bushes before locking it from the inside.

The teenager curled up on the seat and soon drifted into an uneasy sleep.

His dreams were filled with fear and terror and the horrifying images of his friends dead.

The next morning he woke up earlier than expected, covered in swear from his nightmares. He stared at his shaking hands with teary eyes, his vision blurry. He couldn't help thinking about them, even though he refrained from doing so while driving the day before.

He wasn't able to calm down. Iceland simply stared at his hands, trying to get his mind into that icy calmness that flooded him every time the volcanoes at his home errupted.

That's when the phone rang.

Beep. Beep.

He looked at the cellphone in dismay, not believing his ears.

Beep. Beep.

With a brisk movement of his hand he grabbed the phone and accepted the call by pressing the button with his trembling fingers.

"Hello? Iceland? Anyone there?" a kinda childish voice spoke in the speakers.

He took a deep breath before answering the call.

"Y-yes... It's me, Iceland..."

The man on the other side sighed with relief and then spoke again.

"Thank god you are alright! Is everything alright? The television and the radio are cut off and I... No, we have no idea what's going on anymore!"

"Um... I... I have no idea what's alright and what's not anymore... Is... Is everything alright on your side?" Iceland asked, starting to calm down as he had recognized the voice as Finland's.

"Well, me and Sweden are currently driving over to Berlin and w-"

"How the hell did you get in Germany?!" Iceland gasped with surprise as that was something he didn't expect at all.

"We were here in first place, Icie. Me and Sweden came here to have a conference with Germany three days ago, remember?"

The boy calmed down as actually remembered that what Finny was saying is actually the bare truth. He almost slapped himself as he realized how stupid he was to assume that they were somewhere in their own lands.

"Can you please tell me... What happened down there?"

Complete silence followed for a moment before Finland took a deep breath.

"The earthquake... As far as I know, it rip apart Sicily... Half of Greece is gone as well... The south of Germany is in almost complete ruins, but he himself is alright... I don't know what happened to Romano and Feliciano... I sincerely hope they are alive..."

An earthquake that strong? Iceland was truly glad that it didn't happen where he was living.

"Anything else?"

"No, I don't think so. Where are you heading to now?"

"Copenhagen. I hope that I can meet there with Denmark and Norway," he replied. "What about you?"

Some unrecognizable noises came from the speaker as Finland replied.

"What?" the boy tried to make Finland repeat what he had said, but few seconds late the line broke apart. Iceland slowly took the phone away from his ear and looked as the connection was lost.

Guess the phones don't work anymore as well... He thought to himself as he put it away next to the Monster can. After that he took the can and opened it, the drink slightly hissing when it was opened. Even though he didn't really like that kind of drinks he didn't mind it now.

He spend the rest of the morning thinking about what Finland had said and drinking the rest of the energy drink. After he had finished, he turned the car on and got on the highway again. Speeding up, he drove away from Oslo and towards Malmö. He was calm once again.

The rest of the day was spend on the road, with only one stop for him to find the last packet of chips left in an abandoned grocery shop in the middle of the highway. After eating the chips sitting on the ground next to the car, looking at the bright blue sky, unfitting for the cituation the world was in, he cleaned his hands and hopped up onto the seat before going again on the road. After five more hours of complete silence, he finally crossed the border between Norway and Sweeden. One hour later, he was just driving in Malmö.

But what he saw wasn't what he expected at all. The city was stil inhabited. It seemed that it wasn't as badly hit by the fire nor the earthquake, for some reason. Many people walking on the streets or grieving the ones that they had lost, glanced at the jeep and the young boy in it as it passed by them, heading for the bridge. Driving around Malmö, he noticed that the damage in the town was less than expected, as there were only few buildings that were in ruins, and the explosion marks were less than in Bergen or Oslo.

Even so, he was surprised when he got at the beginning of the bridge.

The whole beach was covered in bodies. The black, burned up and rotten flesh of all the human beings was piled up together on the sand, releasing unbearable stench, so strong that Iceland had to turn on the self conditioning of the car, in attempt to keep the smell outside.

No wonder the city looked so clean. The survivors had simply taken the bodies outside of it, and near the sea as well, probably to make the flesh rot faster.

Iceland almost choked in the thought that one of the hundreds men, women and children out there could've been Sealand or Norway. With all his willpower, he slowly drove away from the beach graveyard and got on the Øresund Bridge. While speeding up, he did his best to drive out the beach scenery he saw out of his mind.

With the speed he was driving at, it took him less then ten minutes to cross the middle of the bridge. Unfortunately, that's when he noticed the clouds that had gathered in the sky above.

They were all dark, deep grey, the type of clouds that foreshadowed great rain and storms. Intuitively, Iceland slowed down. Twenty seconds later, the sky opened and the fiercest of rains the teenager had experienced poured on the road.

He could barely see where he was going, but for one thing he was sure - he was still on the right way. Luckily, all the cars that he encountered were already half broken or exploded, so he didn't have any chance of harming anyone if he accidently hit a car.

Suddenly, a loud tremor shook the bridge and the car Ice was in, as well.

Another earthquake. He was sure that it was that. And he knew that he had to get away from the bridge as fast as possible. He pressed the gas pedal with full power and the jeep rushed forward on maximum speed.

But it was too late.

A gigantic wave, the size of a tsunami wave quickly neared the bridge. An instant later it hit the whole strutcture. The bridge trembled, the asphalt cracking and breaking apart, parts of it falling into the ocean. The cars on the bridge got swept away into the water. One of these cars was the Range Rover.

Iceland barely had time to react before he was in the cold, deep water. It was slowly getting its way inside the jeep through the cracked front window. He didn't have time to panic, he reminded himself as he punched the door. The water pressure didn't allow him to open it.

The jeep was sinking deeper and deeper, and the water in it was getting more. The air for Iceland to breathe was less and less.

Suddenly he realized. What if I wait until the jeep is full of water and then I open the door? The water pressure should be at the same level when it happens...

So he waited. After less than half a minute, he took a deep breath and sink his head under the water. His vision was blurry but he could still see where the window of the car was located at. He quickly changed his strategy.

He punched the front window glass with all his power.

A crack appeared. Then another as he punched again. And then, it broke apart when Iceland kicked it with his leg.

He started feeling dizzy due to the lack of air. But he had to hold on. He slowly pushed himself out of the cabin of the car. Then looked above him.

The light was barely visible, he must have sunk really deep. He let some of the air in his lungs out before kicking with legs as he swum after the bubbles it formed. After endless, as it seemed to him, strokes with his hands and kicks with his legs, he weakly noticed that he was literally one meter before the surface of the water. He kicked one last time before reaching out with his hand, breaking the surface of the water. A second later his head hit the surface as well.

He barely had time to choke out all the water in his lungs before the second wave hit him.

It was a secondary wave, so it didn't have as much power as the first one, but Iceland hadn't managed to breathe at all before he found himself again underwater, being spinned and tossed around by the water.

His consciousness started to fade away. He tried to stay awake and reach for the surface, but his body was too exhausted and cold.

A second later he felt Grímsvötn erupt on his island.

Everything went black.

Time : 07:46 PM GTM +2, Date : 22nd of August, Monday.

Dear diary, today is the day I drowned. The world is still full of malice against us.

Emperor : First of all, thank you for reading this far. Second of all, I am sorry for changing the name of the story. I didn't like the original one so I decided to change it to something more fitting. Last of all, I had a friend draw the cover of the fanfiction. He apologizes for not managing to make Iceland look more like Iceland, but that's all he could do. I hope you like the new cover.

I hope you like the continuation of the story as I continue writing on and on. Arigato!