Well, this proves that I fail at updating on any kind of schedule. xD Anyways, thank you for reviewing, Krasavitsa and B-the-Geek! :)
And thanks to everyone who has followed this story, as well. :)
This chapter will introduce the remainder of the main cast for this part. Other nations will appear briefly later on in this part, and others will not appear until the second part. So just because you don't see a character here doesn't mean they won't appear later.
The first part of this chapter is a flashback, and thus is italicized. :)
Chapter Two: Collapse
It was utter chaos when the meeting room exploded. In the confusion, some nations vanished under the rubble, while others barely managed to escape. In retrospect, perhaps the ones who died were the lucky ones.
When the first bomb went off-Russia assumed it was a bomb, he hadn't seen it-the ones closest to it were buried completely. The Nordics had been at that end of the room, as had several other nations that Russia barely registered the existence of. There were simply too many nations in the world to keep track of all of them.
Russia had been at the other end of the room, and when the bomb went off, he suddenly woke up from whatever fantasy he had been in. He couldn't remember afterwards what he had been thinking about, although he suspected that it had been something to do with the fact that a tiny little girl like Panem achieving world domination was the most ludicrous thing he had ever heard.
However, ludicrous things become extremely believable when you see people you have known for most of your life get buried under falling rock.
Russia glanced around the crumbling room, trying to locate several nations in particular. He caught a glimpse of Estonia pulling Latvia out the door, but passed the two youngest Baltics over. If those two were headed outside, they would be fine.
His gaze settled on the table, and somehow remembered catching a glimpse of indigo fabric disappearing under there just after the explosion had hit. Russia ran over to the table, and, peeking under it, discovered the very nations he was searching for. Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania were all huddled under the long table. Down at the opposite end, Russia thought he saw two more dim figures, but there was no time to waste, and he had found the people he wanted.
"Come on, big and little sisters!" Russia said, pulling Ukraine out from under the table, "This table will not be saving you when the ceiling is falling. You too, Litv… Lithuania."
The eldest Baltic looked up, surprise evident on his face. Then, he nodded and quickly crawled out from under the table, followed by Belarus.
The four nations only barely managed to escape the meeting room before the second bomb went off. A few seconds afterwards, Russia heard a pained whimper from directly ahead of them, and was able to distinguish the shape of a seemingly small individual, who appeared to be kneeling on the floor.
"Be coming along now," Russia said to his companions, and then headed off in the direction of the noise. To his surprise, it was not one of the physically younger nations that he found, but China. The older nation glanced up as Russia approached, and looked decidedly annoyed to see him.
"Oh, it's only you," China muttered, "What do you want, aru?"
"Have you been hurting yourself?" Russia asked.
"I didn't do it!" China said, sounding completely exasperated, "I hurt my leg trying to get out of the room. Some piece of rubble hit me."
"Then you cannot be walking by yourself," Russia decided, "So, you will be coming with me."
By this time, Belarus and Lithuania were ahead of them, both nearly running in their haste to get out of the building. However, Ukraine was standing slightly behind Russia, watching him and China.
"Can he walk?" Ukraine asked, sounding nervous.
"He does not need to be walking," Russia said. He reached down and grabbed China around his midsection, then hoisted the petite nation up so that he could carry him more comfortably.
"Let me go, aru!" China snapped.
Russia ignored this demand, and started walking down the hallway, carrying the protesting China, and leaving Ukraine to follow him.
By the time they were nearly to safety, two more bombs had gone off in the meeting room, and the entire building appeared to be about to cave in. Russia would have been running at full speed by this time if it had not been for Ukraine, who was not the fastest runner. He would not leave her behind.
Just as Russia reached the doorway, a fifth and final explosion shook the building, and the hallway began to crumble.
"Russia, run!" Ukraine shrieked. Russia turned to grab her hand and pull her with him, only to feel himself being shoved forward. Although he was larger than Ukraine, it appeared that his sister was strong enough to push him forward when such a movement was required.
Russia fell backwards, narrowly avoiding smashing both his head and China's into the pavement outside. As he fell, the building caved in on itself, burying everyone still inside, including Ukraine, who could have made it to safety had she run a few more steps forward, instead of pushing Russia to safety.
Unconsciously, Russia had released his hold on China, who scrambled to his feet, staring in the disbelief at the ruins of the building.
"There were so many others still inside…" China murmured, sounding completely shocked.
Russia said nothing, but remained on the ground, staring at the ruins. He heard footsteps, and suddenly Lithuania and Belarus were there.
"It's…it's gone," Lithuania said in disbelief.
"They're all gone," Belarus said grimly, "We have no way to know how many escaped, if any."
"R-Russia?" Lithuania said softly, "Are you all right?"
Russia couldn't think of anything to say. He could only stare in disbelief at the place where Ukraine had disappeared.
"Ukraine's gone," Russia murmured, "Everybody's…gone."
It was hard to get used to some ideas, particularly the startling ones. This particular idea, the idea that the whole world as they knew it was gone… It was an impossibly hard concept to grasp, even for Lithuania, who knew a bit about the way different nations rose to power, and then fell just as quickly.
By some miracle, their battered little group had made it to an abandoned section of the city that the meeting had been held in. Lithuania felt that he should be able to remember what city it was, but after the events of this day, it was no small wonder that he had forgotten.
He and Belarus appeared to be the most able to function out of their group. However, in China's case, it was mostly the injury to his leg, and not shock, which had caused him to become semi-immobile.
Russia, however, was most definitely in shock. The other nation had done absolutely nothing other than stare into space ever since they had taken refuge in a large, abandoned building, which Lithuania suspected had once been a warehouse.
At the moment, their biggest problem was getting food. It was late summer, so heat would not be a problem for a while. Lithuania wasn't certain what they would do for a long term solution, but he knew that for now, they would have to lie low and hope Panem didn't find them.
Luckily, both China and Belarus had had some food with them, and combined with what would have been Lithuania's lunch, they managed to put together enough food for one small meal each for the four of them.
Neither China nor Belarus looked happy at the prospect of going anywhere near the extremely unpredictable Russia, and so, it was Lithuania who ended up delivering one fourth of their provisions to the larger nation.
"Russia?" Lithuania said softly, going over and kneeling in front of the other nation, who was sitting with his back against the wall and his legs tucked up against his chest, "Russia, you need to eat something, okay?"
"They're all dead," Russia murmured, not appearing to register Lithuania's presence.
"You don't know that," Lithuania said, "We escaped, so some of the others must have."
"Ukraine got buried in all of the falling rocks," Russia said, "She would have been okay, but she pushed me outside and got buried."
"She wanted to save you," Lithuania said, "Families keep each other safe, right?"
"How would I be knowing about families?" Russia asked quietly. The nation glanced up at Lithuania, his violet eyes wide and full of pain.
"I don't know about families, Lithuania," he said, "All I am knowing is that my sister is dead."
"Estonia and Latvia are probably dead too," Lithuania said. Instantly, he felt himself struggling to stop himself from bursting into tears at the thought of the two younger Baltics being crushed underneath a ton of rubble.
"They were so young…" he whispered, not even realizing he was speaking aloud.
"I saw them running away," Russia said, "They might be okay. Da, Lithuania, I think the little ones are okay. It…it would be not right for them to die, when they are so little, and have done nothing to hurt anyone."
"I feel like he's forgetting things…" Lithuania thought, "Surely he knows that those two are capable of hurting others?"
He himself had tried to remove the memories of life in Russia's house from his mind, to no avail. And if he couldn't get rid of that pain… Then how could Russia?
But, looking at the other nation, he realized that with all they were going through now, maybe Russia wanted to pretend that everything had been okay before. Because if he could believe that, he could believe in a chance for things to be okay again.
Latvia was scared. He and Estonia had hidden in one of the side rooms when the world conference had literally exploded, and, luckily for the two nations, this room had not been harmed extensively. At some point while they were huddled in the corner, Estonia must have wrapped his arms around Latvia, because the small boy suddenly became aware that he was practically sitting in Estonia's lap. He also became aware of the fact that the shaking throughout the building had stopped.
"E-Estonia…?" Latvia asked, glancing up at the other boy.
"I think it's safe to go out now," Estonia said quietly, "We can try to find some of the others."
Latvia hesitated, frightened.
"B-but… This is c-creepy… H-how come Panem w-wants to kill us?"
"I don't know," Estonia said, "I don't see why she can't just leave us alone. It not as if small nations like us could possibly pose a threat to her. Even the large ex-nations really aren't much of a threat."
The blonde Baltic paused for a moment, then gently attempted to push Latvia off of him.
"If you're too scared to go look around, then stay here," Estonia said, standing up, "I'll come back for you."
"N-no!" Latvia squeaked, terrified by the prospect of being left alone, "Don't leave me, Estonia!"
"Then come on," Estonia said, turning away. Latvia stared after him for a moment, then quickly got up and ran after the other boy, who had disappeared into the hallway.
He caught up with Estonia in what was once the conference room. Although he couldn't see much through the rubble, Latvia could see that there was blood on the walls and floor… And he could also see what looked like mangled bodies in the midst of the rubble.
Estonia was kneeling at the far end of the room, his back to Latvia. Even from this distance, Latvia could see that the older boy was shaking, and it frightened him.
"E-Estonia?" Latvia asked, taking a few steps toward the other nation.
"Don't come over here, Latvia," Estonia said. His voice sounded choked, as if he was trying very hard not to show emotion, and not succeeding.
"You don't want to see this."
"But, Estonia…" Latvia whimpered, "What's gonna happen to us?"
The blonde nation looked back at him, but then, Estonia's eyes widened in fear.
"What's the m-matter?" Latvia stammered, frightened.
"Well, well," said a cold, female voice from behind him, "Looks like some of you did manage to survive, after all."
And this is a chapter. I'm going to do everything in my power to keep Estonia from taking over this story like he did the "Soviet Insanity" series... But it may not work.
Reviews are always welcome, and serve to make me not be depressed for a little while! :)