In The Name Of Science
Chapter 2: Lets Split Up, Gang!
A/N: Whoo, chapter 2 is here~!
Jem: I'm so happy about the feedback we got 8D
Well, hopefully you like this chapter just as much as last chapter. After this, Chapter 3 may be a little longer being updated, because I'm in Italy and Europe for two weeks, so I won't be able to be on my computer as often as usual. And then after that, back to school *cries*
Mouse: Unfortunately my schedule will also mean more time to the next chapter. I have a birthday party I'm being dragged to this weekend, and am making churros with a friend next week, and the rest of my time will likely be spent preparing to return to school. Sorry guys.
Jem: Other than that... ONWARDS!
=X=
So the group of China, Korea, and Russia started off, Korea in the lead and looking decidedly peppy, considering the dark circles under his eyes and gaunt quality of his face.
"So, what should this shelter look like, da ze?" Korea asked after a moment, ducking under a tree branch.
"Something that will keep the rain off, keep any wild animals out, and fit all of us in a time of need." China instructed tersely. Should Korea really be wasting his energy like that? He was pretty bad off.
"Yao Yao, come and look at this." Russia called from somewhere to China's left.
China sighed and grabbed Korea by the back of his navy and white hanbok, dragging the over exuberant nation with him.
Russia was standing in a clearing that had been caused by a felled tree. At closer inspection, the top of the tree was resting on a tall bit of rock that blended in a hilly rock. And in that rock was… a hollowed out area! A cave combined with that leaning tree…
"Russia, you're a genius, aru!" China exclaimed, hugging the Russian before he realized what exactly he was doing. Face going a vibrant shade of red and tuning out Korea's whining of wanting a hug to, china pulled himself away from a smiling Russia.
Korea seemed to notice the tree and cave for the first time. "Ooh, that'll make great shelter when we fix it!" he exclaimed.
"What?" Russia blinked at the exuberant younger.
"Well one time me and America were at his house and we were bored so we went to this survival camp for the day and we learned how to make a lean-to from a fallen tree." Korea explained happily.
"Then how?" China asked. Korea had learned something? From America?
"Well, you lean sticks all up against it that are a little taller than the part of the tree. So once those are all up, you use something to type the tops. We braided ropes out of these tall pieces of grass that cut our fingers but they worked real well. Then you get some dry, dead leaves and throw those over the sides and then get more sticks so the leaves don't blow away. That makes it in-sul-at-ed. Oh, and at the part of the tree real close to the ground, uhm, the base, you leave out a bunch of sticks on one side to make a door." Korea explained long-windedly, smiling as he finished.
"Let's get started, aru."
~~::.::~~
Switzerland pushed aggressively through the foliage of the forest, huffing somewhat angrily. Austria followed slowly behind, picking his way around everything delicately. The Swiss man looked behind him and huffed again.
"Honestly Austria, you aren't going to get anywhere like that. Hurry up; I'm not going to wait for you!"
"So what are you doing now exactly?" the Austrian asked, raising his eyebrows. Switzerland scowled and went slightly pink.
"If I kept walking while looking back to talk to you, I'd trip over something, wouldn't I?" he snapped, turning around and once again started fighting against the dense trees. Austria just sighed and followed.
After a while, Austria decided to break the silence.
"So what are we actually looking for, Vash?"
"One: water and food. Two: something to use as a weapon." The blonde said, looking briefly over his shoulder. He stumbled slightly on something, but simply righted himself and continued as if it hadn't happened. Really, Austria thought, he was a pretty stubborn guy. And not at all talkative, though really Austria didn't mind too much. If Switzerland spoke it was (usually) rational, valid, and to the point.
Eventually, the two caught the sound of a quiet trickling; some sort of water spring. Switzerland paused to listen for the direction, then set off towards it, occasionally pausing to correct his direction. Soon enough, the two caught sight of what they had been searching for – a reasonable sized stream ran through a small clearing, with small grey rocks bordering it.
"Do you think its drinkable?" Austria asked as they stood by the edge of the stream. Switzerland cast a scrutinizing gaze over the water.
"It looks clear, and its running. If its fresh-water, then it should be drinkable." He said eventually crouching down and scooping a handful of water. He brought it to his lips. "Yeah, it's clean and fresh."
Switzerland placed his hand down beside him to push himself back up, then drew it hastily back with a small gasp.
"What is it?" Austria asked, looking down to where the Swiss man had his hand to his mouth, apparently sucking a wound.
"A sharp rock. Hold on..." Switzerland shifted through the rocks, before finding the one he'd cut himself on. It was palm-sized, with one very sharp edge. Switzerland made a small thoughtful hum in the back of his throat, then stood up, pocketing the rock. "It could come in useful."
Switzerland walked over to a large tree near where they'd come through, and marked it with a 'W' and a small arrow. After nodding satisfactorily, he gestured for Austria to follow him, and they set off again.
~~::.::~~
"Chicken! Prussia exclaimed, pointing at a bird pecking at the ground. Canada, Germany, and himself had set off about twenty minutes before and had been looking for food.
Said 'chicken' picked it's head up and stared at them stupidly before going back to pecking at the dirt, clucking softly and strutting across the ground.
"Hey Birdie. Pick the chicken up while I go look for some flint rocks." Prussia said before disappearing into the bushes, leaving two confused blonds and a clucking bird.
After a moment Canada did pick up the bird. It sat in his arms contently, clucking periodically and pecking at his shoulder.
After several minutes of thought and conversation between Germany and Canada, they set about making a rudimentary pen to hold the chicken. After all, chickens laid eggs and they might find more animals. And Germany had the idea that they might need something to hold fruit. So the chicken was put down and the brain-lacking bird continued to stand there stupidly, strutting across the ground periodically.
"Is there something wrong with it?" Germany asked at length. He was making a makeshift pen, tall sticks with the end sharpened and driven into the ground directly next to each other. Canada had woven a kind of roof from tall grass, vines, and thin, but sturdy, sticks. He had then draped it over the finished half of the pen- in case it rained. Miserable animals were not fun to work with.
"I think it's never had human contact so it doesn't know to run away." Canada responded quietly, nudging the chicken into the pen area so Germany could attach the 'gate'. The pen was tall, the top reaching Germany's shoulders.
Canada went back to making a kind of basket for any edible fruit. It was obvious that the nation's survival instincts were kicking in. And, well, memories from tribal times were probably also at work. Prussia wound up returning, herding a bore piglet.
"Hey! I found this pig and some flint rock rocks." Prussia greeted, and then took a good look at what Germany and Canada had made.
"Wow, West, Mattie, I didn't know you guys could do that!" Prussia exclaimed in pure surprise.
"When I was little I lived with Inuit tribes." Canada supplied quietly, helping Prussia coax the fat piglet into the pen.
"Hold on." Prussia muttered, crouching next to the chicken. Kneeling with one knee to the ground and the other up, he gently pinned the bird to his leg and plucked the primary feathers from its wings. "There, now it can't fly away." He stated proudly.
"Bruder?"
"Ja, West?"
"You do know that for the boar to be edible it has to be castrated, right?"
~~::.::~~
Back at the clearing, all the nations that had opted to stay behind had managed to roll over a felled tree-trunk to use as a seat – or in certain cases, a headrest. America was resting back against a rock with England fussing over him, scolding him for getting into so much trouble and scowling at him worriedly. Romano and Veneziano were curled up with Spain again, the oldest complaining occasionally, the youngest whimpering quietly, starting to feel a bit less chipper. Either no-one noticed, or no-one pointed out, that Romano was doing his best to comfort his brother by rubbing his arm gently. Greece was laid down, head resting up on the log, Japan sat quietly and patiently beside him, keeping a close eye on him.
"You should be resting a bit too, y'know, England. You're being affected too!" America said eventually, partially just to stop England trying so hard to look after him.
"I'm not that bad off." England winced. He hadn't been showing many signs of it, but he was still a bit sore from his riots. He shook his head. "You're the wanker who got himself into stupid amounts of trouble."
"We are all in need of a bit of rest, England-san." Japan said.
"Yeah! You worry too much dude. Take a break." America agreed, nodding his head and finding out that wasn't a good idea as he tipped dizzily. England helped him sit straight until he gathered his bearings again, then sat a little away from his with a barely noticeable huff.
"Veh~, I don't like this. It hurts!" Veneziano complained quietly, giving a tiny sniffle.
"Stupid damn humans, with their damned economy. They screw it up, we suffer! It's goddamn unfair." Romano growled, gently squeezing his brother's hand and feeling his forehead. "Hmmph. Get some sleep, Veneziano. You'll feel a bit better."
Veneziano whimpered again, nestled himself closer to Spain, and closed his eyes. Romano kept an eye on him, and Spain kept his eye on Romano as the older Italian gave another few, weak, coughs.
"I swear, if this stupid fucking 'experiment' screws up, I'm going to kill those scientists." Romano huffed, glaring down at the ground. Spain patted his head gently, earning himself an elbow to the side and some growled threat in Italian no-one quite caught.
"Ret us arr hope it works, for everyone's sakes." Japan said quietly, casting a sad gaze over Greece.
Romano shifted, and relaxed back to join his brother in resting, though his expression didn't smooth out from its frown. America slid slightly further down his rock and his head lolled as he started to nod off, briefly causing England to have panic in his eyes, before he recovered himself and settled back again. Greece, who had been asleep the whole time anyway, rolled over in his sleep, one arm falling slightly away from his body and onto Japan's leg. This caused the Asian nation to jump and blush, but he seemed reluctant to move the hand for fear of disturbing his friend, so he sat still and somewhat tense.
And so they waited for the others to return.
~~::.::~~
Twenty minutes later found the groups returning to those left behind.
China, Korea, and Russia were the first back. Korea was grinning happily and marching in front of the other two. It could be noted that all three appeared physically tired, sweat shining on their faces.
"And what did you three get done?" England asked with an almost sarcastic edge to his voice. America was curled up on the ground next to him, trembling in his sleep.
"I made a shelter, da ze~! And Russia and aniki helped!" Korea proclaimed proudly, putting his cloth covered hands on his hips.
"Ah, so you mean China and Russia made shelter while you babbled. All right." England nodded, but earned a pout from the young nation.
"No!" Korea shook his head almost violently. "I made it, aniki and Russia helped." All eyes turned to China for confirmation that Korea had done something helpful. At a nod from China, all of them were considerably taken aback.
"You have to see it, da ze! It's got plenty of sleeping room, and around the outside of it the ground is silty so it's comfortable to sit out there! And Russia helped dig a fire pit." Korea rambled on cheerfully, moving and plunking himself on the ground next to Japan. Upon noticing most of the sickly nations were sleeping, Korea dropped his exuberant chatter to a whisper. China and Russia both sat down against the log, both tired from the day's exertions.
Slowly Korea dropped off, curling up on the ground next to his brother. Their nations had poor relations, but Korea and Japan grew up together as siblings, and that aspect seemed to shine through.
Meanwhile China was trying to keep awake. After several minutes of dozing off only to jerk back into sitting posture, the Asian nation allowed himself to doze off on Russia's shoulder.
Austria and Switzerland returned soon after. Vash sat himself near immediately on the log and set to work using his sharp stone to sharpen the end of a stick into a spear. Austria rolled his eyes but sat next to Switzerland anyway. The blond draped the end of his stick over his companion's legs, giving him enough leverage to work more evenly on creating a point.
America blinked disjointedly at the two. "You guys manage to find anything?" he mumbled tiredly before dropping back off to sleep.
"Water. I made markers to indicate where it is." Switzerland responded with disinterest.
"Who are we waiting o-" Austria began, only to be cut off.
"The awesome has returned!" Prussia declared, marching into the clearing, dragging along his brother and his friend.
"Shut up, potato bastard!" Romano snarled as Feliciano shifted and whimpered in his sleep.
"Guess you don't wanna hear about all the food we got. And ya know, I made West-"
"Bruder!"
"Castrate-"
"East!"
"A-!
"Preußen!"
"Pig!" And Prussia was cackling madly. Germany promptly whacked him upside the head.
"This means we can go sleep somewhere comfortable, da ze?" Korea asked around a soft yawn, looking like a small child as he rubbed at his eye.
"Er, yes. Korea, you remember where you built your shelter?" England questioned. At a nod of conformation, England continued. "Then you lead the way while the rest of us help those that are to unwell to walk by themselves."
Korea nodded obligingly and stood up, looking drained of his normal attitude.
"Feli." Romano shook his brother, earning a mumble of 'I want to skip training today.'
It took several minutes of shaking the auburn haired young man to wake him. Upon waking up, Feliciano stumbled to his feet and hugged Germany without the usual exuberance. "I'll help him." Germany stated quietly.
Romano didn't have much room to argue. Despite being awake and more aware of his surroundings, the older Italian couldn't even stand up. Which was pretty bad, seeing as Spain was shaky on his own feet. Immediately Prussia and France swooped in to help their friend.
"But what about Lovi?" Spain asked with a curious blink.
Indeed, Romano was swatting away everyone trying to aide him. Everyone was more than surprised when the elder Italian finally consented and allowed Canada to support him. Of course, Canada had never done anything to irritate Romano, and if he had it was forgotten.
England and America supported each other, one only still standing because of the other. China aided in Japan in the movement of Greece and those that were left fell in with the group, aiding where they could.
Korea led the way along a slim game trail, trudging along slowly and pausing when necessary. When they arrived at the shelter, those lucid enough to see it clearly gasped.
"You buirt that, Korea?" Japan asked in surprise. To be perfectly honest, Kiku had always thought his younger brother a waste of space.
"Mmmhmm." Korea hummed in reply.
Romano and Spain were allowed in first, Spain settling himself in the moss lined rock niche the shelter guarded, drawing Romano close. "I'm only doing this cause the ground's hard." Was the half hearted protest the Spaniard received.
There was still room in the rock niche, which would probably stay driest of the shelter, so England guided a hallucinating America back and made sure he was comfortable.
"Idiot." England muttered, taking Texas from America's face. The elder sat down as well and alternately pet America's hair and scolded him for being so reckless with money.
Germany attempted to guide Feliciano over to his brother and Spain, but the young man would have none of that. Sighing in exasperation, Germany lay himself down within the shelter and allowed Italy to cuddle him.
Greece blatantly refused entering the shelter, instead curling up like a cat on the fine, powdery dirt next to the shelter, drawing Japan with him. At first Kiku consented, figuring he could get up and move once Greece was asleep again. But then Heracles put his head in Kiku's lap and refused to let the flustered nation move.
Prussia started a small fire in the fire pit, sitting by it with the last awake nations: Korea, China, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, France, and Canada.
Russia dropped off first, slowly shifting into a laying position next to the fire. China wasn't far behind, Korea already dozing on his shoulder. It somehow wound up with Russia unconsciously cuddling China and Korea resting his head on his aniki's stomach.
"Go to bed." Switzerland muttered, nudging Austria with an elbow.
"You should probably sleep as well." Austria pointed out with an unnecessary sniff. The two walked off to the lean-to, probably more exhausted than they were letting on.
"I'll stay up. France, Birdie, go to sleep." Prussia said after several minutes' silence.
It was another twenty minutes before France and Canada were asleep. Prussia was still up, staring into the crackling flames. No one had eaten, but they were all probably jet lagged. And no one was well.
The ex-nation sighed, tossing some more of the wood they had found on the ground onto the fire. Tomorrow… tomorrow they'd probably all split up. Those who didn't keep the shelter would have to build their own, start their own fire, get their own wood pile, collect their own cache of food. So much work… And then there was water. Would they all share the water Vash had found if no more was located?
So many questions. It exhausted the albino. Finally, hours after everyone else, Prussia fell asleep.
=X=
A/N: Aaand~ we're done!
Jem: So much fun writing again! This is seriously amazing to write, so fun being able to back and forwards with Mouse during the writing process! I never realised collabs were so fun to write xD I also think our writing styles blend together quite well, the only way to really tell is whether there are English or American spellings xD
Once again, comments are VERY appreciated. Seriously, you should see me when I get a nice review. I have to hope I'm not with my parents else I get really REALLY odd looks when I go 'eeeEEEEEEEEEEEE!' with happiness xD
Thank you to reviewers of last chapter: Trouble Cookie, 'anon' QuirkToo lazy to log in and Timpeni! Remember, anon reviews are turned on, so EVERYONE can review 8D.
Okay, ciao!
Mouse: Aw, Jem. I love writing this with ya to. And damn right our writing blends! For we are brain twins. But you lovely reviewers. You make me so happy that I scare my various pets with my squeals of joy~ Please reviewers, keep me a happy camper. Oh, and most of this survival stuff should be accurate. I've done survival camps and stuff since I was little. Well, auf wiedersehen~