Disclaimer: I do not own hetalia...
Yao looked out across the path. From the outside he could see the entirety of the mansion. There were two stories and it was several hundred feet in each direction. From the outside it really did look magnificent. Yao took a deep breath and set off down the path with Kaoru, mei, Rodrich, and Elizaveta. The air was cool and crisp but not quite cold. The sky was dark and cloudy. There was still no way of telling what time it was because of it. A clash of thunder sounded loudly off in the distance followed by the sky lighting up. the wind blew hard pulling his ponytail back off his shoulder, Yao took a deep breath taking in the crisp autumn air. The trees rustled blowing in the wind thier still green leaves.
"The wind sure is strong. You think there will be a storm soon?" Mei asked pulling the hair out of her face.
"I sure hope not aru. We still need to find a way out of here. Aiyaa! This wind really is strong though."
They walked down the path for what seemed like forever. Their feet felt heavier with every step they took. The sounds of the forest greeted them. Although they were quiet sounds, like that of the wind and the trees, and their feet padding heavily behind them. Despite what seemed like extremely dense woods, there was not the sound of a single bird or animal.
They had been walking for almost a mile down the path now. They could no longer see the mansion behind them now. That's when the path diverged. Roderich collapsed to the ground no longer having the will to walk any further. More thunder sounded overhead. It sounded like it was getting closer.
Yao and the others sat down next to Roderich. They didn't look it, but they were tired too.
"Aiyaa! We've been walking hours!" Yao complained, "and now there's a fork in the road. Looks like will have to split up aru."
"Is it really a good idea to split up? We still have no idea what's out there," Elizaveta asked.
"There's no choice really. We have to find a way out of here as soon as possible, and we have no idea which path will lead us out of here," Kaoru answered.
"Right. But there's nothing against a lunch break. I don't know about you. But I'm starving aru!" Yao said pulling out some of their rationed food. The portions were smaller because they needed to ration the food, but they all managed to have a nice meal. They ate some of the fried rice and the lesco. None of them remembered what food they liked really, so they got to enjoy trying new things.
After the meal they split up, Mei, Roderich, and Elizaveta went on the path to the right. It was the larger path so the three of them would make a better team. That way if they did find a way out they could send a scout and not have to worry so much. Kaoru and Yao took the thinner path to the left which really resembled more of a trail. They believed it was probably just going to get them deeper into the woods, but it was worth checking out anyway.
They split up.
Kaoru and Yao had to walk single file down the path because there was not enough room to walk side by side. "So Yao what's one thing you wish you could remember?" Kaoru asked to break the tense atmosphere.
"Isn't that kind of taboo? None of us are able to regain our memories aru. Not unless we kill someone. So maybe it's not such a good idea to talk about what we can't have aru."
"maybe, but keeping it bottled up is much worse. I don't know about you, but I wish i could remember who everyone is. I think we must know each other in some way. It doesn't make sense for random strangers to be thrown in here like this," He threw his head back and rested his arms behind his head.
"I don't know I guess i'd like to remember... my family. I just keep thinking that there must be someone who misses us aru," Yao sighed. It felt awful to him to think that out there, someone must know that they had disappeared. He felt even worse knowing that if he did manage to escape and find his "family", then he still wouldn't be able to remember them. He wondered what that life must have been like.
"I know what you mean. someone's gotta be out there looking for us right?" Kaoru said looking up just over the treetops, "Hey, Yao. Do you see that?" He pointed through a break in the trees at a structure that resembled the top of a wall.
It wasn't long until they could see the concrete wall sticking out from amongst the trees. It stood there like a gravestone marking a grave, but also like a beacon of light. Lightning boomed again over the 100 hundred foot concrete wall. They stepped out of the woods one after the other. There was about a four foot clearing between them and the wall. Up close they could see that they were at the entrance to outside the gate. They could also see it curved slowly in both direction as if it would form a circle if they could see past the trees. The gate door was several feet thick with concrete and about t ten inches in the door you could see through the crack that it'd been sealed shut with concrete.
Kaoru and Yao were completely stunned. This was likely the only exit from the area.
Mei, Rodrich, and Elizaveta weren't having any better luck either. Their large path led them what seemed like almost a complete u-turn. Although It went around the mansion. The gravel crunched under their feet. It didn't seem like they were getting anywhere. The sky was a swirl of blacks and grays. It seemed to be getting darker, but whether that was because it was getting later in the afternoon, or because the storm was moving in on them wasn't clear.
Suddenly Mei saw a glimmer of something in the brush. "You guys go on ahead. I have something I've got to do," She didn't completely trust the rest of her group, and well, she didn't really know them. She wasn't really sure if what she was seeing was what she thought it was or not, so she figured it was better to keep them out of the loop.
She was lucky Elizaveta took it as, 'she needed a bathroom break,' and promptly dragged Roderich off by his ear. Mei crashed through the brush and out of sight. After just a few seconds to let them distance themselves a the object was not what she thought it was, It was a scrap of metal that might have been from something like a drain gutter on a house. She had from the look of it that it had been someone's lost memory chip. the dirty black metal strip glimmered in the little light that was available. She felt guilty of her secret wish to get her memories back. It's not like she'd actually kill anyone here for them, but if she had found someone's memory lying around she would put it to good use.
She sighed a little disappointed, and turned around. Her breath froze in her chest when she realized just how deep into the woods she'd travel'd. She could no longer see the entrance from the trail. Thunder sounded louder overhead and the wind blew harder across her face. She took deep breaths and looked around with widened eyes. No matter how hard she tried to focus she couldn't see the path. Driven by panic the only thing she could think to do was run straight. That should've been the way she came from, but with all the tree's it was impossible to go perfectly straight. In fact she had become completely turned around. She was actually heading East, and further deeper into the forest.
She finally stopped by the base of a large Ash tree. She was breathing heavily now. She cursed under her breath in a language even she didn't recognize. It wasn't really like her to curse, but right now she was lost and scared. She took deep breaths to try and calm herself. She closed her eyes and rested her head back against the tree's trunk.
She felt relieved for a minute, at least her group hadn't gone too far, and there were a ton of other groups wandering around here. She would run into one of them eventually. But when the wind settled she heard something. It was the first sound other than wind and brush and footsteps she'd heard since she'd been outside. She was beginning to wonder if there were any animals at all in these woods. She tried to relax but something about it gave her a bad feeling.
She listened closer. It was quiet but it sounded like it was getting louder, as if it were closing in on her. 'No, it was really just getting louder right?' She assured herself. The sound had a definite k sound but that was all she could make out so far. She opened her eyes but it didn't do her any good. She could barely see three inches in front of herself, and it was just getting darker.
She hugged her knees trying to use the darkness as camouflage. It was almost completely on top of her before she recognized it. She almost had it placed before the wind blew hard again. It happened several times. When she finally placed it the sound was practically echoing across the trees.
That's when she remembered where she'd heard it before it was the same, "Kol" as Ivan's from the mansion. Her eyes grew wide letting her see an extra foot of shadows. A soft footstep crunched less than a foot away from her. If she had known better, then she would have chosen this moment to use the darkness to her advantage and hidden, but she couldn't help but let it slip that she'd placed the voice."Ivan," she whispered.
The kolkolkol stopped all at once. There was the switch of a match being lit and suddenly she could see much more than a foot of shadows. The space between them was now very clear. Ivan smiled at her like he had just found something on a scavenger hunt, "found you!" He said in a sing song voice.
Mei moved away from the tree, standing up, to give them more room when he pulled out his Iron pipe. Mei's eyes grew wide as she took in the last deep breath she would ever take. She flinched for the sword on her back , taking a single step in the opposite direction, but she was too late. Ivan moved forward in one quick movement, plunging the smaller end of the pipe through her chest.
The pipe broke right through three of her ribs cutting just the edge of her heart leaving her to suffer the pain for several minutes. It was only seconds later that she was lifted in the air by the force of the blow, knocking her back, but the pain that went through her as the pipe pulled back through her body was almost as bad as when it stabbed her in the first place. She would have screamed, but she was barely able to get enough air as her left lung filled with blood and spilled out the whole in her chest. Her body went limp as she hit the ground. She instinctively gagged and vomited to try and clear her airways. She knew these were her last moments and that it didn't matter if she died of blood loss or from lack of air. The outcome was the same. Death. Somewhere in the midst of her agony, Ivan disappeared.
Eventually her breathing slowed to a halt and her coughing and hacking stopped completely. She managed to remain conscious for a few minutes longer through sheer will power.
She looked up past the trees and watched the lightning clash once more, but she could no longer hear it's thunderous boom. As it was her vision was beginning to fade as well. after the lightning the first drop of rain fell, landing softly on her cheek.
And that was the last thing she felt before the world went black.
