P.O.V America

Even in with my eyes closed I knew that things were not right. I lay on my back but my stomach felt tight. Now I knew what England's words had meant.

'I'm not going to fight a war on two fronts'. He was right. The way he was playing it at the moment meant that this wasn't going to be a war at all. England had so much control over me that I couldn't call myself much of a challenge for the British Empire.

He controlled my military, he controlled our money and he controlled all the food. I smirked at myself. Goodness I was an idiot, getting into a battle like this completely unprepared.

I didn't have much influence over America. Unlike England and the others who worked very closely with their bosses I hadn't revealed my identity to the American minister because there was no point. England had always been more interested in America and controlled it much more closely than all his other colonies because I was 'more important so our minister didn't actually have that much power. I was the same.

The Americans had protested the involvement in the war so in relation to both that and my own actions England had begun our punishment.

Higher taxes, less of our produce allowed for us to keep, even freedoms such as the press. While the fighting continued in Europe England would call me weekly. Every time I refused to join the war he knew the people would be the ones refusing, asking me was a quick way to see the general opinions, so every time he would increase these measures.

Canada was pleading with me to stop refusing him but I knew I wouldn't be giving up any time soon. He wanted England to stop this but he was equally insistent. India, Australia, New Zealand and Canada were fighting with the Allies so I had no idea why he was so furious at my 'abandonment'.

England's excuse was that since he was at war he needed to control his resources. Total War meant that a country stops funding anything that doesn't contribute to the war effort and even though it hadn't reached that point he'd already begun the initiative with the colonies. The ones fighting or the ones that weren't involved were doing fine but because of the protests America was getting the short end.

For a while I considered the idea of joining the Axis Powers to spite England but I knew that wouldn't work. Not only would that mean fighting against Canada it would also mean joining the war after all but I just couldn't do that with England controlling my government. It would probably be my plan B if England kept this up for much longer, which I doubted he would. He could only do this for so long before Canada started to do something.

The birdsong that fluttered in though the open window sounded gloomy to me but that was probably only me reflecting my feelings onto the world around me. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, finally having enough of my thoughts. My dark blue jacket fell off me onto the dark green carpet around me.

I hated this house and all of England's stuff inside it so I wasn't sleeping in my bedroom anymore but since it was a choice between the house and the street I'd resigned myself to sleeping on the living room floor with a jacket as a blanket and a cushion as a pillow.

I hadn't really minded it since I slept like a log anyways but my stomach was still growling at me like a ticked off cat. My queasiness had come from conflict so being able to shout at England helped me but it was only replaced with this.

The rationing in Britain had started and so it was enforced here but we weren't taking it with nearly as many grudging smiles. I had a bad habit of staying in bed whenever I felt under the weather but I forced myself up anyway.

I pushed with my hand on the sofa next to me and staggered to my feet. I blinked sleepily around the room as it was filled with a pleasant glow from the sun shining on the drawn curtains. The golden glow covered everything in the room from the table to the high backed chairs to the plush sofa.

I looked down at myself and frowned. I'd slept in my clothes unwittingly last night. I sighed and ran a hand through my blonde hair as I stared at the ceiling and tried to remember my plans.

My head lolled forwards as I finally remembered. I hurriedly threw open the curtains and then walked out of the living room, not bothering to pick the cushion off the floor. I may have lived there but I'd always considered it England's house so leaving it messy allowed me some protest.

I passed the hall and entered the kitchen, keeping my eyes locked straight ahead so I didn't look at any of the paintings on the wall. They were all of Britain or of the British Empire but I hadn't got rid of them because no-one but me came here anymore, I had to go out into town to sort out anything.

I wasn't much of a cook and I wanted to get out as soon as I could so I quickly grabbed a cup on the counter and ran the tap. I gulped down the metallic-tasting water and tossed the mug in the sink. I threw on the ruffled blue jacket with a slice of bread between my teeth then powerwalked out of the room.

I strode into the hall but paused before I could reach the door. I patted my pockets for my keys but as they felt around my jacket blindly my eyes found the small ceramic bowl sitting on the floor next to the door.

I gritted my teeth. England had accused me if childishness yet he'd always insisted on keeping up that farce. I had too but I just didn't care anymore. If Sparkles existed or he didn't, it wasn't my problem regardless.

I glanced down at my hands and froze. I'd dug the cards out of my jacket instead of the keys and I'd been shuffling them absentmindedly as I always did whenever I was deep in thought.

They were worn from years of handling but the pictures were still clear. I couldn't believe I hadn't lost of broken the deck yet. I sighed and crouched down. I picked up the dry bowl and placed both it and the cards on the small wooden table in the corner of the hall.

I fished out my keys and quickly exited the house, eager to get out of there. If I just needed to get some food then I'd walk to the town nearby since it was only a short walk but all I wanted to do was get out for the day so I'd planned to take the long journey to the city. It was more than an hour's walk from the house but that was what I liked about it.

I wasn't walking particularly fast, I was simply strolling through the small patches of nature until I reached the main road.

The sun spotted the earth as the light shone through the tree leaves above me and my steps sounded loudly as the dry leaves beneath me crunched. We'd been experiencing sunny weather so the air around me was pleasantly warm. The breeze was perfectly cool and stopped me from getting too hot but it ended up that way after about an hour.

I wasn't tired since I was pretty strong but soon my coat was off, my sleeves were rolled up as were the legs of my trousers so I was looking pretty odd by the time I'd reached a settlement. I liked walking alongside the tarmac as I walked because I found the droning of the passing cars relaxing in a funny way. Every so often I'd pick up any of the rubbish I spotted on my way there and kept my eye out for any bins I passed. It may have belonged to England but unlike the house I wasn't going to allow America to be messed up.

As soon as I unloaded all the rubbish into the nearest bin I began strolling through the city. I saw a few promotional posters trying to persuade the Americans to join the war but there were obvious signs of vandalism and some being torn down. It wasn't really surprising since the hatred for the British was still very clear.

The city was very busy since it was about one in the afternoon on a lovely day so there were a lot of people and cars bustling about so I didn't stop in the middle of the street to stare at the posters. However, they were seemingly everywhere in the city and I spotted them mostly on bus stops and advertising boards. I noticed that people often gave them looks of contempt as they passed the 'motivational propaganda'.

It was now midday so I popped into one of the open cafes but sadly that number was surprisingly few for a city, even a small one. Many things had had to be closed down because of the tight economy that Britain was enforcing on us and as I sat down and ate I could hear their anger. The indecipherable buzz of everyone talking surrounded me but every so often I made out some of the conversations.

There was a pair of middle-aged women sitting around the table behind me who were speaking to each other very loudly and passionately. I glanced around once out of curiosity and saw a woman with white blonde hair tucked into a ponytail and hands donned with many bracelets that clattered together as she used a lot of hand gestures and discussed the British Empire to the friend opposite to her with clearly-dyed auburn hair.

"And now we're all suffering just because the bastards at the top won't man up and spit in the Brits' faces. I don't want them to put my husband at risk just because they started this silly war in Europe." she began speaking in a hushed voice but didn't seem to lower her volume at all, as if she was performing a stage whisper, "It's because they're all puppets, you know. They're all in pockets of the British, at least the ones in control. Oh, I'm sure they all are 'looking out for the Americans' but when push comes to shove all they're going to care about are themselves."

Her friend sighed, "Surely that can't be true. I mean, no-one's been forced to go overseas yet. If we can keep this up then we'll never have to get involved."

The first woman tutted, "For now. We all know that it'll only be a short while before the conscriptions start and there's nothing we'll be able to do about that, you see."

"Excuse me, sir."

I looked up at the waiter with wide eyes at the sudden break of my conversation but then blushed as I realised he'd been gesturing to my long since cleared plate.

I smiled sheepishly, "Oh, yeah. Thanks for that. It was great."

The waiter smiled back and picked up my plates but before he turned away to put the plates in the back, his eyes fixated on something across the street. I followed his gaze and found he was staring at the notice stuck on one of the closed down businesses.

"It's a shame. People would probably have started helping if they hadn't been so pushy about it." he noted sadly.

I raised an eyebrow and gave the waiter an odd look, "You really think so?"

"Yeah. You can only sit by and watch for so long, or at least that's what I like to think." but then he sighed, "But with America in the state it is I don't think it's gonna be that way any time soon."

I didn't really have anything to say to that. I'd never wanted to put my people at risk again but maybe things could have been different.

I got out my wallet and paid for the meal. The waiter accepted and then took the plate away. I glanced in his direction for a moment before going back into the busy streets.

I had a bit more shopping to do before I started the journey back home so I ventured further into the city, trying to avoid any signs that would make me start feeling sorry for England again.

I wonder how Canada's doing...I shook my head. I hated being apart from him so long, especially under such hostile circumstances but I knew what my priorities were. When England called I was going to try sort this out and have him stop punishing America like this.

I didn't have a lot of cash with me but it was enough for me to buy the necessities for the day. I couldn't buy as much as I wanted anyway because of the restrictions being imposed on all of us.

I was at the till when all of a sudden everyone's heads turned to the windows at the front of the shop. We'd been drawn to the sound of a sudden shout that was furious enough to be heard even through the city jumble so many people looked around curiously to find the source.

I glanced around in an attempt to identify the shouter but I was too late. My eyes hadn't even fallen on the right people before another sound bombarded my eardrums and sent many of the customers' hands to their ears.

It was the sound of shattering glass and a massive crack. The basket dropped out of my hand and I dashed outside as a massive sense of dread began coursing through me. More blasts began, becoming more frequent as time ran on and when I got outside I knew why.

There was a literal mob outside smashing all the windows of the shops. I could see they were mostly targeting the closed ones but screams filled the city as many customers and shopkeepers fled. They were a massive group of people wielding bricks or other heavy objects to smash any panes or cars that they passed. It was terrifying but now I knew where the dread had come from. This had been so sudden that I knew it wasn't spur of the moment. This was organised chaos.

Angry cries replaced the hustle-bustle and soon it felt like a full-scale riot. I saw many people were brandishing cardboards signs bearing anti-war and anti-British sentiments but all I think most people saw was aggression. Someone had even set a British flag on fire and left it burning on top of a road sign.

What on earth is this? I thought, panicked. I looked around and tried standing against the tsunami of people trying to evade the violence. People were running and exiting their cars in the hurriedly-converted pedestrian zone the mob had created.

With the fire and cries enveloping the street I felt like I was in hell, not my home. Red light reflected in a shattered way as it bounced off the sea of glass shards raining down on the pavement near the shops and it wasn't long before alarms joined the pandemonium.

Damn, damn, damn, damn, I repeated in my head as I debated what to do. I couldn't fight a crowd alone and I certainly wasn't going to run so I was frozen in indecision until someone slammed into me.

"Get out of the way!" that person had yelled at me, not caring that they'd shoved me to floor. I skidded across the rough tarmac and it felt like something had stung me. I hurriedly glanced at my arm and saw that there was a shard of glass sticking out of the skin. I had to tear it out and hope that no-one would notice my rapid healing but there wasn't much chance of that as the people kept running.

They kept kicking me as they ran like a tidal wave of stampeding horses. I tried getting up but I couldn't get regain my balance amidst such panic. I was thrown back onto the glass-covered pavement again and I gritted my teeth. I clenched my jaw and scrambled to my feet.

I tried shouting but my voice was torn apart by the chaos so not even the people around me managed to hear. I ploughed forwards against the crowd and found many of the fleeing crowd giving me incredulous or angry looks.

"Stop this!" I yelled but no-one took notice. There was an awful amount of damage now. The cars parked in front of me were all dented and some had even been turned on their sides.

The cries of the mob had begun to from comprehensible shouts now. I heard the fury in their voice and even though it was one I identified with all I felt was the fear for all the people being hurt.

There was a collective jump as a gunfire blasted through the hoards of noise and a silence rippled throughout the street. It didn't last for long but the sudden vacuum allowed some voices to make themselves heard.

I turned to see them and saw a group of people dressed in black and blue holding up megaphones and bellowing at the crowd in tinny and robotic voices that made them seem more like machines than police officers.

"Cease and desist at once! Drop your weapons and disperse immediately or we will have no choice but to use force!" the policemen warned in unison to be heard among the revived clatter.

One of the uniformed men was holding the pistol he'd used to silence the crowd for that brief moment in his hand threatening but kept it pointing at the sky while the others looked unarmed in the firearms department.

The mob, of course, responded not with obedience but with more aggression expect now it had a target. I rushed forwards but still had no idea what to do. I wanted to side with the police and stop the riot but knew that was going to be impossible.

I somehow battled my way through the raging ocean of protesters so I was now standing close to where the ten or so PCs* were having to bat away the projectiles being thrown at them.

"Guys! C'mon! You've gotta stop!" I shouted but this time I was unfortunately heard. I got a disgusted look of the woman standing near to me and received a punch in retaliation.

"Down with the Empire!" she roared with the crowd, "Free America!"

I ran away from her, my blue eyes now wide in confusion and fear, then edged my way closer to the police.

"Stop this at once!" the police insisted with an unmistakable terror in their voices, "Or we will have no choice but to shoot!"

Adrenaline shot through me. I couldn't believe what was happening. I had to stop this at any cause. Everything felt like slow motion, which was odd considering how fast time usually went for me, but I surged forwards as if I was a mother bird diving to protect her children.

There was a bang and it was then I realised I was too late. A policeman had been aiming at one of the protester that was brandishing a bread-sized rock as if he was about to throw it. I knew it wouldn't work but I sprinted with the assurance I wouldn't die. My movements were being filled with the fierce protectiveness only a country could have for its people.

Even if it was just one person...Even if I'd be in danger. Maybe this'll finally convince England, I thought ludicrously right before the bullet ripped through the air with a sound like thunder resonating through the street after it and crashed into me.

It knocked the life out of me immediately and all I saw was black as my eyes clenched shut in pain as my final action.


Reporter: There were numerous riots across the country today as protesters began a unanimous attack in cities in almost every city. The police are currently believing this to be the work of an organisation and hundreds of arrests have been made but we also give our condolences to the families of the four officers killed in the protesters after being attacked with projectiles such as bricks and rocks.

There may be other casualties but it is unclear at the moment what the actual numbers are. Many cities were left being attacked after the police force was expended beyond its capabilities and had to retreat from several areas where back-up was not able to reach.

Please stay by for more information as it comes.


*Police constable, not the computer


The Americans weren't going to take this lying down so now they're choosing to fight it.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did or didn't I'd appreciate if you review! :D