CHAPTER TEN

ALTERCATIONS

The countries were silent, staring at the girls in shock and mild disbelief. They had never heard them raise their voices, well they always heard the girls being loud but never at them, and yet here they were yelling at them. Francis looked away, towards the wall, the water everywhere but at those girls' faces because behind that rage and frustration they looked thoroughly disappointed.

"We didn't…" Francis tried to start talking, but Charm raised her hand to silence him.

"We aren't talking about any of you!" Storm shouted at them, turning on them quickly, "Clearly you guys aren't idiots!"

Francis slammed his mouth shut immediately, looking in the same direction as the women, towards Arthur and Yao. He could see the embarrassment on Arthur's face, but Yao was unrepentant, not wavering his gaze. "What were you guys doing? You could have gotten everyone killed!" Bee hissed, crossing her arms and glaring at them.

"We needed to see what was ahead or we would have went in blind," Yao shrugged, completely unrepentant.

Francis tightened his fists; this idiot were going to get them killed or worse kicked out of the armory…then they would be ripped to shreds. These girls' eyes were steely, dark and stormy, like they were ready to punch the man in the face. What was Yao thinking, his face was completely smooth, no emotion in sight and he had seriously almost killed them!

"We knew what was ahead!" Charm yelled, throwing out her arm violently, "That bloater has been here since we started using the tunnels! Those things are too hard to kill and if they grab you, you are not going to survive! We were taking precautions! That's why we stopped here! We go through the pipes from here on out!''

"There's another one in the other tunnel further down if you want to really try to kill us because now we are almost out of Molotovs!" Bee added, her hands going to her hips as she glared the man down, not even bothering to look at Arthur whose face was down turned in shame.

"If you would have told us that we wouldn't have went there then," Yao shrugged again, his voice level.

"You didn't ask!" Storm answered, her voice echoing down the tunnel, "Besides we were trying to spare you guys having to see that! You were already upset enough about the people that were already Clickers, did you really want to see that there were people that were literally that bad?"

Francis heard Feliciano whimper, his brother suddenly whispering encouraging words to his brother to stop him from garnering the same wrath as Yao. They had all frozen after all. That had to incur something, right? After all they were dealing with creatures who waited for things like this, waiting for a moment when everyone was frozen to attack and if they were lost the girls would most likely get hurt or at least lose supplies.

"Don't you dare do anything like that again," Charm ordered, suddenly moving forward and shoving her finger into his chest, "you do that again and you are not welcome back."

"You would kick me out for trying to help you survive?" Yao barked at them, suddenly sounding furious, shoving her arm away from his chest his posture aggressive.

"No," Bee snapped back, moving to stand next to Charm, "we would kick you out because you almost killed every single person here!"

"Your family and ours," Charm added, "every single person here could have been killed. You don't know what you are doing and you of course felt no remorse. If we hadn't have known how to kill that thing, if we hadn't tested this out, we would have all been dead."

"And you can't say that we are overreacting, you saw that thing."

"We would have been able to escape through the tunnels that we had just went through," Yao disagreed with a casual wave of his hand before crossing his arms.

"Do you really think we would have been able to fight through all of those things we bypassed?" Francis felt himself suddenly shouting, moving forward, "Even if we did out run that thing we would have had dozens more."

"Francis, that was necessary!"

"No, that was an uncalculated risk," Kiku interjected.

"We would have all been killed," Lovino whispered, putting an arm around his brother.

"And it would have been your doing," Francis accused, he knew that his eyes were flat and hard when Yao jerked back away from their accusation.

"I…" Yao attempted to stutter out some sort of words, possibly an apology but he couldn't get it out of his throat.

"We need to keep moving," Charm sighed suddenly, all the fire suddenly leaving her voice, though her posture was no less stiff and her aura was no less sharp, "we need to get out of her by nightfall or we are all screwed."

"It's about another hour of walking," Storm added, suddenly moving over to the Italian brothers and handing Lovi his bag, "We should get going before the other one realizes the noise meant food."

"We'll take the tunnel they cleared out," Bee sighed loudly, "it'll be a little quicker and a lot less climbing."

"But we'll have to be quiet and stick together, no more hero stuff," Charm agreed, shouldering her own backpack.

Francis felt himself nod stiffly, sure that the others were doing the same; making sure that they wouldn't get that same disappointed, angry look in their direction now that they themselves were out of anger. The others were shuffling, pulling on bags and watching the ladies for their order to leave, but the ladies didn't move. Charm and Bee facing the crisped Bloater and Storm shouldering her own backpack next to the Italian brothers, though none of them failed to notice that she was slipping more Shivs into her belt loops or made sure that her bat was close at hand.

"Let's go then," Bee finally broke the silence moving around the creature, everyone following close behind, "stick together and if something happens keep following us, we know these tunnels."

"Oui," Francis choked out the word, glancing back at Yao who suddenly wasn't moving, he probably didn't have the energy, "Are you coming, Yao?"

Yao nodded, turning slowly and moving to the back of the group, trudging behind. "Remember guys, quiet," Bee called back, leading the group before she and Charm shouldered guns that were once at their sides, "and be prepared."

It had been a long trek, well an hour long, but that still felt like forever to Ivan. He wasn't used to the heat, the moisture, the…anything in Kentucky in all honestly. It was even harder considering how many small spaces that he was attempting to squeeze through with these girls, it was an understatement when he said by the time he reached the surface that he was aggravated.

"Where are we?" he called to the ladies in the front, attempting to adjust his scarf to a more comfortable position without making him even more overheated.

"In the middle of Lexington," Bee answered, shielding her eyes from the setting sun, "We need to get to the hospital and stock up before the sun sets."

"Hospital?" Antonio paused, glancing up in shock, "Why would we be heading there?"

Ivan almost chuckled at the man's stupidity. He was sure that the man had immediately jumped to the conclusion that one of the girls were injured, possibly sick, but he couldn't possibly think of stocking up. Ivan knew about hard times, knew about them very well, and he knew that that's what these girls were clearly preparing for…and with more people there was triple the risk that they could all get sick or that they would all get injured when they were on a run.

"We need to make sure we have medicine and stuff incase anything happens," Storm answered casually, sending the Italian brothers another smile.

Ivan noticed he watched her often, all of the girls actually, but her a lot more then the others. She had not strayed from either of those Italians sides since the Bloater had occurred, smiling at them and attempting to cheer them up. He knew that both of the boys were shaking, mentally in shock and attempting to stay normal but they were failing…much like the others.

His Yao had not said one word since the others had cut into him with their words, trudging behind them. Alfred was still pale, his hands never leaving his gun that he had kept at his side, his twin mirroring that stance. Arthur and Frances stood close together, speaking in low voices that made Ivan sure that Arthur was still ashamed of his actions. Kiku and Antonio seemed to be fine, even-tempered and calm as they moved forward, Antonio teasing the girls and Kiku adding in witty comments when he found the aura correct.

"Hey!" Ivan jumped, mildly startled by Storm's voice suddenly next to him.

He blinked down slowly at her, watching her smile at him slightly, "Are you okay?" her voice was softer then normal by far, so clearly she saw something on his face that he didn't.

"It is just uncomfortable, being in such small spaces, when I am not," Ivan answered with a shrug, moving his hands up to wipe away more sweat.

"You also aren't used to this heat huh?"

He looked her up and down slowly, noting that the Italians had followed her closely…well one had, Feliciano was now attempting to hang himself over Charm's back and Bee's shoulders. She raised an eyebrow at him, looking towards the scarf and back up to his face, then to his shoulders and his feet, looking for something, but he didn't understand what… "I understand, you are trying to distract me," Ivan chuckled slightly, smiling at her.

"Usually that helps with the heat," she shrugged, not denying it in the slightest, "Are you claustrophobic? Bee is too, if you are. Or do you just not like small spaces because you are so tall?"

"It is most likely the last one, Russians do not fear anything," Ivan said thoughtfully, working over the thought that he might have been indeed scared of small spaces, before casting the thought aside.

"Well if you weren't so freaking tall it wouldn't matter," Romano snapped at him, though there was no real anger in his words.

"I suppose that is true," he agreed with a shrug and a smile that sent the Italian shivering and clinging to Storm.

"One day I'm going need a ride on your shoulders," Storm said simply, her voice stern as if she was giving him an order.

"You…want a ride on my shoulders…?" Ivan repeated the statement slowly, his brain muddled. In all of his life he had never had someone say something like that to him, most were too scared to even joke about him giving them what Americans would call a piggyback ride.

"Sissy will probably want to too…and probably Bee…" she said the words thoughtfully, finger under her lips as she really considered the words, "You look strong enough to pick us up so it shouldn't be that big of a problem."

"So you are…"

"Serious?" she guessed the end of the question, "Deadly, I like being tall."

"Ha!" Romano laughed loudly, "You and your friends are defiantly not tall."

"That's the point you jerk," she scolded him in a teasing voice, "I like pretending to be and Ivan is really tall!"

"So you are my friend for piggyback rides?" Ivan questioned, his voice sounding serious.

"Is that a problem?" she asked, bumping him with her hip.

Ivan paused, not physically of course; they couldn't waste that much time, but mentally. These girls were odd, brave, all three of them. Now that he thought about it though fighting zombies may do that to a person. The three of them would talk to him without shivering, Storm had actually hugged him while Charm and Bee apologized for her being so touchy and loud. The girls would joke with him, unfaltering even when his 'dark aura' would come out…it was odd.

"We are here!" Bee announced loudly, sounding excited for the first time that day.

"Finally!" Alfred groaned.

"Let's head inside then," Charm smiled at him, shifting slightly so that Feli could open the door and still cling to her arm.

The group shuffled inside, Storm, Lovino and himself were almost inside when he stopped. Grabbing her arm swiftly, making her jerk to a stuttering stop and spin to face him. He watched her face go quickly from fear to calm when she realized it was only him…that was another new experience for him. "It isn't a problem," he said swiftly, attempting to give her a real smile but only succeeding in grimacing.

She smiled brightly at him suddenly, grabbing his arm with a tight hand, "Good," she answered, pulling him inside of the building close behind her. "I'll expect that piggyback on the way home."

"Da," he agreed, sending her a half smile, trying to ignore the warm feeling of companionship in his chest.