When Israel woke up a little later the first thing that struck him was that he was not at all injured by the sandstorm, which he should have been, he should have had broken cut across his skin. But this wasn't the only thing that was wrong, he should either be alone in the wilderness, in the French prison, or dead. But for some reason he was indoors, in a made bed in a room where it burned a bonfire. In the room next door Israel could hear two voices talking to each other. Two people seemed messing around in there.
Israel got up and limped out to them, but he got standing in the doorway almost a minute, until they had discovered him in there.
"Are you okay?" one of them asked, Israel had immediatelly recognized him as Egypt.
"Egypt, do not take this the wrong way now, but what are you doing here?" Then Israel turned to the other person in the room, a woman in a red and pink striped dress, long black hair and a scarf that he would have recognized anywhere. "Palestine ..." Israel was trying to think of a good thing to say but all he could come up with was "Did you two save me?" But it was Egypt who responded.
"I can't exactly go home if you know what I mean, France has taken Cairo so I am practically homeless"
"Sorry ..." Israel replied, but he couldn't take his eyes from Palestine, so he only barely looked at Egypt while he spoke to him. "This may sound weird Palestine but why did you save me? And how and when did you learn that sandstorm technique?" Palestine thought for a moment before answering, but finally she could only sigh.
"I'm afraid that the best answer you will get about why I rescued you is " I don't know ". The sandstorm, was Egypt, he showed up when I boosted up your defense shield" When Israel heard it, he could not help smile, it explained how the shield could be stronger even though he had fallen, someone else had come there and taken over the shield"
"Anyway," Egypt interrupted "I came to ask both of you to join me on a little trip. You don't need to come with me but the alternative is to wait for France to return, and he will"
-o-o-o-
Russia and Latvia walked far away from each other but on the same street in Helsinki. Latvia had borrowed a hat and a basketball to disguise himself and Russia had found a very large hat that made him hard but not impossible to recognize. The one who called to the meeting, whoever it was, must still be able to find everyone.
And both Latvia and Russia had seen many faces they recognized. For example, five Arab beggars sat in each corner, Latvia had immediately recognized them as Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Israel and Palestine. Moreover, he had walked past Romano, Germany and Canada. But he had not walked up to them. It had been written in the letters that they couldn't do it because there was a risk that France and his allies was out looking as well. Russia and Latvia knew now that it was France who was the villain, it had been written in the letter from Belarus.
Latvia also knew that he had to be extra careful. Probably some of France's men was looking especially for him right now. The information that he had gotten away must have reached France by now. Therefore, he sat down on the edge of a fountain with his basketball in his knees. Then a few minutes passed before something caught Latvia's attention.
"SAVE THE POLAR BEARS, STOP THE GLOBAL WARMING, IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT" Latvia looked up and stared at the person. It was a long, sharp little man with an arabic accent who was handing out flyers. Latvia saw some young people receive flyers from him, then two elderly ladies. Then a muslim woman passed by, got a flyer in her hand ... and froze. Latvia had seen that her flyer had a completely different colour than the other ones, so he became suspicious.
The woman turned and started walking towards another corner of the street ... towards Egypt. And in a moment Latvia managed to see her face under her veil. It was Pakistan. Latvia watched the two, and he honestly thought that Egypt seemed a little too interested for an ordinary beggar.
Suddenly things started to happen around Latvia too. That environmentalist, which he could now see was Turkey, had came over to the fountain to "distribute his flyers" when one of the many people who sat there became angry at him.
"WILL YOU STOP GIVING OUT THAT FILTH, EVERYONE KNOWS THAT THE GLOBAL WARMING IS JUST A MYTH!" Latvia could see Turkey's mine, it seemed that he just wanted to ignore this angry person and continue his real task, but if he did, his disguise would be exposed and thereby the French spies would be over him at once. He just had to play with it.
"WHAT ARE YOU CALLING FILTH, DON'T YOU KNOW THAT ALL LIVING WILL CHOKE IN 5 SECONDS IF WE CUT DOWN A SINGLE MORE TREE IN THE AMAZON FOREST, THE GLACIERS ARE MELTING AND THE POLAR BEARS ARE GOING TO DIE!" People around Turkey and the other man were laughing hysterically now, even Latvia had to laugh when he heard how Turkey exaggerated and mixed together every fact so that it all sounded completely insane. But the answer to Turkey's question would soon get him to stop laughing.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHO CARES ABOUT POLAR BEARS ANYWAY, UGLY AND DISGUSTING THEY ARE, AND THEY STINK TOO..." the man roared to Turkey, he even stood up to point Turkey in his face.
But it wasn't Turkey who finally had enough of him. Suddenly someone surprized him with a slap over his face that caused him to fall over.
The man looked around and saw the one who had beaten him. It was a guy in the late teens and he had an open backpack in which a little polar bear kid looked up from. Anyway, he got a great hurry from there, after his sermon about polar bears, he had no desire to mess with a guy who had one in a backpack, and especially not one who had just beaten him that hard.
Turkey, however, didn't seem entirely happy with the situation Latvia noted. Canada, however, had a little more control over the situation.
"Take me prisoner!" He whispered and winked to Turkey. Turkey seemed to hesitate at first but nothing in Canada's gaze made him change his mind, he grabbed Canada and dragged him away. Latvia decided to come along to see what happened, he didn't care if anyone saw him or not.
Turkey took Canada into a van and dragged him inside it, Latvia was the only one who had dared to follow him all the way there and he also jumped into the car with them.
"What are you up to?" Turkey asked without bothering that Latvia also had followed him into the car, "I thought you were an ally of France!" Both Turkey and Latvia looked at Canada seriously waiting for his answer.
"France thinks so too!" Turkey raised an eyebrow, still watchful. "He has actually taken my brother too!" Canada continued whereupon a tear ran out of his eye. It was a surprise to both Turkey and Latvia, none of them had heard anything about that America had disappeared. "To tell the truth, I was allied with France before I got to know it, now I just want it to end!"
When Canada had said that he wept openly ans hid his face in Kumajirou's fur to wipe the tears away. "France knows that someone is planning something in Helsinki and he has sent me, Switzerland, Netherlands and Monaco to find out what. I thought that if you took me prisoner..."
"Yes?" Turkey asked.
"Then I would at least not have to be in the middle of the misery for a while, he is not very kind to his prisoners and he even has plans for real mean things he'll do to others once he has captured them" Canada paused and rested his head towards Kumajirou. It was clear that he had got to endure a lot of stress lately.
"And you say that Switzerland and Monaco and the others are here to capture insurgents?" Turkey asked
"Yes," then there was a knock on the car door. Turkey looked in a special camera and wrote up a list of which ones who stood out there before he let them in.
"I'll just call my colleague and tell him that we are all here." He said and went outside the car. It was the first time Latvia felt really worried, he didn't really know who the others sympathized with after all, he could even have gone straight into a trap. Fortunately, it seemed that none of the others felt very brave right now either.
On the other hand, Russia wasn't there. For the first time in his life, Latvia was worried about the fact that Russia was not around.
-o-o-o-
Russia had also found someone he recognized. She was sleeping on a park bench, that is to say, she didn't pretend to sleep, she really slept as if she hadn't slept in a long time. Russia walked over to the bench and sat down beside her. As long as he had something to say about it, France would not touch any of his sisters again. Ukraine would get to sleep as long as she wanted.
"Is she okay?" Russia heard someone ask. He looked up. The man who had asked him the question was dressed like an old man but he had a cat in his arms which, together with the familiar voice convinced Russia that it was Greece, he was talking to.
"She's doing well, she's just a little tired." Russia answered. Greece sat down next to Russia.
"Anyway, she should not sleep here," he replied, then he dropped his voice to a whisper, "France has spies in this area, they are here to capture all who disagree with him" Russia gasped.
"Do you know where Latvia is?" Greece felt that Russia was worried and took out his mobile and called Turkey.
"Hey, you've Latvia with you?" Russia waited patiently for a reply from Greece's crony, whoever it might be "He is there?" Greece said and Russia felt very relieved. "I have found Russia and Ukraine, we'll go to that place we said, yes," Russia awakened Ukraine who raised her eyes and saw the two strangers sitting next to her. Or at least they seemed to be strangers. The voices wasn't stranger's voices.
"Russia?"
"We have to leave!" Greece said before the brother and sister had time to talk more. Russia nodded and helped Ukraine up. Then they went away to a wooded area and crawled in through some bushes. Inside the bushes Germany, Hungary and Romano sat waiting. Greece telephoned his colleague again to tell him that he had found everyone. Five minutes later, the van rolled in and they all jumped inside. At that point it was pretty crowded inside the car.