The small cabin of the cavalier filled with Feliciano's screams of terror, Ludwig shouting out commands at the car, and Kiku's attempt at calming words – which turned out to be all for naught.

They were currently in the worst possible situation either one of them could have imagined. Their car was currently in a severe decline; the speed was slowing considerably, the engine was sputtering abnormally, and smoke was beginning to billow out from under the hood. The car, however, was the least of their problems. It turned out the city was completely overrun, it wasn't just the hospital. An abundance of infected people straggled aimlessly through the streets, and as soon as their car approached, all eyes were on them.

Their drive through the first hurdle of infected was messy, to say the least. And it is possible that driving through such a ragged terrain of fallen bodies caused some of the problems with the cavalier, or at the very least, amplified them. The car began sputtering and stalling at the most inopportune moment possible: just as they were about to drive into another hurdle.

Ludwig pressed the gas pedal to the floor, gritted his teeth, and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, hoping and praying wasn't enough to help their situation.

They got to the very edge of the hurdle when the car hit a large bump, and travelling at such an extreme speed, the car got more air than a car should ever see. Due to it being so high in the air, when a group of the infected chose to charge at the car; it rolled.

The car rolled and rolled, down a small slope, through a buildup of mowed grass, and eventually coming to a rocking halt in a small, shallow pond. The car had rolled at least six times; the plate glass was broken, and the car was no longer salvageable. In a way, though, the car rolling was a good thing for the group, as it rolled a good deal away from the infected people currently trying to attack them.

Ludwig was the first one to react, opening his eyes and coughing out a mouthful of water. It took him a moment to gain his bearings enough to ask the others if they were OK. "Kiku, Feliciano?" For one dreadful moment, with silence filling the cabin of the car, Ludwig believed that they had all died from the accident. Then two simultaneous sputters made his frantically beating heart slow, if only a little.

Ludwig looked over at Kiku first, who looked fine despite the slim stream of blood making its way down his face, caking his left eye together. At the worst, Kiku probably had a minor concussion from the impact.

"Feliciano," Ludwig asked, craning his neck to check on the small Italian, "are you alright back there?"

A small mumble rose from the backseat, then a loud groan followed, "oh, I think I hit my head too hard."

Ludwig, though he was pleased that Feliciano was alright, was slightly worried about both of them having concussions. He hoped that it would not handicap their journey, because they clearly had a long way to go.

Feliciano was the first one to unbuckle himself – to Ludwig's surprise – and squirm out of the broken vehicle despite his head injury. When he stood up, however, he ended up falling down to the ground with a loud huff. "I'm so dizzy."

"Great," Ludwig thought. "It's worse than what I imagined." Ludwig grasped the buckle currently securing him to the seat and tugged, but to no avail. The seat belt was jammed; the metal was completely mangled inside the hard plastic holster, and it was clear by Kiku's struggling that he was in the same position. Not sparing a second, Ludwig reached across himself and shoved his hand into Kiku's front pocket.

Kiku seemed taken aback at first, rearing back into his seat hard enough to rock the car again.

Inside Kiku's pocket Ludwig found the small knife he had used when they were trapped in the bar. Pleased with himself, he brought the knife up to the seatbelt and cut through it without another thought, causing him to land directly on his neck. He groaned at the awkward position he was in. But, despite the pain he felt in his neck, he immediately manoeuvered himself out of the tight cabin, and into the open field where Feliciano sat with his head cradled in his hands.

Before Ludwig could worry about him, he needed to get Kiku out of the vehicle.

Ludwig looked up to see the approaching group of infected people, who were steadily gaining ground on them. He didn't have a moment to waste fussing over Feliciano's head wound, that would have to wait until they found a safe place to take refuge. Ludwig ran around the car and kneeled down beside Kiku, who seemed to be in somewhat better condition than Feliciano was.

"Do you think you will be able to run?" Ludwig didn't waste time trying to comfort him; there was no place for that anymore.

"Yes, I didn't hit my head very hard, and my legs weren't injured in the crash."

"Good," Ludwig said as he sawed through the seat belt around Kiku's chest. "As long as we can all run reasonably fast, we probably have a fighting chance."

Kiku didn't respond, or rather, didn't have time to respond as the seatbelt finally let go, causing him to fall flat on his face with a loud grunt.

"Sorry," said Ludwig, skipping out on asking if Kiku was OK. He grabbed him by the shoulder, pulled him free of the cabin, and stood up to look at the progress of the infected.

They were much closer than Ludwig had anticipated.

Ludwig ran around the car, grabbed Feliciano by the shoulders and shook him. "Feliciano, we have to run, there is no time for making a fuss out of a head injury."

Feliciano groaned but otherwise took to his feet quickly. He was beginning to brush the grass off of his pants, but when Ludwig turned his head toward the oncoming crowd, he began running faster than both he and Kiku.

There was no time for lolly-gagging.

"I- I don't think I," Feliciano stopped momentarily and took in a large heaving breath, "I can run any more."

"You need to, Feliciano," Ludwig said through deep breaths. "Kiku said if we keep running we will eventually come to the other side of town."

Kiku – who seemed in as bad shape as Feliciano – hummed his agreement through his nose, "there is an old hotel up ahead, I'm sure it is safe."

"Will we be there soon, Kiku?" Feliciano huffed, "because I don't think I can last much longer."

"Yes, Feliciano," Kiku said. "Soon we will be able to see the hotel."

Ludwig was happy that they would soon be away from the oncoming crowd, but one thing still nagged at him. When he and Kiku were being pursued when they left the bar, eventually the infected people following them gave up on them completely. The people behind them now were clearly not planning on giving up any time soon, in fact, they seemed to be gaining speed. Even now, in the dark, Ludwig could still make out their inky shapes marring the view of the darkened green field.

They just had a few more paces to go, then, for the first time since the outbreak happened, they would be able to relax.

"It's right up ahead," Kiku shouted, breaths now coming in short bursts. "Just a little farther and we're there." He had finally stopped taking the calm initiative when he realized they had almost reached salvation, he was just as excited as they were to finally be safe.

Feliciano tried to cry out triumphantly, but only managed a sad, weary gasping sound. They were all on the end of their rope, but if they were quiet and quick, they would be able to climb back up the proverbial rope, and into safety.

Without words Ludwig began pushing it at the last second, forcing himself to run even faster despite having reached his limit long ago. To his surprise, Kiku and Feliciano followed his lead. They were all just as eager as he was to reach a safe haven after so much running and panic.

When they finally reached the road, running through thick shrubs, they were pleased to see that not many of the infected people remained on the road, and the few that did remain wandered aimlessly away. When they came to the Hotel they realized that there was a tall chain link fence surrounding it, but were so nervous that they did not want to check around for a hole in the fence. They all took turns climbing over the chain link fence, and dropping onto the other side. Ludwig was the first to climb over the side – considering he was the biggest – and offered to help them over.

Kiku followed his lead, climbing steadily upward and throwing his leg carefully over the top, so as not to get his pants caught on any of the exposed rungs. Feliciano was the next, and to all of their surprise, he climbed like a monkey, and landed gracefully on the ground on the other side. Feliciano continued to amaze Kiku and Ludwig around every turn.

Feliciano looked at all their questioning faces, "before my brother went into the seminary, we used to climb over our neighbour's fence and swim in his pool."

Ludwig and Kiku both chuckled at this, but both were surprised by the fact that Feliciano's brother was a priest.

"You're brother's a priest, Feliciano?" Ludwig asked, despite himself.

Feliciano smiled sadly, "no, he wasn't even halfway through his learning. But he did want to be a priest, very badly."

Kiku, noticing that Ludwig was going to ask another question, broke the conversation before it escalated into something they didn't need. "I know we're safe now, but we shouldn't wait around outside for something to happen. If those things from the road see us, I don't think this fence will be enough to keep them away."

Ludwig nodded his head in agreement, "yes, you're right." Ludwig turned to face Feliciano, "I'm sorry for asking such personal questions, I was just…"

"Curious," Feliciano smiled as he began walking, "I know, it's alright." To Ludwig's surprise, Feliciano began laughing, "you should see people's faces when I told them Lovino was in the seminary, priceless."

Kiku determined that Feliciano was no longer on the verge of breaking down, and as he traced the building for a spot to break in, he began asking Feliciano questions to lighten the mood. "Why were they surprised?"

"You guys weren't that surprised because you haven't ever met Lovino," Feliciano chuckled. "Even my relatives were shocked when Lovino made the decision."

Ludwig prompted for Feliciano to go on, interested in his story.

"Lovino has the worst potty mouth I've ever seen," Feliciano said. "He curses, he takes the lord's name in vain, he's extremely rude, he's demanding," Feliciano shook his head. "My brother is the exact opposite of what you would expect from a priest."

Ludwig and Kiku were both surprised that Feliciano's brother was the polar opposite of him, and yet Feliciano seemed to adore him despite this.

"Your brother sounds like he could be a pain," Ludwig cringed at his choice of words immediately after their left his mouth, feeling bad that he was picking on Feliciano's brother who was probably no longer alive.

Feliciano smiled even brighter, despite Ludwig's words, "but all of those things are what made me love my big brother even more." Feliciano looked up at Ludwig and smiled, "you love your big brother despite his faults, right?"

"Of course," Ludwig answered, not a hint of hesitation in his voice. "And I am determined to find him." Even though Ludwig knew that most of his searching would be all for naught in the destroyed city, he was going to search for his brother no matter what. Whether he would have to do it alone or not, he didn't care. Ludwig knew that Feliciano felt the same way about his brother, but at the same time, had a more realistic mind set than Ludwig himself.

"Here," Kiku said, breaking the silent exchange between Ludwig and Feliciano. They both turned in unison to see Kiku pulling a large board free from one of the windows with a loud grunt. Underneath the board was a large window, in good shape despite how old the building was.

"We couldn't have found one broken window," Ludwig sighed. "Maybe if we search on the other side of the building?"

Kiku shook his head, "it's no use; we could be scaling this place until morning, and who's to know if those things won't show up."

Ludwig nodded his head, "alright, but we need to make as little noise as possible when breaking the window. Those things are probably nearby now that they know where we are."

Kiku, completely disregarding everything he said, grabbed the small knife that he had used to cut the two of them free, and rammed the butt of the knife into the window. The glass snapped and cracked, but did not fully break into shards that would no doubt have made too much noise. Kiku raised his hands to indicate his work, "now we just need to push the glass out carefully."

Ludwig pressed the palms of his hands into the glass, and watched carefully as it fell into the long since abandoned hotel. The sound of the glass shattering would be loud enough to alert any resident inside – if there were any – but it wasn't loud enough to resonate outside of the building. "Good work, Kiku," Ludwig said, nodding his head in acknowledgement toward Kiku.

Feliciano, who had otherwise remained silent during the whole ordeal, was the first to step through the broken window. He hadn't even asked if it was safe or not, he just put one leg in, ducked his head, and stepped into the dark hotel.

"It's awfully dark in he-"

Feliciano screamed, a loud, gut-wrenching shout that sent Ludwig and Kiku jumping through the window without even considering the jagged pieces of glass still encompassing the frame. When they got inside, and were at a close enough range to see Feliciano, they realized someone had him in a tight choke hold. Under the assumption that it was one of the infected, and without thinking clearly, Kiku stabbed the person holding Feliciano. He missed, though, and stabbed the person in the shoulder instead of in the chest where he had initially planned to impale him.

What warned them that it was not an infected person was the shout, and wet gurgling, that followed the stabbing. The man holding Feliciano let go of him immediately, and fell onto his backside with a heavy thud.

It was very clear that he was not an infected person.

"Oh my God," Kiku, finally having lost his calm, dropped down beside the man he had stabbed. "I'm so sorry," Kiku said to the sputtering man. "You were choking him, and I thought you were one of them…"

The dark haired man managed a smile, "I thought you were one of them, too." The man pressed a hand to the wound on his shoulder, which was not fatal, but could become infected if not treated properly. "I should have known you weren't one of them, you're not the first set of people to come here, anyways."

Ludwig's eyes widened, "there are other people here?" Ludwig knew it was unlikely, but he wanted to believe – if only for a moment – that his brother could still be alive. Gilbert did always have a great sense of self-preservation, after all.

"Yes, I didn't get to see them up close, but I still have a good idea," the man cringed when Kiku ripped a piece of his white sweater and held it tight to the gaping wound in his shoulder.

"What did they look like?"

"I knew one of them, the pretentious one with the dark brown hair, his name is Roderich, he was with a young pretty girl with blonde hair. I'm certain she's the one he used to tell me about all the time." The man seemed to space out and reminisce for a moment, before snapping out of it when Kiku pressed the fabric down harder.

Ludwig felt his heart stutter at this; of course his brother would not have made it. The odds of him having lived in a city he knew nothing about were slim to nothing – closer to the nothing side.

"Then there was a really loud-mouthed guy, with crazy bleached hair, who followed them in," the man said in annoyance. "He tried to kick one of my cats when he went upstairs because he said he hated them." The dark-haired man frowned, "he also had the worst arrogant, nasally voice I've ever heard. I didn't like him, so I didn't come out of my room to greet them."

Ludwig's eyes shot open, and without even bothering to listen to the rest of the man's ranting, he began shouting his brother's name at the top of his lungs. "Gilbert," Ludwig felt his heart pump faster in his chest.

"Gilbert, are you in here?"

"Ludwig, are you insane?" Kiku spat when he looked up from where he was crouched over the dark haired man.

For a long moment no sound reached them, the place seemed deserted. The man beside them said something about them probably having already moved on.

Then Gilbert could hear it, the sound of old wood creaking under someone's feet. The person in question was bounding down the stairs; it made Ludwig's heart lurch up into his throat in both fear and excitement. He couldn't be sure that it was his brother, as the infected people were everywhere, but the description the dark-haired man gave him was too close to his brother. Ludwig waited in anticipation as each step grew closer and closer to their level.

When they stopped, Ludwig opened his mouth, trying to say something, but instead only choked out in surprise.

"Ludwig," the voice at the end of stairs asked incredulously. "Ludwig, is that really you?"

It took Gilbert a long time to let his younger brother out of his embrace. His younger brother that he was absolutely certain he would never see again. It took the man on the ground – who Roderich had called Heracles – sputtering and coughing to remind him that there was something wrong.

He looked down at the ground to see a young Japanese man crouched over him, holding a piece of white cloth over a bad wound on his shoulder. "What happened to him," Gilbert asked, favouring the Japanese man and the Brunette man behind Ludwig with a harsh, demanding glare.

"It's not their fault," Heracles spoke from on the ground. "I grabbed the small brunette one thinking that he was one of those infected people."

Gilbert looked up at Ludwig for him to acknowledge what Heracles said, and was answered with a short nod.

Ludwig stepped away from his brother and held out his arms to the small group he had made on his way, "the small brunette is Feliciano; he came here for a vacation from Italy with his older brother. Kiku and I found him in the middle of the highway."

Gilbert nodded his head at the Italian, "Feliciano."

Feliciano, still wary of Gilbert, chanced flashing the man a small, cautious smile.

Ludwig indicated the Japanese man on the ground that was still frantically asking Heracles questions, and holding the fabric from his sweater to his wounded shoulder. "This is Honda Kiku, I met him at the bar I was waiting for you at. The outbreak happened while we were in there, Kiku and I helped each other escape."

Kiku didn't seem to hear him, or rather chose not to, as he tended to the wound on Heracles' shoulder with the now soaked piece of cloth from his sweatshirt. Gilbert realized that it was probably Kiku that had stabbed the man, and chose not to take his ignorance as an insult.

Ludwig looked at Feliciano, who seemed to be the only one paying attention anymore, "this is my brother, Gilbert."

Feliciano's eyes lit up when he realized the Gilbert wasn't just somebody Ludwig happened to know, it was his older brother. The one Feliciano had wanted to help Ludwig find. He was happy for Ludwig, and continued to smile, but at the same time felt extremely jealous that he had found his older brother so easily. Ludwig had found his big brother, alive and well, and Feliciano would probably never find his brother, and even if Feliciano did find him, he would probably be dead, or one of the infected. However, despite his jealously, Feliciano ran over to Gilbert and flung himself at the man who so much resembled Ludwig.

Gilbert seemed taken aback at first, but smiled at the young Italian. He had heard that the Italian's were incredibly friendly, so much so that it would make a person who was not used to their culture uncomfortable. Gilbert hugged back, as best he could, and patted the young Italian man on the head. "Thank you for taking care of my little brother," he whispered. "He's a real baby, so he needs as much help as possible."

Feliciano laughed whole-heartedly at this, smiling at Ludwig who could only smile back at them, Ludwig couldn't find it in himself to react at his brother's usual jabs; he was just too happy to have found his brother in good health.

"I'm sorry to ruin the moment, you guys," Kiku spoke up from behind them all in an urgent tone, "but I really need to get this guy patched up, or I'm afraid he's going to bleed out."

Gilbert looked down at the dark skinned man, "I'm assuming you are Heracles." Gilbert sighed, "the homeless one with all the cats?"

Heracles smiled, "that's me."

Gilbert walked over to the scene and examined the wound, and even though he had no formal medical training, it didn't take a genius to realize the wound on his shoulder could become very bad if infected. And, with no medical supplies, or food for that matter, he would probably die.

"Is it bad," Feliciano asked, standing next to Gilbert and wringing his hands.

"No, he will be fine if we treat the wound with care," Gilbert reached down – hands cradled under Heracles' back and legs – and lifted him off of the ground. "Come with me," Gilbert said, head craning toward the stairs. "There's still running water in here, Roderich and I checked it out."

"Thanks to me," Heracles said, still smiling despite the searing pain taking over the left side of his body.

Roderich had gotten mad at Gilbert, at first, when he saw the number of other survivors now residing in the building with them. He did settle down, though, when he heard that Gilbert's brother, Ludwig, was among them. It made him relax, if only slightly, about how dangerous they could be. He was still wary about the other two with Ludwig, the Italian and the Japanese man, but they hadn't had a very dangerous air about them. And, all things considered, the both of them were panicking over whether Heracles would be OK or not.

That had to say something about them.

They were all standing over Heracles, who they had just put in the bed next to Elizaveta's. Heracles was still awake, but was beginning to drift in and out of consciousness. The bleeding had stopped, though, and now all that was left was the gaping wound, now caked over in dried blood.

"We need to get to the hospital," Roderich said. "The wound will get infected no matter how much we take care of it. Not to mention Elizaveta is going to need medication if she doesn't come out of her shock soon."

Everyone was surprised by Roderich speaking out loud about such a thing, right in front of Heracles, who was still awake.

"Maybe we should wait to dis-" Kiku began interjecting, but was cut short by Roderich telling him otherwise.

"He knows, just as well as any of us, that a wound like that will not heal itself," Roderich looked away from the gored shoulder. "Besides, there is no food to eat here, we will all eventually starve."

"There's water."

"Water will only go so far."

"There are a bunch of cats, if worse comes to wo-" of course it was Gilbert who began suggesting they eat the cats in the hotel.

"You're not eating my cats," Heracles said. "There's still some food in the fridges downstairs. I brought it all there."

"I thought you were homeless?" Feliciano asked, cutting to the chase.

Roderich rolled his eyes, "he owns a small fortune, he just doesn't like living under pressure. So he lives like a homeless man."

Ludwig shook his head incredulously at his brother, who responded with a shrug of his shoulders and mouthed the word, "Westerner's."

As everyone began getting louder and louder, arguing about how long the food would last, and where they could get drugs to cure an infection like gangrene or blood poisoning, Feliciano began feeling annoyed.

"The hospital is completely overrun; it's no use to even try getting in there. It's like a hive of bees." Feliciano bit out through clenched teeth, finally getting the groups attention.

"How would you know? I heard they found you curled up in the middle of the road somewhere, taking a siesta."

Ludwig's eyes widened incredulously, followed by his brothers, shocked at how incredibly rude Roderich was being.

"I left my brother to die in there, actually," Feliciano said calmly to Roderich. "He had a stroke, and severe double pneumonia, I had no choice."

Roderich was taken aback, "I'm sorry, I assumed…"

"You shouldn't assume things without knowing someone," Heracles spoke from on the bed, causing everyone to look down at him. "I think I'm a walking, talking example of someone who shouldn't be judged by their cover." Heracles coughed out a laugh.

"When I left him, the soldiers had already been taken down," Feliciano looked up through his bangs. "These were trained soldiers, and they had huge weapons and protection, and they were still taken down by the infected people. The place had been completely taken over, it didn't even look like a hospital on the inside anymore. The walls were no longer white."

Roderich looked down at his feet, but spoke despite himself, "someone must have lived, though."

Feliciano smiled sadly, "who knows, but if they did, I feel really sorry for them."

Everyone closed their eyes and became silent, no longer knowing what they could say about the situation.

Heracles raised his hand, as if asking permission to speak after he deemed the silence having gone on too long. "If soldiers fell in there," Heracles coughed. "Then couldn't we radio in and see if someone answers."

They all opened their eyes at this, favouring Heracles with a questioning look, as if they weren't really taking him seriously.

"We could be like Special Ops," Heracles laugh made Kiku smile. "If we're lucky, someone will answer, and then we can guide them out. Or at least help them."

"How could we guide them out of there?" Feliciano questioned.

"You're right, we can't necessarily guide them out, but we can help them when they finally get out of the hospital."

Everyone indicated for him to go on in unison.

"You all know how much of them are out there, I looked on the roof earlier today, it's a mad house out there." Heracles watched them all silently, "if we could find someone, and get them out, then they would need guidance to avoid everything. The roof is an excellent vantage point for us; we can see everything up there. With good binoculars, we could see right up to the front entrance of the hospital, and I just happen to have a great pair."

Everyone seemed less than convinced, especially Ludwig's group. After everything they had seen, they found it hard to believe the streets were even manoeuvrable, but they gave the man the microphone for at least a moment.

"They would probably have the upper hand, too, because they could collect weapons off of the soldiers. Along with that, they could bring us rations and medicine from the hospital."

"If we find survivors we aren't going to treat them like pack mules, Heracles," Roderich said through gritted teeth. "I highly doubt one person could even carry more than a single gun and some medicine."

"A pack sack," Heracles said. "With a pack sack they could carry pretty much everything we need."

"A pack sack is a good way to get yourself dragged down by one of those things, the less someone carries, the better," Ludwig said to him.

Heracles didn't lose his enthusiasm, though, as he continued on with his spiel, "it wouldn't hurt to try, right?"

"He's right," Feliciano said. "Even if they aren't willing to help us out when they escape, at least we'll know we helped save someone's life."

"Good," Heracles said, reaching under the covers. "I hope I didn't break my portable radio when I fell, because we're out of luck if I did." When he finally retrieved the small radio from his back pocket, he let out a triumphant huff. "I would have thought about using this earlier, but I had no idea there were soldiers in the hospital. I was just using it to listen to news broadcasts."

"What were the broadcasts saying," Ludwig asked. "Did they say anything about what this is?"

Heracles looked across the room at Ludwig, "don't you think that would have been the first thing I told you about?" Heracles lifted the radio toward them. "It just keeps repeating the same message, and it's not a comforting one." Heracles flipped the switch and the radio blatted out a monotone voice, repeating the same line over and over like Heracles had told them it would.

"This is a medical emergency; no persons are to leave their houses at this time. Lock your doors, lock your windows, and stay put. Do not leave your house, I repeat, do not leave your house in risk of infection."

Gilbert cringed, "wow, that's not very comforting."

"They didn't even say if help was on the way or not," Feliciano said.

"I don't think help is coming," Roderich said, as if he had come to that resolve a long time ago. "I think they wanted most of us to die from this, and if the soldiers in the hospital say anything about it, it hasn't gone all according to plan."

Heracles eyed Roderich in understanding, "I've been thinking the same way as you, Roderich."

"Do you think this is just happening in America?" Feliciano asked hopefully.

"I doubt it," Heracles said. "And if this is biological warfare, and not some sort of accident, then it is no doubt affecting the whole world."

Heracles held the radio back up to his mouth, changed the channels, and began speaking into it without even working through what he was going to say into the radio.

"This is Heracles Karpusi, I'm not a soldier but I am from the outside of the hospital. I'm looking for any survivors. I have a few survivors with me," Heracles looked around the room. "There are seven of us. We think we can help, if you are willing to help in return."

For a long while, all of them stood around Heracles, listening to static. Nothing was coming through.

"There has to be a dead soldier on every floor," Feliciano said. "If there was anyone alive, they would answer."

"We can't think that," Heracles said. "For all we know, they could be trapped somewhere."

"If that's the case, they're dead meat anyway," Gilbert said, taking a seat on the edge of Heracles' bed.

Heracles tried again, and they all waited again for another long ten minutes, with no answer at all.

"There's no one, Heracles," Roderich said. "Face it." Roderich walked around the room to Elizaveta's bed, holding a hand to her warm forehead. Seeming satisfied, he looked up at the group. "We need our sleep, it would be best for all of us to stay in the same room together. I will stay up to keep watch, then Gilbert will later on." Roderich looked over at Heracles with pity more than spite, "we can work on that ridiculous thing tomorrow."

"I'll leave it on overnight, just in case someone tries to make contact. I recorded my message, anyways."

Roderich seemed on the verge of saying something, but chose to keep his mouth shut in favor of the extremely exhausted looking group. "This is the biggest room, but there are only four beds."

Roderich looked around, "I'm going to be awake for the first part, so Gilbert?"

Gilbert looked up from where he was sitting, staring blankly at the buzzing radio. "Yes?"

"You will sleep next to Elizaveta, OK?" Roderich seemed to challenge him to make a comment with his glare.

Gilbert nodded his head, almost too tired to recognize Roderich's glare, "alright."

"The rest of you," Roderich said. "Sleep wherever you want to sleep and with whoever you want."

Feliciano and Ludwig were both about to get in the same bed, but were surprised to see Kiku climbing in beside Heracles. "To monitor his breathing," he stated simply.

Both Feliciano and Ludwig nodded their heads and slipped into their beds.

It was Kiku that was first woken up by the radio in the middle of the night, and for a moment, almost completely disregarded the voice coming from the radio as nothing. Then, when the sleep haze started disappearing, he realized that someone was trying to communicate. He picked the radio up, turned the volume up to the highest rung, and watched as everyone in the room stirred awake. Even Gilbert, who had fallen fast asleep on watch, woke up with a jolt.

"-ope someone is still there, I know you called in a long time ago, but we were trapped."

"I knew it," Heracles said, and everyone hushed as him to be quiet.

"My name is Antonio Carriedo; I was trapped in the dispensary of the hospital with a patient,"the man sounded frightened, and they could all hear a loud banging noise coming from the other side of the radio.

"We escaped the dispensary and went into the surgical ward, but it's not as safe as we thought it would be," another loud crash rang from the radio. "The only good that came out of this is that I found some weapons, and of course this radio…" They could hear Antonio fussing in the background over his patient, asking him if he was feeling better.

Heracles finally took this moment to answer the man on the other side of the radio, "you said a patient, are you a doctor?"

It took a moment, but the man named Antonio finally answered from the other end, "no, but I am a registered nurse."

Roderich finally became interested at this, "please, ask him how to treat a patient that's gone into shock."

Heracles held a finger up to Roderich, "wait, Roderich, we must not put too much pressure on him."

"What is wrong with your patient?" Heracles wouldn't say it, but he was worried that the patient was very ill and would hold the nurse back.

"He has severe pneumonia," the man was almost whispering now, he sounded almost scared. "When the soldiers started killing everyone, not just the infected, I hid in a secretary's desk. When I came out, I got chased down by a bunch of the infected people, and by chance ended up in a room with a completely untouched patient. I was so happy." Antonio's voice went from frightened to happy as he began talking about his patient. "He's doing so well, I think he'll be able to walk properly soon."

Feliciano heard him talk about the patient having pneumonia, and immediately started thinking about his brother. His poor brother that probably died from a bullet to the head; but Feliciano was glad that Lovino would at least not have to face the new, cruel world. Lovino was never one for violence and death, after all.

"How old is your patient?" Heracles didn't want to put it to words, but if the patient was too old, maybe it would be best to euthanize him. Heracles was being completely honest with himself; they would all end up dying if they needed to carry around a sick old man. He needed to be realistic, but at the same time, he needed to not scare off the surviving nurse.

"My patient," Antonio said. "Oh, he's still a very young man, so he's getting better very quickly."Another crash rang out of the radio, this time causing Antonio to gasp – and whoever his patient was – to curse out loud.

The voice of the other man was what got Feliciano this time. The voice of the other man, the man who had cursed, sounded very familiar to him.

Without thinking, Feliciano grabbed the radio from Heracles hand and held it up to his mouth. "What is your patient's name?" He had all but screamed into the radio.

"My patient's name?" Antonio inquired, "why would yo-"They all listened closely as a scuffle seemed to ensue on the other side of the radio, followed by a completely different voice beginning to speak.

"Feliciano?"

A/N: We're finally off to a real start. Over the next few chapters the groups are going to get closer and closer, and all of them will be faced with some difficult decisions. So, don't leave their journey yet!

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, don't be afraid to shout 'em out to me!