Ivan Braginski
Monday, March 18th, 2014

I don't know what to say about today's events. I don't even know if I would be able to write it down if I wanted.

I feel so sick.

I can't believe the U.N. would even consider something so cruel.

Yao said he was going to try to stop this, but how could he do anything? It is true that holding the title of General of the Army grants you some pull, but certainly not enough to stop something that was officially voted on in the United Nations. We are nothing but chess pieces in the eyes of the world government.

I won't lie and say that I'm not scared about it.

The only thing we were told was that this project was that this project was already in the beginning stages. We were told nothing about when it will be implemented, or when it will be tested. For all I know, I could go outside tomorrow and find all of my neighbours dead on the side walk.

Who knows, maybe even tonight when I go for a walk I'll find a dead child and its mother lying in a ditch.

I don't think I could stomach that kind of sight.

Tomorrow I will make an attempt to contact the President. Maybe if Yao and I both make a complaint to our leaders together, they will listen.

Ivan Braginski
Wednesday, March 20th, 2014

I should have known that my words would mean nothing. Even with the president's ears and attention, I was answered with nothing but an absent wave and a yell.

I almost lost my job, but at this point, I don't even know if I want it. I don't know if I want to die with my fellow countrymen, or if I want to watch from a safe distance with my president and my soldiers.

Both are cruel, and both are choices I would rather not make.

Do I sit idly by, or do I take action and get knocked back on my feet like Yao?

What am I supposed to do?

Ivan Braginski
Thursday, March 21st, 2014

I was informed that trials will start tomorrow evening. They have pulled various wanderers and homeless people off of the road to test their weapon. They chose these people because they knew that they would leave no trace; that nobody would go looking for them.

They would disappear, and no one would care nor notice.

I notice, but I wish I couldn't.

Why, as a soldier, am I being forced to watch this weapon be implemented? How is this fair, I am a man who signed his life away to protecting the people of his country, why am I being forced to watch as they are killed like filthy animals? Shouldn't the president know that this is exactly what I stand against as a soldier?

I keep hearing the same excuse from everyone, even some of my own soldiers.

"The world is over-populated, we're killing the Earth and ourselves."

My response is always the same, "the Earth adapts, so do we."

Of course they don't listen to me, when have they ever? The president and his appointed soldiers have always been defiant.

I will watch the trials tomorrow.

God help me.

Ivan walked into the St. Petersburg Hospital on legs that felt as heavy as lead. This was his body's way of telling him that it didn't want to go, that it didn't want to be around when the trials began. His ears turned red and his skin boiled, even the blood coursing through his veins wanted to get away from the hospital.

Ivan steeled himself despite this rising fear; he couldn't show weakness.

His soldiers saluted him when he walked into the long abandoned hospital, and he nodded in turn. The Chinese soldiers, however, only marked him with murderous intent; their eyes carefully calculating every one of his moves.

It was always this way.

Along with the daily stress of upholding the title of General of the Army, he needed to remain as stoic as possible in the face of his soldiers, and other countries soldiers. He couldn't show emotion, for if he did, any other military force would see this as an immediate weakness. So, as Ivan approached Yao, he had to greet his long-time friend with an all too familiar solemn nod. If he even cracked a smile, Yao's soldiers would jump into action.

Yao himself was under the same pressures, bowing his head nonchalantly in response to Ivan's short nod.

"Are you prepared for the trials?" Yao asked. "Have you signed the proper forms?" Yao's voice was cold and emotionless, the polar opposite of what he was when he and Ivan were alone on their exchange trip in university.

That was long ago, though. Those memories faded, along with the almost unbreakable friendship he and Yao used to hold. Now most of their conversations were formal and quick. They couldn't be seen communicating more than necessary or they would be reprimanded by their leaders.

Ivan had grown used to this new Yao, however. He was so used to it that he barely remembered his old friend's true personality.

Ivan nodded quickly in response to Yao's question, "yes."

"Good," Yao said, "follow me."

With a short nod Ivan followed close beside Yao, growing more and more upset as they approached the newly constructed testing facilities.

"I'm frightened," Yao said with a trembling voice as they grew closer to their destination. Despite his face showing no outward signs of distress, his voice made it very clear that he was deeply disturbed. It made Ivan absently wonder if he was as good at hiding his emotions as Yao.

Ivan nodded, as if responding to something Yao had asked him. "I am too."

Very briefly a flicker of fear flashed across Yao's features, the expression flitted across his smooth skin so quickly that for a moment Ivan wondered if he had really seen it. Despite not knowing, Ivan was about to open his mouth to comfort his friend, but was stopped short when they came to a halt in front of two large metal doors.

A loud click, followed by blaring static, caused Ivan's words of comfort to stop dead in his throat.

"General Ivan Braginski and General Yao Wang," a voice blatted through the adjacent cameras. "I'm glad you've come."

Yao and Ivan both gave a guarded nod at the cameras, waiting impatiently for their instructions. The speakers were silent for a long time, leaving Yao and Ivan to stew in their own fearful thoughts.

They were left in silence for what felt like hours before the voice spoke again.

"Step through the doors," the voice caught Yao and Ivan off guard, and they both jumped at the static-ridden voice. Yao and Ivan both chanced one look at each other before they pushed through the heavy metal doors as instructed. The two men walked through the doors with as much confidence as they could muster, hoping that their pallid and sweat sheened skin would not give them away to their leaders or the soldiers in the room. The door creaked on its hinges as they pushed it open.

The door was so heavy that it took the both of them to open it.

This was Ivan and Yao's first warning that something was wrong.

However, before Ivan could even consider turning back and demanding answers, the heavy doors swung shut behind, followed by a loud click.

The room they were in was dark, and the air was cold and clammy. Something was wrong, and they both felt it.

"To be a soldier means to serve one's country, correct?" A familiar nasally voice called through the speakers and cameras surrounding the room. "To serve one's country is to respect your given orders, correct?"

Ivan and Yao couldn't answer, they wouldn't answer. They both knew what this was as soon as the metal doors sealed shut behind them. They knew that their fate was sealed with it.

"Not only have the both of you questioned our judgement, but you have committed a crime on par with treason." The voice was quiet for a moment, but the heavy static coming from the speakers remained, indicating that the person speaking was not yet done. "In a time so dire, Generals, why make it a point to defy orders?" The person on the other end of the speakers let out a roaring laugh, "By God, you were given the chance to escape a cruel death! What made the both of you become such bleeding hearts?"

"To be a soldier is to defend one's country, that is correct," Ivan finally said. "And by defying your orders, by questioning your judgement, we were protecting our countries."

The voice on the other end, that was previously cackling and muttering about their stupidity, became completely silent. The static disappeared, the voice stopped, and the room became completely still. Nothing but the cold chill and the cameras tracking their every move was there to keep Yao and Ivan company.

Well, that was what they thought.

A loud shot tore through the silence, causing both Ivan and Yao to jump into a defensive stance. As soon as the first shot rang through the air, they knew what was happening.

They were going to be subdued and used as test subjects, and their own soldiers were going to hunt them down and collect them. Ivan gritted his teeth, trying to force his eyes into adjusting to the inky darkness surrounding them.

"Not on my watch," Yao said, as if thinking the same thing Ivan was. He hunkered down and pulled a thick switch blade out of his low-rise boot. "They should have known I wouldn't drop all of my weapons," Yao gritted out. "I knew something was wrong, right from the beginning." Yao flicked the switch blade open and held it out in front of his chest.

"They're going to use us as experiments," Ivan laughed through a heavy frown. "I should have seen this coming as soon as we were reprimanded. I knew they forgave us too easily."

They pressed their backs together, keeping each other guarded as they tried to see through the dense shadows of the room. The footsteps were getting increasingly louder as their own soldiers advanced on them.

"They're surrounding us," Yao whispered harshly, back pressing harder in Ivan's own unconsciously. "What do we do?"

Ivan considered their options, and quickly found that they didn't really have any to take. It was either surrender and beg for forgiveness, or put up a fight and save face in front of their soldiers. With this in mind, Ivan made a quick decision.

"We show the enemy no fear, and we stand our ground," Ivan mustered a smile despite his swelling fear. "We show them what a true soldier is."

He could almost feel Yao's smile at his statement. He could see the smile gracing his lips despite not even being able to see him. "That's a great idea, my old friend."

The footsteps continued to grow closer and closer, and hours seemed to pass before they stopped dead in front of Yao and Ivan. Even with them so close, it was hard to make them out in the darkness. But they were there, no doubt, armed and ready to attack.

"Draw not your bow till your arrow is fixed," Ivan whispered to he, and Yao's, former soldiers.

"What are yo-"

The soldier that seemed to be heading the group suddenly collapsed to the floor with a loud thud, causing the other soldiers to look around in confusion. Ivan himself could feel the fear billowing off of them in thick waves. He didn't even need to see their faces to know when they were afraid. He had become adept over the years at sensing the mood of his soldiers. He felt them as a collective.

"You need to remember that we trained you," Yao said from where he was now standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ivan.

The soldiers didn't respond, they simply kept their guns pointed at them, eyeing them cautiously from behind the heavy barrels.

"We know everything you're planning," Ivan said, smiling at his soldiers in a piteous fashion. "We know all of your manoeuvres and battle strategies." Ivan bit back a laugh, "we also know that you wouldn't kill us, or rather, that you can't."

"Don't be cocky," one of the Chinese soldiers called out from behind the group. "We could rip you limb from limb if we so wished, you're nothing but men, just like us!"

"Are we?" Yao asked with a defiant lilt in his normally soft voice. "Because I'm pretty sure I just killed your leader without any of you even seeing me attack him."

The soldiers backed up, unable to figure out what to do. They couldn't understand their previous Generals pathetic attempts. They were completely cornered, there was no way out, and there was no way two unarmed men could fight off thirty armed soldiers. No matter how strong they were, a bullet could take them down just as fast as it could take down any other man. These two were clearly only delaying the inevitable.

"The experiments have already started," another voice called from the back, this time it was one of Ivan's soldiers. "In fact, they started yesterday night," the soldier laughed. "You can go and check on their dead bodies in the lab if you want, in fact, we'll personally escort you there and you can even join them if you so wish!" The soldier's boots clicked against the ground as he rocked back on his heels in laughter, "if you think you can escape here and help, you're dead wrong."

Ivan wilted on the inside at this statement, and so did Yao, but they kept their faces as stoic as before. Just as Ivan had come to terms with a long time ago, showing weakness would only end up getting them killed by their own soldiers. Despite not being able to stop the trials, they could at least try to help in some way. If they surrendered now, what kind of honour would that hold?

"Why do you endorse this," Ivan asked through his stewing rage, "why would you endorse the deaths of millions of innocent people?"

The crowd was silent.

"And please, before you give me some crap about over population, think about what you're allowing." Ivan stomped one foot and bit his lip to hold back the anger that was now almost boiling over the lid. "These are innocent people, these are children, these are elderly people, these are friends of our families!"

"Enough," one of the soldiers cried out, shooting a bullet into the floor in front of Ivan in warning.

This didn't stop Ivan, however.

"But it doesn't matter to any of you, does it? As long as your family is safe, and as long as you're safe, it doesn't matter!" Ivan gnashed his teeth as he took in all of his soldiers, all of his soldiers that had betrayed him and their country. The soldiers he had trained to be the strongest of the strong, the soldiers that he had trained to protect the people of their country, were now doing the exact opposite of his training. It was a shame, and an embarrassment to he and the people of his country.

"You're not real soldiers," Ivan said, digging his heels into the ground. "You're nothing but embarrassments, the whole lot of you!"

This clearly jabbed the soldiers the wrong way as they all began to react negatively to what was said about them. Gunfire roared through the air, angry protests filled the empty room, and enraged outcries caused Yao and Ivan's ears to ring. Ivan, pleased with the impact of his words, turned his back on his soldiers, followed by Yao doing the same. This was the ultimate insult to a soldier, and it was well deserved. This was all Yao and Ivan needed before their lives were ended. They needed to remind their soldiers of the wrong they were doing. And whether that stopped them or not, it surely got them thinking. It surely caused a great deal or damage to their pride. Their own Generals had openly told them that they were ashamed of them, it was the last thing a soldier ever wanted to hear from a superior, ex-General or not.

After the uproar, a heavy silence filled the clammy air.

Ivan and Yao both waited for impact. They waited for the feel of the butt of a gun slamming into the back of their heads, or for the burning feel of a bullet tearing through them, but it never came. This was because the soldiers didn't even have a chance to strike at their Generals.

A shrill scream rang through the air, followed by a denizen more as light began to filter into the cold room. Both Yao and Ivan turned back to the soldiers, and were shocked at what they were seeing. Their soldiers, the ones that were going to kill them, were being eaten by other people. These other people clearly weren't soldiers, and their exposed skin was cold and blue looking. Some of them wore hospital robes, but others were completely unclothed.

"Are these…" Yao swallowed hard as he took in the scene in front of him, backing away slowly. "Are these the test patients?"

Ivan couldn't answer; he could only watch as one of his soldiers had his leg rended from his body with nothing more than brute strength.

Yao looked over at the now open door, the door that seemed to have been broken down with ease. "I don't know what they are; I don't want to know, but I'm sure we need to leave now." Yao took off at a run toward the opened doors, grabbing Ivan by the end of his sleeve and dragging him off toward the blinding light.

Ivan stumbled behind Yao clumsily, and at one instance almost pulled Yao to the floor. He just couldn't keep his eyes off of their soldiers being eaten alive. It was all too surreal.

It had all happened too fast.

"Ivan, this is no time to be cracking," Yao gripped his friend's sleeve tighter and yanked. "You're a soldier, act like one!"

This finally snapped Ivan out of it. He turned his head away from the scene and back to the task at hand. Yao was right; pointlessly dwelling on something was going to get them nowhere. They needed to leave, they needed to run, and they needed to do it quickly. There was no use in lagging behind to watch; they had no weapons so they couldn't help their ex-soldiers. And, all things considered, even the soldiers themselves couldn't defend themselves, and they were armed to the hilt.

When they finally reached the door, both of them chose not to spare one last look back at their soldiers. They were both feeling extreme guilt because of the fact that they had called their soldiers worthless right before their gruesome deaths. They hadn't meant for something so cruel and inhumane to happen to them.

"If I would have known..." Ivan tried to continue what he was saying, but found that he couldn't. There was nothing stopping him but his own guilt.

Yao didn't comment on what he said, and whether he heard Ivan or not was to question. Yao himself was probably feeling guilt just as heavy as Ivan. These were their soldiers, after all, former or not. They had still trained their elites from the very day they had been deemed above average in their separate were like family to them, despite all of their individual faults.

"We need to close the doors," Yao shouted at Ivan as he forced on the heavy, metal plated doors, "we can't risk those things getting out!"

Ivan, who was feeling his consciousness slowly dwindling, joined Yao in closing the double doors. He had been trained from childhood to react to these situations accordingly, and yet he still hadn't completely grasped the training. He was still feeling sick, his head was still ringing, and he felt like running away and leaving everything behind to collapse in a heap and give up. He was becoming the very thing that he was trained not to be.

As soon as the doors were closed, Ivan and Yao both expected to hear the familiar sound of the speakers coming to life to mock them. They expected to be laughed at and ridiculed. However, the speakers never turned on, and they were not joined by the voice. They stood in a silent hallway with the sound of their former soldiers being brutally massacred filtering in through the closed door as background noise.

They panted and heaved when the reality of their situation finally set in. The panting itself was not from over-exertion but from the fear and anger coursing through their veins.

"Were those the test subjects?" Yao asked through a pant.

"I think so," Ivan said, eyeing his bloodied pants with a scowl.

"How did they escape?"

Ivan had started thinking about this as soon as the subjects had entered the room and attacked their soldiers. The entire place would have been guarded to the hilt, considering it was a top secret weapon being tested out. Being top secret it meant that nothing would be allowed in, or out, of the base. There was no way some homeless people, who were completely unarmed and nude, would be able to overthrow a horde of government agents. Something was wrong, something even worse than Ivan and Yao could have imagined.

"Something went wrong in the trials," Ivan said.

"You heard what your soldier said, Ivan," Yao said, finally gaining some of his breath back. "The trials happened yesterday."

"I know that, but what if the drug only started taking effect today, what if the scientists implementing the drug forgot something?"

"They were government hired, Ivan, they were the best of the world's scientists. There was no room for mistakes."

"Anyone can make mistakes." Ivan said, haphazardly tucking a loose lock of white-blonde hair behind his ear.

"I don-"

Something banged on the door behind them with such incredible force that the both of them were forced to step away. They turned around to look at the damage, and were shocked at what they saw.

The double doors, made out of solid steel, were being bent by whatever was behind it. The two Generals, who were already incredibly strong in their own rights, had a hard time just moving the doors with both of their strength combined. These doors were meant to be impenetrable. Whatever was on the other side of the doors was much stronger than anything they had ever seen.

"We need to go," Yao said, backing away from the doors that already looked close to collapsing. "We need to go, now!"

Just as Yao and Ivan turned their backs on the metal doors, they collapsed in on themselves.

Ivan woke up every morning with the acceptance that soon he would be taking his soldiers to war. He accepted the fact that the world had been in crisis for a long time, and that soon all the tensions between the countries would escalate to the point where their issues with each other would be non-negotiable. He felt like he was prepared for anything, and everything, that would be thrown at him during a war. He expected to fight with China, and accepted the fact that someday he would have to kill Yao.

He expected to fight with America about oil, an he expected to fight with the whole of Asia about nuclear weapons. He had woken up every morning expecting to fight with many countries. Ivan was sure that he had gone over every possible scenario.

This, however, was a scenario that he had never even considered.

They weren't in war with other nations, and they were not being attacked over any oil crises or nuclear power. They were in a war with people who had somehow attained superhuman strength from a medicine that was initially meant to kill them. These people no longer seemed to have any human traits, they seemed only bent on torture and murder.

He was not prepared for this.

"There are helicopters on the roof," Yao said. "President Li isn't exactly inconspicuous when entering other countries."

Ivan found it in himself to laugh, even though they were currently heel to toe with a group of super-humans. They were lucky for the Chinese President's recklessness, because they would be stuck if not for the helicopters on the roof.

"We can't take the elevators," Yao said. "They're too close behind us for us to take that kind of a chance."

Ivan nodded his head, chancing a look over his shoulder to see how close the people behind them were.

Too close for comfort, that was for sure.

"There should be a set of stairs coming up around the next corner, they should lead us to the top," Yao said, scaling the walls for a sign.

They ran for what seemed like hours before they finally came up to a sign that boldly told them to turn left for the stairwell. They were happy, for they felt like if they had to run any longer through the facility they would have passed out from exhaustion.

In all of his years of heavy training, Ivan had never been through such a harsh workout. Of course, he had never been chased down by mutants and former soldiers like a fox during the hunt.

They ripped the door open without looking back, closed it behind them with a heavy bang, and locked it. It wouldn't hold the creatures behind them for very long, but a little delay would be better than nothing. And, considering they were almost completely out of breath, a short delay would do their aching bodies a world of good.

Ivan vowed that if he got out of the facility alive, he would never enter another large building again. At least, not without proper weapons.

As they ran up the stairs, Yao began speaking again. "If we get to the American Embassy we can tell them something went wrong with the trials. If we're lucky, we'll be able to stop them before they give their trials the go ahead. We're also going to need all the help we can get over here."

Ivan huffed through his teeth, nodding at Yao's suggestion. The more lives they could save, the better.

Just as Ivan was about to open his mouth, the door to the stairwell was wrenched open, the lock completely bending under the sheer power of the creatures outside. Yao and Ivan were lucky for the sole fact that they were already 5 flights of stairs ahead of the creatures. If they kept their pace, they would be able to get to the roof without any problems.

"The keys though," Ivan said, picking up his pace to match Yao's. "We're going to need the keys to access the helicopters."

"You truly believe I didn't think that through before suggesting we go up the stairs where we could be cornered?" Yao laughed, "you underestimate me, Ivan," he huffed as he pulled a set of keys out of his pocket, jingling them in front of Ivan's worried face. "I don't go anywhere unprepared."

"Your president would have you murdered for doing such a thing," Ivan said, eyes wide as he examined the keys.

"I knew nothing would be the same after this, Ivan." Yao looked over his shoulder, "you must have felt like there was something wrong with this too?"

"Of course," Ivan said, slightly flushed at having been so naïve. "I just didn't expect anything on this level."

"Not everything can be solved with brute strength, my friend."

They reached the eight floor with little of their breath left, and the creatures from before hot on their heels. They clearly weren't going to give up until they had Ivan and Yao in their clutches. And Yao and Ivan wanted anything but that.

"There, the door to the top floor," Yao said through a wheeze. "As soon as we get through, we need to lock it and pile everything we can in front of it. We can't let anything get through!"

"Alright," Ivan said, balling his hands into fists as he prepared for the impact of the door. He wasn't going to let those creatures get him and Yao, not after everything they had been through. They needed to go out and tell the world about what was happening, they couldn't let anything bad happen to the rest of the world.

Asia was already in crisis because of their leaders foolish mistakes.

What they didn't expect was their two Presidents to be waiting for them on the other side of the door. Sitting down at their adjacent desks like nothing was wrong. The door shut behind them, and a heavy latch was dropped to reinforce it.

Nothing could get through these doors.

"We're glad you made it," Russia's President, Smirnov, said with a sense of satisfaction. "We didn't doubt either of you." China's president nodded his head in agreement as he folded his gloved hands in his lap.

"We expected nothing less."

Ivan gritted his teeth and Yao backed into the door, silently wondering if feeding himself to the monsters would have been a better idea. But, he wasn't worried. The reason for this was the fact that he could see the fear in the eyes of both Presidents. This weapon, this weapon that they suggested so adamantly, didn't turn out the way they intended it to be.

"We need to get out of here," Ivan shouted. "Those things are much stronger than you think they are."

"We know how strong they are," President Smirnov chuckled. "We created them, after all."

"No you didn't," Yao scoffed. "You know yourselves that this was intended to kill them, not make them stronger. Do you take us for fools?"

President Li scowled at his General's smart mouth, "you never knew when to keep quiet, Yao." He shook his head, "I knew making you the General of the Army was the biggest mistake I've ever made."

"The bigge-"

"Enough!" President Smirnov stood up from where he sat; slamming his hands down on his desk with so much force the floor shook.

Yao, about to speak out in defiance again, stopped when he felt a cold steel press into his back. If he spoke out of line again, they would shoot him.

"You're both lucky that this happened," President Smirnov spit through his clenched teeth. "We would have had you killed if we didn't need your expertise."

Ivan closed his eyes and let out a small chuckle, only to open them up again to meet the president's eyes in a defiant glare. "You might as well kill me now, because I will not help you kill innocent people." Ivan kept his eyes on his president's, "the world needs to know about this before it's too late."

President Li laughed raucously, throwing his head back to laugh at the ceiling. When the laughter died, however, he met Ivan's eyes in a harsh glare. "You're both idiots to believe that we haven't already finished the tests."

"That means…" Yao swallowed, his eyes were on the crisp white clouds outside. He was afraid to see what everything looked like on ground level. Judging by how immediate the presidents were being, it meant that the trials had gone horribly wrong. That these trials affected more than just the patients in facility.

This meant that more of them had escaped the facility, only to wreak havoc on the rest of St. Petersburg.

"It means that the whole world is now in crisis, and that we need your help more than ever."

Ivan and Yao were both stuck for what to say, or how to answer. If they helped, that would mean they were doing their Presidents bidding. But, of course, with their Presidents resources, they would be allowed to help a lot of innocent people. If they chose not to help their Presidents or do their bidding, they were just as helpless as the people on the streets.

"I know you're going to help us," Smirnov stated. "You're soldiers; you wouldn't let innocent people die."

Ivan was across the room so fast that the guards in the room couldn't stop him. He grabbed Smirnov by the lapels of his uniform and brought him to eye level. "I was trying to stop this from happening, and you didn't listen. It's your fault that all these innocent people are suffering. You're nothing but scum, Vladimir Smirnov."

The barrel of a gun pressed into Ivan's back, causing Ivan to jolt from the cold. A voice harshly told him to put the president down, or risk being shot.

Ivan did so, letting the man fall to a heap on the floor.

"I'll help you, but it's not for you. I'll help you to help the innocent people of my country. But, you must supply me with whatever I need whenever I ask for it."

President Smirnov smiled; a gruesome thing that showed all of his teeth.

Yao nodded, "I agree, but only on the same terms as General Braginski."

President Li stood up from his chair, unleashing a terrifying smile.

"It's the day we've all been preparing for," he said to the room. "It's time for war."

A/N: Ivan and Yao's story probably isn't going to be continued until a few chapters down the road. I want to get most of the story out before Ivan and Yao find everything out for themselves. I want to keep you guys guessing and putting the stories together by yourselves. It keeps the suspense going!

And, whew, for some reason I really had a hard time with this chapter. I think it's the fact that I was worried about slandering certain countries while writing it.

I want to make this clear: I'm not being biased about which countries are better or more just. Do not let the Presidents and Prime Ministers actions in this story reflect on how you think about the real Presidents and Prime Ministers and their actions.

Fun fact: I started out by using the real names of the Presidents and Prime Ministers, but then changed them right at the end. Instead I used two of the most common Chinese and Russian surnames. I will be doing the same thing for the other world leaders.