Like a Phoenix

Chapter 5

A million questions rushed though Lithuania's head. What happened? Is Poland dead? Why did this happen? How was he now? Why Poland? Lithuania couldn't quite remember how he ended up in the hospital. He could only recall that after he threw himself across the blood-soaked Pole, there were bright flashing lights and sirens along with the thundering sky. He also remembered that there were other people around. Lithuania couldn't think of what else happened.

Lithuania sat in the emergency waiting room, tense, confused, scared, anxious, depressed. He could barely feel any of these feelings. It felt as if he was numb. Lithuania glanced at the nurse sitting at the front desk. She wasn't moving. Why didn't she come and tell him how Poland was? Or even if he was still alive?! Lithuania rolled his fingers into a tight fit, so tight that his nails dug into his flesh. He didn't feel it though. He gazed up at the television that was on a news channel. Lithuania's world suddenly snapped as he gaped at the television screen.

. . .

"Quick! Hand me the scalpel! Damn it, stay with us! Don't you dare die on me!" a doctor shouted as the heart monitor made a steady, long, loud sound.

"Restart the heart! Quickly!" another doctor cried frantically. Many doctors surrounded the blonde-haired Pole, and they all put the electric pads on his chest. One doctor shouted, "ALL CLEAR." A jolt. Nothing. A second jolt. Still nothing. "Third time's a charm!" barked out another doctor in the emergency room. A third jolt. The monitor started to beep to a small, but steady beat.

"Hu-heey!" some doctors cheered. But they started to celebrate a bit too early because all of a sudden, Poland snapped open his eyes and jerked straight up on the operating table. He let out a blood curdling scream as he grasped onto the sides of the table. All the doctors rush to stick needles with anesthetics in him. Poland kept screaming and he started a fit of violent convulses. The doctors were baffled at what was happening before their eyes.

. . .

Lithuania's stare was fixed and his mouth hung open for the longest time. He felt a cold sweat run down his back. Did he hear the T.V.'s Breaking News report correctly? His….Poland's president, his boss, was…was dead?! When did this happen? Is that why Poland collapsed?! Oh god, all of the government and military heads too?! This can't be happening... All these questions ran through the Lithuanian's head.

He immediately jumped up from the chair he was sitting in and rushed over to the front desk.

"Let me see Pola—Feliks!" Lithuania stuttered. He had to be careful of saying the countries names around normal people. Well, every country had to be careful of saying each other names aloud in public. If normal people were to figure out who they were, all hell would break loose and possibly World War III. The countries could be kidnapped or abused by people who want absolute power. The only people that knew about them were themselves and their bosses.

"Sir, we cannot allow you to go back there. Go back to your seat." The nurse rudely stated between the chewing her bubble gum from behind the front desk.

Lithuania slammed both of his hands on the desk and shouted, "That's not good enough! You may not realize this lady, but my friend is dying! And if I'm not there, then .die. Don't you understand?!"

"Sir, we have the best doctors in the world. They'll fix up your buddy. Sit back down."

The way the nurse had said that made Lithuania's blood boil and made him snap. He jumped over the front desk making several nurses gasp including the extremely rude one. Lithuania ran through the open door from the front office and started running aimlessly trough the white halls of the hospital that would make you go insane if you had to stay in them long enough.

As Lithuania kept running, he would occasionally here a "Stop him" or "There he is". He would then twist and turn into different hallways to escape the doctors or nurses. As he continued to run down a hall, he spotted a hoard of hospital staff gathered at the end of the hall. Lithuania swiftly turned to his right and entered into the door he opened.

White coats. Lithuania was face to face with many different doctors' white coats. "Perfect." He muttered as he heard doctors walk past the door. Lithuania grabbed a coat off of the hanger and started to take off his green jacket, leaving his white shirt and black tie on. He slipped on the white coat and examined himself in the mirror. Just right. With this disguise, he could sneak into where they were holding Poland.

Thankfully a map of the entire hospital was in the room so Lithuania studied where he had to go to get to the E.R. room.

"Left, right, right, left. Then room 325." Lithuania walked out of the room when he was sure that no doctors were out in the hallway and proceeded on with his plan.

. . .

Poland's eyes opened. He couldn't see anything.

"What's like, going on?" he asked out into the darkness. There was no reply. He looked around from every direction he could. Nothing.

"Hellooooo?" again nothing except the sound of his own voice echoing in the distance.

He started walking aimlessly and as he did so, Poland noticed strange faint lights coming from behind him. He turned around to face the lights and noticed them slowly progressing towards him.

Poland just shrugged it off and continued to walk in the same direction he was headed. The lights that were gradually coming closer suddenly shot past Poland as if he was standing on a platform between two trains rushing past him at the same time. Poland quickly looked around at the lights. Well, they weren't like lights actually…they were moving. The lights looked more like a film real and moving figures occupied every section. Poland looked left and right at everything sliding past him. Everything was cramming in his head making his head pound like drums. These are….these are…

"My memories."

. . .

Lithuania reached the door of the E.R. He could do this. Nobody had noticed his presence there which was wonderful for him. He slowly brought up his shaking hand to the door handle and turned the door open. The door squeaked open and Lithuania walked inside.

"I made it."

To his surprise, the E.R. was filled with more hallways instead of consisting of only one room. Lithuania walked through the dark, empty, hallways of the E.R. He proceeded down the halls, careful to glance through each window and doorway just in case Poland was there. An eerie silence filled the halls and the dimming lights were flickering on and off. The hair on Lithuania's neck started to prick up. These hallways reminded him of a horror movie and that Russia could appear out of nowhere just as a ghost does.

"What are you doing here?"

Lithuania froze dead in his tracks. His whole body tensed and his heart must have skipped a few beats. He slowly turned around and saw an old doctor also in a white coat. Lithuania's mind began to race. What was his excuse? He didn't have one. Where was Poland? Lithuania made quickly decision and went with it.

"I-I an E.R. doctor in-training and I'm supposed to be in the room where they're keeping a Polish blond-haired man, uh, Feliks." Lithuania lied.

The doctor carefully studied over Lithuania leaving his whole body tense and burning hot. "Oh, well I'm heading over there right now so you can come with me."

Lithuania gave out a relieved smile and gave a small, quiet, "Thank you."

. . .

"What's like, going on?!" Poland yelled out as his memories whizzed past him. He had his hands grasping his head as if it were to split into two in any second. He's head was killing him. Every memory that past him replayed itself in Poland's mind. He couldn't take it. Everything Poland had ever experienced. Joy, sorrow, fear, happiness, jealousness, depression, loneliness. His country's history and everything he'd suffered through. Being partitioned by Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Invasion by Germany. The camps. The horrific concentration camps. This was too much. He couldn't take it. Poland screamed out as each memory kept replaying.

The memories that ran past the Pole suddenly started flickering. Poland, wincing in pain, looked up at the memory reel that was flashing white. The excruciating pain had lifted and he removed his hands from his blonde head. The flashing suddenly stopped and Poland watched intently at what was happening. It was something he had never seen before. He stared at the new image appearing in the reel.

"Ah, Mr. President. We'll be arriving in Russia shortly." A guy dressed in all black stated.

"Oh, alright." the President responded nodding his head.

"B-boss!" Poland exclaimed as he watched his boss traveling on an airplane headed towards Russia.

"Hello everyone. This is your pilot speaking. We're starting our decent to the runway now. The weather seems to be normal and we should arrive there in about a half an hour." The intercom rang out in the plane.

Poland noticed his boss staring out the small window of the plane. Poland continued to watch the events that unfolded for almost a half an hour. The airplane was about due time to land.

"DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO LAND THAT PLANE THERE! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?!" somebody screamed into the pilot's earphones.

"I can handle it. I've landed in much harder weather!" the pilot responded.

"FOG IS COVERING THE RUNWAY! YOU CAN'T SEE A FOOT IN FRONT OF YOU! .!" the person on the other line yelled. The pilot of the airplane seemed to just ignore the person's yelling and screaming.

"W-what?!" Poland uttered in disbelief at what he was watching and hearing, not fully gripping onto what was happening. He attentively began watching the rest of what happened.

"What is he doing?! There's fog everywhere!" a government official cried.

"Don't worry. He knows what he's doing." Somebody calmly retorted.

"Honey, how are you feeling?" the President's wife asked, as she laid her hand onto his.

"Oh I'm fine. It's just—"

Poland watched in sheer horror as he saw the plane dip down further into the fog cloud. The plane descended right on the treetops and this was just enough to take down the aircraft. Poland heard the screams and cries and the plane was completely ripped to shreds by the trees. He sat dumbfounded staring at the image of the airplane maimed and on fire. Poland gasped in shock as he saw that everyone on the aircraft, including his boss, was lying dead among the wreckage of the plane.

"S-S-Stop! Don't s-show me l-like anymore!!" Poland yelled as tears streamed down his face. He slumped down on his knees and held onto his shaking body. He understood what had happened and why he was in that unbearable pain. His boss, his government, his military. They were all dead. What was going to happen now that they were dead?!

The rays of light that showed the ghastly event suddenly disappeared and Poland was left in the darkness to weep for the lives lost.

A/N: Wow. This has a lot of depth to it. Of course I just made up the scene with the President. Nobody will know what will happen because well, nobody survived to tell the tale. All 89 passengers on board lost their lives. It's such a tragic event. It's kinda hard to say "I hope you enjoyed this" because it's sad. So I'll just say thanks for reading.