I don't own Hetalia.
Hopefully this chapter will be long enough to explain what has happened to our brave band of misfits/heroes/scared teens. I must apologise for the short chapters of late, but I have so much revision to get through for some up-coming mock tests it's like scaling Everest without the assistance of those oxygen canisters. But you came here to read not to hear my excuses, so let's skip past those and get back to the kids.
Later (same day)
Whoever has the gun on the other side sure is trigger happy. Why don't they stop? They must know their bullets haven't injured anything but the furniture of the barricade. All they are doing is wasting bullets, which are a very finite supply considering we have the supplies in the storerooms on our side of the barricade- then again that might be why they are still shooting, because they are already desperate for supplies. If I were divided from my only source of food by around 10 feet of wood and metal I would be concerned and especially if the only source of food was under the control of a bunch of teenagers because teenagers are like locusts. It's a wonder Security and the Matrons haven't attacked us with a battering ram yet. Actually no I'm not; we have the assault gear on our side.
Back to the kids in the medical bay. We had just returned with the news the school was swamped by the undead and we had no hope of strolling out the front door and surviving. Ivan and Bella had nothing new to add: we were pinned in, no chance of survival should we chose to brave the exterior, the car park was too far to consider reaching on foot. With Toris and Ed posted as guards at the door, the group began to throw suggestions around.
Gio: Mafia it. Grab one of the guns, blast a path clear and ruuuuun for your lives.
Ivan: Use someone as a distraction while the others get to safety. Let's be honest, we don't really need Al do we?
Me: Ha ha ha. Shut up Ivan, a physco can't make valid contributions.
Liz: No chance of us going up top again. We'll have to be creative.
Ven: I don't like calling it the 'mafia' option, but I think Gio might be onto something.
Mei: Battle of the Light brigade waiting to happen! The whole point of this school is so history doesn't repeat itself. It would reflect badly if the people who had been raised to prevent that from happening re-enacted the most infamous charge in history.
Peter: We might as well use Superman. He's about as likely to show up as we are to get out of here in one piece.
In less than five minutes we had run out of ideas. Normally the room would have been buzzing with ideas, like in a debate in the RS lessons, but I guess the pressure to escape before anything bad happened was making us jittery. Teens don't usually perform well under pressure. Ed and Toris had nothing to report.
We only began to get serious when the first bursts of gunfire came. It was so unexpected like we had all forgotten. People jumped, Antonio so hard he fell off his chair. The gunfire specifically sought us out through five levels of empty hallways and dorms. Funny thing is, there were no screams. You would have thought the slaughter of roughly 200 teenagers would have produced some sort of noise, but all I heard was regular rapid bursts of gunfire perfectly in time like an orchestra. Maybe that's why they chose the Security and Matrons' floors to hold the 'orientation', because the walls are almost soundproofed. I don't know whose ears they were hiding from. They certainly didn't know a little knot of students had wised up to their plans and camped out in the med bay.
And that knot of students stared in a mixture of terror and disgust at the ceiling, waiting for the screams to begin. For the gunfire to drift slowly down the halls until it was upon us and for the guns
"Do you think they did a role call?" I asked in a whisper.
"I expect they just shot whoever came. Odds are they'll search the building for strays after they finished celebrating over the bodies." Ven spoke surprisingly calmly. I saw he was turning a bone knife over by the blade in his hands.
"Temp'ry barric'de." Suzy suggested.
Within two minutes of the shooting, we had managed to construct a 10 foot deep barricade using the furniture from the staffroom and a couple boxes of books from the storage rooms. A kind of maniac energy seized us when we were presented with a solution to our problem. We worked together without much in the way of commands. A few looks and gestures and we pretty much read each other's' minds and knew what was supposed to go where to make formidable wall. Built at the base of the stairs it reaches all the way to the opposite wall. Hard as hell to get through. You would have to come out of the side, where you would be met by at least three teens armed with semi-autos or more if they had time to call for help.
Five minutes after we had finished it the noise began. The Security personnel filled the halls with whoops and laughter and shared their favourite moments in the shooting:
"Didja see her fly across the room?"
"The looks on their faces! Priceless! I wish I'd taken a photo!"
"Estaban acojonados!"*
"Remind me, Wafi, to never work with fucking children again."
"Don't think you'll get the chance, mate."
Liz bit her lip bloody. I took her hand, and I didn't mind when her nails drew blood from my palms. My nails did some damage too. I'll never understand why they did this. Security made a point of never getting emotionally involved with the kids they protected but..but…why? What did we do? Are they really so desperate to survive they…they would kill us all.
We're just children. The oldest person here is a couple months off her 17th birthday. The youngest has just passed her 12th. But it has happened.
Tension rose as their slamming footsteps and echoing voices neared the first floor. Liz and I stood in the hallway in front of the new barricade with Kiku, Sadie, Luddie, Toris, Ed, Ivan and Mei waiting for the inevitable. Lili joined us with a giant gun slung across her shoulder, so heavy it seemed to be dragging her to the floor. She refused Luddie's help when he offered to help her with the weight.
I don't know how I should describe the voices. Before they were simply a jumble of anonymous adult voices with different accents that barked orders and commands during crisis drills and the real things. They meant protection. Their voices were safety. The kind of safety caught between the types you feel in the company of your friends and the type of safety you feel in the company of your parents. Now Security's voices are the soundtrack of my nightmares- permanent additions anyways.
At that moment the voices meant death was coming.
You should have heard the cussing when they found the barricade. A shouting match commenced at the top of the stairs, which drew an audience and soon they had what sounded like the whole fucking staff yelling and carrying on.
"I told you they knew something!"
"We should have stalled! We should have done a sweep for strays before we took care of them!"
"You do realise they shut themselves up with the supplies?"
Finally someone realised we could probably hear them and the conversation moved away out of earshot.
Ven prodded me in the arm with the hilt of his knife and said with a grim satisfaction "Told you they'd come for us."
They were gone for half an hour. I spent the half hour stood, crouched and eventually sat in front of the barricade awaiting their return. Lili sat at my left, Suzy on my right and Ivan remained on his feet the entire time. The others trusted us to call them back when Security arrived again, and raided the store rooms for supplies for a trip I am not sure we will ever manage to start. If we do get the chance the others ensured we're well-packed for it.
During the half hour Ivan, Suzy and I made a list of the kids who had died upstairs. I scribbled it down on the back page of this book, which I have taken to carrying around with me. I may have to run for it with no warning and I certainly don't want to go without it. Turn to the back page if you want to see precisely who we lost. I'll be damned if I'm gonna write out the whole list more than once.
Lili stared straight ahead in silence, her slim fingers tracing the contours in the gunmetal. One finger rested on the trigger. She had no trouble with the gun, although it lay in the crook of the arm that is no longer an arm. I don't doubt she will handle it effortlessly in the future, however much time it will be.
Her whole body shivered when she heard footsteps on the floor above. She stood up as quickly as her injury (still swathed in red gauze) would allow and hefted the gun at comfortable angle over her shoulder.
"Alright kids," a voice called through the furniture. "I'm not gonna bullshit you and I don't want any bullshit from you, we clear?"
Ivan was off like a shot to gather the others.
Since Suzy doesn't speak much and Lili was way too wired to negotiate, I replied. "Fine."
It was Ivanova. I could hear the grin in her voice. "You're trapped. We know what the situation is on the ground floor. Whatever you constructed in the way of barricades in front of the ground exits won't last for long, especially if it's the same quality as this slapdash barrier. Take it down children, let's end this silly game before it gets taken too far and someone gets hurt."
"Excuse me, but didn't'cha just blast our classmates to vapour with some semis upstairs?" I put all the venom I could in my voice "I think that just miiiight constitute as getting hurt."
"Necessity. Believe it or not Jones, it is America isn't it, the supplies are limited. Think rationally; who is most likely to survive this, a bunch of scared children or a group of disciplined adults?"
"The kids would have stood a good chance." Kiku appeared at my shoulder "We are trained in the deadly arts after all. If you squirm through the barricade I'd be happy to give you a demonstration of just how proficient in karate I am."
There were mutters of agreement from the rest and Raivis piped up: "I may not look like much, but I once flipped Russia right over my shoulder."
"Broke my collarbone." added Ivan helpfully.
"And I was once an assassin for the Kremlin. I won't be intimidated children and I know although you're trying to deny it, you are weak and scared and there are injured among you. How long do you think poor little Liechtenstein will last without proper medical care? Not long."
"Good thing she has it." said Sadie.
"You're not a doctor…Turkey. You're just a child pretending."
Lili spoke for the first time "No he's not. I'm perfectly fine, thanks for your concern."
"Cut the crap and tell us what you want." I demanded.
"The storerooms! We may be separated, but believe me when I saw we have more than enough supplies to break through. We'll be there soon enough. What I am doing now is offering you a chance to live a little longer. You see, we have culled enough of you to support ourselves for a long time. We will ride out this virus in the school and if it lasts longer than the storerooms, only then will we leave. But we will not be driven away by stubborn children. Security is here to stay kids. We are willing to take in a few of you. We lost a couple of our ranks. In fact I would think it appropriate we took America to fill the gap Dawson left, seeing as you're responsible for her death."
Hera interrupted: "So I am, and Lili and Marichka."
She ignored him "We're willing to take in five of you. The rest will die. Oh and when we break down the wall, we will be shooting Liechtenstein on sight. She's too sick to be of any use. There is no point in resisting. Prepare yourselves to accept the fact that we will break through soon and we will kill most of you. At least this way, not everyone will die. I'll leave you to think about it. Back soon."
And she left.
That was three days ago. They have returned many times, always Ivanova with a group that varies to back her up. We have agreed not to speak again. Our only answer will be the occasional return fire when they shoot through the barricade, which gets bigger every couple of hours.
The escape plan needs lots of work, but our best minds have been put to the task. Either we figure it out first or they starve. There is no alternative. They will not break through.
Actually one of them managed. But I can't write about that today. I have a lot of things to do. Tomorrow I'll tell you about how Giovanni died and many of us were shot. I can't today.
Like I said, too busy.
*Estaban acojonados= 'they were bloody amazed' (Castilian Spanish)
It got brutal fast. It's gonna get worse. I am truly sorry if this is upsetting anyone, and I'll take this opportunity to state the violence against the children is only going to get worse. Today I'm going to change the rating from 'teen' to 'mature' because of this, not because sexual content is going to crop up at any point (I doubt Al knows his penis has another use apart from urination), but because it will get worse and worse and worse. So if you're currently offended by anything so far, then I would recommend you drop this fic. If this is the point at which you hop off the apocalypse bus then I'd like to say thank you so much for travelling this far and I hope to see you in one of my lighter fics.
Thanks again.