Well look at that. Twenty chapters of gory, angst-y zombie goodness. I never thought I would make it into double digits, let alone to twenty. Of course compared to some of the other absolute whoppers floating around out there this is chicken feed. But it's my chicken feed! And I hope my chickens/readership have enjoyed reading as much as I have writing. I wish I had the time to deliver a huge chapter in honour of this momentous occasion, but there is simply none so we'll have to make do with yet another short chapter. I love you all. I really do. Give me a hug.

(I don't own Hetalia)

March 27th 2013

It's just barely the 27th. The clocks just hit 12 fifteen minutes ago, Sadie and I are the only ones awake. Sadie is taking care of Liz and Ven who are still bed-ridden by their injuries. Mo is supposed to be awake too guarding the barricade with me, but he fell asleep the second he sat down. Poor guy is exhausted. He and Hera are both used to sleeping as much as they like. Hera likes to nap wherever he can whereas Mo went to bed at 9:30 every night and wakes up at 7:30 in the mornings. Those of us with the best sleep hygiene have suffered the most. He's not used to functioning on a few hours' sleep. Sadie doesn't sleep as far as I know. Once or twice I caught him dozing through RS (only through the parts about Islam which bored him out of his skull because he already knows his own religion pretty well, although the most observant he gets is avoiding pork) but beyond that, I have never seen him asleep. He's the first outta his dorm every morning and usually in mine. He tips lazy boys off mattresses, turns off Kiku's screaming phone and wakes us up with pleasant little encouragements such as "Up and at 'em, it's a bright new school day eager to drain your will to live!" or "Aren't you a fine bunch this morning? That bedhead is spectacular Antonio!"

He hasn't done that since the morning the virus debuted. I wonder why? When I asked him if he was tired he said: "Nope. Plus, I'd like to be conscious in case the light fixtures make another attempt on Peter's life."

I can hear him working in the med bay. Sometimes he asks me if I need anything or vice versa. I'm alright for now.

So I should explain how Gio died and many more of us ended up injured.

Ivanova came back for her answer. She didn't like being ignored.

"If you don't give me an answer I shall be forced to imagine on for myself." she teased after a couple of minutes of silence from our side. "We have no choice but to surrender Ms Ivanova!" she affected a nasal version of my voice and accent "You're right, I should accept responsibility for my foolish actions. I accept the position Dawson left. In fact, I'll finish what she began! I'll shoot Liechtenstein right now, then Greece and I'll enjoy it! Also Sweden and Germany have decided they couldn't give less of a fuck about their classmates, so they'll be coming with me. Remember the crazy tomboy Hungary? She'll be up too and Denmark if we can convince him to leave off his Norwegian piece of ass. The rest you can shoot. The little kids first please otherwise their screaming and running will be very tedious."

Matthias/Denmark had to make a serious effort not to yell at her then. He was embarrassed because it's true; he and Lukas/Norway are together and everyone knows it despite their best efforts to keep it a secret. Just like everyone knows Suzy has a behemoth crush on Tino/Finland but Tino himself. He managed to keep his temper in check. I had to try very hard as well, knowing she was still covered in the blood of the children she shot and while she used my voice to invite her to kill again. Honestly I wanted to scream at her until I turned blue in the face. By a feat of sheer willpower I managed to swallow the curses and let her keep talking.

Eventually, she ran out of jibes and taunts. "This is your last chance to surrender peacefully. Come now, don't be selfish. This way you will ensure the continued survival of at least five of your numbers. Isn't that worlds better than condemning every last one of your group to death?"

No answer.

"Alright. I didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice."

The problem with the barricade is that it's just too solid. Made of 14 feet of tightly packed metal wood, and I forgot to mention this earlier, with the entire flight of stairs in front of it destroyed by a sledgehammer-wielding Ivan. The rubble is hopelessly churned up. Anyone who braved the long drop meeting them at the top of the stairs would land on concrete, breaking every bone in their body. The only way they could ever break through is if the barricade was taken down willingly from our side. I don't know how they expect to get in here, unless it's with the ladder on the roof…at any rate, we're well protected. The other exits are locked and reinforced too.

You see we made ourselves a secure hole to hide in and built ourselves a tight trap in the process.

Ivanova addressed her next words to an unseen party, probably a walkie-talkie: "I tried. Now it's your turn to try. I am done with them."

Confused, I looked at Kiku. He shrugged and whispered "She may have been distracting us while someone climbed down."

Then the gunfire started. Actually the shouting came first. Oscar yelled a warning from the part of the hall near to the storerooms, there was a rattling burst of bullets (a noise I've become too familiar with) which was almost drowned out by howling laughter, answered at the top of the stairs by a whoop from Ivanova.

I realised first "No one checked the last storeroom."

Suddenly Lili had run down the hall apparently unaffected by the weight of the gun or her handicap. She was too fast for us to stop. Luddie reached for the back of her collar and his fist closed around empty air, so off he went after his cousin, and both of them were overtaken by Sadie, who was completely unarmed. I was after them before I knew my legs were moving.

I'm going to take a brief moment here to explain something about Sadie; he's brave. He's brave, virtually unafraid to conquer most obstacles you throw in his path with the exception of spiders and promiscuity in commercials. Sadie has had to train the everyday fears and concerns out of himself to train to be a doctor. You can't be afraid of much when peoples' lives are in your hands he says, and he takes his role seriously. He accepted it without complaint although he knew he would be constantly relied on and pressured to save people he is emotionally attached to- a big no for doctors. God only knows where he got the notion he has to fight for us too. Already, he has done more to keep us alive than any of the rest of us and he still feels he needs to risk his life to ensure our safety. I asked him after the superbly crazy stunt I am about to describe occurred, why he did what he did. Sadie clapped me on the shoulder and said "Sadik means 'loyal'." Then he went off to see to Liz's injuries.

So what exactly did he do? Having followed Luddie, I saw the Security personnel swinging the guns at the end of the hall at the same time he did. Three of them with expressions like they were at a soccer match and the winning goal were being kicked as they watched. They smiled as they saw us and lifted their guns as one. Lili began to backpedal then Luddie seized her and dragged her around the corner where we had taken shelter. And Sadie? He kept going.

He literally charged the guns. I've never seen him move so fast. The personnel were so shocked all he had to do was duck under a round of bullets they fired before they realised he wasn't going to run away and he was within striking distance. One was brought down hard by a strike across the knees. The second he kicked hard in the stomach and threw her balance off. She was thrown into the wall while he tackled the third around the waist. This all happened in roughly the same two seconds.

"LILI!" he yelled.

She was in too much pain to respond. Something inside had remembered she had lost an arm less than two weeks ago and she basically collapsed on Luddie, biting the lapels of her shirts to stop herself from screaming. So I grabbed the gun from her shoulder and helped Sadie out.

I don't know how I didn't hit him. The idea that God exists has become more and more ludicrous as I've seen the atrocities a supposedly omnibenevolent guy would allow to happen, but there must be somebody pulling the strings up there to let Sadie survive my aim with a semi. Brains explode you know. Sorta just bust out of the back of a skull, like a firework has been set off between their ears. It's kinda easier actually since you don't have time to see their eyes become dull. Without brains the body drops like a brick and often makes a crunch noise when it hits the ground, like a brick would. The two I hit went down so fast they had no time to scream. The member of Security he had tackled managed to get away from him and straightened up to reply to my shots, then was tackled by yet another braver-than-he-should-be teenager. Never thought I'd see Hera and Sadie working together, but they grabbed either one of the guy's arms and essentially held him still so I could shoot him more easily.

Once it was done, Hera offered Sadie a hand up- I feel the need to record this because usually they don't touch each other unless it's to hit each other- and said "You're completely insane. We were just saying don't do another battle of the Light brigade."

"You didn't see anything." he retorted. "Oh gross, you have grey stuff all over your face." Hera let him wipe it off his face.

"I saw you take on three of the bastards unarmed. How arrogant."

"I was armed with love. Most powerful weapon of all."

"What the hell does that even mean? Hey Al are you alright?"

"Lili's-" I started.

"Fine." she finished "My arm hurt for a moment. The arm I don't have anymore, I mean." her smile was more of a grimace.

Hera gestured behind him "There are more. We should move." He saw me staring and realised he hadn't dropped Sadie's hand yet. He jerked his own away, looking offended.

Hold on. Sadie wants to talk to me about something.

Sadik's name comes from the Turkish word meaning 'loyal' and can be translated as 'loyal' or 'honest'. Actually the names are all pretty interesting. For example Beilschmidt roughly translates to 'hatchet smith' and Oxenstierna to…wait for it…'ox forehead.' Nice one Himaruya.

So that was it. The 20th chapter. Big milestone apparently. I expect I'll split the story into two 'books' so the list of chapters doesn't become a daunting tower. Thanks to the readership so far, and much thanks to the people who read after I have finished this story, if it's still floating around and getting reads then. See you next week.