Ch.2
The safe-house door slammed behind Gilbert just as the group of zombies chasing him slammed against it.
"That was way too close." He panted and clutched at the bundle in his hands.
"But you were able to get the supplies?" Roderich nodded at the bundle.
"For the most part." Gilbert shrugged and came away from the pounding door. Fortunately the entire structure of the safe house was sound proof so they couldn't hear the screaming coming from the creatures on the other side. One of which he had recognized as being Stoyan, the former country of Bulgaria.
"Let's see it then." Roderich commanded and the Prussian came over and dumped the contents of the bundle on the table. Most was food stuffs but there was a good deal of bandages of all sorts and sizes and some other medicinal and hygiene items as well, and batteries too. Roderich picked up one of the bandage wraps and a tube of cream and approached the figure curled up on the bed.
"How's he doing?" he asked Feliciano sitting in a chair beside the bed.
The young man sighed and shook his head.
"He's in a lot of pain and is really worried about Antonio, Bella, and Nathanial."
"I am not." Lovino groaned and sat up, hissing at the pain from his ankle.
"Let me see it." Roderich commanded and Lovino gingerly lifted the bed sheet to reveal the horrible yellow mass of puss that was his ankle.
Feliciano inhaled a deep hiss of breath and turned away. They were lucky that Lovino hadn't been bitten of course, but the nails of the infected were cruel and sharp and broke through the skin with ease, and they were also filthy so infection was always sure to follow in the torn flesh. And without the right supplies up until now, his brother's ankle had gotten really bad in just three days. The nation couldn't even walk on it, let alone run, which is why the group of four was currently held up in the safe house with no hope of escape for awhile. Their only form of contact with the outside world was the small radio that sat on the table before them. The two Italians had managed to grab their cells when they had been forced to flee from their house, but neither had remembered to grab a charger and the electronic devises had completely drain of battery not long after. Useless. So the group of four had relied on the two-way radio placed in the safe-house to get information from the other safe-houses scattered all about the world. Eduard had created a main signal that all the radios used and so far it had served all the nations, and the few humans that discovered the safe-houses, well. The only drawback was that they ran on battery power. And the batteries of this particular radio had run out just a day after Feliciano and Lovino had come barreling towards the safe-house with Lovino limping horribly and both their eyes wide with terror as they screamed to be let in. Feliciano had just a small gun and he occasionally turned his head in order to try and aim the weapon at the zombie hoard pursuing them. It was lucky for them that the house had been occupied and they hadn't had to rely on the automatic opening system from their natural touch on the wood of the door. Instead it had been opened before they even reached it and Gilbert had aimed his much larger rifle at the infected about to tackle Lovino, and the twins had been able to make it through the door before Roderich had slammed it. He and Gilbert had been in the safe-house for just two days before that after they too had been pursued by a hoard of the infected. Most likely the same hoard, but maybe with fewer members.
Which brought another problem to the surface as Roderich applied the medicinal salve to Lovino's ankle and Gilbert placed fresh batteries into the radio. The numbers of infected were steadily increasing as time went on. And the number the nations and struggling humans had killed was nothing in comparison. Not to mention that Bulgaria wasn't the only new nation that had been infected or killed. Though most weren't the main ones that had gone to international meetings and tried to figure out what to do about the situation. The worst thing that Gilbert had seen yet was Romania attempting to blend in and communicate with the infected, thinking they would consider him one of their own because of his red eyes and sharp teeth. He had been attempting to get to Ukraine in order to try and inject her with Eduard's antivenom. But he had been gravely mistaken, and Gilbert had watched with Elizaveta, Vash, Heracles, and Lili, in horror as Vladmir was torn apart savagely. Lili had been sick after that and Gilbert didn't blame her one bit. And since then, the infected seemed to be getting even smarter. He had great doubts now whether Estonia's plan would even work if it was ever able to be put into effect.
Lovino gave a fresh hiss of pain as Roderich began wrapping his ankle tightly with the bandage and the radio suddenly sprang into life with a female voice.
"Hello? Hello? Who's there? This signal has finally been coming in which means that someone is there right?"
"Liz!" Feliciano exclaimed and rushed over to join Gilbert at the radio, "Liz it's Feli, can you hear me?"
"Oh thank god!" Elizaveta's voice crackled through the speaker and suddenly sounded a bit farther away as if she had turned away from it. But Feliciano was still able to catch her faint words, "It's ok Ludwig, I got through and it's Feli that I'm talking to. He sounds fine."
Feliciano's heart leapt in joy and relief. He had just had confirmation that what he feared most was not a reality. Ludwig was ok. He was with Elizaveta, and possibly others.
Ludwig's voice suddenly came over the radio and made him smile even more.
"Feliciano, are you really ok? Who's with you?"
None of the nations ever traveled alone anymore unless they got badly separated while fleeing a zombie hoard, so it wasn't surprising that Germany assumed there were others in the safe-house with him.
"Yo bro!" Gilbert chuckled.
"Gilbert?" Ludwig's voice sounded surprised and relieved at the same time.
"And Roddie and Lovi too." Feliciano added.
"So there are only four of you there?" Ludwig sounded even more relieved but hopeful that there might be others.
Feliciano's stomach dropped and he took a deep breath.
"Who else have you lost contact with?"
"Russia and those with him were holed up in a safe-house in Latvia when their radio suddenly went dead while we were talking to them."
Feliciano caught his breath and closed his eyes to try and force down his panic. It was amazing what fighting for your survival could do to a person. How he had changed since that day back in the world meeting room where they had first seen Turkey as one of the infected. It was much easier to keep his terror under control now. He almost never screamed and tried to clutch to others, except when the horrible dreams came.
"There's a possibility that their batteries went dead just like ours." Gilbert spoke up, breaking Feliciano from his thoughts.
"I suppose that is a possibility." Ludwig's voice sounded really tired now, "You managed to find extra batteries in the safe-house though?"
"Nah Bruder, I stole em from a convenience store."
There was silence from the other end before Ludwig's voice came again, much softer and with great panic.
"That...was a very dangerous thing to do."
The infected liked to hang about large establishments in the towns, as if they knew that people ventured there in need of certain services and supplies. It was one of the proofs that the creatures were getting smarter.
"Yeah well, the awesome me was able to handle it. Besides, we needed medicine for Lovino."
"What happened to Lovino?!" another female voice came on the radio then.
Feliciano's heart leapt.
"Lovi, it's Bella!" he called to his brother.
"What?!" Lovino exclaimed and tried to stand up from the bed on his now fully wrapped foot, "Shit!" he exclaimed as the pain made his leg give out and he fell back against the edge of the bed.
"Lovi!" Feliciano exclaimed and rushed over to his brother to make sure he hadn't gotten more hurt.
"I warned you not to stand on it yet." Roderich sighed and went over to take Feliciano's place at the radio. He switched the dial to mass broadcast.
"Status report from safe-house K in Bulgaria to all of you who may be listening. Romano was hurt by the infected. They tore the skin open on his ankle with their nails, and we just now were able to get medicine for the resulting infection. No he was not bitten, if he was he would not be here with us. Thanks to Prussia we now have supplies for a few more days. Current members of this house are Austria, Prussia, Italy, and Romano. Status report requested from the other safe-houses currently listening in." Roderich spoke into the radio.
They all waited for the reply/s to come and Feliciano helped Lovino limp over to the table to listen closer as well.
Ludwig's tired voice came back over the radio.
"Status report from safe-house J in Bulgaria."
Feliciano's heart leapt even more.
"They're close!" he exclaimed and looked at the others excitedly, "That safe house can't be more than a few towns away. If we struck out at first light and made it to the car, we could be there in no time."
Roderich hushed him as the rest of Germany's report came over the radio.
"No severe injuries here. Current members of this house are Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Finland, and Sealand."
Ludwig's voice died and the radio crackled again with a new voice.
"It's good to hear those names. Status report from safe-house R in France. England's arm got shredded by infecteds' claws but we got it under control quickly. Also, Iceland tripped and got a concussion, but he's doing much better now. We are starting to run out of supplies though. Current members of this house are Denmark, Norway, Iceland, England, and Sweden...who currently looks like he's on cloud nine." Mathias' voice sounded like he was grinning with the last part of the message and the radio went silent again.
"Status report from the hero, from safe-house T in France! Thank god England's with you cause I've been worried ever since we got separated last night! We're all ok here with the exception of several of us being at our wits end with worry. Supplies don't appear to have been touched for a good while. Current members of this house are America, France, Seychelles, Spain, Netherlands, and Switzerland." Alfred's voice also sounded cheerful and loud like usual.
"Status report from safe-house G in Mongolia." the radio crackled to life again, "It is rather cold here but we are managing the best we can. Our supplies are starting to run low though and China got several bad scratches that we are trying to get under control. We don't have the right kind of medicine at present though. Current members of this house are Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Canada."
"How the blazes did Matthew get all the way over there?!" Gilbert exclaimed but he was shushed by Feliciano this time as the radio crackled to life yet again.
"Status report from safe-house P in Latvia. Poland and I are both fine, but the house has lost all electricity so it's really dark in here. We're making the most of it with candles, a kerosene lamp, matches, and a flashlight though. Current members of this house are Lithuania and Poland."
The radio went silent again and stayed that way for a good several moments. Roderich was about to speak into it again and thank everyone for their updates and wish them well when it suddenly crackled to life with someone taking a deep breath and then exhaling before Ivan's voice spoke softly but nonetheless with all the hard reality of his words.
"Status report from safe-house Q in Latvia. Latvia...is dead."