"What a load of complete bullocks!" England screamed as he slammed the phone onto the kitchen counter. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck-
"Arthur?" Francis peered around the corner, alarmed.
"I lost bloody connection. Dammit… DAMMIT!"
England felt France's arm wrapping around him, pulling him into a reassuring hug. "Calm down, you're scaring everyone in the other room," France murmured to him.
"I know, I know. I just… America… Canada…"
"They're probably fine. You know the way airplanes are, the connection up there is terrible! Plus the flight attendant might have caught them." France smiled, running his fingers through the British man's hair.
England was still worried, but relaxed a bit thanks to the touch. "I suppose I really lost my 'cool,'" he laughed weakly, trying to regain his composure.
"Papa?" Both nations turned around to see Seychelles peeking around the corner of the kitchen, a frown plastered on her face. "Are you done yet?"
"Yes, yes, we'll be in there in just a second." France turned back to England. "Will you be all right?"
The Brit nodded, forcing a smile onto his face.
"Let's not keep them waiting," France declared, and they both started towards the German brothers' living room.
Earlier, Prussia had been dialing Germany and Italy's numbers nonstop, but failed to get in contact. Hungary had been doing the same, while Austria had sat silent and still, eyes glued to the television. Seychelles was standing next to the window, gazing out at the grayish day contemplatively.
The white-haired nation's head perked when he saw England enter the room. "I heard you talking in there. Did you get in contact with them?"
England nodded hesitantly. "They were... still on the plane. But I lost connection before I could tell them about what's happening right now."
"Holy shit… I hope they're all right..." Prussia said mechanically, staring down at the useless cell phone in his lap with dull red eyes. England had never seen such a defeated expression on the man's face. According to his trusty sense of courtesy, he supposed that the most tactful thing to do would be to leave him alone.
The room remained silent until commercials cut short and the newscaster reappeared on the screen.
"Just moments ago, Lufthansa flight 323 headed to Berlin Brandenburg Airport crashed in France. It is unknown how many are confirmed dead. We will do our best to keep you updated. Now, back to the infe-"
That was them.
They were in that plane.
They're probably dead.
Their corpses charred-
France quickly turned off the TV. Hungary rushed over to place a firm grasp on England's shoulder.
"Now England, let's just keep calm-"
The Brit, unused to being touched in the first place and entirely not needing it now, backed away. "Don't fucking touch me," he spat.
Hungary exchanged a concerned look with France, who looked quite sick.
The deafening stillness in the room was broken as Austria turned the TV back on, earning a glare from Prussia
"What are you doing?"
"I'm not going to sit here and feel sorry for you all. We need to keep tabs on what on earth is happening, and gather more information before we all come to irrational conclusions."
"Tch, as if any of these people know what the fuck is happening. Instead of sitting on your ass watching these idiots run around in circles, you could be so much more helpful in helping us figure out where the fuck Lud and Feliciano are! Don't you even give a damn?!" Prussia shouted, roughly grabbing the Austrian by the collar.
"Stop it, you two! You're not helping the situation at all!" Hungary exclaimed, rushing over and seizing Prussia in a choke hold.
"ENOUGH!" France's voice boomed above the others' racket. "I know everyone is tense, but could you all get a hold of yourselves?" he fumed.
The quarreling trio mumbled "sorry" and stepped away from each other.
England remained silent, head spinning. America and Canada. Alfred and Matthew. Not them. Not them-
"Alright come on you two, stand still! This portrait is very important. Don't you want to look back and see how much you've grown?" Arthur said sternly at the two children sitting beside him.
"Yes Arthur." a timid blonde replied, while the other child flicked him in the head.
"Oy, Alfred Jones! Was that really necessary?"
Alfred laughed loudly at Arthur's remark. "Aw, I'm sorry pops! Won't happen again!"
Arthur frowned at Alfred's speaking habits and childish behavior. Wouldn't he ever learn to grow up? "Swear to me you'll stop picking on your brother and behave for once. Don't you ever act serious?"
Alfred grinned up at the empire and wrapped an arm around his twin. "Sure thing!"
Oh, how he wished he had that portrait with him. It was probably still in his attic, dusty and torn.
Seychelles's scream brought the blonde back to his senses. He swung his head around to see the little girl standing away from the window, covering her eyes.
"Sey? What's wrong?" Prussia questioned as he hurried over to the small nation. She merely screamed again before burying her face into his chest.
The rest of the nations all crowded up against the window to see a young woman in the middle of the street with her stomach ripped open, intestines sprawled out. Two other figures loomed over the body, seemingly devouring the poor lady. Hungary covered her mouth in awe and terror, while Austria's eyes were wide with dismay.
"Haha… No way… No fucking way… That must be a joke…." Prussia stammered, trembling a bit as he held the traumatized Seychelles.
France, meanwhile, had apparently decided that the nations were going to get the hell out of the house.
"England, go pack up some food," the Frenchman ordered, tossing his backpack at England.
England was never one to take France's orders, but nonetheless flew through Germany's cupboards as fast as he could, tossing heavy cans into the bag.
As he scavenged, he heard France ask, "Prussia, do you have any guns?"
Prussia chuckled abruptly at the question. "What kind of question is that? Course I got guns. I got guns from fuckin 1854 to fuckin 1945. America would throw a fit over the amount of guns I have-"
England, having packed all he could find, returned to the living room and tossed the bag back to France just as Hungary shouted "Gilbert!" and punched him to shut him up.
"Fine, fine I'll go get them…" Prussia looked down at Seychelles and lightly patted her hair.
"Come on kid, let's get your things and get the heck out of here, alright?"
He smiled reassuringly at Seychelles, guiding her down to the basement with a hand on her shoulder, France and the food bag trailing behind them.
Hungary surveyed Austria's efforts to barricade the front door with furniture. "Smart move there," she commented, "but I think we'll be all ri-"
She was interrupted by a loud thud that rattled the front door, followed by sickening groans and gargling noises. Austria and Hungary briefly exchanged a look of panic, breaking off when they heard glass smashing in the kitchen.
"Don't let them get in!" Hungary ordered, rushing over to the kitchen. England was sprawled on the floor, trying in vain to bat away the deformed creature clawing at his leg.
"HUNGARY!" he screamed.
Hungary dove towards the infected person, trying to grab it away. Instead, her fingers merely sunk into the rotting flesh, and all she managed to pull off were huge chunks of dead meat. She gagged at the sight in front of her.
But she had to think quickly. She snatched up the first vaguely weapon-like object in sight, a butter knife (not her ideal choice of weapon, but it was all she had) and drove it deep into the former human's head with a silent apology. It gargled as blood sprayed everywhere, staining her green dress, but soon fell silent.
England backed away, breathing rapidly, slouching against the wall in relief.
"Jesus… What the hell…" she muttered, staring at the monster with absolute disgust.
"T-that's a… person… is that what this… disease does to you?" A horrified England managed to sputter out.
Hungary chuckled slightly. "Can't believe the news tried to censor this shit. Real grade-A geniuses over there." Her smile faded as she looked back at England. "You're fine, right?"
England nodded a bit too fast to convince Hungary.
"A LITTLE HELP OVER HERE?" cried a panicked Austria, causing the two nations to scramble for the door.
"Bloody hell!" cursed England at the sight Austria with his back pressed against the door, the furniture tossed aside.
"It wasn't holding them back! Now get over here and help me!"
England darted over to place both of his hands against the door, each thud and banging of fists pushing the two countries back slightly.
Hungary needed a real weapon, and fast. "I-I'm gonna go get Prussia!" she shouted and dashed for the basement.
"Prussia?"
Prussia took a terrifyingly long moment to respond, but finally called out "Ja! What's up?"
"The door is about to burst open. We can't hold them back for long!"
"Miss Hungary, I have these!" offered Seychelles, who was starting up the stairs. The woman's eyes widened as she took in the spectacle of little Seychelles carrying gigantic semiautomatic weapons. She'd honestly never thought she'd see the island nation so much as play Call of Duty.
"Take your pick!" Seychelles insisted. "I want the shiny one though, so save that one for me."
"Uhh…" Hungary deliberated over her options as Prussia and France emerged from the stairs, bags loaded with guns and knives. France passed her a rather heavy weapons bag, so she chose a pistol.
"You're pretty prepared, huh?" she noted.
"Nah, they're mostly keepsakes. They do the job though." Prussia replied, smirking.
The four countries hurried back to the front door to see Austria and England barely holding on.
"STEP BACK, JA?" Prussia whipped out a rifle and took aim; Austria and England both exchanged worried glances and quickly bolted from the door. "NOW I'M JUST GONNA WARN YOU ONCE. YA COME IN HERE, AND I BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF."
The masses beyond the door fell silent. The nations held their breath. Had Prussia so easily convinced these folks to back off? Maybe they were still… human?
Unfortunately, the notion was proven false as the door flew open, allowing six infected people to swarm in.
"Shit!" yelled Prussia.
"I got you." Hungary reassured, putting a bullet directly through an infected person's head. She wasn't so lucky with the next few shots, but she and Prussia eventually offed the handful of them.
"Wow, it's been a while since I've done that," Prussia breathed out.
"I'll say. Austria, are you okay?" Hungary smiled as she looked behind her at the predictably sickened musician.
"Just peachy," he muttered, averting his gaze from the bodies.
The smell of the rotting corpses made everyone grimace.
"That's quite vile." England said matter-of-factly.
France chuckled and placed an arm around him. "Then let's get the hell out of here, oui?"
"Now hang on just a sec," Prussia objected. "What about Germany and Italy? I still haven't gotten in touch and… what if they come back here?"
No one responded.
"We haven't heard from them at all though… It's probably best we just assume they're alright for the time being. Right now we need to see if America and Canada are still... alive." France's voice cracked slightly at the mention of their names.
Prussia sighed in defeat. "Fine."
England gave him a weak smile. "Thank you, Prussia. This means a lot."
Prussia frowned, and readjusted his bag. "Yeah, yeah. Let's just hurry and get in my car."