DUN, DUN, DUN.

Warning: Angst, paranoia, weapons.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HETALIA. I have fun manipulating their characters, though

Things Fall Apart

For once, Matthew wasn't the one falling asleep in the car. Alfred's head lolled on his shoulder, heavy and warm, and Matthew let him sleep, only shifting a bit to ease the strain in his shoulder. Ivan glanced over every now and then, hiding a smile. The night before they had been kept awake, talking and touching. He never realized how much he liked hearing Alfred's voice. Before it had been unbearably annoying and obnoxious, and it still was. Nothing changed but the fact that Ivan was comforted by Alfred's presence.

Ivan shifted in his seat again, feeling the pain in his side flare up for just a moment. With every sting Ivan felt even guiltier.

In front of them Arthur straightened. "The city… up ahead."

All their gazes fell to the skyline and immediately tall buildings came into view. The highway widened to accommodate more traffic and Marvin guided the vehicle to the off ramp. Everyone held their breaths all eyes were alert and scanning for any signs of danger. But there was no movement whatsoever, nothing to give even the slightest indication of life, except for smoke spiraling upward in the distance.

"What do you suppose that's from?" Francis asked in suspicion.

"It could be anything," Ivan replied. "But it does not look strong. Whatever caused it could be almost gone by now."

Ivan decided it was best not to wake Alfred and the American just kept on sleeping, his snores soft and shallow.

Chicago was one of the more picturesque cities they'd been in so far, excluding all the trash littering the streets and broken glass shattered from recent break-ins. They followed a road through the city that took them near the water's edge—along Lake Michigan. The waves were gray and somber, just like the rest of the city. No lights flashed or glowed. There were no traffic lights that were working, some not even attached to the overhang they were meant to be on. As they drove deeper into the city, eyes ever peeled, they noticed discarded posters, banners, picket signs. Down With D.C.!, Can You Hear Us Now, Congress?, Democracy is Dead! The messages were a of this and much more of the like, painted across walls, strewn across streets, on billboards, in shop windows, everywhere. It was clear that there had been some sort of confrontation in the heart of the city, as there were many of these banners left behind there. Undetonated homemade grenades, broken bottles, crushed guns, riot police shields and helmets, batons, empty mace cans, even a broken down tank, and other items that indicated human activity some time ago. What was peculiar was that there were no bodies to speak of. Despite all the blood stains and smears, there was nothing to account for all of it. Chicago was just—

"Empty," Nate frowned as he surveyed the cityscape. "What the hell happened here?"

Matthew had a sinking feeling in his gut. "I-I don't know. Something bad. Very bad."

"Hmph," grunted Marvin.

"Of course she still lives here, fucktard," Nate snapped and Marvin growled, flexing his muscles at his snappish remark. "Why do you think Gerald would have us come all the way the fuck out here if his sister was dead?"

"Hrrrmph."

Nate was exasperated. "Now you sound like that college piece of chickenshit. We can't go back. Where the hell do we have to go, huh? Where?"

"Hmmph."

"Somewhere small and deserted? Are you out of your fucking mind?" Nate hissed, not realizing how pissed Marvin was. The boy sat back in his seat and crossed his arms. "Fine. You can think that way, but we ain't gonna find anyone out there. Our best chance is in the cities. We need allies. I mean, I know I'm a fucking beast, but I can't take on those Organization bastards all on my own."

Marvin didn't reply, but everyone could feel him brooding. Nate only scoffed and sat back in his seat, scowling. Arthur thought, What a bloody moron. The brat will get himself killed soon enough, and I won't be sorry to see him go.

Soon the inner city was left behind for the suburbs. This place wasn't much different from the rest of Chicago. Broken glass, looted houses, doors hanging off hinges, trash in the streets, blood smears—no bodies.

"Ve…" Feliciano murmured, curling closer to Ludwig in the leading truck. "I don't like this place, Luddy."

"Hush, now," Ludwig soothed and wrapped an arm around him. "We're almost there. Gerald?"

Gerald nodded. "Yeah, it's just around this corner."

Around the corner was no different than everywhere else they had been. They drove past the dilapidated, deserted houses until they stopped before one that perfectly blended in with the rest. Gerald acknowledged the vehicles sitting in the driveway and on the curb. They were all chipped paint and red stains and broken glass and dents. "They're still here. Thank God." He cut the ignition and turned to them with a relieved smile. "Well, folks, we're here. All in one piece, too. Well… mostly."

The doors were opening to the vans and nations were pouring out by the time Ludwig and Feliciano had made their way to the sidewalk. Everyone's reactions were practically the same: wary and tired. They scoped the area a bit before joining him.

"At least it's deserted." Yao observed. He saw Kiku appear in the corner of his vision and his first instinct was to join him, but he resisted.

"If not, then my brother-in-law has a shotgun in the house," Gerald said. "Good thing he had the mind to go out and get one before all the gun stores were looted."

"Lovely," Lovino quipped. "All the crazy assholes have guns now. Fucking perfect."

Alfred shrugged. "Not like I could have helped it."

"You could have enforced stricter gun laws."

"Artie, you really wanna start this shit again?"

"Let's just go inside," Carter suggested in a small voice and everyone agreed to that.

Gerald walked up the porch stairs and rapped on the door. Ludwig thought it vaguely strange, how knocking on a door had become such an uncommon thing to see and do. When no one answered, Gerald did so again, and it was only then that Ludwig noted the code-like pattern of the knock. They waited a few more minutes before Gerald turned to them and said, "Well, they must be out. I'm sure they won't mind if we settle down."

Ludwig frowned as Gerald twisted the knob and it turned fairly easily, unlocked and not barricaded. A worm of foreboding gnawed at the German's belly, and he allowed everyone else to slip by him (including all of the strangers) before walking in with Feliciano.

The house was two stories and looked relatively… normal. It was certainly bizarre to see everything in its rightful place, no electronics stolen or glass smashed or couches cut up. It was obvious people had been living there, however. Wrappers and containers that once held food were scattered about as well as clothing and… it appeared as if someone regularly slept on the couch. Arthur marveled at the normalcy, as if it was out of place, as if it was, well… wrong.

How could anything be this normal anymore?

"Hey." Alfred stumbled a bit as he was nudged and turned to see Gerald staring at him meekly. "Sorry, didn't mean to make you trip. But there's an upper window facing the street corner and I just thought that since you have a shotgun, you can set it up there. You know, for watch. My brother-in-law is probably using the other one for game and such."

"Oh," Alfred nodded and dropped his bag behind the couch, out of the way. "Uh, yeah, sure. I guess I'll be taking the first watch, eh?"

"Do you mind?"

"Naw, it's cool." Alfred waved a dismissive hand and grabbed his shotgun. "Um… it's up here, right?" He nodded to the stairs leading up to the second level.

"Yeah," Gerald said, motioning. "Last door on the left."

"Okay." Alfred started up the stairs. He was just glad he had something to do. But when he heard someone step onto the stairs behind him, he stopped and glanced over his shoulder.

"Ivan, no. Stay,"

Ivan made a face. "I'm not a dog. And I won't do anything. I'll just watch."

"No, no," Jeanne said, tugging on his elbow. "No damn way I'm just gonna let you fuck up my stitching job."

Ivan frowned, not liking to be ordered around despite knowing the woman was probably right that he should lay down for a while. "I did not say I was going to—"

"Just stay down here and rest, okay?" Alfred told him, and he continued on up the stairs, feeling Ivan's glare on his back but knowing the man wasn't going to follow.

"Hey!" Carter called, running in from the backyard. "They're back here, everyone!"

Gerald laughed. "That's Linda. Always wanting to be outside. She always did love watching the sun set over the lake." He motioned. "Come on. Let's go meet them."

As much as everyone was eager to just unpack and relax, the obligation to meet the house's owners seemed mandatory. So, they all followed him outside into the large backyard.

The grass was immaculate, if not overgrown. The patio was sprouting weeds and flowers, but was otherwise intact. There was a grill pushed up against the paneling and a shed, the doors open, crouched just across the yard. They could hear someone rummaging around in it, knocking things around rather haphazardly.

"Hey, Don, we're here and I kinda picked up some hitch-hikers. Hope you don't mind, haha!" He scratched his chin when the other man didn't answer, only kept digging around. He winced a bit and walked back to the group of wondering nations. "Uh, yeah, maybe you should go and greet him first. I don't want him to blow up at me 'cause I brought along more people than I promised. Not in front of you, at least. You don't need to hear my ass getting chewed. I know it's been a long ride."

"Truly," Arthur agreed and began walking across the yard toward the shed. "We'll try to be easy on him. Don't want to overwhelm the poor chap. His life's went to ruin enough as it is."

Gerald smiled. "You do that. I'll just try to find Linda. She might be somewhere upstairs. Might be in her knitting room. She loves to knit, and I'm sure she's stockpiled enough supplies to go on for a while."

"Ve," Feliciano said as Gerald turned back to walk to the house, closing the sliding glass door behind him to keep out the bugs and what other little nuisances had taken over since the Uprising. "I hope they have real food here. Canned food is nasty!"

"Shh," Ludwig hissed. "We're not here to leech off of these people. We'll have one—two meals tops, and then we will get out of their hair."

Lovino snorted. "Uptight bastard…"

Ludwig chose to ignore that.

Alfred was staring out of the window, eyes glazed, just trying to forget about things for a while, when Gerald trundled into the room.

Alfred lifted his head, snapping out of his daze. "Hey."

"Hey," Gerald greeted back before walking over to him. "I was just looking for my sister. She's not hiding in here, is she?"

Alfred laughed a bit. "Nah, I'd notice." Good thing she's not in here, 'cause I'd probably shoot her at this point, I'm so paranoid.

Gerald's smile widened. "Oh? You're good at that kind of thing?"

"Yeah," Alfred replied somewhat proudly and just then noticed more feet moving up the stairs down the hall. "Uh… did you bring a search party or something?"

Gerald shrugged. "More or less." And Nate, Carter, Marvin, and Jeanne filed in. Their stony expressions were enough to give Alfred pause. He stood. Quickly.

"W-what's wrong, guys? Did something happen?"

Gerald's smile turned sinister. "Not yet."

The door was kicked shut and the lock clicked.

No translations

A Word From the Writer: Kind of a short chapter, but there is a perfectly good reason! I've been reading way too much smut lately (well, I can never read too much, per se)-coughmostlyHPficscoughcough-and so, naturally, I haven't been writing as much as I probably should. This fic is catching up with me fast (just like my Four is Company one) and soon I'll be having to write up two chapters every week just to keep this going. So! Shorter chapters are to be expected while I get my shit together. Besides, this one needed to be short 'cause the other one is super long. You'll see why soon.