Trapped Inside A Hell Hold

"ENGLAND, ENGLAND! I'M OVER HERE!" 
A voice? It sounded like Greece.
Arthur wasn't sure. It could just be another illusion. 
"Aren't you going to answer?" asked a small voice beside him.
"I...don't know..." said Arthur staring at the ground below him. 
"It could just be another illusion-" 
"No it's not. He's real, I can sense it." 
Arthur turned to face his friend  and smiled, 
"Maybe you're right." 
He got up and turned to the direction he heard the voice coming from. Just about a couple hundred feet away he saw a running figure waving at him and calling his name. He waved back and called after him, 
"Greece, is that you?" 
Arthur beckoned his friend, Flying Mint Bunny to follow him and raced across the field to meet his the man.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" he thanked no one in particular. Things were finally starting to look up for once.

((First short post xD ))

Seeing that England had turned towards him and Amara he knew they got lucky somehow. Once Greece placed his sister on his back he started running towards the Englishman. “Amara hold on okay? I just found someone!” Greece asked his sister. “Okay big brother!” Amara said tightening her grip. “Well, well looks like we got lucky.” She thought having that evil smile spread again. “England, England over here!” Greece yelled as he ran faster. “My god he’s fast, this is getting more interesting by the minute.” Amara thought her legs tightening their grip to stay on his back.

“Greece is that you?” They heard England call yards away. “Yes it’s me!” Greece yelled back getting closer. Finally reaching them Greece stopped to put down his sister and hugged the Englishman. “Oh my gods it’s so good to see some I know and alive. Arthur this is my sister Amara.” Greece said putting Arthur down and pointing to his sister.”I thought I was alone, listen let’s find someplace to rest then we’ll talk.” Greece said grabbing his sister’s hand and then followed the Englishman to where he was going.

(Short post is short)

As Ivan flew down the flights of stairs, he knew what he had to do. He would be the one that purged the world of that vile man. Then he would find his sister. He wondered if she had suffered the same as he or had been stolen from him from the man he was soon to kill.
At the bottom of the stairs, there was a white hallway and at the end, a pitch black room, the Russian, blinded by rage at the thought of his sister’s death at maniacal hands ran straight into the blackness. Ivan heard the door slam shut and lock behind him a matter of seconds before bright white lights illuminated the entire room momentarily blinding Ivan momentarily.
To the Russians delight, across the room from him was the same darkened figure that had previously bandaged his face. “I can’t let you leave Ivan.” The figure spoke. But the Russian couldn’t care, silence was his only answer for a man like this. Disregarding the knife in the figures hand, Ivan picked him up like a rag doll, slowly choking life from the man. As the vile man swung in the Russians grasp he attempted to slash at the Russian. Effortlessly Ivan snatched the knife from the man and took no time in plunging the knife into the man’s chest. As the bleeding figure began to cough blood, Ivan heard words he never though he would. “I...m so...rry” his supposed captor spluttered between mouthfuls of blood, “he... had my... I...Did...nt.. Ha..Ve a... choice”
The Russians eyes widened as he heard those harrowing words. Those words were the last spoken by the innocent soul he had just sent to an early grave. He knew that there was nothing that could be done now, but he was still human. Ivan silently mourned for a few moments; he prayed for the man’s soul and tried to justify what he had done. Before he left that room, the Russian removed the knife from the man’s chest, the blood was still warm and the man’s eyes still open. He gently shut the man’s eyes and pocketed the knife.
“I must leave now” he said solemnly, he knew what had to be done. He had to find his sister and survive this hell to see her safe again. He opened the door at the end of the room and left the building that had brought him so much torment without a second thought or another word.

Matthew had been running for what felt like hours. He was tiring out. Sweat ran down his forehead as he ran down one road after another. Multiple times he'd reached dead ends and had to turn back. He didn't even know in which direction he was headed any more... He was getting desperate. He wanted to find someone... Anyone...

As he ran, he saw bodies were beginning to appear, scattered in the street. The sight of it all was sickening. Some corpses were missing limbs; it seemed many had been torn apart, blood splattered across the ground and every wall that passed.

Matthew didn't stop running. He pushed himself forward easily swerving between the scattered bodies. This Canadian wasn't as weak as he looked. Though his strength was low, Matthew had incredible stamina. Unfortunately, he had already been running for hours and was beginning to slow down...

He still gripped the rose and knife tightly in his hands. Gasping for breathe he could feel his legs beginning to give way beneath him. He slowed himself to a walk and began to look around for somewhere to rest.

At the end of the street, there was a large building. Like the others in this place, it was obvious it had been long abandoned. As Mattie walked toward the building, it became clear that this building he had found was an abandoned hospital.

Matthew let out a slight sigh of relief. A hospital. Beds. Supplies. Medicine.

He reached the door and looked in through the window. Blood. Everywhere. What ever had happened in there must have been one violent scene... Matthew put his knife in his uniform pocket and tried to open the front door.

Locked.

"Of course it's locked..." He muttered to himself. In a way, Matthew was glad. It was possible whoever, or whatever, had caused the bloodshed in the main entrance was locked inside. Though the door was firmly shut, it's likely it was safer that way.

He got the knife back out from his pocket. Exhaustion and madness were beginning to take their toll on the young man's mind.

He looked at the knife in his hand. There were blood stains on the blade from it's previous owner; Matthew prayed he would not be forced to use such a weapon. He was terrified of the knife and wanted so much to be rid of it, but he had no idea what was out there, what had brought him here, what was waiting for him... He kept the knife, because he was so much more terrified of everything else.

Then he remembered the rose he had picked up before... Why did he take it? Before he had time to dwell on the subject however, he heard a shout from nearby.

"IS ANYONE HERE!?"

Matthew gasped at the familiar voice.

"PLEASE ANSWER!?"

It was Al! What was he doing here?

"ANYONE!?"

Matthew felt ecstatic. He wasn't alone any more. In a moment however... he came to a sudden and shocking realisation. His brother was here... In this hell... Matthew didn't want his brother to be hurt... He suddenly wished he hadn't heard Al's voice. He wished that his brother was at home, safe... not here...

"Pull yourself together!" Matthew cursed at himself. His brother was here too and there was nothing he could do to change that. From the words he'd shouted however, it was obvious he was alone. Matthew had to find his brother. Fast. Without a second thought Matthew yelled out at the top of his voice

"AL~!"

The shouting used up more energy than Matthew had first thought. The Canadian suddenly felt weak... But he ignored this feeling and shouted out again.

"AL~! SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! IF YOU'RE OUT THERE THEN-AAH!"

There was a sudden pain in his right wrist and when he looked down, he saw the rose from before was wrapping its stem around his wrist. The pain was come from the stem latching itself to his skin. He yelled out in pain and blood ran from the fresh wounds as the rose wrapped itself around his wrist like a watch. Matthew shook in fear as the rose hooked itself to him.

"No. No. No..." Matthew whimpered as the rose came to its finally resting place on his lower arm. Why had he been so careless as to take it in the first place? He should have known this was a bad idea. What would making that stupid decision cost him? His eyes began to sting with tears. He was frightened. He was frustrated. He was in pain. He wanted to go home. This was all becoming too much...

Angered, Matthew span around and kicked the hospital's glass door leaving a rather large crack in the dirtied glass. He suddenly heard a crash from inside the building.

Whatever was in there, had been disturbed by the crack. "No. No. No. No..." Matthew repeated wide eyed as he began to back away from the door. He kept his eyes on the glass and watched helplessly as a dark creature came crawling out of the shadows. Matthew could not make out the creature clearly in the darkness, but what he could see, bright and clear, were it's glinting, red eyes, staring him in the face.

"Run!"

A voice echoed in his head. At first Matthew was terrified and gripped the his knife with both hands.

When the strange creature snarled at him through the door, he didn't have to be told twice.

Matthew dashed with all the energy he had left in the direction from which he had heard his brother shouting earlier. Fear had swallowed him up and he yelled out in terror at the top of his voice, hoping someone would hear his cry.

Matthew ran through the street occasionally tripping on the bodies on the ground and splashing through pools of blood.

"What have I done?!" Matthew spluttered in fear.

The voice whispered to him once more, a small girl talking to him inside his head.


"You've woken the beasts..."

As he got closer, fear hit him again. It was just another body. This time, it was standing, or more precisely, it was forced to stand. A large spear pierced it, making it stand. "A girl this time." Another girl with a bar code. Her eyes were opened, and he couldn't help but cry a little. Her bones could be seen and her eyes were wide opened.

Were they asking for help? Fear? It was hard to tell. But he couldn't leave her like that. Slowly he lifted the body,away from the spear, and laid it on the ground. Fresh blood spilled as he did so, and it stained his clothes. Now it didn't matter, all he cared about giving her peace. He fixed the girl's clothes as best he could, and gently closed her eyes.

"Have a nice journey." He said as he stood up,bowing to the body. He walked away,his stomach still turning. How hasn't he gone mad after standing in this strange world amazed him. But he supposed he wasn't a human and could stand such sights. But he wasn't a nation either, not officially anyways. Then again,stranger things accord.

Walking down a street, he found himself near a hill. On top,there were three people. One of which he was all too familiar with. "THICK BROWS! THICK BROWS IS THAT YOU?!" Leon shouted as he ran towards them. It had to be England! Who else would dress in that forest green uniform and have those ridiculous looking eye brows that could be spotted a few yards away.

Trying the doorknob, Romania was pleasantly surprised (for the first time since he woke up) that the door opened with very little effort. Glancing into the empty hallway, Romania sighed, feeling both relief and disappointment. Relief because there was nothing threatening as far as he knew. And disappointment because he did not see a single familiar thing or face.
Leaning against a wall of the narrow and rundown hallway, the nation decided to go left, since he did see a dim light coming from there.
As the man turned around the corner, he bumped into something, causing him to crash down, accidentally pulling it down with him.
Groaning,the man opened his eyes and from his mouth came words he had never thought he'd say "Hungary! Thank god you're here! What is this place? Why are we here?"


(so short...I'm sorry *facedesk*)

It truly was him! The anger vanished as he ran up to him, panting slightly from the running he did. Standing tall was the Englishman whom raised him. For once he was happy to see him. "Good..I thought you were a doll..or a body.." Leon said in between his breaths. Once it had calm, he politely bowed at Greece and his little sister. "H-Hello there."

"I'm glad you're all alive. I only been greeted by dead bodies and notes." He said, with a frown. He was tired of seeing them, and letting them torment his mind. But thankfully there were others. "Does any of you have an idea where "here" is? I can't seem to remember how I got here or what happened." Everything up until his awaking was a haze. He remembered packing to go visit China as a surprise,but after that, his mind went to a blank. How odd.

"Wonderful." He said,in an annoyed tone. Truthfully he wasn't mad at the limey. More precisely, he was angry at whoever did this. They could be watching us out here That phrase made him shake. So there was a chance of someone watching them. "Wonderful. Simply wonderful." Leon said with a soft, angry voice.

Checking out his surroundings there wasn't anything. No bodies, no dolls. At least there was no danger of something popping out,was there? He rather not think about it. Glancing back at him, he gave a small nod. "Maybe we can get some ideas as to what's going on." He waited for the others to led. Now with others he could relax a bit, and let them lead for now.

Though there was still some uneasy feeling brewing in him. That thing.. or person was probably still watching them. That's what it was, isn't it? With the knife still hidden in his sleeve, he smiled at them for the first time. "Lead the way,eyebrows."

France sat there for a while, waiting for a reply. When none came, he rubbed his eyes and stood up. His vision was still a little fuzzy, but he could still see, and that was all he needed.
As he looked around, he saw countless doors going down a seemingly endless hallway. It was much like the room he had just come from, but with more blood.
'A hospital or something? More like an asylum.' He thought to himself.
He walked across the hall to a door. Before he opened it though, he saw a pile of bodies close by. He tapped the one on top, causing it to slide off the pile and making the man nearly jump out of his pants.
He took another look at the bodies and saw that among them was a rather large kitchen knife. Trying not to vomit, he reached out and removed it from the bodies.
He quickly took a few steps away and wiped off the knife with his sleeve. It left a blood stain, but he paid it no mind. Gripping his new knife tightly, he opened the door.

He walked into a well-lit room. The very first thing France saw was the back wall, which was covered with blood writing.
"THEY DID IT. DO YOU WANT TO KILL THEM NOW?" with an arrow pointing down.
Following the arrow, he looked at something that paralized him. It was Canada. Covered in blood.
After standing frozen for what seemed like forever, France stabbed the wall beside the door violently and ran over to Canada's side.
He was covered with gashes and woundes, and his face was barely recognizable, but France was absolutely sure that it was his Canada.
"I don't care who did it, but you can be sure that they will die painfully." He said to the red writing on the wall.
Bidding his last goodbye to Canada's body, France got up and went over to pull his knife out of the wall. He left the room and gently closed the door before stalking down the hall, with the knife clenched tightly in his hand.



(( what is with me and protective!France?! ))

Arthur was the first to step into a rich-looking house they had found  close by. Inside, the house looked surprisingly normal compared to all the other places they had been in before. The man led them inside, making sure he was the one in front of everyone else in case someone was in the house. That way Arthur would be the first to get hurt, giving the others  time to defend themselves. Although the man really didn't like the idea of sacrificing himself for the sake of others, it was better than listening to what the notes said. 
"Looks like no one touched this place." The Brit commented as they made their way through each room. 
One room in particular seemed to catch his eye though. 
"Wait a minute-" Arthur stopped and cautiously entered the strange room. There was something about this one room in particular that seemed to call out to him. Flying Mint Bunny cut in front of Arthur and landed on the windowsill.
"I can feel a presence of some kind." it said. 
Arthur nodded and motioned for the others to stay at the door while he searched he room. 
'Oooh, I see you've found something that interests you.' said the voice in the mans head.
'Its nothing...' Arthur thought back, 'I just...feel something...something that's out of place.' 
He eventually came to a small closet in the corner of the room, he could feel something was moving in there.
The small, mint colored rabbit leapt from the windowsill onto Arthur's shoulder where it told him something he was dreading to hear,
"There's a demon in there."
Arthur stopped looking at the closet door and tried to concentrate on something else. He didn't want the others to sense his discomfort. 
'Aren't you curious about what's behind that door?' asked the voice, 'It could be something important for all you know.'
'Shit up! Shut up!' Arthur frowned. This voice was starting to get on his nerves.
'Just who are you anyway?' 
The voice laughed, Arthur pretended to check under the bed as he waited for his answer. Flying Mint Bunny stayed close to Arthur, it's face held a worried expression. 
'Haha, can't you tell? I'm you.' the voice sneered.
'You're not me,' Arthur got back up and made his way over to the cabinet.
'You're just saying that to make me think what you're saying is right. It's not going to work that way you know.'
'I know,' answered the voice, 'But eventually you'll come to understand the reasoning of my words. You see, I know the reason why you are such an outcast when with all the others...'
Arthur stopped and turned back to the closet. Something was definitely in there...
'You're afraid that you'll one day have to kill them.'
'Stop it,' thought Arthur, 'Just shut the fuck up. You can't make me do anything. I'll do what I want.'
This time the voice was silent, Arthur was relieved to be able to think again. Flying Mint Bunny blocked Arthur's path as he advanced towards the closet.
"Please, Iggy. I don't want you to die."
"It's alright," he whispered quiet enough so the others couldn't hear. 
"I'm a nation. I can't die."
The rabbit shook its head, 
"No, that's not what I meant..." 
"What did you mean?"
"If you go in there you'll never be yourself again...just please, trust me. Don't go..."
Arthur noticed something carved in the corner of the door, he ignored Flying Mint Bunny's pleas and made his way over to the door. The words were hard to make out as they were carved with something that couldn't have been that sharp.  He ran his gloveless hand over the words, feeling the sharpness of the door's splinters under his fingers. 
What did it mean?

'PrAiSe ThE aNgEr' 

((Sorry if it's bad Dx ))

"THICK BROWS!” Greece heard a voice call from up ahead. "THICK BROWS, IS THAT YOU?" the same voice yelled from up ahead. Greece stayed quiet watching as a man in a red robe ran up to them. “Brother I’m worried.” Amara said hiding behind Greece. “It will be fine” Greece said to her as the man bowed towards them. Greece watched the two other countries talk about how happy they were to find each other, but Greece’s mind went somewhere else. A place within his mind where he had an image of him with his siblings; on a picnic at one of the ruins. “Herc, they’re leaving without us!” Amara yelled bringing him back. “Thanks Amara, time to find a place to rest.” Heracles said picking up his and followed the other men. “Herc, the man in green scares me. There’s something about him that isn’t right.” Arma said to him acting scared. “I’ll be here for whatever happens. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” Greece said ruffling her hair. “That man there’s something with his mind, I just know it. He needs to disappear for us to move ahead.” Amara thought to herself staring at the back of Arthur’s head.

After some the time the small group arrived at a large mansion. “Wow this place is huge.” Greece thought. And Greece being his Greecey self he decided to explore the outside with his sister. “This place is huge huh Arma?” Greece asked wide eyed. “Yeah I wonder what it’s like inside there.” Amara said with a sly tone. “In a bit, I wanna see what is by that cliff.” Greece said putting Amara down and walking towards the cliff end in the back yard. Looking down Greece saw a river red as blood and the surrounding ground covered in darkness. The type of darkness that no light would or could ever be able to shine in. “There’s pure evil down there I can feel it Amara.” Greece said shivering at the darkness. “Can we go in now big brother?” Amara asked with big eyes. “Perfect one step inside and this will change for him, he will change.” Arma said snickering. “But tonight I will take watch and stay out here to guard. You’ll have to stay with me though.” Greece said sitting down. “Shit, oh well I have another plan to make this work.” The image thought. “Okay big brother I’ll stay with you but tomorrow we go inside okay?” she asked. “I promise we will.” Greece said smiling and then turning around surprised to hear a scream that rang through the underworld.

Night came and of course trying his hardest to stay awake Greece fell asleep. Realizing this Amara had her chance to start her plan to destroy him and have him get rid of the others. "Soon you will rid this world of the other fools and I will win this bet." Amara said sneaking away. "Now my thick browed friends its time." Amara said watching them through the window a knife held in her in front of her chest.

It figured that the moment she turned her head to glance over her shoulder, something decided to crash into her knocking her to the ground onto her back. Her first instinct was to struggle against the potential assailant, but the voice of the man made her stop her struggling and blink. "Romania?"

He was questioning her before she could get another word out. Oddly enough she felt relieved to see him. They hardly got along, but under these circumstances she was happy to see anyone. "Uh...It's good to see you too?" Elizabeta was hardly used to saying nice things around Romania. "I have no idea why we're here, or what this place is really." There was a pause, "But if you would be so kind as to get off of me maybe we can figure it out together?" As much as she didn't want to admit it, Romania would be a valuable asset, and she was beyond glad to have run into him.

Only now realizing he was on top of the woman, Romania quickly stood up and leaned against a wall.
"So, how did you end up here? Did you wake up in a....creepy...room, too? And do you know anything about this?"
The man asked, pointing at the bar code on his hand.

(( aksjdhfg---- QAQ GERMANY.

Y U MAKE ME CRY. ))

The tremors and whimpers of the frightened German soon woke Feliciano up, not being able to let out a whimper himself from the stinging in his shoulders and waist.

" L-Ludwig, w-what's wrong...?? " To be honest, he wasn't sure what to do in this situation. He was always the panicky one, not Ludwig.

He tried to loosen Ludwig's grip on him, as it was really starting to hurt. The German was never the one to realize his own strength.

As the Ivan left the room, he realised something, if that man had bandaged his face, in the building somewhere there had to be medical supplies and he knew that chances were he’d need everything he could find if he intended to survive. Halfway down the corridor to the exit, there was a small locked white door.
The Russian decided to check the room for supplies and popped the lock effortlessly with his shoulder. A sting of displeasure ran through him as he saw a pile of ashes scattered on the tiled floor. All that could be identified was a half charred box of painkillers and a scorched roll of bandages. All the cupboards were left open and were empty. However all hope was not lost as across the room from him was what he could only assume was the rucksack of the man who was now left lifeless in the last room.
Ivan picked up the bag and searched each pocket in hope of finding anything of use. The bag was empty apart from a pot containing three painkillers and a single bandage. Ivan took the rucksack and its contents with him as he walked calmly to the exit.
As Ivan stepped outside, for the first time in what felt like weeks, he felt the fresh cool air surround him as his now blood crimson scarf waved gently in the breeze. His moment of blissful freedom when he was snapped back into reality as he once again realised that he was alone.
The Russian ran round the next corner and the next and the next, “no one.... no life... nothing” he near sobbed behind his bandages as he cradled his head in his hands.
His head jerked up as he heard a scream in the distance. He knew it that scream, it was his sister and he had to find her. It was a matter of minutes before Ivan found his sister. She was stood in the road in shattered glass still screaming.
Her dress was ripped she had a cut on the outside of her thigh that was bleeding heavily and had a few small shards jutting from it. The Russian approached his sister and without a word he removed the glass from her cut, he then reached into his rucksack and took the bandage from it. He wrapped and secured the bandage around the wound stopping the flow of blood. “I’m going to keep these painkillers until we really need them. Use them now or unnecessarily and we waste our chance to get through a whole lot worse than this” Ivan thought to himself.
After wiping a few specks of blood from his hands he flung his arms around his sister, his relief was almost palpable. He held onto her tightly as he could, treasuring her life after seeing her die so many times and in so many sick and sadistic ways. He was just so happy to see her again. If he had remembered how to cry after what he’d been through then he would have.

It was no use...

There was no way anyone would have heard him shouting. He was too quiet. Too far away. He didn't even know whether anyone was out there in the first place...

As for the beast in the Hospital, the crack Matthew had mad had only made its escape easier... It wouldn't take long for the creature to realise that and then his problems would only get worse.

Matthew was exhausted. He'd done nothing but run ever since he woke up in this God forsaken hell hole and he hadn't slept in what felt like days... What's more, he was hungry, he was dehydrated.

He hadn't found food. He hadn't found water. He hadn't found shelter. He hadn't found anything or anyone other than the bodies that were scattered everywhere...

He was alone and he knew he was slowly fading. If he didn't act soon there's no way he would make it.

Slowly, Matthew came to a stop. He was out of breath. When he looked back, the hospital was still in sight. When he looked ahead, he saw nothing but more abandoned buildings, bodies and blood. He tried to make out the buildings ahead of him. Most were houses, some were shops. In the distance he thought he could make out some motel. What worried Mattie the most, was he couldn't see his brother...

Matthew couldn't go on any further. He'd used up too much energy already. He just wanted to sleep, but he knew if he did that there was no way he would wake up again.

Matthew fell to his knees in a pool of blood, staining his clothing. Tears poured from his eyes as he began to cry. The tears rolled down his cheeks and hit the floor, mixing with the splatters of blood beneath him. He couldn't stop crying... He just wanted to go home.

Matthew could feel something; it was stroking his hair, as if it were trying to comfort him. When Matthew looked up, there was a transparent vision of the girl he'd seen back at the house he had awoken in, standing in front of him, with one hand stroking his head and the other clutching the bear from the bedroom. Matthew stared at her, his vision blurry from the tears that were flowing from his eyes and the dirt that was covering his glasses.

This made no sense, but Matthew hardly cared. This...ghost was all Matthew had. Even if she was a hallucination, even if she wasn't real, this girl was the only one by Matthew’s side.

"You're not real..." Matthew muttered, sounding a little disappointed. "I saw the real you... She was dead..."

"Yes" She said simply.

"Yes?" Matthew repeated.

"I'm dead..."

There was a moment of silence. Matthew was struggling to take in the information.

“Who are you?” Matthew asked.

“U-Uuuh…” The child was lost in thought for a moment.

“Don’t you remember?”

The girl shook her head looking a little embarrassed. She was watching Matthew carefully. The child's eyes scanned him up and down as she considered whether or not it was safe to trust the young man. She stopped when she noticed the rose on Matthew’s wrist. There was a pause before the girl knelt down in front of him and reached over to where the blue rose had latched itself to his skin. She caressed the rose in her hands before running her fingers along the wounds where the stem had penetrated Matthew’s skin. He could feel her touch, but it was more of a presence than direct contact. Matthew felt a chill run down his spine at the strange feeling.
"W-What's wrong...?" Matthew asked.

Suddenly, black engulfed the girls eyes, as if she had been possessed. She was being controlled by something but Matthew didn’t know what. Like a puppet on a string, it pulled her away so she was standing directly in front of the Canadian and spoke using the child’s voice in a way much too complicated for the child’s age.

“The rose will let you possess traits that no other here may dream of. The rose will show you what other people cannot see. The rose will let you speak with those who are dead and it will let you see past the disguises of the strange creatures that have been sent to seek the doom of you and your friends. However, the rose…
Will eventually kill you…”

Matthew froze. There’s no way this could be happening.

“It will bring you great power… in exchange for your life”

The black disappeared from the girls eyes and she fell to the floor. Matthew was terrified. He couldn’t think of any words to say. The rose on his wrist was a ticking time bomb… He didn’t know how much longer he had left to live. This couldn’t be real. It was a bad dream. Just a bad dream…
The vision stood up slowly. And said in a quiet voice "The bad man wanted us to kill the people with the...the black line marks. I tried to get rid of mine but it didn't work..." The child held out her wrist and showed Matthew the cuts he had seen before.

"The "bad man"?" He asked. The child nodded. "He wanted you to kill people that had a mark that looked like a bar-code?" The girl thought for a moment then nodded again. "I see...” Matthew remembered the bar-code like marking. He looked at his blood smeared hand and stared at it for a moment. The bar-code tattoo was still there. This meant, whoever else was here, would be out to kill him...

"I don't want anyone else to die" The girl whimpered, holding her toy close.

Matthew thought for a moment. It seemed his death was becoming increasingly inevitable… He couldn’t take it anymore. He was too tired…

“M-Mister…?” The child asked as Matthews face became pale, but he didn’t respond, he simply fell to the ground and lay there on the floor.

“M-MISTER! A-Are you okay?! SOMEBODY HELP!” The girl cried out, but her cries were more useless than Matthews. Nobody else could see her let alone hear her. The girl began to cry and tried to shake Mattie to keep him awake, but it was too late.

Matthew slowly fell unconscious and lay still on the blood stained road...

China had fallen unconscious due to the massive amount of weight that fell on top of him, and was just now waking up, and with a sore back to boot.

Groaning, he slowly sat up, putting a hand on his back. He looked around. He was in... some sort of futon selling store. He raised a brow, finding it rather ironic that he was in a place that gave comfort, when it was just what he needed at the moment.

He was tempted to just lay there, but something on the wall caught his attention.

"Kill tO LivE"

...Well that sent a few shivers down his spine.

Deciding that just laying there wasn't the best option at the moment, he crawled off the futon he was on, stumbling a bit as he stood on his feet. Wasting no time he walked to the door and out into the streets.

China cringed when he saw how dirty, decayed and bloody the place was. Who the hell would live here?

...Better yet; Who the hell brought him here?

Using the wall to pull herself up she turned to Romania and shook her head. "I...don't know how I ended up here. I did wake
up in a creepy room though..." She looked away, not wanting to seem weak or vulnerable to one of her oldest rivals. She
wouldn't stand to let him see her in such a vulnerable state. She glanced at the bar code on his hand and blinked. "No?"
but just to be sure she checked her hands and arms for anything of the sort.

When she found no bar code on her arms she shook her head. "I don't know anything about that bar code and I don't see
anything like it on me either. I wonder what it means." Glancing down the hall she turned back to Romania and grabbed
his wrist, pulling him down the hallway. "I don't feel safe in this building. We should keep moving and try to find an
exit. Maybe we'll find more people in this hell hole."

(( Sorry, I was sick all day, otherwise I would have posted sooner ))

"Ah, yeah, that would be...wonderful..." Romania said, staring down at their hands.

After what felt like hours of searching, the man finally spotted an exit door.

"I found a way out!" he said, pulling his hand from the Hungarian's grasp.

He hurried to the door, but behind it was something he honestly hadn't expected.

Sure, it was a city, a big one, filed with shops, restaurants, apartment complexes and all that, but...there wasn't a single person in sight...

Questions raced through the Romanian's mind.

What is this place? Why is nobody here? Why is he and Hungary here? Are the other countries somewhere in this hell as well?