Empire

Chapter 34

New's POV:

I sat in my cell humming a small tune as I watched cracks slowly spread across my legs. It's funny to look at, despite the pain. I like racing the cracks, like watching water drops on a window.

"Man, my life's falling apart," I muttered to myself.

I looked over at the vent where the girl usually comes. She wasn't there, but there was some glue and duct tape. I opened the vent and pulled out the bottle of glue. I couldn't read what was on the bottle, but I liked the colours.

I played around with the glue bottle for a bit until I squeezed the bottle a little bit. I wiped the nozzle on my leg and placed the bottle next to me. I looked down at where I had wiped the bottle. I ran my finger over it and watched as the cracks there stopped spreading.

I was a little surprised. I picked the bottle up again and squeezed it on my face. I rubbed my cheek and I could no longer feel the cracks growing. It was amazing!

Suddenly, the cell door slammed open and my good old friend Samoa and NZE walked in. I put the glue in my pant's pocket.

"Hello," I smiled. NZE didn't look happy. Samoa grabbed the collar of my shirt and started dragging me across the floor.

"I guess I'm going this way now," I sighed.

As soon as I finished my sentence, I had been dragged out to the centre of the main room of the facility.

"This new," I laughed as NZE kicked me hard in the stomach. I gripped my stomach, refusing to cry.

As I looked up at NZE I thought I saw the old him. His old flag and his tired, but content face. When did he become so greedy. He used to be so kind with the best of intentions, and now... he is this.

"What happened to you New Zealand? We used to be so close," I asked through heavy breathing.

"It's New Zealand Empire. And we were never close. Maybe you were with the other New Zealand, but I'm not your friend," He snapped.

"No, we weren't friends, we were something else. What were we?" I mumbled to myself.

"Dad, stop. Kicking isn't getting this done any faster," Samoa butted in.

"I wasn't talking to you! You useless piece of land!!" NZE shouted angrily towards Samoa. His sudden outburst was quite surprising. Even NZE himself felt surprised.

"Sorry, Mr NZE," Samoa sighed.

"Wa-wait, I didn't mean to yell at you," NZE explained. I watched as he embraced Samoa in a big hug. I could tell Samoa was uncomfortable.

"It doesn't matter," Samoa said, pushing NZE away. He dismissed himself and left the room. I was alone with NZE. This has never happened before, but what an interesting development.

"F#cking guilt tripper! I hate him!" NZE shouted loudly, kicking me in the side.

"I'm sure you didn't mean to say that," I said.

"What? I meant every f#cking thing I said," NZE explained.

"Oh..."

"Anyway! Stop distracting me! It's time to go,"

Indonesia's POV:

This is new. Seeing the inside of the Science base for the first time was awesome. But several things seemed off. Usually this area is very restricted, but for some reason Timor and I got permission to go, and not only that, it ordered that we go.

To be honest, I finally felt like I was doing something purposeful in this empire. Well, until Timor and I were strapped to this unstable looking machine while Mr Australia argued with Japan.

After Japan seemed to win the argument, Mr Australia took us to a room in which he locked and left. The room was dark and I could hear a faint muttering in a darkened corner of the room. I elected to ignore it and talk to Timor who seemed a little lost in thought.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked my little brother.

"Okay? Okay! How is this okay?! We were stuck to a shifty looking machine and now we are locked in a dark room-" Timor started shouting.

"This is about Papua, isn't it?" I interrupted. Timor nodded.

He had been really upset when Papua had become a part of the New Zealand Empire. He loved her a little too much. They never properly got together because Mr Australia is strict, but it was strongly implied that Papua and Timor loved each other and wanted to be together.

"Hey, I'm sure Papua is fine. She is quite strong, what's the worst that could happen to her?" I shrugged, trying to cheer up my brother.

"You don't understand love!" Timor protested.

"Uh, actually, I guess you haven't met my true love, Indomie," I said. Timor pushed away from him.

"Don't be stupid!" He shouted. He never liked my jokes.

I decided to give him some space. I decided to investigate that weird sound coming from the corner of the room. At first, I didn't think much of it. It sounded like groan pipes or a broken air vent.

Because of how dark the room was, I had to wait for my eyes to adjust to the light. As they did, I noticed a strange thing. I wasn't sure what it was so I got closer. I noticed it was breathing, in a very wheezy way. It was... sleeping.

It kind of scared me, but I was interested to find out what it was. So I poked it. At first it didn't move, but soon enough the thing awoke and it's groaning started to sound like a dying cat. I took a step back.

"It still hurts!" It yelped. By now, Timor had turned around and seen what I had done. He looked at the thing in horror, as did I. This thing moved sloppily towards me.

"Make pain go!" It complained. As it got closer to me, I could make out the deformed flags of North and South Korea.

"I-I thought you two were dead?" I muttered as I stepped away from them.