In the woods (Countryhuman)

5

No. And that's my final word. . . Besides, that bloody cad is too stubborn to die.

All of the countries in the Anglosphere household were seated in the living room. America was busy shuffling a deck of cards while New Zealand explained the rules of their so-called 'simple' game.

Earlier Zee had tackled and pinned Ame to the floor, to what Ukraine could guess was a common occurrence based on the reactions of the other two brothers. One receiving a decent thump on the head, the two agreed to worry about it later. Ame dealt out one card to each country.

"The rules are simple: Don't be the lowest. You can choose to steal from the country on your left, unless they have a Jack. If it comes to you and you have a Jack, flip it over if you don't want to trade. And I dealt, so Zar begins."

South Africa looked at her card, giving the dealer a confused look.
"So would this be considered high, or low?"
"Every number responds to an actual value, then going up in number would be Jack, Queen, King, then Ace as the highest. A lot of this is personal judgement."

To that, South America swiftly stole the card from Belarus. She gained a smile at the change of cards. Belarus, upon looking at his new card, wasn't so pleased. He went over to snatch it from Russia.

Russia honestly didn't look all that fazed, not giving any indication that it was a card he wanted or not. Looking over at Ukraine, he stole their card. Only at peeking at his new card did he smile.

"It's coming around." Canada commented. Aussie was busy spinning one of his three coins.

Ukraine was mighty hasty in snagging China's card before they got a chance to protest. The smaller nearly flung his card at the older, causing China to hum his disgrievances.

China didn't look at all pleased with the constantly rejected card. So China went to snatch from Aussie.

Before China could snag it, Aussie flipped over his card to reveal a Jack.
"Uh-uh mate. You get to keep that card."

Japan looked curiously at the card. "This is a very pretty deck." "Why thank you." "I'm stayin'." Aussie claimed, putting pressure on Japan to decide.

"Um. . . ." She trailed off, only to hastily steal from New Zealand. Looking at the freshly stolen card, she asked. "Is this good or bad?" "For me, that was a good trade. For you, not so much. I'm stayin." New Zealand declared, patting his ill-received good.

Germany checked his card again, deciding to follow the 'wise' move of Zee. "I assume- I'll stay."

"Looks like it's back down to you and me." Canada commented, trying to read America.

"You know you want it."
"But now I don't. I-." Canada grumbled in annoyance, almost going for his brother's trick.

"I'm stayin'."
"Well so am I."
"Alright, now we can flip over and show our cards." Zee explained, not paying much mind to the daggers Canada was shooting the younger.

South Africa showed a 5 of clubs.
Belarus showed a 8 of spades.
Russia showed a Queen of spades.
Ukraine presented a 7 of spades.
China was stuck with a 3 of hearts.
Aussie had already shown his Jack of hearts.
Japan had a 3 of clubs.
Zee was able to snag a 5 of diamonds.
Germany managed to keep his 7 of clubs.
Canada was stuck with a 9 of hearts, leaving America with a King of diamonds.

"So did America win with his King?"
"I wish, but no. This is where those coins come into play. So Japan and China tied for lowest, so both of you toss in a coin."
"I thought people got eliminated in this game?"
"Not in the first two rounds unless we were to play 31. In this game, these coins are like your lives. Like in a video game."

America by now had rounded up the cards into a decent discard pile, sliding the rest of the deck to his left, which was Zar. In a spastic frenzy she dealt out the cards, ready to take on the very mild version of the Hunger Games.

And so the rounds went, each country screwing each other over with excellently places Jacks, top-of-the-line Poker faces, and mind games. To everyone's surprise Canada was the first to loose all of his coins.

The older three brothers started a chant, Nada very dramatically waving off as he gradually left the table.
"Nanana-na. Nanana-na. Hey hey hey. Gooodbye. Goodbye."

"Things are getting real now." Ame boasted, still holding all three of his coins. Ukraine, South Africa, Japan, and Australia were playing with fire as they sat with 1 coin left each. Everyone else besides Russia had only 2 remaining.

"I can see the Korea siblings enjoying this." China commented, Canada supposed to deal but due to recent events America dealt again.

It wasn't long until a sweep of 2s came around and knocked out half of the remaining players. Russia and America were holding on strong with 3 each, poor Germany and Japan hanging on to their last coin.

The round came and went fast, America scoring a Queen and blowing Japan's 4 out of the water. Germany was f e a r as Russia dealt the next round.

And fear Germany was when America blocked his desperate trade with a Jack. Russia revealed a 9.

And just like that, two countries that hadn't bled a coin yet were pinned against each other.

America 7, Russia 3.
Russia 9, America 5.
Stripes 7, Dog-hat 4.
Communist 5, Capitalist 2.

1 to 1, last round.

"Two countries enter. One country leaves. Fighters ready? Fight!" Aussie cheered, everyone else having made bets on who would win.

All was deathly silent as Russia considered his card.

With a calculated act, the taller country traded.

America considered his options, which was all up to chance. As he was the one to deal, America flipped over a card on the top of the deck to replace the traded card. Russia flipped his over as well.

All was silent.

Then Canada started laughing.
"It's a TIE!"

The two countries still at the table were both stunned by the chances. America got an Ace of hearts, Russia a club.

Aussie busted in, "YOU BOTH LOSE. YOU GET, NOTHING!" all the while cackling.

"I-I. How? That almost never happens."
"But Ame. It's already happened once, and you know the rules as well as I."

Russia had already grabbed the deck, shuffling the cards. It was obvious he A: wanted a clear winner. B: Wanted to play again, C: Dominate/outlive the other countries again or D: All of the above.

"Again. But this time," Russia pulled out a 5|, throwing it into the middle of the table.

"We raise the stakes."

Ello, Kracka/the author here. I had no idea what to base the currency off of, as every country has their own. So *dramatically claps hands*, I figured I'd use a sign that isn't associated with real-life currency. And that lucky sign is '|'.
You read that right. The entire currency of Pangaea is line. . .

Future me is going to kill me, I can already tell.