Solving of the Countries (Book 2)

Chapter 71

North Korea read a book and tossed it aside. Well he only read for three seconds but something caught his attention. The Memory Orb that he had discarded on his desk was glowing brightly. He jumped off his bed and went over, pressing a hand on it. Why was it glowing now? Had Martial activated his? It seemed so.
North glanced at his locked door and turned his attention back to the Orb. It looked so transparent as if he could brush his hand through it. But he didn't. Instead he waited.

"North!"
He opened his eye. He realized he had shut it and the Orb was floating in front of him. He held it and turned around to see who called his name.
Martial stood next to him, arm crossed and North jumped. He nearly swore but kept his temper.
"What- what the hell are you doing here?!"North was alarmed to see that everywhere around them was white.
He wasn't in his room anymore. Or was he and this was just an illusion? Martial sighed impatiently and brought out his Memory Orb. It remained as colorless as North's.
"Vietcong showed me how to unlock memories,"Martial said, ignoring North's astonishment.
"Wait wait wait!"North held up a hand for Martial to shut up. "First off, how the hell did you get here? Second, who the hell is this Vietcong guy and why does he sound like a shady man that you would go to buy crack from?"
Martial blinked.
"And third, how the hell am I here?!"
"I'm going to start a word count of how many times you said the word hell. I believe you're at three."
North swore.
Martial looked around.
"I've got to admit, I expected this to be a colorful swirl of confusion,"Martial said, ignoring North's earlier profanities.
North huffed and looked around as well. Everything was white.
"Well, what kind of memory is this? When you took drugs and saw white instead of purple raccoons?"North said.
Martial gave him a small glare. "I don't do drugs."
North shrugged. "I thought you did."
"Well first off,"Martial turned. "We need to find out whose Memory this one belongs to."
North watched as Martial Law touched the floor beneath him and disappeared.
"What the frick."
North saw everything go by as a distant white flash and all of a sudden he found himself somewhere in the air. He plummeted.
And landed on something.
Or rather someone.
"Get off me you sack of depression!"Martial Law growled, he sat up, dropping North to the floor.
"What the frick did you do?!"North jumped up as Martial sat on the grass looking unamused.
"How the heck am I suppose to know? I just touched the ground to see what we were standing on and then I fell in here idiot!"
North turned around, held his breath to calm down and let out a slow exhale.
"Whatever, let's just see where we are."
"Pangaea."
North stopped and faced Martial again. Except he saw Martial's back because the Law was turned the other way.
"What?"North walked to stand besides him.
Pangaea in their world was different than the ones of the humans
Instead of a super-continent like the humans, Pangaea for the Countryhumans was an entire world by itself altogether.
Martial Law looked around.
"This is Pangaea. I recognize it,"Martial sounded oddly tense. "But, Pangaea broke apart a long time ago..."
North didn't remember any of that. He heard of Pangaea, of how it used to be the Countryhumans' old home. He took the time to look around. They were standing on a grassy hill. To their left was a forest of brightly green trees with healthy trunks. To their right was a glittering pond, sun rays hitting it and reflecting it back. In the middle, a distance away, rose a building. It shone and even then North and Martial both realized that the sun was setting.
As the sun set behind the building they got a clearer view of it.
"That's gonna be where all the action is,"Martial nodded. "We should go there."
For once, North didn't argue. He was curious too although he wasn't gonna admit that. They trekked down the grassy hill and slowly approached the pond. Meanwhile, the pond remained unmoving except for occasional ripples.
Martial Law glanced at the pond and went on. North hated to admit that he had to jog to catch up with Martial's ever increasing pace. It didn't help that Martial took longer strides.
By the time they reached it the sun was below the horizon line. It was a dusky purple with fading yellow. Two approaching figures also came, nearly parallel to them and mirroring them.
With a halt Martial Law and North stopped. They were looking at their past selves. But, could they interact with them?
Perhaps not for their past selves passed them without even glancing at their direction.
They heard their voices. Well, their past voices. Martial nodded towards them and followed their past figures.
North was perplexed at Martial's sudden neutrality but didn't question it. They retraced their steps and followed, listening.

"That was fun,"Martial remarked, casting a glance at North.
"Fun? Your sense of fun is twisted if you find it funny to stuff someone in a locker and slipping a snake in there."

North barely recognized his own past self at the voice difference.
Martial stopped.
"I think I remember a little about this,"Martial Law said. "It was our second day of being friends."
North nearly stared. Friends? Friends? Friends with this guy? He was a millimeter apart from tripping from disbelief.
But he didn't ask to hear past Martial Law's response.

"Twisted? I've always considered my sense of humor a bit morbid, as my other friends do,"Martial Law answered, no regret laced his tone. Just carefree.
"Yeah, you didn't say that to NATO earlier,"North pointed out.
Martial shuffled around with the backpack strap.
"Weeeell,"Martial said. "That wasn't necessary to add to our discussion."

North stared, his eye nearly watered from doing it for so long. It seemed that, they were friends. There was no hint of toxic sarcasm.
Martial Law didn't say a thing. Just continued watching.

Friends.

A forgotten time.

A long time ago.

They watched the rest of the memories.