Empire

Chapter 25

Wales's POV:

As soon as the alarm went off, everything shut down. The lights turned off and so did the air conditioning. The rooms slowly heated up and I had to take off my shirt. A few minutes passed by and the alarms stopped. Madagascar told me to put my shirt back on. I didn't realise how hot it got inside the building.

"I finished cleaning the room," Madagascar said. I had met up with her in our room. I told her about what happened in Angola's lab. She seemed interested.

"Do you know what just happened?" I asked. I was a little confused at how Madagascar didn't seem to be phased by the alarm.

"Probably the American Empire again. They are always after Egypt for some reason. But they did retreat faster than normal," She explained.

"So this is normal?" I asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." She answered. A while passed, and I started getting bored. I decided to go on a spontaneous walk around the building. I hadn't done a lot of exploring by myself, so I thought it would be a little more like an adventure.

Madagascar stayed in the room and went to sleep, so I was free to explore. The building cooled down a little. As I wandered, all the doors had been shut, probably due to the alarms. But as I walked, I noticed a vent that had been opened. Feeling a little confused, I walked up to it.

I knelt down. There was no cold air coming through it, so it seemed suspicious. It was large enough to crawl through it, but only just. The hallway was empty, and the urge to investigate grew larger. Eventually, I gave in and crawled in.

I kept crawling for a while, but I hit a dead end. The vent had become too small to turn around, so it seemed like I was stuck here. I tried not to panic and could quickly realise that the vent continued upwards. I struggled for a second and could stand up.

I thought about turning back, but I heard something above me. My curiosity got the best of me, and I started climbing up, wedging my body and limbs against the tight walls. I could hear the sound better now. It sounded like people talking.

I kept crawling until I found a vent above my head. I tried looking through the grates in the vent, but I couldn't tell what was up there. I pushed on the vent; it was loose and came off easily. I peeked in.

There were four piles of clothing and blankets. There were five people up there, chatting with each other. Three of them had grey flags, the other two I recognised. Angola and Egypt. They were all talking frantically.

Unsure whether I should reveal myself, I just kept watching and listening.

"Wales, it's good to see you," Someone said. They pointed over to me and everyone else looked. I felt like I just walked in on a cult.

Ukraine's POV:

I lay in my room, shaking in pain and crying to myself. I was on the floor. I didn't have the strength to get to the bed. The door opened and Belarus walked in again. She closed the door and knelt down next to me.

She patted my head a few times before telling me to sit up so she could clean up the blood on the floor. I was so weak and tired. Bela helped me up and leant me against the wall.

"Good job, Ukraine." The voice in my head said proudly. I leant my head against the wall, completely emotionally exhausted.

"Bela?" I mumbled.

"Yes? How can I help you?" She said. She didn't have the slightest sound of concern, she just seemed blank.

"Is he abusive to you?" I asked in a mumble.

"Not in the way he is to you. While they took you hostage by Australia, Canada made everyone watch the destruction of Germany," Belarus said with a shudder.

"Destruction?" I asked. Bela just nodded. I felt my emotions strangle me. Belarus left, completing her job.

"Why are you making me do this?" I cried to the voice.

"Well Ukraine, Canada is a bad person and we need proof of this." The voice answered.

"You have enough proof! Stop making me do this!" I shouted angrily.

"Not yet. There are still a few things that need to be confirmed first,"

"What even are you!?" I demanded.

"I am an Artificial intelligence, created and designed for the purpose of regulating your thoughts and nuclear energy output and collecting and expanding on new data," It explained.

"Wait, nuclear energy output?" I repeated.

"Known as NEO for short, I regulate it," It confirmed.

"I didn't know I was still radioactive," I muttered.

"Indeed, you are. In fact, I run on a portion of your nuclear energy and control the frequency and how it affects you. I can prove this," I suddenly felt a sharp pain within my head. I could feel something coming up my throat. I threw up and sure enough, it was nuclear waste.

Gasping for air, I looked down at the disgusting mess that was slowly burning away at the floor. I started taking deep breaths as I felt another lot travel up my throat. I tried keeping it down, but I only ended up coughing as I vomited. I started crying and begging for it to stop.

It finally did after a short while. I sat back against the wall and wiped my eyes, only to notice it was more toxic than waste. With uneasy breathing, I tried to calm down.

The door opened again, and Belarus stood there, looking down at me. She looked worried now. She ran over to help me.

"Ukraine! What happened?!" She shouted.

"Don't come near me! I'm radioactive!" I shouted at her. She still came anyway, holding her bucket and mop.

"Ukraine. I'm immune too. You aren't that special," Bela rolled her eyes as she mopped up the nuclear waste. I forgot about nuclear immunity.

"What caused this? You haven't been like this since 1986," She said, looking me in the eye.

"Nothing, it just happened," I lied.