Where Winter Meets Summer (Rusame Countryhumans)

The Underground Blues

"The audience that is supposedly above us is unusually quiet too," I noted with a slight frown as a soft tremble rattled the loose pebbles on the ground. It seemed that things had begun to heat up elsewhere, though I could have sworn that it came from overhead, somewhere aboveground. How odd, but I didn't dwell on it. I had other things to worry about.

"Find all ally objectives," my azure screen displayed right above the 3-hour countdown that seemed to be draining unbelievably quickly. This meant I had to somehow track down everyone who had a blue objective while everything was secret and tensions were high. Elimination was right after this after all, and no one wanted to drop out. People were bound to be suspicious.

The unseen cameras captured my peering face and flashed it back at me like a mirror, as if it were saying, "Look at you, spacing out like this. Don't you have an objective to complete?" I scoffed at the imaginary voice in my head and ducked into the nearest tunnel as the broadcast continued its roulette of live feeds.

The main problem was I didn't know how many players I had to find to complete my objective. Of course, if I had been lucky enough to get the dice box, this wouldn't have been a problem but Russia ended up getting it.

'My first move, logically, should be to find Russia then–," I reminded myself as my eyes scanned across the screen (again) for non-existent hints–, "and have him confirm the number of blue team members with the dice."

There was also the possibility that he was on the red or neutral team so I would have to take a very careful approach. A confrontation with him was one of the last things I wanted.

I hadn't even realized how deeply lost in thought I was until I emerged from the other side of the tunnel, only to hear a shout erupt from the side. By the time I snapped out of my head, a flurry of something came charging out of the corner of my eye and the next thing I knew, I was staring at the ceiling, lying flat on my back, and doing my best to suppress all the swearwords I had in my arsenal.

2 hours and 32 minutes remained when I finally came across another participant.

"AUGGHHHH HEY!" the person I had headbutted wailed as we cradled our heads that felt like lead blocks. Bursting stars now swam in my unfocused vision and when my limbs decided to function again, I groped around the cold stone ground to find my knocked-off glasses to return to my face. Finally, my fingers contacted the wiry metal frames and by some miracle, they had not broken, allowing my vision to focus on the blurry mess named Poland. It seems that our teams weren't too spread apart then, which was a good sign.

I would have liked to say that was exactly what was going through my mind at that moment, but it wasn't. My only semi-coherent thought was if I was alive or not because, I swear, Poland's head is made of bricks. That's what it felt like at least.

"Watch where you're going!" he continued to yell as he stumbled to his feet, swooning as he went. "Who the hell spaces out at a time like- oh wait it's you!"

I held in the sob of pain and offered a forced smile instead as he effortlessly pulled me up from the ground. A massive, lopsided grin of relief lit up his face and he laughed, "Perfect timing too! I was just thinking that I needed someone to talk to or I may just go insane."

"I didn't think I would run into you so soon either, literally," I admitted as I glanced toward the direction he came from. "Though aren't we still near the outer edge of the area? I didn't think this maze would pose so much trouble for you."