"You're Mary?"
"Yes. What's going on?"
"We'd like you to come with us, please."
"Come with you? Where are we going?"
"We'll explain on the way."
But they didn't.
~
That evening, she returned to her apartment exhausted and just plain weak. She collapsed into bed and bunched her fists up in the covers, wringing the life out of the fibers. Tears were escaping her eyes even as she mentally berated herself for showing this weakness when people were watching her even at this very moment.
'I didn't tamper with those cameras... I didn't! Those jerks faked it all... This place is so wrong. We need to leave.'
A soft knock sounded from her bedroom door, and she looked up as it was opened just slightly. She caught a glimpse of unkempt blond hair and knew exactly who it was.
"Mary? What's the matter?" Arthur asked, peeking into the room. "We didn't see you at all today. Did something happen?"
She shook her head and looked away to try and hide the tear trickling out of her eye. "I'm fine."
"Where were you, though?"
"It would be... unwise to tell anyone about this, Mary." Those words rolled around in her head as she tried to think of what to say.
"It was just my job taking up a lot of time," she lied. "Sorry, Arthur. I'm just really tired right now."
There were eyes and ears everywhere. She couldn't say anything out of line, or else.
"Alright. You can come talk to me if something is bothering you, though," Arthur reminded her before wishing her a good night and leaving.
~
"If we could demote you to something lower than the waste removal, we would. However, I think you can learn your lesson another way."
"But I didn't mess with those cameras! They shouldn't even be there in the first place, to be honest. What's the point of having those if we're all living here peacefully?"
"I wouldn't expect you to understand this, Mary. It's a very complex system I'm running here. Still, the man with the longest sword is the ruler, and to make sure there are no other swords in his kingdom, he has to have an omniscient eye."
"This isn't right. I didn't do anything!"
"Our camera feeds show otherwise."
"Let me see them, then. I'll prove I didn't do anything."
"That's not possible. You will be obedient, like the rest of the citizens here. It would be... unwise to tell anyone about this, Mary. Speak a word about this meeting, and you'll find your friends locked outside of these walls."
"... Why? Why are you doing this?"
"You'd be surprised at what people are willing to give up for a little security. Now go. Remember everything I've said."
~
Though it was probably eight o' clock that night, Mary got out of her bed and just walked out of the apartment, heading to only God knew where. She just felt the urge to get up and walk away.
When she finally stopped walking, she found a horse to be blowing warm air from its nostrils and into her face. Mary's loose hair was ruffled by the spastic wind, and she took a step to the side to let the horse and its rider by.
However, the rider stopped her stroll and looked down at Mary sympathetically. "Did... Did you find them?" she inquired softly, her accent most definitely from the United Kingdom.
Almost imperceptibly, Mary nodded her head and looked just slightly up at the girl. She wasn't that much younger than Mary, and she had a look in her eye that spoke of a lot of hidden sadness. Mary picked up on that immediately and wondered what her life had been like before all this horror with the Zodiac arose.
The girl glanced around herself a little, then turned her attention back to Mary. "Come with me."
Without anything else to do, and more than a little intrigued, Mary followed the horse and its rider into the stable barn and stood back as the chestnut horse was locked into its stall. Then the girl wiht auburn hair in a long braid trained her grey-blue gaze on Mary and spoke softly. "I know, it happened to me, too."
"Why're they doing this?" Mary asked in hushed tones. "This is... I can't believe it's actually happening."
"They want to control everything they can," she explained, "no matter the methods. I'm Galilea, by the way."
"Mary," the blond replied.
That's how they ended up sitting on a pile of hay and just talking quietly for almost an hour about themselves and whatever was on their mind. To say that they became friends was a bit of an understatement in the sense that the bond they forged almost right away was definitely best friend material.
"Wow... That was brave of you to stay with your boyfriend until he turned completely," Galilea said appraisingly after Mary finished spinning her yarn. "I couldn't be nearly as brave as that."
"Well, what happened to you?" Mary asked her carefully. "If you don't mind me asking, that is."
"Uhm... My father caught the virus near the start of the outbreak, and he turned. He killed my mother, and my older sister sacrificed herself to help me escape," Galilea admitted, drawing her knees up to rest her chin on them. "So, I'm the only one of my family to be alive at the moment."
"... That's... That's awful," Mary said softly. "I'm sorry that happened. I know exactly how you feel..."
"Okay, so you found the cameras. Did they threaten you not to tell anyone?" Galilea inquired suddenly. Mary started and looked fearfully around. "Oh, it's fine. I've tested it before; either they can't really hear us in here, or there aren't any cameras."
"But... wouldn't they put them everywhere?" Mary asked, raising an eyebrow. "It doesn't make sense otherwise..."
"I don't really know why. I work here all day, taking care of the horses, so I know this barn like the back of my hand," Galilea said, relaxing back against the slightly prickly hay.
Mary laid her head down a bit, then sat up again when a piece of the dead and dried grass stuck her uncomfortably in the back of the neck. "Ugh... So, are people allowed to leave, then?"
Galilea's even expression morphed into a scowl. "No, we're not. Once, a man I didn't really know tried it. All I know is that he didn't make it outside, but we still never heard from him again. Of course, those in charge would rather us believe that he had been attacked by Zodiac the minute he stepped outside the walls. That's what they told us all, anyway."
"How do you know he didn't make it out there, then?" Mary asked her curiously.
"Because I saw him getting dragged away by the guards in the middle of the night," the redhead answered, sighing. "I have insomnia, after all."
"... This place is awful," Mary stated, sitting up fully with her hands at either side. "I don't think we can stay here any longer. Any of us. We should try to do something about this, like fight the system. There's got to be some way, right?"
Galilea sighed gently. "I'd love to, but I just can't see a way to do that when Kavalieris and his little circle have all the guardsmen wrapped around their pinky fingers."
"Sure, but I have a bit of a secret weapon," Mary said quietly, a mischievous grin forming on her face. "You're from the UK, right?"
"Yeah, my family and I moved from London about half a year before the virus cropped up," she replied.
"Okay, well, you must know what England is like. Right?"
"Sure, it's not a bad place," Galilea gave. "But what are you getting at?"
"Well, what if I told you that the countries of the world, like England, were alive and people?"
Galilea stared at her for a second, and then started to giggle. "Oh, come on. That's a ridiculous notion. Countries are masses of land, nothing more. Well, and a government. But still. You weren't smoking anything before, were you?" she laughed.
"I'm serious!" Mary insisted. "I know him. England, I mean. Come on, you should meet him. You're kind of one of his citizens, after all."
Galilea stood and smiled skeptically. She had been slow to open up to Mary, but over the course of their chat she was showing many more sides to herself that she tended to keep hidden. "Alright, let's go meet this 'England' you speak of."
~
"Hey, Arthur!" Mary waved to the Brit, who looked up from a stack of papers sitting in front of him. He was sitting in his apartment and on the floor, using the coffee table as a work desk while he sat on a dingy couch cushion.
"Hello there, Mary. Are you feeling better now?" he inquired.
"Yeah, thanks," she replied. "So, hey, I have a friend here who wants to meet you." Mary stepped aside a bit to reveal the suddenly reluctant Galilea, who stood there with her arms folded protectively over her chest.
Ever the gentleman, Arthur stood up and walked over to shake her hand. Galilea gave it to him hesitantly. "It's nice to meet you. What's your name?"
"Galilea," the auburn-haired teen answered.
Arthur's eyebrows rose a bit at the sound of her voice while he released her hand. "You're from London?" he asked, pinpointing the origin of her accent immediately.
"Y-Yes, I am," she replied.
"So, here's the thing," Mary began almost smugly. "She didn't believe me when I told her about you guys, and I was wondering if you could prove it to her somehow."
"'Told her about us'?" he said, frowning a bit. "Mary..."
"Was I not supposed to?" she asked him.
Arthur sighed. "I guess it doesn't really matter nowadays, so it should be fine." He turned to Galilea. "I don't know what she's been saying about me, or the others for that matter, but yes. I'm the personification of Great Britain."
Galilea's grey-blue eyes widened. "But... how?"
"It's a complicated matter, to say the least," Britain answered, absentmindedly scratching at an itch on the back of his neck. "The nations of the world are personified, so I'm far from being the only one out there. I was traveling with a few of them when we arrived here, in fact--"
"ARTHUR THEY DON'T HAVE HAMBURGERS HERE!"
Said Brit clapped a hand over his ringing ear and glared daggers at the intruding American. "Alfred, what the bloody hell is wrong with you?"
"Not with me, with this freaking cafeteria!" Alfred corrected him. "They don't have hamburgers, man! This is so out of whack!"
"Alfred, for starters, where would they even get the meat for hamburgers?" Arthur told him. "I don't exactly see any cows around here, unless they were going to use the horses."
That made Galilea gasp in a somewhat offended manner, and that reminded Arthur that he'd been having a conversation with her before that buffoon had interrupted. The Brit turned back to the redhead and gestured to the pouting American. "By the way, this idiot is the United States of America."
"Hey, who're you callin' an idiot?" America shot back loudly.
"You, dummkopf! I am trying to relax here, so quit your incessant shouting!" Germany roared from the open doorway of his bedroom. Well, it was getting late, and his work as a guardsman wasn't entirely easy.
"And that's Germany," Arthur supplied after the German's door had slammed shut.
"Uh... I... What?" Galilea stuttered.
-----------------------------------------------
Hahaha~ This was a fun chapter to write! I hope you enjoyed Galilea's more substantial appearance in this episode. She's an interesting character, to say the least.
The picture on the side is her, too. She's supposed to be recently out of high school, or at least she was when the plague struck. Now she's about 19, hence why I referred to her as a teen once in this chapter.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll join me in the next one when it comes out!
Russia: Join? Why not just become one?
Bookie: Uhm... I'll pass, thanks.