Cherokee coughed, bowing his head. Tears welled in his eyes, and he shifted in his chains. His arms were locked behind him, and he was leaning in an almost 45° angle. He wasn't alone in the cell, Coahoma, his sister, was also in the cell. She was the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Adany looked over to Coahoma, and her cougar head raised to face him. She was stuck in a bowing position, making it hard for the two to see each other. Her cougar body was chained to the ground by glistening silver. She was a Wampus cat, with a body like a centaur, but instead of being part-horse, she was part-cougar, with a cougars head.
He understood why they were so afraid of her, she was heavily chained and kept down for a reason- their own fear.
It made him feel better just to see her orange eyes, and he lowered his head once more, her copying him. It was easier for her to just lay, damn her muscle mass.
He didn't know how long they'd been here.
Someone could say weeks, or months, or maybe a year, and he'd believe it. It was like time was slower. The door creaked open. Occasionally, when they noticed that both were awake, they came with food and water- only enough to keep one alive, mind you.
A bowl, carried by a young woman, was placed against his lips, and he took it without a fight. He was fairly sure there was some sort of supplement in the water, but he could never pinpoint it.
"You got anything so I can move a bit?" Coahoma asked, before coughing. Her throat was raspy, and Adany gulped and looked away.
"I'm afraid not," the woman replied, getting another bowl from outside before bringing it in and giving it to Coahoma, just after her coughing fit had ended.
"Why are you doing this to us?" Adany asked. His voice cracked- he hadn't spoken in a while. His face was a little red from nerves.
"Because, we haven't determined if you're a danger to society or not," she replied, as if she was being kind. She walked up and cupped his cheek, and he faded into the contact no matter how much he despised it. He didn't know how long it had been since he felt any contact.
"I'm not," Adany croaked, "we're both not. We don't care about your society, we just want to go home."
She looked at him solemnly for a moment, before a man burst into the room.
"Someone's escaped in Tennessee! The mind reader!" he exclaimed, and the two siblings looked between themselves. So, either Illinois or Tala was out, "And, we were looking to see if there were any other escapees, since they want a new count, the box in Wyoming was busted!"
"What?" she asked, "But I was there, that door can last through six tons of pressure."
"Well, someone very strong broke it down," he replied, "c'mon, those two are here. We need to count all the others, make sure everyone's chains are on tight."
She nodded, and followed behind him, shutting the door behind her.
The two siblings shared a glance, Coahoma smiling up at him, and Adany keeping a blank, surprised face before it faded into a chuckle.
Zaltana looked down at her nephew, checking over his feeding tube and making sure he was getting all the nutrients he needed. He still wasn't awake, but he was breathing, so she continued to clean the holes in his skin with more acid so they didn't smother the tubes, and tried to get a reaction out of him.
Connecticut was as blank as ever.
She sighed. She didn't know how Samuel did it- stared down at the people he knew hurt without a reaction. Sure, he'd lived through more than two hundred years about the bullshit, but that still didn't make her understand how he could.
Illinois came into the room, and she glanced at him.
"What?" she asked, and he looked over at Connecticut with pity. Her eyebrows furrowed a little- he never looked at his siblings with pity. The torture had changed him, and that was when she realized.
"I'm going to look for her," he said, "I want to know she's alright."
Well, there was one sibling he would always care about- his twin sister, Indiana. She was a little firecracker.
"We don't have a lead. You can't just go mindlessly searching."
"Watch me."
"No," she said, grabbing his arm, "I need you here. I need to know you're okay."
Illinois realized in that moment how the solitude had changed his aunt. He knew she'd been alone, wandering aimlessly to try and find them, but only then he realized how much it had drained her.
He nodded, standing with his arms crossed, "How long do you think he's been starved?"
"All six months. They just dropped him off in a box and left him there," she replied, "probably thought he was useless because he didn't fight back."
Illinois chuckled, "he was always one of the smart ones."
She looked at him for a moment, before ruffling his hair. He was back in his normal clothes, black ripped jeans, leather jacket and stained white shirt, and it made her a little more comfortable. At least it wasn't a hospital gown, that just reminded her of the inhumane treatment he faced.
"You don't have to feel bad about how I was treated," Illinois said, casually, "and I'm glad you like my fit."
She laughed, before looking over to Connecticut. He shifted slightly, trying to get more comfortable, and Zaltana's face broke out into glee. Illinois let a little smile sneak onto his face as well.
"How do you think mom is doing?" he asked, and she glanced back.
"I don't know," she replied. He should have escaped by now. He should be back by now- her thought process stopped when she realized that Illinois was reading her mind.
Illinois looked at the ground, "What can I do to help?"
"Try to find anything we missed."
Ivan was in his room, sweeping up the glass. It was late afternoon now, as if the entire day had escaped them. Germany had spent four hours interrogating the two humans as well as Illinois, and made most of them sit in for it.
He put the glass into a trash can, before stripping the bed of it's sheets, placing the gun gently on the bedside table. There was only one bullet left in it from Alfred's daring attempt to stay free, and he didn't want to unload it.
The mattress was trashed but the box-spring was usable. He looked at the dresser, opening the bottom shelf to find Alfred's stash. Adult toys, weed, and what he was looking for was in the drawer. He pulled out the stack of cash, looking around the room. He had a good three thousand dollars to fix the place up.
He didn't know why he wanted to, it would be so much easier to just pocket the money and leave the room how it was, but he felt like being nice. God, he kinda hated being nice.
He also realized that he would have to ask Zaltana to get him in and out of the valley, and he evaluated whether or not he should just leave it before deciding whatever he felt at the moment was worth more than his pride.
Italy was standing on the roof of the mansion. He'd found a latter that led up to it. There was nothing weird, besides the marks on the panels from where someone had hooked ropes.
There were a pair of binoculars on the edge of the roof, and he picked it up without thinking, placing them against his eyes and looking out over the valley. He didn't think about why they would be as strong as they were.
He smiled, he was sure he could see the entrance from here, but his smile faltered when he realized the tunnel was opening. He looked at it for a second, before three military vehicles came through the opening.
He lowered the binoculars, his eyes wide, before he ran back to the latter that went downstairs, then down the elevator of the seven floor mansion. He was sweating, cursing, as he clicked the buttons like mad, trying to get all the way down to the first floor as fast as possible.
He bolted to the hall where the nations were staying, bursting into the living room area.
"They're back!" he yelled, "They're coming for Illinois!"
Russia had walked in behind him just as he said that, before walking out. Zaltana growled, before looking around.
"Follow me," she said- she hadn't noticed that Russia had come and went, "actually, Illinois, lead them up to the dragon stables and out the side, down the trail. My house. I'll get those humans and Connecticut."
Illinois nodded, jumping up, "Follow me!"
They went into a garage carved into the mountain, full of cars. It was like one of those vertical parking lots, and they guessed that everyone kept their cars here. They went up to the second level, which had just as many cars as the first, before going to the third- this one had three planes in it, and a big hole in the mountain that the planes were expected to come out of.
The fourth level was stable space, the ceiling made of thick roots instead of concrete, like all the others. There was another opening in this one's wall, at the front. Illinois walked along the rickety trail that came from the left of this opening with graceful ease, while everyone else focused on not looking down.
There wasn't exactly a railing to hang on to.
There was a nook in the mountain, where there was a house. It was quite obviously Victorian inspired, the only house they had seen here with the style. There was a garden in the front, and stable space for four horses to the side, with a small hay barn next to it.
They walked down the little pathways through the garden to the porch, where Illinois walked in. On the wall, they noticed, were chains. They only hung there, without cuffs, or really a reason to be there. On another wall were an assorted amount of swords, daggers, and machetes.
There was a gun laying on the table, surrounded with five mismatched chairs.
England glanced between everything. The inside was so much more different than the outside.
"Sit down somewhere," Illinois said, motioning to a living room area. There were empty beer bottles on the table, and an empty vodka bottle on the floor. Illinois wasn't affected by the mess, he was used to there being crap everywhere in Zaltana's house, but the other nations seemed to take offense to it. Well, besides South Italy, Lithuania, and Belarus.
Lithuania started cleaning up.
Some of the nations sat at the table, others on the couch and armchairs, and a few on the floor. Zaltana was up about five minutes later, with Connecticut in her arms- his IV drip with her tail carrying it, and the feeding system getting carried by Juliana.
Abigail looked around, before settling down on the floor near the door.
Zaltana walked with Juliana up to the second story of the house.
Juliana was down first, and she sat down on the floor next to the small bookshelf that was full of magazines. Zaltana came almost five minutes later, not seeming to be in a good state of mind. Her tail lashed, and although she made sure it did not strike anyone, most cringed away when it went towards them.
"Where's Russia?" Zaltana looked around, her ears pressed against her head. Russia walked in just then, looking over to her, before he looked at Estonia.
"Where were you?" she asked, and he didn't answer.
"Estonia, you know my tracker code."
Estonia looked up at him with wide eyes, before he spoke in Estonian: "You tagged them?"
"Yes," Russia replied in his own language, and Zaltana's ears went back before she smiled.
Nobody seemed to expect her to hug him.
Utah's head hung as he looked at his handler. The handler looked back at him, before petting his hair. His hands were cuffed by thin handcuffs, that he normally would have broken without question, but he felt like behaving. His handler's hand went down to his neck and started rubbing it gently, and his entire body calmed.
He looked out at the town. He felt like he remembered it, but he wasn't sure. He wasn't really sure of anything. He just knew that he listened to his handler, or he got punished. He didn't want to be punished.
He was told to unlock this tunnel thing, so he had, and now he was in a valley, sitting in the back of an armed vehicle with only his handler.
"Can I go see?" he asked, pointing out the tiny barred window on the side of the vehicle. His handler shook his head, before smacking him hard on the shoulder.
"No, you know better than to ask something like that," his handler hissed, before picking him up and taking him from the window, setting him on his lap.
Utah nodded, bowing his head.
"Now, you know how to behave," his handler smiled, cupping his cheek, and the thirteen-year-old looked up at the forty-year-old man, before nodding.
Estonia typed quickly, placing the tracker at the front, before turning the computer around. The armed vehicles were still in the valley, but not for long. They'd move eventually.
They stayed in the house for hours, taking turns sleeping in the guest room and on the couch, and France cooked something out of the food Zaltana had.
The next day, the cars moved.
After around six hours, they stopped, somewhere in Northwest Indiana.
"We need a plan before we just burst in," Germany said, and Zaltana hissed at him, her ears pushed back before she squatted down, looking very annoyed.
They were back at the mansion, having come down after they were sure all of them were gone. They were in the original living room, the only difference to it being a turned over table. Estonia had gone over the room for bugs, and hadn't found any, so now Latvia and Prussia were stalking around and continuing to check the other rooms.
Belarus continued looking over Estonia's shoulder, "What city is that?"
"Not a city," Zaltana mumbled, "random laboratory."
"How do you know?"
"Because, all the weird shit in America is in a rural as fuck area," Zaltana hissed, looking down at the ground for a second. She didn't seem to have any patience, which tended to be curious for a nation. All they seemed to have was patience.
"Can we go?" she asked, "I'm not risking my fucking family getting hurt because y'all can't get your fucking shit together."
Russia nodded, patting her on the shoulder as she stood. She didn't seem to enjoy being touched when she was mad, but tolerated it from him.
"How, though? How are we going to succeed?" Denmark asked, looking up at her, "They can hold America. They can keep him captured. We don't have a chance."
"Full of mustard gas, they can keep him," she smirked, "but I don't think many humans can last through a blast of that shit."
She looked over to Germany, and he seemed to understand what she was asking before she asked it, "You're good at rigging up gas traps, aren't you?"
Germany gulped, before nodding. It still seemed to be a sensitive topic, but Zaltana didn't care. She just knew that skills were skills, no matter where the fucking hell they came from.
She created a portal carefully, not willing to just teleport them directly into the belly of the beast.
The other side seemed to be a forested area.
"A few people should stay on this side," she said, glancing back at them as Germany walked through, Russia not far behind. Belarus had her knife out, staying close behind her brother. Finland walked through, with Norway, and Romania. England and France stepped through, with Canada behind them. Poland was the last one through. He seemed more curious than courageous.
Illinois was about to take a step, but Zaltana shook her head, and he stayed on that side.
"I'll get you if I need you," she said, and he nodded.
She stalked slowly through the trees, before doing a bit of form changing. Her bones cracked and shrunk and her face twisted in pain. She turned into a sparrow, before flying up into the trees. The nations shared glances, before staying put.
The bird landed a few minutes later, Zaltana coming back in all her glory. She looked more tired after transforming, wavering on her feet before she pointed in the direction that they needed to go.
"Um... I'm not being rude or anything," England said, as they started walking, "but you stick out like a sore thumb."
"Really? I hadn't noticed," she replied, before motioning for a stop. She walked into the brush slowly, and came back with two humans. They weren't sure if they were dead, until she threw them to the ground, revealing two stinger holes into the back of each of their necks.
She turned one of them over, stealing everything from his pockets before looking him over. Slowly, she started transforming once again. Norway seemed to pick up on what her style was, turning the other one over and shifting into him- or well, wrapping an illusion around himself.
Zaltana studied his hands carefully, making sure she had both of them, and especially the thumbs, perfect. Then, she studied eyes, just in case, making sure they were exactly right- them being wrong would be costly.
Norway took the things out of his pockets, placing them in the respective pockets of his 'uniform', as Zaltana started doing the same, before she picked up the big gun and strapped it over her back.
Zaltana hanged a little mouthpiece to Germany before placing one on the inside of her cheek.
Norway took his man's gun, and the two of them started walking towards the base, leaving the nations to their own whims.
"Test," Zaltana's voice flickered to life, before she coughed, "test."
She sounded like a man now- and they were guessing it was like the man she had turned into.
"Affirmative," Germany said, putting the headpiece on. There was a microphone near his mouth, and a headphone in one ear.
"Follow behind us, there's a depot where they have canisters of gas," she said, "I'll lead you right past it."
"Okay," Germany replied, before motioning for the nations to follow.