Deadly Secrets

11.

Canada's POV:
I finally finished some paperwork I had been working on since just after breakfast and stretched as I looked around the bedroom. Australia is still sleeping, despite the fact that it's just after twelve, he had just flown in last night and apparently got hit by a case of jet lag.
"Hello, everyone," I said as I walked out of the room I share with my brothers and into the dining room where everyone had gathered for lunch. I received various greetings in return from my 10 provinces and my uncles, who they were helping set the table for lunch.
I was instructed by UN to stay at my father's house with my children until this Phobos problem is resolved. Though the house has been a bit crowded since everyone got here yesterday night. It's not like the house is small, it's actually a bit on the large side, it's just that there are so many people here at once. In total, there are 20 people here: Uncle England, Uncle Wales, Auntie North Ireland, Uncle Scotty, Uncle Ireland, Aussie, New Zealand, my dad (UK but goes by Britain), my mom (France), and all 10 of my provinces, my territories were never personified. It's just like a family reunion- well no not exactly, America isn't here- actually, yes, it is exactly like a family reunion because I've never seen her come to one, I'm not sure if it's because she didn't want to or dad never invited her but she's never come to an actual family reunion. The only time I get to see her outside of work anymore is when the provinces want to visit their cousins. Speaking of which, I really hope one of my kids doesn't slip up and mention that they've met their cousins, I know that Uncle Scotty and Ireland knew about the states before the meeting yesterday, but if dad finds out that we knew and never told him, we are in for quite the scolding... and rant... and lecture. Let's just hope we can all keep our mouths shut.
"Bonjour mon fils. How are you?"(good morning my son) France said as she looked up from the newspaper she was reading.
"I'm good, and it's not morning anymore"
"Oh, oops,"
"What about you, have you had a pleasant day?"
"Oui, I would have, if your papa hadn't been grumbling for most of it," she responded with an annoyed tone. I looked across the table at my kids to see them giving each other slight looks of dread, already knowing exactly what he was angry about.
"I was not grumbling. I was simply asking why my own daughter wouldn't tell me she has children!"
"A question you know I don't have an answer to," France said, keeping her voice calm.
"Hey, dad, do you think that England's futbol team will beat Germany's again this season?" I asked, trying to change the uncomfortable subject to something more pleasant. Thankfully he took the bait and began talking about futbol for fifteen full minutes, only stopping to greet Aussie when he finally woke up. After that everyone broke off and had their own little side conversations which merged back into one main conversation again when uncle Scotty  loudly commented on the conversation between Aussie and two of my kids.
After a while of eating and listening to the various conversations, I noticed a peculiar noise. I stopped eating and went still, trying to distinguish the noise from the ruckus inside the house. "Uh, dad? Are you okay?" My daughter, Ontario, said noticing my odd behavior. The others at the table took notice too and looked at me curiously.
"Shhhh," I said, "do you hear that?" Everyone immediately fell silent and listened as well.
"Sounds like a truck engine," New Zealand commented.
"More like two," Aussie corrected his twin. There was a moment of silence before everyone rushed to get up.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Stay away from the windows! Stay where you are!" I yelled, trying to get everyone to stay where they were, most of them realized their mistake immediately, but  a few of my younger kids needed to be held back by their siblings and have their mistake explained to them before they would stay put. "Aussie, you come with me to check it out, the rest of you stay put, we don't know if whatever that is is dangerous or not, so we can't have a crowd of people at the windows, alright?"My statement was met with a few grumbles but no outright opposition, so Aussie and I made our way to the living room, where a large window is.
We didn't go right up to the window, that would be stupid, especially if  members of Phobos were watching us, it would be like going outside and yelling "Hello! We can hear you!" Instead, we sat on the couches facing each other near the window and discreetly looked sideways out of the window at the road outside. Dad lives in a suburbs type of area so all I could see were houses and a few parked cars in their driveways, but I could still hear the noise coming from outside.
"There's two big black trucks stopped near the house," Aussie said quietly, he was sitting across from me so I couldn't see where he was looking.
"They're just sitting there?" I asked.
"Nah, they're not parked, they're creeping along a bit but very slowly."
We sat there waiting for a while before I could see the lead truck out of my peripheral. I leaned back and scratched my nose, trying to make the way I moved look completely natural as I turned slightly to get a better look. I could see a person in the first truck that was sitting on the side closest to the house. They were wearing a ski mask... all black as far as I could see...and... they were staring at me. I immediately looked away and at Aussie, as if we were having a conversation. He raised an eyebrow and I got up, coughed the word Phobos, and walked back to the dining room with Aussie not far behind.
"Well, lad?" Uncle Scotty asked, "What'd ya see?"
"Phobos is watching us, the people in the trucks were clearly members and they were looking at the house. They've probably passed the house a few times by now without us noticing."
"We need to get out of here," Manitoba said, staring absently at the table.
"Agreed," Dad said, "the only problem is where do we go to? We can't go to another country in Europe, there would be too many of us in one place, we would be easy targets." Everyone went quiet at that, nobody knew where to go either. I noticed a look on my youngest child, Newfoundland's, face, as if he had an idea but didn't know if he should share it with us.
"Do you have an idea, Newf?" I asked, looking him in the eye. He looked down for a second before making eye contact with me.
"Well... I know grandpa might not like it, but... well... what if we went to our cousins' house?"
"That might not be a bad idea. They would probably have enough room and it sounds like they have an arsenal as well." Auntie North Ireland said, chuckling a bit at the end. Murmurs of agreement were heard, but when I looked over at my father, I couldn't tell if he would agree or explode. There seemed to be a mixture of anger and consideration on his face. I knew he definitely wasn't happy with this solution but it was the only one it seemed we could think of. I didn't like the idea of going to one of our houses because they could follow us and we would be no better off than before, there is strength in numbers and I don't feel that we have enough right now, if Phobos were to attack.
"Then it's settled, I'll call America right now," I said, expecting to hear protest from my father but, surprisingly, he stayed quiet and watched as I dialed my sister's number. I guess he must be curious about his other grandchildren, or he just can't think of a decent argument. I pressed call and put it on speaker, she answered on the third ring.
"Hey, Nada, what's up?" She said, there was noise in the background but it got quieter, as if she had walked into another room.
"We need to ask a huge favor from you."
"... Why? What is it? What's wrong?" She said, her voice taking on a motherly sort of tone while remaining mostly calm.
"We're being watched."
"By Phobos?"
"Yeah, we can't stay here and we can't go to anyone in Europe."
"That's for sure, it'd be one stop shopping for Phobos... you want to come here, don't you?"
"We know it's not ideal, but it's the only thing we could think of and we need to move quickly, they could attack at any time... I need to keep the provinces safe." I hated that I had to ask her this but we need to go somewhere. She would at least consider it if I mentioned the provinces, I'm sure of that.
"..." We can hear her muttering to someone on the other end, probably Confederate. I looked up at the people surrounding the table, some looked nervous, others, like Dad, were staring at the phone with a look of concentration, as if that would make her answer faster. "Alright." She said, after a few moments of silence. I breathed a sigh of relief as she continued, "we're not staying at this house much longer, but you can come with us to another one. How soon do you think you can get a plane ticket to Iowa?"
"Immediately," Dad said before I could answer, "I have connections, we can get a flight as soon as we need one."
"Good... that would probably be about a nine-ish hour flight...it's 7:50 here right now so you'd be getting here at about 5:00pm if you were to leave now... and we're about an hour and a half drive away from Des Moines so we can come get you from the airport and bring you to our house in time for dinner... yeah that should work." She concluded after talking mostly to herself for a bit.
"Good, thank you so much."
"Ah, don't mention it, I'd do anything for those nieces and nephews of mine," she said, causing my kids to break out in grins.
"Hey! What about your brothers?" Aussie asked in mock offense. She laughed before responding.
"Oh, I don't know," she said teasingly.
"Just us!" Alberta chimed in, " 'cause we're better than you guys!" Everyone shared a laugh at that.
"Alright," America said, " I'll see you tonight, k?"
"Yep, see ya," I said, hanging up the phone.
Mom was the first to speak, "Thank goodness, I was worried for a moment that she would say no."
"I'm pretty sure the only reason she said yes was because she knows the provinces are with us," I said.
"Well I'm glad she said yes, personally I'm looking forward to meeting my other great-nieces and nephews," England commented with my other uncles and aunt agreeing.
"Well they're not any greater than us!" Newfoundland exclaimed.
Manitoba rolled her eyes, "He's not saying that they are, that's his relation to them, and us," she said smacking the back of his head.
"Hey, don't hit your brother," I scolded, " Why don't all of you go upstairs and start packing your things."
By the time everyone had packed their things Aussie had figured out the trucks were passing by about every 15 minutes. With this in mind, we waited almost five minutes after the trucks had passed before quickly shoving our things into our cars and driving to the airport. I was in my car with four of my children; Ontario was driving with another four in her car; Aussie was driving with New Zealand, Ireland, North Ireland, and Newfoundland in his car, and my parents were in the last car with my other three uncles. After about a half hour drive, we made it to the airport and boarded a plane on a direct route to Des Moines International airport and began our trip to Iowa.