Book 4 - Spring

XXXV - Enclosed

Russia is helped off the ground and led to the couch. He collapses onto it with a sigh. He looks away from the windows, tuning out the chatter around him.

'This is not going to end well.'

"What do we do now?" Massachusetts asks, and Russia's head rises at the noise.

"I don't know," America replies, his voice blank.

"Dad?" A worried voice calls.

"I can't wait to be home," Egypt says.

"I think they're tryin' to smoke us out," Texas says, his eyes narrow as he scans the calm landscape outside.

The room erupts into chaos. Voices overlap with each other, and Russia's head is filled with noise. He flinches and tries not to cover his ears.

"So do we camp out here?"

"What else are we gonna do?"

"Fight through 'em?"

"How? We don't know how many people there are."

Russia starts shivering, his mind buzzing.

"And the magic is wicked strong too."

"I'm scared."

"What if this is how they capture us?"

"No, we got this far."

"But this is new."

"What if we get frozen again?"

"Frozen?"

Russia covers his ears at the noise, gasping. Then, he takes a deep breath. The talking gets louder, and his heart pounds in his chest.

'I can't think!'

'I can't breathe.'

"Quiet!" he demands, his hands falling to his lap.

'I sound like my father,' he registers faintly.

Everyone goes quiet, whipping around to look at him. Ukraine has a weird look on his face, but Russia decides to ignore it for now. He pants for a second, quickly scanning the room, his eyes wide.

"Are you-" Ukraine starts.

"We will find a way through this. And if they wanted to freeze us, they would have. Why give us warning?" Russia asks the group, ignoring Ukraine's eyes.

"Then, what do we do?" Utah asks, his glasses slightly askew on his face.

Russia goes quiet for a second, feeling eyes on him, desperate for answers.

"We need more physical weapons," Canada announces.

The room turns to face him.

"And what happens if we get attacked?" Massachusetts asks, his eyes narrow and his hands raised.

"No magic," Russia says.

"Okay, I got that much," Massachusetts says sarcastically, turning back toward Russia, "but what do we do?"

"We go on the defensive," Dixie says hoarsely.

"So we're just sitting ducks then?" Massachusetts rebutts.

"We're being surrounded," Russia says, "we don't know what they might have."

'And I don't want to make this worse.'

"And we have no way to prepare if we run," Maine chimes in, "Verge and I are trying our best, but we can't do any weaponsmithing on the road."

"And Bama and I won't find nothing useful for it either," Mississippi adds.

"Dixie? What do we do?" one of the states asks from the crowd.

The room goes quiet, and Dixie sits up a little, flinching at the movement. He coughs lightly, cradling his ribs at the movement.

"I don't have it all figured out..."

'But you sound like you have ideas,' Russia thinks, relief twinged with guilt tucks itself away in his chest.

"But you probably have more than we do," America says reluctantly.

Dixie sighs.

"We need to have rotating guards, and another meal time for that," he says, gesturing with his good hand, "I'll draw up a map for where y'all'd be stationed. I'm thinking rotating between stations every maybe 15 minutes."

'He needs to be sleeping, not doing this...'

"Is bunk buddies still gonna happen?" Oklahoma asks.

"Yeah, and I'll be pairing up people who don't already have partners and plan to stay. I'll write that down at some point."

"And us?" Maine asks.

"You and Verge will have to teach some of your siblings how to forge weapons."

"But-"

"You're gonna need the extra hands," Dixie says firmly, "I know neither of you like doin' it, but we don't have time for y'all to do it all yourselves."

"And the fibercrafts?"

"Del is in-charge of it, but I'll figure out who's gonna be helpin' with that."

"Do we start guard rotations now?"

"How do those work again?"

"Hold on y'all," Dixie says, waving his hand, "I just said I don't got it all figured out, but yeah, we should have a watch go out."

"We still have walkie-talkies!" Iowa volunteers.

"And we'll make use of those," Dixie says, giving her a grateful look.

"So that's it? We just wait here?" Ohio demands.

"You will listen to Dixie," Finland says, her tone final, "There is nothing else we can do."

"And y'all," Dixie says, gesturing to Phillippines, "will just have to be careful heading out."

"Obviously," Philippines says with a smirk.

Dixie sighs, rubbing his face.

"All y'all should probably also see what I've still got in storage."

"What are you talking about?"

'Is there more stuff here that can help us?'

"I've got some old hunting and magic stuff," Dixie explains, "and it ain't like I'll be using it."

Dixie lets a pained chuckle past his lips, and Russia flinches at it.

"Where haven't we checked?"

"I don't remember where I put everythin'," Dixie says, looking down, "but anythin' y'all gave me, it's around here somewhere."

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