Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 75

When Arthur woke up, there was sunlight streaming through his curtains, a note attached to his alarm clock. He sat up, stretched and glanced at the light creating a cut against the room, reaching over to take the note and read it. It took him a second to figure out what it was saying, and then, he leapt out of bed and ran to the bathroom. Surprise Meetings were never good, but Joao had sounded so panicked when he'd spoken on the phone, that it couldn't be anything that stupid. In the background, he could hear Antonio shouting something he couldn't quite catch in Spanish, and then Mavuto crying in a series of muffled sobs.

Whatever had happened wasn't good, so they'd shifted the meetings around a little, brought the next one forwards, and now, he was going to be late, not just to a meeting, but one in his own country.

"Bloody hell" he muttered, pulling on a shirt and slipping his feet into a pair of shoes, grabbing a tie on the way out.

Apparently, his alarm had decided not to go off. Either that, or he'd not set it, but either way, the meeting had started half an hour ago. He wasn't expecting them to wait for him, but if they did, he'd sure have some explaining to do for turning up so late. At this rate, he was going to be even later than Alfred usually was.

The thought put on a break and he stopped, hand halfway to the door, keys in hand. His hand, hovering, started to shake and he dropped it to his side, turning round and glancing down the hall. There was a mirror to his side. He looked a mess: hair more tussled than normal, shirt creased... did he have to go?

Yes.

Of course he had to go. Obviously, he didn't look ready, at all, but that wasn't the point. He had to go. He reached for the door again and opened it, locking it behind him. 

By the time he got to the building, he was already an hour late. As he parked and got out of his car, he was aware of a figure running out of the door almost frantically. He paused for a minute, staring at them as they ran. From this distance, he couldn't quite tell who they were, but they almost looked like Feliciano.

Except, they couldn't be.

Then, the building blew up. The person who'd been running disappeared in a cloud of fire. People walking past in the street froze, some screaming, some pointing, some taking pictures or videos, others calling people, and all Arthur could do was stare. Slowly, not wanting to know, he took his phone out of his pocket tapped into one of the satellites. It couldn't be true. Whatever had happened... he had the wrong building, didn't he? While the page was loading, he laughed at himself, shaking his head, earning a couple of concerned looks from other people, and pulled the note from his pocket, checking the building name on the plaque on the gate.

Nope, it was the right place.

"Shit" he covered his mouth with a hand and took a deep, shaky breath, going back to his phone. The satellite imagery had loaded now and he glanced up and down the screen, turning it this way and that, trying to get a better look at it, because it couldn't be right. It took him a second to spot the single piece of land swimming in a huge ocean.

It wasn't right. It couldn't be, because if it was, it would mean that...

"Shit" he muttered again, squeezing his eyes shut. Leon, Emil, Ludwig, Gilbert, Antonio, Joao, Mavuto, Bharat, Zuma... they were all gone.

He had no idea what was going on. One minute, there had been land, the next, there hadn't, except for his own tiny little island, but even then it was barely anything. He zoomed in as much as he could on every single area where there could be landmass if one of them had survived.

Nothing.

"Insane." Arthur glanced to his side where a girl was stood peering over his shoulder. "I've no idea what's going on, but I think we could've all done with one of those apps while this was all going on. I mean, not that it would've done much" the scratched their head. "I mean, who would've thought the end of the world could save us eh? Out of everyone? And who would've thought it would only take like, three months?"

"Insane" Arthur muttered agreement and put his phone in his pocket, turning round and walking away, leaving his car in the middle of the crowd of people, now accompanied by police officers, fire fighters and ambulances.

They wouldn't pull anyone from the wreck.

There was no way anyone would've survived that. He took large steps against the surging crowd, turning a couple of corners to get away. One quiet road later, a pub appeared, and without thinking, he pushed open the door and seated himself at the bar.

"Pint a' lager, please" he said, half raising his hand.

"Make that two" someone said, sitting down next to him.

The bartender nodded, pulling up two pint glasses, filling both and placing them in front of them.

"So" he companion said. "This is how it's turned out has it?"

Arthur nodded, turning to look at him, although he already knew who it was. Oliver smiled weakly back at him.

"You were supposed to be in the building" Oliver sighed. "And Luciano was supposed to get out of there alive."

Arthur shrugged. "Well, things never turn out as we want them to, do they?"

Oliver glared at him and took a gulp from his glass, grimacing at the taste. "So, what now?"

Arthur opened his mouth to reply, but closed it and sipped instead, shaking his head. "I don't know."

"Right then" Oliver said, wiping froth off his upper lip. "As the last country left in the world at the present, I suggest a few more pints."

"You've not finished that one yet" Arthur said, gesturing to the half full pint.

Oliver glanced in it, then tipped his head back and swallowed the rest of it in one gulp. "Now I have. Drink up, we're getting drunk."

Arthur laughed.

***

At one 'o' clock in the morning, the bartender finally decided to kick them out, literally, after Oliver smashed a glass over the counter.

"I will regret this in the morning" Arthur said as the cold air hit him in the face.

Oliver grinned, flushed red in the face, and looped an arm around his shoulders. "But we'll deal with that problem when it comes to it, eh?"

Arthur laughed and drunkenly started to stagger down the road, Oliver weakly keeping up with him, giggling the entire time. They'd only got a couple of steps down the road before Oliver punched a fist in the air and sang loudly, slurring every second word:

"Rule, Britannia! Rule the waves, Britannia rules the waves."

Oh my god, I've finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have loved writing these books so much! 2 books and 75 chapters later!!!!!!!
Thank you so much to everyone who has read them, voted, commented etc, coz I never expexted over 4 thousand of you would read this book alone!!!!! Special thanks to Anime_4_life5, Amelianeive101, ChocoholicBezza and TheGeminiZodiac, who have all voted and commented so much throughout!!
Thank you so much!!!
Signing out for the last time here,
MiddleEarth4eva
^-^