Book 1 - Puppets

XIII - Near Lethal Car Rides

Russia wakes up to the ringing of his phone next to his head. He sits up and sees the other occupants of the room are already awake. He turns his attention back to his phone and flips it over.

'New York.'

Listless, he answers.

"Hello?" Russia grumbles, yawning

"Hey, Russia. Sorry if I woke you up, but I wanted to contact you before you go. I take it this has not gone well?"

"It has not," Russia mumbles, rubbing his face, "Do you have any suggestions?"

"Suggestions? Yes. Investigate reports of weird noises and disappearances from some caves around there. If they are hiding out somewhere, it's probably going to be somewhere in the caverns."

"Okay. Thank you."

New York hangs up, and Russia sits back.

'Caves?'

'It makes sense,' he figures, 'it would be a good place to hide out away from most other people.'

Then, his phone buzzes. Picking it up, he sees that New York had sent a few links to a few articles describing the reports he had mentioned.

"What was that about?" Canada asks.

"New York called to tell us to start investigating the cave systems. He said that it is likely that it is where the countries may be kept," Russia replies with a yawn.

"That makes sense," Massachusetts comments, "and searching in the mountains has only led to trouble."

They quickly pack their belongings into the car and hurry out.

The clerk watches them passively with a furrowed brow and dead eyes.

'Did he expect something to have happened to us?'

Russia shivers, and he stares at the wall next to the clerk's head. Canada steps up beside him.

"We are here to check out. How much for the room?"

The clerk doesn't answer, just staring at them with a blank expression. Canada offers a strained smile and digs through his wallet. He pulls out a handful of bills, both American and Canadian, and drops them on the desk.

Russia turns around to lead the group back out to the car. He makes sure not to turn his back entirely on the clerk behind the counter. He can feel the clerk's eyes staring a hole into his back.

Texas hops into the driver's seat, and Russia settles into the passenger seat, prepping to navigate as the others throw bags into the trunk.

'It smells better in here than in the room. I don't taste mold.'

Texas pulls out of the parking lot as soon as everyone is in their seats, too impatient to wait for them to fasten their seatbelts. A few minutes down the road, they stop for gas before taking off into the mountains once again.

"That clerk was creepy, eh?" Canada comments from the backseat.

Russia nods.

"It looked like he knew something," Louisiana comments, suspicion in her voice.

"I wonder what that would be," Massachusetts grumbles sarcastically.

Texas nods in agreement, his eyes darting to the trees.

"What's got you so jumpy, Tex?" Louisiana asks.

Texas tightens his grip on the wheel.

"Last night. I woke up to a weird noise only to see a hand tapping on the window. A hand! We were on the second floor." Texas exclaims, throwing a hand in the air.