We Don't Care (Gerpol)

Chapter 30

Germany's P.O.V.

Lithuania and Slovakia hopped into our car, and I started speeding down the road as fast as I could.
"Where's your house?" I asked Lithuania, yelling over the loud buzz of the car against the pavement. "Take a right there and then just keep driving!" He yelled back. I swerved to the right, Austria and Slovakia being thrown against the left side of the car from the centripetal force.

"There's no way this is legal," Slovakia said, clutching her head.

"When do we ever follow the law?" Austria said with a grin at the Slovakian.

We were there in 10 minutes, immediately jumping out of the car. Thunder boomed in the distance, the sky darkening with angry grey clouds. Lithuania was the first to pull on the door. "It's locked," he said in dismay.
"Stand back," Austria herded the couple away from the door as I took a step back.

"For the Fatherland!" I yelled, kicking the door with my boot. It blew out immediately, shattered to pieces.

"My door," Lithuania said with a sad face. Slovakia patted him on the back.
"No time for funerals, we gotta move!" Austria declared, taking them both by the arms and running after me. The Lithuanian cast another sad look at the wood scattered on the floor.

I cupped my hands over my mouth. "Poland!"
No response.

"Polska!" His brother yelled down the hallways. Slovakia also started calling out.
Any hope I had suddenly started to slip away. If he wasn't here, I wouldn't know where to look.
If Poland wasn't here, he was gone forever.

The tears leaked out of my eyes. "Poland answer me! Please!"
"I'll check upstairs," Lithuania offered, taking Slovakia with him.
"I'll look in the back," Austria added, before also hurrying away.

I sunk to my knees, hold my hands out in front of me. No. I refuse to believe it.
He was here. He was.

I wiped away the tears roughly, shaking myself out of it. "Poland!!" I yell again, only to find my voice is raspy.

Austria reappears into view. I know before she even says anything.
"Sorry. No sign of him."

I stand up and look at her, the words failing to escape my mouth.
"Maybe Lithuania and Slovakia found something." She offers, putting a hand on my shoulder. I look the other way, still upset. That's when my eyes rest on a table.
It's cracked in a few places, and it's certainly not clean. A plate sits on the top, but it's empty.
I circle around, peeking in the cupboards and cabinets. They're all bare, except for a sealed jar, a can of change, and a loaf of hard bread. I stare around in shock. There's almost no food anywhere. No wonder he wanted to leave his house.

But then my eyes catch on a shelf by the door. A piece of cloth waves slightly in the chilly breeze.
It all happens in slow motion. I reach for the cloth, and it falls into my hands after a tug.
The red, black, and gold pattering matches my flag, despite the coat of dust on it, I shake it off, wrapping it around my neck.

There's no doubt about it: this was my scarf. The one I gave to him all those years ago.
I start to cry, my emotions spilling out of my eyes as tears that had never known consolation. Austria hugged me from the back. "There, there Germs."
I sniff the leftover ones away, burying my face in the scarf. Why would Poland keep it? Did it really mean that much to him?

To me, it had just been another scarf, one of the many we had and could afford. But to him, perhaps it was much more.
And for that, I would find him. I just had to.

Suddenly, Lithuania and Slovakia came running down the stairs. Austria and I looked up.
"Well we didn't find him, but we did find this." Slovakia said, holding out a piece of rope. I shuddered, remembering Czech, and how he tied us up in his basement. How he spilled all of Poland's secrets. And how I walked away.
I shook away the thought.