This is how it ends - Hetalia roleplay

[snazzy_sloth]

Madeline nodded and watched Ivan walk back over to his pipe. She felt cold and weak without his strong hand to hold onto, then mentally cursed herself for doing so. If I'm going to try and get stronger, it won't start by being afraid at the slightest things.. When Ivan came back, offering another smile and taking her hand tightly again, it made her feel slightly better and more reassured as she hurried after him. He had longer legs than her, so naturally had longer strides and covered more ground quickly. At least the cold wasn't bothering her much - it had numbed her long ago. The snow seemed to turn to sleet after walking for.. what, fifteen minutes? Time seemed to have no meaning or concept throughout the white horizon ahead, behind, and laterally. The Canadian let out a sigh, her breath coming out in small, silvery clouds of vapor that vanished seconds after it appeared. She had a sinking feeling that Ivan hadn't remembered his way back, though she couldn't blame him since one step away from something was a chance you wouldn't find it again until the storm died down. A figure looming up ahead came towards the two and her first thought was that it was one of the infected - which she turned out to be correct about. The same feeling came to her when Ivan let go of her hand but it was less persistent than last time. Her lilac gaze flitted away to the side when the Russian delivered the death blow to the infected in question. She looked back up to see crimson staining the snow and Ivan looking over with a victorious grin. Briefly she wondered how he killed so easily - the thought made her feel uneasy, but safe at the same time - but the thought in question was abruptly cut short when the ashen haired male in front of her was pinned to the ground from something behind it. In an instant, her revolver was drawn and in her hands. However, they were shaking far too much again. If she missed, the bullet would hit Ivan. If she hit it, then he would be safe. In order to do this, she either had to go closer to ensure the shot or make her hands stop trembling. But if she walked any closer, the infected would most likely shoot its quills. Madeline clenched her jaw and pulled her elbows a bit closer to herself in order to stabilize the aim a bit better. Now, with a grimace, she slipped a delicate finger into the trigger guard and finally pressed the trigger after another moment. She hated shooting, or really harming anything at all, but her friend was in danger. Once the infected's head lolled to the side and then slumped off of Ivan and into the snow, Madeline quickly hurried over to her friend. "Vanya! A-are you alright? Please be alright.." She said, placing a hand gently on his shoulder, a worried look crossing her face. She had dropped her revolver when running over to him, so now no longer carried it at the moment.

"Well.. ja, I guess I can understand that. Point taken." Monika replied, watching him fix his hair with a raised eyebrow. It was the apocalypse.. why worry about hair? She shrugged it off, deciding that the untidiness was bugging her anyways. "So.. did you have a camp somewhere around here? Or were you just running, like me?" The German questioned, placing a hand on her hip while staring at him with her unnerving, pale blue eyes. Her visible muscles flexed when she did so since she was wearing her normal black tank top. Her olive green army trousers had dirt and scrapes all over them and her combat boots were scuffed from running for so long. She was sick of running, but it had only been one of her against loads of these.. things, so fighting every time wasn't an option. Monika was a strategist as well as she was a fighter and liked everything to be orderly and in line. Each time, she was too afraid for her life to devise a strategy or plan. Meeting up with Roderich made her have mixed feelings - her trustworthy friend of many years was alive and well, but he was also measuring up to be pretty useless, as he always was. She didn't mean it as an insult at all, but Roderich's fighting days were past him. What lied ahead of him, well.. she just hoped his experience would come back. She didn't wasn't to see her friend killed after all, but didn't want to put her life on the line for his all of the time. Her train of thought faded when the brunette male spoke again. "Alone.. um.. Gilbert was killed. Since then, I've just been.. well, drifting, I guess you would call it." Monika replied, blocking images of her brother's death from her mind and not letting the pain show in her expression. She didn't think Roderich would care very much since he and Gilbert didn't get along very well.

Leon jumped at the sudden voice and hand on his shoulder, arms raised to fight again, but he relaxed almost instantly when he saw a familiar white-haired and purple eyed male. His sobs immediately ceased and he suppressed a sniffle. He hated crying in front of anyone, especially him. "Emil, oh thank god.. you're alive.." He muttered, starting forward to wrap his arms tightly around the other. Moments later, his breathing regulated from crying and he pulled back with what he hoped was a strong and confident smile. "I was looking for you, all over the place." He said, wiping his cheeks on the long sleeves of his red and golden shirt.

[Russia]

Ivan looked up at Madeline and saw that she was holding her revolver out at him and tried not to look as she went to make the shot. Feeling as the infected rolled off of his back shortly after the shot he quickly got up from the ground. “Da, I’m ok” He said, a small smile appearing from the feeling of her gentle touch on his shoulder. Even though he didn't actually feel anything Ivan quickly checked to see if any quills had got him, nothing seemed to actually have got him but it seemed a few quills had somehow managed to pierce his jacket. Quickly Ivan removed them from his jacket and looked at them briefly. They were strange, sort of soft at parts of it, but it wasn't weak, the top of the quill to the point seemed pretty tough. Ivan then tossed the quills to the ground not wanting to hold them anymore in case the parasites came out and infected him that way or something to that affect – That would be highly ironic. “We should keep moving, just in case there’s anymore of the infected hanging around… I would rather not personally greet the snow again” Ivan said, as he grabbed Madeline’s hand again, something for a moment he didn't think he was going to do again after being tackled. With that the tall male went on walking again, trudging through snow that seemed to slowly raise the more they went on. A thought ran through Ivan’s mind that he tried no to linger on, what if they didn't make it through this storm? Slowly from this thought a dark and serious look came over the males without him realizing it. He just kept pressing on through the snow knowing he was use to such weather and that he wasn't going to let some storm easily defeat him. This seemed to prove off for him as what seemed like ten minutes later something came into sight again and as they grew closer to it would be a tree, not only that though, a whole forest of them. Ivan’s expression grew light again as a smile once again appeared seeing that he might have just found his way back to the forest he had come from before getting lost. Even if it wasn't though, the forest could protect them from most of the harsh winds they faced out in the open and if there was any, Ivan could make a fire to warm each other up with. Things have finally started to look up…

A camp? Rodierch though for a brief moment on how he should respond to that “I don’t have a camp but, I was on my way heading towards a place that could be a nice place for survival, at least for a while, but I suppose that depends if anything has change during this whole time” He said, probably over thinking it when he could have more easily said, no but I know a place. Noticing how dirty and scuffed up Monika’s clothing actually looked Roderich wondered to himself how long exactly she been running out on her own. Hopefully she’d think that he wasn’t as useless if he knew a place where they could be safe but he doubted that since to a certain extent he knew he was pretty useless. No I must have some confidence in myself; it won’t be helpful to think like this when something does happen. The fire that was his pride and confidence in him seemed to have died down several notches as he heard about Gilbert. A frown appeared on the Austrians face as he thought about him being gone and even though Roderich and Gilbert never seemed to click with each other he was still another person that was no longer with the living and it was Monika’s brother... He tried to search his mind of what to say to Monika without making her feel any worse “I’m terribly sorry to hear that Monika, he was a good person” He said softly. The thought about the place he had mentioned came to mind again, he did know where this place was but from here it would be a long walk. Roderich then turned around abruptly, not wanting them to dwell on thoughts of the departed and spoke with a sudden strictness “We should start to head north this way if we want to get to any sort of shelter before the sun sets!” And with that the Austrian started to head north without glancing behind to see if Monika was actually following him.

[Adrian Crevan]

Berwald sat on his blanket and looked into the fire, opening one of the cans and giving it to Arthur. In the can was potato soup that was cold and needed to be heated up over the fire.

Emil started crying, pulling Leon in a hug. "Oh my god I thought you were dead... I still don't know where my brother is..."

(Sorry for short reply)

[snazzy_sloth]

<sub>Madeline breathed out a shaky sigh of relief, of which when exhaled was a silver cloud of vapor. Despite her seemingly fragile facade, she had fired a gun many times in her life and had to learn how to get good at it. She could still remember her brother's steady hand on hers while he taught her during practice. He had taught her that she had to keep her hands steady and to breathe evenly. It didn't seem so hard after the first few rounds he'd helped her aim and fire.
However, now the memory just left her with a melancholy feeling that seemed to linger throughout her mind. When would she see Alfred again -- would she ever see him again? Or Francis and Arthur?
She had to clear the concept from her thoughts that it would be a possibility for her family to be dead.. or even worse, one of the infected. Once her mind was subdued, she realized Ivan had gotten up and taken her hand firmly once more. It was sort of an anchor for her. He was real and right here, her dearest friend. That was a miracle she never expected to happen. For now, she would be ever so grateful for that.
A little while more of trudging through the snow didn't bother her very much. Up to her knees were already numb, so at least she wasn't feeling most of the cold from the icy, wet crystals beneath and surrounding her legs and feet. Madeline was sure that they were lost in the whiteout, but didn't say anything to the ashen haired male leading her through it.
The wind kicked up and down occasionally, flinging small pieces of a combination of ice, sleet, and snow across the white wasteland. The Canadian let out an involuntary shiver, the cold seeming to break in past the barriers of her clothing. Her thoughts kept turning on the more negative side of things. One minute seemed like an eternity, much less ten of them.
Her lilac eyes widened when suddenly a line of something other than white graced the horizon. Upon closer inspection, the dark line looked to be a forest. That would shield them from a great majority of the harsh winds, ice, and sleet dominating the two. Perhaps there were even fallen trees that could provide them with fire and possibly even a makeshift shelter. She noticed that Ivan seemed to spot it as well, so she still needn't say anything about it as she followed him through the snow.

"That sounds nice. I just.. well, normally I'm so organized. I always have a plan. But now, I have nothing.. what is happening now, I probably couldn't have prepared for. It makes me feel so frazzled und on the end of my wits." Monika let out a sigh, placing a hand on her hip as she watched Roderich's reaction to the news of Gilbert's death. The two weren't close of course, but his words were more than she expected. "Ja. I believe deep, deep down that he was." She said in reply to his condolences.
Now, there was a few moments of awkward silence which she didn't know what to break with, which is why she was grateful for his abrupt turn. Heading to the place he had mentioned earlier, she supposed. This was confirmed by his next words, so she nodded curtly and stepped after him, easily catching up with his stride. She also had to slow hers a bit, reminding herself that the Austrian didn't get out much.
"So, tell me. Where is this safehaven you were speaking about?" The German asked, figuring she would at least keep a somewhat decent conversation going. It felt unbelievable to have company once again. Gilbert's was nice, she supposed, but he was too loud and too eager to show off. That's what had gotten him killed. Roderich's.. well, he could be annoying and may take a little longer for any running (or anything of the sort), but she told herself that she could deal with him.</sub>

[Russia]

Seeing the woods was a good sign for Ivan, even though his campfire he had before was more than likely covered with snow by now, they still had protection from the harsh, cold winds which was the first step. Now what they had to do was find a good spot to set up a shelter. So as Ivan entered the forest while still having a tight hold onto Madeline's hands, he walked around in search of such a spot while keeping on guard for any infected that may be wondering around. It didn't seem to take too long before the trees would become more closely packed to each other which made it harder to navigate through them and it didn't get rid of the cold winds altogether but the trees did cut down on how harsh it was compared to the open field they were in earlier.

After searching around for a while, Ivan found a decent spot where there was a small clearing of trees giving enough space for the two and a campfire with some room to spare, and finally he let go of Madeline's hand even though it felt a tad lonesome without her soft, small hands and in his own grip. "This look like a good place to set up a campfire," Ivan started with a sweet smile on his face "I will be back with firewood so try to keep warm while I'm gone, ok?" he pulled off his scarf and warped it around Madeline's neck to give her a little bit more warmth while she waited. "And don't worry about me" with that said Ivan walked from the small opening in the trees to go find some sticks to use as firewood while keeping a hand on his pipe just in case. As Ivan searched through the forest for any firewood that there might be, he made sure to keep track of any landmarks or bit of the forest that looked a bit different. How he did search for any sticks he could use was by glancing over a snow cover ground for anything that poked out or kicking at the snow were he thought some would be and this prove to be an alright method since before long he would alright have collected an arm full of sticks. Alright now all I have to do is head back to Madeline and start a fire, but what if were not able to start one? Ivan shook his head to get rid of the though, one thing at a time. Hearing something faintly, Ivan silently waited to try and get a clearer sound of whatever it was, but as a few minutes went by without the noise becoming any clear to him Ivan headed back towards where he had left Madeline, guessing it was just some wildlife.

"Well it was this sort of resort place up near the mountains, which we aren't too terribly far from now and there possibly a low chance for any infected to show up since it is a long stretch from any civilization but it is heavily wooded so if there are any infect they could be hiding. But let not worry about that hurdle till we are there alright?" Roderich pulled a sudden cheerfully nervous tone at the last part having not want Monika to not want to go to this place anymore. He tried to ignore as well how she slowed down for him, he hoped she wouldn't say anything in doubt of him being able to get there, he was trying to work on his physical strength knowing it would be better to be stronger if ever in a tight jam. It would also help him in a sense that Monika would have to hold herself back for his sake. It was a bit surprising she would have wanted to stick around someone who wasn't in shape when it would slow her down, but having someone to talk to was a strong desire so it did make sense. "Yet I'm more than certain that we will be able to get there unharmed, but we might have to camp out somewhere for a night because I do fear it will take us longer to get there then the amount of hours of sunlight we have left and continuing on in the dark is too risky and dangerous even if we were going to have the grace of a full moon tonight." Austria added in as he tried to pick up his pace a bit just to be there as soon as possible

“Thank you Berwald” Arthur said as he took the can. Seeing how thick and lumpy the soup was he guessed that it needed to be heated up so Arthur placed the cold can by near the warmth of their fire and waited. After a while he went to pull the can away but forgot that metal gets hot, so he quickly pulled away his hand and shook it a bit before trying again, this time he grabbed the very top rim of the can and carefully slid it away from the fire then waited till it would cool down a bit. “Once it’s cooled down a bit then we should be able to eat it” Arthur muttered, though he expected no response in return

[Adrian Crevan]

Berwald shrugged. He had heard what Arthur had said, and understood it. He just didn't respond because he was too busy looking at the picture of him and Tino that Tino had taken as a selfie a month ago. He narrowed his eyes in sadness, the aura of his sorrow obvious as it surrounded him. Maybe it could be seen by Arthur. He wouldn't know.

[Russia]

Noticing Berwald's expression, Arthur decided to just to wait in silence since he wasn't sure to say to him. Lost was a hard thing to deal with and seeing Berwald like this reminded him of Alfred and Madeline. He felt like he had failed them in that he should have been there right with the two when this all started to protect them but instead he had no clue wither they were alive, dead or turned... When Arthur finally did eat a bit the food had already started to become cold and he burnt it a tad, somehow. "Heh, if Alfred was here he would have teased me for burning this, but would have eaten it all anyways" Arthur said to aloud though he was more talking to himself.