Where Winter Meets Summer (Rusame Countryhumans)

The Observer's Promise

"WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

China barreled through the skylight, his figure briefly outlined by the glitching screens. He leaped through the curtains of falling debris and crashed onto the small platform of ice where everyone had gathered for shelter. They scattered to make room for him and the motionless man he was carrying.

Immediately, they noticed that he looked like a wreck. His crimson hair was crusted with black blood and was tangled to knots. His robes had been reduced to bloodstained rags. A wild expression was knit on his face. The shared grimace on everyone's face said it all: Who the heck was this madman?

"The fuck? You look like you just crawled out of a gutter!" America exclaimed.

"Shut up and look in the mirror." It was common knowledge that this was their way of greeting. The American was about to continue when China held up his hand. "Wait, no. We don't have time for that right now."

"Yeah, can we go back to the part where you said we're going to die?" Poland jumped back as another pillar of dirt slammed onto the platform. Russia frowned and refocused on expanding a glacial dome.

"You guys really have no idea what's going on above ground, do you?" China shook his head.

Slowly but surely, the contestants began to navigate their way out with China's directions, racing up the walls to avoid the caving ceiling. Peru and Russia took the lead, forming small but safe platforms to leap across. SK offered to carry the unconscious host on the White Tiger's back alongside a knocked-out Venezuelan.

"What happened to Olympia?! How did he end up like this?" he exclaimed as they quickly patched him up. His sterling silver brilliance had been replaced by a lifeless shadow. Part of his porcelain face had been shattered and smeared black with blood. His arms and rings were gone.

"Long story. I'll tell you later but we should really get to sturdy ground right now," China huffed. He wasn't sure that his storytelling skills could hold up while he was dodging for his life. "The exit to the Colosseum is that way."

"Careful!" America caught a block of shattered ice over their heads. "Russia, you take care of setting up more shields up front. I got your back."

Russia nodded and couldn't help but feel a tinge of warmth rise in his chest as the other smiled reassuringly. Massive pillars of shining blue ice proceeded to burst through solid rock walls, forming a zigzag of precarious catwalks. Their exit was waiting on the other side.

"Wow. I can't believe you two were about to kill each other a night ago," the crimson country scoffed to snap the American out of his ditzy daze. "Now you're acting like boyfriends? Hilarious."

"The tardy have no right to talk," he spat back, hurling the ice chunk over the side. "Where were you while we were running around down here?"

"I had my own battles to fight." He left it at that and brushed past the Superpower, but something in his tone implied that he wasn't joking around. Something serious had happened.

"Stand back!" Poland and Mexico warned as they prepared to break through the earth. With a gust of shearing wind to lift his wings, the feathered serpent ripped open the dark to reveal the moonless sky.

An eerie silence filled the stagnant air as the countries climbed out. They were greeted with an empty, crumbling stadium, devoid of all the prickling excitement and roaring festivities. There wasn't a single living soul in sight.