The Apartment Complex

Xiang Gang woke up with a headache. He looked up to the sky and saw that it was overcast. I thought the weather was supposed to be nice today. He then stood up and rubbed his hair, which was rustling in a strong wind. He muttered to himself. "Why…" Xiang tried to look around to find out where he was, and why he had blanked ou—

There was an sharp, steep edge.

Why was it there on solid, flat ground?

He walked hesitantly towards the edge and almost slipped. He was on top of a tall apartment building. His eyes grew slightly larger as he tried to back up and away. He found a door leading to a staircase and sprinted down. On the second floor's staircase, he slipped. For a while, Xiang sat there, reaching for his cellphone (thinking that he could call and ask the other nations where they were) and found that it was off.

That's strange, I charged it before it left. He pressed the power button and it switched on for half of a second, then switched back off. Xiang then tried to get back up, but found that he could only limp at best. "This is an apartment, there should be others." He yelled loudly, but stopped. There was no background noise in this apartment complex. No barking dogs, no children, no televisions blaring.

I should try signalling for help. He limped over to a nearby window and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. He tried another window next to it, which opened thankfully. Reaching inside his sleeve, he took a firecracker strapped to his arm (leaving 4 more) and found his lighter from an inside pocket. He set it on fire and got prepared to throw it.

Xiang noticed, too late, that he had thrown it a bit too far and hit the building across from him, crashing through the window of the room below the roof and exploding, taking off some pieces of the room it landed in and the roof.

They weren't supposed to do that.

He pulled up on his sleeve and looked down at his arm, realizing that his firecrackers had been replaced stronger firecrackers, almost like bombs. He pulled the sleeve up higher and noticed bruises. Bruises that weren't there before he left for the Conference.

What happened to him in this town?


[[taken from my application, with a few differences + a bit near the end
I KEEP EDITING THIS. xDD]]

Alfred stirred, eyes blinking at the bright light invading his eyes. He pushed himself up, rubbing at his eyes with a sense of dread filling his brain. He shoved it away, standing to his feet and steadying himself with a wave of his arm.

Walking towards the side, or at least what was left of it, he glanced towards the skies. A deserted old town, most of the buildings broken or mangled…his eyes lit up. It was like those horror stories that he liked so much! Ignoring the fact that he would cling to the person closest to him for “protecting” them, he grinned. This was the perfect chance to prove that he was a hero! The situation obviously didn’t sink into the American as he stared around him.

Taking a few more steps, he failed to notice that he was on a roof and took another step, leading to him tumbling off the sagging rooftop and onto the floor with a hard thud. Alfred let loose a string of curse words before staring upwards and watching the rooftop cave in because of a very loud boom noise.

His eyebrows shot up at that bit, then realized something.

Well. He thought with a grin. Well, at least I wasn’t on it!

Straightening himself, his eyes scanned the area. "So..." he mumbled to himself, fingering his pistol strapped to his side. "So...if someone blew up the rooftop...must means that they're in throwing distance! So they'll be around here somewhere!"

He nodded confidently and quickly strode over towards the noise. Maybe he wasn't the only person around here.

Xiang looked up from his arm to hear someone muttering from the other building. Looking through the open window, he saw a blond man point towards his building and nod to himself. He then watched as he tried to walk in his direction. He was inside that building? Well... he certainly seems uninjured. Perhaps he could be of help. He seems familiar, but I can't recognize him this far away.

"Excuse me," he said, raising his voice, hoping that the man might be able to hear him. They were the same distance apart, and he seemed to be speaking with the same volume as him...Receiving no response, he tried louder. "E-Excuse me sir!" No response. Again. He sighed and tried to get up without hurting his leg. Looking out the window one more time to make sure that the man hadn't seen him, he limped slowly down the stairs.

"What if he's another nation? Maybe he knows something about the entire situation."

The first time he didn't hear anything. The second time he heard a faint call of "Excuse me Sir!" and he turned, looking upwards. Blinking, he stared at the figure, trying to see if he could recognize him. After a few moments, he sighed, realizing he was a bit too far to see who he was.

He walked quickly to the apartment building and climbed upstairs, or tried, considering the stairs were pretty mangled as they were. He sighed, hopping from one broken stair to the next, grumbling. Seriously, was this where they were supposed to be meeting? A broken down old town? He glanced at his cell phone on the way up and frowned even more. There was no service! How were they supposed to contact their bosses after the meeting was done with? Or more importantly then that, how was he supposed to get in contact with the other countries?

Making it to the top, eyes glancing around the area, he blinked at the Asian man sticking his head out the window. "...Xiang?" he called out, voice echoing in the room.

He looked around to see Alfred standing on the stairs. Looking incredulously from the window back to the stairs, he thought about saying, "How did you get here so quickly?" Instead, he nodded slightly and limped down the stairs. Was it only the two of them here? That couldn't have been possible... a large number of the nations should have at least been invited to the World Conference.

Reaching Alfred, Xiang hesitated. How did he know that it was Alfred behind all this? After all, he... he could have been acting differently under certain circumstances... He decided to take a chance and stuck his hand out tentatively. Maintaining his calm façade, he greeted him. "Hello, Mr. Jones," he said quietly. Tilting his head, he added, "Do you believe that we are the only nations here?" Don't be too forward, he reminded himself, make sure he thinks that I don't suspect him.

He grinned. So he wasn't the only one here! Well, that wouldn't be possible either, since this WAS a World Conference meeting. If it were just the two of them, it wouldn't make the entire world! As Xiang stuck out his hand slowly at Alfred, he grinned, taking the hand vigorously and shaking it. "You can just call me Alfred," he said as he let go of the hand. "Only people in the government actually call me Mr. Jones."

He laughed boisterously, nodding before hearing the next question and shaking his head. "It's a World Conference! Wouldn't it be weird if it was just the two of us?" Tilting his head, he looked at Xiang. "Hey, you okay? You look like you're limping..."

He stood up and walked to the door leading into the hallway of apartments. "Ah, yes. I stumbled while on the stairs earlier..." He opened the door and looked at all the doors. Picking the one closest to him, he knocked several times. After no answer, he walked over to the next door and did the same. After five doors, he looked back at the entrance to the hallway and found that Alfred had followed him.

"One of these apartments may have a First-Aid kit," he lied, gesturing towards his leg.

Xiang really just wanted to use the bathroom. That's all. But maybe a First-Aid kit would be handy anyway.

He looked around the hall for something he could use to break off the doorknob, or at least get through the door. Scanning the hallway, he saw the fire extinguisher. That could work. He limped to the glass case, which said things like "In case of fire, break glass" and "When glass is broken, fire alarm will sound."

He ignored both of those and, before shattering the glass, turned to Alfred and said, "This might be a bit loud. I apologize."

After the glass was broken, Xiang admitted that it was an understatement.


[[ I have absolutely no clue what a fire extinguisher says, so I improvised. xDD ]]