The Switch

It still wasn’t working. It wasn’t going to work. The tank was too close. They needed to run! Now! Just in time, the sisters launched themselves away from the tank that barreled down the trade road in an explosion of flames that winfry set off more to startle the mist lady than actually hurt the impervious tank. But it worked as the tank veered, swerved and rammed into a massive tree. But just the same, the smoke woman floated out of the tank without batting an eye.

“Change us with the sisters. Now.” isa’s whisper cut straight through winfry into action.

After a mad rush of scribbles, the librem read, “the sisters switched with winfry, isa and Felix”

It worked! And isa, then Lithuania, muffled a very astonished Felix turned Latvia.

“She wants you three,” the-then Lithuania whispered to the-then Marco, isa, winfry and Felix, “and only you three so when she takes us, run! We can only buy you so much time. Got it?” They all looked incredulous.

God, isa was something else, but winfry really didn’t have more than four nanoseconds to admire his friend as the mist lady was standing in front of their bush with a handful of dark uniformed infantry and strange floating orb.

“Come out from the bushes, you idiots,” said the woman. “Come and face me.” Marco and Felix (Latvia), hidden in the bushes, turned to Lithuania (isa) for direction. Estonia (winfry) and Latvia (Felix) also waited for their youngest sister to make the move. isa (Lithuania) and winfry (Estonia) were silent, and isa felt the pressure, but she knew what to do. This was why she had returned. She finally saw it.

“Relax…” said the woman. “I wish only to speak to you…” isa knew she was lying, but rose regardless. The smoke woman smiled. “Now that’s a good girl… you do know going up against me is useless, no?” isa remained inexpressive. “Well then, let me give you a little update; let me tell you where your side stands… ahhem. When I speak you stand.” They awkwardly rose like schoolchildren called out by a particularly old and Catholic nun. “Now,” she extended her hand towards the group and in a flash, millions of tiny specks of blue rushed to her hands from all around, extinguishing in a puff of blue smoke as she closed her hands into fists. The sisters were left powerless. “let me clarify your current situation, Foggistanis. Your home base, the Antioch Complex, along with everything and everyone in it, has been destroyed.”

From a rational standpoint, winfry strongly doubted this news. The Antioch Complex was decades ahead of the current technology. There was no way it could be destroyed – at least not completely. She was lying. But it wasn’t really a time for rational thought.

“No, I am not lying, and yes, your situation is quickly growing hopeless. The countries of Nilbmah and LusciousLocks have, clearly, fallen under AssMachenstani rule–”

“Get to the point.” Lithuania (isa) butted in.

The mist lady’s eye’s flashed lightening. In a jerk she unfurled the spherical object from its smoky fabric, letting Timoteo’s head drop with a thud and roll along the floor.

A collective gasp, and isa (Lithuania) screamed, clasping her hand over her mouth, tears welling in her eyes too quickly for her to hold back. “NO!” she cried. “NO!”

Delilah just laughed. “Now… before I do the same to every person here who is not of my interest… I suggest you three sisters allow my men to lead you peacefully into the tank. Agreed?”

Lithuania (isa) looked over at Felix (oh you get the point.), Marco, winfry and isa, her eyes full of meaning. “Promise me you won’t hurt them.”

“You are in no position to negotiate—”

Lithuania whipped out a blade from her belt and held it to her own throat. “Let them go or you will not take me alive.” The woman’s eyes opened wide. The men in black quickly aimed their weapons at Lithuania. A tear of blood ran down into her collar.

The mist lady snarled. “Disappear before I change my mind.”

“Go!” Lithuania shouted impatiently. “GO!” When their scurrying through the woods faded to nothing Lithuania lowered the knife. “Alright. Lead the way.”

But as the men lead them into the tank, Delilah laughed again, “Find the others. And kill them.”

“NO!” screamed the three sisters but swift rifle butts to the face that knocked them out cold.

_____________________________________________


isa came to in the dark. She stumbled back to the cold hard floor as she tried to get up. And then she remembered. She was Lithuania still. Well, at least winfry’s magic hadn’t yet worn off. She almost called out for winf–Estonia and Latvia but there was no response. Through the rough military jacket she felt the quilaire against her chest. Thank God!

She was alone. She wondered where winfry was. She wondered how he liked having breasts. That made he crack up hysterically. It would have made winfry laugh too. And that made her laugh even more.

But Delilah must have heard her laugh and came into squash the joy. “What are you laughing at, fool? You are done for.”

isa stared into the dark eyes without waver. “You.”

The mist lady seemed to dissolve into the darkness but her eyes continued to glare.

“You don’t fool me. You don’t have what you want.”

“Ha. I have exactly what I want. I have you and your sisters and what’s more you haven’t your powers.”

“But what happens to you if something happens to us.”

“You are under constant surveillance and if you decide to be unreasonable we will paralyze you with an iv. So do what you want. I don’t care.”

“Did you know that once a senic from ancient nilbmah once willed himself to death?”

“Don’t tell me you believe in wives’ tales.”

“I would have thought Assmachestani’s of all peoples would be open to wives’ tales and the power of the mind. We Foggistani’s aren’t totally ignorant of the emotional-physical powers of the brain. I would have thought you did more research before you launched your return.”

And with that isa closed her eyes and slowed her breathing. Within minutes she lost all color in her face.

Delilah snorted. “It doesn’t matter if you kill yourself, I will just find your and your sisters’ quilaires. They will work just as well as you. Killing yourself won’t make a difference. You don’t want to die.”

isa continued comatose.

Trying to contain her anger the mist lady stormed out the room.

isa let herself breath normally again. One point for isa. She now knew what Assmachestan was after. Now all they needed to know was why. They were getting closer.

For the next day, isa was left completely alone. She passed the time singing made up and extremely repetitive songs and imagining how they were driving the guards insane. And trying to remember every little detail since she meet winfry.

She was recalling the time when winfry was standing outside the lady’s at the nilbmah public library losing a boxing match against social taboo to just enter the washroom and apologize to her, when she heard a rustling. She stopped singing but only for an instant. She couldn’t let the guard hear it. She kept on singing and soon she made out loose tile that wasn’t normally loose. She took up the blanket and covered herself like a ghost and waved her arms while moaning.

Then like magic. She disappeared.