#atcotw

She tugged with controlled and measured force until the generator stirred, eventually humming to life after a black start. The lights flickered on overhead as a sigh of relief escaped her.

The moment to wind down escaped her. In between the worry for his wellbeing, her acute anemia, the Elrics, and the general state of things, she was quietly eager at the prospect of sitting down, resting, or even the evasive luxury of sleeping. A pause to the insanity that had transpired. Maybe a short cat nap.

She was no stranger to the morbid sights of a battlefield.The fallen soldiers at Headquarters lulled her into a false sense of security gained through years of emotional compartmentalization. The number of Amestrian Blues and the white of Fort Briggs decreased with each passing step and the reality of the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire had tightened her injured throat.

She was unnerved by the passivity of the scene. Unlike the battlefield, there was no visible bloodshed or anguish. They were just there as if in mid-slumber, capable of stirring at any moment. The stillness layered another blanket of chilling eeriness. No one said a word. There were no chirping birds despite the warm and vibrant weather, no feline rascallion rummaging for scraps in the alleyways, or any other indication that life existed beyond their party of ten. It was as if everyone agreed wordlessly to play along with this grisly game; the rules being “do not wake dead as they sleep.” She certainly seemed to think so, until the curiosity of one of the chimeras got the better of them.

“Is no one going to check?” He had said. The break in  quietude was harsh and she involuntarily flinched at the disjunction from her thoughts. The Colonel had furrowed his brows. It was too early, too fresh a wound that heads would rather turn groundward than answer his question. Of course she wanted to check. Undoubtedly they all did, but doing so would give a finality to it all; the sealing nail to the Amestris’s coffin. The tall chimera Darius carried an unconscious Scar in his arms and spoke again, clearly aching for an answer, “Anybody?”

She had tried summon the strength stemming from her own curiosity, outstretching her foot towards the nearest civilian, but her stamina had been drained, mind swimming as a result. Instead of moving forward, she was close to toppling over, caught only by a quick foot to the concrete and the Colonel’s grip on her shoulder while he murmured to be careful.

Izumi approached a body near Riza. A male, middle-aged businessman wearing a suit and holding a matching briefcase. Riza watched as Izumi flipped the corpse carefully and searched for a pulse. The woman’s sigh was soft, but she gently lowered the hand back onto the ground. “No pulse,” she had announced to no one’s surprise..

Though it was a culmination of their worst fears, the hospital’s lobby had raised the bar, taking on a different atmosphere. A macabre sort that had dug through the thick of her skin and settled in the darkest crooks. The people in the receiving area, for one reason or another, weren’t distracted at the time of the eclipse. They weren’t given the mercy of not feeling their souls slip and it showed.  Some clutched their necks as they tried to breathe, others slumped over their waiting chair, children clung to their mother’s skirts with a horrified look in their open eyes and tear-guttered cheeks, and couples holding one another. Death had fallen upon them indiscriminately.

Even as she ventured down to the scarcely lit basement, Riza had to maneuver carefully around maintenance workers that had tried to make sense of their last moments. A part of her wanted to pause and have a moment to breathe, to really breathe and unleash that clawing feeling in her chest akin to the invisible scars when they were fresh from Ishval. While she tried to rationalize that an anemic sniper had little power to make a difference against creatures such as the Homunculi, she still felt that inkling of guilt; the survivor guilt that had plagued her for many years after the war. Why her and not her fallen comrades. Why her and not the Ishvalan child.

She always shelved the thoughts, and it would remain there, collecting the proverbial dust along with other losses she was ready to deal with yet.

Riza stood still in the doorway of the boiler room. She was unprepared to deal with her gains either, if she could call them that. Her fingers curled into the wooden threshold, mouth thinning to a straight line with the fluttering of her heartbeat.

She had kissed him.

Unbidden, she cupped the face of her superior officer, gratuitously brought him closer to her face and, in no uncertain terms, saluted him with her lips instead of her hand in an unchecked wave of emotion.

She bit her lip, ruminating before the stairwell. While the military was effectively destroyed, the hope that something would blossom out of this graveyard felt downright insulting. Riza didn’t spend years of dedicating herself to the future of Amestris to throw it away in anticipation for something as capricious as love. Inarguably there was a mutual affection, but there was also respect: for the ones they lost, for him, and most importantly for herself. If the seedlings decided to sprout, she’d nurture them under more pertinent conditions, not during this crisis where she’d compromise her focus.

Distracted, the bottom of her military boot landed heavily on the wood flooring that lead into the hallway. It rung in the hollows of the area around her. The air shifted where she stood, one foot on the top step and the other on its predecessor. She felt like she was being held under an oppressive gaze, imperceptible save for the bloodthirst that saturated the air. Only a souvenir from her days under the watchful eyes of Pride and Wrath, she reasoned. However, her skin prickled, hairs standing at attention like cadets fresh out of the academy, and it sent a cold shiver down her spine, chilling each vertebrae in succession. Looming behind her, a ceiling bulb flickered. She saw her own shadow, still and statuesque, fade and return.

She blinked when another shadow emerged from underneath and blinked again to see it vanished. Swallowing thickly, she turned slowly on her heel. The staircase was empty. The staircase was empty.

Her eyes widened slightly, and Riza composed herself, urgently, denying her emotions any more liberties. She couldn’t catalogue details as well as Falman’s  encyclopedic memory, nor did she form conclusions as quickly as Breda. Despite that, she knew the count of the corpses she’d come across, on the stairs and in the halls, was frightfully and significantly less.

Something clattered and the noise bounced off the walls, shaking her bones. Riza crouched and flattened herself as much as the railing would let her. It sounded thin and long, like a broomstick. She glanced around the corner where the rattling came from. The shadows didn’t move and the sounds swayed to silence.  Riza straightened herself, stifling her nerve.  

Rounding the corner, her feet moved one in front of the other, her hip perpendicular to the cream-colored wall. Instantaneous regret burned like bile at the back of her throat when she reached for firearm in a holster that wasn’t there. She’d left behind the one she pilfered off an officer under the assumption she wouldn’t need one.

“Hello?”

Her flesh jumped and muscles stiffened. Her even breath morphed into a long exhale. She faced the other end of the corridor, releasing the tension in her shoulders and stepping out normally.

“Lieutenant Hawkeye?” the teenager’s voice carried around the corner, and Edward followed soon after, donning a different set of clothes. “There you are! The Colonel has been nagging me to go find... Are you all right?”

Her throat knotted, she nodded.  

”You’re as white as that blouse you’re wearing.” He stepped in a little closer. “And you’re sweating bullets.”

She blinked. Her fingers touched her scrunched brow and brought them into sight,  thumbing the moisture refracting from the light.  “Yes, I’m fine.”

He subtly raised an eyebrow suggesting he didn’t believe her.

“Trust me, Edward. I thought I saw or-or heard something. A symptom of fatigue, I’m sure.”

The alchemist frowned and his boyish features hardened. “It’s been a long day. May told me you lost a lot of blood, and it hasn’t been more than a few hours since then.”

“I won’t deny it, I overestimated my overall constitution.” Riza managed a reassuring smile. “Perhaps I should have had more sustenance.”

Edward continued to stare. His stubborn concern was endearing, but the scrutiny was unwelcome, and the diminishing adrenaline left her light-headed and weakened muscles sore.

Eager to abandon the subject, Riza added, “You mentioned the Colonel..?”

“Right,” Ed trailed off his sentence with his lingering skepticism. He eventually relented when her expression became stern and gestured behind him, inviting her to follow him. “We’ve settled in a wing on the other side of this hospital.” They walked in tandem and his face flashed with the light from the passing windows. “I didn’t know this place was so big.”

“Central is-was the largest city in Amestris and housed the bulk of the country’s soldiers.” They fell silent and she knew why, but at current, she didn’t want to remain in silence. “Were the chimeras able to procure canned goods or other foods?”

“Yeah, they found the hospital kitchen and brought food to the wing we’re staying in.”

“How are the others faring?”

The boy sucked in breath, “Everyone is better than we thought-” his golden eyebrows raised “- surprisingly. A few cuts here and there. Even Scar is up and walking around. May told him he was just exhausted. I mean, even I thought he looked like hell. Mustang’s palms were fucked up, but May patched him up and -- well, you know, there’s not much we can do with the Colonel’s sight short of a philosopher's stone. Jerso sustained a direct hit from Pride.“

She snorted softly at the resemblance Ed didn’t see between himself and their superior officer, and how he expertly avoided the actual question. “How is Alphonse?”

His mouth curved into a sad smile. “He’s fine. He just needs to get some meat on those bones. Through these doors Lieutenant,” He instructed and latterly pointed.  “Teacher hooked him up to an IV.

“There was never a day I didn’t think about this - when and how he would return to flesh. We always considered different possibilities and at one point, I thought I was prepared to see him like this and-and be ready to do what would be necessary for him -” he paused, holding the door open for her, showing newfound interest in the slits between the boards of rich brown wood under his feet. He shook his head slowly, “But not like this.”

Edward’s eyes darted up to her, surprised when her hand landed on his shoulder. “He’ll get through this. You’ll get through this. It’ll just take time.”

She didn’t stay to watch him nod silently to empty words, noting the bodies laid to rest outside of the thick doors. Watching for movement.

Riza walked by a glinting sign that read “Intensive Care Unit”; the wing was sizable and clean compared to the stuffy basement below. It faced the front of the building with windows lining the corridor that overlooked Central’s one of many residential areas. Several rooms wrapped a corner around an open space that housed the nurse’s station. She’d been through this hall a couple of times with its light maple half-panelling and windows that brightened the entire ward.

They turned into the corner room where Alphonse lied in a bed flashing a beleaguered smile at their return. A tube was attached to his arm leading to clear bag of saline stand next to his bed. May sat diligently by his side. The Colonel sat opposite them on the waiting benches that belonged outside that room, Izumi sitting next to him. All three chimeras took places next to the windows, casting unnervingly long shadows into the room, and a bandaged Scar was seated rigidly in a lone corner.

It was a meeting of sorts; she wouldn’t put past a man of rank to take charge. She took her place at his right. “I’m back, sir.”

His knitted brows loosened a little at her voice. “I have full confidence you’ve made the place that much brighter, Lieutenant.”

He didn’t have the slightest clue how quickly her face fell.

“Is that all of us?”

“Yes, sir,” she answered quickly, out of custom if not out of jitteriness.

“In spite of appearances, I’m aware of the situation we’re in… We’ve suffered a cataclysmic defeat today. Undoubtedly, everyone in this room has lost someone dear to them as sacrifice for the national transmutation circle. I imagine it will be difficult, but I have to urge you to move on.”

Riza glanced over to him, but it was Edward that voiced her quieted thoughts. “Are you that heartless? The bodies are still warm.”

“Just because we managed to survive the homunculus doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods, Fullmetal.”

“What are you saying,” asked the tallest of the trio. Zampano unraveled his arms, “You think that thing is coming back?”

“I don’t think we’ll stand a chance this time. You saw those parade grounds. The Xingese brat -- Greedling, was it? -- tried to fight it and he was sizzled worse than bacon on a pan,” Darius looked to a bandaged Jerso to his left. “No offense.”

“I’m a boar, not a pig.”

Scar grunted, “Will you shut up and let him finish?”

“It’s not a secret that Amestris was constantly involved in skirmishes and wars. Always in battle and now we know why. We have enemies as a result, enemies that are constantly watching the fronts and I can assure you they will notice the downed soldiers including the radio silence. The Aerugonians and especially the Cretians will not hesitate to advance forward as a result if they have not already.

“It will take three days for the either force to reach Central barring any detours.”

“Why? Why would that mean anything for us?” Alphonse raised the question curiously.

“One of two things can happen “ - Mustang shrugged- “or both will-”

He held the room through his pause and she was unsure if it was for theatrics or not.

“After these armies cross through leagues and leagues of corpses and arrive in Central where an inner struggle is all but evident, you tell me if you wouldn’t find any survivors within in the least bit culpable.”

They were held in silence as it sunk in and the room was suddenly filled with protest. The Colonel raised a hand to stop them. Edward didn’t care.

“You can’t be serious. Just because they were enemies of the Amestrian military doesn’t mean they’ll hunt down a random group of people.”

“Perhaps not the Aerugonians. They are more diplomatic outside of wars. It would be an multinational matter with foreign laws that none of us are privy to.

“Back then, there were talks that the Aerugonians tried to assist the Ishvalan War of Extermination. The higher ups assumed it was to tire the Amestrian Army in their war, despite the multiple, successful fronts. Others believed that they were trying to interject in the inhumane nature of the war. In retrospect, this seems more likely given the direction their recent monarchs have taken.”

Riza’s fist tightened behind her.

“Then we’ll hide,” May looked around the room for reassurance in her suggestion. “They can’t search all the buildings.”

Mustang leant back into his seat, crossing his arms. “The second scenario involves both armies becoming aware of each other’s presence. The Cretians are an aggressive sort, second only to the Drachmans -- luckily, they’ll be busy taking down Fort Briggs for months. They’ve been known to be ruthless in the Western Front and too reckless a military to have a stable relationship with any of its allies.  

“Battalions will become regiments, and regiments will become divisions when armies send scouts and inevitably realize their positions. The goal will be to reach Central first for the militaristic advantage. Untouched resources observed along the way mean that Central’s massive supply of military supplies, weapons, and anything else the Research and Development department was working on will be up for the taking. For both of them, that’s worth the bloodshed and they’ll be bringing more force with them ever seen on Amestrian soil. ”

The tension surfaced in their faces, the wringing of their hands, and from their stillness as they all digested what was left unsaid.

Central would become a battleground again.

Edward cursed Hohenheim. Cursed alchemy. Cursed it all. His shit luck. The figurative shit hand he had been dealt.

He had brief moments where it felt like a dream; a haze that clouded his mind. He hadn’t slept all day, not that he was complaining. His bones were beginning to ache. He didn’t have to look in a mirror to see the bags under his eyes. He sat upright to settle restless legs.

If there was any silver lining to this -- and Ed tried so hard to hold on to it -- it was that they had regained his body back. But it caused inner conflict. In the few hours since, he made an effort to always be by Al, because left alone his mind would wander in the worst ways, and the thoughts that gathered would make his stumps ache. He had felt the cost was too high. He rationally knew it was Hohenheim who paid the toll, yet Ed felt that the gain of his younger brother’s body was not worth the price of losing all the people of Amestris. A swirl of self-loathing would always brew uncomfortably whenever he dwelled on this. Ungrateful, undeserving, even arrogant. The fact that his brain sputtered out of ideas only sunk his heart further and left a putrid taste in his mouth.

Fortunately, all dark clouds would dissipate upon seeing Alphonse. Even amongst the death and desolation, Ed had smiled when he saw the flesh body of his younger brother, and he felt the warmth as Alphonse murmured Brother without a metallic sound to his voice.

Alphonse slept and Ed watched. His cheeks sunken in, brittle hair cut short, and bony throughout.  Al had a severe look on his face as he slept; maybe it was just the hollows of his face creating the expression. He was so small. The outline under the blanket silhouetted a human with straight  lines and hard edges -- lacking curves of healthy muscle. He was here and resting.   May slumbered next to the hospital bed in a wide, cushioned chair; resting her head on its arms. As much as she annoyed him, May pulled through for him where Hohenheim's instructions fell short. He had her to thank for the healthy flush on Al’s bony cheeks.   The first few hours were rough. His body didn’t react well to anything, and Ed’s inexperience had shown through. Al had asked for water and like the idiot that he was, Ed had given it to him. He regurgitated it violently and the sight made Ed feel like he was going to break in half from heaving.   May had scolded him when she reentered the room and instructed him to clean up the sick as she brought in the IV stand and the bags full of saline. He watched as she took better care of his brother than he could.   Ed stood and looked out the window. The eerie presence of bodies was less on this avenue of Central. He immediately turned away, opening and closing the palm of his automail right hand. He supposed it wouldn’t be a bad thing to keep his automail if it meant Alphonse walked around. He sighed, tracing his fingers along the edges and frame of his automail. 

Winry. 

In every likely scenario, she was mostly likely swallowed in the nationwide transmutation circle. He knew it. It was logical. But every other part that didn’t adhere to logic wished, hoped, and in a desperate corner of his grieving mind, he nearly prayed for her safety, that maybe she did leave Amestris on his advice, but he wouldn’t know unless they went to Resembool. Given Al’s current condition, he couldn’t anticipate when that would be possible.   “How is he?”   Ed turned in response to the low voice. “Fine,” he whispered. “Just sleeping.”

Teacher leaned on the doorway; a small smile on her lips and arms wrapped around herself. He gestured for her to follow him outside the room. Ed could tell there was a change in her eyes. Somehow, she lost the trademark ferocity that burned behind them.   “Perhaps you should too, it’s been a long day.”   “Maybe when everyone else gets back.” He rolled shoulder. “Did the chimeras help you find Mr. Sig?”   “We did. He was at the bottom of the staircase before they pulled me in, next to the General Armstrong and her brother. We gave them a burial too.”

He could almost hear her heart breaking. He bit his cheek, looked down at his feet and told her sheepishly, “I’m sorry we failed him, Teacher.”   “Ed...” She pulled him into a hug before he could protest. He soon realized the hug was for her and not particularly for him. “We’ve all lost someone today.”   He stepped away. “That doesn’t make my sympathy any less meaningful.”   “Thank you, Ed.” He felt her hand shift towards her face, suppressing a sniffle before she let him go. “Any word from the others?”   From where he stood, the sky lit up in a spectacle of smoke and explosion. The flames had blended in so well with the sky that he almost missed it. His eyes widened and his feet took him to the nearest window. “That’s the Colonel’s alchemy.”   He felt her pace up beside him. “Are you certain?”   “Positive.” He stared as the smoke dispersed into the atmosphere. “I’ll go and check it out.” He slowly shut Alphonse’s door and began to sprint towards the double doors as they swung in front him, inches away of wiping his face clean. The door were forced open by Jerso writhing against something. “Get them- off me please- Zampano-! Augh! they got my ear!”   Ed, naturally confused, saw the other bodies come into view. Moving bodies in scrubs and lab coats. But their movements were off, feral and jerking; yet their limbs hung as if their hands were too heavy to lift. And the one on Jerso. A child. Clinging to his face, scratching and biting at his face   “Edward!”   Teacher’s voice brought him back and he bolted to help the chimera get the body off him. He saw Izumi run towards another body making its way towards Alphonse’s room and flung it towards the crowd of moving bodies in the other wing.   He reached for the child ripping the skin on Jerso’s face and before Ed could touch it, the child’s head turned and hissed at him, vaulting from the chimera’s face toward the ceiling.It clung to the surface and crawled like an insect with rapid movement back into the crowd in the other room. The horror of the sight briefly paralyzed him.  

Gorius clutches his shaking friend, “Jerso! Where’s Zampano?”

The chimera held his face in agony, blood quickly showing between his fingers. “Z-Zampano, he was overwhelmed.”  He heard Izumi hastily shut the door double doors and sealed them after a clap of her hands.   “Overwhelmed by what?”   “The-the-the corpses. They were lying down one minute and the next they were on top of us.”     Ed shook his head. It didn’t make any sense. “How is that possible?” It isn’t possible. There has to be some kind of explanation.   “We were near the lobby trying to clear the hallways, like you said, when one of the stirred. It happened in the opposite wing of where we are now, near the children’s treatment wing when one of them stood up. We thought that it was just a fluke, that maybe not everyone was dead. Then more and more started rising.” He saw Teacher bring a first aid kit and begin to dab cotton on his scratched face. “Before we knew it half the room was already on him. Ripping apart his insides, intestines and such on the floor beside him…” He tried to look down as Teacher instructed him to keep eyes forward to better treat him. “For him to survive the freaky circle and the god guy only to fall prey to his… “ He shook his head, palms rubbing his reddening eyes. “What kind of cruel joke is this to a man who lost his family already.”   Ed felt his fingers tremble. Swallowing hard, he wondered what that meant for the Colonel and the two that accompanied him. “The others are still out there in this.”   “Ed, you can’t go out in this alone.”   “We can’t just leave them there!” He shouted, realizing this was the first time he’s raised his voice at his teacher. In turn, she had been uncharacteristically quiet since the incident.   Another blast of fire. But it was closer this time. Ed darted to the window and he saw the trio taking down the undead citizens of the Amestris. He clapped his hands together, quickly creating a stairwell and impromptu doorway for them from the second floor, using the concrete and the other materials from the edifice of the building.   Scar and the Lieutenant adeptly changed their direction, pushing through toward the newly created steps.  Ed ran down with Izumi calling after him. It was reckless but if it ensured their safety, he’d risk it. He pushed the bodies aside with walls he created from the ground and yelled at them to get a move on.   Scar protected the rear as the Colonel and Lieutenant moved up to the second floor to safety . From a distance, another crowd moved towards him. “Scar, we have to go!”   Distracted by Ed’s shout, Scar was unable to avoid an impossibly bloated body slamming into him.  It exploded on impact, releasing a cloud of putrid green gas. The Ishavalan began to choke as additional bodies swarmed in .The smell, Ed noticed, attracted them.   Ed ran forward and grabbed Scar, attempting to drag him away from danger, a feat of strength beyond that of a 16 year old boy. As the horde closed in on them, Izumi landed at Scar’s side. A tattooed arm around each of them, they carried him up the stairs.   When they were all safely through the doorway, Edward clapped his hands, disintegrating  the stairs and sealing off the opening.  Bodies fell from the ascent and lay twitching on the ground as the rest of the mob began to rush the lower floor of the hospital.   “Seal the windows! And exits!” Edward exclaimed. Feeling the spin of the world stopping, he ran to Alphonse’s room, fear clawing a hole in his gut.   Bursting through the door he was met with May raggedly breathing and Alphonse clapping his hands, using alchemy to slam a cylinder of concrete into a body flinging it out of the window.   “What is going on, Brother?” Alphonse asked wearily. Al’s knees buckled and his eyes fluttered,  passing out before Ed had a chance to answer.

After the sun ducked under the horizon, the hospital lights shining down on the street had attracted the sacrifices, or so they decided to call them. They had tapped against the pale-red brick until the group ultimately decided to kill the lights. It would have been easier to just completely block out the had made a fire in the middle of the wing.

Colonel Mustang sat with them near the fire created from medical files and wooden clipboards to cook their evening meal. He, Brother and Teacher, they all had the same contemplative look on them – or perhaps it was shock. Their gazes were glossed over from the flames burning meekly in the spring nighttime.

Darius leaned against a wall, one foot propped against it, arms tightly crossed. Jerso donned a white patch right side of his skull. The chimera had lost his ear and they lost Zampano.

Al shifted his eyes away from the disturbed chimera. A loud thump startled him back to Darius's direction. A balled fist created an indent to the wall behind it.

"This is ridiculous. We are sitting ducks!" The gorilla chimera paced anxiously.

Jerso stirred from his seat on the floor, watching Darius warily. Drowsiness clouded his eyes, a side effect of the medicine administered for his missing ear, but caution alerted them.

"You saw those things. Whatever that was was. It's just like the mannequins in that white room. They move the same way, they don't think!" His voice boomed and bounced off the walls. "What do we do about what's out there?"

Alphonse clenched his fists weakly, an answer - for once - not springing immediately to his mind. Brother hadn't moved from his gaze into the fire, but his shoulders were tensed and the bridge of his nose was crinkled slightly.

Darius twisted on his heels to face the Colonel and marched for him.

Lieutenant Hawkeye twisted her body to reach for a sidearm. They exchanged glares; the animosity still hanging from this afternoon.

"Where's your plan now, Colonel?" His large arms were thrown up in the air with exasperation; he spoke an octave louder and with pause in between his words. The Colonel didn't flinch even as the chimera . This seemed to frustrate Darius even more.

Darius opened his mouth to speak again and loud thuds banged against the wall behind the transmuted door.

"Lower your voice."

"Or what? Is Colonel Mustang afraid that those things will break through the wall and get us?" He taunted.

"Lower - your - voice." The Colonel iterated dangerously.

"Darius, stop it, man." Jerso supplied, his eyebrows knit in concern and maybe fright. "We're all just scared here. Nobody could have seen this coming."

Darius inhaled deeply, chest extending and glaring around the room. He lifted his arms and balled fists pounded at his chest. The chimera opened his mouth to release a distinctive, ululating yell several notches louder than his speaking voice.

Alphonse covered his ears and winced, not entirely used to registering sound physically.

Teacher and the Lieutenant sprung up with the former quickly materializing a dagger with alchemy and the latter producing a handgun from her holster. Darius stopped immediately, putting his hands up.

"We don't care if you feel like acting a fool and putting your own life at risk," Teacher warned. "But don't endanger the rest of us`

"Fine," He spat, glancing towards the amphibian chimera. "Let's go Jerso."

Jerso tilted his head at the mention at his name. "Where are you going?"

"Away from here. I say we have better chances out there than stuck like canned meat in here."

Jerso shook his head. "I don't know." It was the first time Al heard him stammer. "You didn't see these things the way I did. If they're anything like those mannequin soldier - I don't want a repeat of the white room. It was the fire colonel who saved us, remember? Not even the twerp stood a chance."

Brother didn't stir.

Jerso bowed his head towards his bent knees, running hands over the braided dreads down the length of his scalp. "And if they got Zampano…"

The tall man pursed his lips, anger and fear flashing through his face. "Suit yourself." He walked over to the window, working on yanking the bolted wood panels off the walls. "You alchemists can fix this right up, right? Just like you fixed me?"

No one responded. Alphonse's heart went out to him. He empathized with Zampano and jerso back in Baschool. But there was nothing to say. The people who he wanted to be angry with were dead; quite possibly walking the streets.

Small feet broke the tense silence as May approached the firelight. He gave her a knowing, appreciative smile whenever he saw her. Alphonse was told of her persistence in helping get through the first few hours, but it was that same persistence that miraculously had him out of bed. "What's going on?"

"Darius wants to leave," Jerso whispered to her. "I think he's scared, little girl."

"I am not scared!" Darius roared. "I just want to live! Without a cage."

They all jumped from the nails ripping from the walls. Some clinked as the metal scattered on the floor.

"Enjoy your trapped existence." was the last thing he said before he hopped out the window.

The silence following Darius's departure hung over them, like a thick humidity, and uncomfortable. Teacher stood up, lifting the slatted barricade and Hawkeye went to help her reattach it. Undoubtedly, it was an easy feat for Teacher. Time, energy, and sound spared by the clap of two hands.

"How is Scar faring, May?" Teacher asked as the two rejoined them around the dying fire.

May fumble with her fingers and her eyes focused on the floor. She released a sigh, "I don't know what's wrong with Mr. Scar. He's warm with fever. I've given him what I know to stop try and bring it down. I've placed a wet towel over his head, but he's unconscious. And I really don't know why."

The Colonel perked. "What happened with Scar?"

"One of the bodies exploded." Brother looked down focusing on the floor as if the scene played on the tile in front of him. He wrung his hands. Alphonse noticed the fluidity of his automail was not all there, but Brother continued, "Something shrouded around him. I don't know what it was. Unnatural if I had to describe it and then Scar collapsed after a few seconds. It was a close call."

Confused, the Colonel frowned, "A gas?"

"A mist or something, yeah," Brother responded and the older man didn't say anything more, turning pensive.

"Did you check his lungs?" Teacher asked.

May nodded at Teacher, looking up with eyes that made Alphonse sad. "He's breathing fine. My medical knowledge only goes so far. His chi flow isn't blocked like when I tended to his wounds this morning."

"May," Mustang called calmly.

After a moment May answered, "Yes?"

"You've mentioned chi and life force before right now."

"It's the basis to Alkahestry."

"Can you sense anything in these things?" The Colonel asked.

"What are you thinking?" Teacher interjected May's response.

He leaned back into his chair, kicking one leg over the other. "Why the dead would rise. Most of this room knows full well the impossibility of the scenario."

Al glanced over to Hawkeye, staring at her commanding officer and unsure if he picked up a sadness in her eyes. It was hard to tell from the limited light.

"Judging by the way that they burn, I'm assuming they look nothing like the mannequin soldier we encountered?"

"No," Brother said, stirring out of his silence. "They used to be human. They were once living humans, but now…" He struggled. "Now, I don't know."

"Then we find ourselves in a dead nation with its citizens suddenly rising up." The Colonel said grimly. His greyed eyes looked into the fire with a focused determination.

Alphonse mused he could probably feel the warmth of the fire on his face; it almost convinced Alphonse that Mustang could see again.

"They are another form of mannequin soldiers," he continued. "But what's animating them?"

"I don't sense anything different about them, not from what I've seen." May answered his question from before."

"And this isn't something you see with your eyes?"

"No, it's more like instinct, but if I concentrate then I can sense it."

Mustang breathed out, "Can you teach me what you know?"

May looked at him thoughtfully, at the others, himself, and then back to the Colonel. "I can try."

"What do you two know about it?"

In Aspec, Al remembered his feeble attempt to learn Alkahestry and their source derived from "chi", "life force", and "the Dragon's pulse". All three turned out to be synonymous. He wondered then if it was it's lack of tangibility that made it difficult for him, or if it veered on the spiritual type of science that Alphonse simply didn't attune well with.

Alphonse jumped again in his wheelchair before he could speak. An earsplitting yell rung through the streets, rattling him and the others. But it was getting nearer.

"Let me in! Let me back in!"

Heads turned towards the window and it took a moment for all of them to realize the cries for help came from Darius whose voice had heightened several octaves.

Brother and Teacher scrambled to give Darius an entryway, collectively realizing why he needed help.

Just like his persistence, his curiosity knew no bounds and his feet touched the cold of the hospital floor despite the warmth of the faltering fire. May stirred from his sudden movement as one hand held onto the IV stand. He took slow steps and his slow approach still managed to jolt his brother and the Lieutenant out of their stupor from watching. He noticed how none of them moved to assist him outside of the building. As if they were grounded by a fear neither of them had known.

He slowly pivoted his head from his brother to the view past the window panes.

Darius was several blocks away, running with all his might. Behind him several bodies moved with impressive speed and a mob moved at a snail's pace behind him, like the foot soldiers to the cavalry charging ahead.

Immediately, he noticed how none of them moved to assist him outside of the building. As if they were grounded by a fear none of them had known before, like an instinct deep down urged them to remain where if they were to keep their lives. With the little strength Alphonse gathered from only a day, he felt it down to his bones.

The running sacrifices looked terrifying, spastically moving forward in a way that wasn't practical but they gained ground on the chimera nonetheless.

Breaking the fear-wrought silence, Brother extended his hand out, shouting in the encouraging, heart-thumping way that he does, "We've got you, Mr. Gorius! Run!"

The chimera, responding to the encouragement, picked up the speed of his sprint and prepared himself for a lunge only a chimera could accomplish.

However, a millisecond before he did, something from the shadows jumped out of the alley and tackled him to the ground. The manner in which it opened its mouth should have broken the joint at its mandible but it bit down on Darius's neck. Darius's arms and legs spastically shot out before he tried to claw the sacrifice off his neck.

In the cast of only the moonlight, Alphonse saw the blood that spilled towards the sky. Any of them looking out the window saw him reaching out towards them pleading them to help him. The front lines of the mob moved in on him and his screams were wretched and pained. Al couldn't see Darius any more as the rest of them moved in on him. They clawed and ate as the survivors watched from the second story window of Central's only hospital.