Title: Buried Alive
Author: Riley Masters
Rated: T
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Suspense/Romance
Warnings: Mild slash? I'm only warning because some of my friends will freak…
Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own the rights to the above mentioned series.
Author Note: So, I started this story three days after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China, after hearing a news report about a survivor. Then… I promptly lost the paper I wrote it. I found it yesterday and decided to finish and post it, even if it has been three years since the earthquake. Hope you like it! Merry Christmas!
- Riley Masters (12/23/11)
He bit back a gasp, trying to keep some air in his lungs. All he could smell was musty oxygen and rotting flesh. If there were any bodies in front of him, however, he wouldn't have known.
Around him, rubble was everywhere, pinning him to the ground. Some shard of glass lay under his head, covered in blood. He was blind, he was sure of it.
He took a shallow breath of stale air, ignoring the taste of dirt in his mouth. "Hello! Is anyone out there?"
His lungs rebelled against his despite shouting. He let out a hacking cough, spitting a mouthful of blood to the side.
A ticking noise filled the silence, only broken by his harsh breathing. His silver pocket watch, cover gone and glass cracked, lay haphazardly a few feet from him, the face tilted towards him at an angle. Welcome to day three.
A shifting above him made him freeze and tense. The rest of the building must be collapsing, he thought as the dust level grew. Oh screw this…
"Hey! I'm still down here!" He shouted, praying that someone would hear him.
A ringing sound – hollow metal? – seemed to echo through the cracks he guessed were above him. He let a small grin touch his face.
"Al! I'm under you! Alphonse, get me out of here!"
Someone must have heard his hoarse voice, because the amount of shuffling above his head increased, along with the voices.
"Major Armstrong, Alphonse, we need to lift this slab. Lieutenant Hawkeye, are the paramedics here?"
"They just arrived sir."
"Armstrong, Alphonse, on my count. One. Two. Three!"
He bit back a scream as the slab was lifted, revealing his injured body for all to see. With the rubble off of him, he felt the full extent of his injures. The slight ringing in his ears increased tenfold. Black spots danced in front of his eyes, even while he tried to hold onto consciousness.
A cool hand touched his forehead, whipping back some of the blood. "Just hang on!" a voice said, belonging to the hand. "We're getting you out now."
He focused on the voice, even as he let himself drop into the darkness.
It was the smell that woke him, he decided. It was that hospital smell, sterile and, strangely, dead fish. He cracked open one of his eyes, only to immediately shut it to stop the stabbing light from assaulting it.
Wait… Light?
He sat straight up on the bed, ignoring the pain screaming through his body, focusing especially on his ribs. Glancing around, he took in the bland hospital room as if it was the most elaborate transmutation circle in the world.
Footsteps form down the hall made him free. A voiced carried into the room in time with the steps. From the sound of it, it was talking about him.
"His recovery is going good, I assure you. What concerns me now is when he will regain conscious." The door opened, and a doctor stepped in. He paused in the doorway, surprised to see his patient awake and sitting up. The doctor's companion, however, was not in the least.
"Well, look who woke up and joined the land of the living," the other person said with a condescending smirk on his face.
The one in the bed glared. The doctor slipped out to give the two a few minutes of privacy.
"I hope you know what I went through, digging through all that rubble looking for you, the man at the door growled.
"Aww… were you scared of sleeping on that big bed of yours, all by yourself?"
"I'll have you know that I've had that bed since before you came into the picture!" The man snapped, striding across the room to pull the one in the bed into a hard and hot kiss. The one in the bed kissed back just as hard.
"Oh my God!"
The pair broke apart and quickly turned to glare at the suit of armor in the doorway.
"Al!"
A/N: Excuse me while I hate this… Convince me otherwise?