Alright! I have decided to do a complete overhaul of this story! I really need the writing practice and it's been bugging me not playing with my OC any more. So here I am, starting over with more knowledge of the series under my belt and a little more experience. I hope everyone enjoys the story!
PROLOGUE
Ed sat crouched in the cramped confines of a drafty ventilation shaft. The ancient metal fastenings groaned beneath his weight, but luckily for him it wasn't loud enough to draw the attention of the gathering of robed men clustered in the room beneath him. He carefully inched closer to wide crack where the floor met the wall, praying that it would hold out for him as he squinted through the glass lenses of the gasmask at the chanting men twelve feet beneath him. There were around fifty of them in all, dressed in hooded red robes standing in the center of a huge pentagram outlined on the stone floor in what appeared to be sheep's blood. At the head of the room was a raised pedestal with an altar and behind it was a young blonde girl in a thin white nightgown, each arm in the firm grasp of a large robed man.
"NON! NON! NON!" She cried as tears bubbled from her eyes and spilled down her round, pale cheeks. The carcass of the sheep whose blood had made the circle was placed on a pedestal and lit afire. All heads bowed as a wizened old figure in white hobbled forward and stood before the sacrificial flames.
"AND NOW," he announced in French, "NOW WE WILL TASTE THE FRUITS OF OUR MASTER! NOW WE SHALL PASS THE GATEWAY TO EVERLASTING LIFE! NOW WITH PURE BLOOD WE TOO SHALL BE PURE! NOW IS THE TIME WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR! LET US CROSS OVER AND BE WHOLE AS NONE IN THIS STINKING PIT SHALL EVER BE! LET US SHED OUR SKINS OF HUMANITY AND BE FOREVER AS GODS!" The girl was brought up in front of the man where her wrists and ankles were bound to the altar. She pulled feebly against the coarse ropes, wailing in fear. The old man raised a knife and cut away her thin nightgown with one stroke so that she lay naked before the gathering.
"NOW WITH PURE BLOOD! WE TOO SHALL BE PURE!" He said again and raised the blade over his head. The girl screamed. Ed could take no more. He rolled and pulled his left leg to his chin. The muscles in his thigh clenched and he lashed out. He rolled again and fired his pistol through the hole in one fluid motion, the bullet blasted through the ringleader's hand. The old man shrieked and dropped the knife. The people below began yelling in confusion and scattered to various corners where they had left their belongings, including a variety of guns.
"WHERE DID IT COME FROM?"
"PERHAPS IT WAS A MESSAGE FROM OUR LORD!"
"SPREAD OUT AND FIND THEM!"
"THERE'S SOMEONE UP THERE!"
Ed clenched is teeth and cursed inwardly. He peered out of the hole and fired at the cult members but was unable to incapacitate any from the awkward angle. In answer, they began firing back. Holes began popping all around him as the people fired blindly. There was a faint 'chink' as one bullet hit his metal shoulder. Ed grunted and grabbed the opening with his right hand. He wrenched it open further until it was large enough for him to fit through. He grabbed a canister holstered to his leg and pulled the pin. A slow stream of gray mist began leaking from the small hole. He tossed this through the opening and aimed his gun at it. One careful shot and half the room was filled with the oily fog. He rolled through the opening after it and dropped twelve feet where he landed lightly on his left leg. People yelled and coughed, a few saw where he fell and began firing at Ed as he ran and dove behind a thick oaken desk.
"Okay Al, where are you?" He grumbled to himself, grabbing a handful of bullets from his pocket and jamming them into the cylinder. He took a deep breath and readied himself to peek over the desk but the shooting around him suddenly stopped.
"Come out boy." Came the wheezing voice of the leader.
"Let the girl go free and leave this place first!" Ed said calmly, cocking the pistol and holding it at ready.
"You have interrupted a sacred passage! Don't make your punishment any worse than it already is, you corrupt spawn of infidels!" The man's breathing was haggard and painful from a combination of the gunshot wound to his hand and the thick chemical smog. Ed grinned to himself and rolled to his knees. Ed only had one more canister with him, after he used this he would be forced to use his gun on these men. Ed pulled the pin and threw it over the desk. Gunshots fired and one bullet caused the canister to explode. There were cries of pain as splintered tin fragments hit flesh and coughs as another wave of gas filled the room.
"Anytime now Al." Ed grunted as the wood next to his cheek trembled and splintered with a new onslaught of bullets. But the gas was working. Only a dozen men remained conscious, the rest had fallen victim to the noxious knockout gas. Those still awake were carefully breathing through their sleeves as they fired at random. A door from across the room creaked open and a cylinder was rolled across the floor. It bumped the foot of one red-clothed man who jumped and fired at it on instinct. The canister exploded, sending the man flying. Ed took the distraction to dodge from the desk to the pedestal. It was pure luck that the girl hadn't been hit by a stray bullet. Ed grabbed a knife from his boot and sliced at her bindings. She was still conscious, but barely so. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as Ed slid her off the table and lay her on the floor out of range of the few sporadic gunshots that were still firing. It was only a few seconds longer until the gunfire ceased followed by the meaty sound of a body falling to the floor.
"How you doing, brother?" Al yelled from the doorway.
"It took you long enough!" Ed retorted.
"Sorry, I had a bit of a distraction." Al called out, peering through the door into the smoke filled room to make sure all the people were surely down.
"Noah followed you?" Ed demanded angrily.
"I couldn't stop her! Sorry!" Al yelled back.
"Ed! How could you not tell me you were doing this again? Are you just trying to get yourself killed?" A woman's voice growled from behind Al. Ed cringed and stood up.
"Everything was under control." He said, making his way through the litter of bodies. Noah snorted and slammed the door open. Her large brown eyes glared at him from behind her own gasmask.
"Control? You call that control? That was a disaster! What were you thinking? You almost died! And let me tell you something, I wouldn't have cried at all over you, you dim-witted kamikaze!" She opened her mouth to continue berating him when she noticed the girl lying naked beneath the altar. She let out a disgusted cry and ran to help her. Al walked into the room, scratching his neck guiltily.
"I'm sorry Ed, I couldn't get her to stay put." Al said. Ed grunted and nudged a still body with his toe.
"Well, let's see if Huskisson is here. Did you call the police?" Ed asked, sliding his gun into his belt.
"Not yet. I thought we should give ourselves plenty of time to check these guys." Al said, already pacing through the litter of unconscious bodies and flipping back their hoods, searching for the man who posessed the knowledge to harness Uranium. Ed glanced over to where Noah was trying to cover the naked girl with the remnants of her shredded nightgown. He could hear her soft murmurs of comfort through her heavy mask and felt his heart swell just a little bit. He loved her so much that he could barely keep it contained sometimes. They had been traveling together for nearly three years and he'd been trying to smother his feelings, but he couldn't deny it anymore. He was going to have to tell her how he felt and that was final. He was already planning ways to get her alone that night to confess to her when she looked up at him, her brown eyes furrowed in concentration. They softened as she looked at him and he could imagine her gentle smile beneath the bulky mask. That was it. Ed was going to tell her how he felt, no matter what. Noah reached out with her slender arm and motioned him to come to her.
"Give me your coat." She called. Ed smiled and walked towards her, carefully peeling his leather trench coat over his automail arm. Then came the sound of the gunshot that would haunt Edward for the rest of his life. Small bits of hair fluttered past his eye, chopped from the strands as the bullet whizzed past, barely centimeters from his head. Then Noah's eyes widened with shock as she looked down at the blood flowering from her left breast. A animalistic cry of rage filled Ed's ears as he turned around, his had already drawn the pistol tucked into his belt. One of the robed men smiled triumphantly from the floor, his eyes already glazed over as he slipped back into unconsciousness. Ed raised his gun and fired, his ears still ringing with a strange hoarse scream he didn't realize was his. He fired again, and again, and again. The man's numb body didn't so much as twitch as it was hit by the bullets. Edward emptied his gun into the man's body and continued cocking and firing long after his bullets had run out.
"BROTHER! HELP ME!" Al's cries snapped Ed back into focus. He turned to where Al was crouched with Noah pulled against his chest. Ed rushed to her side and pulled her gas mask off of her face as he took her from Al's arms. She was gasping for air, her lung gurgling as it filled with blood.
"What do we do?" Al asked in a timid voice. But even if Ed had heard him he couldn't have answered him.
"Noah, Noah, Noah, Noah," he chanted her name as he stroked her face. Tears were filling his eyes but he couldn't wipe them away. He angrily ripped his own mask off and chucked it over his shoulder where it disappeared with a clatter into the mirky fog. Noah smiled at him, her lips forming his name, but no sound came out. She reached up and touched his hair gently, then her hand fell limply to her chest as her heart lost the battle to continue beating and her eyes went black with death.
Ed's head popped up with a start. He glanced around in confusion before finally realizing what had woken him. Al sat across from him nodding at the newspaper he had just tossed into the older brother's lap. Ed sat up straight and rubbed the remains of sleep from his eyes. It had been two years since Noah had died. He had dealt with death before, but this one was different. The pain and the dreams just wouldn't fade at all. Ed sighed and skimmed over the small newsprint.
…nearly fifty American men and women by this time have been institutionalized…claims of hallucinations and an inexplicable fear of doors …nearly all have attempted suicide…abnormal ammounts of mercury and other chemicals found in their systems but the source is unknown...
"So what do you think about that?" Al asked, "It could be possible that Huskisson is trying to go back home."
"I say it's the best lead we've had in months, let's check it out." Ed said, stretching his arms above his head.
"We'd be going to America…" Al said cautiously, taking the newspaper back.
"Then let's go to America." Ed shrugged. Al raised an eyebrow at him and sighed.
"Let's go to America." He muttered and resumed reading the newspaper. Ed slouched back down until he was comfortable and stared out the window, watching the shadow of the train speed across flowers and trees below. As the plants blurred in his vision he heard once more the sound of the gunshot.
Alright. I think I like this version of the first chapter much better. Please review!
