Standard disclaimer: Unfortunately none of the characters are mine. I'm just borrowing out of love.
Manga-verse. Possible spoilers up to the latest issue, but after that its all me. I'm fairly new to the manga so fell free to correct me if I make a misake in continuity.
Constructive criticism is much appreciated and desired.
When It had happened, Winry was certain she was drowning on dry land, held under a dark sea of misery by invisible hands. Surely, this was death. Edward had failed and she would join him in the afterlife soon. Finally, the three life-long friends would be together again, forever in death. Winry found some small peace in that and allowed herself to fall deeper. Edward, I'm coming. Then suddenly the invisible hands released her and she was pushed back toward the surface, coughing and gasping as if her lungs were clogged with thick molasses, liquid sadness. The implications were slow to fall upon her. The idea started as a faint but steady whisper. Not dead. Winry choked again and looked up to catch her grandmother's concerned gaze. Not dead, the idea came again like a drum beat rapping out a sharp crescendo. Winry rose from the ground dazed. Not dead, and this time it was a scream in her mind. If Winry had lived, and grandmother had lived, and even the dog Den had lived, then surely everyone had survived Father's attack. The brothers had succeeded. They would be coming home soon. They would be whole, happy, alive.
But now it had been hours since it had happened and there had been nothing. The radio was dead, pure static, so there was no news from the capitol, no hint of what might be happening with the civil unrest Mustang's forces had upraised. After the first half hour had passed with no phone call, Winry had tried to ring Rush Valley. Central would certainly be unreachable, but if she could just talk to someone Winry thought she might feel better. However, there was no dial tone, no reassuring operator to connect her call. And so all they could do was wait. And wait a lot. Winry swept the living room with her eyes trying to distract her racing thoughts. Grandma Pinako sat on an overstuffed chair puffing hard on her pipe for once looking her age. In the two hours they had sat in the upstairs room, Pinako had been uncharacteristically quiet. In fact the elderly lady had hardly moved except to stuff her pipe with fresh tobacco. It was troubling to see Grandmother that way and Winry worried that the darkness had affected her more than the rest of the house's occupants. There were two others in the room, guards assigned to protect the Rockbell women from Father and his homunculi. Ever the vigilant soldiers, the two lieutenants each stood at a window facing opposite directions, though Winry was fairly sure at this point it was redundant. Father had been beaten, The Promised Day was over, and certainly the homunculi had all been captured or destroyed. And if not, if the brothers had somehow failed, Winry really doubted that two soldiers would do much good against what would come next.
"Someone's coming," warned Lieutenant Bricker.
"Is it them?" Hope broke through Winry's voice no matter how hard she tried to sound composed, but it was quickly dashed by the Lieutenant's answer.
"No, it's civilians with injured. Wait Miss! You should stay hidden," Bricker tried in vain to block Winry from the door.
"No way. They're going to need help and I'm not going to hide under a blanket if there is something I can do for them," Winry shoved at the soldier a moment before he gave up and allowed her to follow Grandmother Pinako outside.
"OY! Rockbells! Are you in there?"
"We're here," Pinako called back. "What happened?"
Winry joined her grandma on the porch and gasped despite herself. Amputations she was used to, but usually it was months if not years after an injury before a patient made their way to the Rockbell residence. By that time, the wounds were wrapped and clean. This man, carried to the automail clinic by three others, was a mess of blood and gore. With the Elric brothers already on her mind, the scene was too familiar. For a moment Winry was a little girl again, and the bloodied man balanced between his friends in front of her became a small boy wrapped in the arms of a hollow suit of armor.
"He was threshing wheat when the blackout happened. He must have fallen into the machine. It's a miracle it was only his arm," explained the man who had first called out. "We only just now found him."
"Bring him inside, Winry prep the operating room and equipment. Hey you military bums, make yourself useful for once and help these men carry the patient inside." It seemed that the appearance of this man had brought back a little of the old Pinako, who suddenly was all business as usual. Despite the situation, Winry couldn't help but be relieved in that.
The next few days were much the same. It was rare for small towns to have trained doctors and Resembol, at least after the deaths of the Doctors Rockbell, was no exception to this rule. Generally, in an emergency, an automail mechanic was able to fill in the gaps between traveling physicians. Pinako, and even Winry herself, had often enough stitched a minor wound or set a broken bone. This was an entirely different situation. When the blackout happened most people were going about their normal mid day activities. Car wrecks, industrial accidents, falls, there were so many critical injuries across the country. The phones had gone dead since the eclipse, and the trains had not come. As the only passable medical professionals within a three day hike, the Rockbells were overwhelmed with patients from all over the territory.
The Rockbell women did what they could, but they were beyond overwhelmed. Their days became a blur of short naps stolen in between medical catastrophes, endless cups of coffee, and ducking into the workshop to quickly reread medical text books they had only passing knowledge in. Every able bodied person pitched in from the smallest children of Resembool to the refugees that came bearing loved ones for medical assistance. The women of the town tore their extra sheets and sterilized the strips in huge boiling kettles, while children rolled and stacked the make-shift band aids to be taken to the clinic. Grandmothers cooked huge halves of meat, stews, and soups to share with everyone who had taken up residence in the small town. The young and strong became nurses to the growing number of patients, tending to the less injured while Winry and Pinako saw to those of a critical nature. Everyone donated blood on a rotating schedule. By the second week, however, it became obvious that the need of the patients outweighed the resources of the town by far. It was now the middle of week three. Winry stared blankly into the storage cabinet she was standing in front of. The shelf she was glaring at should be full of pain killers and antibiotics, but today only a few lonely bottles stared back at her. There was no way to make or jerry-rig medicine with the supplies they had on hand. No phones, no trains, no options, someone was going to have to attempt a trip to East City and beg supplies from the military.
That settled Winry found that there was nothing else to do. For the first time in four days, no one was screaming in pain, no one was bleeding out, no one was dying. The quiet of the clinic was so unnerving that Winry shivered despite the heat. The past four days had been a blessing of sorts. Strictly speaking she hadn't been trained in medical triage, but Winry couldn't help but think that she had been preparing for a moment like this all her life. She had learned anatomy from her parent's books, strength and work ethic from her Grandmother, and perseverance against all odds from her childhood friends. She fed off the stress and lack of sleep, gained confidence in each life she saved, and was driven on by each she lost. But now in this rare quiet, Winry was forced to admit that these past few days had been a blessing in an entirely different way as well. It had been weeks since everyone in Amestris had lost consciousness and in that time Winry had not been able to dwell on the missing Elric brothers for more than a few fleeting moments.
Where are they? Why haven't they come home? The questions formed in her mind before she could stop them.
Winry shut the cabinet a little harder than strictly necessary in the hopes that it might clear her mind of the troublesome line of thought. The store room was suddenly too quiet and Winry turned on her heel toward the kitchen and the promise of hot coffee.