Chapter 2~ The Aftermath
So here's another chapter…..it's the aftermath of everyone findin' out about Ed's death. Right now I'm trying to type with my left hand while I eat Nachos with my right hand so this chapter took me a LONG time to type. And my dominate hand is my right soooo….. I didn't really think this through. I'm already getting a cramp!
Winry sat up in the soft hotel bed. She vaguely wandered why she could hardly see out of her eyes. She stood up and walked over to the mirror hanging from the wall. What she saw slightly scared her. Her eyes where blood-shot, almost swelled closed and were red and puffy. Her hair was sticking out at odd ends and angles, and where her pony tail used to be, a giant mass of blond now took its place. Her skirt was all crumpled and looked like it hadn't been washed for a month, at least. Her shirt was in a similar state, but instead of being crumpled, it was creased and stained with tears, sweat, and a few drops of blood. She remembered now, she tried biting her lips to quiet her screams last night but she guessed she bit a little too hard. Winry looked like absolute hell, and after a few seconds of debate, she realized, she just didn't give a damn.
She walked like a zombie to her bathroom in the hotel room. Her grandmother was in the room next door, she wandered how she was handling the news. Winry thought about going to see her, but decided not to. She didn't want to talk right now. Or ever. She was going to stay mute the rest of her life. What did she have now that Ed was gone? He was her best friend, he was her favorite patient, he gave her hope and encouraged her. Who was going to do that now? Who was going to call her gear head? Who was she going to throw wrenches at from now on? As much as Winry hated to admit it, Edward Elric was one of the most important things in her life. Edward Elric was her light in a dark and dreary past, her light for a pleasant warm future. Was her light, she should say. That light wasn't shining any more, he was dead. Some asshole put it out and it will never, ever, shine again.
Roy Mustang cracked one eye open and let out a loud groan. He gently eased himself off of the hard wood floor of the bar. He looked at his pocket watch and waited for his vision to clear.
8:52
Oh.
Shit.
He had to be at work twenty two minutes ago. He tried to stand up, but found it extremely difficult. Instead of being able to stand up like he normally would, he got half way before his vision fuzzed, the world started spinning and he fell back to the ground. Roy rolled around on the floor for a little bit nursing his increasing headache. By 8:58 he was up and out of the little bar, and out on the street, walking home. He didn't remember how he had managed to spend the night at the bar, but without really thinking about it he guessed it had something to do with his youngest subordinate. Roy sighed and kept staggering down the busy Central Street.
When he opened his front door, the smell of alcohol and smoke hit him like a punch to the gut. Making his guilt so much more worse.
This is all my fault
He had sent Edward out to the refugee camp. The orders were not from him, no, but he could have done something! For crying out loud, the kid was hardly two years old when the Ishvalan War of Extermination happened! Edward Elric did NOT, in any way deserved to die because of a decade old grudge against the military!
He could hardly walk at the time. He wasn't even part of that war! If anyone deserved to die, it was someone who actually killed during that massacre. Someone like me.
Roy threw his coat on the ground and slid down next to it. He grabbed a half drunken bottle of Scotch from the floor where he left it last night. He had gotten drunk before he left for the bar. He closed his eyes and tipped back his head and let the vile drink slide down his dry throat.
I don't deserve to live.
He could already hear Ed's voice accusing him. 'Ya see you bastard! I always knew you were weak. Look at you, you look even uglier than before. You're taking the easy way out, trying to drink away my memory so you don't have to face your guilt like a real man should! You killed me and you know it.'
Al sat staring down at the bustling city of Central. He found a secluded spot at the edge of Central where a thick forest grew and he hid there. He wanted to cry, so, so badly. But he couldn't because he was stuck in this god damned suit of armor. Ed promised him that he would be out of this armor. But he had to do something rash and go and kill himself. Even Al knew that was a lie. He had heard the full story of how his brother died. He couldn't be more proud and pissed off at the same time. What Colonel Mustang told Winry and Granny, was, to simply put it, bull shit. Yes it was true that Brother was sent to an Ishvalan refugee camp, but it wasn't to help. His mission was to wipe out the camp. Al guessed Colonel Mustang just told the two women it was to help because he didn't want them to know he had sent the kid to murder innocent people.
Ed had realized why he was sent to the camp, when he was still halfway from getting there.
*Flashback* Ed POV
Those Bastards! I knew exactly why I was sent here now. I'm going to wipe the camp off the map, murder innocent human beings. With alchemical power that Ishvalans hate. What a horrible way to die, that's why I'm not going to let it end this way.
I walked off the train and into the blazing sun of the desert. I have to do something, and fast. The captain started speaking, and I quietly slipped away from the group. I searched for the leader of the camp. I found the building with several Ishvalans standing outside of it. I approached them with my hands where they could see them and walked slowly, as not to startle them. The building-no shack- they were standing outside of was a small crummy thing made out of whatever spare materials they could find. Like cement blocks or wood.
"Who goes there?" One of them yelled.
"I need to tell you guys something important. You could all be in danger. So I suggest you listen to me." I replied without saying my name. They might recognize me if I did. A couple gave me a skeptical look but made no hostile move towards me. I took this as a good sign and continued forward. When I got within ten feet of the shack, the leader I guessed stepped out from a cloth acting as a makeshift door.
"Why do you come here Amestrian child?" He asked me.
"You need to leave. The military is going to open fire here soon. So get out of here before you all die."
He laughed at me. Shocked I looked at him. He couldn't really be serious, right? I just told him that he would die if he didn't leave now and he laughs at me! The fucking idiot!
"Kid I don't think you should be here, it could be very dangerous. Your warning means nothing to us. If the military was really here, my scouts would have informed me already. So please leave, one of your soldiers started the war by shooting a child, we wouldn't want to start another war by returning the favor."
I couldn't believe the dumb-fuck! He seriously thinks I'm nothing but an annoying kid! I'll show that bastard! I. Am. Not. A-
"TINY MICROSCROPIC MIDGET THAT YOU CANT SEE OVER A GRAIN OF SAND BECAUSE IM TO SMALL!"
Before the men could he register what I blurted out, ammunition rained down on us from where the military was camped. All the men's eyes widened when they realized I had been right.; They stood there standing motionless. I growled. Where they all really idiots?
I roughly shoved a handful of them inside the small structure of them and shouted over my shoulder, "Move your asses!"
That seemed to do the trick, because the rest all ran inside. I looked around the building, it was about ten foot by twelve foot. There were eleven men including me. The leader walked up to me with a grim expression.
"I guess I should have listened to you-"
"Hell yeah!" I interrupted.
"-But why did you save us? I understand you were too young to even know about the Ishvalan War of Extermination, but we are mortal enemies of your country. So tell me, why did you try and warn us and then save us?"
"No matter what happened between our countries, No one else needs to die. I wasn't going to sit by and watch as innocent people are murder." I answered him simply.
He accepted the answer and thanked me. He moved around a table and lifted up a thickly woven rug from the ground. Underneath there was a hatch that lead down to escape tunnels no doubt. One by one the entered the hatch.
"Are you coming?" The leader asked once he had dropped the eight or so feet down underground.
I looked over my shoulder. The forces where probably storming the houses by now. I nodded, I might as well get out of here too. "Yeah I-" I never got to finish my sentence as a bomb was thrown into the building and my world went black.