The Cripple

Chapter Three

East Wing

The search warrant came faster than Roy had expected. As soon as Maes told General Gruman what was going on, men were instantly sent out to help in the inspection. The only thing that they needed to do until then was sit and wait. It took a few hours to get from East City's command center to the Heissgart Village, even more if the soldiers got lost in their travel. Their inspection could not continue without that search warrant and time was ticking by. Roy felt his legs become restless once the phone call was over. He wanted to go out and put a stop to the Village's vial care, but he had not the power to do so. So, with Edward still in his arms, he had to wait on the steps of the Admissions building with nothing better to do than to talk about his third favorite reptile.

"So yeah, frilled lizards are cool," Roy muttered as Edward sat on his lap head deep in the conversation. Roy had forgotten how the kid even brought this up. He had forgotten why he was still talking. He didn't even know what his third favorite reptile really was. He had never thought about it before. But, if Edward wanted to know, Roy guessed he had to make up something to tell him. "They have these little frills around their neck that they expand out to make themselves look bigger. They use it to frighten away predators."

"Does it work?" Edward asked curiously. Roy shrugged his shoulders not really sure.

"Sometimes. If you make yourself look bigger and stronger, sometimes people won't mess with you even if you are really small," he told him. Edward's mouth opened a little as he breathed out an 'oh'. He wanted to permanently press this information into his mind. Maes always told him that kids were smarter than half of the adults in the world. Roy didn't know if that was true, but they were at least full of fun facts and were willing to spill them at whatever opportunity. Edward seemed like he wanted to make a whole library of them.

"What's your fourth favorite-" Edward started to interrogate but was cut off by Riza joining them on the last two steps. She sat down next to them, looking tired as ever. With all this extra time on their hands, Riza was probably not going to waste it away doing nothing. Relaxing always seemed to be a chore for her.

"You bored?" she asked but he shrugged.

"How can you be bored when talking about your fourth favorite animal-"

"Reptile," Edward corrected him though his voice was a little weaker than before. It seemed that even after his short time with Riza, the kid was still a bit intimidated by her. Roy had spent many years as commander and friends to the Lieutenant and he still was very much intimidated by her.

"Yes, reptiles specifically," Roy smiled. A light-hearted grin grew on Riza's face and Roy could almost imagine a smile jumping off of her lips but he knew she wasn't that type of person. "How about you?"

"Needed some fresh air," she said as she dropped the bag she was carrying off her shoulder and rested it on the ground. It tilted over and some of the contents that were stuffed inside of it spilled out. Riza was always very prepared when she went on missions and had nearly anything anyone would need. She had a medical kit, snacks, notebooks, pens, and even books for when they had down time. Anyone who wanted anything would go to her. It was practically a monopoly of resources. She was the only person smart enough to bring them. She sighed seeing the mess that was made and bent over to pick them up however she seemed to catch someone else's attention with her mysterious bag of goods. Edward's jaw dropped open as he let out a huge gasp. His eyes huge and frozen in shock. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Roy thought something was terribly wrong until he caught sight at what the boy was staring at.

"I-Is that a book?" he asked in disbelief at the tomb laying on the ground. Without warning, he dangerously leaned over to try and reach it with his little arm though it was just out of reach. Roy let out a little yelp as he fumbled to pull him back on his lap where he was about to fall off. Riza looked up at the kid's eagerness and picked up the book for him. Edward's hand shot up for it greedily as if came into reach. Roy never saw a kid so yearning for a book.

"I don't think this book is for you," Riza said weakly. The cover read Introduction to Xingese in bright friendly letters. Roy raised his eyebrow and Riza glared back at him defensively. The Lieutenant was trying to learn a new language but Roy didn't know that she decided to pick one of the hardest. However, though she was trying to find Edward something easier to read, the child was relentless. He was leaning as far as he could just to touch the pages of the book. Roy, all the while trying to keep him from falling off his lap, relented and motioned for his subordinate to give the book to Edward. She handed it over and the child fumbled to hold it in his one arm. After nearly dropping it three times, they got it situated on his lap and opened to the first page.

Edward's eyes started to scan the page and nothing else came from him. Roy waited for him to hit a word he didn't know and stop but he kept on going. He wondered if the child understood what he was reading or if he just wanted to pretend. Either way, nothing seemed to distract him from it. Edward was glued to the pages in less than a minute.

"Wow, he focuses more than I do," Roy muttered his amusement.

"Sir, everyone focuses more than you do," Riza retorted as she leaned back on the steps realizing that her one book was taken from her.

"I didn't think that he would want to read so badly. Most kids would avoid it like the plague."

"Well, he isn't most like kids," Riza sighed. Roy saw her eyes scan the boy once as if to solidify the child's differences. Roy wondered if she found anything. "Growing up here, with absolutely nothing. Anything, even a book, is worthwhile."

"Well, when he gets out of here he can have all of the books he wants," Roy smirked as he watched Edward flip the page without blinking. It seemed that he was completely oblivious to their conversation. The only thing he was bothered with was the writing on the page.

"That brings me to my question, sir," Riza hummed. Roy looked over to her to see that she was staring at her wringing hands. This must have been a question that was difficult for her. Which only meant that it was very personal. She was never good at asking those questions because when she did they became very blunt. "What do you think will happen to everyone once they get out of here?"

Roy frowned and looked away from her worried brown eyes and pondered a little bit. What would happen when they got all the patients away from this place? As much as Roy wanted that to be the happy ending, he knew it was far from it.

"Children would probably be given back to whatever family they came from, any relatives. If they don't have a family, they would be sent to orphanages around the country so that they could be adopted. The adults would be given a small stipend to start their lives from," Roy told her knowing that the idea sounded better than the reality would undoubtedly turn out to be. The children had a low chance of being adopted. Roy knew that difficulty and was lucky that when he was a child he was not sent to an orphanage after the house fire that had killed his parents. His Aunt was able to take care of him, so he got to avoid the struggles of being adopted which for most was an endless battle. The adults who have been in the villages all their life, probably had no clue how to really function as adults. They probably had no social skills or abilities to use in the workforce. They would not know how to survive and would most likely end up in a local homeless shelter. Though freed from the village's crimes, the patients would only live subpar lives a fraction better than the ones they had beforehand. In some cases, maybe worse.

"Sir," Riza said, not buying into the sweet trick of the flimsy idea he had put forth. Roy knew that she saw reality and was grateful for someone who was so willing to drag him out of the clouds he wanted to live in. "Whatever you do after this all happens, I expect you to weigh your options and make the right decision when the time comes. But sir, weigh all of Edward's options too."

"Of course," Roy replied hesitantly. Riza was looking at him with a stern determined expression and he was very confused as to where it came from. She saw his confusion and sighed as if he was an idiot for missing the point however did not elaborate on her statement. It seemed that she had faith in him that he would eventually figure it out. That was stupid of her. Roy tried for the few minutes of sitting there to understand what she meant but drew a blank.

As Roy's thoughts wandered he looked up to the bright blue sky. A light breeze was rustling through the trees and brought a soothing sound to Roy's ears. If this place wasn't a horror show, it might be a nice place. He closed his eyes tiredly and allowed the sun to warm his face as he relaxed on the front steps of the Admission building. The only thing that dragged him out of his peaceful trance was a sudden odd exclamation that came out of Edward.

"D…Darao ….. yi… yixia," Edward mumbled out loud. Roy's eyes widened as he looked over to Riza who was staring back at him. Was he speaking Xingese? "Darao yixia," Edward repeated with more fluency. The golden eyes turned back towards Roy and Edward was overtaken by the curiosity behind it.

"Colonel, how do you say this?" he asked innocently.

"I… I don't know Edward. It's in Xingese-"

"You are saying it right," Riza interrupted him, earning a little smile from Edward. He gave a little victorious exclamation before he attempted to return to the pages however that attempt was thwarted when Maes approached them from the Village's road. Roy saw a couple of military vehicles pulling into the Village and parking. There were only four men sent from the Eastern Headquarters to help them. Roy knew that they needed a lot more than that. Maes had a file of papers already in his hands and a tired smile was wearily painted on his face. He had the search warrant. The inspection was going to begin once more.

"You ready?" he breathed. Though one might think he looked excited for the continuation of the inspection, it was only eagerness to get it over with. Only at the end would they know what would come of the village.

"Ready as I ever would be," he sighed in reply. Roy reached forward and gently tugged the book free of Edward's grip. It took him a second to realize it was gone and when he did, he looked around desperately for where it went. He saw it handed over to Riza and Edward reached for it again with such force he almost toppled out of Roy's arms.

"Noooo," Edward whined as he unhappily watched Riza tuck the book back into her bag. "I want it!" the kid pouted but Roy tucked his jacket back around the boy and picked him up as he struggled to stand. His arms were sore from carrying Edward around and he feared that he would drop him, but he forced himself to keep them steadfast. He would not lose him because he was clumsy.

"Edward, you can read a little later. Remember that test we were talking about earlier?" he asked Edward, hoping to distract the kid from his disappointment. Edward's eyes only lingered on the hidden book for a few more seconds before turning towards him. He didn't say anything but nodded his head slowly. The pout was still on his face as he was obviously sour about the book being taken.

"Well, we are going to continue it a little longer, alright? This time my friend Lieutenant Colonel Hughes is going to be giving it. He needs to see the lower buildings," Roy told him softly.

"Again?" Edward asked.

"Again." Edward frowned but nodded his head and allowed Roy to carry him down the steps. There was a rough hand that patted him on the back and Roy looked over to see Maes looking at him over his glasses. He saw bags underneath the man's eyes and he knew that while he and Riza were relaxing outside, Maes was stressing. Roy had told his friend to call his wife, but by the looks of it he knew that he disregarded his advice. After all, something like the Village would be the last thing a prospective father would want to tell his wife existed.

"Roy, I know I read your report but…. How bad is it really?" he asked.

"You are not prepared," Roy stated flatly. Maes looked a little taken back at the statement but was not offended. "No one is prepared."

….

Roy saw more of the Heissgart Village than he had wanted to see that day. He had seen more of the village than he wanted to in his life. He would have liked to say that Edward's light-hearted personality had taken his mind off the atrocities inside of the buildings. It didn't, but did make it just a little more bearable. Maes didn't handle what was inside as well as Roy had thought he would. In fact, he was taking it with less grace than Jean had. Riza, who was now joining them on the tour, withheld her disgust behind a mask of indifference. However, every now and then Roy saw it crack a little more.

Edward was fidgeting in Roy's arms, longing for the book Riza now had back in her possession. He was very reluctant to put it down in the first place and very upset he didn't get more than two pages into it. Roy had promised him that he would get it again when they were done, but that still didn't seem to settle the child's desire to steal it back. When they entered the sleeping quarters of the first building, the one where Roy found out Edward slept on only a small ratty pillow, Maes looked ready to hurl himself out the nearest window. But opposite to all their reactions, Edward was over excited to tell Garfiel about his day. The tall handsome man was pulling a rather rambunctious child off another and scolding them gently. Though at first glance Roy pictured them as merciless wild animals, the children quickly apologized to each other under Garfiel's rule and forgot all about their little feud. It seemed that the man was held to high regard by nearly every patient in the building. The two of them talked to Garfiel for a while as Maes made his way around the room to look it over. Edward eagerly told Garfiel about the book he was reading and told him all about the strange words he was learning. The man looked overly ecstatic to see that the child had found something to read. He said that learning that he was reading something was the best surprise in the world. Roy knew that in that moment he couldn't be happier.

They reluctantly left the sleeping area and continued through the buildings of the lower village. Each one was worse than the last and Maes was absolutely repulsed. Roy could hear him cursing underneath his breath at the owners. He hoped that they got damned to hell which was very strong language for his friend to use. This was the only case Roy knew of that he obviously meant what he said. The day drew on and eventually they took a rest on the fresh green lawn to review what they had. Instead of the couple pages that were provided by the form for extra writing space, Maes had a notebook which was quickly filling with health hazards provided by the Village. Carelessness caused many places under inspection to get a failing grade, but the Heissgart Village failed purely on neglect. As Maes flipped through the notebook there was a few beads of sweat that coated his brow. The anger and stress of simply seeing what they did was getting to him. If he didn't have a mental breakdown by the end of the inspection, Roy would suspect something was wrong with him.

Maes rubbed a heavy hand over his mouth and jaw as he stared at the cumulation of their hard work with distaste. Something was wrong.

"What is it?" Roy asked as he resituated the small Edward in his arms. They were becoming dead tired from holding the child up for so long. Though Edward was frightening thin and was significantly lighter than a boy his age should have been, the hours were wearing on him. Seeming to see his struggle, Riza reached over and relieved him of the weight. Both him and Edward were very reluctant to part, but Roy sighed as he felt the blood rush back into his sore arms. As Riza situated the child in her arms, Edward reached out his only arm for Roy again but came just short of grabbing his jacket. There was a frown on the kid's face that Roy didn't know the origin. He smiled weakly and gently took the small hand in his in hopes that it would ease the child's worry. It was odd. Doing so eased his own as well.

"We only have one more building but… if we don't see anything more…. Well, what we have here is enough for major reform and budgeting. Most of their issues are because of understaffing and lack of space which can be fixed with new dorms and more nurses. Unless they refuse our suggestions, we cannot shut them down," Maes relented, popping all of the hope that they were building up in their journey through the village. What they saw could destroy a man. Some of the soldiers that came along with the search warrant had to stop and sit out on the inspection. Roy didn't blame them. The only thing that was keeping himself going was the hope that all they saw would stop that day. He was imagining that they could put a stop to it once and for all, but Maes said that it wasn't the case. They needed more. What more could they possibly give?

"Hopefully," his friend continued, "we have what we need in this last building here." He pointed up with the pen in his hand towards a building that was set apart from the rest. It was hidden amongst a small patch of trees near the borderline of the village. The sun only casted shadows amongst the darkened brick silhouette of their last hope of saving the patients. Amongst the lawn was the small fenced in area of the Heissgart Village's cemetery which was neatly tucked to the back corner of the village out of the sight and minds of the patients and staff. Roy squinted his eyes to see the stones that marked the graves where patients were interred but didn't see any names. He only saw numbers like those seen on the wrist bands that labelled the villagers' illnesses.

Roy felt the small hand that was engulfed in his pull away and he looked down in surprise to the missing warmth that was there before. Edward had tucked his arm into his chest and was curling up into a small ball in Riza's grasp. He was pale and his eyes didn't seem to stray far from the building that they were heading towards. Roy knew that something was wrong. Something was scaring him. It was as if he was afraid that the building itself was going to lash out and bite him.

"Edward are you okay?" Riza asked gently, seeming to notice he was off. The kid shook his head but didn't give a verbal answer. Riza shot a gentle but stern look over towards Roy asking for his help. But he didn't know what could possibly be wrong.

"Uh, you ready to continue the test? We have just one more building to do," Roy said. He hoped that keeping the conversation light would distract the child from whatever was bothering him. "You have done great so far. My friend Mr. Hughes here is grateful for the tour. But we need just one more building." Though most people thought it would have worked, Edward seemed to know better. He shook his head, not wanting to be tricked into going into the strange building. He didn't want to go in there at all.

"I-I'm done," Edward mumbled shakily as they approached their last building.

"We have one more, Edward," Roy urged gently, "then that will be it. Your test will be over." However, the boy shook his head and burrowed closer to Riza's chest, tucking his head underneath one of her arms to shelter himself. The lieutenant was only mildly surprised by the boy's attempts to hide and shifted around to hold him better.

"I'm not allowed in the east wing," the boy said barely above a whisper, which was muffled into Riza's side. Roy stopped in his tracks and looked up at the large brick building. The others stopped alongside him, wondering what made him halt.

"The east wing?" Roy asked as if he didn't hear the boy right. He didn't see the child nod his head, but his Lieutenant bowed hers in confirmation to what the child said. That was the building Garfiel told him to go into. The man, and now Edward, seemed to be absolutely terrified of it and Roy felt that paranoia creeping into him as well. 'The people that the nurses take back there never come out.' Roy could hear the haunted voice of Garfiel say to him once more.

"P-please, I-I'm done," Edward whimpered. Roy looked back up at the building and then over to his group who were all staring at its dark and looming presence. He could tell that they all were feeling the same anxiety that he was by the way they were just silently gazing.

"We have to go in there," Maes reminded him as he saw right through his hesitation. They couldn't stop the inspection just because a single boy didn't want to continue. Roy didn't want to leave the boy behind, but he surely didn't want to take him into whatever laid inside. He knew what he needed to do but he didn't want to do it. Relenting to the need to see the Village's end, Roy sighed and removed Edward from Riza's hands. The child was overly eager to return to him, but it would not last. He motioned for his subordinate's bag and she passed it over to him. He strung it over his shoulder awkwardly. He took a few long paces across the grass and away from the haunting building behind him. The tension in Edward's muscles seemed to relax with every step they took away from the place. Roy made a motion for Havoc to follow behind him and the man silently obeyed. He knelt and set the small boy down on the lush grass of the lawn and the bag with him. He made sure to fold his uniform jacket tighter around the child to keep his decency before rooting through the bag and pulling out the Xingese book. The golden eyes lit up in surprise as he saw the return of his wonderful book. A sense of relief seemed to wash through him as the book was slid into his hand and he cradled it towards his chest. It seemed that Edward was afraid that Roy would have taken him into the East Wing. That was the last thing he had even considered doing.

"Jean," Roy said as he looked up from where Edward was eagerly trying to open the book, "stay out here with Edward, we will go in." Instead of being disappointed for being given a babysitting position, Jean looked quite relieved to not go into another horror show of a place. Roy visibly saw a sigh of relief flood out of the man as he easily sat down on the grass next to the child. Edward gave an audible gasp as he noticed the switch in care. The kid frowned at Jean as he tried to puzzle piece what was going on. Hoping to leave before he figured it out, Roy stood up as Edward's attention was elsewhere. He didn't get far however as a tug on his pants caused him to stop. He looked down at what had caught him up but only saw Edward's small hand snagged around the leg of his pants. Book forgotten on the grass, golden eyes were wide and begged as they looked up at him.

"Don't go," Edward pleaded. It seemed that he was averse to anyone stepping near the East Ward. "I-I don't want you to go in." Roy felt his heart freeze over in that single moment. Was the boy afraid he wasn't going to come out? Considering the pattern of the other patients that entered the East Wing, it was probably so.

"Edward, I have to go in-"

"No!" the child cut him off. He was stubborn and was going to fight him to stay. Roy looked back at the others. Maes gave him an urging look. Though it wasn't impatient, he knew that they didn't have time to waste. With a sigh, Roy reached down and grabbed Edward's little hand and peeled it off his pant leg. He gingerly placed the forgotten book back into it, upset to find that Edward was not as enthusiastic about it as he was before. It seemed that when given the option of a priceless treasure like the book that the kid always wanted and then Roy's presence, the child prioritized him over a book that he had been yearning to read for years. Though he was touched down to his heart, this one time he needed the child to pick the other thing. Edward could not go with them, and Roy could not stay outside.

"I will be back," he told him firmly, leaving no room for Edward's fear or anxiety to build. The child seemed to want to argue but he was taken back by Roy's absolution. There was nothing to argue about. He would return.

"Promise?" he asked softly. It was the last untied string, but he needed it. Roy nodded his head.

"I promise. I will be back, but to do that, I need to go," he replied. Edward frowned, and his grip faltered on the book. Havoc pulled the little boy into his lap as if to be of assurance. He opened the book for the kid and pointed to one of the pages, trying to distract him. Once Edward's attention was diverted, Roy quickly took a few steps away to get out of range of the boy's reach. Hughes was giving him a thoughtful stare which he gratefully returned with a glare.

"Come on, let's get this finished," he huffed as he was about to pass but Hughes reached out his arm and stopped him gently.

"Roy, what if we can't shut down the Village, what will you do then?" Roy froze as the man said this. He wasn't thinking about if they failed. What if even the East Wing wasn't enough? What would become of everyone? If they never closed the Village, the health inspection would end in failure and he would just return home like nothing happened, when in fact, it did. Roy wanted to get these imprisoned people out of there, find the help they needed. If he couldn't do that today, he was afraid no one ever would.

"Edward's a bright kid," Maes said randomly. Roy raised his eyebrow confused at the context. His friend smiled tiredly back at him, the work of the day already pronouncing bags underneath his eyes. "It would be good if he had a home." Roy glanced back at where Edward was sitting now fully absorbed in the book. He now realized that in that moment, Maes wasn't talking about what he would do for the Village, but what he would do specifically for Edward. He groaned to himself as he brought his hands up to massage his face tiredly. Kids never liked him. He was a strict military man who didn't know how to deal with children, only subordinates who were already grown up. Maes was a soon to be father and every bone in that man's body was built for that. Everyone liked him. No one liked Roy. Edward was one of the only children that Roy met that genuinely seemed to like him. As much as Roy appreciated Edward in return, he had not the time nor ability to take care of a child. He didn't know where to start or even how. After they left the Village, Roy was intending to wrap up any loose ties like paperwork for getting half of the staff arrested and letters for demolition to get the buildings levelled. He was not thinking of Edward because he had not included him in the equation. The only thing he was thinking about was finding a good family to adopt him. Roy didn't like it that his friend was insinuating he was that family.

"Hughes-" Roy moaned, but the man just cut him off with a meek smile before hiking up the small hill towards the East wing to avoid retort. Roy felt like a hand on his shoulder and he looked over to find Hawkeye there, expressionless as normal. He didn't know how she did it.

"Sir, one move at a time. Let's finish this and then go onto the next," she said before giving him a light shove up towards the East wing. He thought he saw her glance back at Edward for a second. She probably felt the same way. But Roy didn't know what he was supposed to feel anymore.

….

The halls of the East wing were dimly lit with fluorescent lights. For once the floors were clean, neatly washed and waxed, making Roy's heart drop. This didn't seem to be anything worse than the other buildings. In fact, it was probably the best one he has seen yet. Nothing seemed to be dangerous or out of order. The only thing that offset him was the horrible stench that still hung in the air. It was different from the sewage smell of the dormitories, and it was heavily masked by a strong scent of disinfectant, but it was still there. What really put him off was the familiarity of it and yet he couldn't put his finger on where he had smelled it before. With no obvious source in the pristine hallways, the odor was set to the back of his mind, but not forgotten.

Their small group of soldiers carefully moved around the hallways to look into each room. Their shoes squeaked against the waxed floors but the otherwise dead silence told Roy that no one else was there. All of the other buildings in the Village had some form of life in them whether it be nurses, overcrowded patients, or a mixture of the two. This place was empty but showed signs of heavy use by the maintenance of it. Maes took his time to study even the structure of the building in hopes of finding anything unsound, but this seemed to be the cleanest and strongest building they were in yet.

The first two rooms were sleeping quarters. They were much smaller than the ones in the other buildings as they only seemed to hold ten people each. If the East Wing was made as a dormitory, it wasn't very efficient. Every single one of the white beds was perfectly made. No stains, no makeshifts. Roy paused in the doorway as he looked at them. Why would they keep the nice beds up here when all of the patients were down on the lower campus? Hawkeye tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for him to keep going.

All the doors in the first end of the hallway had windows on them so that the nurses could see through to make sure nothing was going wrong. In one room there was a line of bathing tubs. They were clean and held no mess in them. There were restraining covers over them to prevent rowdy patients from escaping their confines with only an odd hole for their head to stick out for air. Roy did not think anything of it until he opened up the chests along the walls to find them full of only ice. The baths were not meant to get their patients clean, but to shock sanity into them with ice water. He wondered how cold the water got in those tubs and just how long they had to stay there. He told Hughes about this but he shook his head only making a small note of it on his clipboard. It wasn't enough. There was a dentist chair in one rather small room with restraining cuffs for uncomplacent patients. Oddly, very few instruments were there. They opened all of the drawers in the cabinets and only found various bottles of sedative, a few empty glass jars, and one set of rusty dental tools on a battered tray. Roy would have liked to think that the room wasn't used recently, but he knew it to be false. He looked over to Maes who was scribbling down everything that they saw but he was shaking his head again. It still wasn't enough. They needed more.

Every room down held odd contraptions for treatment methods Roy couldn't imagine ever working, a least not in the way the nurses had wanted them to. Spinning swings, cages, chemicals, and various restraining methods hung in every room. He saw the horror of it all through every door and window. It made him sick to his stomach but Maes just kept shaking his head. It was not enough. Not enough? Just how bad did it have to be to get a hospital to shut its doors forever?

The next door Roy found was made of solid oak. Everything beyond it was a mystery that Roy didn't want to solve. With every disappointing horror he had seen that day, he didn't want to see anymore that the patients would have to go through. But this could be it. This could be the one to shut down the hospital, but at what cost? He felt slight anticipation as his hand reached out for the cool knob. Though his mind suspected it to be a noteless room, possibly a storage closet, something else screamed otherwise. He opened the door to find a wall of pitch-black darkness. There were strangely no windows in it to let in the sun. Roy stepped in and fumbled around for a light switch on the wall. As he moved blindly about, he realized that the odd smell that had floated unmentioned in the hallway seemed stronger in the small confines of the strange room. It rang with a familiarity that haunted the back of Roy's mind. The tart, rounded scent almost reminded him of formaldehyde. It was almost too strong for him. After a couple seconds, his fingers brushed against a possibly switch and he quickly flipped it on.

As the dead lights flickered alive, Roy felt every muscle, every cell in his being tense and freeze as if they were set to absolute zero. He regretted opening the door. He regretted turning on the light. Shelves lined the walls of the small rooms and each one was stacked full of liquid filled jars. A hand flew up to his speechless mouth as he felt his mind go dizzy. He stumbled backwards out of the room and quickly turned away as if that would make him forget, but it was permanently stained to his memory.

"Sir!" Hawkeye's alert voice exclaimed as she stopped her own search upon seeing him. She rushed over to him, but Roy's knees already were giving out on him. "Sir, pull yourself together! What-" she started to scold him. Roy almost didn't recognize her voice. The hysteria that was filling his mind left no room to process the outside world apart from what he had just seen. His muscles quaked, his limbs shook, but his eyes were locked steadily on the contents of the storage closet he had walked into. His mouth trembled as he tried to force out words to explain what he had found, but no words came to him. No words could come to him as he had figured out the purpose of the East Wing, and the Heissgart Village as a whole. And the truth horrified him.

He knew why every patient was afraid of the East Wing. There was a reason why no one ever came out of there. The jars he had found inside of the closet were in fact full of formaldehyde like he had guessed. The yellowed liquid gave a haunting glow as the light bulbs had flickered to life to reveal what was trapped in their forever preserving substance. Inside the jars were the labelled brains, teeth, and eyes of the past patients. The nurses were experimenting on their patients. They were studying them and dissecting them to find the reason they were impaired. They seemed to have been trying to find the cause of their malfunction. It might have been justified by the nurses as an attempt to find a possible cure, but it was torture to the patients. They were farming them for reasons of clinical science. Roy couldn't imagine all the people who walked into the east wing, not knowing what was to become of them. To be placed in finally livable conditions just to have their actual lives taken.

Roy felt his stomach churn once more and he finally gave up on trying to hold it in. A weight laid gently on his back and he knew it was Riza by her strong calming presence but he couldn't process anything else. Roy looked at his hands to try and focus on something to calm himself. They were shaking; fear, disgust, he didn't know which was more prominent, but he couldn't keep them down. He clenched them and unfolded them, then did it again. The more he focused, the more his breathing relaxed and the more he heard his subordinate's voice come through the veil of terror that had surrounded him. He heard a quiver in Riza's usually calm voice. She was struggling to keep herself together. She could see what he saw and it broke her tough demeanor. At that moment, Roy knew that they had seen enough of the Heissgart Village to shut it down permanently. No trial needed. They had succeeded, but at what cost? They were hoping for more evidence, but the reality was too cruel and disgusting for them to fathom.

"W-we should continue," he heard Maes mutter. His voice was strangled as he too had trouble even finding the words for what he had seen. Roy looked up to see him close the door to the storage room behind him. The clipboard was dangling loosely from his hands as all of the strength had left him. "We need to finish the inspection," he finished finally, as if concluding the room's search would put it into the past. Riza, the strongest in the group, pulled Roy to his feet. He wobbled slightly as he felt his legs shake underneath him. He gave himself a moment to steady himself before attempting a step down the hall. His entire body screamed at him to go the other way. It was like a magnetic force was fighting against him from going, but he forced himself through. They had started something they needed to finish. There was no way they could have just walked back now. The three of them staggered down the hallway to the deeper abyss of the east wing. What on earth would they find in these new depths of hell?

Horror after horror revealed itself behind every door. It was beyond what the human mind could have imagined. Roy once had liked to think acts like this was beyond a human's capacity to understand. How these atrocities could have been committed with no sense of remorse, was a mystery. They found several rooms that held chairs with lashes on them as if making sure their prey didn't run away. Needles were full of unlabeled medicines ready for testing and there were many tools Roy couldn't imagine the use for still covered in grime from their last subjects. He thought he had seen enough. From the first room, Roy wanted to stop and turn around but they had to keep going. It wasn't until the final room that they finally reached the end of their road and the end of human decency.

Bodies. Dead bodies of headless patients were piled on the floor of the morgue because there wasn't enough room to store them in the freezers. Their rotting stench filled the room and suffocated the investigators with the smell of decay. Flies buzzed around the room like an infectious disease and stirred the odor to new heights. Hawkeye refused to step into the room after seeing the mangled bodies of the poor long gone patients and a few of the other men didn't get past the smell. Though Roy knew she wasn't the most superstitious person, he wasn't going to push her. It was a horrible sight which no one needed to see.

He and Maes risked their stomachs and their peace of mind to go farther into the room. There was a cremator, but it seemed long out of use. It probably broke down from lack of care, or in the least, a work overload. Roy inspected the strange device from its odd buttons to combustible gas. Surely if a match were to be striked in that room they would all have been blown to smithereens as the putrefied remains built up their bodily gasses. Scratches and dents were marked on the interior of the machine which was odd as the bodies should have slid easily in. The scene was as if the cadavers were trying to claw their way out while the machine was burning them. Disgusted, Roy didn't doubt it. He could nearly hear their screams whispering in his ears.

"I am going to call for back up. We are good now. It's over," Maes' muffled voice said suddenly in the silence. Roy looked over to see his friend breathing into his sleeve to mask the scent from his finely tuned nostrils. He didn't judge, he was doing the same thing.

"We might have succeeded," Roy huffed, "But we are far from done."

….