I am so sorry you guys have waited so long for a new chapter, but with school and other circumstances, it has been nearly impossible to get this chapter up. I will try to get one up each weekend, but no promises. Without further delay, enjoy the chapter! –Omega
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or the Walking Dead.
*On the lake*
Riza and Rebecca sit in a small boat with fishing rods, Riza looks over to Rebecca as she brings in an empty fishing line. Rebecca notices Riza's cold stare. "What?" She questions, a bit annoyed that Riza is gawking at her.
Riza breaks her stare from Rebecca. "Nothing." She muses.
"It's not nothing. It's always something." Rebecca scoffs.
Riza shakes her head. "Didn't my grandpa teach you to tie nail knots?" Rebecca nodded and began to retie her knots. "I'm only saying cause it's a habit, spent my entire childhood with my dad and grandpa, sitting my ass on a boat all day every day. We were fishing for the dinner table."
Rebecca laughed. "Yeah right, I remember coming over to your house and watching you let go of some of the fishes." Riza shrugged. "You know, your dad saw you do that, but he did nothing."
"You think he did it for us?" Rebecca nodded.
"Yeah, because he knew you loved animals, even if they were stupid old fishes." Rebecca began to cry a little.
"Remember his rule, no crying in the boat, it scares the fishes." Riza ordered while wiping some of her tears away. Rebecca rubs the tears away furiously.
"I mean, maybe the eastern border wasn't hit so badly. Maybe it's better there. What do you think?" Rebecca looks over to Riza desperately waiting for an answer.
Rebeca's line begins to pull under the water. "I think you have a bite, even with the wrong knots." Both women smile as Rebecca pulls in the first fish.
*At Camp*
Falman stands on top of the RV, keeping watch for walkers, he turns his head to see Karley digging holes just beyond the bushes. 'He's been at that for a while' Falman thinks to himself. Karley starts to dig another hole next to the other one.
*East City*
Ed holsters his gun as he is unable to take his eyes off Breda's severed hand, same as the other men. Jean lets out an angry growl and turns around quickly, his crossbow aimed at Jerso, ready to shoot an arrow through his head. Ed quickly pulls out his revolver and aims it at Jean. "I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it." He threatens, Ling stands back scared of what might happen.
Knowing Ed is serious, Jean lowers the bow. Jean pulls out a handkerchief and uses it to pick up the severed hand. "I guess the saw blade was to dull to cut through the cuffs, ain't that a bitch." Jeans mutters while putting the hand in Ling's backpack, disgusting Ling. "He must have used a tourniquet….maybe his belt." Jean notices the blood trail leading into the other side of the building. Ed finds Falman's tools and picks them up, then continues to follow the others into the building. "Breda! You in here?!"
*At Camp*
Falman's worry grows and climbs down from the RV. He approaches Karley, who is still digging holes. "Karley? You okay, man?" Karley remains quiet and just nods as he continues to dig. "You keep this up and you're gonna keel over out here…at least drink some water." Karley doesn't respond.
*East City*
Jean walking into an office and shoots a walker that was within the room, he walks over to the dead corpse and pulls the arrow out from within its head. He whistles to signal the rest of the group to enter the room. Jean let's out a laugh. Ed looks over to see two other walker that had been taken out. "Had enough in him to take out these two bitches. Heh…tough asshole I even met, my brother." The group looks through the room to see if any clues are there. "Feed him a hammer, and he'll crap out nails."
"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is." Ed scoffed.
*At Camp*
Riza and Rebecca walk back to camp carrying a ton of fishes to eat. Darius walked up to them to help them out. "Oh man. Thank you, ladies…Because of you my children will eat tonight." He gives them a light hug and picks up some fish to carry.
"Thank Falman. It's his canoe and gear." Riza laughs, Al and Winry approach them as well.
"Thanks guys, we will feast tonight." Winry acknowledged. Al nodded and carried the remaining fish out of the ladies hands. "Where did you learned that?" Winry asked while picking up a few of her own.
"My dad and grandpa." Riza let out a tired sigh. Winry nods and looks over to Falman and Roy, who are walking up to them. "Hey Roy, tell Winry about how we used to fish at out lake." Roy sighs and shakes his head.
"We have a problem." Roy tells them. Falman points to Karley, whose is digging furiously into the ground. Al returns with Russell and looks over to Karley with concern.
*East City*
The group kicked in every door looking for any sign that Breda was there, but they find nothing. "Breda!" Jean yells through the halls, no answer comes back. Ed places a hand on Jean's shoulder.
"We're not here alone, keep it down."
Jean takes offense. "Nah man he could be bleeding out." Ed shakes his head and kicks in another door. They walk inside the room to find a stove on, Breda's belt id next to the open flame. Jean walks over to the stove and look at some black clumps on the stove. "Burnt skin, heh….told ya Breda's a tough son of a bitch, he cauterized the stump." Jean picks up a piece of burnt skin. "Nobody could kill Breda except Breda himself." Jean laughs. They look over to a smashed window. "Seems he got out of this death trap."
Ling looks at him like he's crazy. "He left the building?! In his condition? Why the hell would he do that?" Jean smiled.
"All he knows is to surivive, he gotta do what he gotta do. Imma go look for him, if ya'll want to come that's on you." Jean takes a step forward, but Ed's grip on his shoulder tightens. Jean growls and turns to him, ready to punch him in the face. "Let go of me!" he yells, but Ed's grip doesn't falter.
"Jean wait, I don't blame you. He's family. I get that, I know how you feel." Ed says reminding Jean that he looked for his family too. "He can't get far with that injury, we'll help you check a few blocks around, but only if we keep a level head." Jean wrenches his arm from Ed's hold.
"I can do that." Ed nods and starts to head for the stairs. "We need the guns first." He reminds the group as they follow him down to ground level.
*Camp*
Karley continues to dig the holes whiles everyone in camp looks at him with worry written all over their faces. Russell takes a few steps forward so that he ends up in front of Karley. "Hey, Karley. Why don't you take a break, just give me a second to say something."
Karley continues to pull the dirt out of the ground. "What do you want?" Russell is able to hear fatigue within Karley's voice. Despite the fatigue Karley continues to dig vigorously.
"We're just a little concerned, that's all." Russell says to him with sincerity. Darius walks over as well. "Falman says you've been at this for hours." Russell wipes the sweat from his face. "Look man, it's a hundred degrees out here. You can't keep this up" With that Karley looked up to them.
"What does it matter, I'm not hurting anyone." Winry walks to him.
"Look they ain't gonna say it so I will, you're scaring the kids." She says without hesitation. Karley stops digging and leans the dirt covered shovel against the tree.
"They have nothing to be scared of. Seriously what the hell? Just leave me alone?!" he yell in frustration.
"Karley just take a break. You know what I'll cover while you take a break. Hand me the shovel." Russell holds his hand out waiting for the tool.
"Or what." Karley says in a defiantly. "Or you gonna beat my face like Tucker?" he says openly. Rebecca comes forward.
"That was different." She tells him. Karley scoffs.
Russell moves forward and reaches for the shovel, only to have Karley grab it and swing it at him. Russell dodges it and lunges to Karley, tackling him to the floor. He pins Karley down as Karley struggles against his grip. "It's okay Karley, no one is gonna hurt you." Russel says trying to calm Karley. Karley struggles cease.
"That's a lie!" Karley yells. "That's the biggest lie there is!" Everyone looks to Karley. "I told that to my wife and kids! I said it a hundred times!" Tears welled up into his eyes. "It didn't matter. The dead got them…." His voice crumbled near the end. "The only reason I got away was because they were too busy eating my family."
*Building*
Ed wiped the sweat and grime from his oily face with a shaky hand. "You're not doing this alone." He turns to Ling, who is has a look of anxiety written all over his features.
Jean snorts at Ling's plan. "Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much." He picks at some food stuck between his teeth.
Ling draws a map of the street below and marks where the tank is, he also marks off where the bag of guns were left. "It's a good idea, just hear me out." He points to the tank. "That's the tank, about five blocks from our current location." He moves his hand to the location of the guns. "There's the guns." He moves his finger to the left. "Here's the alley we went through. With my speed and Jean's aim we could make it." Ed nods in agreement. "You and Jerso will be two blocks away just in case we can't go back through the alley. After we'll meet back here." He took a breath after the long description of the plan.
"We did you do before all this bullshit happened?" Jean gave him a questionable look.
"I delivered Xingese food, but I got fired like right before everything went to shit." Ling offered. The other three looked at each other then back to Ling. Ed bravely asked why. "I think it's because I would take some of the food and eat it."
*Outside*
Ling climbs down the ladder with Jean right behind him. They carefully walk down the alley, very quietly as to not attract any walkers to their location. Jean loads his crossbow quietly and notices that Ling is in front of him without any noticeable fear. 'They hell?' he ponders as he finishes loading his weapon. "You got some balls for a squinty-eyed man." Jean whispers.
Ling huffs. "I'm Xingese." Jean shrugs and raises his weapon ready to back up Ling. Ling takes off in a sprint, some walkers are immediately drawn to the noise and start of hobble towards him, but not aggressively. Jean waits behind a trashcan and fails to notice an unfamiliar person sneaking up behind him because of the current operation. The sound of crumbling forces Jean to turn, finger on the trigger. He sees a boy not older than eighteen, not taking any chances he points his crossbow right at the boy's head.
"Wait, don't shoot!" the boy hold his hands up in surrender. They shook in fear. "What do you want." he cries in distress.
"I could ask the same. You seen my brother? He's hurt bad." Jean growls. The sound of conversation stops Jean from asking more questions. The boy catches the hesitation and uses the opportunity.
"Help!" He shrieks, Jean looks around to see if anyone is watching them. The noise stops and rustling could be heard coming from the streets. "Help!" the boy cries out again, he doesn't move through.
"Shut up! You gonna bring the dead on us." Jean warned while moving closer to the frightened individual. Ed and Jerso run toward the alley once they hear the commotion coming from within.
Ling runs faster when he sees walkers start to bunch up in his path. He quickly grabs the bag of guns and runs around the slow walking dead to get back to the alley. He runs faster when he hears calls for help.
Back in the alley, Jean keeps telling the boy to shut his mouth, but his threats go unheard. Jeans does not notice two other figures coming from behind him until he is hit from behind the head. He falls and the two newest figures start to assault him, Ling runs into the alley and stops abruptly. One of assailants turn to see Ling and points at the bag. "That's the bag!" he runs and grabs the bag trying to rip it out of Ling's grip. The other man follows and grabs Ling when they notice they are out of time. Ling tries to fight back, but against two men his struggles are in vain. A grey car pulls up and the two men take Ling hostage and force him into the car.
"Get off of me! Jean!" The guns fall out of Ling's hand, but the men disregard it and huddle into the car. Before the last man could get into the car, Jean jumps to his feet and shoots the guy in the rear end. The man cries out in pain and is pulled into the car. The car speeds off, leaving the younger boy behind.
"Get back here, you son of a bitch!" Jean yells as he limps towards the entrance of the alley, he raises his crossbow to shoot the car, but the vehicle is long gone. Jean hears the groan of the dead and closes the gate before they could get in. On the other side of the alley Ed and Jerso run in too late. The boy stops dead in his tracks when he sees that he's surrounded. Jean tackles the young man down and raises his fist. "I'm gonna beat the shit out outta you!" Ed quickly pulls Jean off of the boy before any real damage could be done. Jerso hold him back for attacking again.
"Whoa, stop it." Jerso tells Jean, but Jean doesn't have any of it.
"They took Ling, little bitch and his friends snuck up on me." Jean swings out at the boy. "I'm gonna stomp your ass!" The boy shakes as he realizes the situation he's got himself into.
Ed pulls out his gun and points it to the boy. "Get up." Ed pulls the boy to his feet and pushes him to move. "Run and I'll shoot you in the back and I'll leave you for the dead." He warns as he presses the barrel of the gun against the boy's spine. They all run back into the building.
*Camp*
Karley groans as for the hundredth time he tries to move his arms against the tight rope that has him confined to a tree. Russell and Falman walk up to the trapped man, in Russell's hand is a bottle of water. Russell crouches in front of Karley and looks him in the eyes. "Gonna take some water?" he asked with a little desperation.
Karley looks back at his eyes and nods. "Pour some on my head." Russell uncaps the bottle and pours some onto the man's head. "How long are guys gonna keep me this way." Karley shakes some water from his face.
Russell recaps the water. "Well, that is until I don't think that you're a danger to yourself or others." He says truthfully. Karley's smile turns into a grim line. He apologizes for his behavior and assures he didn't mean to frighten anyone. "No one can blame you, you had a sunstroke."
Karley catches Nina hiding behind a tree nearby. He smiles. "I didn't scare you, did I?" She shakes her head and smiles in return. "Glad to hear." She runs off towards camp and goes to play with Alphonse, which he gladly accepts to do.
Once she is gone, Karley lets his smile fade. Falman turns to Karley. "Hey Karley, do you know why you felt the need to dig?" he questions while turning to the holes in the ground. Russell squints against the sun's light.
"I had a reason, but I don't remember. I had a dream last night. You were in it. You too, Russell. You were worried about someone. I can't remember the rest. Where you worried about the new guy?" he lays his head back against the tree to relieve some of the tension in his neck.
"Yeah, they ain't back yet." Russell scratches his forehead. "He's tough as nails, they'll be back." He asserts. "There ain't nothing that gonna stop him from getting back here." He looks up to the sun. "Dinner's coming soon. Come on let's go clean some fish, Falman." They stand and start to walk back toward the camp. "Cool off some more, Karley." Karley watches them leave and the feeling of dread returns to the pit of his heart.
*Building*
"Those men you were with, where are they?" Ed asked the boy again, his patience running very thin. They boy remains quiet in rebellion. "Come on, kid." Ed sighs wearily.
"The names Devin, asshole." 'Devin' snarls at Ed. "Why are you treating me like a criminal when you're the ones holding me captive?"
Ed holds back the homicidal thought to rip Devin's eyes out and feed it to him. "Just tell us where they are at and you could leave unharmed." Ed thinks for a second. "Well mostly unharmed."
"Forget this." Jean pulls out Breda's severed hand and unwraps the handkerchief, he puts it uncomfortably close to Devin's face. "Where's Breda?" he grabs Devin by the collar of his shirt. Devin squirms away from the dismembered hand. "You'll tell me, or the next hand I get will be yours." Ed pulls Jean for the terrified boy.
"Those men back there, they have our friend, all I want to do is talk maybe we can work this out." He takes a more thought out path. Devin reluctantly agrees to the request and gives them the location to the hideout. The group waste no time and immediately go to where Devin's group is hiding, they take up arms just in case things go south. At the location, the group reaches the entrance of the hideout and push Devin up in front. Devin whistles and within a second the gates open. One man walks out.
"You okay, little man." The man asked noticing Devin's unpleasant appearance. Ed unwillingly twitches at the 'little' comment even thought it was not directed at him. Devin nods and turns to Ed to see if he could speak without getting beaten. Ed nods for him to continue.
"Yeah, just some crazy assholes, this one has some dude's hand." He points his head towards Jean. "He says they gonna take mine, man." Devin whines as if he is a small child. One of the men from the alley walks out with a limp and with a bat in his hand, the other hand is holding his backside.
"Aye, that's the guys who shot me in the ass, Dom." He grips his bat tightly. "I'm gonna kick your ass, shit-head!" Jean points his loaded crossbow to the bat wielding man. 'Dom' holds a hand out in front of the angry man.
Ed sees the tension that is rising with each second. "I was hoping to have a calm discussion." He pulls the hammer on his gun back.
"You jump Devin, Phil gets an arrow in the ass and you want a calm discussion? You're fooling yourself, blondie." Dom reveals a pistol of his own. "Who's the dude you're after any way you don't look related." He says jokingly.
"You got my brother in there?" Jean cuts in.
Dom shakes his head. "Fresh out of rednecks, but I've got a ninja. You want?" Ed steps forward cautiously. Phil steps up and forces Ed to stop.
"Look we have your guy, you have ours, sounds like an even trade." Dom shakes his head. "What?"
"My people were attacked, we need compensation for their pain. We're gonna need those guns." Ed looks to the bag that is being mentioned. "That was on the street, we want it." Dom holds out his hand to collect his prize.
"Can't do that, sorry." Dom snaps his fingers and a few more people come out, all holding weapons, on the roof two men are holding Ling. "You can do that, or not." Ed points up to reveal Jerso pointing a rifle at Dom.
Dom nods and offers a choice. "I see two options either you give me Devin and the guns, or you get ready to spill blood." Dom and his group get ready for the confrontation, but a voice stop them.
"Dominic! Dominic!" an old voice comes from behind the group of men. The group splits to reveal an old woman walking towards them. "Dominic, Mr. Giles is having trouble breathing. He needs his medicine." She begs, Ed loosens the grip on his gun and takes a step back, Jean does the same, both confused with this unexpected turn of events. Dom nods and gestures the old lady to follow him, but the old lady notices Ed. "Who are those men?"
"Mom please-"
"Ma'am." Ed greets out of habit.
"Please, Dominic is a good boy. He has his trouble, but he pulls himself together. We need him here." Ed realizes that she has seen his badge that is still tied to his belt, she must have thought Dom was being arrested.
"Ma'am, I'm not here to arrest your son." He assures her. The look of relief floods her olden features. "He's… He's helping us find a missing person. Man named Ling." He lied smoothly.
"The squinty-eyed boy? Oh, he's with Mr. Giles. Come. Come, I'll show you." She grabs Ed's arm and pulls him into the hideout, all the men step back, clearly respecting the old woman. Through another door, Ed sees that a nursing home was hidden behind it, it is filled with elderly and sick patients. "He needs his medicine." She repeats and pulls Ed into a room where Ling is trying to help an old man, presumably Mr. Giles, breath. Dominic quickly passes them and goes to the old man with an inhaler in his hand.
Ling goes to Ed. "The hell is this?" he whispers to Ling. Ling explains that the group of men are protecting the elderly people.
"Dude, I thought you were being eaten by dogs." Jerso shakes his head. Ling points to a group of tiny dogs. They share a laugh as they realize the irony.
Once Mr. Giles is breathing better, Ed grabs Dom's arm and pulls him to a corner. "You have got to be the dumbest son of a bitch I've ever met. We walked in ready to kill you guys." Dom apologizes and explains that the nurses left the elderly when the outbreak started, he took it upon himself to take care of them. Ed sees that they are good people and offers a few guns to them, once they are done gathering their wits they leave the hideout with Ling in tow. They reach the spot where they left the truck only to find it gone.
"The hell's the van?" Jean growls and a horrible thought hits him. "Breda…" Ed starts to run in the direction of the camp, knowing Breda is going that way with a vengeance, the others follow right behind.
*Camp*
Everyone is sitting around the fire, enjoying a fish dinner and having a good time with each other. The mood is up and the problems for the moment are forgotten, even Karley is there enjoying the moment. "This fish is amazing!" Roy praised as his chewed on another piece of fish. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Thanks to Riza and Rebecca, we can eat like kings. Thank you Ms. Hawkeye." Riza blushed and nodded to Roy, earning a wink back.
Rebecca sets her plate down and stands. "Well I need to powder my nose, be right back." She leave to the RV and everyone continues to have a great time.
*Tent*
Inside a tent, a badly beaten Tucker lays trying to get some sleep, when he hears footsteps. He forces himself up, thinking it could be Maria or Nina. "I thought I told you to leave me alone!" The figure outside of the tent picks at the entrance. Now angry, Tucker growls and moves toward the zipper. "What did I just say!" he unzips the tent only to have a decomposing face groaning right in front of him. Before he could even move the corpse lunges at him and bites into him. He lets out a gut retching scream as the infected tears off chunks of his flesh. His screams turn into weak wet gurgles as his own blood begins to cut off his airway and suffocate him. More of the dead force themselves into the tent and begin to rip a dying Tucker apart in a bloody mess.
*Camp*
At the RV, Rebecca is forced to step out of the vehicle because of the lack of toilet paper. "We're out of paper." She calls out to group. A cold wrinkled hand grabs her arm and right as a decayed mouth is about to bite into her flesh she pushes it head away and slams it into the side of the RV, smashing its head in the process. The noises causes the group to turn and they see more and more walkers begin to surround Rebecca. Everyone begins to scatter and panic, Riza makes a B-line to help Rebecca, Roy follows. They push the more feeble corpses away and begin to defend themselves with the weapons they have on their person.
Russell grabs his shotgun and makes his way to Winry and Alphonse. A few walkers appear in their path and Russell starts to shoot. Alphonse grabs his knife and hold it up, ready to fight. Ed and the others hear the gun fire and he pumps his legs to move faster.
Karley grabs a bat and starts to smash the walkers' heads in, Falman grabs his rifle and starts to fire at the deceased. Darius defends Maria and Nina with a bat as more and more walkers arrive at the camp. Another walker attempts to attack Rebecca, but Karley pushes it away from her. Chaos runs ramped through the camp as some walkers attack some unsuspecting victims. A man is surrounded and is torn apart, a woman is dead on the ground while two walkers chew on her bloody intestines. Russell tears his gaze away for those scenes and shoots another infected carcass in the skull, the dark blood splatters on the like rain. "Come on, make your way to the RV!" He yells at those who could hear him.
Karley falls over from the overwhelming group of walkers and just as they are going to get to him. They are shot from behind, the dead falls to his feet and reveal that the other have finally returned. Together they are able to take out the rest of the herd with more ease. Once the finally walker is killed everyone is finally able to take a breath. Ed is immediately angered. "What in the hell happened here?" Ed looks on the piles of bodies that liter the floor.
"They came out of nowhere." Russell turns to Karley who is unable to look away from the grotesque scene. "Karley?" He could see the tears running down the man's face.
Ed moved in front of the man. "Hey, what's wrong?" he nudged the man's arm. Karley just began to nod almost insanely.
"I remember, now." His voice thick with tears as he looked on. "I remember my dream now, I remember why I dug those holes." His hands shook more with each word and his mind flashed back to his forgotten dream. "They weren't holes, they were graves.
That's it for this chapter! Oh, I know Rebecca was supposed to die because she is portraying Amy, buuuuut nah! Know that it does follow TWD plot, but of course some changes will be made. Keep this in mind, NO one is safe from death, anyone came be set up to die, whether it be a main or supporting character. So not even Ed, Al, or Winry are safe. Again thing maybe changed, even when it comes to the Savior arc. So later when you hear Negan's line, well….you better be wearing your shitting pants. But Until Next Time! - Omega
