I re-did chapter 12 and 13. I don't know what you guys were thinking, chapter 12 was terrible! I fixed it to fit Aria's personality better. Less aggressive. I kind of did an overhaul on chapter 12, so you guys should go back and read that one at least, 13 only needed touch ups to fit the previous chapters.
Stop being so nice, be picky!
Chapter 21 - To Save a Life
Inhaling sharply, Ed stretched out like a cat. He was alone. Winry had stayed the night, but she was no where to be found come morning. Looking to his side, there was a cup of coffee with a note under it. A small dixie cup with medication in it. Lifting the coffee, which was still quite warm, he took a look at the note. 'Sorry, an alarm went off. Needed to get to work as soon as possible. Boiled you coffee, hope it's not cold.' That was the end. "Huh, guess it wasn't a huge emergency." She had time to make him coffee. He assumed it went off while she was making it. There were two sugar and no cream. Bitter and black with a sweet twinge. It wasn't the first time Winry had made him coffee. She perfected it to a tee.
Al came in as he sat up. "Morning." He said cheerfully.
"You seem in a good mood." He narrowed his eyes, a half smirk.
He shook his head, shooting down his brother's accusation, "We fell asleep right away. I was exhausted. You?"
Edward added in the other half of his smirk.
"Thought so." He chuckled, "How are you feeling," he said and looked down at this pill still sitting in the bottom of the small paper cup.
"My head hurts. I'm kind of cold. But good enough not to need that." If he wasn't up to snuff by tomorrow morning he'd be shipped off. "Maybe another session is in order."
Al shook his head. "I don't care for that stuff. It made everything feel like pins and needles. It served it purpose, I'm done." Having waited long enough for any alcohol to flush from his system, along with eating a small fortune worth of food, he felt refreshed. It was going to be a while before he touched a drink again.
The Elric brothers seemed to have things back on track by the end of their six day detox. They sat in front of the doctor who said they had no chance once again. "And here I am, biting my tongue," he said with a smile, giving them both a clean bill of health.
"Bite away Doc." Ed said with that usual bright smile and cocky demeanor.
The rainy season was indeed a dangerous one. Resembool got their rain in the spring, so it was bizarre to have it when it was supposed to be snow. Even though they were in what was considered a dryer section of the country, it still poured down in buckets. The heavy rainfall filled the water tower past its limit, causing it to fall over, injuring four people. One was severely injured, but he would make it through.
The base wasn't the only place that was effected by devastation. A village that lined the valley got hit with a mudslide that left a trail of destruction. The location in question was in no way primitive, in fact, it was close to becoming a city. A seniors home was destroyed, fortunately all occupants had been evacuated. The home collapsed into a building across the narrow road. As if that wasn't enough destruction to the powers that be, the apartment building the home crashed into had structural defects that made it crumble like sponge candy. Killing and trapping countless city workers, civilians and soldiers. There was no casualty count, but prospects looked grim.
Back at the base, Mustang walked with authority. He bombed his way into a storage tent to find the Elrics filling bags of sand and piling them on the back of a large dump truck. "Edward, come with me." Roy spoke firmly. He had his faithful assistant at his side, so it was no more fooling around.
He glanced Al who shrugged, "What's up?" he asked casually, unaware of the current situation.
Riza's eyebrow raised, "Sir," she held a file out to Mustang.
Glancing the section in question, he looked back up, "Alphonse, you as well," he commanded.
They followed Roy and Riza to a vehicle. This vehicle brought them to a large warehouse a short distance from camp. "This is about...?" Edward couldn't ask along the way, he was sitting in the back of the truck with some other soldiers. Also, Mustang was also the another vehicle. Now he stood side by side, trying to peek over the top of the paper his superior was reading. It was on too much of an angle to read.
"You need your drivers license. You're old enough and we need more drivers," he looked up to see several others who also needed their drivers license. "Was I the only one who wanted to start driving as soon as possible? How do you people pick up women? Chicks don't dig bicycles," he said with a huff and ruffled the side of his own hair. "Alright you hopeless fools, front an center."
"Alphonse, follow me." Riza was leading a few other soldiers, she collected him as well.
Al knew he wasn't old enough to drive, so why bring him along at all? "Can I ask what this is for?" Al was much more polite than Ed, that was obvious.
Riza didn't turn around, she spoke with no emotion, "I'm going to teach you all how to use a rifle."
Alphonse's eyes widened. "I'm not old enough to drive, but I can use a gun?" He didn't follow the logic.
She nodded. "The philosophy is different for these people. Boys grow up quickly and need to provide for their family. You are allowed to use a small hunting rifle at the age of twelve." Her fact shocked a few of them. "At fourteen you can use a large hunting rifle, sixteen a shotgun and handgun, eighteen you can use anything, including automatic weapons and explosives. Though that last two are for military use only. Are we ready?" She swung open a nearby cabinet revealing over a dozen large rifles.
That day was grim. The rain didn't help. A few hours in and they were granted a break. Food was provided, desert was not. Apparently they weren't suppose to be enjoying any part of their training. "Butter would have been nice," Ed complained about the bread. Even the grains mocked him.
Al sighed and didn't say a word.
"What's wrong with you? At least you're not being yelled at." Edward was scolded over thirteen times for stalling the vehicle. Guns were more difficult to use, so they were cut more slack than the new drivers. More so because all of them should have had a license before they got there.
"That's not it." He pushed his bowl forward and looked over at a few other soldiers, aiming at targets. "Shooting the gun is fun, hitting the target is rewarding, but soon I'll have to aim at living things. People..."
"Al, these people chose to be terrorists, you have no control over that."
With a shake of his head he pointed an empty spoon at his brother. "What about that guy who took you away? The one playing Raul? He was being forced into this."
Edward shook his head. "...I don't know."
"With people being forced and some joining, how am I suppose to make that distinction?"
Edward saw his point, but tried to lighten the mood, "Al, did you know that over ninety percent of bullets don't hit anyone?"
"That has to do with this...?"
"It's hard to aim when you're running, most fire is suppressive. It doesn't hit anyone."
"Why would they need to teach you how to aim then?"
"It teaches you how to control your shots."
He thought about it, "That makes sense." After finishing their food, it was back to work. Alphonse seemed to be more into it. His aim was so impressive, Riza made note of it. Now that he knew he didn't necessarily have to kill, it lightened the mental load.
"How're they doing?" Roy pulled Riza to the side to get an update on the crew.
"Well, Roger and Mick-"
"No-no, Elric." He specified, "I want to know how the younger brother's doing. Ed seems to be fine. Full of fire, as usual" They were aware of the trouble the brothers had gone through, so this was truly a test of will for them. Ed bounced back nicely and was back to his usual self.
"Lethargic at first, but after break he became more focused. Why? You didn't put anything in his food, did you?" She noted the jump in Al's attitude too.
"No..." He glanced to Al who beamed about hitting the target closer than any the others. "He didn't touch a drink, did he?"
She shook her head, "No, I made sure." Riza had the soldiers leave their things in the truck and empty their pockets to avoid someone sneaking anything in that may effect performance. Be it for good or for bad.
They didn't think to check the boots though. "Hey," a soldier, named Russell, held a flask toward Al, "Nip?" The side of his boot had a compartment made especially for such a possession.
Al's eyes got large and excited momentarily but he quickly refused, not wanting to fall off the wagon, "No thanks."
Russell scoffed, "More for me." And they went back to work.
The impending sunset forced them to finish up. They were instructed to return to base. Ed had successfully obtained a military grade license, enabling him to drive military vehicles only. And Al came back, holding a gun in hand. "Learn to miss? Kind of seems counterproductive."
"Learn to do it wrong. Nah, ass backwards feels right. This is the military, right?"
"Words like that could get you in trouble."
"I don't care," he said and tossed a set of keys on top of his pillow. Pulling his arms behind his head one at a time, he stretched his shoulders. "They said I held the wheel too hard. I can see what they mean now."
"Hello?" a young girls voice sounded from the doorway. Aria stepped in and looked at the brothers. "How was it?"
"Annoying." They both answered.
"Oh," she was shocked. "I haven't been having a very good go of the day either." She reached behind her head and pulled her bun out, revealing hair only a little past her shoulders. "May stole my hair." It usually traveled down to her mid-back.
Their eyes widened, knowing how protective girls could be about her hair. "I'm sorry," Al began sympathetically.
"I've been cool as a cucumber up until now. This was the last straw!" She clenched her fists.
Alphonse had only seen her angry mode once and didn't want to nurture the aura. He rose to his feet and held her shoulders, "Before you do any-"
"I want it back!" she demanded.
"What? Why?" Sentimentality, possibly.
"I want it back. If I get it back, I can reattach it." She explained the her alchemy was also branching into cosmetics. If a hairstyle went awry, she could transmute the hair back to her head. The only problem with this was that it needed to have the large knot brushed out of it. When the hair bonded itself back, some strands crossed over and caused a mat under the first layer.
After successfully retrieving the lock and adhering it to its rightful resting place, there was a noticeable chunk missing. "She's doing voodoo on it. I know it." Aria said gloomily as she braided the shorter piece of hair with some yellow ribbon.
"Do you really believe in that?" Al sat cross-legged next to her in her tent.
She tied the end with some thin wire, for elastics were a thing of luxury. "...I'm not looking forward to finding out." To Aria's fortune, the next day ushered her off to the town in the valley. Winry and the Elric brothers, along with Mustang's team, all ended up going.
"And here I thought I wouldn't have to dig again." He had driven a truck load of soldiers in. Upon further inspection he found out the status of the damage. The building that had collapsed yesterday still had people trapped beneath it. "Another!" Ed yelled as he lifted a slab of stone. There was a bloodied hand hidden underneath.
Winry rushed to his side, stumbling over the rocks and boulders as she went. Leaning down, she took hold of the exposed limb. "There's still a pulse!" A few men from around came over to assist with moving the remaining debris. With a quick and certain decision, she determined that the man was to lose his legs. They had been crushed for hours, if they took off the stone, his body would flood with myoglobin, killing his kidneys. He begged not to have the procedure done. A translator tried to inform him of the consequences, but the man said he would no longer be able to support his family and he was better off dead.
The translator tried to coax his worries, "In times of major crisis, people have a tendency not to think straight. A dead man cannot provide anything."
His response was strikingly honest, "I'd be worth more if I were dead. In fact, it would be a blessing. My family would feel obligated to care for me. I'm only an unproductive mouth to feed. Show them mercy!"
Later that night, the man took his own life. The first life Winry saved that day was thrown away carelessly. She sat on the edge of her bed and wiped tears from her eyes. Seeing someone blowing into their intravenous tube was a jarring sight, so was the massive heart attack to follow. For someone to have such selflessness coupled with self-destructiveness shook her deep down. "I tried to pull the cord from his hand, but he shoved me away." She rubbed the bruise she got from being knocked into a shelf on her way to the floor.
Ed rubbed her back, not knowing what to say. He made an attempt at talking a few times, signaled by a syllable that stopped short of a full word, but no more. He appreciated that Winry stayed silent, allowing him to collect his wits. "All...you really can do, is what you've been doing. Trying to save lives. You're not going to be able to save them all, and if you worry about doing that, you're going to end up like this every time."
She caught her breath and laid across his lap. "I know...its still hard. I'm sure he may have done it when he went home anyway."
He nodded, "I'm sure if he knew it when the building fell, he'd have given up before we found him." The two day excursion yielded a death tole of fourteen. Many were fatally wounded and plenty were severely wounded. There was no gray area. You were either with death, or on his doorstep.
Aria was rattled too, she wasn't one for blood. Seeing so much all at once on the wreckage made her faint. She had been doing good all day, right up until they brought in heavy machinery to move the larger pieces. An individual, unidentifiable at that point, was discovered under the largest concrete slab. She laid eyes on the person, crushed as though he were a bug. Her next memory was waking up in the back of a truck. Farai was squeezing water from a cloth over her forehead.
"For someone who had been sequestered for so long, it's amazing, her resilience..." Aria was referring to Farai, Nathan's younger sister. "I suppose she's been desensitized." She meant 'numb', but figured her wording was gentler.
"Maybe...this is a different place. The culture shock was enough, but to see it like this...kind of makes me happy to live where I do." He grabbed a teapot off the small fire and poured them some drinks. Lemon tea. It seemed food was the only source of relief when they were there.
The week that followed soaked the landscape. Some miners were trapped this time. It was the middle of the night so the roads were treacherous and provided no security from the elements. "I'm spinning out," Ed exclaimed as he shoulder checked to see his rear wheels rotating wildly but making no distance. The men in the back picked up boulders of various sizes to jam beneath the wheels in just such an occasion.
"No good, they keep sinking!" A worker yelled from behind, "Try backing up!"
Edward pulled the vehicle into reverse and rolled over the small portions of rocks built up. He changed gears and moved forward with force, propelling himself and the rest of the occupants over the gap. He marked that as their fifth jam of the evening. Driving was a nuisance.
They arrived in under an hour. Even with the rain mercilessly pounding them. The mine shaft that dipped down was filling with water. Numerous times they tried to get someone to swim down there with a rope, but no one could make it in time. They would run out of air due to the depth.
"Give me the rope." Edward extended his hand.
The man holding the rope handed it off, "Don't go farther than you think you can. We don't need to be fishin' you out of there too." After the mine dipped down fifteen feet, it went back up on a slope. Essentially, it created an additional wall of water that spanned thirty feet. If not for the long drop, rescue would have been a breeze.
"Where are you going?" Al held a gun against his chest and a hand over his eyes, shielding some of the rain.
He pointed down in the water filled hole. It was building up faster than they could pump. "I'll sink quicker than the rest of them because of my leg." He wrapped a rope around his arm several times.
"Wait!" he exclaimed. But it was for naught, his brother held his breath and stepped into the water. He sunk like a stone. He saw three other workers holding a rope, a safety measure in case Ed didn't make it out on his own. "..."
Seconds passed and Ed made it to the other side of the water. His eyes began to sting as he reached the surface. He emerged with the rope and gave it a pull, showing that he made it to the other side. "Hold on!" He instructed the men as he tugged up his left pant leg. His automail leg sported a white coating. "Salt...the mine has acid run off." The water was being tainted with poison that alkalized with metal to form salt, hydrogen sulfide. The workers doused Edward in what little clean water they had to avoid further damage.
If anymore time was wasted, it was going to spell trouble for them, the water would be too volatile to venture into. Wounded miners still needed to be dealt with, there was no chance they'd all make it back. If they tried to wait out the storm, the chamber could fill with gas that paralyzed the lungs. They truly were stuck between a rock and a hard place.
"We have to chance it." A worker pulled on the rope and it came toward him with ease. "What's this now..." he said curiously and continued pulling on the rope. It produced a frayed end, one not tied to safety.
"Fine...you first," Ed ruthfully suggested as he stared at an orange substance trickling into the water from a crack in the wall. Hydrogen sulfide and hydrochloric acid, a truly lethal combination.