...Or what was left of it. Buildings were burned, bodies were here and there, rotting and half eaten. I stood up shakily and I could hear Al wimper as he looked at the scene. In Ed's eyes, I could see anger, fear, and sadness. Slowly, we all walked through the main street and once in a while we would be greeted by a dirty crow, which all had blue eyes for some reason, who would caw at us and rip at some of the decaying flesh of the people for food. I grimaced at the open chest cavities and stomachs, the cracked heads, the bones broken through the skin, the twisted limbs... This wasn't normal, no one died here from natural causes nor accidents. This was a massacre. We were the only live humans here. We kept tripping over random limbs and bodies. Al accidentally stepped and cracked a skull which spooked Ed and I worse than it spooked Al. We wanted to turn back so bad, but we didn't. Even though our guts told us to run, we kept going because we had to find out what happened to these people. Otherwise it would haunt our psyches forever, like a burning question and thousands of detached voices asking us 'Why?' Well, mine anyway. But I figured it would be the same for them too.
We drew closer to the city's center, because the roads were wider and more maintained - two obvious indicators. Al gripped my hand, and I gripped Ed's in return. I'll admit it, I was afraid of what we were going to see. So afraid, I was even afraid I was gonna piss my pants. Ed and Al walked closer to me, like, almost squishing me. I could feel their fear in the way they held my hands, and I could feel it in the ridged way Ed's arm was. I wanted to scream. And what we saw next we all almost did.
Chimeras, and half eaten bodies littered the place. But these chimeras... were humans. Or, looked like them anyway. One had a tinge of green to his skin, claws as fingernails, eyes yellow and slitted, and a long forked tongue. He also had a thick, long tail and a transmutation circle burned or cut into his back. Blood was all over his mouth and hands. He dove his face into a body's side and clamped his mouth on the flesh before jerking his head back and ripping off some meat. Then, he ate it. I am not friggin' kidding you, he ate that dead dude's flesh from between his ribs. I heard Al whimper softly and Ed tensed some more. I wanted to puke some more. I realized there were more cannibalistic snake, wolves, bears, and fox chimera-human things. Some not as badly as changed, others almost deformed. If they weren't cannibals, they'd look kinda cool actually... Wait, what the hell was I thinking!
There was a screech to our left and our hands let go, ready for defense, and a human-fox-chimera came whipping around the corner on all fours. He looked like a red fox anthro from how much he was changed. Once he spotted us he screamed.
"Help me!" The hoarse voice from the fox chimera dude screeched out like wood cracking. I winced but noticed that a pack of snake, bears, and wolves were hot on his trail. Blood lust in their eyes, I almost shouted 'Holy Shit', but Al sprang into action. He screamed, stood in front of the pack, and brought a fist down onto a wolf's skull. I heard a crack and the body go limp. Ed transmuted his blade from his arm, and ran after Al, shoving the blade into a bear's ribs. The bear screamed before the blond alchemist jerked the blade, and the chimera fell limp. I don't know why I snapped, but I pushed my hands under my shirt tapped my fingers on the transmutation circle cut into my back, and summoned the lithium through the pores of my hands. The metal formed into claws and I rushed, not realizing that the lithium was summoned all the way up my arms. All of a sudden I felt something bite down on my shoulder. I yelled and shoved my right hand forward, and smashed my metal-clad fist into the snakey-boy from earlier. He hissed, and let me go while shaking his head back and forth. I got up, tackled him, and slashed his throat with my claws. The life left his eyes a few seconds later as the red hot life left his neck.
I heard a yipe of pain behind me, and whirled to see the talking fox chimera's forearm being clamped down on by another fox. Ed beat me to it, and slashed the back of the attacking fox, who fell and writhed on the ground before dying. They just kept coming from everywhere. Hacking, slashing, screaming, fighting. And most of all the blood. It poured like red hot rain over us except Al because he was taller. A wolf lunged at Ed, knocking him down, and snapping its jaws at his neck. I was so scared for him I could hardly move, but that's when the fox-man-guy-thing grabbed the wolf chimera by the neck and snapped it, then tossed the body off to the side.
It took us almost forever to finally get the attackers to leave us be by badly wounding them, or killing them. I was so exhausted. It felt like forever but must have only been 45 minutes to a hour and a half. Ed had a scratch in his right cheek and a bite to his side and automail leg. Al was unscathed save for a few blood splatters on his armor. I had that bite to my shoulder and been clawed at the ribs. We did not know how badly damaged the fox was, but I could see some of his fur was matted with blood and dirt. I wondered if the blood was his own. I sighed and the last remaining chimera came over to us.
"Thank you," he said. "I really appreciate you all he-" He was cut off because Ed lunged at him, putting his left arm under the throat and pointing the blade to the chimera's head. He looked pissed.
"What the hell was that all about!" Ed shouted, causing the ears on the chimera to lay flat on his head. "You could have gotten us killed! You put us in danger and WHY THE HELL SHOULD I TRUST YOU AFTER THAT!" Okay, Ed was beyond pissed. He was absolutely friggin' livid to the point where even I wouldn't screw with Edward. And that takes a lot for me not to mess with him.
"Do you REALLY want to fuck with me now!" Ed shouted again. I then noticed the chimera's eyes were a storm cloud grey. I've seen those eyes before, somewhere, on someone who was close to me but it was foggy... The chimera swallowed and whimpered. He looked lanky, but with just enough muscle to shake someone. I sighed and touched Edward's shoulder.
"I doubt he's going to try anything now, after he came running at us screaming for help and took a wolf chimera thing off of you which would have killed you had it not been for him. Ed, let him go, he's not going to hurt us." I said, the exhaustion from my own eyes reflected back at me from the golden eyes. Ed looked down and let go of the chimera, who slumped half against the wall. I rubbed Ed's shoulder before looking back to see Al behind us. This had been a long, painful day.