Chapter 6
Crestfall survivors turned out to be easy to track down if you knew who you were looking for. But so far Travis Eam, Crystal Slocher, and Sharon Reynard had the exact same story.
Winry had apparently held herself a little apart from the others. Not to say she didn't interact – those who had spoken to her thought her a kind girl, with a strong will and a resilient spirit – but she had always seemed a little distant. A little out of place, though whether anyone could actually be in place in a prison camp was a matter of opinion. Crystal had told him Winry often looked after people injured in the guards' frequent beatings. But the only person she spent any length of time with was Paninya.
Adam had already checked Paninya. Paninya Yula was the girl whose shoulder Winry rested her hand on in the Blue Eyes photo. Paninya had been taken to Crestfall along with her, and had apparently died in the fire also. Another dead end.
The three survivors he had talked to so far told him both girls had often stood alone in the exercise yard and sat alone at meals, constantly planning their escape.
They all told the same thing – they knew Winry for her escape attempts, but didn't know much about the woman herself.
He had learned something interesting from Travis, though. Two days before the fire, Winry had attempted to escape again, and been caught. Her right leg had been broken by a particularly brutish guard.
To Adam, this seemed to explain why Winry died in the fire. With a broken leg, she probably couldn't get out of the building in time. And at least Sharon had been able to give him Crestfall's location – the detention centre had been built just outside Rush Valley.
Adam flicked through his notebook – he'd only reached the fourth name on his list of twenty-three, and already he was dreading the reply. 'I'm sorry, but Winry pretty much kept to herself, except for a dark girl named Paninya…'
But now he had to see Daniel West, the fourth name on his list of survivors.
oooooooo
Daniel turned out to be a man in his thirties, with sharp brown eyes and black hair spotted with a few lone strands of grey. Adam was preparing for another 'I don't really know Winry' story as he handed the man the photo.
Daniel laughed, but it was laced with pity. "I remember this girl. She was always coming up with plans to escape…but the guards always caught her. Poor kid, they used to beat her until she couldn't walk."
"Well, I want to know more about her," Adam explained. "You see, she died in the fire-"
But Daniel cut him off. "She didn't die."
Slightly miffed, Adam tried again. "I assure you, there is no record of Winry surviving the fire, and I assume she couldn't get out of her cell in time to escape the flames…"
Daniel interrupted again. "You assume wrong, Mr. Lithson. You see, the only reason I survived was because she let me out."
"Winry let you out?"
"Yeah, the doors were bolted on the outside, and do you really think the guards were going to risk their necks to come back inside and unbolt them? No – most of us were left to burn. The whole place was getting hotter and hotter, and I figured I was on my way out, but then Winry unbolted my door."
Slightly awed remembrance coated his words as he continued, "Don't ask me how she got out, but she looked horrible, her right leg was dragging, and she was badly burned all over her right side…but she told me to get out as fast as I could, and she'd keep unbolting the doors. So I ran for the river."
"And what happened to Winry?"
"I don't know. But I am sure of one thing. While we were in the river, taking refuge from the flames and watching the detention centre burn, I saw Winry and Paninya running into the forest. It was chaos, everyone shouting and running to the river…and I guess they figured it was easy enough to run the other way."
"They weren't caught again?"
"Not as far as I know. Everyone assumed they'd died in the fire, so no one ever went searching."
Adam was astounded. Winry had somehow managed to escape the fire? But if so, why hadn't she ever returned to Risembool or Rush Valley?
Adam was determined to find out.
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The map dominated the table. In the library, Adam had found a map of Rush Valley and the surrounding towns. From Daniel's story, Winry had been badly injured – she and Paninya would have needed to find the closest medical treatment possible, which was why he was looking at the map in the first place.
He pinpointed the location of the Crestfall detention centre. Daniel had said that Winry and Paninya ran into the forest, so that meant they headed into the mountains...
He traced the route, finding the nearest town over the mountains was a place called High Water – a small, out of the way town, but one that would have had sufficient medical treatment.
Now to ask about their census and medical records…
oooooooo
No luck. The records showed nothing relating to either Winry Rockbell or Paninya Yula. Remembering that they were prisoners of the State, Adam re-checked every single document, thinking maybe they had changed their names. And still nothing. He'd called up all towns within a day's journey of High Water, and still nothing.
Adam sighed. It was nearly a full day's journey on foot to reach High Water from Crestfall, and it was unlikely Winry survived so long a journey through hostile terrain with her wounds.
So after escaping from the detention centre, Paninya and Winry perished somewhere in the mountains, victim to either wild animals, the elements, or their injuries.
For a long time, Adam stared at the map, at the vast expanse of forest, and wondered where the two women had met their end. They had been nineteen years old, and would have been turning twenty-eight this year if they had survived.
With a sigh, Adam began rolling up the map again, tucking it back on the shelf. He couldn't help but feel a little depressed. After all they'd lived through, all they had survived...Winry and Paninya had died in the wilderness, without even a grave to mark their passing.
"Oh, Mr. Lithson?" the librarian asked as he started for the door.
"Yes, Mrs. Clark?"
Mrs. Clark was fairly young, and so quiet she bordered on timid. He noticed she was holding several large scrolls of paper under her arm.
"Mr. Lithson, I have the maps you wanted…"
"Oh, that's not necessary anymore, the first one you gave me was fine."
"But sir, that map was made in 1925, and you said you were looking for older ones…"
Adam was about to wave her away, when her words registered. The map had been made in 1925 – eight years after the Fall of the Military.
"Actually, Mrs. Clark, I think I will need those," Adam said as he took the maps from her hands.
He spread them out on the table he had so recently vacated, and began scanning one after the other.
He was looking at the dates. A lot of towns around Rush Valley had sprung up in the wake of the Rush Valley Disaster, and if he had been looking at a map made eight years after the Fall of the Military…some of those towns wouldn't even have been building plans when Winry and Paninya made their escape.
At last, he found it. A map of Rush Valley and the surrounding area made in 1916, one year before the Fall of the Military.
There were almost no surrounding towns. The expanse of mountains around Rush Valley was bleak and empty, and Adam did not feel hopeful. How could Winry and Paninya have survived a journey over them, with Winry injured?
But he looked all the same…and then stared.
According to this map, the nearest town was Stone Tree.
It was as though a light bulb clicked on in Adam's brain. Stone Tree had been a small town until about a year after the Fall of the Military. Then, a gifted automail mechanic began practicing there, and it began bustling with people. Could it be that Winry…?
Refusing to get his hopes up, Adam sent an urgent message asking for their medical records. But he couldn't help wondering; if Winry was still alive, why had she never returned home?
oooooooo
For days, Adam waited for the records. When the copies arrived, he all-but tore the thick package apart in his haste. He looked at the hospital records first, and could have crowed in triumph when he found it.
Renee and Pita Waterford, two cousins, admitted two days after the Cresthill fire. Pita was treated for minor burns, while Renee had been in the hospital for weeks with severe burns to her right side, and a broken leg that had then contracted gangrene. The infection was so severe, the entire limb had to be amputated.
He checked for photos, and there was no doubt that the woman called Pita Waterford was Paninya. A little older than in the Blue Eyes photo, her eyebrows singed and parts of her body taped with bandages, but it was still Paninya. Little could be determined about Renee Waterford – she was swathed in bandages, her hair completely burned away...but those bright blue eyes told him everything.
Winry Rockbell was alive. She was Renee Waterford, the woman whose automail had single-handedly made Stone Tree famous.
But that still didn't answer his question. Why had Winry never returned to her old life?
And then he remembered. Remembered the Night of Blood, when all the population of Risembool were massacred, remembered the mix-up that had the Elric brothers listed as killed in action.
When everyone Winry was close to died, she probably wouldn't have seen the point in assuming her original identity. There would have been no purpose in revealing to those around them that they weren't who they claimed to be. Both she and Paninya would have been happy to live out the remainder of their lives as Renee and Pita Waterford.
For nine years, Winry had lived with the belief that the Elric brothers were dead. And for nine years, they had believed the same of her.