Chapter Eleven

***Warning! Mature content ahead. Sexual abuse, language and violence.

The first thing Winry became aware of was the dull, thudding pain in her head. Her mind was still fuzzy, and she fought to open her eyes. Through the tiny crack in her lids she could tell it was dim and she could hear lots of dogs barking nearby. There was a gross taste lingering in her mouth. As her heavy lids finally fluttered and her eyes adjusted, what she saw didn't make sense. Her tube top looked like it had been rucked up, exposing both of her breasts, each covered in small dark bruises. She quickly tugged her suddenly too-small seeming top back into place and examined her surroundings. It looked as if Winry was laying on the ground of a small cell, the wall on her left was chain-link that showed a view of a dingy, disgusting basement with piles of boxes and other forgotten clutter. The door to her small cell was also chain-link with a heavy-duty lock on the front. The back wall and the other side were stone.

Wincing from the pain in her head, it took a moment for Winry to sit upright. She winced again and put a hand to the back of her head and her fingers came away sticky with blood. "Ow…" She murmured to herself. Winry used the chain-link fence to slowly find her feet. Whatever she had been drugged with had been strong, she thought, remembering the dirty rag shoved in her face as she had been slammed repeatedly against the wall. She shuffled towards the door to her cell but was brought up short by a tug on her left ankle.

Her ankle was chained to the far wall, bringing her up short from trying the door. Winry edged back towards the far wall and slid down it to examine her ankle. Her right hand landed in a puddle of water, and she groaned, shaking her hand to get rid of the dampness. The pipes from above were leaking and formed a small puddle in the corner of her cell. Distraction noted, she went back to examining the heavy manacle around her ankle that was thick and sturdy. She reached for her wrench in her back pocket but found it missing. "Damn." She cursed to herself.

Of course whoever had kidnapped her had checked her pockets and taken her wrench. Winry tugged at the chain-link on her left side, testing how well it was attached to the wall. Solid, but maybe with a little work… She still had to get the cuff off her ankle though. Pausing to examine her surroundings some more, Winry heard soft crying from nearby. She looked around then pressed her ear to the wall on her right side.

"Hello?" She called softly. "Who's there?"

Sniffling drifted through the air before a croaking, broken voice said, "Yuki…"

"Yuki Hirashita?" Winry asked quickly, latching onto the last name in the newspaper of the most recent kidnapped girl. Well, that honor technically belonged to Winry now…

"Y-yes." Came the stammered reply.

"Where are we?" Winry asked eagerly, feeling confident she would escape.

"I don't… know… but there's… dogs…" The words were wheezed out and followed by a racking cough. Winry supposed it must be painful for the other girl to speak.

Trying to limit her questions for the other girl's sake, she finally picked the question she was afraid to ask. "What… What does he do?" It was easy to deduce their abductor had been a man, the strength and brief glimpse she got both gave credence to her theory.

"Rape," came a strangled reply as the sobbing started again "and torture."

Winry took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall closing her eyes against a wave of dizziness and nausea. Images and lines of text she had read when snooping through Ed's police files kept flashing before her. Feeling a new sense of determination she began tugging at the cuff around her left ankle, picking at the lock until all her nails were broken and ripped, a few down to the quick that bled painfully. The narrow posts in her earrings had broken when she tried to use them as lock picks.

She took a break, slumping against the stone wall, feeling thirsty and her head ached. Maybe working on the chain-link wall would be less disheartening than working on the manacle. The fence bowed out a bit in the back corner, so Winry braced her back against the stone wall and began kicking her booted heel against the corner of the fencing, trying to loosen it from the wall and floor.

Winry must have been at it for hours when a scraping in a lock and a rusty hinge creaked above, a small cry coming from the cell next to Winry's. Ceasing her kicking, Winry strained her ears as she listened to heavy footsteps as they slowly, heavily descended the stairs. Coming around the corner where the stairs must have been lumbered a large, heavy set, ugly man with thinning hair. He squinted at the blonde in the cage closest to the stairs as she sat in the corner and gave her a leering look.

Winry paused, watching the repulsive man as he lazily ran his eyes over his latest prize. Pulling a keyring off his belt, the man moved past her cell and out of sight. A whimper from next door was heard, but the footsteps continued. There must have been a third cell for that's where it sounded like the footsteps stopped. Keys jangled in what Winry presumed was the lock and she heard a third voice start crying and pleading in a broken voice.

"No! Please… not again! Noooo!" The scream was cut off with the sound of flesh hitting flesh and something heavy falling to the floor.

Winry pressed harder into the corner of her cell, listening to the sounds of crying, followed by the sound of tearing cloth and then masculine grunting as the crying changed and pitched wildly. This continued for longer than Winry could bear, occasionally the brutal sound of flesh meeting flesh breaking the monotony of grunts. Clamping her hands over her ears, Winry tried hard not to think about what she was hearing. It was easy to lose track of time and she didn't know how long it was until a loud male shout sounded and cautiously, Winry lowered her hands and heard a further scraping of keys and rattling of chains and lock a few moments later.

Shuffling footsteps sounded as they came back her way. She heard Yuki give another cry as the footsteps drew closer and closer still and the man came into view, still adjusting his pants as he leered at her through the chain link door.

"Don't worry," he growled at her. "I'll be back for you soon." With that, the man examined his hands, saw a smear of blood, and quickly wiped it on the dark material of his pants before turning the corner and disappearing back up the stairs.

A mixture of relief and gut-wrenching foreboding filled Winry as she slumped into the corner of her cell, feeling exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Allowing herself a moment to dwell on the horror, Winry finally gathered her will and began her relentless kicking of the fence with renewed determination. One weld along the floor had already given beneath her barrage, but there was still a long way to go, and this was tiring work. She used her bandana to mop the sweat from her brow. She had no idea how long she had been at it, but she could feel her energy draining quickly. It was cold on the stone floor and Winry untied the sleeves of her coveralls from around her waist and pulled her arms through them, zipping it up over her little tube top, she curled in a ball on the floor, trying to retain heat and pillowing her head on her folded arm. She didn't think she'd be able to sleep, but the total exhaustion allowed her to pass out.

Winry was startled awake by pounding footsteps coming down the stairs. She sat up feeling sore and disoriented, followed by a dropping in her stomach as she remembered where she was. The fat, ugly man came down the stairs and rounded the corner. Winry sat huddled in her corner, watching the kidnapper from the corner of her eye. He approached her cage with a leer and pulled a ring of keys from a pocket and sorted through them as he approached her door. Finding the key, he began to unlock her door while hungry eyes raked over her body.

Winry found the heavy chain connecting her ankle to the wall and fingered the heavy links as her door swung open. Winry started to find her feet to leave herself in a less vulnerable position, but the man strode forward and planted his foot in her chest, kicking her back and into the wall, knocking her sprawling back to the floor. From there he fell upon her, quickly pinning her beneath his bulk in spite of all her struggles. Getting a hand free, she raked her nails down the man's cheek and he pulled back with an angry growl and the next thing Winry knew she was stunned by a blow across the face.

The pain exploded in the right side of her face, and it took a moment for her vision to clear and to come back to herself, at which point she finally noticed the tugging at the zipper of her coveralls. She tried to shift her weight out from under the hulking man but found herself thoroughly pinned as he managed to work the zipper of her coveralls down to her navel and then began to fumble with his own zipper.

The impromptu attempt at undressing himself gave Winry a very small but vital amount of room and time to try to get away from her inevitable fate. Grasping the heavy chain in both hands, Winry used all her might to swing the links up between her attacker's legs. With a pained yell, the man collapsed sideways, curling in on himself and holding his groin. Winry shuffled out from under him, kicking him away from her as she pressed herself to the wall, scrabbling to her feet, jerking her zipper back up all the way and holding the chain in preparation for another attack.

The man looked up through tearing eyes and glared hatefully at her. "You fucking bitch!" He screamed. In slow motion, he slowly found his feet, keeping a hand protectively over his crotch as he stood with a wince. "You're going to fucking regret that!" He hollered and charged before Winry had a chance to swing the chain again, tackling her bodily against the wall, slamming her painfully against the brick. From there, the man began swinging wildly, his ham fists connecting solidly with her chin, shoulders, and abdomen, bringing her to the ground in a heap. The man continued to rain down blows and kicks until Winry was sure this was going to be the end of her.

When the beating ended, the man stood over her, panting and sweating heavily. As he straightened to leave, he winced, his hand going to his groin once again. He spit on the floor before the broken and bleeding girl before he angrily slammed the door shut and carefully locked it behind him, leaving the basement in a string of muttered expletives.

Winry sat gasping for air, curled in a ball of writhing pain. She spit the coppery blood from her mouth and tried to wipe it from her swollen face, but it hurt to move. Some of the man's kicks may have fractured a few ribs and it hurt to breath. Only slightly relieved from avoiding being raped, Winry willed unconsciousness on her abused and bleeding body.

Ed and Al had been visiting different delivery companies to vet their drivers and examine their vehicles. With the working theory that the kidnapper was using chloroform on his victims and then transporting them to his lair to torture, rape and kill them in some kind of vehicle led the boys to many different local companies and coming up with nothing new. The sun was setting, and Ed felt the pressure of time passing without making any progress.

"Brother, we've checked all the local shipping companies, the butchers and grocers' delivery trucks and their refrigerated truck and it doesn't look like any of these companies have anything to do with the kidnappings."

"I know." Ed said solemnly.

"Where are we supposed to look now?" Al asked quietly.

"I don't know." Ed said, refusing to look at his brother as he kept trying to come up with new ideas or leads to follow.

"But brother, if we don't hurry, something could happen to Winry!" Al cried, growing panicked for his friend's fate.

"I know that Al!" Ed snapped, whirling around. "I'm trying!" Watching his younger brother recoil at his outburst, Ed rocked back on his heel and took a deep breath. "Maybe we should go back to the police station, see if they've found anything new?" He suggested without any real conviction. If the police had found something, an officer would have been sent to fetch them. Doing nothing was not an option, however. The brothers would turn Rush Valley inside out if they had to.

Winry drifted in and out of consciousness on the cold stone floor. The cold had been good for resting her swollen face on, but now the cold had traveled through her skin and settled deep in her bones. Everything hurt to move, and her mouth was dry and filled with the taste of copper. She was so thirsty but knew that she wouldn't be receiving any meals or drinks while down here. Painfully she pulled herself into a sitting position, wincing and groaning the whole way, and leaned against the wall. Her bandana was sitting in a sodden pile in the corner of her cell, and she picked it up. It had been sitting in the puddle of water that had been dripping from the leaking pipe and feeling the desperate thirst, she sucked on the salty material, drinking the water eagerly.

That was one minor problem solved at least. Now she just needed the cuff off her ankle, to get out of her locked cell and to escape… wherever she was being held. Someplace that had a ton of dogs that never stopped barking above her… The dog pound! How did she not figure it out before? The cages, the dogs… of course that's where she was being held. Where all the girls had been held…

Angry, helpless tears streamed down her face. Feeling the need to do something, Winry turned until her back was against the stone wall, and she began her relentless kicking of the chain link fence once again, just with less power and tiring faster. Her ribs protested the movement, but she grit her teeth in determination and kept kicking, each attempt sending a jolt through her battered body.

Jered was distracted at work and spent all his free time walking around Rush Valley, talking to people he recognized from the streets and keeping his eyes peeled for anything suspicious. It had been two days since Winry had been taken and Jered couldn't help but blame himself. If he had remembered to give Mr. Sanchez his pain medication. If only he had insisted and kept hounding Winry that he would do all the errands. If only he hadn't stopped to talk to ask Mr. Himata how his new hand was working for him while getting their lunch at the deli. There were so many what ifs racing through his mind, he felt himself restless and unable to do nothing. Ed and Al were the professionals, but it couldn't hurt to look. The cute blonde mechanic who had welcomed him into her home had become very important to him. He wouldn't sit idle while she was in danger.

Sarahplainntall here! Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter! Thanks to all my readers, favorite-markers and commenters. I love comments, they keep me motivated. Elvenstar146 I hope you enjoyed this! Thanks for the comment.