Chapter 6

The Science of Escape…

Alphonse

Every morning, Alphonse Elric insisted on going outside. It was cold, and the grounds were white, blanked by snow as far as the eye could see. But he needed the air, and the illusion of freedom.

Jack stood near the entrance, watching him walk around the courtyard, with his hands shoved deep in his frock coat's pockets. The man was leaning against the door jam, carefully scanning the gardens for unseen threats or escape routs. Escape routs Alphonse wanted to discretely find.

The courtyard was vast surrounded by sculpted pine trees and with a heavy stonewall. Fruit trees were clustered in an orchard at the far end, and across from them was a lattice roofed swing surrounded by creeping rose bushes and a grand grapevine. Smaller gardens were tired down from the stonewall, and during the summer, they were home to a variety of flowering plants ranging from colorful mums to exotic blue poppies from the far east. .

Stone pathways wove though the gardens, giving it a medieval flavor and an elegant marble fountain stood in the center with nude statue of Venus pouring water from a jug.

It was pretty, and closed in from the rest of the world. As far as Alphonse noticed, there were no gates and the only entrance to the garden was the door to the castle he just exited. Overhead was a balcony and Alphonse deduced it was to the library.

The garden itself was on the edge of the cliff, near the high tower, where the Elrics now lived.

Kaiser went out of his way to design an effective prison for them and it was annoying.

Heaving a frustrated sigh, Alphonse trudged though two feet of snow, ignoring the chill as it bit into his pant legs and dribbled into the cracks of his shoes. He wasn't dressed for the outdoors, but he never stayed long. Normally, he'd just stroll though the garden, studying the walls around him, praying he'd find something he had missed earlier.

He rubbed his arms recalling the many times he had climbed the wall. It over looked the cliffs below. They could, given time, make spikes and collect rope to scale down the cliff, but it wasn't an immediate option, and he needed to know exactly where he was if they were to escape. Yet he promised Edward he would find out where they were and an escape rout.

In the past he asked his guards, but they never acknowledged him. However, today Jack was with him, and Jack was talkative. Perhaps he could use that to his advantage.

Edward had been particularly sharp with Jack that morning, accusing him of being a spy and calling him a thug. He insisted on keeping Jack at distance from his work, claiming he asked far to many questions and acted too friendly to be trusted.

Alphonse noticed his brother's impatience grow over the last few weeks as he dove deeper in his research. Kaiser gave the young man a large lab with a great deal of chemistry equipment as well as electrical generators and other advanced equipment for running on physics and electromagnetism.

The problem was, as of last week, Edward allocated Jack to sit out side the lab door, forbidding him to enter why they plotted away.

Jack objected furiously, claiming Ed was preventing him from doing his job and Ed refused to budge on the matter. There was, in the end no real way of getting along reasonably with Edward Elric in the irritable state he was in and Alphonse decided to take matters in his own hand, by asking the man to accompany him to the garden.

Alphonse Elric weaved his way around the fruit trees, gazing up at the sky. It was a cloudy gray day with flakes of snow that drifted down and kissed Alphonse's pale face.

He liked the snow, and longed for the days when he played in it innocently with his brother and friend Wynre.

A soft whine made Alphonse pause. It was weak, and echoed pitifully from overhead. Attentively, Alphonse scanned the garden for the source of the sound, and eventually panned his gaze up a nearby apple tree.

It was tangled with thick branches that glimmered with the crystal glint of ice. Soft snow powered the ice softening the reflecting sunlight, and giving it a magical glow.

It was beautiful, and shimmered like the other bare trees surrounding it.

It was easy to spot the small gray form huddling against the trunk three quarters the way up the tree. It was a small gray kitten with large frightened green eyes. It peeped again, little body quaking from cold and fear, wrenching Alphonse's heart.

He recognized the animal as one of the kitchen cat's kittens. When they arrived, he spied her in the corner of their pantry, hiding a littler of five. Yet over the last weeks, the cook had gotten rid of most of the litter and this one was the runt. No one ever wanted the runt and Alphonse suspected it was outside quite deliberately.

Saddened, Alphonse's face creased with a frown and he placed his hands on the trunk. "How did you get up there?"

The animal whined pathetically. "Don't worry, I'll get you. That mean cook is trying to get rid of you, isn't she?" He asked unbuttoning his coat and hanging it over a low hanging branch. He than grasped a branch over head and hauled himself up. He wasn't afraid of heights, and Alphonse was very skilled at climbing.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alphonse spied Jack, who was a shade of pale and jogging though the snow toward him.

By the time he reached the tree, Alphonse shimmed up and was on a slender branch three feet above Jack's head. "Hey, hey! Al, get down here! Do you hear me?"

His shinny leather soles slipped over the icy snow forcing Alphonse to lean into the thick branch at his chest. He smiled down at Jack, "Hello Mr. Harkness. I trust you are enjoying the fresh air?"

Stepping up on a branch beneath Alphonse, Jack reached for the boy. "The fresh air is great, but you're working very hard to make my job difficult! Get the hell down here before you fall!"

Alphonse grasped a branch just over his head, and lifted his knee to a thick limb near his midsection. "There is a kitten, and he looks cold, Mr. Harkness." Alphonse explained innocently. "We can't leave him in this tree."

"He's a cat." Jack said sharply grasping the trunk with his gloved hands. "They can climb down. He'll be fine! You on the other hand can get hurt!"

Shaking his head, Alphonse came to a careful stand and hugged the trunk. The kitten was a several feet out of reach. He just needed to climb a lot higher. "Hmm, I thought your job was to make sure Edward wasn't to get hurt and if needed to break my arm. Look at it as I'm doing you a favor."

"I'm not here to break your arm! God Damn it! You're brother accusing me about it every day is bad enough!" Jack sounded hurt. Shaking his head, he clambered up the trunk behind the boy. He was larger than Al, but strong and it wasn't long before he was well into the tree, a foot or so beneath the determined teenager. "Ok, so I'm guessing you aren't going to listen here. So let's make a deal!"

Painfully aware he could slip, Alphonse scrambled up yet another branch. He paused, looking down at the man a few feet below him. Flakes of snow rained down from the thick branches around him and coated Jack's hair and powered his face. "Deal?"

"Let me do my job, and protect you. You climb down the tree, I'll get the cat and we'll call it even. I don't want to have you break your arm or any other limb on your body."

Shying a glance to the kitten, Alphonse considered Jack's offer. The animal was shaking, and looking really frightened. He sighed, if Jack was willing to help him, it was possible he could make the man a friend and perhaps convince him to help them later. Men like Jack had to take the situation into their own hands. Trying to look nervous, Alphonse hung his head and carefully sat down on the branch. "Ok. Just be very careful, he's shaking."

Jack exhaled in relief and patted Alphonse on the leg. "Don't worry, I'm an expert cat rescuer. Now, lets get you down from here

Shrugging, Alphonse made his way down the tree. He was aware Jack was there, guiding him with a strong arm and supporting his slender frame. It was a piety, really. Alphonse felt a pang of guilt. Sensei taught him very well, and he was quite surefooted, but it was safer to let Jack underestimate him. The longer Jack thought he was a normal kid, the better chances Edward and he had to escape.

Once on the ground, he grabbed his coat and pulled it on. His fingers were cold, and very numb. He barely noticed it earlier, but now, it was hard to use them, so he shoved his hands in his pockets to warm them up.

Above, Jack continued to climb, and in no time was just in reach of the shaking animal. Stepping away, Al shielded his eyes from the flickering light. Jack was very high in the tree, and standing on branches that bowed slightly from his weight.

"You might be too big." Alphonse said, worried the branch would break. "And I don't want you to fall, you could get hurt."

"Nah, don't worry about it, kid. I'm an expert tree climber." Jack scaled up the trunk, and hauled himself over another branch. The kitten was just out of reach.

Alphonse Elric cocked his head. "But you're a grown up, Mr. Harkness and everyone knows grown ups can't climb like kids."

"What?" Jack glared down at the boy, face frowning. "Don't give me that kid superiority crap, Elric!" He reached out, and curled his hand about the scruff of the cat's neck and hauled the creature up. It gave a squeal, little claws fraying fanatically at the air.

Al winced. It was frightened. The twisting animal seized Jack's arm, claws sinking its into the fabric of Jack's coat and climbing up the man's arm as he tried to close it into his jacket.

"I apologize for offending you, Herr Harkness." He eyed the man's feet as they touched the branch. "I just want you to be careful."

Jack smiled and patted the tree. "Trees and I go way back, I'll be fine." No sooner were the words out of his mouth, Jack's foot slipped. He went to grab the slick bark above him for support, but the momentum caused him to crash down and snapped the branches below. He cursed as he tumbled down, body twisting for a desperate grab at the tree limbs around him.

Alphonse braced, readying himself to break the man's fall if necessary with his own body. But before Jack careened into the boy, the man seized one of the thicker limbs and halted his fall. Painfully he reached into his jacket, checking the cowering kitten, and sighed in relief. The kitten's head stuck out of the breast of Jack's coat and looked out with its huge terrified green eyes. It appeared unharmed.

Relief and embarrassment crossed Jack's face as he released the branch and dropped down next to Alphonse. His clothing was rumbled, and twigs with powered snow stuck to his hair. Blood seeped from long scrapes across his brow and cheeks. A twinge of pain wrinkled his brow as he bent over, hand touching his ribs.

Wordless, Alphonse blinked up at him. He wondered if the man would be ashamed if a child showed any concern for his condition. Edward certainly would, but Jack seemed to appreciate the attention. "Are you alright?"

Jack took a deep breath and side glanced him. He reached into his jacket and handed him the kitten. "A little battered, but I'll live. Here's your little friend."

Easing the animal into his coat, Alphonse wrapped an arm around Jack and helped him to the door. The man didn't protest and he has a slight limp. "Well, let me help you." Alphonse said. "It's the least I can do. Next time, you should let me climb the trees. I suspect I've been doing it a little more than you have been of late."

"Give or take a few years… Ok maybe more." Jack replied. They paused inside, and Alphonse took a long look around. He had NEVER seen the room he was in before. It was a large carpeted hall, with a wooden coat rack and plush red carpeting. The walls were stone and windowless. A massive suit of armor stood next to the heavy wooden door.

The hall itself went off in a straight direction, away from the door. Something Alphonse knew did not fit his perceptions when arriving at the garden earlier that day. Blind folded, he managed to keep his direction sense enough to determine he had come to the garden from an angle, rather than a straight line.

"Shit." Jack straightened, hands roughly digging into his coat pocket and removing a black strip of cloth. "Kaiser is going to kill me if he finds out I broke with procedure."

Heaving a breath, Alphonse closed the door behind them. "I won't tell if you don't." Keeping a hand on the kitten, Alphonse unbuttoned his jacket and hung it on the rung of a coat wrack. "Besides, I've never seen any of this, so I have no idea where I am, besides underneath the library." He pointed to the hall. "That passage could lead me anywhere."

Jack smirked and lifted the blindfold to Alphonse's eyes. "You're a smart kid, I suspect you know a little more than what your saying."

Alphonse grinned uneasily. "What ever gave you that idea?"

"Don't know, the level of security around you and your brother, that was sort of a clue." Jack's hand closed about his shoulder and steered the boy to the left of the hall way to what Alphonse knew was a wall.

There was a click and the sound of a door opening. Yes, that was familiar. They must have been traveling along passages hidden in the walls.

Secret passages, Alphonse thought, thrilled by the very idea. When the door slid shut behind him he became aware of a musty stale smell. It made sense to him, he wondered why there was a difference when he first started visiting the garden. Now he knew.

He held the kitten in his arms, and felt its nose nuzzle into his elbow. The animal was soft but wet, its damp fur soaking his thin white shirt. Thoughtfully he caressed the kitten's soft coat aware he could feel its spine and ribs. It was emaciated, and desperate for company, the boy thought. What did the chef think she was doing by not tending to the animal? He let out a shaky breath. He failed to understand the adults around him.

With an effort, he refocused his mind on the passage ahead of him. He could hear the flicker of gaslight lamps, and that told him the passages were used often enough to install pipes in the framework to run gas. It seemed to slope and that had taken three turns. Jack's hand stopped him and his voice said. "Step up, we're to the stairs."

Yes, the stairwell. It wound up like a corkscrew, as if they were going up into a tower. Obediently the boy climbed. His steps were muted as if pressing into stone. The air around him was cool, there was a breeze coming from above.

He suspected there was a window, or an opening above allowing the change in temperature. Maybe they were near another exit out side. What he did know was they'd soon be entering another passage and it too would twist and turn until they entered the main wing of his new home.

Eventually he'd get the hang of it and map out the halls in his mind. Perhaps even get an idea of where else they may go. If only he could escape his guards long enough to explore. Al didn't dare hope. They'd probably break his leg if he attempted and there was no telling how Edward would react then. He'd most likely get angry and get them killed.

Alphonse felt a pang of despair. He hung his head low, and listened to his own feet. How could he hope?

Even with all their research, the only thing they came up with was speculative at most. He hugged the kitten closer and redirected his thoughts. Once more he reminded himself to take things one-step at a time. There was no telling what the future held.