Everyone's eyes widened in shock. There, moving slowly towards headquarters, ravaging the city, was a mile-wide, churning, column of air.
Al and Ed were actually very scared. People, monsters, no problem. They had weaknesses and could be defeated. But mother nature? No way.
"Holy. Shit." Ed started trembling.
Riza gasped and lunged for Roy, who was closest to the window. "Roy, look out!" She knocked him back from the window. Something crashed through the window. It was a chunk of a wall. If Roy hadn't been knocked over…
"Ed! Al! Move, now!" Riza had helped Roy back up and started herding all the guys towards the door. They all burst into the hall and headed for the stairs. All other personnel were also heading for the stairs.
When they reached the stairs, it was chaos. For trained people, they were not very orderly.
Ed had enough. "EVERYBODY MOVE!" Everyone froze and turned towards him. "Well? MOVE, DAMMIT!" Everyone cleared out of his way. He yelled into the stairwell. "Everybody, hang on!" He clasped his hands, knelt to the ground, and changed the stairs into a slope. "It'll be a little more dangerous, but quicker."
Because they were on the top floor, they had seen the twister first. However, if anyone else had seen it, they would be below them on the chute, and they would pose a hazard.
Roy and Riza shoved Ed and Al into the stairwell, then leapt in themselves. The other personnel followed. They made it easily to the basement. Once down there, Ed and Al ripped a phone off the wall. Using alchemy, they made it shoot right up through the floor of every level but the top. Roy grabbed the microphone.
"Attention, everyone! There is imminent danger! A tornado is heading directly for us. Remain calm and come to the basement. The stairs are now chutes, so be careful!"At the same time, Ed and Al were busy shifting the other stairs into chutes. After about a minute, people started sliding into the basement. Ed, Al, Riza and Roy were helping them up and directing them to safety. As soon as the last person reached the bottom, the twister struck.
It was as if hundreds of trains were hitting at the same time. The building shook, and the wires started to spark. Part of the ceiling collapsed on top of the two brothers, but Al protected Ed. They shoved it off of themselves and ran towards the shelter and safety.
Everyone was crowded into a rather small room. The women were against the walls, and the men were more in the middle. Ed and Al were by the door, which wouldn't even shut all the way due to lack of room.
For what seemed like hours, but was in reality only about 5 minutes, the building shook like an old freight train. The old lights flickered, dust fell from the walls. Many people were deathly quiet, while others were screaming. Then, it stopped.
Everyone became silent. It was eerie. There was no talking, everyone seemed to be holding their breath. Ed cautiously opened the door. The basement seemed fine, just the stairwell was caved in a little.
Roy stood up and walked out of the room to stand next to Ed. "Do you think you could stabilize the steps enough to get people out?" He turned around and looked at everyone. Riza was caring for the younger recruits. Al was keeping Sheska calm.
Ed shook his head. "I don't think so. Is there another way out?" He looked around. "Maybe a window?"
"No. But there is an old coal chute. Maybe you could transmute that?" He pointed down the hallway. "It's in a very old room, down by the generators. Why not try it?"
"Coal chute, hm? I guess we could try. Just try not to blow us up, ok?" Ed chuckled a little and went to talk to Al.
"Brother, what are we going to do? Are we trapped?" Al looked at his older brother with worry in his voice. He looked down at Sheska. "Will everyone be ok?"