.:. The End .:.
Chapter 3: Keep Hope Alive
January 11th, 2010: Central (Evening)
The group entered an apartment building, Roy leading them up to the first story. It was plainly obvious which room the two doctors had claimed to be their own. The front door was metal, unlike the rotting wood of the other rooms, and Riza put her hands to her neck to pull on her thin chain necklace, bringing it up and revealing a key hanging off of the chain. She unattached the key and unlocked the deadbolt on the door, which made a clicking noise.
Inside was a room with two doors leading into different rooms, both doors were also metal and dead-bolted. The windows had been covered up by bits of wood nailed to the frames, securely. The room had been arranged with all furniture - which was merely a couch and a weapons cabinet - pressed up against the walls, leaving no room for hiding spaces. In other words, if zombies somehow managed to break in here, the second the occupants opened the door, they would see them.
"Welcome to our home!" Roy said, dumping his flame thrower in the weapons cabinet and throwing his jacket on the floor. Riza held the door open for them all to enter and then closed and locked it. Roy ignored the couch and went straight to sitting on the floor, the others joining him hesitantly. Despite having saved each other's lives, it was hard for them all to trust.
"So, where do we all come from?" Mustang asked, the only one who looked remotely comfortable with being in a room full of strangers.
"We're from Xing, obviously." Ling said, with a smile.
Riza looked vaguely interested. "Why'd you come to Amestris?"
"Because, we thought it might not be overrun with the living dead, and automail."
A few of them glanced at Ranfan's metal arm.
"You mean, you only just got the automail, when this all started?" Edward asked, looking amazed.
"I got bitten on my wrist, and decided it'd be better to live without an arm, then try to eat people." Ranfan replied, seriously.
"But how'd you survive? It takes so long to recover from automail." Alphonse questioned.
"It only took three months. I've been trained to be strong enough to do things like that."
Edward nodded. "'Cause you're a body guard?"
"Yes."
"What about you two? You're brothers right?" Roy asked, looking at the Elrics.
Alphonse took off his helmet, revealing a blond boy. "Yeah. Brother and I came here from Resembool, last month. We wanted to try and find more supplies."
"We left our childhood friend, Winry, behind in a room like this, filled with all the food we could find for her. She shouldn't run out for a couple of days, and hopefully we'll be back with food by then." Edward explained.
"Well then," Roy said, glancing at Riza. "We're just doctors from Central, with no wants for anything but living."
Edward smiled. "Doctors. Right. So are you like, specialists in any field?"
"I'm not, but Roy is a surgeon." Riza answered, feeling more at ease. Either these kinds meant no harm, or they were exceptional actors.
"Hmm." Edward murmured, looking at his brother who nodded slightly. Ed turned back to the doctors. "Have you ever thought of trying to find a cure for the zombie disease thing going round?"
Roy shook his head. "We wanted to at first, but it seems impossible."
Edward nodded slightly and pulled a notebook out of his pocket and threw it towards Roy. "We've been watching them for awhile. Finding out how long they can go without blood, how they react to things like, iron supplements, basic stuff like that. It's all in there."
Roy flipped through the pages, looking impressed. "That's, wow. You're very intelligent for your age."
"Our father was a scientist, he used to teach us bits and pieces, and after he died, we started to read his books and work, stuff like that. We picked up on it pretty fast." Edward explained.
"You've done alot." Roy murmured, still skimming the pages and pages of notes.
"We have another two of them that are full back home. Although none of it is really conclusive, due to certain variables which were beyond our control."
"Still," Roy said. "You've got some pretty good leads."
"Is it possible?" Ranfan asked, looking at Edward, wide eyed. "That it could actually be cured."
Edward shrugged. "I'm not giving up though."
"So you two are headed back to Resembool soon?" Roy queried.
"Yeah. We've got to get food first, but then we have to get back to Winry. She's been alone for a month."
Roy looked at Riza and she nodded. "Can we accompany you? We can give you all the medical knowledge you need."
"That's awesome." Edward grinned. "What about you two? You're both awesome at combat."
Ling smiled. "Nothing better to do, I guess."
"That's fucking fantastic!" Edward said, his eyes lighting up.
It was amazing how, the chance meeting between them all managed to restore one thing the six people had lost one year ago: Hope.
Riza stood up and walked over to a cardboard box, out of which, she pulled a candle and a box of matches. Having all the windows covered up made the room exceptionally dark, especially as it was coming to night time. She handed Roy both objects, it was routine for her to let him light their candles as she knew how much he loved playing with fire. And they had learnt that in a world such as this, It's best to enjoy the little things.
"It's getting too dark to be able to do anything tonight, really. So we should probably get as much sleep as we can before tomorrow, when we can get food and everything we'll need to get back to Resembool."
"Right." Edward agreed. "So, is it safe enough in here, or should we take it in turns to watch out?"
"We should probably do sentries, just in case." Roy said. "Maybe if we stayed up two at a time, we could all watch for three hours and get six hours sleep."
"Does anyone care when they go?" Riza asked. They all shook their heads. "Okay then. How about you two first," She gestured to Ling and Ranfan, "Then Roy and I, and finally the brothers."
They all agreed and Riza smiled and gestured to the furtherest door. "That is the bathroom. The key is in the weapons cabinet, to the left. That key also fits with the bedroom," She pointed to the other door, "Which is basically a room with a bunch of mattresses on the floor. Whoever is on sentry can use the showers, one at a time, obviously," She gave Toy a wary glance. "And all the food we have is in that box. It's canned peaches currently, and since we're leaving tomorrow just take one and feast away if you're hungry."
"Well then." Roy said, standing. "We'll go to bed, and Ling and Ranfan was it?" They nodded. "You can just wake us at..." He checked his watch. "10 O' clock."
"Good night."
_-_-_-_
January 12th, 2010: Central
The next morning they all set out in a nice, big, hot-wired car, courtesy of Roy. Their first destination was the military headquarters, where they stocked up on ammo and weapons. Next up they went to the hospital, and stole a heap of medical equipment and medication that they may need. And finally, they arrived at the supermarket.
They entered the front door warily, it would be hard to know how many zombies were in there as the row after row of shelves homed as very good hiding places.
"Should we stay as a group, or split up?" Alphonse asked, who had opted to go without his armour for the time being.
Roy smirked in a way that made Ed want to back away slowly. "Neither." Roy stated, he turned to Riza.
She sighed. "You're going to bait me again, aren't you?"
She rolled her eyes and paced a metre or two in front of the group and to the left. Everyone but Roy watched curiously.
Riza took a deep breath and...started to scream in a terrified voice.
"OH my goodness!" She squealed, her voice sounding like a teenage girl who was having a panic attack, but her expression was calm. "Zombies. Don't eat me!"
There was a rattling down one of the far aisles, and Riza cocked her gun in the direction with a smirk.
"They get all excited when they hear women screaming, thinking they have a chance at a meal. It lures them out." Roy explained, watching Riza with admiration.
A zombie ran straight for Riza, but she was ready and took it down with two bullets to the head. It fell to the ground and Riza approached it.
She aimed the gun at its head and shot twice more, then turned to the group. "Remember kids, always double tap."
"Double tap?" Alphonse asked hesitantly.
Roy nodded. "Shoot them when they're down, to make sure they wont grab your ankles when your back is turned." He explained.
"Okay, keep an eye out and grab anything that will last. Canned food, drinks, that kind of thing." Riza instructed.
They all nodded and went off in their usual groups of two, one to watch the back and one to grab the food. It only took them about half an hour to completely ravage the store of every food item they found useful, and meet back at the front.
"Okay, you might as well grab something to eat now." Riza said, gesturing towards the shelves. They all grabbed something and went back out to the truck.
"Can you kids drive trucks?" Roy asked, looking at the adolescents.
"I can." Ranfan said, then frowned slightly. "I don't even know why i had to learn that for my training."
"In case zombies attacked?' Ling suggested.
"Okay, well Riza, Ranfan and I will ride in the front and take turns in driving. You three, get in the back, and try not to set off any bombs or anything."
"Time to go to Resembool." Riza said, closing the back of the truck with the three teenage boys in it.
"Two hours of driving each, should do it." Roy said, helping both the girls into the front, before going around to the drivers seat. He smirked in the way that had previously had the ability to make girls faint, and started the vehicle.
_-_-_-_
Three and a half hours later and Riza was driving the truck. Roy looked like he was about to fall asleep, until his pocket started to sing. He looked down and pulled out his mobile phone, knowing there was only one person who would try to reach him that could manage to get through to someone via mobile. (Pretty sure maintaining phone lines aren't first priority for survivors of a zombie apocalypse)
Roy opened it without looking at the caller id. "Hello."
"Roy? Is that you? Are you okay? Is Riza with you still?" Came the voice on the other end.
"Yeah, Maes, we're both fine."
"Wow, that's good to know." Maes Hughes was a paramedic at the hospital - and Roy's best friend, despite the fact that Hughes had been completely obsessive with his family, and had a habit of throwing a barrage of photos upon unsuspecting strangers.
"Is..." Roy paused, not knowing whether he wanted to know how Maes' wife and five year old daughter were. "...Everything okay?" He settled for.
Maes sighed. "Yeah, my girls are safe. Little Elicia is being soo brave and Gracia is just fantastic. They're safe, don't worry. I was just calling to make sure..."
"Yeah, I know." Maes managed to hack the phone lines every month and Roy was always the only person he'd call.
"Still in Central?" Maes asked.
"On my way to Resembool, actually."
"Resembool...Why there?"
"We ran into these two genius brothers, and a pair of really good Xingese fighters. And the brothers think they can cure the disease, so we're giving them help. Resembool is their home town and it has more of their research notes there."
"That's... hopeful." Maes replied.
Roy smiled. "Yeah."
"Okay, well tell Riza, Gracia says hi. And we all send our love. I should go now."
"Thanks. Bye."
"See ya." Maes added. "I'll definitely see ya." And then he hung up.
Roy smiled as he hung up the phone. Maes was probably Roy's biggest reason for living. He was like family to Roy, and Mustang probably would given up by now if it weren't for him. Roy passed on the message to Riza, who smiled slightly, then looked up in the review mirror.
"Oh my." She said, gesturing for Roy to look in the mirror too.
Ranfan glanced out the window, to see about fifty zombies running after the van. Zombies may be brain dead cannibals, but they were damn fast.
"Fuck." Roy said, as he watched them. "Can we go any faster?"
Riza shook her head. "We'll run out of fuel before we get to Resembool if we do."
"What should we do then?" Roy asked.
Ranfan smiled. "Slow down as much as you can, but keep going." She said, opening the door to the truck.
"What are you doing?"
"It's fine, I used to ride on top of trains all the time, to get a free ride." She murmured, closing the door and using the window as leverage to climb on top of the truck. She had to hold on tight for a few seconds, to get used to the wind rushing by, but Riza was slowing down the truck as she'd asked, so it was getting easier. Ranfan slowly crawled along the roof of the truck, until she got to the other end. The zombies were a good ten metres away.
She smiled while grabbing a bomb of her belt, which she ripped the top off with her teeth and threw the bomb at the crowd.
Bang! Ranfan ducked her head to avoid get hit by any blood...or chunks of zombie. She shuddered at the thought, and after a moment looked up to see there were still a few more persistent little cannibals chasing them still.
She threw another bomb, carrying out the same method as last time. When she looked up they were all inanimate... very gross looking, but inanimate.
Ranfan grinned and crawled back along the truck before climbing back through the window. She smiled victoriously.
"Never, ever will I get on your bad side." Roy promised, in awe.
Riza smiled. "You did exceptionally."
Meanwhile, the three teenage boys were sitting in the back of the truck, blissfully unaware of everything that had just happened.
_-_-_-_
A couple of hours later (after Roy volunteered to do Ranfan's shift for her, in case they needed someone to climb the truck again) they arrived, in Resembool.
It was a sleepy little town, with paddocks and paddocks. Due to it having a low population before the apocalypse had started, Resembool was like a ghost town now. Roy slowed down the truck as he got to the front of the house that Edward had given him the directions to, checking to make sure no zombies were going to run at them, and stopping when he was finally pleased.
They got out of the front, and walked to the back of the truck, opening the big back door of the truck. "We're in Resembool, boys." Riza announced.
Ling jumped out of the tuck straight away, but Edward and Al just sat, frozen. "We're...here?" Edward asked.
Roy nodded. "Let's go."
Alphonse looked torn. "But what if...?" He trailed off, not having the courage to say what he and his brother were hoping against.
Roy's expression softened and he held a hand out to each boy. "You won't know until we go in there." He said, wishing he could reassure them, but there was a chance that the girl could've been injured.
Edward nodded. "Right." He agreed, and he and Alphonse allowed Roy to help them out of the truck.
They closed the tuck up and walked up to the door of the barricaded home, Ed and Al leading the way.
Edward knocked hesitantly on the door. "Winry." He called, hoping to a god he didn't believe in that she was okay. "We're home."
Well, that took hours. But I was trying to make it a bit longer, as was shinespire's request, i hope i did alright. Thank you so much to: shinespire and IceFire Dragon Alchemist73 for reviewing the first chapter, and shinespire and PaperBagGhost for reviewing the second chapter... Remember, Reviews are my inspiration - and tell me what pairings you want, if any. ~ Little-Miss