.:. The End .:.

Chapter 5: Lior

January 14th, 2010: Lior

"Children on God who live on this earth, have faith and thous shalt be saved. The God of the sun, Leto, enlightens thy path. Behold, having descended from his throne, the Lord shall save thee from thy sins.... As a messenger of the sun God, I am your father." The words spurted out of the radio, above them.

"A radio broadcast of a sermon?" Alphonse asked, his voice echoing from the suit of armour he was wearing.

"A messenger of God...? What's that?" Edward asked.

This town, was weird. Although it had been set up, with people, mainly men, acting as guards, patrolling the borders, there were still holes in their defenses - considering the group of seven had gotten through without notice.

The first thing they had decided was to split up. Winry with Ed and Alphonse, and the remaining four in a separate group, to try and get as much info as they could. This left the former group in the centre of the town, where they had ran into a man. They were about to start asking questions, but he hushed them up once the radio - however it was still working was unknown to the three - started spouting what sounded a lot like garbage to Edward.

"What's with this broadcast?" Winry asked th e man, pushing her bangs out of her face, a sign of discomfort from the heat emanating from this desert city.

The man gasped. "You haven't heard of Lord Cornello?"

A pause. "Who?" Edward attempted to clarify.

"Founder Cornello! Messenger of Leto the sun God." The man replied, as if this was knowledge as common as 'the sky is blue'.

"Please elaborate. My friends and I come from far away and have lived in hiding for

practically a year." Winry said, politely.

"Lord Cornello came here at the start of the so called apocalypse. He managed to actually cure a man of his cannibalistic disease, when there was no help left for him. Ever since then, the residents of Lior and travelers alike have bound together to help him. It is prophesied that by the year 2012, Founder Cornello will have found the strength to cure the world of zombism."

"That sounds-" Edward began, but he was cut off by Winry.

"Fantastic! How can we help?" She asked, knowing Edward had the trait of saying the wrong things at the wrong time and managing to piss off entire villages.

"Hello, there, my isn't it lively today?" Came a soft female voice.

"Oh, hello Rose." The man answered with a smile.

The woman, was pretty with pink and brown hair and a sweet smile. She - Rose - glanced at the three unfamiliar faces and smiled. "Have we found some more followers?" She asked.

"Yeah, these kids say they want to help out." The man answered casually.

"That's fantastic!" Rose said, her eyes lighting up. "Why don't you three follow me?"

"Okay, thanks." Winry said, as the three followed Rose away.

"May Leto protect you!" Rose called back to the man, who nodded and began to walk in the opposite direction.

"I'm Rose." She said to the three and gestured to a bag in her hands. "And before we get started I've got to feed my boyfriend."

"I'm Alphonse." The suit of armour greeted politely, "And this is Winry and my older brother, Edward."

"You guys are lucky you came here." Rose told them. "Father Cornello is going cure the cursed."

"So I keep hearing." Edward murmured.

The arrived at a big building, that looked slightly run-down, but still in pretty good shape. It was a police station. Rose entered with them, and led them through empty rooms that had once been offices and to some double doors. Before opening the doors she turned to the three.

"Now, don't be afraid. This is just a place for those waiting to be cured." And she threw open the doors, revealing the holding cells and unintelligible moaning. As Edward realized what this place was, he gently but insistently pushed Winry out of the room.

"Stay out here." He directed her, seeing a glimpse of rear in her eyes, which she covered up almost instantly.

"What is this place?' She asked.

"It looks like..." Edward explained. "A holding ground for zombies."

_-_-_-_

"Well, this settles it." Roy announced. "I hate Lior."

"Agreed." Ling concurred.

"You two should know better than to blatantly tell these people all the reasons why their God can't possibly exist." Riza murmured, sighing.

Ranfan just growled, continuing to rattle her chains.

"We're going to die." Roy moaned. "We''ll be eaten alive."

"Chances of that happening were already pretty high." Riza commented.

After splitting up, the four had gone straight to church, rather than the town centre, where they had met the 'holy man' in charge of the whole deal, Cornello.

"I shall cure all poor sufferers of this disease, as I am the messenger of Leto, the Sun God." Cornello had stated grandly.

Ling snorted. "Yeah.... right."

"Do you... not believe?" Cornello asked dramatically.

Roy chuckled. "How could there be a God of a giant flaming ball of gas?" He mocked.

Riza sighed, putting her face in her hand and Ranfan started to scout the area for any possible exits.

"Non-Believers," Yelled Cornello. "Send them to the poles! They can see the true power of Leto by first hand!"

"I have no idea what the poles are, but I have a feeling the term 'Oh, crap' is appropriate here." Roy commented.

Half an hour later, they had all be handcuffed to a pole, a little bit out in the desert, where the guardsmen had informed them, the zombies visited nightly. It was about two hours until sundown and they had found that the hand cuffs and poles were much too strong for them to break.

"I hate Lior. I hate Cornello. I even hate that non-existent God of his." Roy moaned.

Riza jerked her head towards a man that was approaching them. He was one of the guards and was holding a sword.

"Still alive I see, treacherous scum." He commented.

"Yep, it appears so." Ling replied, grinning at the man.

He scowled. "Cornello isn't joking. You'll all be dead -or worse- by the morning light tomorrow."

"No." Shouted Riza, feeling all her built up anger and annoyance from the past year start to explode. "You listen here - you are going to let us go, because so help me, the consequences if you don't will NOT be pretty. And I am completely serious. If it means I have to come back and haunt the hell out of you, I. Will. Do. That."

"Riza, calm down." Roy began. He had been planning on talking his way out of this one.

"No, she's right." Ranfan joined in, giving up on trying to break the handcuffs for a moment. "I am not getting eaten alive because of something as stupid as this. Zombie bites hurt, a lot."

"No wonder Cornello sent you out here. You people are deranged!" The man said.

"Oh, honey, I'll show you deranged." Ranfan growled, and Riza's glare promised the same thing.

"Well, Cornello told me to speed things up. And since you seem to be the mouthiest little bitch..." He trailed off, raising his sword and stabbing Ranfan in the leg.

"Holy mother of hell." She cursed gritting her teeth as he pulled the sword out.

The mistake the man made, was that by stabbing Ranfan, he came a little to close to Roy, who was handcuffed to the pole beside her. Roy grabbed him by the shirt and the man was so shocked he dropped his sword as Roy pulled him.

"Keys." Roy growled. "Now!"

The man laughed. "You think I'll give up that easily? You don't even have a weapon."

"But I do." Ranfan murmured, holding up her non-handcuffed arm - which was also her automail one, showing the blade that came attached. "And I am very pissed off."

"Keys." Roy repeated.

The man gulped, knowing he was defeated and reached into his pocket, and the second Roy let his guard down slightly, the man managed to step out of his grasp.

"Please, you don't scare me. See you in the after life. You'll be there a lot sooner than me, especially with missy there bleeding so much - the blood is bound to attract our flesh-eating friends all the sooner." He picked up his sword and began to run away.

Ranfan fell to the ground, unable to stand with the pain any longer and probably getting sand in her that she cared anymore.

"We're dead." Roy moaned, hopelessness leaking it's way into his voice for the first time since the apocolypse.

_-_-_-_

*Gasp* An update! I know... I'm sorry it took a month. But be expecting the next one soon. REVIEWS keep me inspired. ~Little Miss