lostmoonchild: Okay, I know, I'm mean because I didn't update last Monday. Sunday evening, the day after I had finished the last chapter, I had gotten on one of the horses when she threw my butt onto the ground. If I had a saddle, I wouldn't have fallen but I didn't have a saddle so I met the ground and her hoof met my foot. When I got up and on her, she blew again and smacked my head with hers so now I have bruises on my face, ribs, shoulder, and the foot she stepped on is swollen so I'm trying to determine if there's a fracture somewhere or not seeing as I don't want to go to a hospital just to find out. When Monday came last week, I really couldn't move much without feeling pain and even now it still hurts to put on a shoe or to even smile or put on a bra so I decided that it'd probably be better to take the updating day off and update the next week so here's the chapter for your viewing pleasure.

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA or anything else unless I say otherwise.

Chapter Eleven

The sun shone brightly overhead as the gentle wind blew softly. Ross was silent as he stared ahead at the small town, wondering what his father felt when he first heard of the town and saw the experiments for the first time. Did he feel anger or did he know that he would one day vanish without a trace? Was he saddened by the knowledge that his children's weren't safe when he realized that he had failed?

Glancing over at Ed, he wondered if it was too late to make the blonde turn around and go home. The blonde had a family to go home to at the end of the day. Could he honestly ask Ed to make such a heavy sacrifice? "Ed-" he started but stopped when Ed cut him off.

"My family could be next, Ross. I'm not backing down from this."

Ross nodded slightly before sighing to himself. There was just absolutely no point in arguing with the other man about anything like this. Maybe only a handful of people could get Ed to back down from a fight but Ross knew enough to know that it wouldn't be him that would get Ed to quiet down. "You're a real pal, Ed. I hope you know that." Ross stated.

"Yeah, you too."

It was as close to a goodbye as either man was willing to get. Neither of them wanted to say that cursed word right away since they were both willing to do what it took to get the other one back safe and sound. That was just a sign that their friendship had taken a more brotherly form.

Both men were silent as they walked down the hill and carefully took in their surroundings. Cars were parked along the sidewalks and the whole town looked deserted. "Kind of a creepy place. Everything looks like it's ready for people to come back but there's no one there." Ed stated calmly.

"Where do you think everyone went?"

"Dunno, but this place gives me the creeps."

"Think everybody's dead?"

"That or took off. I mean, it's been how long since you got sick and revealed the name of the guy that got you sick?"

"A few months."

If their theory was right then this whole town had been abandoned for some time. What had happened to everybody then? Had they managed to escape or had they been unable to? What exactly had happened that would cause an entire town to vanish without a trace?

"Ross, you need to escape with Ed! It's a trap!" Ross heard his sister's voice plead. If it weren't for the fact that Ed was with him, the brunette would have been surprised.

Ross stopped and looked around carefully, his eyes falling on a building that had a cracked fountain in front of it. The stairs were broken in some places, telling them that something had happened. "There?" Ross asked, his voice full of wonder.

"Don't go in there!" Gods, he wanted an aspirin or some kind of pain killer. If he asked Ed if he had any, would the blonde decide that they'd come back with backup some other time. Best not chance it.

Ross ignored his throbbing headache, knowing that he was probably going to lose another motor skill. Bad enough that he was losing control of his whole body. If he lost control of his mind… well, he just hoped that Ed would be willing to drag his corpse back.

As they entered the building, they had several titles that they wanted to give it. The words library, laboratory, and office came to mind rather quickly but as they explored the abandoned building, another word came to mind.

Slaughter house.

The odor of decaying corpses filled the air as the corpses themselves littered the basement floor. Bloating bodies and unseeing eyes surrounded them, accusing them of being too late to stop the madness. "Oh my God." Ed whispered in shock.

"Not here, pal." Ross answered. "I don't think that God's here. The Devil, maybe, but surely not God."

There were so many people. This must have been where the town's people had vanished to. If they hadn't been on the same page before regarding what they were doing, Ross was fairly certain that they were now. "I don't even think that the Devil could handle this." Ed replied as he looked around.

His heart clenched tightly as he looked at a little boy's corpse, seeing that he had only started to decay. The boy should have been asking to go on a walk or to have some ice cream. Instead he was lying in a mass grave with his parents somewhere. Did he ask why whoever had done this was doing it or had he been unaware of what was going on? Kids weren't stupid. They saw a corpse and some instinct told them that something was wrong.

His eyes flickered over to Ross when he heard the gun's safety click off. Following the brunette's eyes, he saw the kids' nanny lying amongst the many bodies with her head twisted at an unnatural angle. Somebody had snapped her neck and left her body behind. From the look of surprise that remained on her features, she hadn't even been expecting death.

Something told him that Ross wasn't the least bit upset about the woman's body. No, there was something else that was bothering him. What was it? What did Ross see that he couldn't?

There! His eyes fell on the man that stood in the darkened room, silently watching them with greedy eyes. "Very good," congratulated the man as he clapped. "You managed to find me."

Somehow Ed got the feeling that even though they had found the man that was responsible for all of these deaths, they weren't going to get him back so easily. A glance around the room proved to be accurate when he saw bombs placed around the room. If one of the bombs even went off, Ed suspected, the others would detonate and send the place crashing down on them. "Isn't being in the military fun?" Ed asked with an amused expression as he got ready to attack.

Ross grinned slightly. "Naturally," he replied.

lostmoonchild: Okay, it's Wednesday and once again I went horseback riding bareback. Tonight was easier but the horse still blew up since I wasn't letting her do what she wanted. As a result, I played the role of a spider monkey clinging to her while she threw he fit and then she settled down when she realized she wasn't getting rid of me. No new injuries, I'm proud to announce. Anyway, read and review, flames are accepted.