Alphonse Elric was very much alive.
Cold and uncomfortable, yes, but alive. But where was he? He opened his eyes slowly to get a look at his surroundings, and then sat up quickly. How did he get here? He racked his brain, trying to think of…anything. The last thing he remembered was trying to bring back his mom with Ed. Wait! Where was his brother?
He was sitting on the floor of what looked like an old fashioned ballroom. He didn't know this place! There was no sign of Edward. Was this some kind of joke? Al called out for his brother until his throat was sore. He was met with nothing but echoing silence. Fighting panic now, he lifted himself to his feet slowly and started a wide circle around the room, looking for any sort of clue whatsoever. His eyes caught a few pools of blood on the floor, and that did nothing to calm his nerves. Finally he noticed broad double doors at the far side of the room, and he ran toward them. He just wanted to get out of this place.
Al pushed open the door and was about to continue running, but he was met with a terrible sight. There seemed to be hundreds of houses and buildings piled onto each other, buried under ground. His breath caught in his throat when he saw it, and he wondered what could have caused this. Standing there for a few moments was enough to intensify his need to get out of this place, and he tore his eyes away to continue onward, almost sprinting now and ignoring the complaining of his legs.
At long last he came to a sort of tunnel, going steadily upward. Without hesitation he began to climb up it, running as fast as he could-anything to get away from the horrible sight. After a few seconds of running upward, his foot caught on a small rock jutting up from the hard pack ground and Al went flying forward, landing roughly and getting a face full of dirt. It was then that he came to realize his heart was thudding against his chest as though trying to escape from his ribcage and his breath was coming in ragged gasps, and desperate sobs were issuing from his throat. He felt helpless and completely alone.
But there was no way he could stop now. He pulled himself to his feet and dusted off his clothes and continued his journey upwards. Finally he cleared the tunnel and found himself in a church. Some odd sort of feeling tugged at his mind, as if something important happened here… but Al didn't stop to find out. He'd seen far worse sights then an abandoned church, and he ran out of the building without any further stops.
Once out in the street, he finally allowed himself to catch his breath for a few seconds. A gunshot rang in his ears, and this brought his break to an abrupt halt. His head jerked toward the sound and his feet automatically followed it, a second gunshot showing him the way. He came upon a large mansion with a long wide lawn. On the porch of the house, a blonde woman was weeping, crouched over a motionless man with black hair.
"Dammit, Roy! Speak to me!" He heard the woman shout. A thought came to his head-maybe he could help them. He knew alchemy, didn't he? This looked like an emergency; it should be enough to stop his quest for answers. Al took a deep breath and started toward the two.
Author's note
I hope you like this chapter! It was pretty hard to write, harder then Edward's awakening. I tried to get all the facts right, with Al's loss of memory and all that. Well, please leave me a review if you liked it or tell me why you didn't.
Stay tuned!