Chapter 7

Collision

Winry was surprised when the trees began to thin, revealing glimpses of houses and streetlights. It seemed she was a lot closer to the village than she'd thought – in spite of her aching muscles and searing lungs, she'd hadn't really expected to have run so far so quickly.

Of course, being chased by people with guns was an excellent motivator.

For a moment, Winry paused – Pretty skittering to a halt beside her – as she wondered whether it would be better to run to the village or continue blundering around in the woods. In the village, she would at least be able to see where she was going and might even be able to locate a vehicle to get away – at least until Pride showed up. But the streetlights and the open field between the forest and the first house also meant that she'd be very exposed, easily crippled by a shot to the leg or foot.

Then again, it wasn't as though she was really getting anywhere running around in the woods. If she had any hope of doing something more productive than dashing between trees and waiting for Pride to show up, she had to go to the village.

More than anything, Winry did not like sitting around and waiting for something to happen – she was no one's damsel in distress!

The blonde gave Pretty a comforting scratch on the head, gauging the chimera's breathing. Relieved it didn't seem to be too heavy and Pretty would probably have no trouble keeping up with her, Winry bolted from the treeline like a startled hare, her eyes fixed on the village.

She refused to look back, and tried to ignore the insistent burning in her legs. Paradoxically, it seemed to have become worse since she'd stopped, as though once her limbs had halted they didn't want to start up again.

'There are guys with guns behind you, there are guys with guns behind you,' Winry chanted mentally, using the idea as a spur.

Somehow, she reached the first house with no shouts or gunshots tearing through the night, leaping the low stone wall that bordered the back of the property. Winry tucked herself and Pretty behind the house, keeping the building between them and the forest as she caught her breath. With one arm over the chimera's neck, for long minutes Winry heard nothing but harsh panting – hers and her strange pet's.

Gradually, as her heartrate slowed and the stinging in her lungs calmed, Winry became aware of how strangely silent everything was. It wasn't the usual kind either – no buzz of nocturnal insects or sound of animals that was usually rampant in communities so close to the wilderness. This was the kind of quiet that entered the water when a shark was gliding just beneath the surface.

Were there soldiers in the village, too?

It would be just her luck to escape from the ones at the cabin and run right into another squad.

She stroked Pretty's thin, velvet-like fur, whispering low words of praise to distract herself from the uneasy silence as the mechanic contemplated their next move.

A neatly trimmed hedgerow bordered the front and sides of the house, and a large barn stood in the field nearby. Winry briefly considered hiding out in it, and even started to move in that direction...

But she froze as two figures suddenly appeared on the road, having stepped out from between two houses. The dim streetlights glinted off the guns held at ready in their hands.

Thought and reason returned from Winry's moments of panic and she dropped to the grass, wincing as Pretty gave a curious whine from beside her. The sound seemed to cut through the quiet like a drill, and the mechanic was sure they'd be discovered...

It was only when – after a few, terrified moments of pressing her cheek into the dirt so they might not see her – Winry looked up and realised that the soldiers hadn't moved that she remembered this was a farming village, and they'd likely dismissed the sound as made by one of the herding dogs.

"We need to be quiet, girl," she practically breathed, creeping down to the hedge line. Pretty followed much closer than she usually did, obviously sensing Winry's fear.

For Winry was definitely afraid. She had picked up on the fact that they seemed reluctant to kill her, but that was no guarantee of anything. If their aim went off, they had a good chance of killing her – even a shot in the leg would be fatal if it hit her femoral artery.

She told herself to stop thinking about that and concentrate on escaping.

'And where the hell is Pride, anyway?' she thought grumpily. 'What's the use of dragging around an Ed lookalike with freaky tattoos who uses shadows like most people use a tool belt if he doesn't help out when the soldiers turn up?'

Of course, since she'd left the cabin he probably had no idea where she was, but she wasn't about to start shouting for help. With the soldiers about a street away and Pride probably in the woods, she knew that would be more hindrance than help.

The soldiers were clearly engaged in some kind of patrol – probably making sure none of the villagers interfered with the guys running around in the forest – and when they turned off down another street, Winry saw her chance.

A van – obviously military – had been parked on the corner, and Winry made that her target. She opened the gate between the hedgerows as quietly as she could, grateful that the hinges didn't squeak and that the house's occupants were sleeping. Pretty at her side, she made a wild dash for the next house over, dropping to her knees against it and peering around the corner.

The soldiers were moving along the street, their backs to the van, and Winry decided to take her chance. Moving low to the ground, she scurried across the street and behind the vehicle, one hand on Pretty's neck to ensure the chimera was beside her at all times, and hoping the soft clicking of her claws wasn't nearly as loud as it sounded.

"Stay," she whispered, hoping Pretty would obey while she slowly sidled around to the front of the van and carefully, quietly, popped the hood.

Knowing that she couldn't count on Pride to knock them out if they spotted her this time around made the whole thing much more tense. She didn't even dare to glance at the soldiers, just in case they became aware of eyes on them and decided to turn around.

"Stop! Hands in the air!"

Winry froze, holding out the tremulous hope that the shout hadn't been meant for her, but a peek in the direction of the soldiers confirmed they were approaching at a fast clip, guns drawn.

Winry did the only thing she could – she ran for it. Bolting down the street like an escaped racehorse, she made a turn completely at random, hoping only to get out of their line of fire...

She ended up smashing directly into the chest of two other soldiers who had been running in the other direction, apparently attracted by their friends' shouts. Military reflexes meant she barely had time to recover from the winding she'd been given before she was grabbed by the back of her neck like an errant kitten and whirled around, her arms yanked behind her back. She's couldn't hold in a scream as her shoulders were brutally wrenched.

Pretty lunged for the man that had grabbed Winry, actually leaping into the air and colliding with his shoulder. Winry was dragged down with them, but fortunately the soldier let go of her almost immediately, throwing his arms over his face and neck in an effort to shield them from the chimera's teeth. Unlike her previous attack, Pretty wasn't simply biting down and holding on, but was darting her head back and forth like a snake, slashing with her teeth and then drawing back again, obviously seeking the man's throat.

Winry rolled to her feet, intending to pull Pretty off the man and make another attempt at running for it, when she noticed the second soldier pull out her gun and aim it at the two combatants.

"No!" the blonde yelled, charging forwards.

But she was too late. Three gunshots in rapid succession echoed through the alley, punctuated by a high, gurgling yelp from Pretty as the chimera collapsed in a heap.

Winry flung herself at the woman with a wild scream of rage, heedless of the gun in the soldier's hand, and while her weight wasn't enough to bring the woman to the ground, the blonde did succeed in barrelling her into the wall. The back of the woman's head struck the bricks sharply, and her eyes slid out of focus.

Trying to take advantage of her stunned opponent, Winry grabbed for the gun, but was distracted by the sound of shouts at the mouth of the street.

The soldiers who'd spotted her initially had appeared, and the man Pretty had attacked – still bleeding from several large rents in his forearms – ran toward them as one of them raised a gun.

"No – it's her! Don't shoot!"

The soldier shoved the gun aside with his hand, obviously trying to make sure it didn't hit Winry. The gun smashed into the brick wall, and Winry felt something white-hot slice against the side of her head.

The impact against her temple stunned her, and she found herself falling even as the roar of the gunshot finally reached her ears. She hit the ground on her side, her already throbbing shoulder bruising further and her bleeding temple cracking against the pavement.

She lay there, dazed and reeling, feeling blood pool beneath her cheek. Her hair was in her eyes, and dimly she thought she should do something about that. She also had the idea that she should probably get up, but her thoughts were scattered and she couldn't remember why.

Then she heard a scream.

-xxx-

Ed had no idea what was going on, but when he heard gunshots and someone screaming, he knew he had to intervene.

He didn't know who was following him as he left the barn and ran as fast as he could towards the sounds of a struggle, only that he definitely had back-up – which he was grateful for, as he didn't really know how many soldiers there were or what they were armed with. He only knew that they were clearly hunting someone down, and at this point an enemy of the military was usually a friend of his.

Ed rounded the corner so fast his boots skidded along the pavement, only to see something that should have been impossible.

Winry. Winry was standing in front of him, trying to pull the gun from the lax grip of a woman dressed in military uniform.

He dimly noted another soldier slowly climbing to his feet, bleeding from his arms, and a weird-looking animal crumpled on the ground, but all his attention went to the blonde in front of him.

He opened his mouth to shout her name, but as he did two soldiers came in at the other end, people shouted, a gunshot split the air...

And Winry fell, tumbling to the street like a cast-off doll, blood pooling beneath her head.

A wild, howling scream filled the alley, and it took Ed a moment to realise it was coming from his own throat. He was distantly aware of the soldiers turning to face him, but in that moment he couldn't care, didn't care about anything other than the body lying on the ground in front of him.

He didn't remember moving but he must have, because when he came to himself he was kneeling beside her, touching her shoulder, her cheek, her hair. Nothing made sense; the whole situation seemed impossible. Impossible that Winry should be here, impossible that she was dead...

Impossible that she should be stirring...

Hazed blue eyes blinked up at him as Winry's head turned, revealing that the blood came not from a bullet hole but from a gash across the side of her head. It was bleeding profusely (as Ed had learned headwounds did from personal experience) but the bullet must have only grazed her.

"Pride...?" she slurred.

Ed couldn't speak; he was just as frozen as he had been when he'd seen her fall.

She blinked, and a hint of wonder crept into her face. "Ed?"

He made a choked noise that might have been her name and pulled her to him, crushing her against his chest and burying his face in her hair, too relieved to even realise her blood was smearing across his face.

He'd been scared before. He'd been horrified before. But what he'd felt when he'd seen Winry fall, when he'd thought she was dead, was certainly one of the top two scenarios he never wanted to be in again. Right along with watching Al disappear into the Gate.

She was laughing a little hysterically, saying his name over and over as she clutched at him as though she couldn't quite believe it. Ed could sympathise; he was having a hard time believing it himself.

It occurred to him that there had been other people in the alley, and he should probably check to see why he hadn't been shot at yet.

He glanced up, to find Greed holding one soldier against a wall with one diamond-hard arm, but the rest...

The rest were pinned by what looked like living shadows.

"Oh, he gets a hug when I'm the guy who saved your life?"

-xxx-

AN: A big thank you to juscallmefaye, who beta-d this chapter (and, of course, the whole story so far)!