Ed awoke with a start the next morning, his eyes darting open as they scanned the room frantically. There was a deep, uneasy feeling in his stomach.
Today was the day of the ambush.
Ed turned over in his position to face Roy, who was still asleep, the sunlight from dawn shining through the window and onto his dark face. His features were still and relax, and Ed felt his heart skip a beat, his mind fearing for the worst. What if this was the last time they would sleep together? Ed shook the thought away quickly, and gave Roy a soft kiss on the lips, hoping to wake him up.
Within seconds, Roy began to stir from his slumber, dark eyes creaking open to meet the golden sunlight. He lowered his eyes and met another golden ray of sunlight, but instead it was Ed, his bright, golden eyes staring up at him. Roy smiled and brought a hand up, gently ruffling the younger man's hair. "Morning." He greeted lowly, the rumble sending shivers down Ed's spine.
"Morning." He breathed back, giving him another kiss on the lips. "Guess what today is?" He asked, a sad smile spreading across his face.
Roy knew what the question meant the moment the words left Ed's lips. "Ambush day." He answered, letting a small smile form on his lips. "We're going to be fine. We made a plan, remember?" Roy reminded the younger alchemist, who nodded.
"Yeah." He answered simply, still unsure as the two began to move from their bed.
"Let's get dressed and ready. Eat a good breakfast. We'll need it."
~~
Ed reloaded his gun, the click sending several echoes off of the walls of the street buildings. "This better work out, or I'm going to kill you." Ed muttered to his former superior, who in return, chuckled.
"Please, Ed, you wouldn't kill me even if you wanted to." Roy responded smugly, a cocky smirk on his face.
"Yeah, well, that makes you lucky doesn't it?"
"Yes, I suppose it does."
The warehouse was now in plain view, the two less than a thousand feet now. Ed's stomach was still tied in knots just thinking about what they were about to do. He glanced over to Roy, who didn't seem to look alarmed. He just looked..accepting.
"Remember the plan?" Roy asked, stopping in their tracks.
Ed lifted his head, nodding. "Yeah. We both go in, you take the right, I'll take the left, and once we're done, or in trouble, we meet up at the rendezvous, which is located right here." Ed said, pointing down to the ground he was standing on. Roy nodded, and smiled.
"Exactly. Roy ruffled Ed's hair affectionately, and began to advance towards the building again. "We can do this. Alright?" Roy reassured Ed, who looked uncertain still.
"Yeah. I sure hope so." Ed breathed, following Roy into the dark abyss of the warehouse again, his heart thumping in his chest.
Roy whispered as quietly as he could, doing his best not to attract their attention. "This warehouse may seem like one room, but I'm certain there are indents and different sections, so we'll have to be careful. At first I believed it was only one room but now I'm uncertain." Roy breathed as quietly as he could, hearing Ed whisper something in response. "I love you. Good luck." Roy whispered, and before Ed could reply, he was gone.
Ed swallowed hard, and let his eyes move to the left, where the endless darkness rested. He took in a deep breath, and drew his gun, holding it in front of him. He began to advance, praying his eyes would adjust faster than they had the time before.
Roy was already several steps ahead Ed, feeling a door handle in front of him. He tensed. The warehouse did have separate sections. The spot Ed and I had been searching in last time was only one room. He thought silently, carefully beginning to turn the handle. The door creaked open, and he held his hand out, ready to snap. His eyes were adjusting by now, and he could see the faint outlines of the undead, only a few occupying the room. He snapped his fingers, and enveloped three in flames instantly, before moving to snap at the two others that were beginning to run towards him, their screeches ear piercing.
Ed still felt completely blind, the light from the entrance no longer guiding him. He was too far away. He turned his head back around and grunted, feeling something cold and hard meet his chest. He stumbled back and gasped when he saw a single eye staring directly at him, and raised his gun higher, shooting at the head. It squawked and fell backwards, giving Ed enough time to unsheathe his knife. He kneeled down and ran it through the undead's neck, severing the head from the rest of the body. Once the scream was cut off, he stood back up, the knife now in one hand while he carried the gun in the other. Ed knew the gunshot had to have attracted attention, and now he was afraid more than he could handle would come to fight for their food.
Roy finished incinerating the undead in the room, and proceeded to the next door, which had been illuminated earlier by his flames. He shoved through it, and snapped again, giving no hesitation this time as more undead were revealed from the dark cloak they once wore. They screamed and growled, trying their best to avoid the flames as they neared Roy, but he snapped again, none of them able to advance to get within arm's reach of the Flame Alchemist.
Ed's assumptions had proven to be true, as he now heard a handful of undead moaning, their feet dragging on the floor. He tensed and held his gun up, as well as readying his knife to strike. When he felt the first soldier grab him, he quickly located their head and dragged the knife through it, feeling it resist when it hit tendon. He snagged it through and kicked the headless body aside, elbowing another that was reaching for his arm. He shot several bullets into the undead's head and slit its neck, the head coming clean off. He continued with his tactic until there were no more hands grabbing at him, and sighed with relief, wiping the green blood off of his face.
Roy advanced into the next room, his finger ready to snap when he felt sharp teeth sink in to his arm. He let out a yelp and turned his head to see an undead standing next to the opened door, gnawing at his flesh. He slammed his other fist into the undead's head, watching as it released its hold. He let out a pained grunt and quickly snapped at it, watching it disappear in flames. "Damn.." He whispered, feeling the blood well out of his wound, the sticky red substance covering his forearm. He hadn't had much time to react when he felt another presence grab at his other arm, rearing down to bite. He slammed his fist up into the jaw of the soldier and kicked it aside, sparks erupting from his glove. The other burned too, and Roy quickly pushed past the remaining and opened the next door, sending an explosive flame behind him as he closed the door to keep himself from facing the heat.
Ed had found a door, and had wearily passed through it, hearing the creak of the door as it closed behind him. At the sound of the dull click, growls and screeches were heard, and Ed swallowed, raising his gun. He could see somewhat, shadows and figures now visible to him in the darkness. Ahead of him, there were two human-like figures, and he shot at them quickly, thrusting his knife forward. Two more followed, and Ed did the same, taking them down swiftly. However, when the next round approached him, one lunged forwards and tripped Ed, his body slamming down onto hard concrete. "Shit!" He wheezed, the breath knocking out of him when he made contact with the pavement.
Roy was faced with more undead soldiers than he had been anticipating in the room his flames lighting up the walls. This room was enormous, and there had to be over a hundred in the room, all eyes on him. He aimed to snap again, but was too late. Hands and claws were already scraping at him, and one bit down onto his hand, it's jaws snapping right through it. He screamed and kicked at it, feeling flesh rip with the force. He cringed, snapping to incinerate the figure, but nothing happened. "Shit." He hissed, realizing now that ignition glove had been ripped along with his skin. He let out another yell when more ripped at his arms, another ripping off his remaining ignition glove.
Roy began to panic, his senses heightening as he began to throw all of them off, one by one, screaming when pieces of flesh were taken with them. The moment he was free from all contact, he jerked the door open and dashed towards the previous rooms, moving through all of them as quick as possible. He needed to go back to the rendezvous, where he had hoped Ed would be. They'd been at this for a while, surely he would be back by now?
Ed had managed to shot three more down on the floor, feeling as his foot was gnawed, the muscle tearing. He let out a pained yell and shot another in the head, yanking his leg away from the undead that was using it as a chew toy. He whimpered quietly and hobbled up to his feet, pressing more weight on his better foot as he thrust forward with his knife, dragging it down one of the undead's chest.
Roy escaped the building as quick as he could, pushing through the lighted crack. He let out a gasp and drank in as much air as he could, his legs feeling weak. Once he was composed enough, he began to jog towards their agreed rendezvous, his heart lurching when nobody was there. "Ed?" He called out, raising his head towards the sky as he watched dark clouds roll in; a storm. "Edward!" He called again, gritting his teeth when there was no response. "Dammit.." Roy whispered, taking the time to look down at his bloodied arms and hands. He cringed, closing his hands slowly to look at his bloody knuckles. "That idiot." He hissed, his head snapping back to the small entrance of the warehouse. He sucked in a breath, and turned around, quickly diving back into the darkness.
"Edward!" Roy yelled, not concerned about his location being given away at the moment. "Edward Elric!"
He waited a few seconds, his teeth clenching further when there was no response. "You damned bastard, where are you?" He breathed, breaking out in a run towards the left, in the direction Ed had gone.
Not too much later he arrived at motionless, and headless bodies, and smiled some, knowing he had surely come this way. He followed the path, eventually arriving at a door. He opened it, and stepped over the motionless bodies, finding another door to move into. This time, there was movement. His eyes adjusted, his heart thumping in his chest as he spotted golden hair. "Ed." He breathed, watching as the alchemist lifted his eyes off of the undead he was on top of, and over to Roy. He let a smile spread across his dirtied face, his mouth opening to speak. "Heya—"
His voice was cut off with the sound of choking. Roy watched in horror as an undead from behind pounced, grabbing Ed by the throat in its jowls, dragging him down onto the ground.
"EDWARD!"