Avalanche

By: Song

Chapter Two, Day Zero

A/U: Reviews greatly appreciated!

Mustang busied himself with repairing the windows. While only a few simple transformations, the task was surprisingly difficult. First, for the fact that transmutation sapped the energy which he was quickly loosing in this oxygen poor environment as his mitochondria struggled to keep up with the demand of his muscles. Second, because he had never studied much alchemy in depth other than fire; this was not the first time he had come to regret such a decision.

He was panting by the time the glass was fixed, but he knew it was far from over. Glass held little insulation ability, only stopping the wind sheer from sucking the life right out of them. If they even had a chance, he would have to pack the snow up and around the car.

Sighing he shed the half skirt of his uniform, placing it around Ed before gingerly opening one of the windows and crawling out.

Nothing but sparse evergreen forest could be seen wherever he looked. While that meant they would not starve to death, it also meant that there was little animal life and thus next to no protein. The sad looking fragment consisting of the caboose, their car and a few supply cars - what used to be a fully functioning train now resting upside down. Slightly further up the mountain he could just make out the long silhouette of the the rest of the iron monstrosity buried so deep in snow that the only hope to get it out would be the following summer when the icy clutches of winter had melted away.

After a moment of thought he pried open the the door to the engine, pleased to see a small amount of coal had not been thrown as the engine tumbled down the mountain's face. It took a few trips and some ingenuity, but Mustang transported the remaining fuel to their car as well as an iron plate to hold the material as it burned. Grabbing a few stray pieces of stuffing from the seats he placed the makeshift stove in the center of their shelter and ignited it with a snap of his fingers.

That at least would keep Ed from freezing until he had packed enough off the snow around the car to survive the storm. Hopefully during it too, if the coal lasted that long.

Looking at some of the green branches he had used to drag what little debris he could salvage an idea came to him. They could sleep on the boughs tonight to keep the ground from eating their body heat.* He paused before returning to the cold and stripping the dead branches too. Those could be burned if it came to that. (Which in all honesty it probably would, but he didn't want to think about that now.)

Snow was coming down thicker and thicker, fat flakes going from lazily floating to driving whiteout condition as if some unseen foreman conducted their flurry.

In some ways, that made his job easier. As soon as he had compacted one layer of snow, almost enough was piled on top to start a second.**

An undetermined amount of time passed before the sky began darkening quickly, signaling time for him to call it a day and reserve his energy. More feeling his way than seeing he found the tunnel he had constructed earlier to the opened window.

It was a nice change from the harsh cold air of the outside to the pleasantly warm (or at least comparatively) inside of the car. The fire was burning, the smoke escaping from a small hole at the apex of the car where he'd enough fore site to see was necessary lest they die of smoke inhalation from the very fire that was likely saving their lives.

Shaking off the snow from his uniform and placing what he could near the fire to dry, Mustang yawned, checking on his charge again.

Ed was cold and clammy, shivering violently enough to rattle the screws in his prosthetics.

"Shit, shit shit..." he swore. How could he have forgotten that?

Ed's automail was bringing down his core temperature. Metal retains heat very well, however the reverse was also true; it was hard to warm up quickly and safely. He wasn't hypothermic... yet, but it was in his best interest for the metal to be detached.

"Ed?" He shook the blond softly.

Ed grumbled deliriously.

"Come on Ed- wake up.!" He shook Ed more vigorously.

Ed grumbled some more and turned away.

"That's an order soldier!"

Nothing.

"Dammit Ed, I've got to take off your automail, or so help me god!"

Bleary golden iris finally showed themselves, sparkling like topaz in the firelight.

"Guhuh?" Was the unintelligible communication.

More slowly this time, Mustang repeated himself. "I've got to take off your prosthetics. They are keeping you from getting warm."

Ed nodded slightly leaving Mustang to hope that Ed was in no state to remember this. He had seen (or more accurately heard) the boy's automail installation.

This was going to hurt like hell.

Glad that Ed was, fore the most part still out of it (he was fairly sure it was more of a healing sleep than a brain damaged type) Mustang removed his jacket revealing the shining prosthetic. There were a number of small screws which held the thing in place, coupled with three clasps that kept it from falling off. The screws found their way safely into his pocket while the clasps hung in wait. With a grunt and an almighty heave the arm came off as the flesh shoulder tensed and flinched away from the unexpected pain.

The leg had a similar configuration but thankfully came off with much less fuss and a little less pain- on both ends.

Sometime during the procedure for Ed had lost his constitution. Yellow fowl smelling liquid was soaking through his underclothes.

Yes, he was very grateful the Ed was out cold. Regardless of the fact that they were now in a life or death situation, he might have died of embarrassment had he been awake to find his commanding officer cleaning and redressing him after he had wet himself.

*Actual survival technique. Solids, such as ground hold onto heat (and thus the absence of heat) far more than just about anything else. Using the pine boughs to insulate yourself from the cold is a life saving move, as falling asleep in that kind of situation could very well end in death. This works because the branches trap air which can then (along with the wood) act as a insulation between the body and the ground.

**Also a survival technique. Snow is an excellent insulator, and can be used to make essentially a fort or snow cave. The Inuits use this to survive and even thrive in sub arctic temperatures where it gets well below freezing. The inside of an igloo can be upwards of 60 degrees Fahrenheit when warmed with just body heat, while the outside temperature can drop nearly 100 degrees (-50) below that. While a situation like this would probably not have that extreme of a temperature variation, a few degrees can be the difference between life and death.