Ed fell flat on his ass at the sound of that loud, almost shouting voice as it suddenly sounded behind him, caused by equal parts its unreasonable volume and it being the first human voice he had heard since he had landed on this dead, decaying world.
He had intellectually known that humans had lived on this world, as obviously the shambling reanimated had come from somewhere, and they all seemed like they had been reasonably human before they had suffered through whatever process had turned them into what they were now. But an intellectual knowledge and an honestly fervent hope that there were other humans on this world did not prepare him for what he saw after he scrambled to his knees and pushed himself to the far side of the transmutation circle he'd drawn on the floor, back around to face the owner of that unreasonably loud voice.
Front and center of the trio of people that had just walked through the door was a giant of a man, a predatory grin splitting his stubbled face, brown eyes dancing with joy and avarice under his slicked back, salt and pepper hair. He had some kind of long, brown club resting across the shoulder of the black leather jacket he wore, zipped tight to a bright red bandanna, incongruously breaking up his drab, menacing appearance with a splash of color; he swung the club down and began to idly tap it against the side of his leg, and Ed blanched he saw the thick end of it was wrapped with barbed wire, the blood tines of which pressed against the mans jeans with each tap.
He said something and his two companions split off to spread out in the empty classroom.; both were women, one seeming to be just a few years older than Ed, carrying a bulky, black rifle of a make Ed had never seen before and wearing mottled grey and black camouflage pants and a thick, hooded garment with a green vest that Edward guessed held additional magazines if ammunition for the rifle. She had her hair tucked into a cap with a long bill she wore backwards, and she regarded ed cautiously, her blue eyes the brightest thing about her pale, drawn and unsmiling face.
Ed turned to look at the other woman, and he had to subpress a shiver; the woman's dark skin and hair reminded him of an Ishvallan's, but the cold look in her dark eyes reminded him of Scar. She was impatiently drumming her fingers on the pistol holstered on her waist under the blue denim jacket she wore.
The tall man with the club noted her impatience and grinned, saying something to her in a language Ed couldn't understand.
"Goddamn, Arat, we got an actual Hogwarts Jedi-Knight Gandalf motherfucker in frontta us, and you're ready to draw down on his ass." Negan joked to his top gun-hand, before kneeling down in the still smoking remains of the odd circular inscription in the floor the kid had seemingly sent flaring to life in a storm of blue energy and carefully pressed his bare palm to it, the other hand, covered in a worn black batting glove, stayed wrapped around Lucille and ready to strike out.
The circle was still warm.
"Wizard? This David Blaine wannabe? My a…"
"Ash, who the fuck do you think you're talking to?" Arat snapped, not taking her eyes off the kid on the floor.
The young Savior in the ball cap blanched, before stammering; "S-sorry, Negan."
The tyrant eased his almost perpetual smile into something more slightly reassuring and looked over at his impetuous warrior, "First one's free." He said, casually. No further threat was needed.
Negan stood, tucking Lucille under one arm as he reached down and scooped up the small loaf of bread that sat in the center of the circle and strode over to the far side of the classroom near the windows, where the strange young magician still sat on the dusty floor, back pressed to the wall as her warily regarded the three Saviors. Negan stopped and broke the load in half, smelling one part of it,
"Fresh baked goodness. Curiouser and fuckin' curiouser."
He carefully studied the kid before speaking again, the keen mind that dwelt under the boisterous bully exterior spinning as he analyzed the boy; pale skin burnt by the sun, like he had been spending a lot of time outdoors(that was just about everyone, nowadays), long blond hair tied back in a thick braid(what the fuck), looked like some kind of mechanical arm (what the actual fuck) poking out of one side of his…black leather schoolboy jacket (what the actual fucking fuck) which went well with the black leather pants and dark crimson ankle boots he was wearing (slightly less of a what the fuck, but still a what the fuck) and the icing on top of the what the fuck cake were the wide, liquid gold colored eyes that he was staring at Negan with, which added up to a whole giant fucking pile of what the fucks and the bat-wielding brute was sure it would be fun to sort through.
And he had almost stayed behind when Arat's scouts had reported a kid wondering around the wrong side of the Eerie country line, as the Saviors called the strange territory far to the west of their strongholds. Besides being home to a whole shit load of stenches, the whole roughly defined area was just…off. Strange shit happened there.
Like a boy wonder fucking wizard making magic circles and creating bread from thin air.
Maybe that example was a bit extreme.
Negan ceased his musing and tossed the kid half of the loaf of bread he had taken from him and crouched down in front of him, being sure to be far into the kids comfort zone, and hopefully putting him off a bit. Negan leaned forward on Lucille and smiled.
"So, that was real, huh? Cuz that looked fuckin' real. I mean…dead people are walking around and tying to take a big, fat bite out of the living wherever they can, so my willingness to believe is at an all time high, here."
The kid took a small bite of the loaf of bread, wide eyes locked on Negan as the Saviors' leader grinned maliciously back at him, still talking,
"Of course, this could all be a trick, right? Man…" Negan chuckled, darkly, "…would I have egg on my face if that were true. I would simply would, indeed…I think I'd peel yours off with a straight razor if that were the case. Turnabouts fair play."
The kid took another bite, still looking wide eyed up at Negan, who let out a low growl from deep in his throat and demanded,
"Talk to me, kiddo. I assure you that it is in your best fuckin' interests to not hold back a fucking thing."
The strange, leather clad boy with the blond hair and golden eyes wolfed down the last of his bread, sighed, and said;
"Es tut mir leid, ich verstehe dich nicht"
That menacing grin dropped off Negans face in an instant; he might not have comprehended the language, but he could understand the intent. The kid hadn't comprehended a word he said. He might have bene trying to play him, but the tyrant prided himself and reading people, and he read the kid as an open book type, a shit liar and a great person to play poker against, possibly.
Negan sighed in defeat and rested his head on the end of Lucilles grip.
"Fuck. Me. Wasta' fuckin' time."
"Um, boss?" a timid voice asked, and the Saviors leader turned to glower at Ash, the teenage Savior with the AR-15 that he'd honestly forgotten was here at that point,
"What, Ash?"
"That…that sounded like German. I…speak a little. From school. From before."
Negan grinned again, leering at the magician,
"What's a little?"
"I can…ask his name, where he's from."
Negan nodded,
"Hey that's a fuckin' start." He stood, pushing himself up with Lucille, "Gives me a fucking idea, too."
Ash stood rooted in place when the menacing tyrant turned to her before barking;
"Well fuckin' talk to him then, shit."
"Er…right. Ah…wer bist du?"
The kid got excited, quickly getting to his feet and almost dashing over to Ash, only stopping when Arat jumped to intercept him, one hand held up to signal him to stay back and the other still on her gun.
"Tell him to calm down." Arat growled, "Now."
"Yeas…fuck…uh…" Ashes eyes lit up, "Ruhig! Ruhig, bitte."
Ed cautiously eyed the Ishvallan like woman as the girl with the rifle kept talking; her dialect was bizarre, stiff a s board, but it was close enough to Amestrian for him to understand. It hadn't taken him long to realize the primary language of wherever this was made absolutely no sense to him, so it had been a pleasant surprise when the nervous girl suddenly started speaking in a language he cold comprehend, especially after the big guy with the club had been giving his spiel and Ed hadn't comprehended a word of it.
"What your…name?" the girl haltingly asked,
"Edward Elric." The young alchemist answered, letting some of the tension drain out of his body, "Who are you?" he asked in turn, being sure to talk slowly and clearly.
"Oh…Ash." She pointed to herself, then to the grim woman with the pistol, "Arat," and then to the big guy who had swaggered over to stand next to the young girl doing the translating, "Negan."
Edward looked at each in turn, keeping eye contact with them and offering a single sharp nod; Arat had simply starred back while Negan gave him back a lopsided, amused grin.
"Where…are you…no…were you?" Ash asked next, more to herself then to Edward, but he grasped her meaning anyway.
"I'm from Amestris, I think…" he wanted to hold back his full story, but in world where the dead and rotting walked, would a traveler form another world be so unbelievable? Not to mention, honestly might be the best policy when talking to a man with a barbed wire wrapped club "…it's another world, not sure how far it is, but I was brought here by a link between worlds, but I don't think this s the place I was meant to end up. Something…someone brought me here. I'm not sure who, but…I have an idea. If it's who I think it is, we are all in grave danger." Ed finished, looking earnestly back at Ash…who gazed blankly back, before whispering;
"Ich habe nichts davon verstanden." Ash answered Edward as he finished his little speech.
Negan set a hand on her shoulder and leaned down to ask her,
"That means, 'I don't understand a thing you just said', doesn't it?"
"Yeah, sorry boss."
Negan squeezed the girl's shoulder,
"Don't worry about it, you did good work with what you had." Negan reassured her, before swinging Lucille up and resting the wire wrapped baseball bat across his shoulders, ignoring Ash's flinch at the movement, "No that we're all good and fucking thoroughly embarrassed here, this is a fuckin' school, right? They gotta have a library or a foreign language department, someplace we can find a motherfucking English to Kraut dictionary." Negan headed for the door, with Ash trailing in his wake; Arat eyed Edward, before pointing for him to follow, which the young alchemist reluctantly did; he didn't like the idea of the cold-eyed woman behind him with a gun, but he like the idea of being alone in this hostile world even less.
From the dark hallway outside, Negan's loud voice could be heard as he continued his train of thought,
"And for shits and giggles, let's get ourselves a world map so this fucker can show us where he's from. Cuz I sure as shit have never heard of 'Amestria' before."
The rhythmic pounding of the trapped reanimated continued from the bowels of the building