Vic and the Secret Door: Chapter 35

Vic and the Secret Door
Chapter 35: A Blizzard of Confusion

The first thing that Vic noticed was the cold. He sat up, blinking several times trying to figure out where they were, but a flurry of snow made disrupted his vision, making it impossible to see more the several feet in front of him. A harsh wind pushed him back into the padded snow, and it took everything he had to sit back up again. He squinted, just making out other figures sitting up as well: a short one, one with purple hair, two taller blondes, and one that he could easily figure out to be Soldier A.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Vic could hear a muffled shout, easily Edward by the tone.

"How the hell would we know?!" Dark shouted back, somehow managing to gain his feet as the wind died down a tad. The thief was hunched over, rubbing his hands up and down his bare arms in a sad attempt to keep warm.

"Now, now, if we could all just keep calm, I'm sure we could figure this all out." Fai cautioned, stepping up out of the snow as well. Ed, after several attempts, stood too. Vic looked around, suddenly realizing that most of his other characters were completely gone. Including Micheal. He frantically bolted up, only to fall again, landing on his back with a thud.

"Hey old man, is that you?"

"Yeahhh." He moaned, sitting up. He calmly decided to rework his strategy, this time slowly getting up just in time for another blast of wind and snow to smack right into him. But he stood strong this time, pushing past it to make his way towards the small group forming. Vic did a mental headcount: Dark, Ed, Fai, Tamaki, Soldier A, and himself. No one else was insight, all that could be seen was a wall of snow and-

"A-A-A-Are those canons?!!!" Tamaki screeched, cowering behind Ed as he spotted them. Ed grumbled as curse and was about to say something more before also catching sight of them.

"Holy-"
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"
"Oh wow."
"HARUHI SAVE ME-"
"This is about to get really bad, isn't it?"

"... Really, really bad." Vic breathlessly muttered as the wind and snow died down to reveal canon after canon after canon, mounting up next to a vast army that spanned as far as Vic could see. He twirled around, now that the noise had fallen as well, he could hear alarms coming from the other direction.

He turned around to see a giant wall in between mountains, an impenetrable fortress, "Is that-"

"Fort Briggs." Edward confirmed, looking just as shocked as Vic, "I don't get it, why we back here? And in Briggs of all places!!"

"FIRE"

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Ed screamed, kneeling himself as canon fire started up. The rest of the group did the same, everyone flinching every time another shot was fired off. Vic was currently on the verge of panicking, being in the center of a war zone between Amestris and Drachma will do that to a person.

"FAI!" Vic called, having to shout as loud as he could to be heard, "IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO?" The blonde magician shook his head, as Ed proclaimed,

"WE'RE SCREWED!"

"NOT IF I CAN HELP IT!" This came from the least likely person to say such a thing: Tamaki. He looked at Ed, determination shining in his eyes, "YOU KNOW THAT PLACE, RIGHT?" He gestured towards the wall, Ed nodded, "THEN WE HEAD FOR THAT!" And against all odds, the rich-kid blonde started towards the wall, pressing forward against the white wall that had kicked back up again. The others stared after him, before slowly following his lead. Vic couldn't help but smile, but it was quickly wiped from his face as the Briggs soldiers started up their counter attack. Their entire group let out a collective scream as canon fire started down on them as well, only making them run faster towards Fort Briggs.

~~*~~

"Let us in, dammit! I'm a state alchemist, see?!" Ed shoved his silver pocket watch at the door's window, talking to no one. The fighting had stopped, and now the only noise was that of wind and the Drachman soldiers retreating. Vic was glad they had made it safely, and he personally had to pull Soldier A out of the way several times. It's as if the guys was slated for death or something.

The group was shielded from the wind now, but with no way inside, it was only a little while until they froze. Dark was already showing signs of frostbite, and Ed's automail was starting to act up. The only thing they could do was sit and way to either freeze or be rescued, Ed somehow thinking that his pounding would be heard though the still-on-red-alert building.

To everyone's surprise, the door slide open.

"Vic!" The blonde's head snapped towards the sound of his fiancée's  voice, surprised and relieved just to know that she was alive. Unfortunately, his path was blocked by a tall figure having a stare down with Ed.

"Elric." The Northern Wall of Briggs growled, on hand on the hilt of her sword, her glare switching from character to character, resting on Vic for a second before she tilted her head down to the tiny blond Alchemist, "Give me one reason why I shouldn't leave you out here to freeze."

End Chapter