Unleashed (Part 4 - The Warehouse)

[3 hours before Roy and Riza encountered the bleeding Ishvalan man on the streets. At an unknown warehouse at the outskirt of Central City]

Thomas Maxwell, the leader of IFF, was sitting inside a room. The room had a map which had upcoming missions. There was a desk behind which Thomas was reading the newspaper. And suddenly he heard the door to the room open. Thomas looked toward the door and saw Rolan enter. Rolan walked close to the desk and said, "I have some news."

Thomas put the newspaper on the desk and said, "Tell me."

"We found out who is Oliver's mother. It's Major Riza Hawkeye," Rolan informed.

Rolan explained everything on how he found out the secret hidden by Roy and Riza for so long. He was only able to find out the secret because Riza was no more concerned about it after Oliver's death. After listening to him Thomas steepled his fingers and responded, "Hmmm…how amusing, they had been hiding their relationship for so long, and no one ever had a clue?"

"They are still hiding it. Maybe because of Mustang's position and the recent circumstances," Rolan added.

"You may be right," Thomas agreed and continued after a small pause, "Do you think, we should tell the truth to the boy?"

"It's your call…after all it was your plan to kidnap him by leveraging that secret," Rolan replied.

"If you think my plan was not good enough, then let me remind you that I asked for other's suggestion at that time," Thomas said with narrowed eyes.

"I am just saying if it was your idea to lie about his mother, then it should be your responsibility to convey him the truth," Rolan answered calmly.

Thomas leaned back on his chair and took a deep breath. After letting out a sigh for calming down, he sat straight and said, "Fine."

Thomas stood up and moved toward the door. "Now, if you will please excuse me, I have to deliver some news," He said.

Thomas went to the room where they had kept Oliver. They had kept a woman for looking after Oliver, who used to spend most of her time in Oliver's room. Her name was Geeta and as usual, she was in Oliver's room. When Thomas walked in through the open door, he saw Oliver was on his bed with his hands tied and Geeta was reading a book. Geeta was in her late thirties and throughout her youth, she had fought multiple times, which could easily be realized by anyone after watching a few battle scars on her face. She was wearing a turtle neck t-shirt with a jacket over it. She was wearing her raven hairs as a bun behind her head.

As soon as Geeta realized that someone had entered inside the room, she lowered her book to look at the person. And when she saw Thomas, she quickly stood up. Meanwhile, Oliver looked at Thomas and asked, "When are you going to untie my hands?"

Thomas went near Oliver and sat on the bed to untie Oliver's hands. When he untied Oliver's hands, Oliver asked another question, "When are you letting me go, Mr. Maxwell?"

"Soon," Thomas said.

Oliver then sat properly on the bed and looked at Thomas. "Did you meet my father?" He questioned.

"Yes, he was very much missing you….he even wanted to toast me, when I told him that I have kidnapped you," Thomas smiled.

"Mr. Maxwell, is it necessary to hurt others to get what you need?" Oliver asked.

Thomas chuckled when he heard such a philosophical question from a child. He replied, "Kid, you are way too small to understand the things going on." He paused for a moment and continued from his heart, "We were never like this, it's the constant oppression for years which forced us to take this path…You should ask this question to your father instead."

Oliver looked at Thomas with his innocent eyes and said, "I will ask."

Thomas smiled and tousled Oliver's head. He then said, "Anyways, I have very good news to tell you. I-"

Before he could finish off his sentence, they heard gunshots fired outside. Thomas, Oliver, and Geeta got out of the room to check what was happening. Rolan was also standing there with some other IFF militants. Because the warehouse was very big with lots of sectors, they could only hear the gunshots which were being fired near the main entrance. "What is happening?" Thomas asked curiously.

"I don't know. Maybe the military found us," Rolan replied.

Thomas then called Geeta by her first name, to which Geeta replied with a "Yes Sir?"

"Keep Oliver with you, and if the military passes us and comes here, you know what to do," Thomas ordered.

"Yes Sir," Geeta responded without any hesitation.

Thomas then looked at Rolan and said, "Let's go."

Both of them walked toward the direction from where the noises were coming, along with the few militants who were with them. They were present at one end of the warehouse, so to reach the main entrance, they had to go through lots of turns and spacious places. When they were at the final turn, they saw a side view of two to three militants were shooting something or someone. And suddenly one militant flew toward the militants who were shooting, and he hit the wall behind. That militant died instantly because of the force with which he was thrown.

Thomas and Rolan were afraid and curious about what was happening. Thomas removed his shawl and dropped on the ground, and then pulled out his handgun. Rolan also picked up a rifle and moved forward with Thomas. When they walked past the final turn, they looked in the direction where the militants were shooting, and saw a very horrifying scene. There was blood everywhere on the ground, severed limbs and dead bodies of militants were spread across the place, and other militants who were alive or in good condition were shooting at a creature which was ripping the place apart.

The creature was looking like a humanoid which had four arms, but it was crawling using all of its limbs instead of walking like a normal human. It was pitch black in color with glowing red eyes and on some portion of its body, there were skin fragments. Those skin fragments were of its own as if the creature was trying to complete its body. It was almost 15 feet in length and 6 feet high when it was walking on all its limbs, however, it was very fast and agile for its size. All the militants who were present there were shooting at the creature, but whenever the bullets were hurting the creature, the wounded area was again filled up with some black smoke like particles in order to heal that wound. Thomas, Rolan and everyone who just arrived there, were terrified to watch that creature. "What is this thing?" Thomas said with widened eyes.

A militant who was standing near him, who had been in the fight before Thomas' arrival, replied, "We don't know. It suddenly broke through the main gate and started attacking us."

Suddenly, a severed hand fell near them. Thomas and the militant looked at the hand and gulped. "Can it be hurt?" Thomas asked.

"We are able to hurt it, but it is healing very fast. Also, it doesn't seem like it is made of flesh or bones," The militant informed.

"Damn it," Thomas said with anger.

Meanwhile, Rolan intervened by saying, "We have to do something fast, otherwise this whole place will be turned into a graveyard."

Thomas looked at the militant he was talking to and said, "Take all the surviving soldiers with you and leave for Dublith. Rest of us will meet you there."

After receiving the order from Thomas, the militant took the majority of the militants with him. Only the ones who were left fighting the creature were Thomas, Rolan, and three other IFF militants. All of them were shooting non-stop at the creature, but the shooting was only able to slow down it a little bit. Soon, Rolan's rifle was out of bullet, so he grabbed a big iron pipe from the scrap which was lying there, and charged toward the creature. He jumped at the creature and with all his might, he hit the creature with the iron pipe he was holding. The creature stumbled, and as soon as it fell on the ground, Rolan pushed the pipe through its body. Getting the chance, one of the militants moved closer to the creature and started stabbing its head with the knife at the front end of his rifle. "Die you fucking monster, die," The militant cried out loud.

Soon the creature stopped moving and its eyes stopped glowing which surprised the militant who was attacking it. He stopped attacking it and said with a surprised face, "What! Is it really dead?"

When he saw the absence of glow in the creature's eye, he started laughing out loud. But then, the eyes again started glowing and the area where the creature was stabbed with the iron pipe enlarged to get rid of the pipe, and some black dust-like particles appeared there. The wound which was created by Rolan after such an effort was healed. Watching the scene, the smile on the militant's face disappeared and he backed down to maintain some distance between him and the creature.

Everyone again prepared themselves for the next round. The three militants pointed their rifle at the creature, Thomas pointed his handgun at the creature, and Rolan pulled out his special daggers.