The glass door of the infirmary was drenched a deep, angry crimson. Clumps of sage and brown hair seemed painted within the mess. The inhuman and human screams of men and women echoed from the top of the hall. With each scream, more crimson painted the glass door, obscuring the view of formally clean, white hospital walls. Hideous faces smeared the door with rabid eyes of tawny, copper and blue, threatening to crack the glass in attempt to gain entry to the two, barely living humans in the cramped, medicinal storage.
This was reality now for the two trapped behind the door, lucky enough to have escaped the horrific mover, their world had become. Four days had passed since the outbreak and four days had passed since the pair had committed their most atrocious act, together.
A violent scream from a burly male was heard outside the door, reminding the hospital's award-winning healer of the harsh reality, yet again. In effort to forget, she squeezed dark, sage tresses between her sweat-drenched breasts, clenching her eyelids closed until they burned.
Spirits, I should be out there helping people. She told herself, mind toiling with incredible guilt for running away and hiding.
Instead, she wrapped her legs around the hips of her rescuer, urging him to take her mind off of the pain of being helpless and trapped.
"Please, Zuko," she begged her scarred, firebending lover. "Harder, make me feel good again".
She received a thrust between her legs as an answer along with hot breath lining her neck and collarbone. She welcomed the rough movements, clenching velvet walls that made her rescuer's eyes roll toward the backs of their sockets.
"Katara," Zuko whispered, nibbling her ear.
They had done this multiple times since being trapped in the tiny medicinal storage room. Even with this fact, each time felt the same when they finished. Tears drained down their faces as they both saw their former lovers, sacrificing themselves for their well-being.
Zuko held Katara's legs as wide as she could handle against the red, glass door, movements increasing with each pass through her drenched folds. His childhood love appeared in his mind, eyes glaring as sharp as her knives. He willed his mind to remember her that way, with their energetic daughter in hand.
Mai…Izumi. His wife and legacy were stolen from him in one day. Monsters. Shaking his head, he pounded harder inside of the woman in front of him. Katara gave a yelp of his name, though he knew very well that she was thinking of Aang. The man she left unconscious in his hospital room was surely destroyed in the slaughter.
Katara forced Zuko's head back to her naked cleavage, at which he discovered a raised nipple and latched on, moans escaping as he was repeatedly sheathed inside of the beautiful healer. The carnage continued outside as the two gazed into the other's eyes for comfort and some form of normality. They only had each other in the city of hopes and dreams known as Republic City.
"I won't let you go, Katara," the young fire lord assured the Water Tribe woman. "I've lost so much".
Katara placed her hands on the side of his face, bringing their lips together to meet. The fire lord's strong hands brought her body to lie on the cold metal floor of the storage room. The kiss between them deepening along with Zuko's member inside of her depths, inciting pleasurable moans despite the abnormal screams of agony mere feet away.
Katara cradled the fire lord until he erupted within her, making her follow him with her own orgasm as they rode the waves of passion for the countless time. Zuko gasped from being milked completely by the waterbender, bringing his head to the crook of her neck with several gulps of breath to slow his raging heartbeat.
There were silent tears as always, yet something stirred the fire lord. He refused to let Katara die in this place. He needed the future and the waterbender in it.
"We can't give up, Katara," he murmured, softly.
Their eyes looked towards the glass door where the horde of people, who awaited them pounded and growled inhumanely. "Whatever these things are, they're not taking us today," Zuko added, standing and helping the doctor to her feet.
Katara searched for her white coat, now splattered with human blood and sinew. She locked eyes with Zuko when his golden irises scanned over the glowing brown skin of his best friend's wife.
"Those things are people, Zuko," she insisted. "Some were my coworkers, some were your warriors".
Grimacing, Zuko punched into the nearby wall. "You sound just like Mai!" Spat the fire lord, angrily. "Listen to yourself! Those THINGS are monsters. MONSTERS! I watched my warriors eat a child, Katara! They killed my family! They killed Aang!"
Katara bit her bottom lip. Wringing her hands, she looked towards the floor with deep worry in her eyebrows. Noticing her silence, Zuko took a deep breath.
"If we are going to get out alive, you have to trust me, Katara," he spoke in a softer tone, closing the gap between them, placing her finger under her chin so their eyes could meet.
The doctor's eyes were nearly as red as the door, as she sniffled out, "You're right," with that, she kissed his knuckles before taking his hand in her own. "I want to live, Zuko," she said softly.
The fire lord nodded, holding her firmly before grasping the door knob with his other hand. He prayed to Agni that he was making the right choice before throwing open the door to a mass of undead corpses with ear-splitting cries. Katara gaped at the sight of patients, doctors and Fire Nation warriors in battered clothing, with missing limps and falling flesh. Zuko grasped her waist firmly, determination on his face as he held up his hand, burning a path down the middle of the horde. He tried to forget the faces of his people as he set ablaze the entire wing of the hospital.
"Wait!" Exclaimed Katara, squirming in an attempt to loosen the man's grip. "Aang!" She called down one of the hallways.
Zuko held her tighter. "There's no time!" He croaked, though it pained him to leave his friend in the inferno.
Katara wept quietly for her husband until they were safely out of the doors of the hospital in the open street, where Zuko's dragon, Druk, roared his presence, burning the streets of the infestation before landing on the ground. Thanking Agni silently, the fire lord held the reigns as he and Katara viewed the carnage from the skies. Neither said a word as they scoured the city in search of others in need of help.
The streets were vacant with overturned carts of cabbages, expensive, overturned motorized vehicles and the city metro, dangling over the railing. Undead roamed the streets in search of their next meal, making Katara's stomach churn.
"The gods hate us," muttered Zuko, at which the normally hope-filled doctor could not respond.
#
The avatar awoke to a stifling room, feeling his lungs expand as he tried to breathe. Glancing about from his position beneath crisp, white bedsheets, Aang blinked rapidly as he accessed what was happening. Blaring from the sirens gave him an answer. The hospital was on fire.
Fire Nation! Aang seethed, remembering a painful electric shock reverberating throughout his entire body like a metal rod.
The world's hero, winced as he sat upright, blowing the smoke away from his face. He knew he had only precious minutes before he would succumb to the cloudy room. With a grunt, he removed the IV from his vein and placed both bare feet on the cold, hardwood flooring. It took careful steps and a hand along the white wall to keep him upright as he made his way to the heavy door of the room.
Unusual, inhuman sounds flooded his senses, yet the avatar was unsure if it was a result of the heavy drugs he had been given or a memory. Either way, his lungs begged him to continue. With extreme effort, he managed to pull open the wood door to an empty, blood-stained corridor.
Am I dreaming? He asked himself, using the wall for balance as his legs found the strength to continue. Moving further down the hall, the heat intensified and he knew he was nearing a source. He ground his teeth with each step seeming increasingly painful. Narrowing his eyes, he thought he glimpsed a charred body at the top of the hall. Aang gave a sigh, stepping over a blood-drenched ax in the middle of the hall.
What...in the monkey-feathers? Before he could think, the collar of his hospital gown was seized by bloody hands and pulled into a room.
"Avatar! You're alive!" Cried the man, seizing his neck in a tight hug. "We're saved!" He screamed, lips oozing foam and blood.
Aang recognized him instantly from Kyoshi Island. Glancing at the man's arm, he noted the gash that had nearly severed it in half.
"Spirits, Avatar, please! You must save us!" Cried the man.
Aang's eyebrow raised. He surveyed the room, cautiously. It was just the two of them, thought the screams emitting in the distance made it evident that they were not alone.
"Where are the others? Save you from what?" Aang fired the questions as the foaming guy wiped his lips with the back of his hand.
"Please, save us," he begged, eyes widening.
Aang took cautious backsteps away from the stranger. "From who?" He asked again.
The man's eyes widened impossibly further, looking over Aang's shoulder. As if time slowed, the avatar turned in horror to see a group of five walking corpses!
"The infected!" Screamed the man, falling behind the avatar as they took steps backwards until they met a corner in the room. "Kill them, Avatar!" Urged the terrified man.
I…I can't. Aang fought with his firm belief against taking lives.
The monstrous beings neared as he attempted to blow air at them.
"They're people," he said.
The decision was taken from him when five, fire flares lodged into the corpse's heads, causing them to burst in a terrifying display as the being's bodies dropped before the avatar's feet. Both Aang and the foaming mouth man looked from the immobile beings to the pale, dark-haired beauty in the entryway of the room.
"P-P-Princess Azula! Oh, Princess, thank you!" Screamed the Kyoshi Island man, his mouth beginning to foam with joy again.
Pushing past the avatar, he hurried towards the grimacing woman, but was halted by Azula creating a flaming sword towards his head. With a stern tone and narrowed eyes, she asked. "You've been bitten?"
Aang watched in confusion as the man fell to his knees before the Fire Nation Princess. "Y-Yes," he confirmed, quickly adding, "but I am NOT one of them!"
"Goodbye, Peasant," said the princess coldly, destroying the man with one powerful swipe of her blue flame to his neck, severing his head from his body effortlessly.
Aang gasped. "No!"
Balling his fingers into fists, he stared at the princess in disbelief.
"You'll thank me later," she remarked pulling a long chain.
To Aang's further disgust, the princess, possessed two, armless and jawless, undead Kyoshi warriors, that Aang recognized immediately.
"How could you do that to them?" He asked, baffled.
Azula sucked her teeth, "If you wish to discuss my arrangement with them, go right ahead. They don't talk much and are nowhere near as pretty as they used to be".
Snarling, Aang growled, "You're a killer!"
"You're a dumbass," Retorted Azula, smoothly. "These bitches are dead! They would rip you apart if they could. Instead, they will be our way out. If you wish to stay here to chat with their friends, by all means go ahead, but I am your best hope for getting out of this place".
The avatar thought on the statement, finally giving in. He had no choice. Where's Katara? He wondered, deciding it was best to follow the insane princess as she cleared their path with her bending and two corpses to ward others away. As they neared the exit to the hospital, Aang breathed a sigh of relief.
Azula gave a low sneer. "You're welcome, Avatar," she cooed, sweetly.
Aang grimaced. "I don't trust you, Azula," he warned her through bared teeth.
With a strong kick to the double doors, Azula severed two more undead heads before smirking at Aang's look of despair at the world around them. "Good," she finally answered. "You shouldn't".
Dedicated to kdinthecity. For Zutara smut week with a little plot in the mix.
