A/N: ZUTARA WEEK! YAY.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything ATLA
Melancholy
The group seemed to have this uncanny ability to escape immediate danger unscathed. Afterwards they liked to tell each other how lucky they were to remind themselves how unfortunate it had been for others.
On one particularly close encounter Sokka had pulled out a bottle of his favorite drink, Cactus Juice, and claimed that surviving an attack from a zombie horde was something to celebrate. To her surprise Zuko was the first one to take a gulp from the glass bottle, followed nearly immediately by Toph. When the bottle had reached Katara in their small huddle around the fire it was already half empty. She had looked at it before passing it on to Aang who always found his spot beside her.
"Are you not going to drink any, Katara?" She knew when she looked at him that if she didn't drink, he wouldn't drink. She gave him a small smile.
"I'm tired."
Zuko had known as he took another swig that what she needed was more than just a night of sleep.
But Zuko had always understood things about Katara that Aang never would.
This never stopped the biting jealousy as she soothed him after nightmares, or hugged him after a long day.
He was just a boy.
The one time they weren't lucky they had been horribly unlucky.
It had been months later, summer time. They had finally found two working cars and were on their way to the ocean (Katara had hope for the sea) when they had stopped at a shopping mall. There were so many holes in their clothes that the immodesty was becoming uncomfortable.
Zuko, Katara, and Aang had driven to one side of the mall while Sokka, Suki, and Toph had stayed at the other. Katara had said it would be most efficient to start on opposite sides and work their way to the middle.
The first store Katara stepped into was indeed, a clothing store. The Gap.
The boy's had meant business and immediately walked over to the men's clothing.
Katara's fingers dragged and danced across the soft fabrics of the blouses and skirts. When her hands reached a smooth blue dress she stopped. It was simple, short with an empire waistline.
It was similar to the dress she had bought to wear to her graduation. The "disease" spread before she got the chance to even take the tag off.
That was a year ago.
"I'm going to go to the next store." Aang's voice cut through the air and she dropped the fabric she hadn't realized she'd had clenched between her fingers. Her eyes fell to her blood stained converse.
"Okay. I'll be there in a second."
She reluctantly moved on and absent mindedly grabbed a pair of baggy shorts and a fitted t-shirt.
She was slipping quickly out of her sweatshirt and jeans when she first noticed the noise. It was an unforgettable, unmistakable sound. Moaning and dragging. Panic erupted in her bones as she threw on the t-shirt and jumped into the shorts.
"Katara!" Zuko's voice was hardly above a whisper and before she knew it he was stepping out from behind a rack of jeans. When he reached her he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the glass windows of the store.
"We have to find Aang, Zuko!" The noises had gotten loud to a point where Katara couldn't hear Zuko's voice. He gestured for the large doors twenty feet away that lead outside, and she finally noticed how many zombies had showed up without her knowing. It was clear when they first came in. Zuko's voice was right by her ear as he talked just loud enough for her to hear.
"I'll get Aang!" Anger surfaced as she considered the idea of running while Zuko and Aang fought.
"No! We go together!"
Zuko shook his head at her stubborn antics, but otherwise didn't protest. When he let go of her hand to pull out his dao swords she knew the plan without having to ask.
He clears a path. She gets to Aang.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye than immediately sprang into action as the Zombies began to notice them. As Zuko drew the attention from her, Katara made a run for the store about thirty feet away. She jumped over a couple of crawlers and ducked under swinging arms. Despite the danger every time she felt her muscles strain a shot of adrenaline pushed through her blood, and gave her a strange sense of power.
Entering the shoe store she heard a few bangs in the back behind the tall isles.
It was dark and after her eyes adjusted all she could see were shadows. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of silver and she turned to find a metal rod used to reach things on higher shelves. Katara looked around before quietly reaching for it and turning back towards the darkness.
"Aang?" When she received no answer, she cursed under her breath. She tried again. "Aang, are you back there?" Her steps were short and measured as she walked down the aisle while checking her surroundings periodically. She heard what sounded like growling and continuous clanking and banging. As she reached the edge of the aisle the noises increased until she was sure there was at least two or three of them. Her hands tightened on the metal rod until she was holding it like a baseball bat and her tan knuckles had paled considerably. Turning the corner she immediately ran into a zombie and swung with as much power as she could muster. Blood spattered one of her cheeks and she felt the head crack after she swung again. A triumphant smile pulled at the corner of her lips as the monster collapsed at her feet.
In front of her was a shadowed figure on the ground. A crawler.
Katara lifted the rod above her head and swung down at what looked like the head. It slumped where it was on the ground and she kicked it until it rolled over. Under it was another body. Katara's pupil's dilated as she stared at the figure of the body in the shadows. It wasn't moving.
"Aang?" His name came out as a puff of air as she dropped to her knees, and the metal rod fell to the ground beside her. Her fingers shook as they reached out and fell against the head of the body. A distinctly bald head. "Aang!" His head was cold and when she reached down to feel for his pulse her hand met blood and tendon.
She knew it then. In the very recesses of her brain she knew it, but when she reached forward and cradled the seventeen year old boy's body against her chest she wished for once that she was blissfully ignorant.
It wasn't until her body started shaking with sobs and her throat was dry from screaming that Zuko came to take her away. He had to take Aang's body from her arms to get her to listen to him. Her screams continued until he grabbed her blood soaked wrists and shook her until she looked at his golden eyes reflecting in the little light left in the mall.
"Listen to me, Katara! Aang's gone. We have to go." He watched as her hair flung back and forth in her frantic denial.
"He needed me, Zuko." Her breaths were shallow and her voice was high-pitched as she hiccuped between words.
"I need you!" Zuko said it with absolute desperation in his voice. There was a moan from the front of the store, and he glanced behind him before he looked back at the girl who was falling apart in his hands; he put his calloused palms on her cheeks. "If we don't go now, we are never going to make it out alive. Katara. I need you alive." His hands dropped to her shoulders after pulling through her disheveled hair. After a couple long seconds he felt her nod and he immediately sprung to action.
He pulled her up with him and unsheathed one of his swords. When she grabbed one of his hands he didn't let go until they had made it through the horde and out the doors into the moonlight.
The zombies had followed them to the car and before Zuko could put the key in the ignition they were on the car and throwing their body weight at the windows and doors. Katara was too busy scrubbing the guilt and pain (blood) from her hands to notice that every other parking lot in the mall was empty, and Zuko and herself were so utterly alone.
They had been so horribly unlucky.
A/N: Tomorrow's installment will be much more Zutara because yeah
