Ch 2 fighting zombies

We walked towards Zaofu, many days away from the city. I was now taking point, and Lasky was walking behind talking with Kya. I wondered how the two quickly hit it off. I shrugged my shoulders and continued walking forward, M40 rifle in my hands.

"Any idea where they are?" one of the airbenders asked.

"No. But trust your sense. They'll tell you the truth." I said.

Nightfall came, and we set up camp. Me and Lasky were the only one's with the means to kill zombies real quickly. Yeah, airbending can be real lethal, but I doubted that the airbenders, except Tenzin were capable of using their bending to kill. That left only three of us. Shit.

"Ezra, how's it going?" Lasky asked, sitting next to me.

I motioned for Lasky to be quiet, and picked up my rifle. I turned away from the fire and looked outward. I saw nothing, but the night was hiding the zombies. We couldn't move in the darkness. I remembered reading With the Old Breed, and how Eugene Sledge said that the Japanese soldiers would infiltrate their lines and kill as many as they could before daylight.

I was worried that the same thing could happen. For all I knew, the zombies were heading towards us. It was terrifying.

"Lasky, you have a flare, something to provide light?" I whispered.

"Yeah. I have a flashlight." He said.

"Attach it to the underside of your rifle." I advised.

Lasky taped the light to his rifle, and upon turning the light on and aiming it in my direction, my mouth dropped.

"Zombies!" I yelled, firing my rifle. I looked thru the scope, put the reticule on the chest of a zombie and pulled the trigger, killing it.

Lasky fired his rifle in controlled bursts, and to his horror, watched the zombies move on our left.

"Ezra, they're flanking us!" Lasky yelled, throwing a grenade towards the group.

"Lasky, take Kya, Opal, and four more airbenders to shore up that flank. I'll stay here." I said, firing shot after shot.

Tenzin stood up and fired air blast after air blast towards the zombies, knocking them back.

"Tenzin, try and kill the bastards! That's what they'll do!" I shouted, quickly loading my rifle and still firing.

Tenzin let loose an air slice, and killed the rest of the zombie wave.

"Tenzin, cover me." I said, giving Tenzin my rifle and running towards the dead zombies, Python in hand.

"Ezra, what are you doing?" he asked.

I ran towards the bag of zombies and shot a zombie that appeared towards me. I then pushed the hill of dead zombies away with my airbending. I ran full tilt towards Tenzin, and heard a burst of gunfire.

"They're hitting Lasky right now." I said, grabbing my rifle.

"Should we help?" Tenzin asked.

"No. We stay here. Lasky will have to hold the flank." I said.

Lasky was having the time of his life.

"Get some, you fuckers!" He shouted, standing straight up and hosing the zombies coming towards his group. When his rifle ran out of ammo, he dropped it and pulled out his pistol, firing away at them.

Lasky quickly ran out of ammo for his M9, but luckily for him, Kya was ready. Standing up, she pulled out the water from the air, formed them into deadly razor sharp icicles, she thrusted them into the zombies, cutting down more of them.

"Thanks for the save." Lasky said, loading his weapons.

"Don't mention it." Kya said.

"Take this." Lasky said, giving Kya his pistol and ammo for said pistol. Kya took the pistol and put the belt on.

Back at my position, we watched over the dead corpses.

"Ezra, what should we do?" Tenzin asked.

I weighed the decision. We weren't in any trenches or defensive positions. The stench of the dead was overpowering, and the longer we stayed the higher the risk of being killed. We had to move, or risk another attack by the zombies attracted to the smell.

"We're moving out right now." I said.

"Tenzin, you'll need this." I said, giving Tenzin my Python revolver and the ammo.

I headed to Lasky and told him of the plan.

"We're leaving right now. Lasky, me and you take point." I said.

We walked into the woods, weary of the zombies.

"Lasky, you need to be more conservative of your ammo. God knows how long it will be until we reach Zaofu. Use semi-automatic shots." I said.

It was terror going thru the dark forest. The trees all looked the same. I wished Lin was here right now. Her seismic sense would be really great right now. But pressed deeper into the night. As we continued walking, I noticed a figure walking abreast of me, several yards away. I turned and pointed my rifle towards the figure.

"What do you see?" Opal asked.

"Get going." I said, lowering my rifle.

I had another terrifying encounter that night. Leaving the forest, we settled on a hill and dug on. Taking watch, I saw a horror that would scare me for life. Now I had seen plenty of shit since I arrived at republic city. But what I saw next trumped everything in the past. I was hallucinating, I knew.

But it still scarred me. I saw many bodies, whether zombies, or human, standing with stooped shoulders and dragging feet, wandering about. Their lips were moving as if they were trying to tell me something. They moved their arms up and hands extended forward, as if asking for help. I aimed my flashlight at them, and saw nothing.

I stood up and slowly walked forward. I saw another body standing up. This body was walking towards us. Not wanting to attract attention with a gunshot, I used my airbending and sucked the oxygen out of the body, killing it. I walked to the corpse and saw it was a zombie. I pulled out my knife and stabbed it in the head, killing it for sure. Upon closer look, I saw it was a teenage girl.

As I left, I saw her face, or what remained of it. Half of it had rotted away. The half-gone face leered at me with a sardonic grin. It was though she was mocking our pitiful efforts to hang on to life in the face of the constant death and horror that infected her: "I am the harvest of this nightmare. I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead and infected, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. Tis no nightmare, but reality. People will wonder why you can't forget."

Morning came, and we walked down the hill. We heard a noise coming from afar. Getting closer to the noise, we saw it was a Zaofu airship. Relief filled my body, knowing we were saved.

On the zeppelin, we finally rested as we headed to Zaofu.

"Good to see you, Ezra." Su said.

"Good to see you to." I said.

"So how'd it go?" Su asked.

"Fuck off." I tiredly said, walking away from Su and heading to a secluded part of the airship. Closing the door, I dumped as much clothing and fabric on the ground, laid my head on the makeshift pillow, and slept.