Hello! Would you look at that, an update!
Got a bit of inspiration and atla feels, so I thought I'd work on this story. Hopefully this bit of energy continues and I can actually finish this fic! I think it's going to be around 10 or 15 chapters total, but they'll probably be short like this one.
I hope you like it!
Katara pulled herself out of the dirt and dead leaves that clung to her body. She had no recollection of where she was or how she got down on the ground. Her head was pounding, and her entire body ached. She turned her head and scanned her surroundings as she slowly rose to her feet. The air was ice cold, and her skin prickled. She wrapped her arms around herself and with her left hand, felt something warm and wet on her right arm. She pulled her hand away to find her fingers were covered in blood.
Her breath caught, and as the blood began to trail down her arm and drip from her nails, she let out a scream. Her heart was beating fast, her mind racing faster. She turned and examined her arm to find blood and meat caking her arm and back. She felt as if she were about to throw up.
She spotted a stream nearby and ran to it. She threw her hand into the cool water and washed the blood away. She cupped some water in the same hand and threw it onto her bloodied arm. She tried her best to clean off the gore, but the more she scrubbed the more she felt as if she were going to be sick.
After a while she decided she couldn't keep it up, and turned away from the stream. She dry heaved until mucus dribbled down her chin. Her forehead was burning and she wiped away the mucus with tears stinging her eyes. She took a moment to regain herself and dry her eyes before she decided to try to get moving.
Ahead of her, however, was nothing but a long stretch of woods. She decided to follow the current of the stream, in hopes that she'd reach the body it pooled into or a sign of civilization along the way.
She suddenly remembered her phone, and pulled it out of her pocket. She pressed the bower button, but her screen merely flickered briefly before going black.
"That's odd," she said to herself. She flipped the phone over and opened up the back. She thought she might try to pull out the battery and then place it back in.
To her horror, in place of where the battery should be, a massive pile of fire ants swarmed and crawled. After the back was completely removed, they started moving quickly; almost angrily.
She screeched and dropped her phone as the ants began to crawl up her arm. She felt burns and stings on her arm as the insects furiously marched up her arm. She shook and squirmed in an attempt to get them off. She slapped her arm and felt more bites across her chest, upper back, neck, and stomach.
No matter what she did, the bites continued and her skin crawled with an army of red.
She left all reason behind and began running. Her adrenaline pushed her forward, faster, until she happened across a decent sized lake which she jumped into without thought. She stayed under water, holding her breath, for a few moments. She pushed herself upward and out of the water.
The burns across her skin cooled with the icy touch of the water. She waded her way to shore, and dragged herself out of the lake. Her muscles hurt like nothing before, her heart pounded like it just might burst, and she was soaking wet.
"Sokka, when I find you, I'm going to murder you," she grumbled into the rock beneath her.
Behind her, from far away, she heard a shout. She quickly sat up and looked behind her to see figure on the other side of the lake. Thinking it might be one of her friends; she raised her hands up and began to yell, "Hey! Hey! It's me, Katara!"
After she yelled out to the figure, it burst into a run. It began to run around the edge of the lake, towards her.
For a moment, she was delighted and jumped onto her feet. But as the figure continued moving, she noticed it held something long and straight in its hands. It moved not with joyful glee, but intimidating, vicious excitement.
She soon registered that this thing, for her brain had not decided this figure was a human; was running at speeds faster than any human. It was not coming to greet her, but to attack her. She turned around and began sprinting, much to the protests of every muscle in her body.
Trees flew by, bushes and vines scratched and grabbed her exposed legs from her shorts. Tears from fear stung her eyes and blurred her vision, and her lungs screamed with every intake of breath. She pressed still further on, and dared one look behind her.
The figure was now incredibly close, and wielding a hatchet. It's limbs were disfigured, with legs longer than they need be, and arms that bulged with muscle but reached less than halfway to the ground. She didn't get a good look at its head or face, but was able to see rust-colored stained canine teeth.
This pressed her farther onward, and spotted what looked like a small building on the horizon. Still as she ran, she could hear the footsteps of the creature getting closer and heavier. She ran straight forward, focusing all her attention on the building ahead. Her breaths came out in heaves, but she still mustered enough breath to let out a scream, in hopes that there was human life inside the building.