Yay, im finally back after taking a long time to write this for some reason. Oh wait, now i remember. There will be a mention of Toph's attempted suicide...it's kind of based of the time i found my friend, so it's kind of painful to relive, but what makes better writing than real life situations? So i hope you all like it, because it took me awhile haha. See you at the bottom :D
"…And that is your mission," Mr. Smith ended his speech to the teens, "Any questions?"
"Yes," Toph raised her hand, "Can you go fuck yourself?"
Mr. Smith smirked, "I can have it arranged so you can do that for me." Sokka was about to jump up and punch him, but Toph held onto him. "Now, if you have no more further questions, you will leave now for your mission." Johnson came in and motioned for them to stand up and follow him.
"Wow that guy is a dick," Sokka muttered as they walked down the hallway.
"You don't know the half of it," Johnson said as they rounded another corner.
Sokka looked in surprise, "I'm sorry?"
"Just because I work for this company doesn't mean I agree with the choices they make," he told them. "For God sakes, what are you all? 17? 18? We shouldn't have done these testing things in the first place; we completely ruined your childhoods."
"Wow, the only person with a soul here," Toph said, still a little bit pissed from Mr. Smith's comment.
"Why do you still work with this company if you don't like what they are doing?" Katara asked.
Johnson stopped and looked around then leaned in, "With all the things this company does, do you really think they are actually going to let someone who knows a majority of their secrets just quit? You either are in this for life or they take you out."
"Figures," Toph mumbled. They continued down the hallway until they reached a steel colored door. 'Armory' was written on the top. "Hmmm, I wonder where we are…"
"We're at-"
"I was being sarcastic honey," Toph interrupted Sokka. Ty Lee chuckled as Johnson opened the door and ushered them to go in. The walls were covered with guns; ammo was placed in containers below the guns they went to, overflowing out of the containers. "I don't think you guys have enough guns…"
"There are changing rooms in the back of the room for the gear and duffle bags for all your equipment there also," Johnson told them.
Haru's eye brow went up, "What kinds of stuff are we going to bring that require duffle bags?"
"Oh, this kind of stuff…" Haru trailed off as looked in his duffle bag. There was medical supplies, anti-virus, ear pieces for communication, and much more. "Why are there so many things in here?"
"Well, because after reviewing the tapes of your test, we have decided to give you equipment you may need, the communicators, medical stuff and of course a now working anti-virus that completely eradicates the virus," Johnson explained.
"So that means that if we get bit…then we can just inject some of that in us and we will be perfectly fine?" Katara asked, looking at the new anti-virus.
Johnson nodded, "Yes it does, but there is still the problem that if they get their hands on you…they can still eat you completely, no amount of anti-virus will be able will be able to help you. Now, I will let you all get dressed, the special clothing you are all use to should be in those lockers," he pointed to the lockers lined up behind them. Johnson left the room and everyone went to their respective lockers.
"They have our names on it," Zuko observed. He looked at the names but only a couple names were there. "Hmmm, I guess they have your lockers somewhere else, Ty Lee and I's are right here." The rest of the group went to the next set, Aang and Katara's lockers were next to each other, the row after that was Toph and Sokka and the last was Haru.
"You would think that they would just save some time by putting all of our lockers right next to each other," Katara mumbled as she opened her locker. Inside was a blue camo suit with her name and testing number on the right lapel. "I would complain about this, but this is pretty fashionable."
Aang looked at his urban camo suit, "Speak for yourself, I will stick out like a fucking sore thumb."
"I'm not talking to you…" Katara spat back at him and turned her back to him as she took off her original clothing.
"Come on Katara, you can't be mad at me for making a decision that would make it so that we could actually live even at the cost of going back to that hell," Aang said as he took his shirt also. She turned her head around, about to restart their fighting that had been going on the whole 3 days, but couldn't seeing his well toned body. She usually wasn't a sucker for his looks, but she missed the closeness she had shared with him ever since they got out of the first outbreak. He came closer to her and put his hands on her shoulders, "You know we shouldn't be fighting when we have to do this Kat, we need to work together on this, team work is essential with this. When we finally get out of this situation, you can break up with me and call me every name in the book for putting you in this again."
Katara turned around and snaked her arms around his waist and put her head against his chest, "I would never want to break up with you Aang…this is just something I don't want to do at all and being angry at you seemed the best thing to do. Plus I can call you any names I want to." She smiled went she heard his laugh and stood on her toes and kissed him.
"Oh God, now I get why Sokka doesn't like it when you too kiss," Toph joked, Katara looked over to see her brother dressed in the blue camo holding the green camo clad girl's hand. "And you're topless…that's cool too…" She turned back around and started to pull her clothes out of the locker and put it on as Aang made it back to his locker. "Aang gets white? What's up with these funky colors?"
"Both Ty Lee and I have red camo," Zuko shouted from the other lockers, "It looks like we're giant fucking tomatoes."
"I like tomatoes," Ty Lee happily cheered, making everyone laugh.
Toph turned her head when Aang took off his pants, not wanting to see her ex boyfriend half naked. He was fast putting on his suit and new shoes; Aang shut the locker and stretched a little bit, getting use to the feel of the new clothing. "This is a little better than the ones we had before."
Haru rounded the corner in his green camo also, "Whoa, Toph and I dressed the same…I think I need another suit."
Katara leaned over to Aang, "Now I know why they thought he was gay…" They all headed back towards the front room, grabbing a duffle bag each. Aang took a Steyr AUG off the wall and dozens of clips out of the bin below, Katara chose a FAMAS and Zuko chose his usual gun of choice, a shot gun. Sokka grabbed Aang's old choice, a Colt M4A1 Carbine. Ty Lee and Haru both chose AK-47s. Toph stood there, holding a Desert Eagle; the nightmares came back to her, sitting in the tub with a gun in her mouth.
Tears ran down her face as she held the gun in her hand. It was surprising to her that it came down to this. It was so lonely now that he was with her. Everyone had someone to lean on but her, her parents wouldn't even believe one word she said about the outbreak. She looked at the gun again and lifted it up; the end of her suffering would come soon. Pounding from the front door caught her attention; she shook it off and put the cool metal into her mouth. Her face now became a waterfall as she readied herself for taking her life. She thought of Aang and put her finger on the trigger. The bathroom door burst open, Sokka ran in and took the gun out of her mouth. "NO! GIVE ME IT BACK!" She screamed reaching for the gun, "I WANT TO DIE!" Toph gave up and rested her head on the side of the tub. Sokka put the gun on the counter and knelt down by her.
"What the hell were you thinking Toph?" He pulled her out of the tub and into his lap, holding to him as she cried.
Toph softly hit him on the chest, "I don't want to feel anymore Sokka…" He rocked her back and forth, hoping to calm her down. Her crying seemed to die down now and was just sniffling now. "How did you know?"
His chuckle caught her by surprise, "Maybe you shouldn't text me you were going to kill yourself."
She laughed with him, "I forgot about that." Toph wiped her puffy eyes and relaxed into his chest.
"Why try and do this Toph?"
"Because," She said, "I feel so lonely in dealing with this, the zombies and Aang…I just can't do it…everyone has someone to help them except me."
He shook his head, "That's where you're wrong, I have no one also Toph, I lost Suki remember?" She felt his heart skip a beat and him hold her closer, he probably hadn't stopped thinking about her. "How about this, we will be there for each other, but you can't take your life or that will leave me alone here."
Toph nodded, still enjoying resting against him. "Thank you Sokka…"
"You're Welcome Toph," He replied, she looked up at him. Sokka looked down at her and she inched her face towards his. He knew what she was doing, but he didn't stop her and brought his face towards hers.
"Toph," She was shaken out of her day dream by Sokka, he took the Desert Eagle out of her hand and handed her a full duffle bag, "I got you a Galil, your favorite weapon from Call of Duty."
Toph smiled, "Thanks Sokka." She punched him in the shoulder and they all filed out of the room.
"You all know your job, go in and clear the zombies. Contact us with a flare in your equipment bags. Drop down your bags first then zip line down, now go!" One of the workers yelled over the noises of the helicopter. He dropped two lines for them to go down. Zuko and Ty Lee went first, then Katara and Toph, Aang and Sokka and finally Haru. Once Haru disconnected, the helicopter took off into the sky. Haru walked to the edge of the roof and looked down to see the business people not even taking notice to the helicopter that had just dropped them off.
"Look at them down there, they have no idea what's going on here…I envy them, not knowing how dismal the world can be," Haru spoke as if he was from the Elizabethan era.
"Wow Haru, that was really dark…" Katara said, surprised at the sudden change in personality.
"But he does have a point," Aang came up behind her while putting in his ear communicator, "They get to go home and be with their families, never knowing the evils a company would go to."
A voice came over the ear piece, "Hello? Can everyone hear me? Say something if you can."
Toph: "Something."
Sokka: "Something."
Ty Lee: "Hi!"
Katara: "Read you loud and clear."
Haru: "I can hear ya."
Aang: "You're a dick."
Zuko nodded, "Okay, that's everyone." Everyone gathered around as Zuko placed one of the maps on top of one of the roof vents. "So there is a lunch room below us since this use to be a one story building, but with the 5 more floors below it, there will be a lot more Zombies than there should have been. Everyone ready then?" Everyone except Ty Lee shook their head, "That's what I thought, but let's do this anyways." Zuko led them over to the roof access of the building and eyed the lock, "Anyone got a pair of bolt cutters?"
Katara rummaged through her bag, "I do," She pulled them out and cut the lock off. Zuko slowly opened the door, ready for anything to be behind the door. The stairwell leading down was mostly covered in blood, making the group gag at the smell emanating for the previously closed off exit. A couple bodies laid next to footlockers, like the ones from the previous test, the meat completely picked from the bodies.
"Anyone else hungry?" Sokka asked.
His sister shot him a disgusted look, "You're joking right?" He shook his head, making her gag a little bit. "Looks like they didn't get as far as we did, at least there won't be any zombies with guns and tough equipment." They walked over the bodies, trying not to step on them and looked around the corner.
"There are about 5 of them just standing there," Zuko whispered, "There is something different about these ones." The Zombies had red glowing eyes, their skin have turned yellow and was clearly decaying off of their bodies. "This should be easy, let's take them out." Zuko and Ty Lee raised their guns and shot at the Zombies. 3 of them fell while the other's attention turned towards the group and full on sprinted towards them. "Oh fuck…"
They instantly dropped after two shots, the couple looked at Haru who lowered his gun, "You got to act quickly there hot head."
Zuko laughed as he stood up, "Watch out there Haru, you might be taking Aang's job on being rude to me." He walked over to one of the dead again Zombie and pushed it over onto its back. "These ones are different, they look different, their eyes are glowing red and they're fucking running. What the fuck did they give these things?"
"Necro-grow?" Toph sarcastically asked, "Or maybe they did some voodoo rituals on them?"
"No wonder they didn't pass this test…they were fucked the instant it started," Aang shook his head, thinking of massacre they were put in.
Roku sat drinking his coffee as he flipped through the newspaper. It had been lonely around the house without Aang; he hadn't seen him since he left in the morning of the funeral. He had received a call that Aang and the rest of his friends had gone to a special rehabilitation center for the accident at their school and didn't give it a second thought. Aang had been really quiet and kept to himself mostly when he was around him. His old friend Katara had been around him a lot lately and he was happy that Aang could have someone to talk to. Roku had tried talking to Aang after the incident, making sure he was still in one piece, but he didn't want to talk about it and he respected Aang's decision. A knock on the door caught his attention; he put down his cup and paper and opened his door.
"Hakoda, it's been awhile, come in please," Roku welcomed him in. He motioned him to sit down. "Would you like some coffee?"
Hakoda nodded, "Yes please, that would be great Roku. I was wondering, have you been able to talk to your son since they went to the center?"
He gave him his coffee and sat down in his seat, "No I have not, have you been able to reach your children?" Hakoda shook his head, "You would think they would be able to at least to call or even write back here."
"Maybe they are worse than we thought? Something could have happened at the funeral we don't know about," Hakoda suggested.
"Have you been in contact with the other parents about this yet?" Roku asked.
"I contacted the Bei Fong's, they have been in Aspen since the beginning of the month; they wouldn't know if their child was dead or not," Hakoda shook his head, "That girl needs some responsible parents."
He nodded in agreement, "When her and Aang were together, she was always over here every moment she could."
"Whenever I was home, she was always over also, I thought Sokka and that girl, Suki, were together, but I haven't seen her around," Hakoda chuckled softly.
"You didn't hear? She died at the school with the other school, she was one of the last people who caught it," The older man told Hakoda.
He shook his head again, "Damn shame, Sokka really liked that girl."
"At least our kids are in a safe place now."
"Well this isn't safe…" Aang muttered, electrical wires were hanging from the ceiling, sparking in a pool of blood. "Is there any way around this Zuko?"
He checked his map and shook his head, "Nope, but there seems to be a maintenance room behind us and down the right hallway, you and Katara can go check to see if you can shut down the power so we can pass through here."
"Thanks for the volunteer Zuko…" Katara mumbled as her and Aang walked down the hallway. She breathed in and out deeply, trying to calm her nerves. Katara nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned but calmed down when she realized it was just Aang.
"Go back, I can deal with this if you want," He told her, trying to calm her down.
Her eyes narrowed, "So you think I can't do this?"
"Nowhere in my last statement did I say that, you just seem extremely nervous and I want to make this situation as easy on you as possible," Aang said as comforting as possible.
"Sorry…I'm trying to stay strong but…I don't want to be here…" She trailed off.
Aang gave her a hug, "It's okay, just go back and tell Sokka to come help," Katara nodded and went back down the hallway. He leaned up against the wall and waited for his new back up. He heard a shuffling down the hallway and he raised his gun up at it. A female Zombie came around the corner, but something was very different about her. The stomach was so enlarged that it seemed as though it was going to tear. "Oh what the fuck…" Aang backed up at little, making the Zombie waddle as fast as it can towards him. He shot it in the head, stopping it in its tracks and fall on the enlarged stomach. It burst, shooting blood and green goo everywhere. Sokka rounded the corner and stopped.
"So this is why Katara didn't want to do this…" He was cut off when they both heard sizzling sound. Where the goo had landed was turning into holes, making the Zombie fall through the hole in the floor. They both walked over and looked down at the hole, "That's fucked…"
"This is just screwed up man, it's like we are in 'Left 4 Dead'," Aang said, stepping over the hole in the ground.
"At least we didn't get puked on…" Sokka tried to brighten the mood a little bit.
'What's happening over there you two, you should have been at the room by now,' Zuko's voice came over their ear pieces.
Aang sighed and pressed the button, "We ran into a…well problem, one of these Zombies had an enlarged stomach, when I shot it, it fell and the stomach exploded, letting out some sort of acid type stuff. It burned through the floor and some of the wall."
There was a slight pause, 'Like what? 'Left 4 Dead'?" Toph asked.
'Would you two stop playing games and turn off the power,' Zuko told them.
"We aren't playing games, the ground seriously was taken out by some sort of acid," Sokka fought over the communicator.
'Whatever, just for the love of God just hurry up,' Toph fought back. Sokka jumped over the hole, seeing some of the Zombies in the bottom floor started to gather around, trying to get up at them. They both went around the corner and walked into the open maintenance room. A curled up bloody body was in the corner.
Aang gagged, "Well isn't that just lovely."
'Finally see another man's penis?' Zuko sarcastically asked.
"Well I can see mine daily without a microscope, how about you Zuko?" He heard some silent anger muttering on the other side, "Exactly, oh there is the power box." Aang opened up the power box and flipped off the power. "That ought to do it, how is it on your side?"
'It's great over here Cuz,' Ty Lees' voice came over the mic, 'Zuko is kind of…mad right now, don't worry honey, I think it's big, don't you think it's big Katara?'
Katara sighed, 'I'm not answering that question, get over back here Aang." Aang and Sokka exited the room and jumped over the hole again.
"That can really be a hazard," Sokka pointed out.
Aang shot him a look, "Yeah, and the running around Zombies don't cause any more of a bigger hazard." They met back up with the gang and crossed the big puddle of blood. "How is there this much blood in the hallway with no bodies?" After turning another corner, they saw blood dripping from the ceiling, "Oh that's how…that's messed up."
"Finally, the lunchroom," Katara gave a sigh of relief, passing around the mini waterfall of blood. She gasped and dropped her bags.
"What's wrong Katara?" Aang asked and looked into the lunchroom, dead bodies were littered all over the room. "Oh no." There was a banner across the wall: Bring your Daughter to Work Day!
Quick clairifacation...The Zombie wasn't ACTUALLY a zombie for Left 4 Dead, but it was an idea that is stomach acid and not anything from the game, because i don't own anything that is famous. But i hoped you all liked, i would have a longer outro to this but my friend and I are going to go see the midnight showing of 'Bad Teacher', I'm curious why my town is showing it at midnight when usually big movies do that, but who cares haha. Until next time...
-SubDelBub