IV: SOAP

"I want fancy soap, okay?" Ty Lee strains with the weight of the barricade blocking off access to the abandoned, dilapidated Sephora. They mowed down two dozen zoms to get here, and everyone but Ty Lee is incredibly unhappy about the destination. Yet, every time someone protests, Azula jumps in with her warrior princess viciousness and Katara and Mai just shut up and try to gain whatever they can from the ride.

It counts as a mall date, as Azula insisted many times on the journey here. Ty Lee chirped on and on about how it made them more like normal teens again.

"The stuff here was always so expensive. It's hard to believe this wasn't the first place looted," says Katara. "It looks surprisingly intact."

"Oh, yeah, let me stop on my way to get life saving provisions and expensive products and booze to get some… lipstick," sarcastically drawls Mai.

Ty Lee's eyes gleam as she starts pawing through the makeup and beauty products. She gently takes Azula by the hand and they walk together like a throwback couple from the time before zombies groaned and shambled faintly in the distance. Mai is grateful she and Katara never were so… basic.

Ty Lee remarks, "I used to fantasize about that movie The Purge. I'd totally rob this place if that were real."

Azula's eyes light up as she interjects, "I also fantasized about that movie. The freedom to do whatever I wanted without consequence in a sexy costume with fantastic weapons and… well, truly it was the dream. I disagreed with the distasteful representation of society's elite, however."

"Society's elite?" Katara asks, narrowing her eyes, jaw slack from exasperation.

"The rich, private school kids, like us," Azula explains, wrapping her arm around Ty Lee's waist. Ty Lee beams and snuggles against her girlfriend as they scout out every corner of the store, preventing any surprises while they scavenge.

"I was never that. I was rooting for the average people with consciences."

"That is why I find you boring." Azula picks up an eyeshadow palette and tears the plastic off of it.

A shelf loudly collapses onto the filthy floor and the girls jump into action. They see a man bleeding and walking towards them, one of his feet torn clean off and bleeding out on the floor. Two zoms pursue him and the group breaks in half. Azula and Ty Lee put down the zombies pursuing the victim human and the ones that flock around the Sephora once they hear the screaming.

Katara and Mai launch into paramedic mode but Katara just sighs and helps the man onto the floor.

"Were you bitten?"

"Yes." He chokes on sobs. He cannot be more than twenty, at the oldest. It is hard to tell through the blood and dirt. "Please help me. Please. Please!"

Mai clamps her hand over his mouth. "You're gonna die and turn into a zombie."

Katara stands up and averts her eyes.

"Please kill me before I turn!" begs the man, weeping loud, snotty tears of terror. "I'm not strong enough."

Mai swings her knife around her finger before the man whimpers and Katara snags it away.

Katara's heart aches; Azula and Ty Lee lean against a shelf making out with makeup stuffed into their backpacks, ignoring the dying man. Mai picks up Azula's gun from the shelf beside the canoodling ladies.

"Okay. I'll kill you," says Mai to the man, dryly with a shrug. "But not because you told me to."

She raises Azula's gun and shoots him once between the eyes.

"I found a foundation that perfectly fits my skin tone!" exclaims Ty Lee, pulling away from Azula and wiping her lips as she grabs the palette.

Katara looks up from the fresh corpse and turns to face Ty Lee and Azula.

"You people are monsters," she comments, the words sore and ancient on her tongue. They have become as ordinary as mall dates once were.

"Then why do you hang out with us?" sharply demands Azula, setting her hands on her hips.

Katara shrugs and softly, sweetly sighs. "Lack of options."

Azula cackles in response. Katara stifles her laugh, hating herself for finding it funny.

"If I may suggest, my darling love," Ty Lee says, and Katara and Mai exchange a glance, Katara's eyebrow cocked. "You're a winter and that palette is for an autumn."

"Good point." Azula swaps out the eyeshadow for another hanging loosely from the bloody shelf. "I suppose you do have the brains for at least one useful thing in this world. I am pleasantly surprised."

"Awww. You're so sweet to me." Ty Lee kisses Azula passionately on the lips.

Mai sarcastically comments, "I guess romance isn't dead."

Katara grimaces.