Chapter Ten
The opportunity came so naturally, Katara decided to seize it.
"Do you think there's some head trauma that we missed?" the nurse asked, during one of the routine visits. Katara laid still, keeping up her comatose act as she had for the past few days. "The damage to her heart and lungs seems largely repaired, yet she won't stir."
"It's possible," the doctor said. Katara heard the scrape of metal instruments moving across a steel tray, a familiar sound after the days she'd spent here. "Lightning can caused irreparable damage to the nervous system. Even if the bolt didn't compromise her heart and lungs, it could've damaged her brain."
Katara stiffened a little at the thought of brain damage, but apparently, no one was watching her closely enough to notice the shift. She forced her breathing to remain slow and steady. The shuffling of feet alerted her to the movement of the medical staff.
"In any case, there's still a chance she'll wake up. And if she does, she might prove a valuable war prisoner."
She gritted her teeth, knowing the tiny movement would elicit no response from her caretakers. Jeez, one minute, they sound so sympathetic, and the next, they're talking about my value as a war prisoner.
"No point in worrying about it now," the doctor said. "We've got a patient in three with severe burns. The other doctors might want our assistance."
The nurse must've given some nonverbal reply because they both shuffled out of the room.
Katara waited until their footsteps had faded down the hallway before opening her eyes. They slid over to the metal sink on the edge of the room. She'd been thinking about it for days now, trying to calculate how much use she'd get out of it before someone came running. Not much.
But it won't be much longer before they figure out I've been awake this whole time, she reasoned. And now that I'm healed, I can put up a fight.
Her eyes flickered to the door. It was open, exposing a small section of the hallway and a part of the room across from her. If anyone walked by before she'd adequately prepared, her escape attempt would crumble. I have to do this right, she thought, moving her hand to the syringe in her arm. The needle had been sticking out of her elbow since she'd first woken up, but the contents of the bags hanging by her bed had changed several times since she'd arrived her. First, the liquid had been cloudy white with painkillers. Later, when the doctor had noticed her rapid healing, it had been changed to nothing more than a glucose drip— "liquid food," the nurse had called it. Katara's stomach clenched painfully at the thought of real food, and she decided that whatever they were pumping into her veins was insufficient to keep her nourished.
This isn't the time to be thinking of food, she chastised herself. You're not Sokka.
She took the needle between her fingers, biting her lip in preparation for what she was about to do. The Fire Nation seemed fairly advanced in their medical care, like they were in everything else, but she wasn't well versed in their techniques, and she had no idea how to remove the needle safely. Maybe if I go slow . . . she thought, easing the needle out. Blood well up around the hole, a sight somehow more disgusting than feeling her own blood flow in her veins while she'd healed. But she persevered, her eyes flashing up to the open door every few seconds. And slowly, slowly she slid the needle out.
Spirits, that was a lot more nerve-wracking than I expected. She took a deep breath and pressed a finger down over the spot of blood, coaxing the flesh to close up. As soon as it did, she threw off the sheets and got to her feet for the first time in days. A wave of vertigo nearly overwhelmed her, and she had to brace herself against the edge of her cot to keep herself from fainting. I must be in worse shape than I thought.
The dizziness passed, though, and she moved over to the sink. This was the most dangerous part. If anyone heard the sound of running water and decided to investigate, it would all be over for her. This could be my only chance, though. I have to take it, no matter the risk. She twisted the handle, until the water ran in a thick stream from the faucet. She brought it up her arms, like sleeves, and let it wash over her torso. The feeling of water on her skin was such that she wondered how long it had been since she'd had a bath.
Focus, she told herself, glancing over her shoulder and out the door. Still no one there.
Despite the steady stream, it took several minutes for her to cloak herself in water. Every second of it overflowed with anxiety. The hospital was a busy place. It was a miracle no one had discovered her yet. Just another minute, she thought, closing her eyes in prayer. I just need one more minute, then I'll have enough for bending.
The spirits must've been on her side, because she'd acquired a shifting cloak of water by the time her allotted minute was up. She took a moment to breathe, letting the water settle over her frame. And then she made a run for it.
Luck carried her through the first hallway. Most of the doors were closed, keeping her out of sight of the other doctors and patients. Of the doors that were open, the rooms were either abandoned or the patients asleep. It was when she reached the second corridor that she ran into one of the nurses.
Surprise cut off the woman's opportunity to retaliate. Katara swept her aside with one water-cloaked arm and froze one of the woman's wrists to the wall. The woman started screaming hysterically. "The waterbender's loose! Get security!"
Not today, Katara thought, sprinting down the hallway. Two men in the plain cloaks of physicians ran out into the hallway where she was running, armed only with clipboards. Katara charged for them head on, sweeping them aside with her bending water. One ran, startled by the sudden rush of liquid, bolted back into the hallway from which he'd emerged. The other, a white-haired man with a beard longer than his legs, moved too slowly, and got frozen up to his ankles where he stood.
Katara kept running, knowing she had to reach an exit eventually. They must have some place where the patients are carried in, she thought, face jerking side to side as she debated which corridor she should run down next. In her moment of hesitation, a cluster of guards appeared at the other end of the hallway. Guess I'm going that way, she thought, sprinting away from them.
Orange light shining against the pale walls warned her of the oncoming fireball. She whirled around, throwing a wall of ice between her and the glowing orb. Steam exploded into the hallway where the two met, obscuring her view of the guards.
"Damn it," she hissed, redistributing the layer of water over her body. Her ice shield had used almost half her water supply.
Her legs carried her down the next hallway. With guards behind her, all her energy went to escaping. Any thought of stopping to look at a map or find a door fled her mind.
Two more guards cut her off at the end of the hallway, and she knew she was trapped.
Her body moved into a waterbending stance. Tentacles of the clear liquid split off from her cloak, surrounding her. This technique was meant for taking on multiple opponents at once.
"Come get me," she taunted, high on adrenaline. Or maybe painkillers, she thought wildly.
The two guards fell into firebending stances. Their bodies were much more rigid than hers, not well suited to the flowing movements of waterbending. They really are opposite elements.
Two streams of fire exploded from their fists. She brought two tentacles up to extinguish them before they hit her. Two more slithered across the floor like sea snakes, until they reached the firebenders' feet. Ice crawled up their ankles, then their knees, locking them in place. Sounds of panic exploded through their teeth.
Katara smiled fiercely and ran past them. Behind her, the first group of guards she'd encountered finished melting the wall of ice and ran after her, shouting. "Stop right there!"
"Not a chance," she whispered, turning the corner again. This time, she tried to move in the direction she'd been heading before she'd turned down this corridor. This hallway stretched out further, but overflowed with doctors and nurses.
Almost everybody was on high-alert. Escape attempts were evidently not common in Fire Nation hospitals, though, because even though everyone was rushing around, their movements were chaotic—they had no real plan for how to handle the situation.
"There she is!" one of the nurses squeaked, pointing in her direction. But Katara couldn't focus on that because thirty feet away, beyond the cluster of panicked doctors, was a door leading outside. She ran for it, breathing hard.
People tried to stop her. She cast them each aside with the water she still carried, freezing each in place when they hit the ground. She didn't hold back. If she was going to seriously injure someone, this was the best place to do it.
And besides, I don't have the luxury of holding back anymore, she thought, hand coming into contact with the door handle. Before she could pull it open, a rush of heat caught her in the upper shoulder. Automatically, she threw herself to the ground. The fire whip receded, then came down again. She brought the last of her water up to block it, flinching when the liquid turned to steam. I have to get out now, she thought, hand scrambling for the handle again.
The firebender in control of the whip approached. His gait was that of an experienced warrior, but his garb was that of a patient. A soldier returning home? she wondered, seeing the burn scars on his arm. The marks reminded her painfully of Zuko.
"Not so fast, girl," the man huffed, the whip thickening as his hand shifted. Katara yanked on the door handle, trying to make the heavy doors swing the way she wanted them to. They creaked open, like the gates of a castle dungeon. By the time they did, the firebender was close enough for a more powerful attack. From the corner of her eye, she saw him take a deep breath. Drawing in power.
Her hands moved without a conscious command, fingers going rigid and straight. At once, she felt the wrongness of the motion. Waterbending was supposed to be smooth, graceful even in its attacks. But her gut commanded her to move as she did, and her chi coiled up in unfamiliar patterns. The shift was so alien, it was all she could do to keep the tension in her body.
The man stepped forward, hand closing into a fist. Katara's fingers flexed. The spiral of energy uncoiled, grabbing hold of water that wasn't there, water that was thick and alive inside the man's body. Her hands closed, the movement abrupt, sharp.
The firebender dropped to his knees, a jet of blood exploding from his lips.