Behold! Chapter 11 in all it's glory!
Enjoy!
The adrenaline is still pumping its way through my veins. With every step that I take as we cross through the refugee camp, I can feel my heart rate increasing exponentially. I am now beginning to feel beads of sweat forming on my face on account of how tense the atmosphere is.
The fighting has become more intense now. I can hear it just a few blocks away. I can detect the distinct combination of burning wood and charred flesh wafting through the air around us. Unfortunately, Jin is leading us right for it.
I look down in my arms to see Izumi. She has been unconscious for about fifteen minutes after she had over exerted herself with air bending, but now the girl is beginning to stir.
"Wha- what's happening?" she asks groggily, her voice barely audible over the sound of explosions and clashing steel nearby.
"We're getting you out of here!" I say to her. She doesn't respond. I suppose there really is no need to.
I look to my left to see Kumi running alongside me. Her hair is sticking to the sweat on her face, and her eyes filled with an intensity I have yet to see from her. Clearly, her training as a Kyoshi Warrior is paying off now.
Eventually, Jin takes us through a narrow alleyway and we quickly follow in step behind her.
"How much further!" I yell to our guide.
"It's… it's just another block," Jin pants, clearly not used to running for extended periods of time.
We reach the other end of the alley and she holds up her hand in a gesture telling us to stop. The three of us grind to a halt and Jin slowly peers around the corner to the street beyond. My ears pick up the sound of a woman screaming in agony just a few feet away from us. It sounds as though she is crying for a loved one, or something.
"What's happening?" Kumi asks.
"I'm… just checking to make sure the coast is clear."
"Who is crying?"
"I don't know," Jin replies. "Some lady on the curb."
Well that certainly doesn't calm my nerves.
I then hear what sounds to me like a mass of animals herding their way down the street. I look up just in time to see hundreds of woolly pigs trotting down the street and away from the sounds of combat. Their shepherd long ago having abandoned them to save his own skin. Or that is my assumption at least. We wait until the street is clear again before moving.
"Alright, let's go," Jin waves for us to follow and she takes off around the corner. Kumi and I follow her.
The crying woman is fully visible now. I look to see her kneeling on the curb over what looks to be a dead woman's body. A pool of blood has formed, and it is flowing into the nearby drain. I tear my eyes away, unable to bear the sight of it, but her screams still fill my ears.
I can feel Izumi adjusting herself in my arms to get a better look.
"Keep your eyes closed!" I yell to her much louder than I intend. Thankfully, she listens to me.
We barely make it another ten feet down the road before Jin suddenly stops, causing me to nearly collide into her.
"What are you doing?" I hear myself say.
But she doesn't have to answer me. I look past her her to see the reason why she has us stopped on the sidewalk. People were running towards us with weapons.
"Shit!" Jin shouts. "Hide!"
She dives into the nearest alleyway. Kumi and I exchange a brief glance before ducking in behind her.
The four of us take cover behind a collection of rusted trash bins, and I pray to whatever spirit is listening that we haven't been spotted.
To our surprise, and to our relief, the crowd of armed men and women continues past us and down the street.
But then, an arrow sails past us and strikes one of the men in the back. He crumples to pavement and clutches the arrow now protruding from his chest. One of his comrades notices this, and stops to turn back and help. But it's ill fated. He too is stuck by an arrow directly in the face. He falls to the ground dead.
"Oh spirits…" Jin mumbles to herself. "They were running away."
"Yeah, no shit," I say to her. "Get down!"
We duck down just in time for a squad of fully armored Earth Kingdom soldiers to jog past with their weapons drawn. Accompanying the soldiers is a contingent of tanks, stolen from the Fire Nation's old military and re-purposed for the new government's army.
We wait long enough for the massive vehicles to thunder past us. Thankfully, we remain unnoticed.
"Okay," Jin sighs heavily. "Follow me."
Once again, we take off down the street.
We run for a good five minutes, taking care to not trip over the dozens of bodies that now litter the street and sidewalk. Eventually, we arrive at what appears to be a small wooden shed with a metal, barred gate.
"There's a hole underneath this that leads to the sewers," Jin says as she pulls a ring of keys from her bag. "This sewer feeds directly into Lake Laogai, which in turn, leads right trough the outer wall of the city. We have a boat down there you can use."
"That's good enough," I say to her.
"Just make sure you keep that girl safe."
"Believe me, I'm not letting her leave my sight," I reply.
Jin fishes out I assume to be the correct key and smiles at me. She opens her mouth to say speak, but she is immediately interrupted.
"Get down on the ground now!"
Panic instantly fill Jin's eyes and she throws the keys to the ground. An instant spike of dread pierces into me at the recognition of that voice.
"Holy shit!" Jin cries.
"I said get down on the ground now!"
I look to see Noriko and about 30 more Kyoshi Warriors emerging from a nearby building with their swords raised. They are all fully dressed in the traditional Kyoshi Warrior garb, including the ever terrifying face paint. Upon seeing this, I realize that these women are fully prepped for war.
We are in serious trouble now.
"Get on your knees, right now!"
All three of us kneel to the ground, and I gently place Izumi down in front of me. At once, the warrior women completely encircle us.
One of them, a young woman with dark brown hair, steps forward, rears her foot back, and kicks Kumi square in the face.
"You traitor!" the woman shouts.
Kumi cries out in pain and collapses to the ground clutching her face. Blood is dripping through her fingers indicating that her nose has been broken. I can't help but flinch at the sight.
I can hear Jin kneeling beside me uttering numerous curses under her breath. I can't decipher her words because of how loud everything is, but I have no doubt they are the same curses I am mentally telling myself.
"Relax!" Noriko yells to her. "Don't kill them!"
The new Kyoshi leader then turns to face me. For a long moment, we lock eyes. Everything happening around me vanishes as I focus on the striking, light grey color of her irises. I can see a mixture of anger and indignation reflecting back at me. But beneath the surface, I also detect disappointment, and a great deal of sadness. I narrow my eyes back at her defiantly.
She scoffs at me before shifting her gaze to Izumi, who is now weakly sitting herself up. Noriko kneels down to meet her at eye level.
"Thank the spirits," she says to the girl while placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. The expression on the woman's face seems genuinely relieved that the Izumi is still alive.
"You'll be safe now," Noriko says. "How is my little Avatar doing?"
Izumi stares at her blankly for the briefest of moments, then her expression quickly changes to one of anger. Instead of answering back, the girl spits in Noriko's face. I can't help but flash a brief, prideful smile at the sight of this.
That's the way to do it.
Noriko, however, looks absolutely dejected at the girl's response. She staggers back in shock, wiping the spit away from her face.
"You murdered Suki!" Izumi shouts.
Noriko doesn't respond. Instead, she turns her gaze back to me. I see nothing but pure anger emerging from her face.
"You put the girl's life at risk!" she yells at me.
"Oh please!" I reply without hesitation. "Just let her go. You have no idea what you're doing."
"Actually, I know exactly what I'm doing. Look around you!" Noriko gestures to our surroundings. "It's the uprising! And they haven't even seen the Avatar yet!"
Noriko then stands to her feet and signals to the nearest Kyoshi Warriors.
"Let's get her out of here."
The warriors nod and scoop Izumi up from the ground.
"No!" she shouts in protest. "Let me go!"
The Kyohsis ignore her pleas and drag Izumi away. The girl struggles to free herself from their grip but she is ultimately too weak to break free.
Another of the warriors steps forward towards me and unsheathes her sword.
"Not in front of the girl," Noriko says to her. "Wait until we go around the corner. Then kill them all."
The woman, who I remember being named Eshima, nods in understanding.
"Let's go!" Norkio shouts.
At once, half of the Kyoshis break away, Noriko included, and run down the street dragging a struggling Izumi with them.
"No! Sokka!"
Slowly, the girl's cries fade into the distance and mix with the sounds of battle.
Once they round the corner, Eshima begins humming to herself in the most unnerving humanly manner possible.
Well, shit.
In this moment, the feeling of defeat hits me like a ton of bricks. The crazed, warrior women terrorists have taken Izumi, the last hope left for the world, in a futile attempt to bolster their uprising. We practically have no weapons aside from my boomerang, and even that is useless against the fifteen Kyohsi Warriors who still surround us.
I can hear Kumi moaning in pain to my left. She is still lying on the ground and clutching her face with blood soaked hands.
I look to me right and see Jin kneeling on the pavement and trembling in fear. She is looking at me, desperately pleading for me to concoct some sort of daring plan to save us, but I have nothing.
We've lost.
Eshima then stops right in front of me. I look up to see the woman staring down at me.
"I'm doing you last," she said. "This is all your fault after all."
The woman then turns around to face Jin and raises her sword.
"No, please!" Jin begs the woman. "You don't have to do this!"
Eshima is completely unfazed. Without hesitation, the woman thrust her sword right into Jin's chest.
"No!" I hear myself shout.
The woman then pulls her sword free, and Jin collapses to ground coughing up blood.
I'm not letting it end this way. I refuse!
I reach back and unsheathe my boomerang, ready for a fight to the death. But before I can make a single move, an explosion rocks to my left, blowing me off my feet. I land on my back and see the bodies of several Kyoshi Warriors sailing past me.
I can now feel the shell shock creeping into my mind. Simply too much death and destruction has occurred in the past few days and I can fell my head starting to crack, figuratively speaking of course.
I try to gauge my surroundings, but my vision in spinning wildly. The smoke and raining debris doesn't help my visibility much either.
Using all the will that I could possibly muster, I dizzily roll to my stomach and take cover behind a nearby dumpster.
"Fall back!" I can barely hear Eshima screaming at the top of her lungs despite a renewed ringing in my ears.
Carefully, I peek around from my hiding place to see an Earth Kingdom tank riding up the street towards me along with several soldiers standing beside it in earth bending stances. A skirmish then breaks out between the soldiers and the Kyohsi Warriors still standing. I move back into my hiding spot for safety. The familiar sounds of combat reverberate across the street and fill my eardrums.
Metal clashing against metal.
Rocks being thrown and colliding with the ground.
Deafening explosions.
Screams of pain and death.
I need to find Izumi. I need to get her out of this place.
But I don't dare reveal myself. Not yet.
Suddenly, I see Eshima and several surviving Kyoshis running past me in retreat. One of them is obviously clutching a bleeding arm. They are so preoccupied with saving their own skin, that they don't even notice me in my embarrassingly obvious hiding place.
I have to find a way to rescue Izumi, even if it means getting myself killed in the process. The things is, I would prefer to delay my death for as long as possible. I need to be smart about this.
I wait until Kyoshi Warriors pass around the corner before I make my move.
With great effort, I hoist myself to my feet while ignoring the spinning sensation in my head. I then sprint down the street towards warriors with my boomerang at the ready.
I can hear the Earth Kingdom soldiers launching rock projectiles at me, or at least in the general direction that I'm heading. Luckily, their aim leaves a lot to be desired. I dodge the rocks with ease. Still, seeing massive rocks flying towards me with the intent to kill never fails to be terrifying.
I quickly reach the corner of the street and round it to see Eshima further ahead. My eyes catch Noriko and the others at the end of the street taking cover behind an overturned carriage.
They haven't noticed me yet.
I freeze in place, unsure of what to do. There really is no way I can take them all on by myself with just a single boomerang. Now if I had two boomerangs? Well, then this would be a serious cake walk.
"Fall back!" Noriko suddenly shouts, shaking me from my thoughts. "Get her inside!"
I then notice several of the women pulling Izumi away from cover and towards the nearest building. Eshima, having not yet reached her fellow warriors, turns around.
It's at that moment that I suddenly realize that I'm standing out in the open like a dumb ass.
Before I can even move to a hiding space, Eshima notices me right in the middle of street.
She charges back towards me and reaches into her coat.
Shit! She's the one who can throw knives!
I react instantly and dive through an open window of a building to my left. I can hear the sound of projectiles whizzing through the air past me. One of them manages to slice me in the leg as I'm scrambling to stay down. The sting painfully shoots its way up my leg causing me to let out an involuntary wince.
So much for being smart.
"Get her inside!" I can just barely hear Noriko's voice over the fighting. "Get her in the building now!"
I decide to risk taking a look and peer over the windowsill. To my relief, Eshima has now turned back around and is now sprinting to the other side of the street where the other Kyohsi Warriors are pushing Izumi into what looks like a large apartment building.
They enter just in time for an Earth Kingdom tank to smash through the barricade at the other end of the street. I can do nothing but sit by helplessly as the tank takes aim the doorway they just went into. About a dozen soldiers appear from behind the tank, flanking it on all sides.
Then the tank opens fire. It's round passes through the door and explodes. Its blast displaces wood, glass and assorted body parts outwards in all directions.
"Shit!"
Against my better judgement, I break free from cover and make a beeline towards the apartment building while completely disregarding the soldiers running through the street. When I reach the other side, my survival instincts kick back in and I take cover behind some rubble just outside the door of the building.
Come on Izumi! Please be alive.
That's when I hear explosions behind me.
I turn just in time to see the body of a Kyohsi landing just a few meters away. The body rolls to a stop, and despite the horrifying injuries on her face, I can still recognize who she was. It's the girl who had kicked Kumi a few minutes prior. Apparently, she had stayed back to hold off the soldiers advance before clearly paying the ultimate price. Now, the other soldiers must have caught up with us.
Through the newly formed cloud of smoke that now blankets the street, I can just make out the form of another tank rolling up to my position.
Oh, great!
"We surrender!"
At the sound of those words, I turn to see multiple people, women and children included, emerging from the ruined building. All of them are clearly civilians who have no part in this spirits forsaken uprising. One of them, an older woman, is flapping a white flag in the air.
Then without warning, the Earth Kingdom soldiers open fire.
I hear panicked screams. People begin fleeing for their lives.
Their rocks mow everyone down, refusing to sparing a single soul.
It's one of the most disturbing sights I have ever witnessed, but yet, I can't bring myself to look away.
How am I supposed to get inside? This is complete madness…
Suddenly, some sort of an explosive projectile is launched from one of the upper floor windows. I watch it connect with one of the tanks, creating a violent explosion. Several soldiers emerge from the flaming wreckage screaming in anguish, their fellow foot soldiers desperately trying to put the fires out.
The first tank reacts instantly and fires its round into the second story. The explosion creates more shards of glass and wood which rain down on me, giving me cover.
It's now or never.
I heave myself up to my feet and make a run for the door. I can hear the sounds of soldiers shouting at me to stop, but I ignore them. Only one thing truly matters now.
As I enter the building's front lobby, I immediately trip over a body and painfully land on my stomach.
"Help… me…" I can hear a weak voice speaking to me.
I look up to see a man, who is nothing more than a severed torso, staring back at me. The life is slowly fading from his eyes, but still pleading for some one to save him. I instinctively back away at the sight.
"I'm sorry," I mutter to myself in an attempt to keep my mind focused. There's only one true savior in this world now, and it's definitely not me.
I quickly scan the lobby to see dozens of dead or dying people scattered about. Thankfully, Izumi is not on of them.
I look to my right to see stairs leading up to the next floor. The sounds of shouts and panicked screams are echoing down from the stairwell, proving that someone in this building is still alive.
With another great effort, I pull myself to my feet and begin climbing.
The almost two hours of continuous adrenaline rushing through my veins is beginning to take its toll on my body. With every step I take up the stairs, my muscles and joints cry out in protest, but I refuse to stop.
I can't give in. Not now.
Eventually, I reach the second story. All around me, civilians are scrambling around in fear and trying their best to find hiding places. I can hear children crying and many others screaming in terror. I can also hear the explosions from outside reverberating through the building's interior.
I pick the hallway to my left first and slowly make my way down the length of it. There are holes walls, but I don't care whether they were caused by the battle, or by people trying to carve out their own living spaces. I only care about Izumi.
I take a peak inside each of the rooms as I move past to make sure that Izumi isn't taking cover in them, but she is nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, I hear shouts up ahead. I look to see Eshima and several other warriors emerging from a room several meters ahead.
Shit!
I dive into the nearest room and take cover behind the door.
"Go check the roof!" the she yells out to one of the other warriors.
I then hear footsteps running past me, heading down the hallway towards the stairwell.
I almost let out a sigh relief, but then, Eshima enters the room I'm hiding in.
My whole body goes tense thinking I had been discovered, but she doesn't even look my way. Instead, she busts out the nearest window and proceeds to throw knives at the soldiers below.
I jump out from my hiding place and run from the room as quickly and discretely as I can. Within seconds of me exiting, an explosion burst forth from the room and knocks me to the floor.
Holy shit... I almost died, again.
Slowly, I push myself back to my feet, but my head is spinning, again, and my insides feel like they've been turned into jelly. I know I can't take much more of this, but a have to keep moving.
I quickly stagger my way back to the stairs and begin ascending to the third floor. At one point, my legs nearly give out, but I don't stop climbing.
I'm basically running on pure will power tight now.
I reach the next level and begin moving down the next hallway. My head is pounding, my feet are aching, but I don't care.
"Stop!" I hear a shout from further down the hall.
Izumi.
I use all the strength I have left and sprint towards the direction that I heard her voice.
"Please! Stop!"
I come to a hole in the wall and look into the room beyond. I see Izumi keeled over and clutching her head in pain. Beside her, I see Noriko standing at a window and firing arrows at the soldiers below.
Neither of them notice me enter the room. With Noriko in particular, her back is facing me as I step through the hole.
I have a chance to end it all now.
In that moment, I am overcome with pure rage. This woman, the self proclaimed new leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, is the responsible for everything that has gone wrong in the past several days. The murders of Suki, Shen, Amaya, and now Jin all lay directly at her feet. All of the hardships we have endured happened because of some stupid plan she enacted in another futile effort to take control of the city.
I'm sick and tired of this shit.
With the loudest war cry I can muster, charge forward and swing my boomerang for her head. But she notices me a split second before my weapon makes contact.
At the last second, she dodges my blow.
The woman jumps into a defensive stance. I raise my boomerang again, ready to swing.
"How are you still alive?" she yells at me.
"Because I'm Sokka! That's why!"
She stands there for a moment, baffled at my explanation before speaking again.
"I can't let you take the girl."
"Look at this mess!" I yell at her. "Was this your big plan! A suicide mission against Ba Sing Se's military? Izumi will die here!"
"Suki was wrong!" Noriko replies. "She thought it could be peaceful. But how can it be peaceful when they try to take away our dignity!?"
"What are you talking about?"
Noriko suddenly throws her bow down and tears begin forming in her eyes. Her actions completely catch me off guard.
I lower my weapon in response and shoot a quick glance down at Izumi. The girl is still grasping onto her head and gasping for breath.
"Izumi! What's wrong?" I crouch to her.
"Sokka… it's happening… again…"
Oh… right...
I realize that, with the amount of explosion and general combat happening all around us, there's a good chance that I won't be able to calm Izumi down. But, if she enters the Avatar State, she could kill everyone. This is what happens when you don't train the Avatar.
"My mother was from the Fire Nation." I hear Noriko speak.
I look to her, shocked by this revelation.
"And then the people in charge of this city took them and killed them all right in front of me! I was nine years old! They deserve a fate worse than death, and this uprising is my last chance to deliver it to them!"
"Noriko, everybody has lost someone," I say referring to Izumi. "That's no excuse to throw everyone else's lives into a meat grinder!"
"As opposed to what? Drinking my life away in some dead end post office job? You're a disgrace Sokka!"
"Well, I guess we're all disappointed in each other," I reply.
"I will never give up." She replies, unsheathing her sword and raising it in my direction. "I need the Avatar! I need her for the uprising!"
"The whole world needs the Avatar," I answer back. "Not just you."
I stand back up with my boomerang in hand. If this woman wants to fight to the death, then so be it. It's time to end this once and for all.
Noriko lets out a loud, ear piercing scream and charges towards me.
I raise my boomerang, ready fight.
But before either of us could swing our weapons, a flash of white lights completely blinds my vision, and the whole world around me shakes in protest.
I realize, in that moment, that Izumi has entered the Avatar State.
This is a chapter that I have been anxiously waiting to write for a long, LONG time! To finally have it published is both exciting and relieving.
But now, only one chapter remains. Tune in next time to read to exciting conclusion!