YOU KNOW THE DRILL

My eyes once again opened, the blinding sun beamed straight into them as they squinted tightly. I slowly got up, that was a very uncomfortable night sleeping in the dirt. At least in sand I was comfortable.

"Sleep well?" Akira said sitting by a tree. Glancing at him, he had a sort of emotionless, dead inside kind of look. It was worse than his almost broken expression from yesterday.

"Not really," I responded wiping some of the dry dirt off my arms. "You feeling alright?"

"I'm fine."

I took a look at his younger brother, still sleeping like a baby. "Sorry about your mom again," I replied hoping Banko wouldn't wake up.

"Can we please not talk about it?" He asked, quite frustrated. Didn't respond, pulled the same move I did yesterday when Akira felt down. Grabbed my rifle and went off to get some food, figuring he just needed to have some alone time.

I was away for like 20 minutes or something, all the animals still slept and the weird looking birds stayed in their nests. Once again, there was no point in using my gun on small animals like those, it'd just ruin the meat.

Came across a calm river as wide as as the Colorado, it was the river on our map. A pre-war author would probably describe it like this: the water majestically glowed from the sun's beams. What made it better was it wasn't radiation causing the effect. I washed my face with it with no fear of growing ridiculously large amounts of mutations or a messed up moustache.

I stared at my reflection in the water, the face of a young tribal girl caught up in too much conflict. Each time I stare at my own reflection I'm constantly reminded that in the end I'm just a kid in some bad shoes, or however the hell that saying goes. Not someone who can take down an entire army with just a measly old rifle and bad aim. Could I even trust myself to help out some children getting from one place to another?

A small bird-like creature swam up towards me. It floated like driftwood on the water, haven't seen anything like it. Though I did question the hard shell on its back. Nevertheless, it was kinda cute, its squeak would just make you aww for hours. But, either way it was food.

Came back holding the corpse of the bird by the stabbed neck, leaving behind a path of blood trickles. This kinda felt like what people would call Deja Vu, since Banko's asleep, Akira's pissed, and I am coming back with the body of a cute animal.

Meanwhile, Banko and Akira were having conversations. Mostly things about what they'd do when we got to safety, other things I couldn't make out. Akira took a look at me, still had less of that depressed look he had earlier.

"You're back," he said. "And you brought a turtle duck."

"Is that what this is called? Huh, don't have these where I'm from."

"I haven't had roast turtle duck in years," remarked Banko quite excited to eat.

We finished eating after like 10 minutes or something. Tasted the same as that winged rabbit or whatever the hell that was, would've had better flavour with mole rat juice on it.

I told them about the river that lead to the mountains I came across. We head there and moved along the glistening water. A raft could've helped us go quicker but there wasn't anything that could hold three people. It was a dull few walking hours.

Out of the blue, Banko asked me a question, "Hey if you're a tribal, does your tribe speak something else?"

I'm pretty sure he was referring if I spoke another language. Stayed silent, thought we agreed not to talk about my tribal past, fortunately Akira told him that right after. But the truth is I spoke a mix back then, except now it's just English (besides many words that somehow I did not learn) with tribal curse words.

There were some Fire Nation soldiers moving our direction on the other side of the river, so we hid behind the trees. That could only mean we were close. Overheard some more chatter though from the soldiers, some saying that they had already advanced near a city called Omashu. That would've been a problem for us as the nearest possible save haven was about to be occupied.

"You guys know this 'Omashu' place?" I asked.

"Omashu? I heard it was one of the biggest cities in the Earth Kingdom, guess it's still standing. But I didn't realise the city was in these mountains." Surprised he didn't remember that there was a large city a few days away from his village, but there was no point in thinking about it. I took a look at the map, there was a few drawings that resembled a city, can't believe we missed that, "You think we'll make it there?"

"That's if the place hasn't been flattened to the ground yet."

"If not there then we'd have to go to Ba Sing Se. Or probably the nearest village." There seemed to be almost no end to this Fire Nation's advancement. My guts told me that shetze was about to hit the fan.

The river ended as a waterfall hours later and the soldiers took a different route towards the mountains, we'd have followed them but the risk of going somewhere completely different was still to great. Ahead of us were miles of mountain ranges, it was a beautiful sight. However all of that was ruined from distant war sounds, screams of agony, explosions, and so much more could be heard from afar.

"Well we made it... what now?" Akira asked.

According to the map Omashu was just on a mountain but was a long way from the river. I looked over the edge, the river continued to stretch as far as the eye could see. There was a path too leading soldiers to the frontline too rather than some base or something, as much as the risk was large it was our best option to get to the city quicker.

"We jump," I said.

"WHAT?!" The brothers shouted in unison.

"How else are we supposed to get down, huh? Going around would take too long and this is the quickest way!"

"You crazy?! We could die!" Cried Akira.

"That's only if you land wrong, like right on the ground. Now unless your aim is as bad as mine I suggest we jump."

Akira took a deep breath, he told Banko to hold onto him, the younger brother just thought about it for a minute, but then concluded with 'A fik it' or something like that. Just as he did the brothers jumped straight off the edge, screaming all the way down. I could already tell they regretted every second of it. I followed on not long afterwards, did I mention that this was my first time doing this? My screams came straight after the others crashed into the water.

We all emerged all soaking wet. Unfortunately the map ripped up underwater so we had no other guide except what we came out from.

"We're never doing that again!" Akira cried with his heart still racing.

"We almost died!" Banko overreacted.

"At least we made it," I said smacking some of the water out my ears. Felt satisfying as it did.

"Well now the map's gone, how are we gonna get through these mountains?"

I took a look at the path, the battalion of soldiers were fortunately out of sight. "We take this path. Seems to be where all the soldiers are moving."

"Then why didn't we follow the others we saw earlier?"

"Didn't fully trust where they were going. But these soldiers are obviously going to the frontlines, where else would they go?"

"How about an outpost?"

"Probably, but the sounds of battle are too close so there wouldn't be a point of an outpost this near."

I could tell he still doubted that this path may have lead to Omashu, but there was no other path to take nor anything to guide us so he had to trust me. Banko would just trust us no matter what. There were no further objections. we moved along the path.

So it turned out that soldiers infested this entire region, we were forced to sneak towards the frontline. Too many close calls were made, and the sounds of battle just got more clearer and more disturbing. Our steps were carefully observed in order not to get caught. Overheard some more conversations, battle plans, talking about family, but I even heard that a load of boat crews were vaporised in the North Pole, whatever that was. Thought it was the Brotherhood squire for a second since they can literally turn people to ashes, but then I thought that was ridiculous.

Made it to the frontlines not long after. It was a horrific sight, dead bodies scattered everywhere with the most gruesome injuries, some impaled by rocks, others burned alive. Banko almost threw up too. After living 4 years in the open wasteland no horror there could compare to this sight, other than the atrocities the Legion causes.

The battle still waged on as we all hid behind the rocks. I looked at Akira and whispered, "How long ago did you hear that there was still a battle waging on?"

"Like... a month ago?" That only meant this battle would still wage on for a long time, except it didn't. We shortly heard the sound of cheering from the red bannered soldiers and the rapid footsteps fading away. I peeked over seeing the people in green flee from their enemies, we had to go after them.

"Can anybody cause a distraction?" I asked.

"With what? All there is are rocks and... dead bodies."

Banko looked up, some of the rocks were loose enough to fall down and could probably cover our escape. Once he mentioned it I aimed at the edge of the rocks. What was it Ryan said in the canyons? Focus more on the target than the weapon? Now that i think about it that was one of the worst pieces of advice I've ever gotten. Made no sense at all. I guess what he really meant was the weapon was my tool and the target was the main thing to fix, or whatever metaphor fit that.

"You think you can make the shot?" Akira asked quietly.

"I would if you shut up." My aim was crippling as much as my arms were shaking. I placed my finger on the trigger, one shot, one chance. If I missed, then all of this was for nothing.

Bang!

I didn't see if the bullet hit or not. Thankfully it did, multiple boulders and stones started rolling down and the soldiers separated like radroaches all over the place.

As they were all distracted I shouted "Run!" and we sprinted like hell. Multiple reds noticed us but they didn't bother going after us. Some were splattered with their guts oozing out. I looked away, it's crazy to think how much damage one bullet could cause. It increased my kill count though, to like... 17 or 19. Despite all the chaos behind us we continued to run without any other focus beside that.

We stopped after a couple minutes. All of us without a hint of breath in our lungs. The brothers fainted and I just sat down. Hopefully we were far from the reds by now after running for minutes straight.

A large shadow overwhelmed us, looking up there was a large boulder floating right above us, I've been told that there were under 200,000 words in the English language and I couldn't put together how shocked I was. Someone decide to break gravity or something?

The brothers' eyes opened widely noticing the large rock hanging over us. He had the same feeling as I. He struggled to get up, looking around there was one of the green soldiers we saw fleeing earlier. I'd have aimed my gun but he'd have splattered us like the reds back there.

"What the hell are you kids doing out here? Don't you know this place is a war zone?!" The man asked.

"Please, we're refugees from the colonies. We've come all this way to get away from the Fire Nation," said Akira.

"How am I supposed to know you're not a group of Fire Nation spies?"

Really? He thought that some kids were potential spies? Sounded like he and some other soldiers were paranoid, I saw why, in times of war anything could happen. Still I took it as brahmin shetze.

"Do we look like spies? We're from the Earth Kingdom, I promise."

"What about her?" The soldier pointed at me, "She doesn't look Earth Kingdom."

"No... she's from..." Akira looked at me, "Where are you from again?"

"Nevada," I replied.

"And where's that?" Asked the soldier.

"I... don't know. I can't say." Nobody had ever asked me where Nevada was. Even then I couldn't explain where it was. It's just a place everyone knew.

"Well then, looks like we're going to have a problem."

He was about to flatten us with the boulder, we were once again stuck between a rock and a hard place, did I use that metaphor right? But before he did I shouted, "Wait! I killed a bunch of Fire Nation troops back there, their guts are all over the place! See for yourself!"

"Yeah, like a girl your age could do something like that," the soldier scoffed. I'd have said 'You believe we're spies' but killing and spying were two different things. This was gonna take a while.

At least that's what I thought.

"Alright! Go ahead and think we're spies!" Akira shouted, "Take us in and interrogate us! As long as we're away from the Fire Nation that's fine!" I asked Akira what the fikk he was doing. He responded saying he didn't know what else to do.

The soldier didn't see a point in interrogating us nor taking us prisoner since they were going to retreat back into the city. So he decided to kill us all while we were all under his rock.

Thank God someone saved our asses. Another soldier standing up on of the small cliffs shouted, "Zhang! We're retreating back to the city now!" He looked down at the three of us. "Why the hell are these kids here?"

"They're Fire Nation spies!"

"Zhang, enough with that spy crap! The paranoia's gotten to your head! Now lower the boulder."

"We can't take any chances!"

"What if they aren't spies?! You'll be responsible for killing a bunch of innocent kids! Don't make me report you to the General!" The soldier slid down from the cliff making a clean slide along the way, it was pretty impressive what these people could do. After coming down, he fisted the air forcing the boulder away.

The first soldier, Zhang, started to consider that we weren't spies at all. But he still kept his suspicion on us, kinda reminded myself of me.

The second soldier apologised about Zhang for being paranoid telling him to just go back to the other forces and that he'll deal with us, he then asked, "You kids alright?" He sounded a lot more friendlier than that Zhang asshole.

"Yeah, we're fine," said Akira.

"You're refugees right? Must've come a long way from home."

"They are, I'm not," I said, "Just somebody who helped get them out of the colonies." Didn't actually know what I was in this situation, was there even a word for someone who just got caught in a mess?"

"Well whatever you are what matters is that you're us, we're heading towards Omashu."

"How far is it?"

"It's a few days away."

Banko was frustrated, "More walking?! Seriously?! Can't we have a break?!" We all were tired, felt like my legs were about to shatter like glass into tiny pieces.

"Wow, you must've really come a long way. Calm down, you can hop on one of the transports. Follow me."

We followed the soldier who's name we learned was Juan, we talked a bit with him. Told him about our journey here, in return he just gave jokes and some short stories. Passing some other soldiers pakcing everything up I overheard more chatter, some saying the same story about a floating metal ball that vaporised multiple ship crews except this time there was a mention of a large sea monster fending off Fire Nation ships. Strange thinking about a faction having working boats after living in the desert your whole life.

Some people took weird looks at me like in the village. Others questioned the 'weird stick' I held in my hand. Juan took a notice of it too. He asked me what it was and I just said it was a weapon, didn't bother explaining it to him but he concluded it was a staff or something like that.

There was a large carriage with a few 'ostrich-horses', as they called it, tied to parked in front of us. There were some others but I think we missed them along the way. Moving inside were multiple wounded soldiers each with harsh injuries, guessed we were going inside with them.

"Well, this is where we part ways for now. You should go in with them, they're the earliest heading towards Omashu and they're leaving now."

The three of us felt a little uncomfortable going inside, the place was gonna be riddled with blood and guts that might've fallen on the floor. Could even smell it from here, so I pinched my nose.

"Can't you put us into a nicer one?" Akira pleaded.

"It's for your safety, I'm sorry but this is the best option if you want to get to safety quickly."

Akira gave in and moved inside the carriage with us following on. Inside were 2 rows of wall benches, with wounded sitting on them. Some were lying on the floor murmuring with trauma and groaning in pain. We sat down on the right side, keeping our eyes to ourselves.

A healthy man moved inside, he was wearing a different type of clothing and wore glasses on his brown eyes. I asked Akira who he was thinking he had an idea, though he had no clue. The man held a black case, assumed he was a doctor or medic of some sort as some sharp tools were revealed.

Right after he entered there was a call outside telling the carriage to move. Off we went to Omashu.

It was the most boring trip of my life. We were provided some food and water each day but Banko vomited it up just looking at some wounded. One of them had their leg sliced off, amputation I think it was called, for having a largely burned up leg. I tried telling a story about one adventure I had with Ryan, but that just gave some people scarring flashbacks shouting 'They're everywhere' or 'Mommy'. And it was just about fighting some feral ghouls underground, that time we almost got ripped apart. No clue how I reminded them of that.

So 2 days since we entered the, mountains. My ass ached from sitting down for so long. Some of the troops bled to death too so we were forced to dump the bodies.

Fortunately, the carriage finally arrived at Omashu and boy it was a sight. The whole city were just a couple mountains of buildings surrounded by a a large wall and enormous gorge with the only path being a narrow bridge heading towards the front gate that slowly opened.

Moving inside the whole city was magnificent, more impressive than the strip itself and I'm not even allowed inside. However there was one thing that bothered me, some people had worried looks as they looked at the carriage staring at the suffering troops. They seemed as demoralised as the NCR troops back home.

What mattered is that we made it to safety and far away from the ire Nation.

At least that's what we thought.

HELLO THERE. APOLOGIES FOR NOT POSTING IN A MONTH I WAS OCCUPIED WITH OTHER STORIES AND IRL ISSUES ALONG WITH SOME WRITER'S BLOCK. HOWEVER I HAVE FINALLY WRITTEN THIS CHAPTER AFTER A WEEK OF WRITING. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT... OR NOT... I DON'T REALLY CARE.