Chapter 4: 28 Minutes Later…
"You're Royal Highness. We… have some bad news…"
"What is it?"
"Um…… it's kind of… really bad."
"Well, c'mon, spit it out!"
"Uh… well…. You seeeeeeeee…"
"TELL ME BEFORE I BANISH YOU!"
"Largebulkingmonstershavesmashedthroughourimpenetrablewallsandarenowdestroyingeverythinginsightandwellfranklytheyarewaytoobigtodefeat.
Tomakemattersworsetheyarenowfusingtogethertomakeamuchlargerbeingthusrenderingthemselvesunbeatablewebelievethishassomethingtodowithkingbumibutwecan'tbeentirelysureandi'mreallyscaredsirandwe…."
"SHUT UP! Where have they infiltrated?"
"So far, they have only reached the poor district of Ba Sing Se."
"Well, the solution is simple. Quarantine the whole poor district. Blockade it from the rest of the city."
"What do we do about the inhabitants of that district?"
"What inhabitants? There are no inhabitants in the poor district…"
"But, you're Majesty; the poor district holds half of Ba Sing Se's citizens."
The Earth King looked at his servants with a piercing glare.
"As far as we're concerned, they do not exist. If we do anything major in order to help, the rest of the world will find out. They will think that this grand city is not as strong as it's cracked up to be. They will think of me as weak."
"You'd rather let Earth nation citizens die than run the risk of harming your reputation?"
"It is for the good of this city."
"People are dying!"
"Blockade the area. Maybe some people will escape in time. Of course, ensure that NO one leaves the city. If all goes well, no one will die…."
"I highly doubt that…"
The servants walked away. They now had to get the government to lock thousands of people in a terrorist-infested area….
Teo looked at everybody in the group. Azula wasn't with them. He had never witnessed Azula when she went crazy a few nights ago. Something about the fire-nation princess made Teo feel like a man inside. He was determined to find her. Before he could say something, though, a strange noise filled the air.
A sleigh was flying through the night sky. Teo screamed and cowered in his wheelchair. Sokka gulped. He knew who they were.
They were Santa's elves. The same people who had tried to assassinate him on Christmas morning. What the hell were they doing here? Were they responsible for the explosions?
One elf stood up and started talking.
"Attention, Earth nation citizens. We are quarantining this part of the city. You have exactly….. thirty seconds to escape to the rich section of town. Oh yeah, and ten seconds have already passed."
Everyone started screaming as they saw a giant wall start to fall at the road connecting the rich and poor sections of town. They all rushed to escape.
"Everyone, hang on!" shouted Sokka. He grabbed Toph's hand, who then grabbed Aang's hand. With everyone clinging to each other, Sokka led the way. Faster, faster, faster…
Right as they got to the dividing point, Sokka's heart sank. They weren't going to make it. At least someone would be left behind.
"Go on without me, Sokka! I'm holding everyone back. Besides, I need to find somebody." Teo shouted over the numerous cries. He let go and headed towards the opposite direction.
"TEO!" called Katara, who had been holding his hand. At the last moment, everyone jumped forward. A loud crash sounded as the wall hit the ground. Sokka glanced up and smiled to himself. He had gotten everyone through, besides Teo.
"C'mon, let's get moving guys." Aang said as he stood up.
The group walked down the street, taking note of all the elves on the rooftops. They all held sniper rifles. Whatever had infiltrated the city was definitely lethal. Of course, it wasn't like they would ever need to know what it was….
Teo wandered around the poor district. Several other citizens had failed to escape in time. They now had to challenge fate out here. Teo followed them to a train station. No trains were leaving or arriving, though. A huge crowd had surrounded a small hut.
"Excuse me, sir. What's going on in there?" asked Teo. A skinny man with a gray beard and small head turned around and answered the boy.
"A girl was found with a bite wound by the destroyed section of the wall. The doctors are saying that it is a zombie wound."
"A……zombie wound?"
"Yes, a zombie wound. It seems that some sort of terrorist group has created some giant beasts with drills for hands. These creatures are not only deadly on their own, but also serve as carrying devices. Zombies hide away in them and escape when the time is right. If I'm not mistaken, these beings are only 5 miles away from our location currently. I don't see why barricades are being put down, though. These monsters smashed through the outer wall. They could smash through anything…"
"Is the girl going to be alright?"
"Zombie bites will turn the person unlucky enough to get them into zombies themselves. Depending on the person, it can take anywhere from two minutes to over a week before they transform." The man sniffed Teo. "I sense that you are very vulnerable to the infection. Don't come into contact with any infected person's blood, excrements, or…." Teo hurried into the hut before the man could finish, "their saliva…"
Teo gasped as he saw Azula sitting in the hut, surrounded by scientists.
"Her blood hasn't reacted to the infection yet!"
"How! Even if she has a strong immune system, her blood should have already started to fuse with the virus!"
Teo hid behind a large piece of lab equipment, completely out of sight. One of the scientists looked at the others.
"Maybe her immune system is too strong."
"So?"
"I believe that she is immune to the zombie virus."
"Holy… are you sure?"
"I'm almost positive. First of all…" He took out a needle and drew blood from Azula's arm.
"Okay. I will go back to my house and study this. For the rest of you, take a blood sample from everyone outside. Look for more people immune to this virus." All of the scientists walked out of the building. Teo rolled his wheelchair over to Azula, who had just awoken. Her eyes had turned a foggy-green color, similar to Toph's eyes.
"What? Where the hell am I?" Azula asked. Teo put his fingers to her lips.
"Shhh… Everything's gonna be alright." He whispered seductively. Teo then placed his lips over hers. Azula's eyes widened. She thought about fighting back, but cliché had beaten her. She leaned into the kiss, wrapping her arms around Teo's neck…
Everyone sat around a campfire. They all remained silent. Cries for help came from beyond the wall, but nobody could do anything. Katara worried about Teo. The boy was probably terrified right now; trapped in a danger-infested area with no one to hold.
Toph had fallen asleep; her head sitting on Sokka's shoulder. Aang sat as close to Katara as he could. She didn't seem to notice him.
Haru, Mai, and Ty Lee sat together, hoping that everything would be all right. Longshot, Smellerbee, and Zuko worried about Jet. He had been missing for the longest time.
Santa's elves were still surveying the whole area with their sniper rifles. The creatures had remained out of sight. Well, they wouldn't be for much longer…
Teo's and Azula's tongues wrestled each other. After a few minutes, they both separated for air. Azula saw Teo's eyes turn red.
"Teo?"
The boy in the wheelchair jerked his head upwards at an alarming rate. Azula gasped and moved backwards. Teo moved in his seat and eventually…… sat up. The paralysis in his legs had gone away.
"Oh my God! You're walking!" Azula said in shock. Somehow, she felt more aroused. Teo walked towards Azula and grasped her head with an enormous amount of strength. She tried to break away but she was too weak.
He bent his head low and started biting Azula's face. She screamed as her face became mutilated. Teo ripped out her flesh furiously and ate it all. His fingernails dug into her arms, revealing the veins and arteries. Eventually, the screaming died down as death slowly constricted Azula. It couldn't have come more slowly for her.
One of the scientists walked into the hut, horrified. He had heard the screaming, but he wasn't prepared for the scene before him.
A boy, dripping with blood, was eating Azula's insides. Her face had been mutilated, and a snippet of skull bone could be seen.
The scientist cried, and Teo turned towards him. The boy jumped and ripped the man to shreds. When he was finished, the boy ran out of the hut. Outside, the crowd of people fled, screaming at the top of their lungs. Teo, now a zombie, uttered a cry into the night. In less than a minute, one "Big Blue Spirit" arrived and picked him up. It was a little surprised to see a zombie all alone. Of course, this was to be expected. Their creator had informed them that when one zombie was discovered separate from the others, the time to strike had arrived.
Numerous other Blue Spirits arrived. It was time to unleash every zombie they had on the citizens of the doomed Earth nation city. Then, the true attack would begin…
The elves had almost drifted off to sleep due to boredom when the first sight of danger arrived. A Blue Spirit seemed to be leading a throng of people.
"OPEN FIRE!" screamed one elf. Everyone, including Sokka and his group, jumped up from their seats. Bullets fired at the being, but nothing seemed to have any effect. It finally reached the wall and used its drill to smash through it. The wall crumbled. Zuko shrieked and cried some more. Zombies rushed through, and the Blue Spirits seemingly disappeared.
One elf called the Earth King's servants. They told of the predicament everyone was now in. The servants informed the Earth King…
"Sir, zombies have smashed through the barricade. What do we do?"
"Have the elves shoot everyone in the general location. We can't take any chances."
"You want to…… kill everyone?"
"How can you be sure they are not zombies?"
"But sir!"
"ENOUGH! GO AND GIVE THE ORDERS!"
The servants left and called the elves to give the grave news…
Sokka held onto Toph's hand as everyone fled from the zombies. Aang grasped onto Katara's arm, who didn't seem to care.
The huge crowd of citizens seemed to merge with the zombies. The elves couldn't tell who their targets were.
"We have no choice. We must kill them all." One elf said.
"This is FUBAR!" shouted another elf as he fired a bullet. A man next to Sokka, perfectly alive and kicking, jerked suddenly and fell to the ground. Bullets flew all over the place, hitting virtually everything…… except for the zombies.
A timid elf took aim at a group of people holding hands. He aimed for a girl with a peculiar hair bun and a greenish headband. She was clutching onto a somewhat muscular boy wearing a blue garment. He seemed somewhat important to the elf. The girl may have been a zombie attempting to devour the familiar boy. He fired, but his hand shook at the last second. Something held him back. A Gothic looking girl jerked backward, stopped in her tracks, and fell to the ground as blood splattered everywhere. No one paid heed to this, except for a girl in an acrobatic outfit, who shrieked as tears fell from her eyes. She was pulled away, and the rest of the citizens stepped on the fallen Goth girl.
The elf felt sick to his stomach. He used to be a professional assassinator. For some reason though, on his last assignment, he lost the will to kill. He had been hired to avenge the death of his leader, Santa Claus. The elf had shot at the target's heart, but he noticed that something was wrong. The boy didn't react in the way his previous targets did. He fell slowly, and as he did so, he seemed to spiritually connect with his surroundings. The boy was going to survive.
But something else was different. A young girl had stepped out of the house and approached the fallen warrior. It was at that moment that the elf thought about his previous targets. They all had to have families, from their mothers to a love interest. No matter how evil they were, somebody loved them. That young girl had taken away his need to kill.
He now realized why he missed his target just a few moments ago. She had reminded him of the young girl. Unless…… could she have been the young girl? The elf knew what he had to do. He needed to help that girl and her friends. He quietly left his post…
The barrage of bullets continued to mow down the seemingly endless amount of figures. Sokka and his group made their way into a building and locked the door. They were all out of breath. Rain started to fall outside.
"They……. Killed…….MAI!!" cried Ty Lee. She sat down and continued to sob uncontrollably.
Aang and Sokka looked out the window and saw as more people were shot down. They both looked away in disgust. Innocent lives were being taken away with the blink of an eye; brushed away like a simple fly.
"WHAT'S……..HAPPENING!?" wheezed Zuko. Smellerbee walked over and started patting him on the back.
"I hope Teo's alright." Katara said.
"I hope Teo's alright." Aang mimicked. "Is he all you ever think about? What about Mai! She's dead now!" Ty Lee cried harder. "I mean, we have bigger things to worry about. Something is smashing through this city and it has unleashed an army of cannibals! A bunch of things dressed in red and green arrived, separated the city, and then took pot shots at us with a FRIGGIN' SNIPER RIFLE! AND ALL YOU WORRY ABOUT IS SOME CRIPPLED KID WHO FEELS NOTHING BELOW THE WAIST!"
Katara got up and ran into a different room, crying hard.
"Smooth." Sokka said.
Aang gave him a death glare, but before he could retort, the gunfire stopped. Sokka peeked out the door and found that the elves were frozen in fear. They were staring at a distant building. Everyone walked out from hiding and saw a huge figure rise from the ground. Zuko gasped. It had a face exactly like the Blue Spirit costume. Smaller figures were forming together, causing it to grow taller. The elves fired at the creature, but the bullets had no apparent effect.
Slowly, the Blue Spirit walked towards the crowd of surviving citizens. It raised its hand, revealing a giant drill.
The running had only begun…