Chapter 10: Escape from Nanjing
I went downstairs into the room I shared with Suki and Toph. I told them we had a problem and asked Suki to get Ty Lee and Azula. Suki then left and a few minutes later arrived with Ty Lee and Azula (Azula still looked tired). I explained that the dock was swarming with Fire Nation soldiers, so we'd need to disguise Azula (mainly using makeup). I asked Ty Lee to bring in her makeup and the clothes we took from the Captain, so we'd know what we had to work with.
"Uh … Sokka we don't have any of the Captain's clothes anymore. When Azula got her new clothes she burned them," Ty Lee said.
"What about the Jacket she was wearing when she boarded the Nayami," I asked, if Azula wore this jacket it would cover most of her Earth Kingdom clothes.
"Azula burned it last night," Ty Lee said, she sounded upset about this for some reason.
It took a moment from me to realise just how bad this was. If Azula was wearing Earth Kingdom clothes she would draw attention to herself and since her face was on wanted posters everywhere most people would recognise who she was. If she went out like this she'd be caught instantly. Though I wanted to shout at Azula and find out why she burned that jacket, this wouldn't fix the problem. I need to think of a way to fix this.
Okay, to disguise Azula we need to hide her Earth Kingdom clothes or give her some of our clothes. We didn't have any spare clothes, so we couldn't do that latter. We could steal a blanket from the ship and wrap it round Azula to hide her Earth Kingdom clothes. If a Fire Nation soldier saw Azula like this they'd be suspicious and would investigate. But we kept them far away from Azula they might not notice that she was wearing a blanket, so as along as a Fire Nation soldier didn't get too close to Azula we should be able to hide her identity.
"If we don't have the Jacket it'll be harder to hide Azula, so we'll need to make sure she isn't seen. Toph we'll need you to tear a hole in the side of the ship so we can escape undetected."
"No problem," replied Toph, obviously happy that she could destroy something.
The plan was simple; we go down to the cargo deck and have Toph Metalbend a small hole in the side of the ship. When the coast is clear Toph would open up a large hole which we'd all climb out of, then Toph closes the hole so no one knows we were here. We then travel to the edge of Nanjing and have Toph Earthbend a hole in the outer wall so we can avoid any guards on the gate (there are bound to be guards on the gate). The main difficultly would be keeping Azula away from Fire Nation soldiers. As Suki and Ty Lee said that makeup wouldn't help hide Azula and Azula didn't want Ty Lee to give her a different hair style, the chances of Azula being recognised were pretty high. But with no other options we gathered our stuff and headed down to the cargo deck.
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We all headed down to the cargo deck. Toph lead the way and used Metalbending to determine where the sailors were so we wouldn't be seen. Occasionally Sokka would ask Toph to make a small hole in the ship, so that he could look out and see if we were low enough. When we finally got low enough he told us we'd wait here for a chance to escape.
The ship was cold and the blanket barely kept me warm. Though the jacket was warmer it was also the only item of clothing I still had from when this group found me. Since I'd become sick after wearing those clothes it's possible that they'd poisoned them somehow. So I burned the jacket to ensure it couldn't poison me (Ty Lee's efforts to save the jacket showed that they'd done something to it, else she would have cared about it). Though it's possible that the Earth Kingdom clothes are also poisoned I can't burn because I don't have any other clothes to wear. As soon as I acquires some new clothes I'll destroy them as well.
Eventually Sokka saw whatever he was looking for and ordered Toph to make a larger hole. He then jumped through it. Judging by the way he fell and the thud sound when he hit the ground there was a gap between the floor we were on and the dock. Next Suki jumped out. Ty Lee then asked if I needed help getting out. I told her I didn't need any help and walked towards the hole. I looked out of the hole and checked how far down it was to the dock. Since it was only a short distance I jumped down. Ty Lee then followed. Toph came out last and very reluctantly (it seems that she has trouble sensing the distance between metal and stone). After Toph sealed the hole in the boat and we set off with Sokka leading the way.
The docks were a jumble of people and cargo both boarding and leaving the ships. Further down there was a market and beyond that the series of buildings that made up Nanjing. As we travelled across the docks I quickly figured out that Sokka was trying to lead us in the opposite direction of any Fire Nation soldier he saw. Unfortunately this impulsive travelling resulted in us walking back and forth along the docks (occasionally hiding behind some cargo) until we ended up at an empty pier.
While every stood in front of me to shield me from the crowds and Sokka tried to figure out where we should go next I evaluated my options. I had two choices: either I stay with this group or surrender myself to a Fire Nation soldier (there was no other way to escape this group since I had nowhere to escape to). Though this group was trying to poison me and they were working for Zuko I knew that they couldn't be trusted. However I didn't know which Fire Nation soldiers supported me or and which supported Zuko. If they supported me they would help me escape and rejoin the 'rebel' army, but it they supported Zuko I'd be captured and executed. Since it would be harder to escape from the Fire Nation army than this group I decided to remain with them for the moment. Though I'll need to kill them or escape before we reached Hangzhou. But first I'd need to escape Nanjing (if I killed them here their bodies would be discovered quickly).
As we had an Earthbender we could easily go through the city walls, so we weren't limited to exiting through the main gate. The difficulty was getting to these walls without me being seen. If a soldier sees me and reports this to Zuko he would authorise reinforcements and send out search parties to find me. Even if they didn't catch me they would hamper my efforts. I had to escape without being seen.
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Now that I've stopped having to worry about us getting caught and having to constantly run around the docks I can evaluate the situation. Basically we have two options; either we sneak aboard another ship or we sneak out of Nanjing. Though sneaking aboard another ship would get us out of Nanjing and the risk of Azula being seen was low we had no way of knowing where we'd end up or how long we'd be at sea (unless we hijacked the ship). By contrast sneaking out of Nanjing and walking to Hangzhou would be the more reliable way of getting there. But as long as Azula was travelling with us getting out of Nanjing be difficult. We couldn't go out the main gate, since that would be too well guarded but if Toph used her Earthbending on one of the southern outer walls would could escape through that (Hangzhou was south of Nanjing, so if we didn't exit through a southern wall we'd have to walk round Nanjing's walls).
To determine where the southern walls were I needed to reorientate myself. Since we came from the north if we went towards the buildings we had sailed past as we entered Nanjing we'd be travelling north, but if we went in the opposite direction we'd be travelling south. After checking the surrounding buildings I was able to locate the buildings we'd past and determine which way south was. I then told everyone that we'd be travelling south and that we'd escape through the wall using Toph's Earth bending. I also warned them that we'd have to hide Azula from the Fire Nation soldiers since there was no way we could defeat so many of them.
Progress along the docks was slow since we were constantly having to hide behind cargo and wait for the soldiers to either leave or look the other way. By the time we were out of the docks and hidden among the buildings we were all tired and hungry (Azula looked very tired). As hungry and tired as we were now was not the time to rest and have lunch, since we could be discovered at any moment. We needed to keep moving. Though I tried to keep up moral by promising everyone that we could have lunch and rest after we escaped, most of our hope faded when got to the wall.
Though I wasn't surprised that the outer wall had Fire Nation soldiers stationed on top of it I hadn't counted on there being Fire Nation soldiers in front of it (were they worried about the wall being vandalised). Since the soldiers in front of the wall would attack us if Toph made a hole in the wall we couldn't break through it, so we'd need to tunnel under it instead. I turned to Toph.
"Toph, change of plan. Since the wall's guarded we'll need to tunnel under it, rather than break through it."
"Just take out the guards and break through it," Azula said.
We were all shocked by this. Not because of what Azula said but because she actually spoke (Azula almost never said anything to us).
"That's too risky. If we get into a fight with the guards we'll quickly get overwhelmed," I replied.
"Digging a hole is far more noticeable and will a long time, both of which increase the chance of me being discovered," Azula said in a slightly kind way, "Ty Lee can quickly take out the ground level guards and Toph can easily incapacitate the ones on the wall by creating a stone wall around them. Once none of the guards can see me Toph just needs to break a hole in the wall so we can escape, then seal the hole so the remaining soldiers can't follow us. By the time they figure out what happened we'll be long gone. As long as they don't see me they'll just think it was a random attack and won't pursue us."
Azula's plan did have some merits, since it would allow us to quickly escape. Though I still think the tunnel idea would be the safest way I had a feeling that the others may prefer the quicker way, since they wanted to leaving Nanjing as soon as possible (also Azula would probably sabotage the tunnel if she didn't get her way). I asked her to quickly explain her plan in more detail, specifically the order in which we attack the soldiers. Azula explained and we all got into our positions (Suki and I had to stop Azula being seen by the guards, then move the guards Ty Lee paralysed).
Azula's plan worked and in less than a minute we were out of Nanjing and running towards a nearby forest (the whole of the Western Earth Kingdom seemed to be one giant forest). Once in the forest I turned back and checked on Nanjing. No one was coming from Nanjing after us, we had escaped without a problem. But now was not the time to stop an celebrate. Just to be safe we needed to move deeper into the forest in case they sent out soldiers out to find us. I asked Toph to locate a nearby stream or river (so we'd have fresh water and wouldn't have to carry water). She found one after some searching and we set off in that direction.
Since Azula helped us it seems that she finally trusted us.
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My plan worked without a problem. When the guards are questioned they'll report that they were attacked by three or four people, so when they find four bodies in the woods they'll stop searching for them, making it easier for me to escape alone.
Notes:
This chapter is slightly later than I would have liked but I was suffering from some hand pains that made it difficult to type.
1) I was asked why the group don't just buy some Komodo Rhinos to travel to Hangzhou. I though about this and came up with some plausible reasons: firstly they're too expensive to buy and look after, secondly they can't take them to an Earth Kingdom area and pretend not to be Fire Nation, and thirdly Azula may use them to escape (she can ride even if she can't run).
2) The 'outer wall' of a city is the wall that separates the city from the everywhere outside the city.