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10 MONTHS AGO

Korra could feel the cold coming. It pinched her nose and dried her eyes. Exiting the tent she could see the plume of a fresh fire going. She approached Opal's petite figure from behind. The girl looked over her shoulder at Korra, "You're up early." Opal noted pleasantly.

"Couldn't sleep." Opal nodded. Turning around she reclined on the counter and looked across the collected tables of what they considered the cafeteria.

"Winter is coming," Korra began like she had every day for the past month.

"Korra," Opal's eyes drifted over to the muscled teen. She warned her for Tenzin's sake. Tenzin sat in the makeshift cafeteria staring across the table at them.

Their group had lived in the car junk yard for all of a year. The fences kept out the undead, the cars kept away prying eyes, but no one had anticipated bandits breaking in.
Tenzin sat at the table, and she didn't question if he had moved from the night before. She knew he had sat there all night with his crumbled up letter as he had every night for the last two months.

His arms had become heavy with grief, his features settled on a blank expression. Though the bags beneath his eyes were heavy they weighed nothing compared to the crumpled paper in his hand and what it meant to him.

Even Lin, who appreciated the man for who he used to be, could see he'd been consumed with depression and his leadership was all but non-existent.

It was people like Korra who lead them in hunting expeditions, who got down and dug latrines, who heaved laundry to and from the lake day after day that had kept the group going.

"Winter is coming," Korra glared at the empty shell of what had once been a great man, "But I suppose you don't even care about that now that Pema is gone." Bitter. That's what she'd become. So very bitter since losing her father and mother.

At the mention of her name Tenzin looked up with the hope of an orphan hearing his mother's voice on a tape recorder, "Have you heard anything about my wife and children?"

Korra looked at the man. He'd neglected the importance of everything else she had said.

"Korra," Opal warned again.

"We won't survive winter this year." She repeated. But he'd become so removed he didn't even look at her.

His glassy eyes were bloodshot from insomnia, his body waif from not eating. Even still his words came out with a good measure of force, "We stay put until Pema returns."

Korra went to speak and was cut short by screaming, "Help! Help! Someone help me!"

Tenzin got to his feet quickly, "Pema!"

Opal and Korra looked to one another. The voice screaming was male and young by the sound of it. Not Pema, but undoubtedly someone in trouble. The voices came just beyond the fence where the tree line began.

Korra raced towards the voices, "Help! Someone help!" Now it became a duet of two voices calling for help.

"Go get the others." Korra commanded slipping into the role of a leader before Tenzin had even considered what that would look like. Taking the machete off of Tenzin's side she asked, "Mind if I borrow this?" Tenzin's expression looked dumbfounded as she disarmed him and raced towards the fence opening.

Just then the sight came into view.

Two young males being pursued by a cluster of undead.

"Open the gates!" She called to Tenzin.

"No!" Tenzin said over her shoulder. She spun to him.

"What do you mean 'no'?" She turned to the gates where the boys had made it to the fence. She planted her feet and said the words menacingly, "Open the gates."

One began climbing the fence.

"Bolin, hurry!" The lanky boy called to the broader shouldered boy as he too began to climb.

"I have the only key so there is no use asking the others. As I've said before: we do not open our gates to strangers."

"Since when?"

"Since I lost the mother of my children to-,"

"This is different."

"How?" Tenzin countered.

Korra grit her teeth and grumbled. They didn't have time for this. The undead pulled the slender boy down. He hit the ground hard.

"For one they aren't bandits!" Korra moved to the fence, her hands grappled the gates entrance. It had been chained shut and locked.

"How do you know that?" Tenzin asked. Bolin leapt off the fence.

Korra's tone turned darker than even before, " Give. Me. The. Key." Tenzin took a step away from her first.

"No!" he shouted almost like a child then turned and began stomping away. She could chase him down. Beat his ass and take the damned key. But she respected everything he had don'e for her and her family for a year. She knew her father simply would not approve of her beating a widowed old man. "Dammit!"

Outside the fence the boy named Bolin had grabbed hold of a large rock. He cracked the skull of an undead and turned smashing another one in the jaw. The undead's jaw hung on hinges, broken clean through, but he continued advancing even with his severed jaw dripping blood down his shirt. Bolin swung around, tightening his grip on the rock before powering his fist through the skull. It caved around his hand with a sickening sound and he pulled his hand free to find it covered in the decayed maggot filled insides of the undead.

The second boy took out a dagger and shoved it into the spine of an undead. He shoved him away, the dagger came dislodged and the undead was sent sprawling to the ground. With it's spine severed it became reduced to crawling across the earth on it's belly, ragged fingers slowly raking its body forward.

Korra took off towards a pile of scrap and rubble. Skidding to stop she began kicking aside a large slab with her foot then she bent down and shoved aside a beam.

Opal raced to her side along with Kuvira.

"What do you need?" Opal asked.

"We can't get through," Korra grunted, "so we get over. Find something that can hang over the side of that fence." Opal turned and dashed away leaving her with Kuvira.

"What are you doing?" Kuvira asked. Korra ignored her.

She continued kicking through one piece of rubbish after the other she found a thick long piece of wood, she pointed to an end of it, "Grab and lift."

Together the two women hoisted the wood up alongside the fence at a slanted angle. The fence jingled and swayed with the new weight.
Korra took a few steps back from the slanted wood, "What are you-," Kuvira began then realized what she was doing, "That wood won't hold your weight!" But Korra had already taken a running start.

Her feet bound against the wooden slope taking her one story off the ground. She felt the board sway beneath her, each step higher the wood groaned until finally it gave way beneath her. Knowing her luck had run out Korra thrust both feet into the wood and aimed herself forward.

The wood collapsed aside into the gravel, dirt and dust. She retrained her eyes on the girl crazy enough to leap the fence with no way of return.

Korra's body sailed the distance, arching clear of the fence with a few feet to spare before gravity took hold pulling her to the earth. She tucked her body into the impact rolling off the momentum and using some of it to propel her back to her feet.

"Woah!" Bolin's eyes melted in adoration having witnessed the whole thing.

"Catch!' she tossed each boy a machete.

Motion from her right was met with a machete being driven through its eye. She met a second undead by powering through its chest with her foot.

"Korra!" Opal tossed a heavy chain over the fence. She gave the chain slack and it began clinking against the metal as it lowered down the fence.

The slender boy immediately made for the chain, ready to go. The boy grabbed the chain tightly and as soon as he did he was met with Opal and Kuvira pulling him up by hauling the chain backwards. Their combined strength had him over the side in just under a minute. He grabbed the top of the fence then swung his legs over before dropping down. He raced to the back of the chain as Opal gave more slack and allowed the chain to rattle back down the opposite side.

Meanwhile Korra sliced through the stomach of an undead and watched its intestines drop free to the ground, unraveling. Unsurprisingly, even having been slit open the undead didn't falter its assault, tripping over its own insides and landing face first in the now deflated mess. The stench was horrifically pungent like death had crawled inside un-hatched eggs of... Korra felt herself want to puke.

Placing her grimy wrist to her nose, Korra slammed the sharp of her machete into its head.

"Hurry up!" She said between breaths as undead closed around her.

Bolin grabbed the chain and was skyrocketed upward by the opposing force of the three grunting youth. Midway there something seemed to dawn on him, "Wait! What about Kai?" Bolin asked.

"Bolin, he's done for! Leave him!" The slender boy called back.

"But Mako, he's-," Bolin paused, "He's our confused little brother."

Something seemed to dawn on Mako, "Bolin, don't you even think about-," but Bolin had already released the chain. The three youth fell like dominos into one another from their own unrestricted force.

"Dammit, Bolin!" Mako rushed towards the fence, "I swear to god Bolin, if you-," But Bolin had already vanished behind the forest line.
Hastily, Mako began climbing the fence. Opal grabbed him under his arms, pulling him back as the mouths of three hungry undead chomped where his fingers had been only a fraction of a second before.

"Let go of me! He's my brother! Get off me!"

Undead closed in on Korra from all sides. Opal returned to the side of the fence she took out a gun, "Korra get down!" And she began firing. Kuvira joined the effort. Undead started dropping like flies as the two girls stood behind the line taking them out. Korra stepped towards the fence and covered her ears as the popping sound rung out.
Job done they both dropped their weapons. A small opening was presented to Korra. She could go after Bolin or get back over the fence. Opal took up the chain ready to take her back over.

Korra decided, she made a move to the tree line.

"Korra!" Opal shouted after her.

She pushed through the thick underbrush. Ahead of her she could hear the noisy boy stomping through. He was in good shape, but not better than Korra. She was at his flank in seconds, "Where?" she asked.

"Lake!"

She then overcame him, her feet hitting the ground at full speed she left him in her dust.

In seventy feet or so she began to hear a voice, "Help! Bolin! Mako! Help me!"

Lungs ragged with effort she burst broken into the opening of the lake. The boy had no shirt on. At some point he had used a shoe as protection against the undead.

He crawled across the top of a tall rock face. Undead at his feet threatened to pull him down and devour them. Six of them. Korra went forward ready to take down the undead but just then the boy turned revealing his backside for only a second.

That's when she saw the tattoos. Black ink spanned his wiry back in a circular fashion surrounding a tear made of vines, snakes and dying roses.

The tattoo wasn't unknown to her. In fact the insignia was very familiar. It had been worn by the men who had raided their junk yard only two months ago.

She breathed the word, "Bandit."

Six undead was nothing. She cut them down like wheat and when she was done she looked over at the boy. Her anger swelled, reason diminished.

"Wow!" The boy grinned a disarming smile from atop the rocks above her, "You're an incredible fighter. Thanks!"

Korra grabbed him by the ankle and slammed him to the ground. She pinned him with one hand by the shoulder.

"Fucking bandit!" She raised her machete in the air. The boy froze in shock. How quickly the girl's demeanor had changed. Korra powered down ready to exterminate the goddamned beast that had taken so much from her and the people she cared about. Kai caught her hand that gripped the machete. The effort of just that took both of his hands. His eyes bulged as he realized what he was up against and Korra could feel his bones and muscles exerting themselves just to keep the machete from his face. The machete hung centimeters above him and he grunted and tried to squirm free. But any motion he made brought the machete down further.

She moved her hand from his shoulder to his throat. The boy tried to fling her off with his elbows but the machete boar down on him and he stopped. Her hand now clutch his throat and she unceremoniously began choking the life from him.

Korra glared at the boy. A sick something in her mind not allowing her to use all of her force. If she did she could easily run him through. But she wanted to see the hope fade from his eyes when he realized he wasn't strong enough to keep away death.

Just like Korra had felt when the bandits attacked her group. When she lost Pema and the four angels she'd come to think of as siblings. Helplessness like watching her father leave with Suyin and Wei in the night. Or the countless times she'd found Opal crying for her lost family. So much helplessness. She wanted someone else to feel it for once.
The machete made purchase in his skin, digging into his cheek, cutting back his soft adolescent flesh and allowing blood to pool around the dirty blade then slide over his round cheek.

"Not a ba-," he struggled to say.

The weight that hit her from the side sent her reeling back into the rocks. Her head banged against them and she fell limp to the ground. Her last sight was Bolin as he helped the bewildered boy off the ground.

When Korra pushed aside the flap of Tenzin's tent she found Tenzin sitting on his bed. Glaring at the young boy who had been chained to a heavy metal desk.

The room was lit with flickering candles and a certain red darkness surrounded them. As if Tenzin's depression hung to the fabric of the tent like a ghost.

Korra took a steadying breath. She knew what she'd done was wrong. The bandits might have committed unforgivable wrongs but that gave her no right to act as the young boys judge, jury and executioner.

Tenzin's face made no effort to hide his contempt.

In that moment Korra realized it wasn't weakness that had kept Tenzin's eyes glued on the gate awaiting Pema's return. It hadn't been cowardice that had him staring at the crumbled note. It had been a commitment to the people he loved. And the only thing that had pried his eyes away from the gate and note was his distaste of the people who harmed them.

"Lucky for you," Tenzin seethed, "I don't employ the same tactics as bandits do. I don't rape women and beat children."

"I'm not a bandit anymore," The kid insisted, "And I never laid a hand on any woman or kid! Not ever!"

"Shut up!" Tenzin got to his feet so quickly that Kai scuttled backwards, a difficult task with his hands chained.

"Tenzin?" Korra's voice touched the man's ears before he did something he regretted, she then nodded towards the exit.

"And you! You brought this thing in here!" He shouted the moment they were outside.

"I didn't know he was a bandit."

"His kind are lower than undead!" Tenzin boiled. The few people left in their group collected around the encounter, including Opal, Mako and Bolin. No more than eighteen people. Two years ago there had been hundreds.

"He's what, twelve? Thirteen? Whatever he did with those bandits shouldn't determine who he will be."

"You disobeyed a direct order."

"You and I both know you haven't been calling the shots around here in a long time," Korra looked around at the group's faces. They all looked so grieved and damaged. Most had come with families, friends, and lovers. Most had come with children. The undead had been a cancer to everyone leaving not a single family or friend untouched.

"I'm still in charge," Tenzin asserted.

"Of what?" Korra looked around, "A pile of empty canned goods and slumping fences? I tried to kill a boy today, Tenzin. I pinned him to the ground and tried to choke the life out of him." She reiterated, "A boy."

Korra turned to the group standing around her and announced, "That's why I'm leaving." More than a few gasped, "Listen, you don't have to join me. I don't expect you to." She turned to Tenzin, addressing the crowd but locking eyes with the man, "I know have never married. Nor have I had children. But I had a mother. And she tried to eat me. The undead don't care who we were to them or what we are to someone else. They don't care if we are grieving our losses. And just like the undead. winter doesn't care if we have wool sweaters or firewood. It doesn't care if we are too cold and tired to defend ourselves from the undead. They'll kill us both all the same.

"We all remember last winter. It was a nightmare. Burning bodies just for the warmth, beating the elderly to steal their blankets." She paused taking them back was so unpleasant, she allowed for a long moment of silence. "Come with me and we can fight the callous bastards of winter and undead together."

"I'm not interested in another failing leadership," Kuvira spoke up suddenly. Korra turned. Kuvira, ever lurky, creepy faced Kuvira came walking through the people. She hadn't even given the woman a second thought. Now she spoke, "Korra is an eighteen year old fool who will get you all killed before you can even reach the lake. But follow me and I can promise you food and safety. I have repaired several vehicles for transportation and outlined places that haven't been pillaged for food and water. So you can choose, drive to safety or hope you can march there before winter turns your knees to ice."

There was a shuffling silence. Broken families conversed with one another. Friends queried what the other would do if...

Finally the verdict came back and it was all but unanimous:

"Sorry, Korra,"

"She has transportation."

"I don't want to walk. Not if it's cold…"

Kuvira supporters took their stance alongside Kuvira. All but three people. Opal, Mako, and Bolin.

Even with the uneven divide between Kuvira and Korra, Tenzin had only one follower left: Lin Beifong, who had grown just as quiet and removed as Tenzin over these last few months.

Tenzin looked angry at first but then something came back over him. That look of depression. A look that asked 'what's the point?' He turned on his heels.
Korra spoke after consideration, "And we're taking Kai with us."

Bolin stared at Tenzin on the bench. Tenzin watched his people leave him. His eyes traveling between the gate and the crumbled paper in his hand.

"Hey, Korra?" Bolin began as he adjusted the strap of a semi-automatic he now carried.

"Yeah."

"What's that paper in Tenzin's hand?"

Korra looked back at Tenzin, he was once again reading the crumbled up letter, "Pema, Tenzin's wife, would write handwritten notes to her husband and kids sometimes. I once read a note she wrote to Meelo it said, 'Your my handsome little man.'"
Bolin nodded understanding, "What does his note say?"

Korra watched Tenzin's head dip, he covered half his face, and for the first time in a long time he allowed the tears to flow from his eyes, his shoulders shook as he fell into uncontrollable sobs. Sobs he stifled behind his weary hand.

Korra turned her gaze to her feet then responded to Bolin, "What do you think it says?"