Alone Pt. 1
1 AND A HALF YEARS AGO
Korra's bare feet purchased in twelve inches of snow. Her toes had turned an unhealthy hue of blue. She took off her jacket and made a bold move. It would be one thing to lose a finger. Another to lose her big toes. The truth was you could live with a few fingers missing. You'd die without your toes. Without them you could not walk. And though the winter made Korra's body uncertain with straggling motion, to not be able to walk would completely damn her.
She ripped and wrapped her jacket around her feet, then pushed away from the earth, praying it would be enough.
She'd fallen. Her head had a nasty gash to prove it, her arms had been bruised by several branches and debris. Just before hitting the unforgiving rock below she'd managed to find a cold vine strong enough to break her fall. It had torn through her hand leaving a bloody mess of gaping flesh and tissue. Her weapon of choice was a piece of driftwood she'd dislodged from a frozen over river. Her belly had begun to rumble audibly after day two.
This was day four of separation from her group. Her father, Suyin, Tenzin and the other few dozen that had made it this far into winter.
She heard their feet around her. Not an undead's heavy footfall.
This noise was faint and measured.
Purposeful.
Korra came to a stop. Around her was endless white. The snow still howled against her from the right making it impossible to see more than four feet ahead of herself.
She was being followed.
By man?
She'd heard the stories around camp fires. The stories of escaped convicts roaming free, not having law enforcement to put them in check. Serial killers and rapists a like freed from their cells as if the epidemic weren't already enough of a horror.
She listened closer still, her head turning left. Only the heavy snow, the biting cold, the blurry vision of someone dying of hypothermia.
The panting made her head snap right, but the heavy barreling feet through the thirteen inches of snow made her head snap left.
It was the paws of a hungry wolf pounding against her chest and taking her backwards to the ground that made her look forward.
She felt her feet barrel upward, her body sunk into the snow. The warm body atop of her snarled in her face. It's fangs long, it's eyes vicious. She thrust her arms forward, catching his teeth before he could bite a chunk of her face off.
"Gah!" She gasped as his fangs dug into her hands. He was powerful. His body built to hunt his prey and murder them. Holding his jaw open took everything she had.
The second wolf leapt at her legs. She caught sight of him just in time to jam her leg forward and kick him away. The second had been a female and she growled, hitting the ground on her back and twisting around quickly back on his feet. She dug her fingers into the wolf's mouth, using the leverage to throw him free with everything she had.
He rocketed aside, his small hungry frame making contact with a tree. His backside knocking snow free as he fell to the ground, covered in a patch of snow. He leapt back into action, shaking his head and body as Korra scrambled to her feet.
The three hungry wolves closed in. They began to growl. She lifted the driftwood in her hand, her eyes flicking to each of them. Her body falling into a slight crouch.
She pressed it all away then. Her hunger. Her thirst. Her numb toes. Her bloody wounds. She compartmentalized it all.
All of those things would kill her in due time. But this… this was now. Three hungry wolves circling her, growling. Waiting for an opening.
"Who wants to be my dinner?" She asked them a lot more confident than she felt.
That was when the wolf circling from behind her attacked.
She spun the female wolf's twig body down with a powerful thrust of the wood only to feel the claws of the second wolf dig into her back. He opened his mouth clamping down on her shoulder. She cried out reaching around in an attempt to throw him off.
That was when she felt the third wolf's fangs sink into her calf. The smaller framed wolf reared his neck pulling away some of her skin and small chunks of her flesh.
The pain that hit her was immediate. Even the cold didn't temper the sensation.
She forgot the one on her shoulder.
She could survive with an aching shoulder. Not if she couldn't walk. Not if she couldn't run.
She brought the wood down on the head of the wolf on her calf. One hard blow that split his skull clean open and broke the wood in her hand in half. Dinner.
She reached behind her pulling her second attacker forward. He bit her hand, squirming free. The first attacker was on her feet again. She circled her, looking to the dead wolf at her feet.
It hadn't occurred to Korra until just now that it had been a younger wolf. No doubt their child.
A kinder part of her grieved for them, a primal part of her, the part that wanted to survive, told her to kill the parents as well and use their fur as a jacket.
She had no weapons then. They knew this and they were angry.
The following attack came simultaneously.
Bam! The pain was astounding, how much power they had in those paws that knocked her backwards. One bit into her abdomen, the other drug his nails through her back. They trampled her a moment.
She couldn't figure out where they were, as eight feet simultaneously pound against her. Jaws opening and biting down, peppering her body in burning bites of agony. The white snow stained with her blood as she rolled over and landed a blow to the muzzle of one.
She pound away, one fist after the other until the wolf snagged her fist in its hand, biting down on her. She cried out into the cold air, her warm breath expelling a mist. As the warm bodies began to pull her apart. One pinned her, he opened his jaw and prepared to bite her neck. The other went for the artery I her legs, biting through her like she was paper and her fangs were scissors.
She realized then that they were trained. Just as a hunter with a rifle, to take apart a beasts by hitting vital points. She could feel every bone in his body as she held his chest at bay.
Then there came a third body. it'ss belly flying into view rfom just above her head and trailing snow behind her feet.
"Naga!" Korra exclaimed as her white dogs fur barreled through the snow taking the first attacker to the ground. Naga barred her teeth in his face, growling before doubling around and removing the second from her thigh. She pound her paw into the side of his head, before pinning his tail with her hind leg and biting into his fur. He bucked in her grip but she didn't release. She shook her head, deepening the bite, blood rupturing into the snow, its heat enough to cause trails of steam to sizzle in the air.
The second wolf took her by surprise. Biting her neck and dragging her backwards. The female wolf and Naga fought then, biting, swinging paws and moving back on hind legs for moments as they bit at one another, their fangs even locking around one another's in a violent kiss before Naga pushed her off.
Naga squealed a high pitched sound, twisting her bloody neck and fur and snapping her fangs at the male wolf that had closed in on her and chosen this moment to bite her rear.
Korra watched, her hand lifting from the wound on her thigh for only a moment. She looked down; the snow fell hard against her body. She felt colder. So very cold. She was bleeding awfully. The wolf had managed to bite through so much of her flesh. She worked now to keep pressure on the wounds peppering her body. She felt weak. A mixture of hunger and cold working as a deadly combination in her body.
She slumped back into the earth, her head turned to the side.
Over the dead body of a younger wolf she could see Naga valiantly defending her against the two others. Her consciousness faded. It had been fading even before the attack. Now with blood spill across the white carpet of the shallow woods, she could hear the punctuating cry of her dog. Woman's best friend. She could hear her being killed by the savage wolves.
She could do nothing but drop her head to the snow and pray when she awoke it wouldn't be as an undead.
PRESENT
The sound of the gunshot made Korra jump, the sound of Kuvira's body falling limp against shelves made her sob.
Asami exited the storage room moments later. The gun at her side, her eyes widening. Korra turned slowly, to look at the woman. Korra had always prided herself on being strong. But Asami, she had a strength even Korra didn't possess. She watched the woman's eyes begin to swim, her hand dropping the gun to the ground as she moved toward a wall, she doubled over then and vomited.
Korra moved closer to the woman. Asami's body was shaking and Korra's hands must have felt so foreign, she must have gone somewhere else, because when she looked up at Korra she had an sharpness in her eyes and a scowl on her lips.
Korra placed a hand on her back, sweeping long black locks of her hair away from her face as she finished retching and expelling.
It's a horror. Korra thought. This is all one never ending horror show.
When Asami finished she wiped her mouth with a nearby table cloth then stepped away slowly, her eyes moving away from Korra. She gargled water from her canteen spitting it out in a nearby bucket before repeating several times.
Korra's eyes etched over the woman's twig like build. She must have been something to see, even more so than now. Before the hunger wracked her body, making her sleeveless shirt reveal bone with lean hungry muscle.
Asami redid her pony tail, surprisingly neat, the curly black hair dancing in her fingers. She found another wall to slide down against. Across from Wu and Daw as they pushed two tables together and Daw laid atop of them.
Korra watched the woman a moment before deciding to take a seat beside her.
She heard Wu cooing softly to Daw as he rinsed tweezers with Alcohol and instructed Daw to 'stay still' while he got the glass out of his eye, "It won't be bad. Just an itty bitty pinch. That's all."
Korra swallowed.
She knew what came next; even Wu did, because he quickly gave Daw a belt to bite down on.
"I'm sorry I put you here," Korra said as the first piece of glass was clamped between the tweezers in Wu's hand.
Daw squirmed, his fists clenched, a grunt escaped his throat.
"You don't have to apologize." Asami said as Wu removed the glass. Daw's body surged upward from the makeshift bed. Wu's hand shoved his face to the table violently as the glass was pulled free.
"Yes I do. I shouldn't have brought you out to that desert."
"I volunteered," Asami said sharply.
"I shouldn't have let you," Korra pulled her legs close to her chest then. How many people had she lead? How many of them were dead? Kai, Mako, Bolin. She missed them so much. And they might all be dead. She might never know what happened to them.
"You didn't 'let me' do anything." Asami said firmly. Korra glanced at the woman beside her. So powerful. So resilient. Independent. She loved all those things about Asami. She loved Asami.
"Son of a bitch!" Daw screamed, slamming his fist into the table as Wu dropped the heavy piece of glass into a napkin.
"There's one other big one in there." Wu reminded him.
Daw took a heavy breath, blood streaming from his face and pooling against his ear, "Then pull it out already, dammit." He bit down hard on the belt, heavy pants leaving his mouth.
"I could have stayed in that helicopter with my father, Korra." Korra's breath caught because in that moment she felt Asami's hand touch her own, "But I didn't because I chose you."
Daw was quieter then. His uncontrollable crying hushed by Wu as he began dousing his face in water and tying fabric around his head and over his eye.
"I only ever want to choose you."
Korra glanced at Asami. Her lovely green eyes, the way mischievous dark hairs escaped her pony tail and hung at the side of her face. The way every part of her looked elegant, even covered in grime and dirt. Even with the faint smell of undead and vomit that hung between them.
Korra allowed her head to rest on the wall as both of their gazes drifted to their hands. Asami's thumb ran across the long wound extending over the top of Korra's palm from end to end.
"I've been wondering… What happened here?" Asami asked, concerned. As if she could go back in time and stop it.
Korra saw herself falling then. Her foot touching on ice. The drop from the cliff side. How close she'd come to dying only seconds later after falling hundreds of feet. How she'd grabbed the vine just a few feet before she hit the ground and allowed her hand to be shredded in order to live.
Now there was only a wound to show for those four horrid days alone in the heavy snow.
"I fell." Korra surmised. Asami nodded, her thoughts working out what that might mean. Why Korra had become so suddenly tight jawed. Not wanting to push further. Asami absentmindedly moved her finger over the rough rise in Korra's skin. A smile touched her lips when her thumb found its way to the toffee skin on the other side of her hand. She lifted the hand to her mouth and pressed a kiss there. She then allowed their fingers to intertwine once more.
"Korra…" Asami searched for whatever she was trying to say. When she looked up she found Korra's concerned expression and looked aside.
"What is it?" Korra asked, "I don't bite - hard." She smiled.
Daw passed into a fitful sleep. Wu began to clean his hands with alcohol and Asami allowed her head to drift onto Korra's shoulder.
"It's so cruel, Korra." Asami said. Korra turned her head so she was resting her mouth on Asami's thick raven hair. In the back of her mind she wondered how it still managed to feel soft and silky to the touch. The woman now resting with her thigh and leg pressed into her own felt so cold. Their bare skin touched and an excited nervousness settled into her body.
All of Asami, head to toe was noticeably cold. A welcome reprieve from Korra's constant overheating. She felt Asami pull her closer, as if she were indulging in the warmth, "I just found you." Asami finished, closing her eyes.
Korra's eyes transfixed on the long dark eyelashes. Taking in the small silver speckles in Asami's skin. The small build up of dirt on her cheek. She used her other hand to graze her fingers over her face, smiling to herself when Asami released a quiet whimpering moan. Asami murmurred, "You're so warm."
No sooner had the words left Asami's mouth there was a loud Crack!
Asami's eyes popped open. Korra head whipped around. The world around them began shaking.
"What the hell is-?" Korra's question had been directed by Wu who was several paces away on a table counting bullets. She didn't finish the question, because the person she posed it to was suddenly crushed by a thousand tons of rock, mangled bodies of undead, and a miscellaneous of furniture and metal that suddenly came barreling through the roof.
The building was collapsing.
The snow had fallen hard over Korra's body. Blanketing her in white. When she awoke it was to the sound of teeth tearing through flesh.
She was cold. Her body ached, but she still managed to push her hands into the foot of snow around her and see what was making the noise.
First she saw the child wolf. It's eyes open, blood frozen in place dripping down the crack in its skull. Then she saw the man's backside.
His shirt was short sleeved. His pants threadbare and hanging from his legs like stragles of fabric. He wore no shoes. And his flesh had chilled over blue.
Korra swallowed.
He was eating something.
She pushed up further in the snow. The effort enough to make her grunt, remembering her body had decided to power off rather than face the pain. Even now her vision blurred, her head swam, her eyes blinked back tears, and the snow still was tainted with her blood.
But she rose up higher.
Two wolves, their bodies laden with snow. They were dead. Gnawed on, not by the man but something else.
By Naga. Her handy work written in the bite marks that had finished them off.
But what was the man eating. Korra grunted, louder.
That was when the man's head snapped around. His mouth covered in the red moisture of blood. His pupils dilating, his heavy breaths reaching Korra's ears. But now Korra could see.
Korra could see he dragged the warm heart of her best friend dripping from his mouth.
Korra felt her heart shatter as she breathed her companions name, "Naga."
Something dripped onto Korra's face and she smiled. Naga. She did this a lot. Korra opened her eyes with a smile already forming on her lips. The damned dog loved spitting on her in the morning for some reason. Spit. Lick. Spit Lick lick. That was always the doggy breath she woke up to.
But it wasn't spit. It was blood.
The blood of an undead as it rolled in heavy drops from beneath the pile of debris it lay within crushed.
Korra looked around. Everything had happened so fast falling. Being crushed. Seeing the rocks and debris. Trying to run away with Asami. Crying for Daw to wake up and move before he too was crushed like Wu.
Korra looked around herself.
The heavy weight on her all but broke her. She could see her leg was pinned. She could hear the undead surrounding her in the rubble.
How many of them had they escaped from on the stairs? How many stories of undead had fallen in on them?
If the rocks didn't kill them the undead would. She had to get free.
But the rock surrounded her on all side. The rock on her leg was unbearably heavy.
Worse, she looked to her right and found the closest undead.
She could tell this one had been a woman. She could tell she had a wedding ring on her finger. She reached fro Korra desperately her grey eyes and unhinging jaw wanting to consume Korra.
But her entire lower body had been crushed by several tons of rock.
Korra stared at her face. Her desperation to eat.
The married undead looked behind her at the rock crushing her, then to Korra. Merely one foot away. So close. The dust began to stir as the woman rocked side to side attempting to be free. If she hadn't been undead it might have been unbearable. As it was the woman felt nothing. She cared for nothing except feeding on the living.
Korra's breath quickened as the woman began frantically knocking side to side. Her body began breaking. With sickening snaps she began to tear her upper body from her lower body. Stopping only to reach for Korra with her grimy hands, to widen her eyes and release a hiss that filled the air with a fowl stench of death.
Korra looked around. The rocks around her were shaking. She'd collapse the space if Korra didn't stop her.
"Stupid bitch." Korra swore. Looking around for a weapon. A rod. A rock. Something. Finally she found one. The undead's body began releasing unholy juices that seeped free of the crushing rock. Her spine snapping, her stomach's skin tearing. She ignored all of what would have been unbearable pain as she continued moving her body back and forth.
Korra's hand gripped the rock a moment. She turned attempting to get a hold of the undead without the wed woman biting her and without stressing her leg.
She grunted and screamed as the rock crushing her leg shifted rather painfully. Not from Korra's effort but from the undeads.
She had to kill the damned thing now.
She tried to get a grip of the woman, their fingers fell into one another's. The undead attempted to pull Korra towards her. Korra resisted, ripping her hands free of the woman's. Finally with a loud Pop! The spine of the undead dislodged from her hips. Her abdomen came to hinges of internal organs and thick blood. The stench was almost unbearable, it overwhelmed Korra's nose causing her eyes to blur with tears. She was closer now. Close enough that Korra could grab her by her long hair and pull her forward.
With a heavy grunt she smashed the woman's head to the solid earth beneath them both. Thunk! Once. She heard her teeth shatter and fragment against the cold ground. But she could still hear the woman breathing. Thunk! The second time broke her jaw. Thunk! The third time destroyed her skull. Finally the woman lay still in Korra's hand.
Korra laid her head back against the rocks.
She took a breath. She allowed the thought she'd been avoiding to cross her mind. The thought she'd hated to even allow because the moment she'd allowed it an uneasy knowing filled her.
Where was Asami?
Had she been crushed?
Would she die here alone?