Alone Pt. 2
The uneven ground beneath Asami's back dug into her spine and prickles of water touched her face. Moments after the sensations became apparent, her eyes snapped open with a sharp gasp escaping her lips. She faced skyward, and all she could see were angry twisting clouds above her, pouring down water. Asami lurched forward, her backside dry in comparison to her wet front. How long had she been lying in the rain?
"Korra," her mouth seemed to say before her mind could catch up with her environment. With the rubble of the collapsing building.
It had happened so quickly. Running out of the building. Korra's last words before being snatched away had been for her to run, "Asami! Go!"
And she had. And she'd just managed to leave the building. But now -
She got to her feet feeling the tight pinch in her ankle and an ache in her broken arm.
She took in her surroundings, startled by the damaged building behind her. Only half the building had collapsed, making the wreckage of metal and cement resemble a stack of pancakes hanging from the side of a plate.
Summoning her strength, Asami limped onto uncertain feet.
"Korra!" She cried into the shifting cloud of dust that surrounded her. She retched back the small fine particles of rock and dirt that filled her lungs, "Korra!"
She'd seen Wu die. She'd seen his eyes widening just moments before his skull was crushed by a rainfall of cement.
She stumbled a few steps, her breath quickening. If Wu had died, had Korra met the same fate?
She had to find Korra.
With one hand firmly tucked inside her makeshift sling she threw out her only good arm and began shoving aside rocks and stones. They crashed at her feet, smaller rocks tumbling free. The dust cloud stirred around her, blanketing her in its dark finger and resulting a short line of vision.
She had to find Korra.
Rain pooled in dry earth slowly turning the ground to mud as her hand pulled down one piece of crumbled rubble after the other.
A heavy rock tumbled downward landing on her foot like a heavy anchor. She gasped, stumbling backwards and directly into the waterlogged hands of an undead.
She heard his heavy breath in her ears as his mouth closed in on her flesh. She shrilled as the reality sunk in just before his teeth did. She whipped her elbow backwards meeting his temple before she leapt into a violent strike, her foot rocketing into the side of his head. A spike of pain shot up her sprained ankle. It rattled her brain just as much as it did the undead's. When the undead fell aside his head pressed lodged in an out jutting piece of metal.
She reached to her shoulder taking a breath. It had all happened to fast. She'd reacted so fast. She pressed her fingers to her skin. Just a graze. That's all it took. A small scratch and she could become an undead.
She inspected the skin delicately, searching for the indentation his teeth would have left.
She shuddered and released the breath she'd been holding. His teeth hadn't purchased. She closed her eyes and thanked whatever god was in the grey clouds above.
She was going about this all wrong. She'd allowed her panic to take control. It was unlike her and it had nearly gotten her killed. She calculated everything. She needed to think about this if she wanted to find Korra.
If she wanted to survive.
That was when she heard the quiet faint-
Clink.
She peered through the billowing cloud of dust around her attempting to pinpoint the sound.
Clink.
She began walking, her feet moving delicately over the earth, her eyes snapping in every direction for the next undead. She needed to pinpoint that sound. That sound was more than likely Korra attempting to call for help. To be heard.
She could see maybe ten feet in all directions. The dusty debris cloud had become unbearably thick. Her feet began moving up a mound of rock and rubble the rain making each step slippery.
Clink.
She waited what seemed like a lifetime and when no sound came her heart sank. Had that been the end? Had the silence marked the death of Korra? She closed her eyes, both to clear them of the small shards of dirt that dotted them and also to hold back tears. But more than anything the action brought to mind electric blue eyes set above a half pitched smile.
It brought the regret of never tasting toffee skin or pressing her body against Korra's in an expression of her love.
Her eyes opened, she had to remain calm. Panic had nearly gotten her killed. Though her heart crumbled to ashes in her chest her words came out loud and strong, "If you're making that noise I need to find you. Keep making noise! Please!" The plea had come so unexpectedly. But now another one poured from her lips, chalked with desperation, "Please!" She shuddered in the rain pouring down her face, matting her hair, washing away the blood and gore that had clung to her body.
She closed her eyes a moment if and saw a nightmare. She saw the scarred arms of the girl she'd fallen so unbearably hard for. They were pinned beneath rocks. She could see electric blue eyes wide and void of life.
"Please." She harkened into the settling silence.
Heavy breathing came from behind her. She turned as the unhinging jaw of an undead came at her. She ducked beneath his hands, twirling behind his back. He turned on shuffling feet to find her. By time he'd done so Asami had lifted a rock from the earth, she smashed him from below, using her calf muscles to carry her upward into the thrust. His neck whipped backwards, he lifted several inches off the ground before sinking down with a hard Thunk! Once he was down Asami sealed his fate, crashing the heel of her foot into his skull.
"Please!" She screamed as a third undead emerged. She dropped the rock dislodging a metal bar from the rubble. Heavy cement on the tip of the metal came free from the pile of rocks. She felt the weight in her hands; the moment he closed in she stepped out her weight on one foot and hammered through his neck, the intention to decapitate him coming up short. He crumbled aside, his neck snapped, his spine rendered useless. His mouth unhinged and he began hissing at the woman standing over him. He was as alive as being an undead allowed him to be but his new anatomy prohibited him from movement from the neck down. Asami dropped the cemented end of the rod down on his head, crushing his skull.
"Ple-,"
Clink.
Asami caught sight of the fourth undead. But she ignored him. The sound had come from her right and now she pushed through the shifting grime and dirt surrounding her. She could smell fire, that's why the dust hadn't thinned out. The dust was being replaced by a steady production of gaseous smoke. Whatever ad wherever the fire was, it had to have been massive to release so much toxic black. To not be doused by the pouring rain.
Asami coughed the soot that filled her lungs, limping across the debris.
Clink.
She moved in the direction of the quiet muffled sound. So quiet that she feared her own graceless footfalls and pouring rain would overcome the high pitched sound.
Coughing, stumbling, and killing only the undead that came directly to her path Asami pinpointed the sound coming from beneath an impossibly large slab of cement.
And then the scent touched her nose.
She gagged with the realization, doubling over, coughing on the soot, her body retching from the fowl stench of a thousand undead. The undead army, Asami thought, they must have breached the walls. Worse they must be a good ways in. From the smell coming her way she gave herself ten minutes.
The minutes and then they'd engulf this wreckage. They would consume her and march onward without a second thought.
She had ten minutes to move several tons of cement or she would never taste those toffee lips and whisper secret love songs across their surface with her own.
Her hands had begun working now. Damn the pain of rocks as they cut into her palms. Damn the screams of sensation from her ankle as she stood on uneven ground. Damn the soot that leaked down her throat and settled in the pit of her stomach.
She worked tirelessly until she'd cleared enough rocks to get a good grip on the slab of cement.
A hand seized her ankle and tugged her down to the ground.
Her back struck the collected surface of a puddle. Water splashed upward and soaked her through. Her teeth rattled, her lungs compressed in her chest, and black bathed her eyes as consciousness threatened to leave her body.
The undead responsible came down atop her, his mouth opened, his cracked skin and slimy fingers cupped her face. She noted his fingers were pruned and slightly inflated as if he'd been immersed in water for quite some time. Asami's clamped her mouth shut, swallowing the nasty mud water that had managed to splash inside her mouth. She fought off his demanding hands pushing him away.
Asami struggled to keep his face and nails at bay until she finally managed to reach her hand around his neck. Rain loosening her grip, she sloppily threw him to the ground at her side. He splashed into the puddle, his jaw clamping shut on his tongue with enough force to sever it in half. He did not react to the tongue hanging from his mouth and flailing sloppily on his chest. He simply began to turn and attempt to consume Asami's face.
Asami rolled momentarily onto the elbow of her broken arm then rolled back with enough force to jam her elbow into his eye socket. His fingers had been practically sacks of mush and as expected so was his skull. She felt his skull cave, his insides smearing onto her sharp bone.
She pushed up from the ground only to feel a second undead grab her waist from behind. He tugged hard and her legs came from under her. Her hand grappled the air for something – anything - as he pulled his meal to his chest. A second undead arrived then. His broken leg dragging through the puddles, his head pitched to the side, and an intent gaze on Asami's exposed flesh.
Asami struggled until the undead was forced to grab hold of only her broken arm, "Gah!" An unholy pain rippled through Asami's body as the undead wound his other arm around Asami's waist. He cradled her as a sacrifice for the undead that loomed ahead of her.
Asami scrunched her legs to her chest and kicked backwards through the chest of the undead in front of her. The force sent the undead reeling back and gave her enough momentum to reverse herself in the arms of the undead, into a position where she could slam her head into the forehead of her captor.
He bucked away and Asami was left with a pounding headache. She hit the ground, catching herself on her good arm. Remembering nothing she'd done would finish the undead off.
They were on her as quickly as she'd gotten them off. But she was armed and ready for them. She swept their legs out from under them with her own. The moment they were down she secured one to the earth with her leg to his chest as she beat out the other's skull. As the second had just managed to get a grip of her leg and usher it towards his mouth she took apart his skull as well.
The fight had left her breathless in a cloud of smoke. She gasped heaving in breath after breath of soot and particles.
Legs swaying and lungs aching, she moved back to the slab of cement. Every motion was demanded, every step a raging war of her mind and body. She asked her limbs to give one more despite knowing she quickly approached a state where she would have nothing left.
She jammed metal into the dirt, between the slab of cement and the earth beneath. She drove it as deep as she could and when the effort was finished the metal was erect from the earth. She slumped against the heavy weight, her arm over its side and hanging down.
Her breath came out shallows as sweat poured down her red face. Her vision blurred. Every part of her body wept from exhaustion.
Nothing left.
Those two words echoed in her mind.
Suddenly her leg gave out. It had happened against her will, and when her knee met the earth she could feel her body hunker down ignoring her desire to carry forward.
Nothing left.
She grits her teeth and tried to haul herself forward only to be met by a cold betrayal of her body. She dropped against the earth like a sack of rocks; her limbs suddenly heavier than the slab of cement she tried to pry free of the earth. Sound sloshed in her ears like they were the hollow sides of a metal can. That was when her stomach knotted and twisted violently, hatefully.
Asami doubled in on herself. A cough came strangled from her throat. She caught the mucus with her filthy hand and pulling away she found clumped blood and soot clinging to her pale fingers.
Nothing left.
Her hand reached for the metal standing erect from earth.
It was too much.
She felt her throat begin to close, her temple begin to throb behind her eyes. She reached upward in spite of this, tears running down her cheeks, her knees split by sharp rocks, her fingers collecting dirt in the tears of her flesh.
She reached with nothing left. She reached for electric blue eyes. But even straining every muscle in her body she still came up short. She still felt herself sink back to the earth, her hair falling over her face. The taste of rain, soot, blood and mud felt heavy on her tongue. She breathed sharp painful breaths into her swollen throat and listened to the wheezing sound that left her mouth just audible above the pitter patter of rain drops against her skin.
Just able to make out the Clink. Clink. Clink. of someone trying to survive.
Of Korra trying to survive.
Her body had betrayed her. It left her to be picked over by the undead that now drew towards her. She could hear their feet moving through puddles and rattling over debris.
"Korra." She whispered, "I'm so sorry." She felt tears run with gravity over her cheek. She felt them mold with the rain falling on her face. "I'm so…" her eyelids fluttered shut, heavy with exhaustion.
She felt a simple yet beautiful release. Her muscles went slack. Her control was given away to her need for things to be still.
She was being called. A voice filled her ears.
A calm, recognizable voice reverberated into her mind's eye. To times when things were good, a smile fell over the pretty face of Asami Sato as she breathed, "Mom."
She shut her eyes then and felt her mother's hands come over her. Her mother's hands drew her closer in her mother's welcoming hands.
The last sound the whir of a hungry belly as an undead began to indulge.
Her last thoughts were of all the good things that had come before she had nothing left.
The last sounds were teeth removing chunks of her flesh.
The undead dragged his limbs through the snow heavily, each motion swaying. Each motion intent on ending Korra. The blood dropping from his hands with entrails stuck to his finger produced steam. Korra watched it for a moment. Like the steam edging skyward and disappearing Korra was about to become a forgotten reality.
She'd never been confronted with an undead. Not since her mother. And even now knowing that her mother had been that – an undead – Korra had a hard time wrapping her mind around the thought.
This was someone somebody, too. She thought. Someone's son. Or best friend. Someone's lover or frequent customer. But now he was a hollow shell that was intent on eating Korra.
She began to shake, fear penetrating her even deeper than the cold of the snow surrounding her. He built snow around his body, not bothering to lift his legs as he moved, no, he wasn't smart enough to use that reasoning. He shifted back and forth until he was atop of her, snow piled high to his waist nearly. If fell over on Korra's face as he leaned over, grabbing the girl's wrist. Dread and fright turned her muscles stiff rendering her incapable of fighting back. His skin felt colder than the snow prickling her nose.
Unceremoniously he moved to take his first bite.
As the undead's teeth approached her neck, she saw her mother. She was suddenly standing once more in the hospital. She gazed down at her mother's face in the first stages of decay. Her blue eyes glazed over grey. The way every pore was abundantly clear. The way she froze when the first bullet hit her spine. How she'd turned and there had been so little blood ebbing from the wound, and hat came out was a dingy brown clotted cream.
How ugly it had been.
How unnerving.
The eighteen year old girl was confronted with these memories so quickly that it took her a moment to see. To remember that there was an undead moving right then to make her a dead eyed as her mother.
It was that moment Korra realized what the undead were. Why they were so powerful.
Their eyes. Their blood lust. Their stench. Their misfortune.
The undead were not the people she loved.
Korra grabbed the hair of the undead wrenching his head back she inspected his face.
The undead weren't something to fear.
She brought her fist down on his throat. He hissed, unhinging, attempting to catch her fist as she reared it back to land a second fist. He hissed as his neck popped awkwardly aside.
Korra released him then and he fell forward onto her stomach. He unhinged, accepting this even as a way of making a meal. But Korra's hands clamped down o either side of his head and with a cry of fury and desperation she twisted the neck violently from the spine.
He lay still then and Korra cast away his corpse.
What Korra had to fear wasn't the possibility of death. It was death taking the people she loved.
Humming.
She could hear it above her. Almost as deafening as the sound of a thousand undead converging on her.
Rain touched her body sending shivers up her spine.
Skin being sliced through. She knew the sound well as the sound of a machete making purchase.
And that humming.
No. Too rotational and rhythmic to be humming.
Her skin felt suddenly dry as a harsh wind raked her body.
A hand pressed down on her thigh. Someone was shouting.
The undead were coming. She could smell them.
And still that rhythmic sound.
Asami tried to open her eyes but they refused.
She cursed her body and then understood the humming. It was the sound of helicopter propellers swishing through the wind.
Had her father come back for her?
Why could he not leave her to die in peace? Why could they not leave her in the-
Unimaginable pain.
Her eyes flooded opened at the realization that something more pressing than death had happened to her body. Someone had bitten her. She knew that. She'd fallen unconscious to the sound of them ripping through her flesh.
But this... this was not the sensation of thirty two adult sized teeth chomping through her lower extremities. This was something else.
This was someone else.
It was a man with broad shoulders. Not broad like Tonraq's though they both had a slender waist and muscular build.
There was a man crouching over with hazel eyes and a fiercely determined face.
There was a man crouched over her and he was dragging a machete through her flesh.
She screamed, she wanted to push him away, but two powerful hands held her back. The second set of hands that clasped around her neck; they pulled her between two small breasts and held her down as he sawed off her leg.
"What are you-," her words were cut short by her own screaming. She screamed as if the world were on fire. And by the feeling of her bone being sawed through the world was on fire. Every nerve in her tired aching body was screaming to get away. But those hands held her in a vice.
"Hold her still." The man instructed, "Asami, you have to calm down!"
But she wouldn't. She couldn't. She could only focus on the horrid site of her leg coming undone from the rest of her body.
Her eyes went left to the undead with pieces of her flesh still moist in his mouth. Her eyes went right o the second undead who had gone after her foot.
Finally she looked at the man, his back was to her, and he raised back the machete. She had only a few strips of her flesh holding on, all that remained attaching her leg to her body. She outstretched a hand, and screamed at him, begged him not to-
He brought the machete down and he severed it clean. Just below the knee and everything went dark.
"What did you do?" Korra demanded.
She'd just met the General for the first time. After her father had pulled her from beneath a slab of cement. Right before Jinora had radioed she'd found Asami's body. Radioed that she had been bitten.
Korra's heart had stopped. She'd felt even more weak in her father's arms. She'd turned her head and began to sob, "I told her to leave." She'd cried over and over, "I told her to run."
The General had lurched into action the moment he'd heard Asami's name. He'd moved to the cockpit and all but shoved Lin aside as he got them airborne.
Korra felt like screaming, demanding to be lowered down and going to pull Asami out. She'd kill the undead that had taken Asami from her. But the General had other plans.
He'd searched the ground with a light shining through the shifting smoke. He'd found Jinora. He passed Lin the controls and in seconds he'd leapt from the helicopter with only a black rope and machete in hand.
Korra had moved as well. She didn't know what she could do, but she couldn't do nothing.
Doing nothing had gotten Asami there.
When she'd been buried she'd heard Asami calling. She'd heard her pleas for some kind of noise she must have made. Korra had stayed silent. It had killed her, but she had hoped if Asami thought she was dead she would leave the wreckage before she got overran. Before she died trying to save Korra.
But if Asami had stayed and attempted to comb through the rubble in order to find Korra or Daw.
She couldn't live with herself. Her father refused to let her go though.
"Korra, your leg." He reminded her referring to the bloody mess. Korra shook him off, stepping to the pit door. She felt weak. Her body swayed. She couldn't leap from the helicopter like the General had, even if she had a rope. Doing so would result in her being even more injured than she already was. So she held on to the metal and prayed the General would bring enough vengeance to the undead responsible as Korra would have.
Below was mostly smoking. Even with the light trained she could only see smoke.
Then she saw black hair bobbing through. Maybe it was Asami maybe it was-
Her heart sank. It was Daw. His face scratched, one arm drenched in blood. In fact it was a fair assessment to say half his body was drenched in blood. His head was still wrapped in a bandage to cover his eye. His lips bloody. But he limped towards the rope. She managed to wrap the rope around his one good hand and around his leg. Tonraq stepped up; he grabbed the rope and began to pull. Daw must have been light because it only took seconds.
The moment he was inside Korra pounced, "Where's Asami."
"Holy shit. I thought I would die down there…" Daw said slumping against the wall of the helicopter, his eyes set in a gaze.
Korra grabbed the delirious man by the jaw her words deliberate her eyes so violent it must have terrified him from whatever daze he'd fallen into, "Where. Is. Asami?"
He spoke his words with a daze in his eyes, "What a crazy bitch."
Korra grabbed him by his collar, slamming him against the wall and grit her teeth, "What did you just call her?"
"Korra," Tonraq stepped towards Korra ready to talk her down from breaking the bastard's neck. He stopped when Daw spoke again.
"N-n-no," Daw stammered, his words almost rushing together, "It's j-just…. I-I mean…Its smoking and raining and the place reeks of undead. Not to mention thousands more are coming and a building just collapsed on top of us. And rather than run like hell - like a sane person would have - Asami starts digging me out of two tons of rock. She must have taken down five undead with a broken arm, a sprained ankle all without being able to breath." His eyes looked horrified but exhilarated, like he'd just gotten off a rollercoaster with no seatbelt, "She's fucking insane."
Just as the words left Daw's mouth Asami's blood curdling scream ripped through the radio. Korra's blood ran cold. Not a single occupant in the helicopter had been able to prevent the initial jump when the scream pitched. It sent a tightening feeling into Korra's stomach as he hands came from around Daw's collar.
A sickening feeling washed over Korra.
The terrible scream continued, Asami's voice breaking in as she began to beg.
Korra's mind filled with images of Asami being eaten. She filled with images of her limbs being ripped apart by mashing teeth. She turned her head aside, not strong enough to hold back tears, not weak enough to cover her ears.
"Hold her still." the General's voice cackled over the radio, "Asami, you have to calm down."
"Please." Asami begged through sobs, "Plea-," A hard sound came and her screaming shortly ended.
Korra's breath pitched in her lungs; she looked over her shoulder at her father. Wind whipped her hair back and forth over her face. She could just see the undead army marching, just reaching the wreckage. In seconds they would be consumed.
Then came more movement.
Jinora exited the cloud of smoke first and in seconds had the rope in hand. She grabbed it and nodded up at Tonraq. Korra helped pull the girl up her eyes never leaving the ground below.
"We've got her." Jinora said already seeing the questions forming on Korra's lips.
The General broke through the smoke with and easy twenty undead five yards behind him. In his arms he carried a limp bodied Asami Sato. He wound the rope around his and Asami's waist, "Up! Up! Up!" The General's voice cackled to life from the radio. Lin didn't hesitate, the helicopter shot skyward. Korra grabbed the doorframe tightly her eyes moved momentarily to Jinora who had rigged up a flame thrower and was heating a piece of metal.
"What are you-,"
"We need to pull them up, right now." Jinora said coldly. Korra didn't remember Jinora being so cold. She didn't remember when she'd gotten bags under her eyes, or her face had sunken into such a tired state. But she recognized it. It was the same face Tenzin had carried last winter when he'd lost his family.
Her heart ached as she realized she'd put that look on Jinora's face when she'd murdered her mother.
Tonraq gripped the rope tightly in his hands, "Korra!" Korra shook her mind of the thoughts, her hands coming around the rope. She felt Daw come behind her. His eyes with a deadly determination as he, Korra and Tonraq began heaving the General and Asami inside.
The undead overcame the wreckage swallowing it whole. Their hands reached to the skies as if to praise the gods that soared just beyond their reach.
The General handed Asami into Tonraq's hands. With a grunt he hauled her inside. He passed the limp body to Korra. Without hesitation she lifted Asami to a nearby chest of guns. She laid her atop the shut lid and her hands came to each cheek of the beautiful face.
She'd heard Asami screaming. Now she was quiet. Maybe she could hear that voice one last time. Was that such a selfish desire? To hear Asami's cool elegant voice?
"Sami," Korra tried to smile, "Sami, it's me." She cooed as the General boarded, "Sami, I have to tell you something." Tears fell from her face, landing softly on Asami's pale cheek. She brushed the water away, oily grease covering her hands, "I love you." She said selfishly, her eyes taking in the peace in Asami's sleeping face, "Like I've never loved anyone else."
The General shoved her aside then. Korra stumbled back, her father catching her in his arms as Jinora moved in. She'd heated a slab of metal until it burned a fiery red. Korra raked her eyes over Asami's body. Her eyes made their way over her face, chest and arms then finally her legs.
That's when Korra saw Asami's leg had been cut off.
Her anger flared, primal rage took hold she lunged for the General and felt her father's hands clamp tightly to her shoulder blades, "What did you do!?" She screamed.
But the man's focus had turned elsewhere. It had turned to placing the searing metal against the exposed flesh of Asami's stub leg, "This isn't going to be hot enough. We'll have to put the fire directly on it."
Korra couldn't stop herself then. She assailed the General, her hands clamping around his neck she shoved him against the wall, he spread his arms refraining from burning her with the hot metal he held, "What the hell is wrong with you?" Korra asked, "Who the hell do you think you are arbitrarily deciding to hack off her leg?" She roared.
"I'm Iroh and I'm trying to save my wife's life." Korra's heart stopped and he leveled her with an passionately deadly glare, "And if you love her like i do then you'll let me."
Korra's eyes took in every inch of the handsome man's face, trying to detect a lie but finding no such thing. Her words felt heavy on her tongue, "You're her husband?"