Chapter 1: How It All Began

Hey guys! Just wanted to give you a quick layout of the story. It takes place in the modern world as we know it and will center on a city, and for once I've decided that I would write something different than my usual kind of stories: A zombie outbreak. I'm not sure how I'm going to do with it, as it's something completely different from what I'm used to, so if I don't like it after a few chapters, I might just end up deleting it, just to give you a fair warning. Oh, I should also mention that there's no bending, either, as that would be way too easy for them. Anyway, thank you guys so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Soft moans could be heard from the door of the small room as Aang White hid behind an overturned desk, a worn out baseball bat in his hands and a look of fear and determination in his eyes. He had once thought that he would never kill in his life, but circumstances had proved him wrong. Though he supposed one can't really kill something that was already dead.

These zombies were once people that he knew, but he knew that was no longer the case. They were gone, and all that was left were shriveled up, walking corpses that wouldn't hesitate to tear him apart. It was kill or be killed, no matter how much he wished he didn't have to.

And so, it was because of this knowledge that he knew he would need more weapons than a baseball bat. Already, he could see the bat starting to wear down from constant use, and knew it certainly wasn't going to last him forever. But where would he be able to find more weapons?

To his great surprise, the door shook as someone tried to get in, and he could only assume that it wasn't anyone still alive. Fortunately for him, he had had the foresight to set up a few of the tables as a blockade to keep others from coming in unless he wanted them to. He was confident that it should be able to hold up long enough for him to find a way out should it come to that.

Of course, he wasn't planning on staying there forever, but he needed to figure out what the next step of his plan would be before he would allow himself to leave. He knew of a gun shop that wasn't too far from the school, but he also knew that whatever survivors were left would likely have looted it by now. Still though, what other choice did he have? It's not like the school had any guns for him to use.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as the pounding on the door started becoming more insistent, and the three tables were starting to buckle under the pressure of the strain that whoever was on the other side of the door was putting on them. Knowing that he likely didn't have much time, he moved to the side of the door and decided that he would get the jump on the intruders, taking every advantage that he could get. As he waited to see what would happen, he couldn't help but wonder… How did this all happen?

Flashback.

It had been just another normal day at his school. He would hang out with his friends during his first period, just as they always had. Aang was a good student, but hanging out with his friends during class made it so much better. And far less boring than going through it without them.

Especially with how diverse their small group was. Zuko was known as the "grump" of the group, or as Toph just loved to call him, "Sourpuss." And though he wasn't exactly the happiest guy alive, that changed whenever his girlfriend was in the room.

Mai. Aang hadn't really believed in destiny until Zuko and Mai had met. They were both grumpy and short with other people, making Aang shake his head in disbelief when he had first seen the two together. What were the odds that Zuko would find someone just as… special as he was?

Then there was his good friend, Toph. Despite her constant sarcastic remarks and attempts to tease him, she was a good friend who he knew he could trust with his life. Even if her teasing could be rather painful at times. She made sure that her friends knew how she cared for them with what she called "love taps", but were really more like "love punches".

The four had been inseparable ever since they came together, and were the most closely-woven group in the school. They knew that nothing would tear them apart.

Well, almost nothing.

Though he supposed there was no way that any of them could have possibly known that they would wind up in the middle of a Zombie apocalypse.

The day had started just like any other they had before. All of the students had been on time as their teacher had made clear was absolutely necessary and were ready for the lesson. This didn't stop them from chatting amongst themselves of course, but as more time passed, the class seemed to realize that the teacher was actually late. Something that had never happened before.

Most of the kids got excited at this, thinking that they would have a free period, but Aang had a strong feeling in his gut that something wasn't right. Their teacher was the most prompt, strict, and rule-abiding teacher he had ever seen, and he knew that there must be a good reason as to why the teacher wasn't there.

Unfortunately for him, he had gotten his answer in the worst way possible.

Several minutes after the bell had rung, none other than their teacher came shambling into the room, but there was something… different about him. He looked like he was… well, dead.

One unfortunate kid, who didn't understand what was happening, had decided to see what was wrong. "Um, Mr. Richards? Are you okay?" he asked worriedly as he walked up to him. With a loud, unearthly screech, what was once Mr. Richards grabbed the kid by his shirt and bit down on his shoulder, making him yowl in pain as the rest of the class couldn't believe their eyes. Not sure what to do, most of the class stayed frozen in fear when Aang knew he had to do something.

Taking a textbook from a nearby kid's desk, he smacked what was once his teacher with it and managed to get him off of the badly bleeding student. The deranged monster fell to the floor, temporarily disoriented from the heavy blow. Luck didn't seem to be on their side, however, as after a few moments, it snapped out of its daze and growled at him.

Before he could even think about what to do next, he was taken by surprise yet again when Azula, Zuko's sister, quickly walked over to it and stomped on its head, making it silent. There was no sound nor movement from it, and he wasn't sure if she had killed it or just knocked it out, but either way, it wasn't doing anything anymore.

The rest of the class except for the injured boy looked at her. "What? Someone had to do it," she said with obvious disdain in her voice at her classmates. No one was given the chance to respond to her when the bitten kid collapsed onto the ground, writhing around in agony. No one was sure what to do for him. There were no medical supplies in the class, and from what Aang had seen from zombie movies, he didn't think they would help much, anyway.

Not that they had much time to try to help him. Within a few moments, the class could see him start to change. His skin started becoming more shriveled and pale, his eyes diminished to small dots, and his teeth became a horrible yellow. Once his transformation was complete, he too attempted to get up, but Azula simply repeated the same movement she had made for their former teacher and shut him down, too.

"Okay, we need to get out of here and figure out what's going on," Aang muttered to himself after getting over the shock of what had just happened. Turning around to the rest of the class, he could see the fear in their eyes and knew that they needed someone to step up. "Okay, everybody! I know that things don't make sense right now, but we need to get out of here and see what's happening. There's got to be an explanation for this."

"Isn't that explanation enough already?" a kid exclaimed in disbelief and fear as he pointed to the two bodies on the ground. "Those are zombies! We're being attacked by zombies!"

"We don't know that," Aang tried to be as calm and delicate as possible, knowing that this was a crazy situation and that they were all freaking out. "For all we know, these could be the only ones. Let's not panic if we don't need to." Looking at his fellow classmates, he watched them look at each other and nod in acceptance. "Good," he sighed in relief. "Now, we might not know what's going on, but we're going to find out. Everyone, grab something that could work as a weapon just in case."

It took a few minutes, as there were only so many things in the room that they could use to defend themselves with, but they eventually figured out what they needed to get by. Once Aang was satisfied that they were ready, he motioned for them to follow, but of course not everyone was satisfied with his plan.

"Wait a minute!" a girl this time objected rather snootely. "We're all just supposed to travel around together? Wouldn't it be safer if we split up into groups?" she challenged.

But Aang wasn't about to back down now. He knew that splitting up into groups would only make things worse if there really was an outbreak. "If we divide ourselves and there are zombies out there, it'll be way too easy for them to take us down. But if we all go together, we have a good chance of fighting them off. Especially since we don't have any real weapons to use against them," he added, showing them his choice of weapon: a somewhat solid pointer stick. It wouldn't do him a lot of good, but it was better than nothing.

"Aang's right," Zuko spoke up as he moved up to his side and faced the class. "We need to stick together. We don't know what's out there, and the only way we're going to get through this is by working together."

Aang smiled at his friend and nodded to him before looking back at his fellow classmates. "We're better together than we are separate. Whatever's out there, we can face it. But we can't do it alone. Any other questions?"

"Who made you the boss?" a clearly annoyed kid in the back spoke up. Though Aang couldn't help but be surprised, as he would have expected Azula to say something like that, but so far he hadn't seen her argue against anything he had said thus far.

Toph, who had been silent throughout this entire scene, decided that it was time for her to finally speak up. "Shut it, kid! If I hear one more peep out of any of you that isn't constructive, I will personally feed you to a zombie," she yelled at him, making him keep his mouth closed as a look of fear crossed onto his face. "Good," Toph grinned before looking back to her friend. "Lead the way, Twinkle Toes."

Giving her a smile in thanks, he looked to Zuko and now Mai who had moved up to be at Zuko's side before taking a deep breath and leading the way out the door.

At first glance, the hallway looked completely normal. Just as it always had in the four years they had attended it, but as he looked more closely at the end of the hallway, he could see a small pool of red liquid. And unless someone had spilled their kool-aid, it was very likely a puddle of blood.

Deciding that going down that way would not be in their best interest, he made sure that everyone was behind him and motioned for them to go right as he did. From what he could see, there weren't any signs of zombies down this way. At least not yet.

Following the pathway down the hall, he stopped at the corner and flattened himself against the wall so he could peek around it without giving himself away. Upon looking around the corner, he was relieved to see a familiar face who didn't look like a zombie.

Motioning for the others to follow, he slowly walked up to the teacher who appeared to be texting on their phone. "Mr. Evers?" Aang asked cautiously as they walked up.

Mr. Evers looked up from his phone and raised a brow at the group of students in front of him. "What are you all doing out here? Shouldn't you be in class?" he asked suspiciously. He noticed the weapons in their hands. "And why do you all have weapons?"

Aang couldn't help but sigh in relief. At least this teacher wasn't a zombie. "We're sorry to bother you sir, but… well, we kind of had a situation with our teacher," he finally replied, not sure how to tell this teacher that they had been attacked by a zombie.

"What kind of situation?" Mr. Evers asked in confusion. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, sir. At least, it is now." He took a deep breath, unfortunately allowing the other kids to speak up when he was distracted.

"We were attacked by zombies!" one of the kids who was still clearly scared out of their mind yelled fearfully, making the teacher's eyes widen in disbelief.

"Zombies attacked you," he repeated in disbelief, clearly not buying this for a second.

Aang would have glared at the person who spoke up on his behalf, but he didn't have to. Toph punched the poor kid in the shoulder so hard that he was knocked down to his feet with a yelp of pain. Once she was satisfied that he had suffered enough, she gave him a glare that told him the next time he did that, it would be to his head and then proceeded to help him up.

With that taken care of, Aang then turned back to the teacher. "Yes, sir. Mr. Richards was late to class, and when he did come, he looked… different."

Mr. Evers raised a brow. "How so?" Before Aang could get the chance to explain further, he seemed to hear something behind him. Turning around, he noticed one of his fellow teachers shambling up to him. "Ah, Mr. Bruner. You gave me a bit of a fright for a second there." What was once Mr. Bruner moaned at him, making him look confused as he noticed how poorly he looked. "Mr. Bruner? Are you quite alright?"

"Mr. Bruner's a zombie!" one of the kids yelled in the back while holding their weapon at the ready.

"Oh, come on," Mr. Evers sighed in exasperation as Mr. Bruner got within five feet of him. "There's no such thing as-" he was interrupted when the other teacher finally reached him and bit down on his shoulder, just as Mr. Richards had to that poor kid, making him yell in pain.

The group of kids gasped as they watched yet another person be bitten, but they knew that there wasn't much they could do for him other than get the zombie off of him. Not wasting any time, Aang used his teacher's pointer and whacked the zombie off of Mr. Evers who promptly passed out from pain.

This time, Azula didn't hesitate as she moved over and stomped on their heads as she did before, silencing them both immediately. With that taken care of, Aang nodded to her in thanks and turned to the rest of the group. "Okay guys, I know that this is all crazy, but we need to get out of here. If there are other zombies, we need to find someplace to hide. Follow me!" he called over his shoulder as he started running towards the nearest exit.

Everyone followed him as he led the way out the door to an open courtyard where they would usually eat lunch when the weather was nice, but to his great surprise, there was a large group of zombies milling around, looking for their next meal.

"Go back," he whispered to the group as he turned around, but was dismayed to see another group of zombies that had seen them coming towards them and blocking them from going back into the school.

"Run!" one kid yelled from the back of the group, making the rest of the group panic and start to scatter.

"Wait! If we just stick together-" Aang tried to reason with them, but before he knew it, the group had run off in all directions save for his friends and Azula. Before very long, it was just the five of them as the zombies started going after the rest of the kids who had run off.

Mai sighed and rolled her eyes as she took out her shurikens that no one ever seemed to find on her. "Idiots. They deserve to be eaten."

"Mai!" Zuko whisper-shouted in disbelief at her, but she just shrugged uncaringly in return.

"Look, arguing isn't going to do anything for us right now," Aang stepped in before this could continue any further. "It's just us, now. Let's go see if we can't find someone who'll actually be helpful."

"Like who?" Toph asked with a raised brow. "No one will believe us until they actually see the zombies. They'll think we're crazy."

Aang nodded and looked to the right, seeing the entrance to the gym. "Except for one. Our gym teacher." His friends' eyes flashed in understanding, knowing that their gym teacher would believe them considering how much he talked about this very thing happening. "Sound like a plan?" They all nodded in agreement, even Azula, who Aang figured would have some kind of argument, but she didn't seem to yet.

With that settled, he started leading the way to the gym, holding the door open for them as they walked in. The gym was oddly quiet, as by now it usually was filled with the sounds of kids playing various sports, but it was eerily silent. Almost too silent.

The five walked in slowly, knowing that there could be zombies ready to spring out at them at any moment. It seemed that they were lucky, as no one else was in the gym except for one person lurking in the shadows that the light from outside cast in the large room. Looking at his friends, he nodded to them and got his weapon ready as they did, knowing that they might have to use them. Making their way toward the figure, they were somewhat relieved to see the familiar uniform of their gym teacher. "Mr. Sanders?" Aang asked gently as they crept up to him.

Mr. Sanders turned around instantly at this, making the five grimace as they saw that he too had been transformed. "Great. Our one chance of an adult who might actually help is a zombie," Mai muttered to herself. "Just great."

Azula huffed and rolled her eyes. "We don't need him." Striding up to their former teacher, she ignored his attempt to bite her and knocked him off of his feet, taking her desk leg that she had snapped off and stabbed it in the brain, making it shriek in pain before its eyes went dim. "See? Who needs him?"

A loud moan sounded behind them, making them all turn around quickly as a group of zombies appeared at the doorway, blocking their exit. Knowing that way out was no longer an option, they looked to their other exits and were dismayed to see that one of the two had zombies coming out of them, leaving only one option: The entrance to the ladies locker room.

Under normal circumstances, Aang would be nervous and hesitant about going into it, but considering that this was their only viable option that didn't involve them fighting off tons of zombies, he knew it was their best chance.

"Come on! We need to get out of here!" he yelled at his friends over the loud noises of the zombies before running to the girls locker room. The rest of the group didn't hesitate, knowing that they didn't have any other option. As they ran inside, they were surprised to see that the lights were out, but kept running anyway. They couldn't turn back now, even if they wanted to.

And so they continued to run in the darkness, using only trace amounts of light from the small windows as they went. Fortunately for them, they didn't seem to be running into any zombies, and it wasn't very long before they got to an exit. There was just one problem for Aang, though.

He was all alone.

Looking around, he waited a few minutes for his friends to come out, but they never did. Normally, he would be worried that something had happened to them, but he knew there was likely a reason why they hadn't come out this way. In the boys locker room, there were three total exits, which likely meant that there were other exits in the ladies locker room as well.

This still didn't bode well for him, however, as he was now all alone with nothing but a teacher's pointer stick as a defense. He would need something better if he was going to survive. Turning around to look at what lay ahead of him, he was surprised to see the room where they kept all of the sports equipment dead ahead. What were the odds?

Now feeling a little more confident, he quickly made his way over to it while making sure that no zombies would get the jump on him. Once he felt safe, he walked into the room and gently closed the door behind him, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention if he could help it. Satisfied with this, he looked around the room for anything that would be ideal. Unfortunately for him, it looked as though the room had already been looted by others. All that was left was an old football helmet, some knee pads, and a worn out baseball bat.

Although protection sounded good, he doubted that zombies would be going for his knees to bite him. And though the helmet would certainly protect his head, it would severely limit his range of vision as well, and he knew that if he was going to make it out of this, he needed to be able to see his surroundings as well as he could.

But the baseball bat, now that he could work with. Even if it was certainly worn out, it would do long enough for him to get by until he could find something better. Besides, he didn't exactly have many options to choose from, anyway.

Grabbing the baseball bat, he decided to leave the teacher's pointer stick behind, hoping that someone who needed it would find it. He didn't have anywhere to put it to keep it, and the baseball bat would certainly prove more useful, anyhow.

Feeling a little better now that he had something more useful to defend himself with, he decided that it was time to see if he couldn't find his friends. Maybe they too had found better weapons to use. Or, the pessimistic part of him that he didn't like reminded him that there was a good chance that they had already been eaten alive by now.

No, he wouldn't allow himself to think like that. They were alive, he just knew it. He would find them and they would all get out of the school and figure out what's next. With this reassurance, he shook off the fear coursing through his veins at all that had happened over the last hour and quietly left the room, doing his best not to draw any attention to himself.

Luck seemed to be on his side for a little bit as he searched the hallways, as he didn't seem to run into any zombies. But he wasn't seeing any of his fellow classmates, either. He just hoped that it was because they had managed to get out safely, and not because they had been torn to shreds.

Eventually, he found himself in an unfamiliar part of the school: The science hallway. He had a hard enough time focusing on his regular subjects when he was bored, but science? No matter how hard he had tried, he could never do it without getting dangerously close to falling asleep. And it certainly didn't help that none of his friends were in that class. So, instead of having to take it for the credits, he had asked the principal if he could simply take the finals ahead of time with the study guides to practice with so he wouldn't have to go through with it. And although the principal didn't think that he would actually do well, Aang had proved him wrong when he had aced all of the required science a week.

And he was glad that he had, too, as it had meant that he would never have to worry about falling asleep watching a video about spores again. Though with all that had happened recently, he supposed that he would rather be in science class than have to deal with a zombie apocalypse.

His luck didn't seem to last forever, as he could hear soft moans coming from around the corner. Knowing he didn't have much time and not wanting to get into a fight if he didn't have to, he looked for the nearest classroom and opened it, stopping to peek inside to make sure it was empty before quickly walking in and closing the door behind it. As he heard the moans get closer to him, he knew that if there were too many of them he wouldn't be able to hold the door all by himself. Looking around the small room, he saw a few small tables that he could use to set up a makeshift blockade.

Satisfied with this plan, he moved the tables as discreetly as he could in front of the door and made sure that it was secure before closing the blinds and gently overturning a desk so he could think. He knew that if he kept looking at the door, he wouldn't be able to figure out the next steps of his plan and how to find his friends, so he knew that facing away from the door would likely help. But what was he going to do now?

Back to Present.

Ah, so that was how this had all happened. But it still didn't explain why there were zombies in the first place. From what he had seen of zombie movies, it usually involved some kind of scientific experiment that reanimated corpses or transformed people who were already alive with a horrible virus, but was that what had happened here? And if so, how had it all began?

He had many questions and no answers, and judging by the way the door was starting to buckle under the pressure of whoever was pounding on the door, he knew he didn't have much time left. Making sure that his bat was at the ready, he waited to see what would happen, wondering if he would make it out of this dead or alive.