AN: I originally wrote this for Tyzula Week, then I lost interest after writing bits and pieces of the story. I felt like it was a dead end idea, but suddenly my creative juices started flowing again. :D

TRUST IS FOR FOOLS

"The last remedy of all is war, which provideth for every man, by victory or death."
- Thomas Hobbes -

Chapter One: Never Wake Up in the Zombie Apocalypse

"You were born lucky," father said so many years ago. "Your brother was lucky to be born."

Azula, at the moment, was wondering if she would have been lucky to not have been born. Mostly because she had just woken up to the most excruciating pain she had experienced in her life. She clenched her fist and tried to recall why her side was in pain. When she moved her other hand to touch the wound, she remembered that she had hastily cauterized it herself.

She was lucky not to have gotten an infection.

She was luckier not to have gotten bitten and infected while passed out.

Last she was awake, she and Mai were in over their heads with a gang of bounty hunters her own father had sent after them. The sky was brilliant blue and Mai's aim was flawless, but it did not protect them in the end. She was ninety-nine percent certain that she was still dying at the moment.

If she did not die tonight, she would be found by either the dead or the living, and both were equally hungry for her. She was in enemy territory, wounded, and the perfect gambit for anyone who wanted to use her against her father.

Azula blinked a few times and looked around. She suddenly understood her warmth despite the cold; she was in the bed of a stationary and likely long defunct truck. Azula had seen exactly two cars work in her entire life, and she was betting that this one was not some magical exception.

"Mai," she croaked without thinking. That was stupid. That was insanely stupid.

But, while battling a fatal wound while in some strange truck and too tired and dizzy to even look around, she decided if she had to rely on Mai or rely on that elusive luck her father told her fables about, she would rely on Mai.

She heard footsteps outside of the truck, and they were not as heavy as one of the creatures. They were very light... abnormally light and that bothered her to the core.

"Is she waking up?" asked a girl's voice. It was girlish and pretty; she did not sound as hardened as most people in the Wasteland outside of civilization were. "Is she? Are you even sure about this forest stuff?"

A gruff male voice responded, add a sigh before saying, "The forest is better than here. It's on the road to Ba Sing Se."

They were running to Ba Sing Se, like so many people who heard stories of the impenetrable city still being impenetrable. Azula was running from Ba Sing Se, like so many people who learned what it was actually like on the inside.

She remained as silent as she could be.

"We should just go back to the highway."

"We didn't have the best luck on the highway."

"I know but..." The girl trailed off.

They would be idiots to travel on main roads, even if they were currently in unclaimed land. Unless there were more than two of them, which Azula did not like the sound of, despite knowing she could dominate them if need be.

Alright, maybe that was either delusional or pushing her luck. There very well could be twenty tribals or nomads outside of this abysmal open casket.

Azula whimpered as she sat up, pressing her hand against the burn. It should heal fast, given her firebending, but that did not make the pain much better. Nor the pain in her head. She crawled towards the edge of the truck, keeping below the walls around her, and peered over the side.

A young man and young woman, the man probably a bit older than her, and the woman around the same age. They were not dressed in distinguishable tribal clothes, and Azula considered the idea that they could be outcasts like she and Mai. She was not sure if that would make matters better or worse.

She was kind of an enemy of every tribe there was. The one she was born into, the Agni Kai Tribe, was on the hunt for her after her escape. The ones who were at war for resources and ideology with the other tribes were the Red Monsoons and the Terra Tribe. The Air Nomads were more of a myth at this point; nobody believed in pacifists when war was the only way to eat. Triple Threats were not much of a threat; they were composed of people who were not worthy to fit into another faction.

Outcasts, though, outcasts Azula had no idea how to deal with, but at least she knew they had no faction rivalry.

The young man had a gun strapped to his back, but Azula could tell from how he leaned much closer to the advantageously bent machete at his side that he had no ammo. Not to mention the risk of setting off a gun in the middle of this territory; that would be as a stupid as lightning, but without the potential of setting off a fire.

The young woman had a small knife tucked into her belt, but she did not look remotely ready for battle. Her clothes were too fashionable, too old world, and her expression was somehow soft.

Azula's foot scuffed against the metal and she clenched her jaw. No.

They both snapped to attention and looked up at her.

"She's awake," the girl said, and Azula noticed just how pretty she was. She also noticed that she was not getting the most favorable gaze from the girl's companion. "You wanna...?"

The man takes initiative to do whatever she was suggesting. "What are you?" he demanded of Azula as he raised his machete. It really was bent and Azula wondered if that was accidental or on purpose.

She hesitated, looking around for Mai. Azula's sole friend had to be around here somewhere. Except... Mai was selfish, and that fact worried Azula to too far of an extent.

"Zombie," Azula replied and her eyes dared him to take a swing. "Can't you see my decaying flesh? Evidently since I'm alone out here in their land I must be either one of them or an outcast from my faction."

The pretty girl pursed her lips before talking, "She's wearing Agni Kai Tribal clothes. I told you that when we found her."

"Long way from Ba Sing Se?" he asked with his cobalt eyes narrowed and Azula shrugged.

"Isn't that where you're trying to get?" She hid her relief when she looked out across the many frozen cars on the long stretch of decaying highway and saw the best sight she could imagine at the time. It was Mai, pulling back the string of a bow. "What are you then?"

The pretty girl talked yet again. She was too trusting for her own good, in Azula's opinion. "I used to be from the Agni Kai Tribe too but then I got..." She shook her head. "He's from the Triple Threats but he got attacked by Terra Tribals and left for dead. We're together, okay?"

It was a lie. Or at least partially so, and Azula knew it.

"When was that?" Azula asked, looking them both up and down. They looked too cozy for opposing factions who collided in the wilderness.

"Three years ago, okay?" the pretty girl said, looking increasingly nervous. "Behind us!" she called out, and she dove down, pressing her hand against the rock as her annoying boyfriend stumbled. Azula bent out of the way of the arrow, agape in shock.

Nobody had ever predicted that; and nobody could have dodged a shot that precise. It was luck, Azula decided. It was just dumb luck. The man stood up much more quickly than his wife, and he held up his blunt weapon as if it would do much good against a woman with Mai's precision... and distance from him.

Mai was pulling back another arrow when Azula jumped from the rocks and inhaled sharply from the pain. She knew she needed to get out of here before these idiots caused a ruckus and got all three of them eaten alive.

Azula was wrong; the young man was not out of bullets, because he fired a quick shot in Mai's general direction. No one could blame him for panicking and not taking his time, yet blame did not matter when Azula could already feel the prickling sensation on her skin.

They were never alone. Not in this crushed, fucked world.

The sound came moments before all four of them began running towards the forest. It was this rasping, almost like the screams of an animal, but far from it at the same time. Azula never was used to it, even if it was all she had ever known. There were not many of the gnarled, fast, too fast creatures at first, but, of course, their friends found out about the potential prey.

The dash into the forest while being pursued by the creatures that seemed to materialize out of thin air and run with no need to feel the pain or exertion of a living body was far from a stupid move, but they had a chance of being bottlenecked into something worse, of course. Mai caught up with Azula as she fumbled around for the straight razor in her jacket.

The man and his wife ran too, and the woman was clearly trained in something more delicate and complex than basic combat, because the way she moved made it seem like time stood still, and every tree and rock was an advantage and not an obstacle.

Azula dodged an arrow swerving her way, and she saw that it was not Mai's. Mostly because Mai was shoving Azula into something flat and hard. Azula gasped and looked over her shoulder as she shoved Mai off of her, not even caring that she was being pushed in the general direction of monsters.

It was Red Monsoon Tribals. Fuck.

"Go around the back. There has to be a back door of this place," Mai hissed, seizing Azula's hand, slightly disgruntled about being pushed into zombie jaw territory.

They ran across the overgrown plants and raced to the back door.

Dead Inside...

Azula frowned at the sight of it. She had been told to avoid those signs, but, those signs were nearly twenty years old. Would it hurt so badly to ignore it... if she were careful?

The girl and guy had caught up to them and clearly decided to ignore the sign, because they burst inside, the stench of mildew assaulting Azula's nose. Then she saw just why they were in such a hurry; there was an all out fight breaking out between the throwing spears and bows and waterbending of the Red Monsoon tribals and the pack of zombie hunters.

Mai grabbed Azula again, and Azula resisted the urge to bite her, before they followed the two strangers inside before they could be seen by predators living or dead.

Azula closed the door and melted the metal latches as a half-decent brand of barricade. She and Mai looked up, catching their breath, and saw the problem with hiding in this boarded up petite cabin.

They were stuck. They were stuck in a cabin with these two strangers who were as untrustworthy as people get in Azula's eyes.

Just her luck. Ugh. The Universe never did let her catch a break.

Ty Lee had never expected to go beyond the walls of the Agni Kai Tribe settlement she had grown up in. It felt so safe in there; she never had to think about warring factions, or the ravenous dead that had created the warring factions. She was protected by her town, her government and her family.

Then she had nobody. Suddenly, it was all gone, yanked out from under her. She had nothing to do, nowhere to turn, nothing to gain but so much to lose.

The sound of the battle outside was enough to knock dust off of the thick boards nailed to the windows. But the sound of two other people than Sokka breathing was much more disturbing.

They were in a silent, unacknowledged stand-off. No one liked sharing shelter; Ty Lee had learned that after being an outcast for so long. And she and Sokka kind of did something similar to kidnapping the gorgeous gold eyed girl.

"I'm going to find the booze," Ty Lee declared, grabbing her small knife and walking off with light footsteps. She escaped the awkward situation and neither of the intimidating girls paid her any mind; Ty Lee had never looked like a threat, even after she had shown off a little bit of her adjusted martial arts.

No one in the cabin seemed to bother that she was going into the depths of a cabin alone, but it was better than getting caught in the crossfire.

Ty Lee had the firm thought in her mind of locating a few drinks, and maybe food that was not already claimed by one duo or the other. She was well aware that the Dead Inside scrawled on the door was very, very far from encouraging; there was definitely at least one in here. But there were much more outside, and probably with at least one bloodthirsty faction just waiting to stumble across the mess.

Unless they had gotten ruined. It was old. This place was monumentally old.

Ty Lee pushed open the doors of the bedrooms and one bathroom and found them to be gross and decrepit as anything else outside of her well built town, and then found a small dining room. There; there was a cabinet.

She walked towards it before she heard the sound of moving feet and had to grab onto her mouth to keep herself from screaming. Ty Lee quickly spun around, ready to fight for her life against a beast much stronger than her, but...

Instead she saw two little kittens.

Ty Lee laughed.

Their tiny bodies had bloated tummies, and they looked at her hopefully. Ty Lee saw that, and knelt in front of the kitties to help them find food.