The Girl From Last Night

The War

Except, then they pulled out someone, a kid, and after checking for pulse the medic shook their head no.

Korra felt like she was about to collapse.

She wasn't alone in that feeling, and she knew that because some people did. Some people just broke down around them. They were all new to this, new to the war, and they weren't really used to... this.

It's been hours, and Korra just felt like dhe was digging up graves.

Korra didn't think she could ever get used to this, though.

Everyone started gathering up all of the equipment after that, and Korra just looked at them clear out. She knew she had to get going, look for other survivers, but she couldn't find the motivation in her to do so. She just felt like anything she did right now was pointless, and like she couldn't save anyone at all.

Eventually, she sighed, then whistled for her new dog. "C'mon Naga, let's go." She said tiredly and started walking away.

After walking for a few meters, she noticed her dog wasn't following. She turned around and called her again, but she wouldn't badge. She just kept standing by the rubble...

"Naga!" She called again, starting to get annoyed.

But all Naga did was bark back, and started using her paws to dig up the ruins, again.

And then she understood.

"Stop!" She screamed as loud as she could, making everybody turn to her in confusion. "There's still someone in there, look!" She pointed at the dog, everyone in a twenty meter radius following her finger.

Immediately, the operation has began at new. All of the equipment had been placed again, everyone resumed to their roles as if they never stopped before. Suro had covered the kid's body, something everyone had been grateful for, before she joined in on the group's effort to rescue what they hoped would be a living person. Korra had to hold onto that, feeling like if another body would get pulled out, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from falling apart again. She worked herself to exhaustion, and so did everybody else, but it was worth it. Because once the limp body was pulled out, and the medic examined it, they announced they had a pulse.

Everyone around had sighed in relief.

Naga started wagging her tail again, barking hapily. Korra smiled at her, she bent over and started petting the dog. "Good girl," she praised, "you may have just saved a life."

But before she could reward Naga with a treat, the bomb alert had started again, and they had to take cover.

________

The next few weeks went by a blur. Bombing, rescue missions, more bombing, more rescue missions. Korra wasn't trained to be a part of that unit, but somebody had to do it. Eventually, some of the injured members of the unit had recovered, and Korra was sent back to her own unit along with Suro. She missed Naga, but this was for the best. She was a good shot, and they were running out of combat soldiers. This way she could protect people so that they wouldn't need rescue. Or so she thought. But when she actually got to the battle field, she realized it wasn't any better than diging up live graves with the rescue squad, it was worse because now she was watching those graves being created.

At this point in the war, she probably had a dozen people she knew and had fallen victim to the war. And she, was considered lucky. Because she was alive, her parents were alive and Suro was alive. All the people closest to her had survived thus far, but the bodies kept piling up, and more and more people she knew had turned up dead with every passing day. People from her unit... people she shared one of the deepest, most intense experiences with... gone.