I have been watching too many Christmas specials this week. I mean, obviously it's a good thing since it's Christmas time and what not, but still, maybe I've been influenced by too much Good Will and Peace On Earth. It was hard to get into the mood to write this. So I reread my favorite chapters of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. That seemed to cure my ales.

(Warning - Contains Extreme Violence and Filthy, Unsettling Descriptions. Dosage: To Be Taken As Prescribed)

TMNT © Nickelodeon
Hunger © Turtlefreak121

Hunger
Chapter Four: Point System

I remembered times when we were little kids and I would be left behind in vicious games such as tag or hide-and-go-seek. I was always terrible at them because I would worry that in doing well I would be upsetting one of my brothers. In reality I was simply making myself miserable because I could never truly partake in their foolishness.

This is not to say my brothers were completely heartless and unobservant to my feelings. I think I give them too little credit.

One of them, never one more than the others, would always find me after a few minutes of being left behind and forcefully drag me back into playtime. I never took it as they needed me in the game, and they didn't, but they wanted me involved because I was still their brother and they believed I needed to have just as much fun as any of them.

As we grew older, I understood that at that age, though I never admitted it, they were right. I did enjoy those games of childhood innocence and regretted not involving myself more in them. I regretted it because as my interests truly did grow away from theirs I could not escape their instinctual need to drag me into their trivial pursuits.

A few days after the Zombie Games had begun, it was hard to tell what permanent effect it would have on our Ninja Team. While my three brothers did absolutely everything in their powers to assure that they slaughtered as many of the Afflicted as possible to get points, who would win at the end of the day was a tossup.

By the fourth day Leonardo had still not been proclaimed leader by the Zombie Games standard and it pissed him off more than anything else our brothers had ever done to him. This simply encouraged Michelangelo and Raphael to continue playing.

What was more fun than proving to Leo he wasn't perfect?

I could've named a few things but, as usual, no one asked me.

No, instead I was stuck doing the usual with our pointless games: keeping score. No one was capable of doing math on their own so poor genius Donny was caught with the lovely duty of keeping track of score for everyone.

Because, you know, that's what I want to do on a Saturday afternoon: follow my idiot brothers around so they can perform a duty I don't agree with and keep score for them.

That fourth day, though, Leo had gone nuts. He wanted to win so bad that his mood was radiating off of him like ooze. I had to admit that even I was a bit frightened by him at that time. He was going to take off either the heads of one of the Afflicted or someone who tried to stop him, I was sure.

Fortunately, though, by three the warlike nature my brothers possessed began to fade away and I ended up winning my argument in us heading home. This, however, came with the very question that I had been dreading.

"So, who's ahead?" Leo voiced as he, Raph, and Mike gathered around me.

Inwardly I groaned. I had been expecting as much of a response when I brought up the concept of calling it a day. Honestly, what did Zombie Apocalypse Leader do, anyway? So far it had been the same thing every day: go to the surface and see how many Afflicted we can put out of their miseries for the hell of it.

They wouldn't believe my reply anyway.

"You're all three tied."

"What?" Mike questioned as his face screwed up, not believing a word I said, just like I had expected him not to. It didn't help that Leo and Raph were producing the same expressions and questioning.

"I'm being serious," I assured them. "You all three have one hundred fifty."

"But I got three in the head," Raph growled. "That's ten points each."

See, there were different points for how someone dealt with an Afflicted. Different methods led to different rewarding of points. While using out signature weapons was effective it was also simple, automatic and received only five points each. Cleanly decapitating or direct impact to the head was the second most effective means my brothers had found to kill zombies. This received ten points.

"I realize that," I said. "That's thirty of your one fifty, Raph."

"Didn't you see where I used that clothesline in the alley?" Mike

While using our own weapons was the lowest reward of points possible, the usage of objects we gathered from the area we were fighting led to greater point reward, twenty points. This was simply for the fact that it was effectively thinking on our feet.

I wondered why we never took fighting the Foot ninja so seriously as compared to the points for killing Afflicted.

"Yes," I said sourly, sick of this scrutinizing. If there was one thing I could do it was math.

Finally, Leonardo stepped forward and, for a moment, appeared to be in the same complacent, controlled character of the brother I used to know. It almost seemed as though he had stepped out of the insanity of the Zombie Apocalypse to protect me from my point deranged brothers.

"Guys, Don knows what he's talking about," Leo scolded. "Attacking him isn't going to change your point numbers, alright? Back off some."

I felt so relieved! …Until he turned around with a frown on his lips.

"You sure I only have one-hundred fifty? I nailed three Afflicted cops. That's like twenty-five each, isn't it?"

I growled and turned around, leaving the sight of my brothers in utter disgust. They were being so idiotic. The question of why I was even involved kept reoccurring in my brain and that memory of us being so young and everyone trying to get me involved kept following the question.

Did they honestly believe that this was helping me feel more included with them? It wasn't. I t was just annoying me and I was sick of it.

I turned the corner to start back toward the storm drain we used to get to the surface earlier when something grabbed my shoulders and twirled me around. I almost began to snap at one of my brothers for continuing to pester me when, instead of looking into one of my brothers' eyes, I was glancing into the puss filled rotten sockets of an Afflicted.

He moaned and his gapping jaw unhinged as he looked like he was about to swallow me whole.

"GUYS!" I cried out but I was frozen.

I could vaguely recall that a few shuriken were handily residing in my belt but for some reason it did not compute with a way to get out of the monster's clutches. Not that it mattered much anyway. I was saved.

Just as the vicious monster leaned forward to bite into my throat, there was an ungodly crack and thick, green fungus that had been eating upon the Afflicted's dormant brain spewed onto my face like that time that Raph sat on Mike's jelly filled donut.

I blinked and looked dully at the creature as it numbly fell to the ground, no longer threatening anyone and, most of all, me. Then I looked to my savior.

Mike grinned as he wiped his nunchucks off on the Afflicted's clothes. He was enjoying his kill when Raph and Leo both grabbed my shoulders and began to look me over, inspecting me for blemishes or bites.

"Christ, Don!" Raph gasped as he looked around. He honestly seemed panicked.

"Don't leave the group, that's one of the rules, remember?" Leo asked as forcefully turned my face toward him. He was angry – concerned, but angry at me.

I felt so relieved, though. They were genuinely concerned for me. Perhaps the brothers I had grown up with were still somewhere within these Zombie Slaying machines that had been pestering me for so long.

"Sorry, didn't see it," I muttered as I looked around, my gaze settling upon some knocked over trashcans where the Afflicted had no doubt been feasting for some thrown out meat. "It must have been behind those cans when I walked out… I didn't see it."

"Hey, guys!" Mike called as he stood up, a wicked grin on his face. "Doesn't that mean I get fifty points?"

My cheeks suddenly felt very hot and I clenched my muscles.

Leo and Raph looked at each other and then to me, not sure if they were alright to laugh at me after my near death experience. That or, like me, they didn't know how to respond toward the utter insult Mike had just given me.

You see, fifty points is the highest of rewards because it's always the pinnacle point of any scary zombie movie or game.

Fifty points goes to someone who saves a damsel in distress.

Mike was in the lead…

…

A/N: I determined this week that there is absolutely no excuse for this fanfic. Really, I'm serious. There's NONE. Thanks for reading.

Feedback Appreciated.