Note: Thanks for the reviews!!! AbsoluteOmega an' Sassy (I'll send Raph over for ya anyways. ::winks:: ), you guys rock!!
Shadow Games: VII
Approaching where the dim light she'd seen was, April found that it was inside the mouth of a cave. She walked in, keeping as quiet as possible when she noticed a flashlight on the ground, it's light pointing out of the cave entrance. That's the glow I saw, she thought to herself, picking up the light and switching it off before sticking it in her coat pocket. Swallowing nervously, April ventured further into the cave, going down a long and narrow tunnel that appeared to have been man-made.
Coming to a fork in the tunnel, April paused and took a deep breath. Holding her breath, she froze, swearing that she could hear someone else breathing behind her. Spinning on her heel, April turned and kicked high, only to have her foot grasped firmly.
"Easy April, it's me!" Casey gently released the hold on her foot, dropping his arms to his sides and she relaxed.
"Jeeze, Casey!" she exclaimed with a sigh of relief. Rubbing her forehead a moment, April raised an eyebrow as Casey suddenly pulled her into the shadowy corner where he'd been hiding.
"Quiet," Casey whispered, suddenly smiling to himself as he realized how close they were at that moment. Blinking a few times and suddenly becoming serious again, he carefully released April as she leaned against the cave wall beside him.
"What are you doing in here?" she whispered, keeping her voice quiet as possible, but still making it audible.
"I followed one o' them shadow punks in here," Casey responded, being equally quiet. "I'm thinkin' it's a trap though..." he trailed off as April's eyes got wide and she stared off at the tunnel in the fork that went to the right. As his eyes shifted to where she was looking, Casey's mouth hung open slightly in shock.
The soldier Casey had followed into the cave (well, it was presumably the soldier he had followed, since they all looked the same in their uniforms and masks) was hefting a grenade launcher pointed at the rocks above Casey and April.
Pushing April out of the shadowy corner, Casey hollered, "Run, April! RUN!"
Forcing her legs to work, April stumbled forward a few steps before taking off toward the entrance where she had come into the cave. She noticed Casey was a few steps behind her, and she slowed down a little, green eyes wide with fear when she noticed the soldier fire the grenade launcher just above Casey. "LOOK OUT!" April screamed, yanking his arm and practicallyswinging him ahead of her toward the cave opening.
There was a thundering blast that seemed to shake the whole cave as an avalanche of rocks fell from the ceiling and created a wall.
Coughing slightly as the dust settled, Casey climbed to his feet after having been knocked down by the force of the blast and tumbling rocks. He squinted his eyes, horrified to see the collapsed ceiling that formed a barrier. "APRIL!!" he bellowed, forcing back tears at the thought of losing her. She can't be dead, she can't be dead!!! No.... please no. Without even a second thought, Casey began tugging loose rocks, yanking at even the big ones and just hoping that he could make a hole in the wall to get through.
- - - - -
"Did you hear that?!" Raphael glanced sharply at his younger brother, who was currently leaning up against a tree and catching his breath after they'd out-run a couple shadow soldiers.
Michelangelo just shook his head, straightening up again and staring at Raph skeptically. "Hear what?"
"Sounded like an explosion or somethin'...." Raph trailed off, then he waved an arm for Mikey to come with him and took off into the woods again.
"Wait, I'm still catching my breath!!" Mikey complained, shaking his head and obediently following after his brother.
- - - - -
Casey furiously yanked back pieces of the fallen cave ceiling, sweat beginning to drip from his brow with the great effort, and his hands starting to bleed as he practically clawed at the rough rocks. His face held a determined and almost anguished look as he worked, oblivious that a group of shadow soldiers were closing in on him.
- - - - -
"C'mon, we're almost there!" Leonardo yelled as he and Donatello continued following April's footprints, as they coincidentally were going in the same direction where the sound of the recent explosion had come from.
Donnie suddenly stopped short, pulling out his staff when he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. "Leo, wait! I don't think we're alone!"
In the following seconds, there was a shout, not too far away. It was a familiar voice. "Donnie!? Leo!? You guys out there?!"
"Raph! Mikey!" Leonardo returned the shout, sighing slightly with relief when both he and Donatello watched their brothers emerge from a cluster of pine trees.
"What are you guys doing out here? Thought you were sleeping?" Michelangelo blurted out the first thing on his mind.
"We were sleeping," Donnie answered with a half smile. "When we realized everyone was gone, we figured something was up. We also guessed that you guys were chasing shadows. Leo and I caught one of them with April."
Mikey couldn't hide the smirk on his face. "So now you believe us."
Raphael butted in before anything else could be said. "Wait a sec, you caught one o' the soldiers with April?" he leaned from side to side as if looking behind Leo and Don to see if anyone was there. "Where is she? An' where's Case? He was with 'er."
"We just lost her when we were ambushed by a couple soldiers. She must have seen something and wandered off. Then we heard an explosion-" Leo had begun to explain when Raph cut him off.
"Yeh, we heard it too."
"Uh..guys?" Mikey pushed his way in between Leo and Raph. "Speaking of the explosion...Shouldn't we be off lookin' for the source?" he gestured into the woods.
"Right, let's move it!" Leonardo started running, quickly followed by Raph, Don, and Mikey.
- - - - -
The soldiers closed in on Casey, who was still focused on nothing besides getting April out of what he assumed would soon be a rocky grave. Only when an arm wrapped around his neck and pulled him backwards away from the rock pile did he realize he wasn't alone. He let out a short gagging noise as he was dragged back, then suddenly began flailing for all he was worth as another soldier jumped at him. Casey struggled harder, then he started hollering. "NO! APRIL!!! I gotta get 'er out!!! APRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL!!"
He had mopped the floor with three of the soldiers when the fourth decided to go for more extreme ways of brining him down. He pulled a black gun-like thing from his belt, pointed it at Casey's chest, and pulled the trigger. In an instant, wiry things shot out of the gun, little pokers imbedding themselves in Casey's skin through his layers of clothing, and shocking him with electricity.
A choked scream ripped through the cave entrance as Casey's face twisted in pain before the charge of electricity stopped and he slumped to the cold ground.
One of the grounded soldiers got to his feet with a satisfied grunt as he stared down at their victim. "He'll do. Bring around the ATVs, let's load him up and get out of here."
"What about some of our guys, they're still out there," a soldier with a smooth, younger voice piped up.
The soldier that had spoken before grunted. "Leave 'em. Now let's go." his voice was cold, emotionless.
The younger soldier obeyed without question, and the the other two took off to get the ATVs that were hidden near the cave.
- - - - -
Raphael started running faster, ahead of Leo, when he saw a bright, bluish-white flash before hearing an agonized scream. "There!" he shouted, pointing a little off to the left.
"That yell-" Leo broke off with terror-stricken wide eyes.
"Come on!" Raph urged his brothers on with fierce determination.
As they got closer and closer, Donatello heard the rumble of an engine, whereas Raphael and the others seemed more focused on the brief lightshow.
"We better hurry guys!" Donnie yelled to his brothers. "It sounds like someone's making a getaway!"
"Dude!" Mikey gasped, trying to keep up. "I'm goin' as fast as I can!! Whoa!" he barely made the jump over a low-lying tree branch, staggering a moment before full-out sprinting through the woods again.
Raphael soon skidded to a halt in the cave entrance, gawking at the pile of rocks that blocked the way. "Oh man..."
Mikey jogged up behind his speechless brothers and doubled over a moment to catch his breath. When he looked up, he noticed what they were all staring at. "Whoa..." his eyes darted between his brothers nervously. "Guys...you don't think..."
A muffled cry for help soon caught their attention. "Casey! Somebody! Please help!!"
"April!" Leonardo exclaimed, all four turtles automatically began digging through some already loosened rocks to make an exit.
It didn't take too long for the brothers to make a small tunnel that April thankfully crawled out of.
"Y'ok April?" Raphael helped her to her feet as she coughed from the debris and brushed some dirt off herself.
Her eyes widened with sudden desperation and she gasped. "Casey! Where is he?! I think he was trying to get me out, but he coudn't hear me and then-"
"He's not here," Mikey said quietly as Raph tried to put a comforting hand on April's shoulder.
Leonardo suddenly looked up with an apprehensive expression. "That scream we heard..." he trailed off as April's eyes became glassy and she covered a hand over her mouth.
"I think they took him." her lower lip quivered worriedly as Raphael glanced at her sympathetically.
Donatello was intently focused on the dirt layer of the cave entrance that was still untouched by snow. "Footprints. Military. Same as before." his eyes scanned further, going out of the cave where the prints were more clear on the fresh white powder.
Leo, Raph, Mikey, and April grew interested and closely followed Donnie.
Crouching low to the ground, Donnie gazed back at the others. "It looks as though they were dragging something..."
"Or someone." Mikey finished with an uneasy look on his face.
"Casey," April whispered desolately.
Raph growled and started pacing back and forth angrily, twirling his sais. "We gotta find these clowns who took 'im. Who the hell knows what they're gonna do. We don't even know their reason for bein' out here in the first place!" he nearly shouted.
"It's too late," Leo muttered as he gazed at the ground outside the cave, finding ATV tire tracks that explained the motors Donatello heard earlier. "Looks like they've already gone.." he trailed off, looking at April with an apologetic expression. "We should get back to the house," he said with a depleted sigh.
"No!" Raphael snarled, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists by his sides. "We can't leave Case behind, you know he'd never leave any of us Leo!"
April's lower lip quivered and she nodded, eyes watery. "He's right," she whispered shakily. "We can't help Casey if we get caught ourselves."
Donatello and Mikey both put a hand on each of April's shoulders. They then began a slow trudge back to the farmhouse, each hanging their heads in saddened defeat. Raphael hung back a little from the group, angered that he couldn't do anything at the moment to help his friend.
- - - - -
