Now it's time for more adventure of THE DYNAMIC DUO PLUS ONE!

Amonraphoenix!

DarkUnderworld!

plus Me

*Dramatic Music*

Chapter 12

Don's words hit Mikey like a steam roller. Two weeks? How was he even still alive? He wondered in shock. Mikey stared dumbly at Don for a few minutes before Don snapped him out of his stun trance.

"Mikey?" Don questioned softly his voice full of worry.

Mikey blinked at his brother owlishly. "How…what?" Mikey stammered, confused and frightened. Mikey's face tightened as he slowly took in Don's answer. "Donnie, how am I still alive?"

Don frowned and licked his lips, thinking about how to answer the question. "Honestly I don't know, Mikey, you must have one powerful guardian angel."

Mikey inhaled quickly and let out his breath more slowly, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart. "If it's been that long, what about food and water?"

Don chuckled sadly. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask. We're…" Don stopped, not knowing if Mikey could take the grim news.

"We're what?" Mikey asked, his voice shaking slightly.

Don sighed in resignation, "We're running pretty low… rather quickly."

Mikey took a few nervous breaths, "How much is left?" He asked, frightened of the answer.

Don rubbed his neck in agitation. "About…three days' worth."

Mikey's stomach dropped into his feet, "Three days?!" He whispered in horror.

"Calm down, Mikey, please. I don't like this anymore than you do." Don said wryly. "Just lay back down, you need your rest." Don coaxed soothingly.

Mikey slowly calmed himself down. He looked over at the flashlight that lay on the ground. Don was blocking the light from hitting Mikey's eyes. Mikey couldn't see a lot of Don, only saw a silhouette. "Give me the flashlight." Mikey asked roughly.

"What?" Don asked in confusion. "The flashlight." Mikey commanded.

Don shot him an odd look. "Why?"

"Just give it to me." Mikey said reaching out his hand.

Don frowned, reached over, and grabbed the flashlight and he handed it to Mikey.

Mikey took hold of the proffered flashlight and shined the light on Don. "Hey!" Don yelped, protecting his eyes from the bright light that suddenly assaulted him.

"Oh my God, Donnie!" Mikey gasped in shock, getting a good look at his brother's extremely emaciated body.

….

"This can't be happening." Casey said in disbelief. "It just can't be. It's like God doesn't want us to go down into the lair." Casey continued, "Every time there looks like a way out, something happens that makes the situation worse."

April nodded numbly. "I know, Casey. Can we please drop it." April pleaded.

"How can we drop it?" Casey asked in frustration. "I can't help it. I can't think about anything else!"

Casey exclaimed in frustration. "I would love to think about something…anything else, but I can't. It's like it eatin' away at the inside of my skull!"

April sighed tiredly and lay her head down on the cool wood of the battered tabletop. "Screaming at me isn't going to help anything either, Casey." April pointed out softly.

Casey sighed in resignation and sat down onto the seat next to hers. "I know, April, I'm sorry. I'm just… angry and frustrated." He murmured wretchedly. He leaned his head on April's shoulder. "We'll get through this, somehow." He promised her.

…..

Mikey gawked in shocked horror at Don's frostbitten skin. Every inch of his normally olive colored skin was laced with frost; causing it to look dark and swollen. "Don…" Mikey said in disbelief. His brother's body looked incredibly emaciated, as if someone pumped all of his insides out. Mikey was sure that if Don's plastron wasn't blocking his stomach, Mikey would be able to see each of his brother's ribs jut out.

Then Mikey thought about this, and then nervously shined the flashlight on his own body. "Oh, God" Mikey moaned softly. His own body was almost as thin as Don's, but Don's was far worse.

Mikey's own skin wasn't as badly frostbitten as Don's either; which made Mikey wonder. His angry gaze shot to Don's. "What did you do?" He hissed scathingly.

Don stared at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Mikey shifted to his elbows. "I mean…have you been screwing yourself over, just to take care of me?"

Don remained stubbornly silent.

"Don!" Mikey insisted firmly.

"I just…I needed to know you were ok." Don finally replied softly.

Mikey's anger grew, "You're killing yourself just to know that I'm ok?" Mikey shouted in exasperation. "I'm fine, Donnie!"

"At the time… I didn't know." Don replied sadly.

Mikey stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"Mikey… y-you…died." Don said wretchedly.

Mikey stared at him with uncomprehending confusion. "Huh?"

Don sighed wearily. "You stopped breathing and I couldn't find a pulse. It took several minutes to revive you. At one point I thought you were truly gone for good, then you started breathing again. I fed you half of my portions just to keep you as strong as possible so that you could gain enough strength to regain consciousness."

Mikey stared at Don, unable to believe what he was hearing. "I…d-died?"

Don nodded grimly, closing his eyes in pained remembrance of feeling his brother's life slip away.

Mikey understood why Don was suffering; to keep him alive. Mikey softly ran his fingers over the back of his head; feeling the still large swollen lump. It sent shivers down his spine even thinking about it.

"I'm sorry," Mikey whispered.

Don numbly nodded. "Don't worry about it," Don replied casually.

Mikey smiled and rested his head down on the pillow. "How's your fever?" He asked with concern.

Don chuckled bitterly. "Not much better." Don admitted.

"Have you found any medicine that you could take?" Mikey asked worriedly.

Don shook his head. "The aftershock totally destroyed the bathroom, and knocked all the medicine out of the cabinet and onto the floor where most of it was crushed or contaminated."

Don heard Mikey make a small squeaking noise. He took the flashlight back from his brother and shined it on Mikey. His baby brother had curled himself into a ball, clutching at his stomach in pain.

…..

"Where are they?" April asked anxiously.

"I don't know." Casey answered. " I think they went out into the barn." Casey said.

"The barn!?" April almost shouted, "How did they get out there?"

"Umm…they walked" Casey said slowly, as if April should have understood the obviousness of the answer.

April glared. "Casey, this isn't the time for your mocking, they walked out there in the snow?"

"I'm not sure." Casey shrugged. "But they aren't in the house. So I have to think they'd be in the barn."

April quickly stood up and walked to the front window. She looked outside and saw foot prints through the deep snow leading to the barn. She shook her head and sighed wretchedly.

…..

Mikey clenched his eyes shut as he felt his stomach tighten in pain. The pains were getting worse and worse, to the point where he felt acrid bile burning at his throat. Nausea rolled through his gut, but he had nothing in his stomach to actually vomit. He took deep breaths, and did all that he could to lessen the pain. He felt Don's hand gently touch his shoulder, "Breathe, Mikey" Don soothed, "Just breathe."

Don watched as Mikey cringed in pain. He knew what his brother was going through. Don had been going through the same thing for a while. He closed his eyes, hating seeing Mikey in so much pain. "Just breathe, Mikey…take deep breaths."

"It hurts." Mikey moaned, holding his arms close to his stomach.

Don bit his lip, feeling tears start to form, "I know Mikey, just… just try to breathe through it."

…..

"What the fuck are we going to do?" Raph snarled angrily, sitting near the small fire they had built to keep warm. Leo continued to pace the barn, rubbing his chin and thinking of their options; which weren't a lot.

"I can only think of two options." Leo said, "One…stay here and wait for the snow to melt. Which could take weeks…" He continued.

"What's option two?" Raph muttered.

….

Casey stared out of window, gazing at the snow covered forest. He wondered if the snow would ever melt in time for Mikey to be saved. He hated it, but thought about their situation rationally. There was no way that the snow would melt in time. And if it was cold in the old farmhouse, Casey hated to think about how cold it was in the lair. He exhaled sadly and looked into Master Splinter's room.

April was sitting with him, dozing in and out of sleep. He smiled and walked into the room, "Hey Ape, why don't you get some sleep, I'll watch the place." Casey said.

"Wha? No… no, it's fine. I'm awake." April lied. "Come on now, I promise I'll wake you up when something happens." Casey said.

April sighed. "Fine." She said as she stood up and walked to her room.

"If anything happens." Casey said sadly under his breath as he watched her walk away.

….

"Are you crazy?!" Raph exclaimed.

"Raph, do you see any other way?" Leo asked impatiently.

"What about Casey's truck?" Raph asked. I thought Casey has a truck?

"Raph, you know that it won't make it; it's practically buried." Leo explained.

Raph took a steadying breath, thinking about his other options. "There's gotta be another way." Raph said, moving his arms with exasperation.

Leo frowned. "I'm sorry ,Raph, but there really isn't." Leo admitted.

"But…we'll probably die" Raph said bluntly.

"Maybe not but, I think that with the right equipment, we'll make it. If we don't try Mikey will definitely die and I can't lose another brother."

"How can you so sure that this will work?" Raph asked, awed by his brothers confidence.

"…I…I just am." Leo stammered.

….

Casey sat and looked at Master Splinter, waiting for him to wake up. After a few minutes of nothing, he stood up and walked to the window once again. He looked out and saw his truck, an idea popping into his head.

He quickly ran into the spare bedroom, opened up the closet, grabbed the pair of snow boots, coats and gloves, and walked to the front door.

He opened it and stepped outside into the cold. He shivered and began slowly making his way to his truck. The coats didn't do much, and he regretted not grabbing some extra layers. He felt the cold on his skin, which hurt. He grabbed his truck handle and pulled the door open. After stepping inside, he shut the door and quickly warmed his arms by rubbing them.

He stuck the keys into the ignition and turned the truck on; the truck roared to life. He closed his eyes in relief. "Please let this work" He said softly to himself. He put the truck into drive and slammed on the gas. The tires spun aimlessly, "No… no… no!" Casey growled as he continued stomping on the gas usually.

"Come on" He clenched his teeth and pushed as hard as he could on the gas. Realizing that his efforts were futile, Casey stopped and leaned forward on the steering wheel. He pressed his palms against his face, feeling useless.

…..

The pain lessened slightly and Mikey stopped writhing in pain. He caught his breath and sat up. "How are you feeling?" Don asked in concern.

Mikey shook his head miserably. "Like crap." He admitted truthfully. Don chuckled grimly. "I hate to say it, but it's going to happen a lot."

"Can't wait." Mikey sarcastically remarked, rolling his eyes.

"Well, it's good to see your personality is still intact." Don joked lightly.

Mikey giggled and looked at the front entrance, seeing something out of the ordinary. "Don, let me see the flashlight."

Don's face tightened up in confusion. He handed Mikey the flashlight and he quickly flashed it towards the entrance.

His stomach rose in hope. "Don, look." Mikey exclaimed excitedly.

"That rock…it fell over!" Mikey shouted. He quickly stood up shakily and walked over to it, feeling dizzy as he did so.

"Why didn't I notice that before?" Don asked more to himself than to Mikey.

Mikey closed his eyes and waited for the wave of dizziness to pass. After it did, Mikey walked over to the buried down doors. Don walked up next to him. "What are you thinking?" He asked slowly in an unsure voice.

Mikey squinted at the opening were the lair doors were. It looked like one was broken. He walked up to it and looked inside. Mikey said something, but Don didn't quite hear what his brother had said.

"What?" Don asked.

Mikey turned around and looked at Don happily. "I can dig through here." Mikey announced proudly. "Don, were getting out of here!"