Chapter 26: Go forth and change
I received the grand tour before they shut me away. Sitting on the floor I couldn't get the images of what I had seen out of head. Even as I closed my eyes I could still see them. People...but then...not people.
I rested my chin on my knees.
My God, they were experimenting on human beings. Changing them. Trying to alter their make-up so they would become something else...something inhuman but as the Shadow saw it: a higher breed of being.
It was barbaric.
These people were suffering; they were in pain.
And this monster didn't care.
I hoped to God that Karai would go and get help. I was reliant on her now and boy how I hated it.
Karai had fought her way out of the TCRI. It had appeared that Shadow was lying to her and that he had planned on taking her out. The singular 'man in black' had escorted her to what she now realised was a 'fake exit' and that they were really taking her to be drugged and then Lord knows what else. She took the lone warrior out with a single blow to the head and then found her own, and very real, exit. Once outside she phoned Leonardo and told him what had happened. As per, Raphael was blasting out in the background moaning on about how she was going to be knocked out once he got his mitts on her. Leo, also as per, was trying to calm his brother down.
Bless Leo. He was such a great leader and such a great guy. And actually in spite of their initial shyness, a great lover too. She smiled to herself then put away her phone and waited.
As the van rounded the corner it was still making noises.
"Thought you fixed this heap of junk Donnie!" growled Raphael as he watched his brother change gear in one jerky crunch.
"It's not a heap of junk!" replied Donatello "This is a first rate piece of machinery, and keep your voice down, she's sensitive"
"O.M.G" Raphael leaned back and shook his head "I almost wish Mikey were here"
"There's the alley, pull over" instructed Leonardo as he spotted Karai. As soon as the van had halted she raced over, slid open the door and jumped in, putting a hand on Leonardo's shoulder as she sat down.
"I ought to nail you" hissed Raphael "you left her!"
"For her own protection" answered Karai defensively "With me out of the way and one knocked out guard they will be sending out a search unit I guarantee it, worrying about what I'll do or say. Rosie will be locked up. They won't touch her until they need to. She's okay Raph, believe me"
"She better be"
"How are we going to get in? Any ideas?" asked Leonardo seriously
"I got one" began Raphael "We storm in and use her as a battering ram" He glared at Karai.
"Sensible ideas only" warned the eldest, giving Karai's hand a squeeze and giving her so much more via the look that passed between them.
"I vote that it was a sensible idea...well, it's the only one we got" Raphael looked to Donatello for support as they neared closer to their destination but the purple banded brother was too busy negotiating the roads to notice.
"Not quite" added Karai "I got out remember? I know how to get back in"
Under Karai's instruction, Donatello took the van around the back of the building and under a large grate where they parked up. She insisted that no-one would see it here. Raphael found that hard to believe considering the circumstances but he went with it anyway. The sooner they were inside the sooner he would see Rosie for himself and know for once and for all that she was really okay.
Being alone once more in my metallic room - I really could have sworn I was in the exact same one where they had put me last time. Though knowing a building this size they probably had hundreds of metallic rooms all the same and all housing innocent people like myself. I'd come for answers and I'd got them.
I closed my eyes.
If only I had stayed home in England and learned to be content with my 'uninteresting' life then none of this would have happened. Why was it that whenever something good came along it never, ever lasted. Oh I was jinxed for sure.
Just as I was feeling myself fall into the pit of doom I had a crash and a shouting sound coming from outside my door. I got up and pressed my ear against the metal. In doing so there was one voice which I clearly recognised: Raphael. I could recognise those manly tones of his anywhere. I hammered on the door, screamed and called out until I was sure that I had his attention...well, as sure as I could be. Then I waited.
"Stand back..." came a gruff shout
I moved out of the way as instructed. Just as I had done the first time.
"No need, I've got the..."
One loud bang later and the door was suitably moved enough for Raphael to poke his head round and over me a hand. I took it gladly.
"I had the key code you idiot!" announced Donatello "Two more minutes and I'd have..."
"Two minutes is too long" interrupted Raphael pulling me close into a hug and then picking me up "Sorry.." he whispered, kissing me lightly on the mouth. I put my arms around his neck.
"Me too...I should never have left...I thought..." He kissed me again and I felt myself melting and forgetting that we were in a high security building full of weird beings and random torture devices oh and some sicko named Shadow. Karai brought me back down to earth.
"Hey, lovebirds...Can we put the re-union thing on hold until we're outta here?"
"Fine" replied Raphael "But I'm not putting her down"
"Suit yourself" Karai rolled her eyes and whispered something to Leo about 'extra weight'. I chose to ignore it.
I was actually quite glad to be carried. I suddenly felt exhausted so I closed my eyes and leaned my head into his chest, feeling the movement of his body and, in turn, feeling myself relax.
The next thing I knew I was waking up on the couch. We were back in the lair. I must have slept the entire way back here, and then some.
"Hey guys, she's awake" Michelangelo was leaning over me giving me a strange and pitying look. I sat myself up. Raphael quickly appeared next to me with a glass of water.
"How are you feeling?" He looked worried.
It was at that point when I realised Donatello had me hooked up to several monitors and I had numerous wires attached to my person.
"I'm fine...what is all this Donnie?" I took the water and then indicated to all the surrounding electronics.
Raphael looked at his brother and then back to me "Just to monitor you that's all"
He was covering over something. I hadn't known him that long but I knew when he was trying to fob me off.
"What aren't you telling me? What happened?" I put the glass down and stared at him, willing for him to tell me the truth.
But it was Donatello who spoke up: "You were unresponsive for a while..but then..then you came back and it seems now that all is now reading as normal"
I sat there my mouth slightly ajar "I was what? What the heck is unresponsive? I mean, was I unconscious?"
"Sort of..." added Raphael, looking awkwardly at the others.
"Sort of? Either I was or I wasn't..? Donnie?" I looked from one to the other, both of them seemed unprepared to go into detail so it was Karai who stepped up.
"You were clinically dead" she said simply.
"What?!" I felt like I'd been hit by a truck.
"Yep..for all of two hours and forty-nine minutes" she added nonchalantly flicking open her watch.
Raphael shot up, his face full of rage "Way to go Karai...we were going for tactful...sensitive" he hissed. Leonardo touched his brother's arm whilst my world went suddenly into slow-mo.
"I was dead?" I heard myself speak but it sounded like I was under water.
"But you're fine now" Donatello showed me the large monitor and smiled "See, this is your heart rate"
"Which you really wouldn't have if you were dead would you?" added Karai. The slender Japanese girl was staring at me as if waiting for me to respond. Again, I chose to ignore her.
"How?" I looked up at my hero; my Raphael. I wanted him to soothe me; to tell me that it was all a misunderstanding and that it was Karai's idea of a joke - albeit a rather sick one.
Raphael bent down in front of me "You had no heart beat" he muttered, looking full of pity as he spoke "No pulse. But like Don says, you're fine now"
My lips automatically fell apart again "What? You sure? Why didn't anyone take me to a hospital?"
"Because...although that happened you were still walking around...you were breathing, you appeared alive"
"Okay..what are we saying here? That I was like a zombie? Dead but not dead?" I shifted my weight forward and went to get up, Raphael grasped my hands and stopped me; tears were once again pricking my eyes "Maybe Donnie's equipment was off - did that ever occur to you?"
"It wasn't. We did the old fashioned way too and you had no pulse...plus we tested the equipment on..."
"Okay..okay..I get it..." My eyes met Raphael's beautiful green ones "Is it something to do with this change?"
"We think it must be to do with all that because whilst you were that way...you drew this" Donatello pointed over my head. I turned and followed his gaze finally letting Raphael help me to stand.
I couldn't at first comprehend what it was that I was seeing.
"We think..well, that it could be this map we've heard about..." muttered Donatello as he magically appeared besides me; guiding me forwards. It was my writing but I had no recollection of doing it. There were drawings, codes and words in a language I didn't understand. Heck, I understood nothing about this.
"It's insane" I barked, turning away, trying to block it out "This isn't real...it's not happening"
"I err think you'll find it is girl, look behind you, oh it's very real and it happened all over their walls" Karai had her arms folded across her chest and was giving me a strange look.
"I didn't do this!" I shouted "I couldn't have done...I'm not 25 yet...it's not my birthday...he he said things would happen on my birthday" I ran a hand through my hair, suddenly feeling panicked yet reassured all at the same time.
Raphael was holding out arms for me to nestle in, I went forward and buried my head into him.
"Perhaps his timing was a little off" whispered Karai shrugging her shoulders.
Again I was Alice, but this time the rabbit hole was a dangerous, scary place and I suddenly felt afraid.