Donatello was so alert, he jumped at every small sound he encountered as they started down the first hallway, following the rudimentary path the signal strength from Brandon's beacon indicated.
Making our own path is more like it.
Leonardo was directly beside him, which should have given the purple-masked turtle more confidence to pay attention to his device, instead of listening for an imminent cave-in. Nevertheless, Donny caught himself scanning the ceiling every few seconds as they continued. They hadn't approached any obstacles that were too large to scale yet, but Donatello still wished for some tools.
As if they would do us any good? We don't have the time to devote to several minutes of breaking through a single barrier anyway. Shell, this place could come down any second. I feel like we're borrowing time as it is.
He tried to cast the last thought out of mind, and turned to glance at his blue-masked brother. Leonardo's face was partially illuminated by his head-lamp, so that Donatello could see the hardened determination etched in deep lines across his forehead. Leo's brown eyes flicked over to him.
"Are you remembering to breathe?" Leonardo asked.
"Sometimes," he said ironically.
"Don, focus. If you keep thinking about everything that could go wrong, you'll get overwhelmed. Try to shut the distractions out, and keep an eye on where we need to go."
Donny nodded, even though he thought it was easier said than done. He raised a hand to halt their progress, and closed his eyes briefly in an attempt to clear his mind. Being nervous about what could happen won't put us in any less danger than we are already in. Breathe in calm...breathe out the tension.
"You all right, Donny?" Greg asked after a few moments.
"Yeah. Give me another second to check our coordinates." Donatello felt a pang of impatience as he studied their longitude and latitude, wishing he had a map of where they were trying to get to.
But even if I had the schematics, the entire face of the structure has changed. The best we can hope for is to follow his signal strength, and pray that we'll be able to find some way through. The risk of getting trapped in the process of searching for him is so great that…Donatello cut himself off and rolled his eyes. Helpful thoughts please, only helpful thoughts.
Without bothering to announce any new instructions, Donatello began moving again, his eyes still glued to the screen of his device. He'd walked that way for a few steps when Leonardo's arm pulled him up short from crashing into a piece of rebar that was sticking out of concrete rubble.
"You don't have to focus that hard, Don."
"Sorry. Thanks." Donatello went back to being vigilant about his surroundings, in addition to watching the tracker and temperature gauge that would be indicative of any dangerous flare-ups. A serious fire could be just as catastrophic for them as another collapse. The next temperature reading he got off the ceiling succeeded in bringing the purple-masked turtle to a halt.
"What is it, Don?" Leonardo had noticed the way he was fixed overhead.
"Elevated temps. We need to keep moving."
Donatello picked up his pace to a near trot in his desire to escape the possibility of a fire spreading out of their sight, but he tried not to convey any panic to the others. How much further can this hallway stretch? It has to come to an end here sometime soon.
Donatello raised a hand to adjust his head-lamp, directing the beam several feet ahead of them. His search turned up the glowing letters of an exit door, which made him release a small breath of relief. As he glanced below the letters that had attracted his attention, the relief felt short-lived. The concrete barrier that appeared to be blocking the path to the door almost reminded him of a siege ramp.
The purple-masked turtle swore inwardly, and he held up a hand to stop everyone again. "I think we have a serious obstacle up ahead. We might have no choice except to backtrack."
"Do we have time to backtrack?" Greg asked. "That sounds a little counterproductive."
"No, Heff, but we don't have tools or heavy equipment to move this much concrete either. I don't know whether we'll be able to make it through to other side or not. We need to see how badly the door is blocked."
Donatello held his breath automatically as they walked within range of the debris, and he wrapped a hand around a piece of exposed rebar to check how stable the pile was. The concrete didn't even shudder as he maneuvered himself onto the rubble. He climbed slowly, carefully placing his feet in the flattest places he could find.
The exit sign was getting closer, but he had yet to catch a real glimpse of the door. He kept going, hoping against hope that there might be a way through. Donatello's eyes widened when he found a gap near the top of the door, and he carefully edged closer to study measurements.
If I had to make an educated guess, I think my brothers and I could make it through the gap, if we could somehow get the door open first. That's going to be the tricky part, isn't it? Or maybe there's another option, and I'm just not seeing it yet.
His eyes were drawn to return to the exit sign, and he focused on the way the red light was playing off glass directly above it. Donatello drew his bo, and he found that he could reach the shattered remnants of the window with the long staff. He carefully knocked out the remaining shards of glass with his weapon, and considered the size of the frame at the same time.
That's probably the fastest way to get into the hall, but I don't think we could make it. Our shells would never fit through. Darn it, why does everything have to be so complicated? Is it too much to ask for one simple access point? Nothing can ever be that easy, not when we're concerned. I swear the old "turtle luck" can run both ways.
The purple-masked turtle descended with a strong sense of disappointment, but tried to be positive for the others. "There's a gap in the debris. If we can get the door open somehow, we would have a chance of making it through. But the concrete is blocking the frame, and I don't see how we could access the door from this side. There's a window too, but it's too small for-"
A loud cracking cut Donatello off mid-sentence, and he caught his breath as he watched the ceiling fissure a couple of yards down the hall. He opened his mouth, but no words escaped before the weight overhead came crashing down. Don stared in stunned amazement at the large portion of the fourth floor that had collapsed, and he gasped loudly as flames licked through the opening.
The fire wasn't going to be content with the wood it was already consuming; even as he watched, Donatello could see the flames spreading toward the walls of the level from which they were trying to escape. Smoke was building faster than he'd imagined it could, already stinging his eyes as he hesitated.
"Donny!" Leonardo's sharp voice snapped him back to attention. "What about the window? You didn't finish!"
"Too small for us!" he returned. "We'd never make it..." Donatello decided against what he'd been about to say when he focused on Greg. "Wait a second. Heff, c'mere, I need you!"
The sandy-haired man didn't bother asking questions. He quickly drew himself up onto the rubble next to Donatello.
"You've got to try and make it through that window, Heff, you're smaller than we are! It might be the only shot we've got!"
Greg swallowed. "It's an exit door, so it should open outward, but if the concrete shifts..."
"I don't think it will, Heff, it feels pretty wedged in here. I'm fairly certain that we'll be able to fit through the gap near the top of the door."
"Okay," Greg replied. "I'm all over it."
As the purple-masked turtle neared the pinnacle of the debris, he reached an arm behind himself to draw Greg closer, and pointed out the window. "Think you can make this work?"
The man looked over his shoulder at the building flames, and he swiftly turned around to face the door. "Absolutely. Can you give me a boost?"
Donatello crouched down on top of the concrete so that Greg could step over him. "You ready, Heff?"
"Fire at will."
Don braced his arms around Greg's legs, and the man made a small leap to more easier allow the turtle to get him airborne. In the beam of his head-lamp he saw Greg catch the inside of the window frame, and yank his way further through it. The man ducked his head, grunting with exertion as he twisted to fit through the narrow space.
Donatello watched with clenched fists until the widest part of Greg's torso made it through the window, and he exhaled deeply. He nodded in satisfaction as the man disappeared from view.
"He's through, guys! C'mon up here and get in position with me!" Donatello called.
The purple-masked turtle glanced back to watch his brothers climb, and he had to clench watering eyes shut for a couple of seconds. His oxi was providing the air he needed, but the scent of the smoke was still close to overpowering. Don opened his eyes to the terrible sight of the spreading fire, and he was grateful for the distraction of the door scraping behind him. He turned to see the gap exposed by the exit door opening, and he waited a breathless moment to check if the concrete was going to shift. The rubble held its position.
"Okay, guys, this is it," Donatello told them.
The red-masked turtle's eyes were wide and uncertain. "I won't make it through there, Don. I ain't a pipsqueak like you and Mike!"
"I'm pretty sure you will, Raph. Take off your belt so it won't get hooked on anything, and with the right amount of maneuvering, you should make it."
Leonardo nodded. "Go ahead, Donny. We'll be right behind you."
Donatello dropped his backpack and his belt through the gap, and he ducked his head through first so that he could use his arms to help power his way to the other side. The squeeze was tight, but with a few seconds of wriggling, he managed to yank the most difficult part of his frame through the opening.
He tucked his head as he fell through mid-air, so that he didn't even see Greg before he landed on top of him.
"Dang, Donny, you don't have to tackle me."
Donatello leaped to his feet at once. "You okay? What were you doing there, Heff?"
The purple-masked turtle heard a mighty swear which indicated Raphael was attempting to bull his way through the opening.
"I'm getting out of the way now." Greg swiftly stepped aside.
Donatello listened to Raphael struggle for several moments before his brother's head appeared. The tension from the effort he was exerting was stressed painfully in his face.
"Donny! Little help here!"
Donatello stretched to reach his arms, and he pulled Raphael for all he was worth. More precious seconds passed before Don was able to jerk him further through the gap. He partially caught his brother as he landed on the other side, and Raphael heaved for breath.
"You all right, Raph?"
He nodded without speaking. By that time Leonardo had started maneuvering past the opening. The blue-masked turtle contorted through the gap without a word, slipping out of the space with about a third of the trouble that Raphael had experienced. He flipped once through the air, and landed nimbly on his feet beside them.
"Okay," Donatello said calmly, as if they hadn't just escaped nearly being burned to death. "Nice going, Heff. We should keep moving."
Greg snorted. "Who's a liability now?"