*Should start looking dangerously familiar right about now. Don't skim though, it's been...expounded.
Donatello stood tensed and determined to fight, but the familiar shape of his other older brother made the purple-masked turtle lower his weapon with a great sigh of relief.
"Donny, what happened? Are you...Is Leo...?" The red-masked turtle didn't finish either question when he caught a good glimpse of his brother on the ground.
Donatello moved swiftly to cut Raphael off from touching Leonardo, or accidentally being burned. "We got caught in the fringe of something, probably a mortar round. You know that heavy artillery that Kirkland was referring to? I believe they're breaking it out on us."
"I saw those flashes! Is he gonna be all right Donny? Are you?"
Donatello had already whipped his cloak tighter against his own frame, doing his best to conceal his injured leg for the time being. "I'm fine," he lied, "Leo's life signs are strong too. We're just got to get the shell out of here!"
"We have incoming!" Brandon's voice carried from a couple of feet away, motioning urgently toward the streaking light that appeared almost like a falling star.
The round bounced against the opposite end of the quarry, and nothing else was needed to spur them onto action. Donatello shouldered Leonardo's weight as carefully as he could, and jerked his head at Raphael. "Lead the way Raph - I've got him."
Donatello tried desperately to control his own breathing and heart-rate as he ran, but it was a losing battle. The guns behind them still didn't lend them the option of stopping, but the fiery pain in the back of his leg was also making it difficult for him to keep going at their current pace. The purple-masked turtle had followed Raphael blindly back into the brush several minutes prior, without a clue if they were even traveling in the correct direction anymore.
Leonardo hadn't even so much as stirred from the grip that Donatello was carrying him in yet. Until now, protecting their brother and their own shells had been their driving thought, but with passing minutes had come further anxiety, and Donatello found himself wondering where the others were, or if they'd managed to reassemble safely. He couldn't answer either question, so it seemed futile to focus on it right then.
Donatello needed all the concentration he could muster to keep sight of Raphael running ahead of him in the semi-darkness with Brandon, and the fight to keep what was becoming a shaky balance over the rough terrain was distracting him. All the while he was also listening, straining to pick up any sounds behind or around them. He didn't want to overreact to them - it could just as easily be Michelangelo or one of the others tracking them down, as one of the gun-toting men. He simply felt the need to be prepared for anything at this point.
Leonardo's worthless radio shifted on Donny's belt along with his jaunty step, and he cursed the mortar round that had knocked it out. Things hadn't gone exactly according to the plan. That is to say that running blindly through the trees with God knows how much fire power behind them hadn't been on anyone's agenda for that early morning mission.
As Donatello crashed through another set of over-hanging limbs, he heard the sound of faint whistling overhead, which only took half a beat to click with the turtle again. "GUYS, DOWN!" he shouted as he lunged to the earth himself, covering his oldest brother's prone body with his own.
The mortar shell exploded somewhere in the middle of the space that separated him from the other two. When the purple-masked turtle looked back up through the clearing smoke, he was both irritated and relieved to see his red-masked brother standing over him and Leonardo.
"Didn't you hear me yelling at you?" Donatello demanded, as he struggled upright with the most difficulty yet, a fact that didn't seem to escape Raphael.
"You are hurt!" his brother said accusingly.
"I'll make it!" Donatello shot back through gritted teeth, taking a second to swipe once more at a blood trail that was nearly running into his eye. "We've got to keep going. Where's your guy Raph?"
"I told 'im to stay put. Donny, I can handle Leo for you. Why don't you just concentrate on getting yourself around?"
"I told you, I'm all right," Donatello insisted, reaching for his blue-masked brother on the ground. "Somebody's got to have their hands free to fight Raph!"
Raphael shook his head at his stubborn younger brother, but his appraising glance looked satisfied that Donatello was capable of continuing. "You've gotta speak up if you need help Donny."
"I will Raph. Now can we get moving again before they catch up with us?"
Donatello shifted Leonardo into a more secure grasp, and mentally prepared himself for the knifing pain of the shrapnel that was embedded in his leg. Then he intentionally cleared all thought of pain from his mind as he fell into step behind Raphael, continuing to feed off the pure adrenaline that was racing through him. Donatello stayed close to the red-masked turtle as he led the way to where he'd left Brandon waiting, but he wasn't prepared for the mighty curse that escaped his older brother.
Donatello was about to chide him for the unnecessary noise, when he saw the source of Raphael's sudden consternation. The man was lying face-down in the small clearing, at a disturbingly unnatural angle. Neither turtle hesitated any longer; both rushing to get to his side. Donatello was slightly behind Raphael, and had to take a couple more seconds to put Leonardo down before he could join the red-masked turtle, who was already carefully shifting the man onto his back.
"Easy Raph, watch his head!" Donatello proclaimed, as he shot to his feet so fast that his left leg almost gave out on him entirely.
Raphael was bent over Brandon anxiously, so that Donatello couldn't even get a good look at him. "Give me some space Raph, you have to let me see him!"
"I knew he got shot Donny, I knew he was hurt! He said he could keep going, he was talking like it was okay!"
His brother still hadn't moved, and Donatello was losing patience. "Raph, let me in there! Where was he..." The turtle trailed off slowly when he saw the location of the two rounds the man had taken.
Donatello probed the make-shift wrap on his side to find it completely soaked through, as if he'd been bleeding out the entire time they'd been running. More disconcerting than that discovery was the lack of rising in his chest, indicating that he wasn't breathing.
"No," Donatello said softly under his breath, searching Brandon further with his hands to convince himself that part of the human was still alive. The intense probing only revealed the lack of a heart-beat as well.
He furiously pumped the human's chest, unwilling to accept that the man could already be too far gone for his efforts to do any good. Raphael struggled to apply stronger pressure to bleeding, around the CPR his brother was performing. Every minute that passed left Donatello more desperate, as he received no response from the man beneath him on the ground.
Donatello felt a tense hand on his shoulder, jarring him away from the life-saving activity he was still committed to.
"Donny, something's closing in on us," the red-masked turtle stated flatly, as both sai leaped to his grasp. "We're not gonna be able to stay here."
Donatello didn't respond, acting as if he hadn't even heard him. All he could do was stare at his friend who already looked much more dead than alive - and there probably wasn't a darn thing he could do about it. The panic seizing him for Brandon made it difficult to hold back tears, even as a numb indifference to being captured or killed himself spread over his mind. A dozen different scenes flashed before his eyes, and he choked on a sob at the vivid memory of standing back to back with Brandon against the the Akiudo.
I swore to myself then that I'd protect him, that I'd make sure he got out!
"Raph, it can't end like this, it CAN'T!" The words exploded from his mouth, and he no longer cared who heard them.
Luke knew his targets were nearby - they had to be. No one had been in the mood to listen, which explained why both April and Kirkland were trailing along right behind him, heedless of the noise they could have been making for a change. That wasn't for a lack of trying on Ryan's part; Luke was simply past the point of trying. They'd left the Jeep in the closest accessible place a few yards out, and were finishing up running the last of the distance on foot.
As Luke forced his way through the brush, he didn't even see a looming figure before he got jumped by him, or have a chance to utter a sound before a familiar point was bearing down on his throat.
"Raph don't!" April's voice rang out from behind them, and that was when the turtle seemed to realize who he'd actually caught.
"Doc!" Raphael had rarely sounded that overjoyed to see him, and it wasn't the greeting Luke expected. He'd counted on being sharply berated for disobeying Leonardo's instructions to stay put unless otherwise directed, which was the only reason he hadn't attempted radio contact before tracking them down with Donatello's location software.
The turtle pulled him back to his feet, suddenly heaving as if extremely upset. "Leo's hurt, and Brandon...oh God, he's not..."
Luke didn't wait for him to finish. He could see what was presumably Donatello on the ground a few more feet away, doggedly pumping Brandon's chest as if he would never quit. Luke shrugged out of his bag before he even reached him, and took in the sight of the man with a flash of terror. He swiftly steeled himself against the emotional response, and began digging inside of the pack.
"No pulse, no breath Doc! He was bleeding too heavily while we were running-" the purple-masked turtle said with extreme difficulty, his voice wavering through the words.
"How long Donny, have you kept track?"
"Gotta be pushing ten minutes!"
"We could still have a chance at this - give me a little room!"
Luke had a supply of ephifine on him, a chemically altered version of an adrenaline shot that he and Donatello had adapted specifically for the turtles' use. There was a strong possibility, however, that it could perform the same necessary function for Brandon. As Donny lifted his hands from the man's chest, Luke brought the point of the needle to bear directly where he knew the heart muscle had to be. Luke trembled as he tried to detect a heartbeat, and almost assumed he was imagining it when a mild throbbing met his hand. The shuddering breath that followed a few seconds later couldn't be argued with though.
"Got him - we've got him!" Luke cried to the others nearby, as the focus of his attention then turned to the heavy bleeding coming from Brandon's side.
Luke didn't want to move the man again before dealing with this correctly. As he was shifting to retrieve something else from his bag, he didn't miss the way Raphael had to help Donatello get to his feet. "You're hurt too, aren't you?"
"Yes," the purple-masked turtle acknowledged. "But I'm okay, it isn't life-threatening. Leo's vitals seem to be strong, but he's dealing with a bad head injury of some kind, in addition to other complications."
Luke took complete charge immediately. "Right, here's what needs to happen. April and Kirkland, help get Donny and Leo back to the Jeep. Donatello, get yourself and your brother a dose of noraphim right away, head off the probability of going into shock. Then the three of you start breaking open every single instant cool pack we've got, have them ready to use for Brandon! Raph, I'm going to need you here."
As they disappeared, Raphael hovered low to the ground a couple paces from where Luke was applying what looked like a sponge to Brandon's side. "What are you doing Doc?"
"It's a product called 'QuikClot', the military has been using it on the battlefield for awhile now. It should help to control his bleeding until we can deal with it more effectively. This shouldn't take much longer."
"What's the deal the cold packs? What are they supposed to do for him?"
"When the brain is starved of oxygen, there's always the chance that neurological damage can occur! Some studies have shown that by lowering a patient's temperature during recovery of an episode like that one-"
"An episode Doc? Is that really what it's called?"
Luke continued as if that turtle hadn't interrupted him. "If we can get his body temperature down even a couple of degrees, it can significantly improve his chances of surviving without brain damage."
The red-masked turtle started to say something, when his attention was drawn quite suddenly by streaks of light across the sky. "Not again," he said under his breath so that Luke barely heard him, and then got louder. "Doc, hurry up, we gotta go!"
Luke was still in the process of wrapping gauze over the application, when an explosion of flames several feet from them must have settled things in the turtle's mind.
"You'll have to finish that in the Jeep!"
Luke knew he was right, even though he wasn't crazy about the idea of moving Brandon yet. The red-masked turtle hefted the man over his shoulder only in an effort to move him quickly, and jerked Luke by the back of his collar to get him moving too. Luke barely had a second to snatch his bag, before Raphael was herding him out of the clearing.
They ran with the sound of incoming whistles at their backs. Luke felt the urge to look over his shoulder, but couldn't muster the resolve to do so. The others were waiting tensely in the Jeep, with Kirkland already behind the wheel. As Donatello reached toward Raphael to help get Brandon down on the seat, Luke made a disturbing discovery.
The weight he was used to carrying on his belt, the scanner was missing! With a curse he turned back in the direction they'd come, and had only made it two steps before being captured under one of Raphael's arms.
"Raph, I lost the scanner back there! I have to get it!"
The red-masked turtle took one look at the flame engulfed trees, and shook his head sharply. "You're not going in there Doc - I'll find it."
"No you won't, there's no time!" Donatello insisted. "They're getting closer with every strike! Both of you get in the Jeep, and let's GO!"
*Just FYI...I didn't make QuikClot up, it's a real product. Our military really does use it, as well as some police forces. It's thankfully very effective.
Anybody wondering what's going on with Mikey yet? You know, the guy who jumped off a cliff? Don't look at me like that, I only presented him with the options.