RACE AGAINST TIME

August 28, 1995

-10 Minutes

ANNA:

I slipped out of the room silently, and heard a noise behind me. Mrs. Collins stood behind me, holding a candle. "Anna?" she whispered. "What are you doing up? It's late!"

"Marie was crying," I answered her quietly, running my fingers through my long, dark hair. "I came to help her back to sleep. What are you doing?"

"Shh! Listen!"

I froze and listened to a clanging, scraping sound coming from somewhere below us. "What on earth is that?" I whispered.

"I don't know. I was going to go find out."

"I'll come with you," I informed.

We crept toward the stairs. Our shadows walked after us, shifting and stretching in the flickering candle light. The noise got louder as we reached the bottom of the stairs. "Anna, look!"

I glanced in the direction she was pointing and saw that the front door was open. There was no sound now. Only the steady thumping of my heart in my ears as I considered who might have come into the building and how. More importantly, why?

"The basement door is open!" she exclaimed.

As we walked toward it, we were suddenly run over by a small crowd of quickly-advancing figures. I screamed in surprise. "Oh, woah, hey, just who we wanted to see!" one of them laughed nervously.

I scrambled to get away. The candle had gone out as it fell to the floor. "Who are you?" I demanded, clutching the robe over my chest. I could see nothing in the darkness around us.

"Lady, you need to get everyone out of this building," another voice ordered. "It's gonna explode in less than ten minutes."

"What!" I cried. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"

A thick hand grabbed mine and pulled me to my feet. I barely had time to protest, but there was enough time to notice something very strange about his skin. It was different from mine. Rougher, and maybe... thicker? How could that be?

"You need to see it to believe it?" another figure asked. "It's in the basement, in the furnace."

"Just don't touch it! It could explode."

"Wait," I protested as they tried to run. "How do we know you're not just trying to make a clean getaway?"

"Clean getaway?" the first voice laughed. "Lady, if we wanted to get away, we would do it without your help."

"Get everyone out of this building."

There was a slight rush of wind, and no sound. I scanned the darkness, searching for any sign of the intruders. The faint outline that had begun to form over them, as my eyes adjusted to the light, was gone. They were gone, but not out the door. "Mrs. Collins," I whispered. "Maybe they... were telling the truth."

My stomach twisted in knots at the words.

"Nonsense, child," she laughed. But I could hear the nervous tension in her voice.

"Do you think we could... look anyway? Just in case?"

We started slowly down the stairs. The light was on down here, and the side of the furnace was pried open. I caught my breath as I stepped in front of it. "Mrs. Collins?" I choked. "Is that...?"

I couldn't finish.

DONATELLO:

"Where did Raph go?" Leo demanded.

"He's already upstairs," Mike answered. His eyes were still wide. I knew he was probably wound as tightly as I was.

"Fine," Leo mumbled, his voice calm but at the same time very tense. "Get up there with him. Turn on all the lights you can along the way," Leo ordered quickly. "Make noise, pull fire alarms, call down the hallways, get everyone up and moving. Two minutes to twelve, we leave no matter what." He disappeared. "Donny, see if this place's got some kind of PA system so you can tell people what's going on. We need to try and keep them calm."

I nodded quickly and turned away from him. I sprinted back down the hall toward the lobby, scanning for light switches along the way. I found one, and flooded the hallway with light. The one in the lobby was easy to find. I scanned the room. Where would the central office be?

Two figures stumbled into the room, clamoring up the basement steps. One was a woman who looked like she was in her fifties. The other was only a teenager. They froze, and the panicked look on their face turned to sheer terror as they saw me clearly in the bright light. The older woman screamed. Fine. She'd wake people up, and that was good. "Do you have a PA system here?" I yelled over her noise. "We need to tell people what's going on!"

The younger girl stared at me for a moment, then shook her head as if coming out of a trance. She scrambled to her feet and ran past me. "This way!"

I followed close behind her to a closed off room. She struggled for a moment with the handle. "It's... locked!"

"Get back," I ordered, raising my arm to block her. I focused my attention on the door, then spun and kicked it. It flew open, splintering wood and banging against the wall. It was an office.

"The PA system hasn't been used in years," the girl exclaimed, "but I think it still works!"

I raced to it and flipped it on. "This is not a drill!" I spoke into the mic, trying to keep my voice calm. It worked just fine. I could hear my words echo through the hallways. "Get up, get out of bed, and get out of the building as quickly as you can."

"Let me," the girl pleaded. I turned to her and saw a look of extreme tension on her face. But she was not panicked. "Please," she whispered. "They know me. They'll listen to me."

I handed her the microphone and stepped back. She switched it on. "Girls, this is Miss Anna," she relayed. Her voice was remarkably calm and steady. "I want everybody to move single file down the stairs and out the front door. It will be open for you when you get there. Go out of the building and across the street. You'll see Mrs. Collins, and she'll tell you where to go next. Single file, girls, and don't forget to help the younger children."

She flipped the switch off and leaned back against the filing cabinets, suddenly breathing hard. Beads of sweat had broken out on her forehead. "You're pretty good at that, Miss Anna," I smiled, in spite of the situation.

"The woman in the lobby," she whispered. "Make sure she get out the front door. They'll be looking for her. Then go. I can do this."

I nodded and sprinted from the room.

LEONARDO:

There was no organization to what ages were on what floors. Most of the older teenagers were carrying younger children. For the younger teens, the thought probably hadn't occurred to them. I tried to fix that, handing them infants as I pulled them out of their cribs. A woman's voice echoed through the halls, over the screams. She was trying to keep them calm. If they could stay calm, I knew we could get everyone out of this building. There were enough older children to carry the younger ones. But most of them weren't thinking; they were panicking.

Every hand I touched, every set of eyes I looked into, was a life. A life that required my undivided attention, if only for long enough to hand it to someone else.

Seven minutes.

I flicked on lights. I pulled babies from cribs. I tried to motivate terrified children to get up. I cleared the floor, and moved to the next one.

RAPHAEL:

Time passed too quickly as I raced through the halls. I worked well under pressure. But I'd never felt pressure like this. I felt like I could sweat blood. I was walking on top of a bomb that was going to blow this building to kingdom come in about five minutes. I caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall. Three minutes. Donny had said they probably set it to the clocks in the building, and all of them displayed the same time. There hadn't been time to argue his use of the word "probably".

I raced down the hallway in the direction of crying children. Some of these kids were only toddlers. Some were infants. I threw a door open and pulled two screaming babies out of cribs. I raced into the hall and handed them to the first two retreating people I saw who looked old enough to carry them. This room was clear.

More crying. I kicked open another door and saw a small child trying to lift a baby out of its crib. But she wasn't quite tall enough. She screamed as she saw me, and backed toward the window. "Hey, need some help?" I asked. I reached into the crib and pulled the infant out.

The girl, probably about five, reached for her. "Hey, why don't we let one of the teachers carry her, huh?" I suggested.

"But she's my sister!"

I felt a stab of unidentifiable grief, and ushered the little girl into the hallway. This floor was clear. "Come on, let's get you and your sister outta here."

I scooped the girl into my other arm and glanced at the clock. Two minutes. It was over. I raced into the stairway, realizing that I could still hear a child's cries from the floor above me. I paused. I'd known when I raced up here that chances were slim that we'd be able to save them all. There just wasn't enough time. I'd known that we wouldn't get them all out. But it didn't lessen the pain to have prepared for it. I bit my lip so hard I could taste blood. I couldn't go back there. This five year old girl would never get her sister out of this building. I had to focus on that. I had to carry them. I had to carry them now. I raced down the steps two at a time, trying not to think of the children I couldn't help.

God save them...

LEONARDO:

I ran into Michaelangelo on the third floor. "Get outta here!" I yelled.

"This is Miss Anna..."

"But there's still kids!" he cried. I grabbed his arm and shoved him as hard as I could toward the stairs. "Go now, dammit!"

He grabbed a wandering, crying two-year-old, hopefully the only one left on this floor, and ran. I followed him, taking the steps two at a time. "I want everybody to move single file down the stairs and out the front door..."

Through the open front door, I saw Donatello out on the street, trying to direct children who were just as terrified of him as they were of the confusion. Raphael... He'd better be out. God, Raph, for once, you better have listened to me...

"It will be open for you when you get there..."

Miss Anna.

I glanced at the clock. Forty five seconds. I sprinted toward the office. The broken door swung open and I vaulted over the counter, grabbing Miss Anna's arm. "Come on!" I screamed at her.

"But I...!"
"There's no time!"

I didn't give her the option of staying. I ran, pulling her along behind me. We raced to the door, stumbled down the steps, and raced across the street. Suddenly, she dug her heels into the ground. I turned to look at her, shocked and confused. She had turned back to the building. She pulled her hand away from mine, and managed two steps before I caught her upper arms. "No! Anna!"

She writhed, desperately trying to get away. "Let go of me!"

"That building's gonna explode!" I reminded her, gripping her arms tightly.

"I don't care!" she screamed. "There's still... children... in there!"

She struggled fiercely, and somehow managed to twist out of my grasp. "No!" called as she took off across the street again.

"I got her," Raph informed, pulling his grappling hook off his belt as he appeared beside me. He swung it, and caught her legs. She crashed to the ground face-first.

"Where's Mike!" I demanded.

"I don't know!" Don yelled back over the commotion.

The timer hit zero, and all conversation ceased as a rolling thunder shook the ground.