Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just like to play with them every once in a while.

"I can endure my own despair,
but not another's hope."

-William Walsh

PLAGUE 9: HOPE

DONATELLO

The grab from behind fell under the general category of 'cheap shot.' But then again, what did I expect from a rabid, virus infected frat boy?

I felt his fingers dig into the side of my neck, slicing flesh, trying to pull me closer to his mouth. To his teeth. To his infection.

Panic. No time to suppress it, adrenaline permitted the emotion cascade out of control. A yell rose to the back of my throat, but the force of another body being thrown against me allowed for nothing more than an airy gasp. Balance lost, the three of us careened sideways into the cement wall.

The world spun. My legs shook. I lost my bearings. I had no sooner found them than I sensed a warm caress down the front of my chest…

Heavy and thick, blood was pouring across the plates of my plastron. I would have thought it my own, had the answer not literally been staring me in the face - a sai hung mere inches in front of my eyes, entrenched straight through the neck of one of my attackers.

That was now two that I owed Raph.

An angry hiss blew low over my shoulder; I reacted simply, rolling sideways. A brittle crunch echoed from behind me. It was the sound of over a dozen bones, broken in morbid harmony as my shell crushed the final opponent.

Whew. I could feel relief, but every nerve in my body was still on fire. Ninja training kept me alert, and I searched quickly for any other sign of danger. The sewer was quiet - dead, deformed bodies continuing to bleed out onto the cold ground. Casey and Raphael's dark silhouettes were the only ones left standing against the macabre backdrop.

We'd done it.

As I righted myself, one hand instinctively pressed against my neck in an attempt to quell the pain that still burned there. The guy's fingernails had dug deep; the skin felt sensitive and raw, a steady stream of blood still pushing its way through my thick fingers.

"Donnie?" Casey's voice was a mere squeak. It sounded so…afraid?

I glanced quickly to Raphael for some sort of explanation, but he looked just as fearful as Casey. Both of their eyes were locked on me. They looked like they were hardly breathing. It was an expression that I'd never seen on Raphael before; if it was possible, I'd say he almost looked pale.

"What?" They were starting to freak me out. Yeah, I was bleeding, but it wasn't bad… The silence that followed my reply only served to deepen my confusion. "Seriously guys, what's-"

Then it hit me.

And I almost laughed. They thought…

"Raph, I'm fine," I smirked, getting a cheap thrill at the thought of Raph being so worried about me. "No bite, just darn sharp fingernails." I pulled my hand away from my neck, revealing the four red streaks. "See? M'fine." They both leaned sideways to look, inspecting the marks, letting the information sink in.

"Jesus, Don." Raphael took a long breath out, shaking his head. Then, in a display so un-Raph like that I hardly believed it, the guy walked up and threw his arms around me.

A hug. From Raph. Hell had finally frozen over!

I smiled – couldn't help it. Hot, sweaty, and covered in blood, it was the first time that Raph had ever hugged me. At least since we were really little.

"Donnie, if you ever-" he sighed, inches from my ear. Being so close, I could sense his relief, and the brief surface of affection. Then, as quickly as it happened, the embrace was broken. My brother thumped me firmly in the shoulder, pushing me sideways. "-do that to me again, I'll frickin' kill ya myself."

"Ow!" I groaned softly, massaging where he'd hit me. But I was still smiling, on the outside, and the inside.

"You girls finished?" Casey joked, regarding us with amusement. "We got places to go, remember?"

"Yeah," I said, glancing behind us one last time to make sure that we weren't being followed. Still clear. Raph unceremoniously retrieved his sai, then set a quick pace into the darkness. Casey and I followed a few yards behind. As we walked, I started to untie my mask, planning to cover my neck, but I decided that it might be better just to leave the wound open. Let a scab form on its own.

Time passed as we traveled in silence. I was tired; even with so little distance covered, I felt like I was dragging. Raphael didn't look like he was faring too much better. Even though he was trying to hide it, his gait still had a visible limp to it. Funny enough, it was Casey who seemed the most alert, both his steps and his expression containing a quality of strong resolve.

"Hey, Don?" Casey asked, still staring straight ahead down the tunnel.

"Yeah."

"You think they're okay? Up on the roof? I mean, no one could get 'em up there, right?"

Poor Case. Still worried about April.

I paused, considering his question. I had all the confidence in the world that she was safe on the apartment roof. She was with Leo and Mike for gosh sakes. Yes, she was okay – for now. But what were we going to do when we found them? We couldn't stay up there forever…

"She's safe," I answered simply, patting Casey stoically across the back. But at the same time, my gut churned. As the days continued to pass in this madness, how long could she, could we, stay that way?

I took a deep, cleansing breath. No use worrying about that now. One thing at a time, first things first – we needed to get to April's apartment. As quickly – and as quietly – as possible.

I picked up the pace.

APRIL

A flutter. Soft at first, barely noticeable.

I watched Leo's eyes quiver with bated breath, not daring to move, less the movement propelled him back into stillness. To my excitement, his eyes continued to twitch, followed by a furrowing of the skin on his forehead. A low moan…

And finally, my prayer was answered. Leonardo opened his eyes.

"Shhh. Don't try to move," I whispered, laying a hand gently across his chest, trying to calm the confusion that painted his face.

He shuddered. Whimpered. The sound tore at my heart. Indestructible Leonardo, powerful and larger than life, now so broken. The sound must have frightened Abby, who took a few steps backward, but still stood watching.

"Mmph." Leo sighed deeply, trying to focus on me through a haze of obvious pain. "Couldn't ev'n 'f I wan'ed to." His irises flitted under blinking eyelids, first trying to see himself, then the rest of the rooftop. "Wha' happ'n'd?"

"You were shot."

The voice came from behind me, almost making me jump. It was Jake. He knelt beside me, regarding Leo with a mixture of regret and curiosity. "I didn't mean to…I thought…"

Leo tensed, an expression of fear. "M'ke?"

"Fine. He's fine." At least I hope so, I thought, taking a quick second to glance at the ladder across the rooftop, where Mike had climbed down a little over an hour ago. "He's getting you help."

"Hm." Leonardo's head lolled to the side. His body relaxed, and I lightly caressed my fingers between the plates of his plastron.

" 'M so tir'd."

"Go to sleep, Leo. It's okay."

The slightest of nods, and he was gone again. But the fact that he had woken, no matter for how short of time, gave me hope that he would recover.

God Mike, please hurry…

Moments turned to minutes as we sat watching Leonardo. Abby came back and sat between us, resting her head against my arm. Fidgety, Jake would intermittently message his temples, struggling with some inner dialogue that I could only guess at. Honestly, I really didn't care what he was feeling. I just felt…numb all over. Spent. Tired of waiting, of not understanding, or not knowing…

MICHAELANGELO

I stuck to the shadows. It was actually easier to stay hidden than I thought it would be. The streets were sprinkled with cars, turned in odd directions, sideways, or even up on people's front lawns. Debris was everywhere, but it was to my advantage. It made it even easier for a ninja stealth master like myself to creep through the abandoned neighborhoods.

The night was broken up by only pockets of commotion. The city was actually fairly deserted. A shriek now and then would pierce the stillness, and occasionally I had to duck and hide, but for the most part, I was alone. And that was fine by me.

I was also more comfortable roving the streets because I knew exactly where I was going. "Barry's Corner Drug Store" was at the end of 56th Avenue, less than a half mile from April's apartment. The store had a huge front window, and the displays held some of the most decadent looking candies that I had ever seen. I'd never forget the first time that I passed by – chasing after a street hood when Raph and I were out on patrol. There was a cardboard tree, with huge multicolored lollipops set up mere inches away from the glass. The sight was so mouth watering that it actually made me stop running. The kid - and the dufflebag of stolen property that he was carrying - got away. And I received a smack on the head from Raph for letting my stomach take over my brain.

Today, I wanted more from Barry than just a few lollipops. I needed to find something that would save my brother's life. Pills, bandages, anything… I really didn't know what I needed, but I knew that I was going to look until I found it.

When I finally caught sight of the neon drug store sign, it was like seeing a river in the desert. Making a mad dash across the street, I made it to the door, praying for God to cut me a break and let it be unlocked.

God was listening. The door swung open without so much as a sound. And, in an even greater stroke of luck, I realized that the store had remained completely untouched. Items still sat neatly on their shelves, even the ones behind the back pharmacy counter. I let out a slow breath of relief. At least I didn't have to search through everything scattered haphazardly across the floor.

I went back to the pharmacy first. Leaping agily over the front counter, I began searching the labels of the hundreds of pill bottles. It didn't take me long to get frustrated. I couldn't even pronounce any of the drug names, let alone did I have the patience to read if they would be any use to me. I started to panic.

How about bandages? Maybe those will be easier to find.

They weren't. But I did find them – in a cabinet near the back. There were big bulk boxes of different kinds. Some had gauze, some had brightly colored wraps. I finally found the box that had what I wanted. They were thick, big rolls, but they still seemed stretchy enough to be comfortable. I grabbed the whole box.

And then I was back where I started. Antibiotics.

Think, Mike. Breathe. Okay, Donnie's had to get us antibiotics before…have to remember what they were called...

I shut my eyes, trying to picture the big blue bottle that Donatello had stored in his lab. He'd given those pills to Raphael the last time he'd gotten cut up in a fight.

Damn! Something with a P…

Pen…

Pentle…no.

Pensa…no.

Pen…dammit!

Pen…

Penicillin!

Frantically, I scanned the shelves, then realized that the drugs were in alphabetical order. It took a minute to find the shelf marked "P", but when I did, the blue bottle caught my eye easily. I grabbed two, figuring that Leo was hurt badly enough that he might need a lot of pills before he could get better. As I made my way back over the counter, I grabbed a few plastic bags from near the register, then placed the two penicillin bottles into one, the box of bandages in another. The rest I planned on filling with bottled water. And at least a pound of good old fashioned candy bars.

As I pillaged up and down the store aisles, I hated to admit that I was actually enjoying myself. It wasn't often that my brothers and I got to go inside of a store. Heck, if you took away April's Antique Shop, the only time that I've ever been inside one is when I was trying to stop a burglary. And in those cases, you don't get a lot of time to look around. Humming softly, I filled my bags with all sorts of goodies. Advil, bandaids, matches, batteries, even a flashlight. After a moment of consideration, I even threw in a few packs of cigarettes for Tara. No sense in depriving the poor girl, even if it was bad for her.

It was going to be hard to carry all the stuff, but I had a feeling it would be worth it.

With my bags nearly spilling over, I paused a moment to think if there was anything that I was forgetting. Unable to come up with anything, I made my way back through the aisles and turned towards the door.

The sight that greeted me made my blood run cold. A man stood in front of the big glass window. He was completely still, and I could just barely see his face through the turned up collar of his trenchcoat. I felt my breath catch in my throat. There was blood spilling over his lip, running in a red streak down his chin. After another moment of pure silence, the man tipped his head back and let out a scream so loud that I could feel the sound vibrate me inside the store.

I was petrified. I didn't know if I should run, or fight…the one thing that I did know was that there was no way in hell that I was going to lose those bags that were in my hands.

I didn't get a chance to decide. Only seconds passed before the man's scream was answered. A chorus of shriek's began to sing with him. As I stared out the window, shapes began to emerge from the darkness. Before I knew it, there were over a dozen people standing in front of me, watching me like a cat watches a fish in fishtank.

Although the front door was unlocked, the zombies were so focused on me that they didn't realize. It was becoming more and more apparent to me that infected people seemed unable reason. They only had one thing on their mind – blood.

And they were getting more and more agitated with the glass window that kept them from getting it. The man in the trenchcoat began throwing his shoulder into the obstacle, and I chill ran through me as the glass creaked under his weight. When the rest of his friends began following suit, I knew that I was in trouble. There was no way that the glass was going to hold.

Unfortunately, I was right.