Rating: Overall story rated T

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon. Darkwing Duck belongs to Disney.

Warnings: Overall story contains disturbing imagery such as blood, gore and the like, and disturbing situations.

Summary: The world as they knew it has gone to ruins. The shadows, once their greatest allies, now harbour threats so great it's safer to risk walking in open daylight and Mikey and April will do anything to keep what remains of their family safe; even if it means abandoning home and everything they knew. This story is AU and a collaboration between sampsonknightand Zelgadis55.

Comments, thoughts and concrit are always welcome.


Minnie1015: More than 3 years, actually. We'd been working on it long before we started posting and I admit to dragging my heels on that because I didn't feel ready to post. Honestly, I used to want to post asap but I've kinda reached the point where I prefer to have most, if not all written before posting now. Gotta say on my other story though, I'm only about halfway done with the writing XD

Trust me, Mikey and April are missing Raph and his 'personality too. Oh god, I dread to think how he'd cope if he was the one left in Mikey's place. I'm sure he'd find some way to get on with it but I dunno how he'd cope, that's for sure. Heh.


Sekai no Owari

Ch 16

"I can see three so far, Mikey," April murmured over her shoulder, peeking around the corner to the task at hand. "Donnie, what do you see on the cameras?"

Hours ago, after making sure the boys were as well fed as they could, Mikey instructed Donnie what his responsibilities were including watching his younger brothers as he and April took the lake hatch to leave the lair. Donnie was to keep an eye on the cameras, informing them of the situation at hand and acting as their extra eyes. This was important, especially after April and Mikey realised in the early hours of the morning just how many fresh zombies were lurking around the lair. That said, it was even a close call in the lake as they almost came face to face with a few that somehow became stuck in the water. The lack of maintenance of the undead was showing and if they didn't clear some areas soon, they would be overwhelmed and taken over. Besides, after dragging herself out of the lake soaking wet and shivering in the cool morning air, April swore that was the last time and they better have the front entrance in top shape for future scavenging hunts.

Before heading to the lair to clean up the entrance, they decided to make a fast pickup up of supplies first. They knew about the pellets from other hunts and it wasn't hard to retrieve some for Raph. To their luck and delight, they even came across some canned food hidden behind some shelves that were overlooked. They weren't even in plain sight really and only could be seen once you removed the turtle feed, almost as if someone, unable to carry it, had hidden it away for next time.

Now it was almost lunchtime and Mikey watched up ahead carefully as he hid their bags of supplies in the piping above. "Donnie?" he prompted softly into his headpiece when his brother didn't immediately reply.

"Oh, sorry, just a moment," Donnie's voice came back loud and clear. There was the sound of shuffling on the other end as he moved back into his seat. "Um... I see nine of them close to the door and the nearby cameras show more milling about. Leo! Keep Raphie away from that! And don't you touch it either!"

"Are they fresh or old Donnie?" April asked next; it was vital to know to figure out how to handle them. "Also... are there any young... children?"

There was silence again for a moment as Donnie presumably studied the monitors.

"No, I can't see any children... as for fresh or old... um, it appears as though there are four fresher walking corpses, all clustered near the door. There are a couple that I don't even know how they are still on their feet, let alone moving about." He paused and then in a softer, almost fearful voice, asked, "Mikey, do they smell as bad as the corpse we found at the junkyard a year ago?"

"A year ago?" Mikey asked in confusion, not remembering such a thing.

"Oh... a year ago for me, meaning... thirteen years ago for you..."

Unbidden, the memory of that night flooded back to Mikey. It was coming up to Christmas and his brothers and himself had been out searching for a gift for their father when Mikey had lifted some garbage and stumbled across the body; a small child whose sex was unrecognisable in its rotting state but it had been obvious that the poor child had been tortured before being dumped. Mikey had freaked, his cries drawing his brothers and soon after the yard's security guard.

He'd had been inconsolable for days afterwards and for months, refused to return to there; in fact, even to this day, the mere thought of returning to that specific junkyard gave him a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. Instead, they'd been forced to go to a junkyard much further away and somehow, Mikey had completely forgotten about the grisly find, unconsciously repressing the horrifying memory until Donnie had just now inadvertently reminded him of it. No wonder his brothers and April had colluded to keep him from having to deal with certain zombies as he'd discovered the other day.

He stiffened unhappily at the memory and didn't answer, his gaze instead shifting to look away from the zombies.

"Mikey, are you okay?" April asked, a bit alarmed; it wasn't time for him to have second thoughts, especially if they were to engage. There was no response.

Biting her lip, she gently placed her hand on his shoulders, "Mikey, please you can't do this now. We aren't in a good place for it. You have to focus and remember, they are nothing but objects, something we need to dispose of. If you want to think of it this way, they are just driftwood that we need to clear out, just like the lake incident."

Mikey turned his face towards her, haunted eyes meeting hers and nodded slowly. "Okay," he whispered.

"Mikey..." April started then nodded, realising now wasn't the time to push things, "This will be over with before you know it, please hang on for a bit longer. I need you here and now."

"What's going on?" Donnie asked over the headsets.

Mikey turned away from April, staring around the corner towards the lair entrance again, doing his best to rebury his nightmares as April answered.

"Nothing we can't handle," April replied confidently, not quite sure what was going on or what was wrong with Mikey. "Just taking a moment to prepare ourselves and," April looked at Mikey, placing her hands on his cheeks so he would look at her, then kissing him gently on the forehead, "work together as a team to keep our family safe."

Mikey pulled away. While he was grateful for the thought behind the comforting physical contact, something inside him really didn't want it right now. Besides, they had to take care of the problem ahead of them. He unsheathed the katana he'd borrowed from Leo, since Leo was now incapable of using it, and charged forward soundlessly.

Unable to believe her eyes, April stood gawping at Mikey's shell for a moment; did he really just do that? What the hell? There were nine of them! Four were fresh and he was just charging in without a plan?

Feeling a bit angry over his rash decision making which was not like him at all, she had no choice but to push it to the side. After they made it through this alive, she would have to mention how they really needed to work on their teamwork. This wasn't like before when one of the brothers would pick up the slack or direct. They were the only ones now and they needed to function as such. She knew he was used to their brothers more than with her but even so, that was no excuse for this. Too much was at stake.

Fidgeting with the sai she had taken from Raph's collection, one she knew to be in good shape, not to mention his favourite, she figured when the day comes that he bitches about it, she would have to put him in his place as she had weeks ago in the dojo when he was being short-tempered with her.

Still trying his best to shunt the memory of what he found when he was eleven aside, Mikey grit his teeth as he gripped his borrowed weapon in both hands, handle over his shoulder and blade pointing forwards. He was more than capable of using his brothers' weapons, all of them had been cross-trained since they began weapons training, but he did much better only using one katana rather than the two Leonardo normally used. It wasn't about the moves, he could use the moves with two easily enough, but it was more to do with the strength needed to meet another's blade, to parry, thrust and slice. Using both hands on the one weapon gave him the extra strength he needed and so he chose to do that now. He thrust viciously through the back of the nearest zombie's head, both grateful and disgusted by how easily it slammed through the rotting bone, squelching into the rotten brain. Lifting his foot forward, he pushed the zombie off even as he extracted the weapon, grimacing at the slurping sound that accompanied the action. Ignoring the juices dripping off the sword, Mikey attacked the next zombie as it began turning on him.

"Mikey, watch your shell!" April scolded, finally entering the fight. She rushed towards one biter that was coming behind Mikey while he focused on the one before him. Coming from behind swiftly, she yanked the pale woman's hair forcefully back. Swinging her free arm around, she avoided the snapping jaws that wanted to taste her, jabbing the sai into the eye socket to quickly end its miserable existence.

Briefly, Mikey turned startled eyes on April, "Thanks," he managed hoarsely as he turned back to the zombie plaguing him. This one was fresher than the last and he was grateful for how meticulously Leo kept his beloved blades sharpened. The moment he ended it, he heard something running at him from behind and instinctively back kicked before whirling around to see it hit the wall. Unwilling to give it a chance to get up, Mikey tore towards it, Before he could reach it, it was on its feet, snapping and grabbing at him. Grimacing in disgust at the zombie drool flying in his face, Mikey kicked out again and swung with the sword, lopping off its stinking, maggot-infested head. The body flopped, useless, as the jaw continued clacking like one of Quakerjack's dangerous toy teeth. Mikey turned away, glancing towards April to make sure she was okay and then ran after the next.

Working on her second fresh runner, April kept her sights on the other zombie not far from her. That one must have been the one that Donnie questioned about, considering how it was still walking regardless of how decayed and decrepit it was. Finding the fresh monster a bit too fresh, April growled, battling to get the sai even near the face, "Mikey, is it me or do the fresh ones seem more like spring chickens?" she gasped raggedly. "I don't think this one has even been dead for twenty-four hours!"

"Do you need help?" Mikey asked with an almost whiny-sounding disgusted grunt, fending off two at once, one a fresh one and the other older.

As he spoke, a third one came at him, eliciting a warning from Donnie of, "Mikey, behind you!" over the headpiece.

"Damn!" April yelped, pushing the fresh zombie forward to kick it in the gut so she could get it to bend over, giving her the advantage to stab it in the back of the head and make the sai reach the brain that way, it was a gutsy, dangerous move but she had no choice.

The sai, only making it halfway through, became stuck as she panicked. Suddenly, she noticed something not far from her feet. She kicked at the zombie's knee to make it drop to the ground before smashing her foot down hard and hearing a satisfying crunch as the sai pierced through the bone. Next, she kicked the ground hard to flip the metal object into the air and she was relieved to discover it was the sai she'd lost the other day rather than some broken piece of piping.

Rushing forward, she aimed for the third horror-movie reject that was going for Mikey, pushing away the odd sensation that something wasn't right. After all, wasn't the sai she now held again stuck in a dead zombie when she first lost it? How did it get on the ground near the door?

Aware of April coming to help, Mikey glanced around at the three zombies surrounding him and jumped, flipping up and over to land beside April, relishing in the fact that the zombies all smashed into each other. Immediately, he push-kicked the nearest one, sending all three flying as a tangled group.

Dashing forward, he stabbed his sword into the back of the head of the nearest with such force it also went through the torso of another. Before he could pull it out, the fresh zombie extricated itself and launched at Mikey, forcing him to abandon his borrowed weapon.

"Mikey!" April tossed a sai at him, then grabbed a bloody brick from the ground as a shiver ran through her. Something was really, really wrong.

"Thanks!" Mikey snatched the sai from thin air without looking, twirling it around in his grasp and stabbing straight into the eye of the monster coming at him. He whirled about, looking for the ninth zombie Donnie had mentioned and seeing nothing. Striding forward to pull the katana from the pile of bodies, he asked, "Donnie? Where's the last one gone?" With the katana freed and in his grip once more, he handed April back her own borrowed weapon.

"I... I don't know, Mikey," Donnie stammered in dismay. "I lost sight of it when I had to take a battery away from Raphie. Hang on, I'll try to find it."

"Mikey..." April started to say something then stopped, flashing a look behind her. Did she just hear a... whistle?

"What?" Mikey asked apprehensively, still peering all about into the gloom for the missing monster.

"Um... nothing," April shrugged it off, but she swore she heard something like a whistle. Now she thought about it, she thought she'd heard it when they were fighting the last batch too but hadn't realised it until now. About to take a step forward she heard it again, long and strong. She felt a sense of dread wash over her as she dropped the brick, forcing her focus in the opposite direction. "Mikey, prepare yourself!" she suddenly warned in horror.

"For what?" Mikey asked, a sense of dread rising. He adjusted his grip on the katana, holding it ready before him.

"For that!" She pointed beyond the door towards the corridor that was next on the agenda. Without warning, several fresh zombies were running forwards, followed by a large group of walking disease bags.

Horror mounting, Mikey followed her gaze. It was like a scene out of 'Dawn of the Desperate, Dandling Dead' part nine! The runners spearheading the attack, followed by the walkers, arms out as if to embrace, then came the shamblers, supporting each other as their hungry, sometimes hollow gazes peered forward and then the crawlers, trampled on, yet still determined. A sudden clacking of teeth made Mikey jump and look back at the one he'd beheaded minutes before.

April shifted beside him, her arms outstretched as she held her sai, subtly reminding him to keep his mind on the task at hand and he looked up again in horror as the closest of the runners jumped.

Straight at him.

-:-


A/N: Short one, yes, I know. Sorry about that but it's just how it worked out.