Hey you guys. How about a new chapter huh. I have worked on this very hard (that's why it took me so long) so please like it and sent me a review to tell me how much you liked it :D
Chapter 10: Cavalry
I push the brancard, paying attention to my surroundings and at the same time keeping my eyes focused on my little brother's still form. When the doctor escorted us out of the room I had expected some kind of stone walls, like in our cell, as if we were in some kind of ancient castle. However, the walls of the corridors we're walking through are a sterile white and numbered doors reach up on both sides. We're taking none though.
The black-haired woman takes quick and long paces, seeming in a hurry while her ponytail bounces around on her back. I wonder if she's worried about my unresponsive brother but quickly dismiss the thought. She might look harmless, but I know nothing is what it seems in this crazy nightmare factory. They did this and she's part of it. Humans don't care, they just see us as monsters. A growl resounds in my throat. Look who are the monsters here. They just mutilated and murdered a kid, my little brother.
She makes us take another turn and strangely enough, I can feel a soft, freezing wind coming from around that corner. I hesitate slightly, not sure of what to think of it. It feels too familiar. Like pulling up a manhole and smelling the fresh New York air instead of the sewers. I quickly shake my head. There's no time to stand still, not time to think of home. It's not like I can go somewhere else with Mikey like this and staying here standing is certainly not helping his condition or mine.
So I follow her, and what I see, is something I can't believe. She's pushed a door open and now stands outside, beckoning me to come. From behind her a sky full of stars greets me. The first one I've seen in god knows how long. She takes the front of the brancard but I don't object. The view of the outside world amazes me too much. The sand under my feet makes me look around a bit more. The building we walked out of is the only one around. It's hard to see what it looks like in the dark but it's obvious how enormous it is. Further there's nothing. No trees, no water, just the sand and a road I can barely make out and leads away from the facility. It's the way the woman takes us.
I wonder where we are taken now. She doesn't expect me to walk around the desert with my heavily wounded brother, does she? I ask her what the plan is when she turns her head around, smiling widely.
"Have a little patience, Raphael. And look ahead, just a bit on your left."
And then, as if in a dream, there it is. Somewhere hidden in the shadows of the walls, the Shellraiser is parked. It's hard to see but the bulky appearance I can recognize from anywhere. The gravity can't be seen but I remember every line of every picture on that car. Right now, that van made out of garbage and whatever we could find, is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Our brothers have come. We're finally getting out.
The lady carefully sets the brancard down, pushing the doors of the Raiser open. A bit of warmth encases me and with it the familiar smell of home. Subconsciously I pinch my arm, just to make sure I'm not dreaming this all. But reality returns when warm arms wrap around my shell, a rock-hard body slamming into mine. I carefully hug my purple-clad brother back, still afraid he's going to shatter before my eyes. His quiet voice fills my ears and I can't even put into words how much I've missed it. He tells me how he is sorry for taking so long, how scared he was we would be harmed or dead, how much he had hurt without us around.
I'm not one for hugs, let me be clear on that, but when Donnie pulls away I feel like it was far too soon. The slight smile on his face crashes when he sees Mikey, tears which were already lingering in his eyes, fighting even more for the chance to fall. He doesn't look surprised though and I'm sure the doctor-lady has told him in what state Mikey is. He wordlessly helps the doctor placing Mikey in the back of the car before he turns back to me, scanning me over.
"Are you alright, big brother?"
How long it has been since he called me like this. How much I've missed that too. I nod and can't help myself but to hug him one more time. Donnie gladly excepts it.
"Where's Leo?" I whisper, wanting to see all of my brothers together again before I feel at ease.
"He's inside, trying to find the psychopath who did this," my younger brother replies grimly. "He isn't going to get away."
I feel resigned. I had wanted to take that guy on with every ounce of hate I carry within, pouncing on him, cutting him, hurting him as much as he hurt me and my little brother. But I'm too tired now and I know Leo will make him pay. He'll make sure this man is never coming back. That he won't ever be watching the stars again, like I am now.
"Speaking of the devil," Don mutters in my ear before letting me go. I turn around and see Leo jumping out of one of the windows. One of his katanna is in his right hand and it's dripping blood. Some way it makes me feel a whole lot better.
Before I can even register what is happening, another set or arms encircles me, my face pushed against my older brother's collarbone.
"Thank god," Leo stammers, holding me at arm's length to see if I'm uninjured. When he's satisfied he looks around for, without a doubt, or orange clad little brother.
"He's in the back, Leo," Donnie answers his questioning look. "We need to hurry, he's in a very bad shape."
When we're all in the Shellraiser and well on the way, Leo behind the wheel, I can't help but stare at the woman who's sitting with us in the back. She places her hand on Mikey's forehead and with two fingers of her other hand she touches his neck, apparently trying to get his pulse.
"Donnie," I mutter, catching the attention of my smartest sibling. "What's she doing here? Who is she?"
Before answering he shoves a bottle of juice in my hands, giving me a slight smile. "You're dehydrated and malnourished. You need something in your system."
I take a few sips and relish the sweet taste for a moment. I was more thirsty then I thought. Don comes to sit next to me and looks at the stranger taking care of our brother. I wonder why he isn't doing anything. He's the genius and family doctor after all.
"Her name is Linda. She sought contact with us a couple of weeks ago. She helped us making plans for your escape as well as making sure Mikey would live."
He sees my confused face and smiles slightly at me. I don't get it. That lunatic was angry with us right? That's why he almost killed Mikey, because I defied him. Then how could she have made sure he would survive that attack? I thought there was hardly an hour in between me knocking my brother out and him being burned alive. She could've never planned all this in such a short time.
"I guess I should start at the beginning," Donnie says, pushing through the fog that are my thoughts. I nod at him, shifting to make myself a bit more comfortable as I know this is going to be a long ride.
"Okay, well, it all began with the fight. We couldn't see you guys anymore and Leo said we had to go look. We finished of the last of the Foot but we made a mistake. We turned our backs to the fallen ninja and one of them managed to hit Leo in the arm with a syringe. The coward had faked being taken out. I immediately knocked him unconscious for real but it was already too late. Leo collapsed and didn't wake up, no matter what I tried."
I take a deep but shaggy breath. Leo got hurt too? I hope he made that Raphael suffer. I shiver slightly at the name, venom seeming to creep through my brain when I think of it. My own name, but still it isn't. I think I'm going to ask my brothers and sensei to call me Raph for a while though. Just in the beginning.
I also worry of how well thought-through this operation was. They made sure me and Mikey would be together and even eliminated any back-up by incapacitating Leo. They did their homework.
"After that everything went downhill. I've spent months in my lab, trying to find a clue of where you guys would be while at the same time keeping Leo alive."
This is where I cut him off.
"What do you mean?" I ask, hearing the dread lacing my voice. "What was in that syringe, Donnie?"
He shrugs unhappily, staring at his feet. He must have had a hard time, being the only brother left to fight. I'm sure Master Splinter helped him wherever he could but we've never been split up for so long. Whatever we did, we had a brother to back us up. I think that's the only reason why both Mikey and I have managed to keep our sanity and get away with our life. Well, hopefully.
"I don't know," Don eventually mumbles, unaware of my dark train of thoughts. "But it was bad. Leo drifted off into a coma which got so bad his bodily functions started to shut down. He suffered from liver failure and kidney failure in the end. He even stopped breathing once which forced me to put him on life-support. If it wasn't for Linda reaching out to us, he wouldn't even be here with us now."
I glance back at the lady on the other side of the car, smiling sweetly at me. She's helped us. Why?
"She broke into our computer," Donnie continues, answering more questions I silently harbor. Sometimes I wonder how it comes that we can feel each other out so well. Speaking without words and all, that's not really our thing. Still we know what the other needs at times, it's how Mike never goes too far with his pranks, how we all know when Donnie needs his time alone and how we can get Leo out of the funk he gets in sometimes. It's how my immediate younger brother knows that I need him to continue speaking, even though I might be better off with some rest.
"She told us she wanted to help us out. She gave us some pictures of you and Mikey and explained us what the situation was there. I didn't trust her and neither did Sensei. But when she gave me the recipe for the antidote and it worked, we let her help us out. It took Leo another week to fully recover and regain consciousness, he still isn't a hundred percent. But eventually we knew where you were and how to get you out. And that's where we are now."
He looks up at me expectantly and I give him a slight grin. I still can hardly believe they got us out. But something is bugging me. Something about time.
"Hey Don," I eventually say. "You mentioned something about being in your lab for months for a cure for Leo. That was an exaggeration right?"
I don't know why I suddenly sound so hopeful. My stomach clenches with the feeling of something being terribly wrong. Another reason for all the small details which I noticed but dismissed. For everything I have seen but could not understand, what I didn't have the time for to understand. And when I see the frown in Don's forehead, the same one he has when he feels like he misses an important piece of his puzzle, my heart drops.
"You've been gone for almost nine months, Raph."
Nine months? It couldn't have been nine months, they were just weeks, I'm sure of that! It doesn't add up this way, it just doesn't. If we were there for so long we should've starved, we should've been dead. We even had some sort of time-scale. The beatings, the bottles of water, they came once a day, right? It couldn't have been… months.
"Maybe I can help with this," a calm and light voice says from the other side of the Shellraiser. I turn towards the girl, Linda, and suddenly feel like I don't trust her as much as I did a couple of minutes ago. She's still in that conspiracy, she works for them. Her face turns towards Donnie and me, her eyes flickering in a dangerous anger I'm not sure if it is focused to me or to somebody else. My gut tells me the latter. Her lips are set into a firm line and her hands shake a little until she forms them into fists.
"They did a lot more to you than what you know of, Raphael. A lot more harm is done."
Oooooh, cliffie. How I love those, do you guys love them too? Hehe sorry I really didn't mean for this to happen but I gotta go to a birthday now so that's why I cut it off here. Next week I think there will be another chapter, with a lot more explaining and stuff.
Till then, enjoy the fact that the family is all happy and back together again and that I didn't actually murder Leo. It was a serious possibility you know. Not that he's off the hook now, none of them are MUHAHAHAH.
See ya!