Chapter 10-A Long Walk To The Church
The turtle brothers returned to the locked gate and used the insignia key to open it before leaving the area through it.
By the time they walked down the path that lead them back into the village, the sun was starting to set. This concerned the trio since moving around in the dark could make things difficult for them to fight any hostiles that might be hiding in the shadows.
"We need to get to the church before the sun sets completely…The way there should be just up ahead where the clock tower is…" Donnie pressed whilst feeling uneasy at the unusual silence in the village.
"Alright…everyone, stay close and tread carefully…" Leo commanded.
However, just as they had reached the village square…
BOOM!
A loud explosion was heard, and the turtle brothers watched as the clock tower collapsed and crumbled a few metres ahead of them, blocking their way towards the church.
"What!?" Leo said in shock.
Whilst the dust clouds were clearing, something big and black suddenly jumped through and tried to attack Leo.
"Whoa!" Leo cried out, just barely dodging the creature.
It landed in front of the trio who now saw what it was; the creature had the body and face of a large dog with black-coloured fur, but its jaw had large sharp teeth fully exposed and its eyes were glowing red.
Then, a few more of the same creature appeared and stood near it, meaning that it was not one single mutant dog that the turtle brothers were facing, but a pack of five mutated dogs.
"What da shell!? Where did these ugly mutts come from!?" Raph questioned in shock.
"I'll bet the village stragglers had been planning this as soon as they found out we were returning to the village…" Donnie theorised whilst readying his gun.
"Well, let's hurry up and put them down!" Leo replied as he took out his own gun and fired at the dogs.
Despite their large size, the mutant dogs were fast and were able to dodge Leo's bullets. They then charged towards the turtle brothers with their teeth at the ready.
"Scatter!" Leo shouted before he, Raph, and Donnie jumped out of the dogs' way.
Raph used his shotgun to immobilise the dog in front of him before he rushed over to it and stabbed it in the neck with one of his sais, killing it instantly.
Donnie had managed to do the same to another dog by using a combination of his handgun and new knife, but its companion was behind the purple-banded turtle and started running towards him. Donnie had just managed to notice it coming and reach for his bo staff when the large creature pounced on him and pinned him to the ground.
"Ngh!" Donnie grunted as he used his bo staff to block the dog's deadly bite, but he struggled to get it off himself due to its jaws locking onto his weapon.
"Get off my brother, ya fleabag!" Raph shouted before he shot at the dog, causing it to fly off of Donnie and land on the ground with a yelp before falling silent.
"Are ya ok, Donnie!?" Raph asked as he hurried to his immediate younger brother's side and offered him a hand.
"Y-Yeah…" Donnie answered shakily whilst slowly standing back up with Raph's help. He was a bit stunned, but unharmed.
Leo, meanwhile, was facing the two remaining dogs at once. The one on the right pounced first, and Leo fired his gun at it three times before it was down. The second dog pounced seconds later, and Leo blocked its attack with one of his katanas before he heard a loud gunshot and watched as the dog in front of him collapsed with a pained cry and faded away. The blue-banded turtle looked over to his right and saw Raph standing there with his smoking shotgun in his hands whilst wearing a smirk on his face.
"Thanks, Raph…" Leo said gratefully.
"No problem, bro…" Raph replied with a nod, lowering his gun.
Finally, the atmosphere was quiet and calm again. The turtle brothers took a moment to catch their breaths, whilst they checked their surroundings to make sure that there were no more mutant dogs hiding nearby. Luckily, there were none, much to their relief.
"Well, dat's one problem taken care of…but now we've got dis one ta deal with!" Raph said angrily, breaking the silence.
"Can't we remove it and clear the path?" Leo questioned in slight desperation.
"There's no way we can move all of this rubble out of the way; the pieces are too big and will take us forever to move them…" Donnie answered sadly whilst assessing the huge pieces in front of them.
"Great…just what we need…" Raph groaned whilst throwing his arms in the air.
"Then, let's look around and see if there's another way to the church…There has to be more than one path towards the church…" Leo told his brothers before they all split up and searched the village.
Leo searched through the houses on the left side of the village, whilst Raph checked the stables and barn on the north-east side. Donnie looked around the square first before he walked over to the rundown houses on his right side, and it was then that he spotted something out of place in the village well. He walked closer to it and his eyes widened when he saw the top of a ladder sticking out of the well.
"Hey, guys! There's a secret pathway down this well!" He alerted his brothers, both of whom hurried over to the purple-banded turtle to see it for themselves.
"Great job, Donnie! Let's head down it…" Leo complimented before he and his brothers climbed down the well's ladder, which lead towards an underground tunnel.
They walked through the tunnel with their flashlights on since it was pitch black inside. It was a good thing that they had them included in their gear, because they wouldn't have seen how filthy and smelly the tunnel really was; there were puddles of murky water and piles of rubbish-filled bags everywhere that were partially ripped open by the rats roaming around, and some of it was also spread out all over the place.
"Urgh…And I thought Mikey's room was messy…!" Raph complained, his nose cringing from the bad smell.
"This is actually more worse than Mikey's room…" Leo clarified in disgust.
Using their endurance, the turtle brothers continued their walk through the tunnel until they had reached another ladder. They climbed up it and looked around to discover that they were in a different and unexplored part of the village.
They followed the path before they came across a house with a door that had the same mark as the insignia key that the trio had found. Curious, they used the key again to open it and step inside. Shortly after doing so, their eyes widened in shock when they saw what was in front of them; every side of the room was surrounded by piles of skulls, which were covered in thick spider webs, and there was also misty smoke spreading all over the floor.
"What da shell's all dis…!?" Raph questioned in horror.
"Someone must have a strange way of collecting and using skulls…" Donnie speculated as he looked at the piles of skulls anxiously.
As they continued with their tour around the room, Leo spotted something familiar on the wall ahead of him. He walked closer to it before he released a small gasp when he recognised it to be the same portrait painting he saw back in the Chief's manor house.
"It's the same portrait…" Leo whispered as he stared distantly at it.
"Leo?" Donnie called him in concern when he saw the blankness in his brother's face.
"It's nothing…Let's get out of here…" Leo responded hastily before he walked away from the portrait.
Donnie immediately became concerned for Leo when he saw him behave strangely again, but he decided not to question him about it for now until the time was right because he didn't want to make him feel pressured or stressed. Instead, he carried on with his walk through the room with his brothers until they reached another door.
They opened it to reveal another pathway. They followed it until they had finally reached their targeted destination.
"There's the church! We made it!" Leo announced when he saw the building first.
"At last…" Donnie replied in relief. He couldn't wait to get in the church and rescue Mikey.
Despite reaching their destination, however, the trio was nowhere near the front door and was standing in front of the large graveyard. They walked through the field of headstones before they suddenly spotted a couple of hostile villagers, but luckily, the headstones and slight fog on the ground combined made it hard for the enemies to spot the three turtle brothers.
It took the turtle brothers only 2 minutes to take out the hostiles without making a sound.
"No more grave diggin' fer you, creeps…" Raph said with a glare before continuing the trek through the graveyard until he and his brothers reached the front gate to the church.
As soon as they opened the front gate and reached the front door of the church, the turtle brothers noticed that it was sealed shut with another metal gate. Raph tried to pull it apart, but it was tightly closed.
"Ugh, great…Not dis again…!" Raph grumbled in annoyance.
"Looks like this gate needs a special key to open it, just like the gate near the valley…" Donnie pointed out whilst he assessed the indentation in the middle of the gate.
"I see…I'll update April on this; it's been a while since we last did so, anyway…" Leo said in understanding before he turned on his communicator and contacted April.
"Hey April, it's Leo. We've reached the church, but we can't get in because the door's locked…" He told her.
"And Mikey?" April questioned anxiously.
"No sign of him yet, but these people have definitely sealed this place up tight…" Leo answered.
"I see…Well, I can only think of one reason why they want to do so…" April said in thought.
"Oh, Mikey's in there…That's for sure. We'll find a way in. Turtles out…" Leo replied confidently before ending the call.
"Well, it looks like we're going on another key hunt…" Donnie said with a sigh.
"Yay…Can't wait…" Raph cheered flatly in a sarcastic tone.
"I know you're frustrated, Raph, but we're almost there; Mikey is in that church, so the faster we find the key, the sooner we get to rescue him…ok?" Leo told him, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder.
"Yeah, I know, bro…Let's get dis done…" Raph sighed.
The turtle brothers walked to the right side of the church where they found another gate, but that too was locked, much to their frustration. Fortunately, Donnie told his brothers that there was another route around the church, where the trio spotted a door on the side of the wall.
After discovering that the door was unlocked, and they were surprised to see that it had lead them into a small room, which resembled that of a study room. The turtle brothers took a look around to see if they could find any clues to where the gate key might be.
"Guys, look!" Donnie suddenly alerted his brothers.
"What is it, Donnie?" Leo asked as soon as he and Raph were gathered near him.
"It's the same photo we found in the hunter's house!" Donnie announced whilst showing them the photo.
"Yeah, but dis one's got somethin' written on it…!" Raph pointed out.
"It's in Spanish, though…Do you know what it says, Donnie?" Leo asked.
"…It says, 'Keep him locked in the church until the appointed time.'…" Donnie translated before he and his brothers became wide-eyed in surprise and realisation.
"Then, dat means Mikey is in da church!" Raph concluded.
"Yes, and he's being kept there until a certain time, but it doesn't exactly say when…" Donnie pointed out in concern.
"Well, this definitely means that we don't have much time until Mikey gets taken to another unknown location…Let's get a move on…" Leo pressed.
"But where da we go, though? We don't even know where da key to da gate is…!" Raph questioned anxiously.
"Well, I don't think we need to worry about that…" Donnie assured as he walked over to something hanging on the wall.
"Why, Donnie?" Leo asked whilst he and Raph followed him.
"Look, there's a map of a Lake, and it's got arrows pointing from the church to somewhere unknown across the lake…" Donnie pointed out
"This map's got something written on it, too…" Leo added when he saw the partially clear writing across the bottom of the map.
"Yeah, but it's all smudged…!" Raph observed.
"Not all of it; I can just make out a couple of the sentences…The first one says, 'The key will be held in the cave on the other side of the lake.'…" Donnie managed to translate.
"Ok, that's good! We now know where they've hidden the gate key…!" Leo responded in a hopeful tone.
"Err, yeah, but…You might wanna hear the last sentence before you get your hopes up too high…" Donnie advised nervously.
"Why? What does it say?" Leo asked in confusion.
"…It says, 'The monster will deal with the foolish intruders.'…" Donnie translated grimly.
"Monster!?" Leo and Raph cried out in unison.
The three turtle brothers looked at each other for a moment. They were finally starting to get back on track with finding their way into the church, but finding out that more danger might be up ahead had made them feel anxious and worried since they had no clue of what this 'monster' could be.
"I was really hoping for no more surprises, but we don't have much of a choice…Let's get to that lake and find the key…" Leo said with determination in his voice.
"Right…According to the map, we should be able to leave here through an underground passage…" Donnie replied as he reread the map.
"Ya mean through dis door on da floor?" Raph questioned before pointing at a cellar door near his feet.
"That's it! Well spotted, Raph…!" Donnie answered joyfully.
"Alright, then let's go!" Leo replied before he and his brothers opened the door and entered through it to explore the hidden tunnel and reach the other side.