Donnie and Raph truly do have that big bro little bro love going on and it’s so fucking cute I just had to capture it.
Nah I don’t wanna do it… It hurts!!!
Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it I WONT STOP UNTIL YOU DO IT do it do it do it do it do it do it do it
Okay FIIINE!!!
Arms out….
*Boop*
Close up of Donnie riding Raph in his shell is everything!!! Wait…. Close up of Raph in his shell is EVERYTHING!!!!
*Plop*
Okay HERE!!! Look at their faces!!! *sqeals* Donnie is having a blast and Raph has that satisfying look of “the shit I do fer my little nerd bro man. Jus look at him.. he he he” I just want to melt. The dynamic between these two shows in tiny little glimpses in this movie. There’s another scene, the rapids in Brazil, that I’m going to snap today that gives the same brotherly vibe. And of course shortly after that when Raph disses his brother on the plane ride back to NYC. This pair is too sweet and I love them both!! ❤️
Bonus pic!!!! Just to show the size differences between the two. Raph lifts Donnie by his Bo staff into the air sling shotting him forward with so much force it also pulls him out of the water. That’s a lot of muscle. Not to mention a lot of trust from sweet Donnie boy.
+ Y/N is known for coming over to the lair a lot. She even stays the night quite often. It was one of those nights where she stays but it goes a little different this time. In the middle of the night, she has a nightmare that shakes her to her core. Unable to get back to sleep alone, she goes to Raph in search for some comfort.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Y/N’s POV
I laughed uncontrollably as Mikey whipped out off the skateboard ramp. He shook his head as he sat on the ground, literally swaying back and forth. Master Splinter and Raph were openly laughing while Donnie was trying not to and Leo was just shaking his head smiling.
“That’s how many times now, Mike? 10?” Raph cracked as Mikey finally gained his composure. He glared at Raph before getting up. Raph sat on the back of the couch next to me and nudged me with his foot. I looked up at him. “You should show him how it’s done, Skids.”
“Alright.” I got up and walked to Mikey. “Let me have a whack at it.” He smiled and let me have the board. I was able to get the trick he has been trying to do you an hour on the second try. Once I stopped and stepped off the ramp, he just looked at me.
“How!” He yelled before turned and walking away. He threw his hands into the air and whined. That got us all to laugh. My laugh was cut short by a yawn.
“Looks like it’s someone’s bedtime.” Raph said. I gave him a half glare but nodded.
“I’m exhausted.” I said stretching. “I think I am going to hit the sack.” I set the board down.
“Alright. Goodnight my dear.” Master Splinter bowed her head. The others all said goodnight as I jogged up the stairs. I turned left and headed to the room that was mine when I stay here. I heard yelling as I closed the door.
“Things are definitely back to normal.” I said. I changed into a loose shirt and some shorts before plopping on the bed. I snuggled under the blanket and quickly drifted off.
I hit the ground running after bursting through a set of doors. I don’t know what exactly I was running from but I was running as fast as I could. I could hear yells and pounding behind me. I turned a corner and tripped. I rolled a feet and onto my feet and ran again.
“What the hell is going on?” I exclaimed. I looked up at the top of the buildings trying to see the guys were anywhere. I didn’t see any of them. I bit my lip and kept running. That was until a bang of a bullet hit the wall in front of me. I jerked and skidded to a stop against the wall. The bricks dug into my skin of my left arm and I felt blood run down my arm.
“You’re not going to get away girlie.” I saw three men down the street. One of them had a gun pointed at me. I saw him pull the trigger and a brick just above my head exploded.
“Ah!” I screamed and ran again. I ducked into the ally and jumped onto the fire escape. I climbed up and heard them enter the ally.
“Up there.” I heard the gun go off again and pain exploded through my right bicep. I stumbled and clutched my arm. Tears sprang to my eyes as I froze in pain.
“A, a, ow. Shit.” I forced myself forward and got to the roof. I ran over the roof tops. I thought I had gotten away when I was tackled. The person landed on top of me, winding me. I gasped for air as the person got up. I kicked back with all the force I could muster.
“Shit!” I heard the yell as my foot collided with something. I pushed up and forward, trying to get away. My ankle was grabbed and yanked back. I landed on my stomach. My hair was grabbed.
“Hey!” I was yanked up and onto my knees. I grabbed the person’s wrist, trying to lessen the pressure. I froze when a knife was produced in front of me. I heard a dark chuckle.
“Now we have your complete attention.” He waved the knife around a bit. “Told you, you couldn’t get away and now you are going to die.” He moved the knife closer to me.
“No! I didn’t do anything to you.” I jerked back away from the knife. “Please!” Where were the guys?
“Sorry girlie. Bye, bye.” He moved the knife to my throat and pressed down. I screamed as he swiped it across my throat.
“No!”
I shot up in bed in a panic. I looked around frantically. I clutched my throat and backed up into the wall. I didn’t feel a cut or blood and saw I was in my room in the lair. I closed my eyes in relief and let my head fall back. I tried to control my breathing.
“Holy shit, holy shit.” I pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my head in my knees. I took a big breath and held it. After a few seconds, I let it out slow.
I laid back down and tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t. I kept seeing the knife and hearing the gun. I sat up and looked to the door. I got up and walked out the door. I looked out over the railing and saw the lair was empty and quiet. I made my way down the platform to the other side. I stopped at Raph’s door. I knocked and waited. No answer.
“Raph?” I opened the door. I saw him lying on his stomach. He was snoring a bit. I walked over and knelt next to the bed. I reached and shook his shoulder. “Raph.”
“Hmm.” He stirred and buried his head in his pillow before peeking out at me. He say it was me and pushed up onto his elbows quickly.
“What’s wrong?” He asked and reached forward and wiped a tear away.
“Umm.” I looked away and rubbed the back of my neck. “It’s stupid but I had a nightmare and couldn’t stand to be alone.” It was silent for a few minutes and I could feel him staring at me. I suddenly felt his hand on my arm.
“Come on, get off the floor.” He pulled me up and I sat on the bed. I pulled my knees up to my chest as he sat up. “Do you want to tell me what happened in your dream? You look petrified.”
“It was…I was…” I stuttered before taking a breath. “I was being chased and shot at by three men I didn’t recognize. I got hit in the arm with a bullet. One of the caught me and then he slit my throat. I woke up right then.”
“My god.” He whispered.
“And you guys were nowhere in sight. I was totally alone.” I set my head in my knees. I felt him place his hand on my back.
“It was just a dream, Skids. We will always be here when you need us. You’re one of our best friends Y/N. We would die before anyone could get the chance to get to you.” I sniffled and looked at him. “Come here.” I nearly launched myself into his lap.
“I was so scared. It felt so real.” I buried my face in his neck and he wrapped his arms around me. He lifted me and readjusted me in his lap. H pulled the blanket up and over my legs and he held me.
“I know. I’ve had those nightmares. They scare ya and rock ya to your core but ya have to remember that’s all they are. Nightmares. They’re not real.” I nodded and moved my head to his shoulder. He pet my hair. “Do you want to stay in here tonight?”
“Please?” I lifted my head and looked at him pleadingly. He chuckled. He nodded and ruffled my hair. He looked towards the door and saw I left it cracked. He grabbed a basketball that sat on a shelf above us and threw it. It hit the door just right and it shut firmly.
“Bullseye.” I rolled my eyes and moved off his lap and onto the bed. I laid down on the far side of the bed and I felt him lay down too. We sat in silence for a few minutes before I felt a hand on my waist and pull me backwards. My back hit his plastron. “Beds not big enough to put space comfortably.”
“Alright.” I chuckled and settled. I was nearly asleep when I felt him nuzzle my hair. I opened my eyes and listened to check if he was awake. His breathing was a little too heavy for him to be asleep. I turned and saw his eyes closed. “Goodnight Raph.” I pecked his beak. His eyes shot open in shock.
“Um. Goodnight, Y/N.” He whispered. I smiled before turning back around. I heard him take a stuttering breath before he pulled me tighter to him. He buried his head in my hair and I internally chuckled. I closed my eyes in content, feeling safe in his arms.
Donnie’s girlfriend was killed in crossfire. This is the Aftermath.
For weeks, all Donnie has seen is the blue light of his computer. He’s turned off all of his fairy lights and crawled into the dim of his lab, working on various projects for his racing mind. For too long he’s been unreachable.
Therehad to have been a way to salvage it. There had to have been. He is Donatello, the genius, the innovator.
He hadn’t known such a string of bitter failures until her. Each one after the other, all adding up to converge in one dark, dark timeline—if that idea was true, he thought. That night could have gone one of two ways, and the way that it went will forever be his biggest regret.
His fingers don’t feel so diligent anymore. Not right now, at least. They fumble and drop the delicate tool he’s working with, something that grates on his last nerve.
“No, no, stop—work for me!” he says angrily, looking at his hand. It has never been this bad before.
It’s been hours since he continued his work. He can’t stomach it anymore. He can’t drop another tool, write one more word in his notes illegibly; he has to stop. And that’s only possible with another existing directive for him to focus on. With a sigh, he leaves the counter for the computer instead. There’s always something to be done or looked at there.
“How can there be nothing?” he asks no one, picking through all his feed and reports of the week. No trace of the Foot, the bastard of the city. The coward. Disgusting, vile, it’s vile, his stomach is twisting—
He stands up from his chair. Plants his palms on the edge of the desk. His gaze is lost in the still blue glow of the screen, a deep droning fading into his hearing. Like the sound of a wasp in flight. His ears are ringing; tinnitus he’s developed from being in close range to gunshots, but it’s slowly getting better. They heal where humans can’t.
But it’s driving him crazy.
Not being able to figure out if it’s the silence he can’t stand or the presence of noise, he reaches over and flicks on his stereo, letting the heavy metal play.
That’s better. The rhythmic pounding in his ears and incessant, barely heard ring is thoroughly drowned by the sound.
The sheer exhaustion makes itself known by the heaviness he feels in his eyes, squinting into the darkness as he turns around and leans his back against the desk. He should sleep. But if he lays down, the thoughts will come back.
He looks at the bottle of melatonin April gave him last week. To help him sleep, she said. He needed to sleep.
There is no more to be done here, nothing engrossing enough he can occupy himself with without making himself anxious or mad. So he takes the bottle and dumps out the pills as he needs, popping them into his mouth before washing it down with the stray bottle of Gatorade on the floor. It’s now he realizes just how dehydrated he is and finishes off the entire bottle.
“You know,” he starts in a mutter, wiping liquid from his mouth, but he can’t bring himself to say it audibly.
I never believed in God, he thinks. And I still won’t. I refuse.
In the moment she’d needed a miracle, He was nowhere to be found. Only Donnie had been her failure of a guardian angel that night, escorting her to the long dark himself. Trying to get a word out of her, trying his hardest to do what he could before it was too late. He’d held her small hand. Death isn’t beautiful, he thinks sourly, shaking his head. He hasn’t blinked in minutes. Nothing had been beautiful about that moment. Only surreal.
If gasping and choking for words was gorgeous, then the Foot soldier had been a true artist, he supposes, amused to the lowest degree. Behind him, his hands grip the edge of the desk so hard that his palms are beginning to hurt.
All his life had the background of struggle, the possibility of getting found out and their family torn apart. More recently, the Shredder on their tail, with blood on his mind. The stakes were even higher with the more human connections they gained between April, Casey, and [y/n]. More to bargain with, more to threaten, they’d found Donnie’s weak point: his one and only girlfriend. The one spot he couldn’t always defend, because as much as he wanted her to stay with him in the sewers, safe, she had a life too.
Donnie often felt the weight of it later, but he’d always known the looming threat of it all. Figuratively, The Sword of Damocles could have been seen as a recurring theme in their life, but he’d never wanted to look at it so grimly.
So, that was it. One moment she was there, the next she was gone, and reality was reaching crushing depth, critical mass, on him.
In Donnie’s room, he lay in his bed, staring up at the sprawl of papers, stickers, and random equations on his ceiling. The natural course of action seems to try to move on. But how, when he needs to figure out what he could have done to make things right? He shakes that train of thought away. Leo had told him this was a dangerous way to think for his emotional health, but it just felt too soon to regulate.
For once, his multitude of lights are on, the Christmas string next to him creating an array of colors against his wall. One bulb has gone out; the one he’s neglected to fix because it doesn’t matter, but curiously flickers on in his peripheral vision, eventually coming to stay lit.
The small blue light next to him burns softly, observing Donnie in calm silence as he nods off to sleep. His tense face relaxes. He’d always looked so sweet asleep. She wished she could have seen it more often.
The light escapes the bulb and floats to his bedside where a figure so faint sits at the edge, stroking his hand resting on his chest as he falls into a deep sleep. Her poor Donnie.
Sleep well, love.
A/N: I just kind of hate how death is romanticized sometimes, I took a request once about this but the gif they added depicted a girl dying beautifully so that was the inspiration for that particular point, hope it came off alright
The Race to Find The Cure (Donatello x reader) Chapter 2
The warehouse was quiet for the night. Donne sat up at his work station, adjusting his microscope to peer down at a sample of fluid he’d gathered from a fallen infected. He hummed as he magnified in and saw the molecules of mutagen mixed with other bodily things.
“Need a centrifuge,” he muttered, trying to see past the particulate matter to get a good look. His had gotten left behind in the sewers when it was overrun, and they were not equipped to take that task on currently. Home would be theirs again, one day. Just not then. He pulled away from the microscope and saw the map out of the corner of his eye with the big red circle around the lab he was eyeing. “They’ll have a centrifuge,” he said. We just have to get there. Hold out for me, [y/n], I’m going to get you what you need.
This study was useless if he couldn’t separate the actual mutagen from the other bodily fluids. He sighed and stood up. Listening in on the chatter between the two unknowns on the walkie-talkies had become a kind of past time for him; sometimes, he tuned in just for some background noise. He did that, deciding to dig out his journal from his box of few possessions to write down everything so far. He scribbled his pen to activate the ink. The radio next to him crackled as a man’s voice on the other end asked; “You still alive, jackass?”
“November 6th, 2013—11:42 PM
Subject: Worst day since Splinter
Back at the journal again. I have to document everything, it’s how I am. Who’s going to tell the story otherwise? Or maybe I’m coping. Doesn’t matter anyway.
I haven’t gotten the time to mention until now we’ve been going out a lot trying to get supplies before winter. All hands on deck lately. Everything was going pretty smooth, which is weird because it’s nevereasy with us, but we all needed a break. I sure wasn’t complaining. But something always has to go wrong, right? Because it did. I don’t want to be bitter, but it’s getting really hard.
I’m afraid I’ve made some miscalculations. [Y/N]’s infected. And now I’m sitting here writing it down in a diary. Shouldn’t I be working? I can’t even think. Well, barely. I just need a breather. I’ll be quick.
There’s not much to say about the events leading up to it. Like I said, it was all going somewhat okay. We just wanted to go find supplies to make our lives easier when it gets cold. We can’t be stuck in here freezing all winter! But some of those infected are quiet. (More like half asleep due to lack of a food source.) Nobody knew it was behind those crates. We were even checking for that very thing. But [y/n] was just a little close and a little too slow, and all it takes is a couple of seconds to get the jump on you. We should be glad she’s not a goner…but I feel like a failure. I know everyone’s blaming themselves a little. I don’t know if it’s anyone’s fault, if I’m being honest. Cruel luck like usual? I’ll get back to you on that.
So, that’s been it, until now. She went into shock afterwards; I stabilized her as quickly as possible. It’s been six hours since the attack and I’ve been checking on her constantly, but the disease can be unpredictable. Everyone’s worried, but I can’t give an answer right now. I. don’t. know.
I need to get in gear and solve this thing. She’s already showing signs. I think we’ve got a little time though, so I have to make use of every minute. Can’t waste it on sleeping. I know everyone’s worried, they’ve been on my shell about it for days, but I just can’t stop. Even Casey tried to get me to walk away from my research to go sleep. I snapped at him…I didn’t mean to, but they don’t understand. I think I’m getting closer. Meanwhile, I’ve bought her and me some time in by using a very diluted form of Retro-Mutagen to keep the mutating at bay. It’ll only be so long before that stops working. And knowing that I’d been touching her, no doubt I’ve shed some DNA on her, but I think I’ve got it under control. April helped her out with the bath. She did the best she could. Mutagen is highly reactive towards biomaterial, so I don’t want to introduce anythingthat could possibly react with the Ooze currently in her and trigger any changes. No change for as long as possible is a good thing, or we’re going to have more problems on our hands.
Even writing this now I still feel guilty. Raph tried to comfort me, I guess…emphasis on “tried”, but that didn’t help. I should have been looking out more. And now I’m worried that I won’t make it in time. Can a fully infected person be cured? It’s never possible in movies, but if this disease is a virus literally mutated by Ooze, then my answer is somewhere here. I just have to find it. Retro-Mutagen concentrate hasn’t worked. Curse the viral part of this; it’s thrown a wrench in my plan and now I don’t know what to do. But I won’t give up. [Y/N] needs me.
In the meantime, I’ve been picking through the different frequencies with my radio receiver and found one two unknown people have been using. Knowing how Lower Manhattan’s a mess, they’re actually probably somewhere near us, but I don’t need to find them to listen in on their convos. What’s got me more worried on top of everything else is that these two were just in hiding from a horde in the city. Lucky for them, they escaped, but bad news for us, because it looks like it’s coming our direction. Unless it magically decides to change course, but New York is becoming a wasteland, anyway. Last night running back home we found infected on the rooftops. Who knew they knew how to open stairwell doors? Are they really as brainless as we think?
It turns out that the mutagen part of all of this behaves like it normally does. While travelling through one of the not-overrun sewer passages, we found a person half mutated with a rat.It was…chewing on something. I didn’t get close enough to look. But my heart skipped a beat. I swear my stomach fell. Even just for a split second, I think all of us saw Master Splinter in him. I couldn’t believe it. Leo’s hands were shaking; I saw the blades trembling. Logically, all of us knew it couldn’t have been Father.. We laid him to rest already. He’s not coming back. We ended up just going back from where we came. I had to hold Raph back. I’m glad I did. I don’t think any of us are strong enough for what we would have had to do if we hadn’t silently backed away.
Well, it’s just past 12 o’clock. I hate to wake [y/n] up to take her temperature, but it has to be done. I’ll have to monitor it very carefully.
Donnie signing off”
November 7th, 2013—4:34 AM
Medical notes
• 12:00 AM: temperature reading 99.1°
•3:00 AM: no change.
• [Y/N] says she tired. That’s all for now.
I’m pretty tired, too.“
“So, what’s up with this ‘horde’?” Raph asked while twirling his sais. He propped a leg up on the busted window sill he sat on, looking out at the dark city as a chill came through the air. His leg dangled idly on the outside as if the cold didn’t bother him. Everyone was gathered up in the open makeshift living room keeping warm by the fire drum. Donnie held out his cold hands near the flame. He hated the cold. Raph set his sais down in his lap, briefly seeing his reflection in the metal. “Two days, huh…” he mumbled. He turned his head to hide to hide his face.
“More or less,” Donnie responded. “Technically less,” he added plainly. No one seemed to appreciate the dry humor, so he shrunk a little with an apologetic smile, saying, “But, that’s plenty of time for us to pack up and hit the road. I’ve been fixing up the van just for this, you know. The Shelleraiser and Party Wagon won’t fail us yet…right, Raph?”
Raph looked over at the warm glow of the circle, seeing everyone close together and [y/n] there as well. Mikey passed around the cans food that Leo had rationed out that night. Raph smiled a bit and shook his head. “It better not break down on us halfway there, or I think we’re going to be the roadkill,” he said, hopping down from the window. He joined everyone around the fire and settled down. “Come on, don’t be shy with those peaches.”
Donnie noticed [y/n]’s distracted gaze at the fire. The way the light danced off her glum face and made the dark circles apparent. Donnie wasn’t all brains and no feeling; he could sense her gloom, and for a minute, felt powerless—what could he do besides try his hardest?
He contemplated. The firelight shone in his russet eyes as he thought, with the idea that the warm glow against the backdrop of the blue city out the window reminded him of a sunrise.
Raph sighed and leaned back onto the cushions they’d fixed to a pallet. He chuffed. “Two days. It feels like we’ve already been here so long,” he said. “It’s been two months, right?” He glanced at Leo for confirmation, who prodded the fire with his poker.
“Yeah,” Leo answered. "Wow, that’s weird to say.”
Mikey tossed his empty can behind him into their trash bin, falling back into soft cushion. “Time doesn’t fly when you’re not having fun,” he said.
Fun. He was right; they hadn’t had fun in ages. Donnie suddenly had his lightbulb moment.
[Y/N] needed a spirit-lifter then just as much as she needed medical attention. Donnie couldn’t let her keep sulking alone with herself, and then putting on a brave face when he came to check on her. It was only moments like when she stared at the fire that she left anyone know how bad it was all seeming.
I can’t only try my hardest. I can’t just be her doctor. I have to be her friend, Donnie answered his former question, knowing what he wanted to do.
“[Y/N],” he said. He set down his can. “How much energy do you have?”
She could tell he had an idea, the boy’s face always showed it. Her eyes left the fire as she looked at him with interest. “I’m not totally inert. What do you have in mind?” she inquired, curious.
Everyone gave Donnie a wondering look which he winked to as he checked the time. “When’s the last time you saw the sunrise?” he asked, already on his feet and holding out a hand for her to take. “If we head out now, we can find a good spot,” he tempted. Donnie’s face was sweet as ever, as if everything would be alright for a few minutes.
Any of the boys or April could have questioned that decision, but they kept their mouths shut, understanding that they’d want to be allowed a moment of peace in all the chaos if they were in her shoes. Leo held back his reluctance.
A chance to see the sunrise over New York City again? She could muster energy for that. She wiped her eyes of the lingering tiredness and grabbed his hand, letting him help pull her up. “I don’t think I’ve seen a sunrise in a year. It sounds great, Donnie,” she responded. “I’ll just…give me a minute and I’ll be ready to go,” she said, putting some pep in her step as she left to go to the lab. Donnie considered following her to see what she was up to, but decided against that, instead going to get his staff before they left. Casey strode up to his side while he geared up.
“Goin’ out?” queried Casey, resting his bat on his shoulder. “Shouldn’t she be in bed or something?”
Donnie grabbed his grappling hook and fastened it to himself. “We’re not going far, Jones, and she could use the vitamin D,” he said with a roll of his eyes.
“What about nasties?”
Slipping his staff into his belt, Donnie replied, “Infected don’t attack other infected. They’re like, invisible to them. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about more than you.”
Casey didn’t say anything and watched as Donnie went to his lab to find [y/n] slipping in through the door from outside, wiping her chin of something, he noticed. She coughed a little and composed herself just as he spotted her. “Some fresh air,” she laughed, and staved off a thick cough. She felt like there was something in her throat. “We can go now. Lead the way.”
She walked out into the dim morning, pulling her coat in. Donnie stood still a few seconds watching her, somber. With a deep breath, he set out after.
Moving swiftly through the low rooftops, Donnie was sure to avoid infested buildings. About a mile away was the one he had his eye on, the highest accessible point nearby for them to see the horizon from. He helped her out wherever he needed to—which were a lot of places—but, eventually, they came to and were only level with the second story of the building, and [y/n] was too weak to climb like him. The grappling hook wouldn’t hold two people, either.
“Here, get on my shell,” Donnie instructed, taking a knee. He looked over his shoulder with a smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t drop you. I’m no Raph, but I’m pretty strong.”
“If you’re sure,” she said. He hooked his hands underneath her knees and stood up as she adjusted her grip on his shoulders. He was telling the truth—he handled her weight well, for the thinnest of the turtles. He definitely was as, if not stronger than he looked. She gazed up at the roof. “It’s pretty high up!”
Gauging what the easiest way up there would be, he replied confidently, “And no problem for a ninja.”
He started the climb up, utilizing stairwells, ac units, water towers and higher roofs to ascend as far as they could the easy way. He vaulted a gap between buildings and grabbed into the beam of a billboard, pulling them up. He denied himself the pause he almost took remembering when it felt as though the city was passing themby under their feet as they ran the rooftops at night, not himpassing these still, empty streets. A wave of nostalgia washed by as he made his last jump, gripping the edge of a window. Back then, the city had been alive. People shouting, cars honking all through the night, sirens; the ruckus of New York had always been a background noise in his life, and the silence was unsettling. He channeled his momentary glimpse of sadness into his drive to fix everything. All that he needed was in that lab.
Grunting, he heaved them over the lip of the building and let her down. He checked the time on his T-Phone—6:06 AM. They’d made it just in time.
“Perfect timing,” he said, satisfied. They walked to the edge of the building, the grey-blue sky above them slowly getting lighter. On the horizon, the sun was starting to peak, an orange strip of light spanning the edge of the world.
At least if something were to happen, she’d gotten to see a sunrise again, [y/n] thought as she looked out. The city was foggy, with slivers of pale light starting to filter through buildings. With bleary eyes, she couldn’t quite distinguish everything, but she knew it had to be even better clear.
“It’s pretty,” she said softly. She turned to him. “Donnie, thanks for—”
He looked surprised. His mouth hang slightly open, eyes trained in the distance instead of the sun. “No way,” he breathed out. His hand instinctively reached for his staff. She tilted her head seeing his concern and was about to ask what was wrong, but squinted her eyes instead, and saw it: a moving mass of unknown proportions plodding through the streets in the distance. In silence, Donnie’s brain worked out the math.
A population of approximately 8.3 million as of 2013. A few thousand evacuated and a few thousand fled as the plague broke out—subtract about twenty thousand, he guessed. A lot of people unaccounted for, there. Whatever the numbers were, they were huge.
“Oh, my God…” [y/n] whispered.
Seeing it for himself, time felt like it has come to a halt. Both of them simply stood there for a minute straight looking out at the enormous cluster of infected, neither saying anything. Donnie felt his eyes go wide. He’d been expecting bad, but not like this. Reality hit them; they needed to get home and pull the vehicles around. Immediately.
Donnie was able to break from his trance before she had, so he touched her upper arm, getting her attention. “We gotta tell the others,” he said with a sudden sense of urgency. He pulled her along with him, “Right now. Let’s go!”
