Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT

A/N: Sorry for the delay in this one. Certain life messes sprang up and I guess Ii prioritized updating My Camoflage is Orange. Hopefully I haven't lost too many people. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 3

Letting Go

"Zombies?" I looked at her, mouth agape. "Zombies?" I repeated.

Elbows propped up on her knees, clutching her red hair in her hands, she shook her head, not meeting my astounded gaze. "I know, I know, it sounds nuts, but there simply is no other explanation that I can think of that can explain this!" She looked up at me with earnest bright green eyes. "I mean, you've seen the movies right? They display all the same symptoms and behaviors. They-"

"This is not the movies, April! For crying out loud, this is not the movies!" I paced her floor, frowning. "There must be some sort of explanation! Some type of disease, an epidemic? A plague? You know the black plague would cause rounded black bumps the size of apples to form on your skin along with pain that drove you mad. Perhaps this is a strain between that and rabies, that would make animals attack each other... but then again it doesn't have that effect with people..."

She shot up and grabbed my arms. Her eyes bored into mine, hands shaking. "Donny! Listen, I have thought of the same things that are going through your head right now! It seems surreal even now, but I can't think of any other explanation. They don't have a disease, Donatello. They're dead. Before they started doing anything out of the ordinary, they died. No pulse, no breath, no life. They got back up and started doing this! Started eating the flesh of other people, they're walking around with gaping injuries, yet they don't bleed. When they bite you, you become one of them. You get weak, you get sick, you die, then you walk around and eat people. It's fucking crazy!"

With that she tore away from me and walked stiffly to the wall where she propped her arm against it as she suppressed a shudder. I stared at her, still disbelieving. Then I noticed her for the first time since this crazy explanation began. She looked disheveled. Her hair, normally kept in a neat bun, was tied at the nape of her neck with a scrunchii. She also looked a bit thin, like she hadn't been eating well. She breathed in quick gasps and her hands wouldn't stop trembling. Every muscle seemed to be working.

I reached my hand out to her, then hesitated. God, even now she was beautiful.

Licking my lips, I cleared my throat. I hated to push her but... "When did this happen?"

She took a deep, haggard breath then wiped her face with her hands, collected herself and turned to me. Her eyes steadied a bit as she thought to explain. That was my April. "Well, we were hearing some strange things going on in other places, first around the urban part of New York. Then in the eastern states. There were rumors of something, but nobody knew for sure. People were dissappearing, it was obvious that the government was doing some sort of major cover up. They tried to make up some phony story about them volunteering for some special study but anyone who knew where to look could see that it was sloppy. They were working fast and desperate." Still shaking she stopped and shoved her fingers through her hair. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a shuddering breath, her hand clenching into a fist. "Before long it was just too late."

Shaking her head, she chuckled without amusement, making it sound off. "By the time that we realized what was going on, they seemed to be everywhere. I can't explain it, it was just like you turned around and suddenly there were a pack of zombies. Not a lot of people made it..." Looking into the distance, the edge of her mouth kicked up. Her voice quavered. "And it spread, I'll tell you that. I was watching the news, it's already spread across the continent and somehow had popped up in other countries like England, China, even Japan and Australia. How in the hell it did that, I have no idea. It is obviously spread through bites, but the very first case that I could find originated here." She shook her head again. "It's been hard obtaining more information ever since the computers and TV systems shut down."

Wringing her hands, she looked around nervously. "I didn't think that you would've come here, I wish that the messages would've gotten through, then you wouldn't have come here. I told you not to come for me in my messages." Pacing nervously, she looked at me uncertainly. Then she looked down the hallway. Her hand wringing intensified. She bitt her lip. "Maybe you should try to get the rest of the turtles, you know, considering the situation?"

I looked at her sharply and immediately she avoided my gaze. What was going on here? This wasn't like her. She was so jumpy, nervous, tired, even skittish. But maybe an apparent zombie apocalypse would do that. But she should also know that we'd come for her no matter what. We wouldn't leave her alone. Wait...why was she alone?

"April...where's Casey?"

As if to answer my question there was a loud thumping on the wall, hard enough to make the hanging pictures shake. It was coming from another room inside the house. A loud screeching followed the blow.

My bostaff slipped into my hands as I got into fighting stance. Slowly, on the pads of my feet I crept across the room to the open door adjoining the hallway. I was startled when April suddenly latched herself onto my arm. Tears were in her eyes as she tried to position herself between me and the door.

And suddenly, I understood.

"Donny, no please! It was my fault, it shouldn't have happened! He only did it because of me, to protect me! This has nothing to do with him, nothing! We don't even need to bother him, we just stay quiet and he'll calm down, he will! I promise! We'll fing a cure, I've been thinking it over and there must be a cure, right?" Her eyes looked into mine, desparate and pleading; they sparkled with tears.

I looked down at her. I was at a loss for words. Another hard thump rattled the walls. I broke my gaze away from hers, painfull as it was. If Casey was like the others, then he'd kill her first chance. And if April was right, he was alread dead. A cure would only return him to the traditional state of death. There was no other option. There was business to be dealt with. "April, where is he?" My voice was monotone. I couldn't believe that I was doing this. My heart thudded against my chest.

"No, please! Don't kill him, please!" The sound of her voice, of the tears within it, threatened to break me.

I looked down at her again as she pleaded with me. A lump formed in my throat. "But April...he's already dead."

A fresh burst of tears poured from her eyes as she sobbed, her hands clutching my arm tighter. Shoulders shaking, she bowed her head. "I know! I know, it's just that...I can't bear to see it..."

It was then that I noticed the glint on her hand. Her ring finger, to be exact. A delicate gold band, topped with a small, modest but beautiful diamond. My heart plummeted. I couldn't do it. "It's all right, April. I won't do anything. Just show me where he is."

She looked up at me, face still distraught. Green eyes searching mine, she saw something that made her nod hesitantly. Getting up and grabbing my hand lightly, she led me down the hall of her small apartment. It seemed like a doomed walk. Then I saw it immediately.

Her bedroom door was shut and several endtables and other furniture was shoved against it for extra protection. Even as we approached it the door shook on it's hinges as Casey threw himself into the wood with an animal growl. April and I stood staring at it for a good minute, even as my friend attacked the walls of April's bedroom in a hunger induced frenzy.

Pressing my lips together, I took a deep breath. "When did it happen?"

April bit her lip, rubbing her arm. "Three nights ago." she whispered.

"When he gave you the ring?"

She covered her hand without thinking about it. Her cheeks were wet with fresh tears. "Yes" she whispered hoarsly. "It was on the night he proposed." She sniffed loudly, her lower lip trembling. Then suddenly she burst out with loud laughter. "Do you know what he said when he did it?" She grinned at me, the memory fresh in her mind. "We were sitting on the couch, watching the news, eating chips. He reached over to grab one, but instead just-just dropped this ring in my hand. Then he said 'Well, babe, looks like the world's going to hell, so I better do this before anything else happens with us.'"

With trembling hands she wiped furiously at the tears on her face. The door shook so hard from another blow that the furniture barricading it scooted back a little, as though afraid. "They tried to get in, but he stopped them. He stopped them all, didn't want me getting near them so that I wouldn't get what they had...and I did what he said..." She clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white. "Instead of helping him, instead of doing something, I simply did what he said, and I did nothing. Now he's-h-h-he is like them."

I stayed silent as she spoke, staring at the door. When she was finished, I said aloud what both of us were thinking. "April...we can't leave him like this."

"Yes we can! He can't get at us from there, I locked him in!"

I shook my head. I just couldn't believe I was thinking of going through with this. It sounded so cold! "Maybe for now, but Casey's a big guy. And that door isn't very well put together. It's only a matter of time."

She shook her head wildly, hair flinging with the motion. "We'll just reinforce it as time goes by. There's plenty of furniture-"

"April!" I turned to her, looking her straight in the eye. "Please, this isn't easy for me, either. But think about it, April, think! If we keep him like he is, not only do we run the risk of him getting to us, but to someone else, too! Do you want him to bite some other innocent person?" Her chest heaved in a wracking sob as she crumpled to the floor. I went down with her, holding onto her shoulders for support. She crumpled onto my chest, I wrapped my arms around her tight, cradling her against me. "That's not Casey anymore, it's just his body taken over by something." Another shuddering sob ran through her. "We both know what we have to do."

"Put him down! Like a dog!"

I winced at the tone, my arm tightening around her in a hug. "No, put his body to rest. Give him peace."

She stilled at that. "Do you really think that it would give him peace?" The door rattled again as a familiar voice screamed an unfamiliar scream. She shook her head against my chest. "He doesn't seem at peace now, I know I wouldn't want my body to go through that..." Looking up at me with huge green eyes, she chewed her lip hesitantly, then opened her mouth to answer.

A fierce crash interrupted our thoughts. My first instinct was to turn towards the room that Casey was in, but the sound didn't come from there. It came from the living room and it sounded a lot like broken glass.

Aw shell...

Inhuman screams filled the air along with the sound of crunching glass. My mind raced. Bedroom and livingroom exits were out of the question. That only left the kitchen and the bathroom. The kitchen was the best option. Then an idea struck me like a ten pound hammer. "April, quick! Matches!"

"Ah," she searched her pockets and produced a tiny matchbox, probably for the incense forever burning. Snatching them from her hand, I took one and with one deft move lit them all. The thing flamed in my hands. I tossed it on the carpet. Already the carpet fibers started to sizzle. Perfect.

At that very second the door splintered. A muscular arm shot out of the weakened area, practically blasting a hole in the cheap wood. Casey's face appeared as his fingers grasped the edge of the opening, glazed eyes mad with hunger. His fingertips were worn through to the bone from struggling against the door, his eyes sunken in his skull. I heard April gasp beside me. He looked monsterous. His grip tightened and a chunk of door tore away in his grasp. Wood fragments flew as he wedged his wide shoulders through the gap.

"C'mon!" I grasped April's forearm and yanked her to her feet, practically dragging her away. The fire that I had left behind had caught and I could hear the crackling as it ate up a portion of the wall. The zombies that had come in through the living room window were nearly at the hallway. They came into view just as Casey burst from the bedroom, who wasted no time in tripping over the stacked furniture.

The kitchen was clean, with a large parlor window to the side. It also had no door. Grasping my fist and bending my arm, I smashed it into the window. Cascades of broken glass showered on us. It hadn't even all fallen when I was shoving April bodily out the window. Once she had a firm grasp and was nearly out, I whirled around and twisted the knobs on all the stove burners and the oven. Blue flame leapt up and heat poured from the oven as I opened its door. I grew slightly dizzy as the gas filled the kitchen.

"DON! HURRY!"

I whirled around and saw the zombies come into view of the kitchen. I snatched a kitchen stool and hurled it at them. It struck the leading zombie in the head, knocking him over. The others, following so closely promptly tripped over it, falling in a messy pile.

Of course, the only one who had legs long enough to scramble over the teeming mass was Casey. Unblinking eyes zeroed in on me, mouth bloody, he lurched for me. I leapt backward, dashing through the window. It was a big window, but it proved the exact a size smaller than my shell. Midway through I got stuck.

Yelling, I reached for April. She grabbed hold of my hands and yanked. I could feel Casey's hands grasp my ankle. His teeth touched my skin. With the heel of my other foot I kicked at his head, praying I didn't clip him in the mouth and therefore contract the disease. The heat was building in the house, the smoke was visible outside...

Just then, like a popping cork, I came free. I landed heavily on April, enough that I flattened her completely to the ground with my shell. As I rolled off her she gasped for air, bug-eyed.

Casey went for the window, about the same time that three other infected did. Scratching and clawing at everything they could purchase with their fingers, they were wedged so tight that they couldn't budge. Casey screamed at me, eyes bulging, lips pulled past the gumline.

Grabbing April's arm, I made a quick scan, found that the immediate area was miraculously zombie free, and bolted down the fire escape. I dragged her so quickly behind me she nearly fell down the stairs.

I was waiting for it...I was waiting for it...I was waiting for it...

Then it came. About a half-block down the street the place exploded in a ball of flame.

A/N: I actually didn't have to change a lot with this chapter. And with certain life messes cleaned up the updates should come quicker. Please, if you read it leave a review and let me know what you think!