Mᴜᴛᴀɴᴛ Aᴘᴏᴄᴀʟʏᴘsᴇ: Dᴏɴᴀᴛᴇʟʟᴏ's 200 Dᴀʏs ❪✘❫ 𝑁𝑂𝑇 𝐶𝑂𝑀𝑃𝐿𝐸𝑇𝐸𝐷

22 || 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄

Donatello has been taking Jared on many more journeys, doing everything in his power to keep him safe and out of harm's way. He encountered some infected after he had his private and intimate moment with himself and dreamt about a person he had rarely thought about before. But if anyone knew who this Donatello was, or might we say, Rep, he was not intimidated by anything that came his way, so it was nothing he couldn't manage.

But now that he is free of those evil creatures, Donnie has come to a wrecked Walmart and a parking lot full of ruined cars. Every vehicle comes in a variety of sizes and shapes. Even some older cars that might have been on a car show before the illness were visible to him. Some automobiles had their hoods dented or bashed in; others had their doors flung open and their trunks ransacked.

The mutant in the thick coat approached each one and peered inside to see what they each contained while he cradled Jared in his arms. He occasionally came upon a dead body or a car that was a stash for trash. It appears that all of the goods have already been removed from this Walmart parking lot.

Donatello knows precisely how to reuse materials that others wouldn't often take because he was once a person who was extremely intelligent before he developed his second identity. He came across a few trinkets here and there that he could use as weapons, such as a car's broken gear shift that would be ideal for impaling an adversary.

He even damaged the mirrors of the cars he approached. He uses the mirrors to make a fire by shining sunlight on a dry mound of pine needles. For him, caring for this little infant temporarily is all about staying alive.

He then approached a black GMC, first glancing in the front where he saw just leather seats, a filthy empty Burger King to-go cup, and dust gathering on the dash before turning his gaze to the back. Donatello winced when he caught a glimpse of the backseat. Unexpectedly, he noticed something that was brought up a few months ago to mind.

The memory is quite vague, but he clearly recalls being on a highway with his family and seeing a lot of cars that had stopped. If Don remembers correctly, every truck or automobile had a corpse inside, and every other vehicle had been robbed and destroyed. He noticed a kid's seat in one of the cars as he and his family were traveling down that highway. The seat was covered in blood, indicating that a little child had been inside and had perished at the hands of the monsters who still stalk the world today.

This is exactly what he is staring at now that he has returned to reality, except this time the baby in the car seat is really in front of him and it is not moving. Donnie was almost sick from the scent of the flies eating on the infant's skin infesting its mouth and eyes. He coughed and moved away from the scene while carrying Jared in his arms. "Ugh..." He groaned lightly.

He just kept walking, continuing his journey with a child that he does not know what to do with at the moment. Eventually, Donnie's prayers had been answered.

In the distance from where Don was, he hunkered down in the brush of this forestry and could hear the faint laughter and chatter that belonged to many, many people. About twenty. There were about five each sitting at their own campfires, eating food out of cans and bowls.

Don could feel his breath shaking when he heard those voices but he instantly looked down at Jared in his arms. The baby was looking up at him with his little eyes, so innocent and unaware of the world that he is living in. Jared cooed at his caregiver and smiled at him, causing Don to smile back at him.

Donatello looked up and carefully walked through the woods, approaching the people with backpacks, tents, and shelter. What gave him a ton of hope for Jared was that there were children and one animal mutant– an elephant keeping his group safe. This was his chance to let Jared have a chance at surviving. "Okay, Jared." The turtle said. "Time for you to start your life."

The mutant turtle knew he couldn't walk toward these people without scaring them, so he went around to get an angle on them and that he would remain hidden. Donnie got closer until he figured he was a decent distance and carefully placed Jared down in the leaves with his blanket. The cloaked mutant removed Jared's belongings, including his formula, and set it next to him. Don sighed at the human baby and caressed the boy's soft and chubby cheek. "Good luck, little man."

Before Donnie surrender Jared, he placed his mother's old necklace around his neck. The clear crystal is wrapped in wire. To add something to the child's life, Donatello wrote down a few words on a piece of paper, rolled it up, and added it to Jared's pile of belongings.

𝙹𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚍,

𝙸 𝚐𝚘𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝚊 𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚙 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞. 𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞, 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝙸 𝚊𝚖 𝚊 𝚍𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚞𝚊𝚕. 𝚃𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚎 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚋𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚢.

- 𝚁𝚎𝚙

The group needs to be informed that Jared is in their area and Don is to leave right away. Before Donnie could set off on his improbable adventure alone once more, he let up a high-pitched whistle that would surprise Jared and draw the group's attention. Donnie immediately ran from Jared until he vanished into an undergrowth, then hid behind a big tree and waited, making sure the group discovered the infant boy on the ground. Tears streamed down Jared's cheeks as he whimpered and sobbed before seeing some unfamiliar faces.

When a woman picked up the youngster off the ground and held him close to her bosom, Don exhaled in relief and grinned. The turtle retreated away, placing his hand on the rough tree trunk and sliding it downward. He's thankful the baby had been taken into a group that will care for him properly and won't get him killed... hopefully.

Now that Donatello was leaving the region, he remembered that ever since he had lost his family, he had encountered a young girl and a baby. These two people didn't only enter his life because they were lonely; he thinks as though he needed this because of who he is today. Donnie counted Katie and Jared as great mercies in the end times, keeping him somewhat sane.

Don acknowledges that as long as he lives, he will continue to be rogue and do more wrongdoing, and his other personality will pretend he doesn't care about anyone. Donnie believes in his heart that he will never forget Katie and Jared because they have changed his life for the better. For some reason, good people will remain in someone's mind no matter what they did for the person that needed some company in their life.

The mutant turtle that contained his face and covered a majority of his body with heavy clothing is solo once more. If he had to be honest, he hoped that he would never meet someone again for he knows he is just too dangerous to be associated with. He felt that Jared was lucky because Donnie didn't have an insane episode.

This unstoppable survivor kept going and visited a few properties but none of them stood out to him. But there is one in particular that grabbed his eye as the sun was coming down over the horizon. It's a farmhouse that had almost nothing on it. It almost looked like one of those houses in a horror movie and will never be touched by another living thing. Except for Rep.

He figured that this would be a good location to settle down for a little bit and hopefully just have his space from any other survivors or the infected people that wanted to kill him. Don didn't hesitate to go inside the home and strip it clean of campers– none are inside. Surprisingly, the house itself has hardly been touched and there are no signs of life here.

The living room is decorated with old floral wallpaper, the antique rug is infested with dust and old crumbs, the couches are cold and firm, and the kitchen is still organized with a matching set of pots and pans dangling from the wall. Rep gripped his staff tightly, stepping through the rooms until he found that each one was not bothered and he released the tension from his shoulders. Finally, he could relax.

He returned to the couch in the living room and sat down, leaning back and looking up at the warping ceiling. The water damage caused the material to crust up and crack, creating a trail of breakage. The more he stared at the ceiling it was like his mind counted sheep jumping over a mental fence. Rep's eyes began to close under his mask and soon, he was off into another world he called his dreams.