Mᴜᴛᴀɴᴛ Aᴘᴏᴄᴀʟʏᴘsᴇ 4: Tʜᴇ Tʜʀᴇᴇ Tʀɪʙᴇs ❪✓❫

24 || 𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐘

𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕
𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐬 1 & 2

My little lizard friend, Silly sat on my left shoulder as I followed behind Roan out the front gates with Nate and Regan. I got to admit that this mutant lizard who takes a similar appearance as me is quite attractive. Silly squealed a few times in my ear, speaking to me and giving the most adorable looks with her eyes, and stuck her blue tongue out once in a while to get me to smile.

I adjusted my backpack on my shoulders and look straight ahead to the south to find Criss. Honestly, this is stupid. "Why did April send us to the south? Wasn't Criss kidnapped in the opposite direction?" I pointed back to EdgePort. Silly squeaked, climbing on top of my head and facing toward home.

Roan stopped in his path to look at me. "I agree with you, Pay, but April makes the call. Even if we have a 0% chance of finding a clue April still wants us in this direction."

"We're wasting precious time looking over here. Sh*t! Let's just go back and cover more ground up north. It's a wild goose chase we got, guys. The south is full of crap!" Patience says, believing that her search party had no sense in chasing no clues in the south.

Nate still had a limp in his step and added in a few sentences as Regan did, too. Both had their own opinions. "You see, lassie, April isn't gonna just let us four go back inside EdgePort and follow her."

Regan sighed. "No, guys, Pay is right. Over here there is nothing. If we continue the search for Criss in the south, we'll get nowhere. I was there when she was taken."

Roan glances at his human friend, Nate. "C'mon, mate, what do you say?"

Nate shrugged. "Well, now that I think about it--"

I cut the boys off and nudged Regan's shoulder as a signal to follow me back into the gates. "Great! Let's get going because I don't want to miss out on all the fun."

****

𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝗼𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕
𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐬 1 & 2

The temporary trio took the west side of the community. Just like any other search party, Mikey, Shado, Casey strolled down the street that led to the perimeter. With the guards' permission, the mutant turtle, Casey, and Shado went through smoothly. "Who do you think took her?" Casey asked either Mikey or Shado.

Michelangelo leads his significant other, Shado down the silent street. The black-masked mutant shrugged, unsure of who took one of his friends and left no clues. "I have no idea. But whoever did is going to pay and learn to never mess with us mutants and humans."

Shado sighed, her dog trotting beside her. "I miss Criss. I may have not known her very well yet but she sure did have the heart of a leader."

"I hope she's alright... where ever she is," Casey said.

Shado's dog whimpered, jumping on her chest. Sunny cried and made a fuss as Shado ignored her pet. But the more Shado's dog, Sunny leaped and began to retreat for the middle of the community, Mikey looked back and raised an eyebrow ridge. "What's up with him?"

Shado had no words and watched her black shepherd sprint in the opposite direction. "Maybe we should go back?"

Casey knew April better than anyone besides the turtle brothers and shook his head. "No, he's just nervous. April wanted us to check this side of the community so let's not waste time so we can find Criss."

Shado glanced at Mikey and wasn't sure if they should continue on the west side of EdgePort. "I... I don't know about this, Case." Shado backed up a couple of steps, hugged her left arm. She is growing more nervous and stressed. "Sunny is a dog and dogs sense more danger than a human can. We shouldn't be here. You guys go ahead but I am going back, it doesn't seem right."

Michelangelo glared at the street they were supposed to search and closed his eyes to feel his surroundings and detect if there is anything wrong in the air. If there was anything important that Splinter had taught him and his brothers, its to stop and think about what you do before going on. Then he felt it. Mikey reopened his eyes and saw Casey is farther than he was before. "Casey, get back here!"

Patience's brother stopped in the middle of the road, unaware of the dangers Mikey felt. "What?"

"Something isn't right, we need to go." Mikey starts back for EdgePort.

"April gave us a job, you guys! Why are you afraid?" Casey didn't listen and wanted to proceed with the job he was given by an old friend.

Shado ran up to Mikey's side for protection. "Casey, please listen!"

The snarls echoed down the street and into Casey's ears. Hunger burned in their throats and their torn noses could smell the fresh fragrance of human flesh. Casey froze in place when at least three Hounds emerged from the corner of the block. One of the infected dogs screamed to alert the rest of the dead pack and lunge forward for Casey and the couple standing behind him.

Mikey pushed Shado back to the wall. "Casey, Shado, run!!" He pulled out his 85 cheetah, pulls the trigger, and fires the first two rounds at the dogs.

All three book it back for the community and tell the guards to let them back in because the Hound population increasing in the south. "Open the door!" Shado screamed.

****

𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝗼𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕
𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 3

"Is it a deal?" Amber asked.

Osa thought this was not fair at all. She feels like she is doing all the work for two shifters who hardly know how to survive. Which she is.

But if this is the only way to get to Pittsburgh then she'll have to agree about finding Boss and bringing him back home to the cabin. Osita tried to hold back her emotions but let a hot tear streak down her face. She'll do it for her only two friends at the moment and for her dream to find a real home that is out there somewhere. "I'll do it."

"Oh, thank you, Osa!" Amber wrapped her arms around the gloomy shifter and told her that she will be okay during the journey. "Kodi and I are grateful. We can pack you a bag of clothes if you want. Leftover deer meat, too."

If they are this happy, then what will hurt to make them a bit happier after bringing Boss home? It'll be a long journey, one that is going to change Osa in a matter of thirty days or more. She hopes that this man is alive or else she has done this for nothing. If she thinks about it, she did it for herself to find who she is as a survivor. And it's where she's at in life... she hardly thought about Leo and the other, too.

She refused to take a bag of clothes and food--she can do that herself out in the woods. She won't mind taking a first aid kit, a spare gun, ammo, and putting it in a backpack. "I don't know where to start," Osa said, placing the pack on her shoulders.

Kodi came up to Osa, smiling in the most creepy way. "You can do it." He made eye contact with Osa as he towered over her. She felt trapped and weak when he tried to dominate her for no reason. Amber shoved Kodi out of the way.

Kodi's sister held an object in her hands to Osa. "Here," she raised it to her friend's nose. "This should help you find him." It's an old glove that Boss wore before he found a new pair. The glove is covered in dirt, old tree moss, natural body odor, and an earthy smell he somehow uses to disguise himself.

Osita inhaled deeply and got every single detail that is inside Boss' scent, her pupils contracted into a small dot inside her irises. She holds the backpack straps in her hands and felt a 'frenzy begin inside her nose. When she picked up Boss' scent, she bolted out of the cabin door like how a K-9 unit would with its human partner.

The backpack, her clothes, and her human-like face shred backward into a grizzly bear while she ran along the path that is supposed to lead to her target.

Her paws stopped into the soil, she broke down small bunches of bushes and twigs beneath her, and the tiny jagged rocks stabbed the pads of her paws but it didn't bother her. Osa's bear fat and thick her rippled with the paces of her steps, running 35 miles an hour on all fours and snorting out the runny mucus that drained from her nose.

Going on this search-and-bring-home isn't just for Kodi and Amber, it is also about what Osa wants. If she believes that everyone deserves happiness then she wants to even out the score; go get Boss and bring him home in order to travel far, far away from the cabin to find what she's been looking for for a very long time.