* See Chapter 1 for this story's origins info.

The Underground Explorers

Chapter 4 - The Forgotten City

Splinter had been wandering for a long time, his steps slow and the lair far behind him.

Nothing...

Tunnel after tunnel he had assessed with no results. No potentials. Another day gone. Another day closer to being found by the Hunters.

The Hunters - a league of blood-thirsty, mutated Foot with twisted bodies of various shapes and sizes. Some were lean and tall like burnt, stretched, warped taffy. Some were short and overly muscled to the point of no return. All were horrific in appearance, missing parts of their faces, and lacking any sign of humanity. They seemed almost unaware of the unaltered Foot they traveled with and they traveled fast.

Not only had the Foot tracked them down at the last two seemingly-perfect spots they'd chosen to reside in, but they were getting close to doing it again. He had to find a less predictable solution...

There was an old subway station that had long been unused. But something about it felt too open...as if the ground above it was too thin. They needed something that had weight to it, not mystique, and was defendable.

Besides, it was too easy to get to.

The stale, milky water sloshed as he moved through it, peering into every corner, down every path, as he went on.

We're running out of time...and options.

He had been considering the possibilities and execution of attempting an above-ground existence, however, it kept weighing on him in a bad way. Too risky. Too easily might the Foot find and destroy them with so many eyes potentially on them up there.

Do they seek a so-called haven in an abandoned building? Do they bar the doors, shade the windows, and alarm the building? That looks suspicious and curious to the outside world. And to surface gangs.

All it would take was one lead, one question and an answer. And the Hunters...the Foot...everyone, would be at their doorstep.

Buildings are so easy to detonate. Especially while he and his sons were sleeping...

Splinter growled and stopped himself from digging his rough, thick yellow nails into his palms. No...

He had paused in thought for a moment and looked down as the water moved around his toes suddenly.

It was subtle. But it sent a jolt of hot fear straight into his core and he pulled quickly into the shadows, pressing himself against the wall of the tunnel and out of sight...he hoped.

There was no sound, but the shift in the motion of the water told him that there was another large entity, or more than one other, nearby - perhaps only a handful of tunnels away and north of him.

Construction workers?

He sniffed the air. No. Their familiar scent and commotion would have already reached him if it were.

It was not the rhythmic motion of an animal - A dog or raccoon wouldn't make such jagged undulations. Not down here. They were the hunters. The hunted made movements far smaller...as he now did.

Perhaps the others did not know he was down here to make such obvious disturbance to the surroundings. But it could be a trap.

Rarely caught unprepared, Splinter slid the darts between each of his fingers of his left hand, gripping them in preparation to throw; their poisoned tips pointing outward into the blackness, toward any target he wished to call his own.

A secondary comfort rested against his right hand - his tanto.

His ears twitched as he strained to hear..

***

"Man, I love New York." Adrian shook his head to get his long brown hair out of his face.

"I can't tell if you're smiling or not." Michelle smirked at him.

"Oh, I'm smiling. You know I am." Adrian chuckled.

"Yeah...hey, you wanna piece of cheese? I got hungry and had to chow down on somethin'." Michelle asked as she walked beside him, brushing the food against his hand so he could feel where it was.

"Sure. Thanks." He broke off a small piece with his thumb and forefinger and popped it in his mouth. "Ah, yes. The aged Gouda." He said in a bad British accent and snickered.

"With all that cheese you brought, you'd think we wanted the rats comin' to us." Aaron grinned in darkness.

"Funny." Jennifer nudged him in the arm with her elbow.

"Wow. What was that? Feels like you just bumped me with a cold, dead cat head." Aaron and Matt cackled.

"Ew! W.T.F. Aaron?" Jennifer laughed and nudged him harder.

Joey laughed and snorted, which made everyone laugh at that.

***

Splinter heard the barely audible, haunting, watery, and undefined sound of a cluster of voices. From his position, he could make out the tones as definitively coming from larger entities. Human or monster, he couldn't tell. The hairs on his back stood up as he suddenly sensed that he was being followed as well, but the uncertainty of his situation was the most unnerving.

Should he run? Should he pursue the source of the voices in hopes that he might be able to confirm the source and that he might manage to slip away to get word back to his sons?

***

"Guys, this is so cool." Joey remarked as soon as he caught his breath.

"Would be better with the night-vision goggles." Matt added half-jokingly, shining his flashlight into Aaron's eyes.

"Dude!"

Matt snickered and lowered the flashlight as Sarah just shook her head, smirking, her night-vision goggles safely tucked away for now.

"Okay, guys, we're going up." Clinging with one hand to a rung of a smooth, metal, vertical ladder of a manhole shaft, Michelle called down to them.

Jennifer, who was just below Michelle, held out her hand to Sarah, beckoning her.

"I thought we'd be traveling down here for a lot longer." Sarah replied as she began to climb, the top of the manhole already opening above her head oddly revealing more darkness despite it being daylight still outside.

"Oh, we will. This is a pit stop." Michelle called back down as the last glimpse of her feet disappeared above into whatever place they were being lead to.

One by one they followed, up the ladder, until the last one had made his way up.

The darkness began to fade as their eyes adjusted to what seemed to be a dusty room of undetermined size.

"Where are we?" Joey and Sarah asked in unison, looking around.

"You'll see." Michelle replied in a quiet, mysterious voice, sliding slowly away from everyone.

***