Breaking Barriers

The Fastest Solution

Koshi Doxter:
The notice that had bombed our world sat on the table. The Captain had his head pressed into his paws, and just stared at it, in completely numb disbelief. No one else could take their eyes off of it either. It seemed so harmless, just a sheaf of pure white paper with a black stamp, but it was so much worse.

"All creatures registered under this address must report for mandatory labor by September 30th." September 30th. It currently was August 31st. We had a month to sort this all out, but it still wasn't enough time.

"We need to leave the country." Inkling's voice was calm, but forceful, "It's the only option we have."

"It takes a year to do so if you're a safe creature, and the borders are under lock and key; we wouldn't be able to sneak out." Tweak sighed, "We'd have a better chance putting lampshades over our heads than trying to leave the country."

"Yes, quite right." Inkling mused, tentacle to his lips, his body stoic but his eyes, the deep sea-green of his eyes seemed to swim with anger, sorrow, desperation, and fear. He knew the stakes; he was just hiding his fear from us so we wouldn't be scared.

"What other options do we have?" Dashi asked, "I have family in Germany, maybe-"

"Germany's already packed solid with refugees from here all the way to South America." Shellington sighed. It was true. I'd heard Dashi talk to Ryla the other day about how she should've gone to Germany and not have stayed in Mexico in the caves worrying about us. Now it was too late for her and for us. The Purenkorps had taken over so much; South America was theirs, North America was in their crushing grip as well.

"The only hope we have right now is-" Inkling swallowed, and his words died on his lips, then they rekindled, "It's impossible, but the only hope we have is if the Germans, the Australians, the British, all of them could push the Puricians out of existence before the month ends!"

"Bianca's office." The Captain's words rang through the kitchen, wobbled for a bit in the still air, then gradually faded into dust, "Bianca told me above her office building, there's a secret cluster of rooms. We could just lie low until this is all over in there."

"Oh, but what if the Purenkorps find us!" The professor had fretted, but his worried barely had time to sink into everyone else's minds before the whole kitchen rattled with screaming. Without thinking everyone rushed to the HQ and peered out the windows. The sky was a deep, navy blue and decorated with plumes of gray smoke, such a ugly, horrific beauty. Below the beautifully ugly sky, there were navy blue uniform almost perfectly matching the sky pushing little clusters of the poor creature deemed "unworthy" by the Puricians. 

Then a sound, like a loud bang tore through the night followed by a light thump, like that of cloth being thrown on the ground, then a wailing scream that made my heart prickle in pain. Everyone instinctively ducked down and covered their ears at the same time. I tried to force myself up, but Dashi immediately pulled me back down. No one spoke, but it was pretty clear what had just happened.

We needed to find a way out of the country, but there was none. We could only hide in it until everything blew over. The Captain's solution was flawed, but we had no other solutions. We knew what we'd eventually have to do.