Breaking Barriers

Not Alone

Koshi Doxter:

We'd been stuck in our little apartment for about a week before Inkling made the announcement.

It was early morning, around 6 AM, and I couldn't understand for the life of me why Inkling needed us down in the little cramped kitchen barely big enough to hold us at this hour. I trudged out of the room that all the girls had to share with one another and rubbed my eyes tiredly.

The heavy cream-colored curtains were barely open, allowing a crack of light to reach us, but it stole my breath away. I hadn't seen daylight in what felt like years, but it had only been a week at the most.

All eleven people of our little bunker huddled around the tiny dining table we had in the near pitch black darkness. In this darkness, I could make out the silhouettes of everyone in the room, and their whispers seemed near, but the darkness seemed to swallow me up and lock me deep inside of it. I could only step closer to the table where a spark from the remain of the candles last night created a dull little flame that turned Professor Inkling's face a sickly pale pink.

"We've been thinking about offering more poor souls asylum in this refuge of ours." He leaned in closer to the table and sighed. The Captain stepped behind him and wrapped a reassuring paw around the Professor's shoulders.

"Tweak's father is coming Wednesday." The Captain's voice was overflowing with a sadness I didn't quite have my paw on. It sounded like a beaten down, hopeless, trapped sadness to me, but I could understand. For the sakes of everyone in here, we had to stay silent and still at all times, but when you're trapped in a little cluster of rooms with 10 other people, tensions run high, and there's no pressure
valve to turn down.
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It was the Monday before Tweak's dad arrived, and Tweak's moods had been a seesaw for the last week. She'd be excited, beaming and singing under her breath in the morning, but nervously pacing the room and chewing on her upper lip by lunch.

On Monday, everyone's worries seemed to be expanding and hung in the air above us like a big grey storm cloud. Jane, Pinto, Squirt, and I were sitting cross legged off to the side by the scuffed door streaked with faded paint that we'd come in from while all the adults worriedly began to whisper about what Tweak's father's arrival would mean for us. As they were debating, Jane and Pinto had turned their attention to the buttons coming undone from their overcoats, and flicking them at the door. As they were about to let one soar, the door banged open and there stood a lone tall figure clad in a raincoat that one none of us had ever seen before.

All sounds of breathing in the room ceased as we all stated at him and he stared at us. He wasn't in the navy uniform of the Purenkorps, but then again, ordinary men and women who had lived across the street from me for years had turned in their own neighbors for being an under-classed breed.

This man had all the markings of a German Shepherd, intelligent eyes, a long lithe frame, and a sharp jawline. We all sat staring at him for a good five moments before he finally spoke.

"Do any of you know Bianca?" He'd stuttered and blinked hard. The Captain nodded his head in shock, but still said nothing.

"Good. She sent me because she couldn't leave the office to check on you all." The stranger didn't smile, his expression only grew graver, "We have a lot we need to talk about at this moment."