Breaking Barriers

And He Makes 12

Squirt Octus:

The man introduced himself to us as Paul Sheprook, the security officer for the building, and told us about how one of the Partisians working in the office with Bianca told him about us, much to Bianca's horror, but she decided she'd make the best of this situation and get him to come up here to pass on a message.

"Due to... unforeseen policies created by that damned Alonso Holmute, we'll have to move Ranger Marsh here about 2 weeks earlier. In other words, tomorrow morning at around 4 or 5 AM." 

Oh goodness.
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Everyone gathered silently around the table, shivering in their pajamas. It was far too early in the morning to get up, but there we were, 11 cold, groggy creatures awake, nervously anticipating a new member of our party.

Through all the suspense and anxiety, I felt a flicker of joy; we'd get to see Min and Paani again!

The nights in the lofts were far too lonely without them around. During the day, the silence felt too big for this little apartment to contain. We were all going quite mad in here; a new resident with news of the outside world would be greatly welcomed, or would it?

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Little scratching knocks at the door startled me out of my doze, and the Captain silently rushed to the door. Everyone had become accustomed to moving quietly over the last week or so, and good thing too. The slight crack of the door opening made us all hold our breath. My tentacle wrapped around Koshi's paw and we held onto each other for dear life.

Any sound nowadays made us fearful. Sound was dangerous in our world, but the whole room seemed to brighten itself up with the first rays of sunlight streaming in from the curtains as we saw who was at the door. Tweak was perhaps the most excited out of all of us.

"Pa!" She whispered in pure joy at the sight of the tall, rather heavyset rabbit that had her mint-green fur and a mustache that turned upwards at the corners like a permanent smile.

I could see it in her smile, in the fire in her eyes; she wanted to scream in pure joy, to run into his arms at top speed and stay there forever, but in our annex, we had to put ourselves under restraint. We couldn't run into the arms of someone we treasure more that anything. Unfortunately, Ranger Marsh hadn't quite gotten the message yet.

"Tweak!" He boomed as we all shushed him, and he lowered his voice, "Oh, Tweak, folks were tellin' me that the Purenkorps cleared out the Octopod and scrapped it for parts."

"Pa, no." Tweak looked towards Paani and Min.

"Thanks to Paani, they now think all of you have migrated to Antarctica." Min chuckled amusedly and patted Paani on the back.

Paani laughed too, but his face quickly became serious again. "We should be going now. The workers will be arriving any minute."

"Thank you." Ranger Marsh turned back to them, "Thank you for bringing me here. Thank you for lettin' me be with my little girl."

"It was nothing." Min smiled kindly and patted his arm, "Be safe, my dears!" She glided across the room, kissing each and every one of us on our heads before she left, "I'll be back this evening. May goodness be with all of you." No more than 5 minutes after they left, Kwazii asked the inevitable question.

"So what's been going on out there?"

"Kwazii!" Dashi and Tweak both scolded him at once with the tone they use whenever Jane and Pinto misbehave.

"What?" Kwazii raised his arms defensively, "Cmon, mateys! Don't act like yer not bursting to ask him yerselves!"

Ranger Marsh looked up at the sky before laying his eyes on the cluster of creatures around him before he began to speak.

"The British and the Germans got Australia and Italy on their side about 2 days ago. Russia is a disaster. Poultrov wants every Russian in support of the Purity Movement, but the Russian people ain't havin' none of it. There are riots in the streets, protests in even the government offices. At least they're resistin'. Bless their hearts."

"What about here?" Uncle Inkling asked, still very much in shock about Russia. How could a country have such a cruel, heartless leader, but such good, brave people?

"This town? Right here? Now, I haven't been in this town for very long, but I heard someone talk about a roundup on Wiesel Drive." The room itself seemed to be spinning. Wiesel Drive had been close to the spot where the Octopod had been parked. I felt absolutely gutted. Kwazii would sometimes take us kids and the Vegimals to the marketplace there and let us play with the other kids for a bit. Now all those children were probably on the walk to their deaths. I shuddered thinking about it.

The Germans, British, and Australians couldn't come fast enough for those poor people. I had heard rumors on how some of the young children and the elderly were killed at arrival. I could only pray that the same fate wouldn't befall them. But what good would that do?