Breaking Barriers

Surprises, Both Good and Bad

Koshi Doxter:

Who would've thought that the boring day-by-day routines of the Octo-Bunker (the name us kids and Tweak came up with for this place) could've contained some of the biggest surprises of our lives, both good and bad.

Rule #1 about news: Always give the bad news first. The worst surprises we got came in the form of fiery thunder that fell from the skies and shook the world to its very core.

It started around the time we had finished dinner and were lazing in the living room with the Simpsons playing on the TV. Just as Homer was about to speak, a faint "boom" could be heard from outside. We had been so used to quiet for so long, even the slightest noise could make us jump.

21 heads turned in the direction of the noise, and from the window, we could see a little wisp of smoke curling up from a building that was far far away from us.

"What was that?" Peso asked, hiding behind the Captain.

"I'm not sure" the Captain put his arms around him, "It might be someone with a Molotov cocktail. There's nothing to worry about, sweetest." But from the tone of his voice, I could tell that he was as nervous as we were. Not 1 minute after the first explosion, a second one occurred, then a third, fourth, fifth. Everyone ran to the windows, not a single concern for who might see us, and froze at the sight of what was outside. A thick cloud of dust and smoke obscured our vision, but through the fog of destruction, we could see hunks of twisted metal and buildings cracked open like raw eggs. There was only one explanation for this, and it didn't take a detective to figure it out.

"We've been bombed." Mr. Alex declared in a voice barely above a whisper. This time, more people cuddled into the Captain's back as he tried to console
them.

"W-why?" Mrs. Talia asked weakly, still shaken by what just happened outside our window, "The Puricians have nothing of military value here. What could the Brits and the Germans possibly want?"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, ma'am." Ranger Marsh took his hat off and held it to his chest. Strangely, he still kept it on, even in hiding, "Those Puricians have been hidin' military bases of theirs in little towns all over the US to throw the Brits and Germans off. There musta been one here that they found." War. When even those trying to help you seem to be out to get you. But despite this, good things happen. Very good, very adorable things happen.
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Later that night, everyone who had originally come from the Octopod had not wanted to sleep in their own beds, so everyone dragged their blankets, stuffed animals, and pillows into the living room and we all slept there. Well, "slept" is kind of a strong word. Everyone spent half of the night making a bed of pillows for the Captain to lay on and most of the other half of the night trying to convince him to lie down on it.

Once he had agreed to sleep on the pile of pillows, and we all laid our heads on him. We didn't have pillows; what else were we going to use? We lay for a while, whispering about the bombs, and how close they were until the Captain decided we'd had enough excitement for one day, and began to sing a lullaby. And let me say, it's probably easier to sit through one of Inkling's lectures than stay awake through one of the Captain's lullabies.

At around 5 AM, a loud "bang" startled us all out of our slumber, and instinctively, thinking it was a bomb, we all clung to the Captain as tight as we could until we saw the door nearly rattling off it's hinges and heard Bianca exclaim.

"Open up! Is anyone awake in there?!" The Captain pushed himself up and went open the door with messy hair and rumpled pajamas. By now, everyone else was awake as well, and crowded haphazardly in doorways and stairwells to see what all the commotion was about. The door swung open to reveal a tired, grumpy-looking Bianca and Mr. Sheprook lugging a humongous crate into the place.

"Oh my." Professor Inkling was as shocked as we all were.

"Who-?" Mr Alex began.

"Shellington, it seems that your sister is trying to send you half of Scotland in a box." Bianca looked directly at Shellington but she sounded amused

"You've got the honors, open the box for us, lad." Mr Sheprook smiled good-naturedly. Shellington did so, and as he reached into the hulk of a box in the living room, he pulled out paper after paper, box after box and handed them to whoever was closest.

"What was in there?" Pinto asked as he leaned on his flippers over to Squirt, who was holding what looked like a letter.

"Alright, hold on." Squirt murmured, still very sleepy, and ripped the letter open. By now, Jane and I had gone over as well, and watched him pull out a crayon drawing of what looked like the Vegimals holding hands with everyone on the Octopod and the word "mis" underneath it with a backwards 's'.

"Oh,"Shellington leaned over us, "I think that's from the Vegimals. They're saying they miss you." That was kind of obvious, but no less adorable.

"What else did the Vegimals send us?" Squirt asked, and then we saw the mountain of fish biscuits and kelp cakes sitting on the coffee table, and a good number of them were already being devoured by Kwazii.

"Who on Earth would send all this to you?" the Balakov kids, Pogo, and Pinata  walked over to us, in complete awe at the amount of papers and snacks we had received. I only smiled; explaining the Vegimals and all their sweetness and chaos would take a while.

"It's a long story." I said simply, "I'll tell you'll about it later."