Breaking Barriers

Break Down The Walls

Jane Doxter:

It took a little longer than expected, but eventually everyone got over their sicknesses, and with much relief. Being sick in this place was 100 times worse than being sick normally. For one, coughing and sneezing out loud were banned out of fear the office workers beneath our feet would hear. If we needed to cough or sneeze we'd press our paw, tentacle, flipper, etc. to our face and try to stifle the sound.

By the end of the week, everyone was fed up with everyone and everything in this Octo-Bunker. We were all still feeling the effects of the bug that had left a week ago, and we were all getting very very sick of each other. By now, we were all ready to be chucking each other out of the windows. On probably the second day of having 22 cranky, semi-sick creatures running around the place. The Captain, who'd made a full recovery on the third day, decided it was time for a little "outing" meaning he'd try to talk Bianca into letting us out into the garden again sometime.

Can I just say here and now that the Captain is the absolute most patient, loving surrogate father to everyone here? Even with 21 sick creatures who were unbelievably grouchy under his care, he still proceeded to cuddle each and every one of us, even if a good number of us had demanded he let us go.

At that moment, all of us were gathered around the table, and the majority of us were glaring at someone else. Simply put, we were on the verge of biting each other's heads off. Thankfully, Bianca, Min, Paani, Mr. Sheprook, and a "special guest" were on their way tonight. For some reason, whenever we had company, we were able to behave ourselves more than usual. Kwazii didn't make armpit farts at dinner out of boredom and try to blame the noise on Tweak, Mr. Alex put on clothing over his underwear, and no one murdered anyone else. Evening couldn't come soon enough. By lunchtime, we were all at each other's throats. Koshi and I had gotten into a huge fight that morning over me giving one of her stupid books to Pinto and paying him in candy not to give it to her until she kissed him. Now, we both refused to speak to each other, and Koshi kept glowering at me whenever I was in her line of sight. By the evening, we were both on the verge of screaming.

The second Paani first knocked at the door triggered something in everyone.

"I'll get it!" 5 people all screamed and once and converged onto the door. We greeted Paani just as enthusiastically as we answered the door for him.

"Alright," he chuckled as everyone practically attached ourselves to him, "Can I please walk to the table?"

"Yes, yes of course" the Captain laughed as he let go of Paani and began to clear his throat pointedly at all of us still clinging to the poor man.

"So how's it been in here?" Paani asked naively. We all looked from one person to the other in grim amusement, but no one said a word.

"Er, it's been amazing, Paani!" Shellington pasted on a smile.

Everyone else began to trickle in a while later, everyone except Min and the special guest that is.

"Bianca," Inkling asked worriedly, "Where's Min?"

"She should be on her way with our surprise visitor now. No need to fret, Professor." Bianca rubbed the Professor's tentacles in an attempt to comfort him.

"Alright." Professor Inkling didn't seemed soothed at all.

A rapping at the door stopped us all dead in our tracks.

"Min" Pinata muttered and made her way to the door. The second she let Min and whoever the surprise visitor was in, a screaming orange blur raced from the living room to the door as everyone shushed him.

"Grandad!" Kwazii whispered as he gave his grandfather a squeeze, "What're you doin here, matey?"

"Thought I'd give me grandboy a visit!" Calico Jack laughed heartily and threw an arm around Kwazii's shoulders.

"Captain," Calico Jack tipped his hat at the Captain, "Thanks for looking after Kwazii for me."

"No problem." The Captain bowed back, beaming, "He's a pleasure to have!" For the next hour, everyone was busy keeping our guests and each other company. Calico Jack and Ranger Marsh were swapping embarrassing baby stories of Kwazii and Tweak while they seemed to be trying to hide themselves and everyone stopped to listen and laugh at their misery until a loud bang from downstairs shook the whole kitchen.

"What in the tarnation-" Ranger Marsh stuttered as he walked over to the door and put his ear against it. He stilled for a second then turned back to us, a look of pure terror written all over his face.

"There's someone downstairs." Tweak mouthed and he nodded.

"No one make a sound." Mrs Talia commanded in a whisper as she carefully switched off the lights so whoever was in the building wouldn't get suspicious. I carefully peeked through the cracks between the curtains, and the van with the double swords emblem made my stomach dropped. I nudged Pinto, and whispered to him,

"It's the Purenkorps." He stared back at me incredulously but once he pushed himself up a bit and peeked out the curtains, he sank back down to the ground, shocked. Pinto quickly crawled over to the Captain and whispered into his ear.

"Are you sure?" The Captain asked under his breath. Pinto nodded.

"There was the van and everything." I could hear the Captain and Bianca muttering to each other for a while, and all the others seemed to have caught on who was in the building because for the next few minutes, it seemed all signs of life had died off; it was like no one dared to breathe. We could hear them downstairs, trashing the entire office and even rattling furniture, such as Bianca's file cabinet, which hid the door to this place.

"Bolted" she mouthed as the rattling sounds grew more and more intense, followed by a shouted cuss word and loud clang as whoever was shaking the file cabinet apparently kicked it out of frustration. Soon all the footsteps began to recede, but no one dared move until the roaring of the van's engine could be heard no more.

"Grandad," Kwazii finally said, breaking the silence, "I don't think it's safe here anymore, ye best go back to yer ship."

"Not a chance Kwazii." Calico Jack replied, "Im stayin' right here until I'm sure all of ye are safe. Don't worry, me hearties. By me whiskers, I won't let any harm come to any of you."