Breaking Barriers

One Step Closer

Squirt Octus:

It seems that Uncle Inkling's plan to escape the country came closer and closer into fruition. The plan became more and more coherent and sensible by the evening, and it became a staple of our evenings to gather in mine and Uncle Inkling's corner of the room and plan out our theoretical escape.

Now, getting as far away from here as possible began to sound better and better; despite the extremely high probability that we were going to be shot to pieces by the Purenkorps.

"So when can we leave?" Pinto asked nonchalantly one evening. Things were desperate enough here that we talked about fleeing the country as if we were simply planning how to get to a close friend's tea party.

"I dunno." I shrugged, "Maybe in a week? Two weeks?"

"Nah, we're talking about illegally leaving the country here." The dim light from my bedside lamp cast shadows over Pogo's face, deepening the shadows under his eyes, "We can't just waltz out of this craphole whenever we'd like."

"Yes, quite right." My uncle mused, "I propose we leave right after the next air raid."

"Why?" Pinto asked curiously, curled up like a little kitten in Pogo's lap.

"Everyone else in the vicinity would've been evacuated by then, dear boy." Uncle Inkling explained, "We could leave without fear of detection."

"But where do we go?" I asked, "We can't just all live in the middle of the ocean like we used to. We don't have an Octopod or any Gups."

"Sadly." Pinto pouted, "What happened to the Gups and the Octopod anyways?"

"After we left, Tweak made arrangements for Paani to take them to the Arctic where Professor Natquik was for safekeeping." Inkling sighed and rubbed his temples like his energy was beginning to fail him. There were nights where I'd wake up to find him still sitting up, muttering to himself worriedly. He must've been planning to flee long before he'd presented the idea to us. The load my uncle was willing to carry and was carrying for that matter, was too great for both himself or anyone else to carry; luckily, I had the best friends/siblings in this whole universe plus Asgard who were always up to tricking an adult into something they didn't want to do (such as stop working so hard) and we had a secret weapon up our sleeve.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tatya, Mr Alex and Mrs Talia's second daughter and the goody-two-shoes of the bunch, was up first; Uncle Inkling had always had a soft spot for her, and if Koshi or I went up, he would instantly smell something fishy and the whole plan would be ruined. Koshi and I crouched in the hallway instead, all 4 ears perked up and waiting with bated breath to see whether we'd lure him out.

"Pardon me, Professor." Tatya said in her best "Make-the-adults-swoon-at-what-a-good-child-I-am" voice (Pinto and Jane came up with the name, not us), "Er, we were wondering whether or not you'd like to come to the kitchen to discuss a plan on what would happen if this space was compromised." Using his vocabulary too. Pretty clever, Tatya.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The meeting had been planned by the Captain and Ranger Marsh after the little "break-in search" scare. Due to the recent bombing, the office had been shut down for a week, so we still hadn't received any news from Bianca or Mr. Sheprook.

"Ah, Professor, thank you for coming!" The Captain stood up and offered his own seat to my uncle. As my uncle began to protest, the Captain reached behind his and pulled another out from what seemed like midair. "And thank you, Tatya for fetching him. Now, back to order." The meeting was so boring but at the same time, I was clutching the wall so hard my tentacles were turning white, hanging on every word.

"Anyone got any ideas?" Ranger Marsh asked as Uncle Inkling began to talk almost the second he finished.

He must've talked for an hour. Unlike his other hour long speeches, everyone stayed awake and was practically fixed on every syllable uttered in his posh accent.

"Well thank you, Professor. I must say, there was a lot of thought put into this." The Captain said once my uncle had finished but stopped almost immediately, "Hold on a minute; you've been keeping yourself very busy all day since we've arrived here. When did you find the time to think up all of this?" My uncle opened his mouth to explain himself; but I beat him to it.

"When I woke up in the middle of the night, I caught him muttering to himself." The Captain nodded curtly as his mouth flattened into a thin line.

"Professor." Peso scolded in his soft sweet manner, "Sleep is very important. Especially for someone of your age. Captain, if you could."

"Agreed." The Captain nodded and scooped up a very grumpy uncle Inkling, "Time for a nap, Professor." Once the Captain had retreated to our room where the sounds of a lullaby could be heard, Koshi and I quickly and discreetly fist/tentacle bumped and gave Tatya a thumbs up and a mouthed 'Good job!'. Mission accomplished. Thank you Captain and thank you Peso.