Talked Into This

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Koshi Doxter:

It was scary just how cold Canada could get at night. Once Paani loaded all of us back into his truck in the pitch black darkness, the cold became unbearable. There wasn't anything no he could do about it. The metal floor turned to ice and froze all of our rear ends to it. After less than 10 minutes, my cheeks were chafed red with cold and my fingers became brown icicles.

"Everyone still alive back there?" Paani called meekly to us after a pothole rocked the entire truck and sent us tumbling around the back.

"Yep, we're fine, Paani." Tweak winced as she propped herself back onto her knees, "No one's dead yet."

"Good," Paani sighed with a tinge of relief in his voice, "Everyone out!"

"What?! We're here already?" Nickie exclaimed as he hopped up much to his father's chagrin.

"Nickie!" Mr Alex hissed, "We don't know who could be out there. Stay down!"

"Alexei, Paani's just cleared us, old chap." Inkling tenderly put a tentacle on his old friend's shoulder, "Let the boy run loose for a while. We've all been cooped up for too long."

"You heard the Professor, everyone out!" Paani repeated with a note of laughter in his voice, "Get out of my sight, please!" Everyone was more than glad to run as far away from the truck as safety allowed. We'd been in there for far too long, and only now could we thaw the frost in our legs. It didn't matter that a thick blanket of snow still covered the ground or that our shoes were closer to melting into dust with every step we took.

But nothing good lasts forever, and not ten minutes after we'd all put as much distance as our common sense allowed us, Paani came tearing through the woods screaming about something.

"Paani?!" Captain Barnacles didn't even try to hide the fright in his voice as he ran to meet Paani and took him into his arms, "Paani, what's the matter?"

"I-I think I heard something!" He gasped and the Captain, if it was possible, turned even paler.

"What?!" He exclaimed then turned back to us all, "Everyone back into the truck, now!" No one had the nerve to contridict, especially.

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