OCTONAUTS ~ THE APOCALYPSE

.....What happened?

Dashi closed her eyes. She recalled the fresh heavenly water creeping away from the shore, then rushing right up to her feet. An icy piercing feeling shot up her legs and right up her spine. She took a deep breath. The air smelt, tasted of salt along with lost trails of an ice-cream scent and fish and chips.

She opened her eyes. There was no water. There was no strong piercing feeling running up her spine. All that was left was an old, salty odour and bunches of dried up seaweed.

After shaking the sand from her hair and clothes, she turned her head to Tweak whose eyes were welded to the octopod's shattered ruins. She watched as the bunny picked up an orange piece of metal, tears falling onto the fragments. She couldn't bear to imagine how Tweak must be feeling. After all, these were her creations that took years to build. She, herself, was already missing waking up in the morning to her dashboard full of buttons and levers, the vegimals happily singing in the kitchen, and even Kwazii banging on the hot chocolate machine because it wasn't working again. Kwazii stood up, coughed violently and spat out the sand in his mouth.

He looked around and winced.

In a little nook where the octonauts had placed a large cloth, (as a tent) all the octo agents were arguing about what to do next. Some were sleeping and others were moaning about the heat and sand from the sandstorm. Peso and Pearl were also in the tent tending to Inkling who had fainted and was drying up fast. The humidity was slowly starting to get to them all.

"I say we dig deeper into the situation!"

"How can we survive without water?"

"We should've known this was going to happen!"

Captain Barnacles, who was fixing the sides of the tent with stronger rods, found himself stopping to stare at Paani. These past few months he's become more quiet, more focused on something. He looked frustrated, constantly scribbling on the same notebook he started using 3 years ago. Barnacles frowned, finished tying up the rod to the cloth and walked over to Paani.

"Paani, it's okay, we'll find a way out of this. I don't want anyone to stress."

Paani violently scribbled out another equation and growled. He chucked the notebook out of the tent into the searing hot sand.

"Not stressing and just sitting here won't do any good either!" His Indian accent was mixed with anger. He took a deep breath and sighed.

"My job is focused on water. Who else is more qualified to find an answer to these year long problems other than me? And yet I haven't found correct answers to any of them! None of it adds up and I'm starting to think it's my fault."

Barnacles looked to the ground. Everything Paani said was true. None of it added up.

He stood and motioned for everyone outside to come and sit in the tent. He cleared his throat.

"May I have everyone's attention?"

Everyone went silent.

"Octonauts, Octo agents, I have called you all here today as, for unknown reasons, all seawater has been reduced to nothing. Now, as you know we have been trying to crack this code for over two years, however, we haven't had much luck. It is imperative that we abide by the following instructions I am about to give you all. Min, Tracker and Natqik, go through the octopod parts and look for these orange metal barrels. There are 10 of them all full of drinking water. One of them is for Professor Inkling. You have to find it fast or he may not make it. Tweak, Dashi and Ryla, you three have to sort the metal into piles and try to find any food that might have been left over. The rest of you can relax until I have things for you to do."

Shellington stood up.

"Captain, what about the rest of the vegimals?"

"And the gups? How are we supposed to find them without the gups? What are we supposed to do with them? They're wrecked!" Bianca interjected.

Tweak flinched and folded her arms to the question.

"I don't know. We'll just trash them or whatever. Not like we're going to use any of this crap again." She angrily kicked an empty water bottle. She couldn't stop herself from venting.

Barnacles let out a deep sigh, not knowing exactly what they were going to do.

All communication was lost, they don't have working vehicles or a proper shelter. It was just flat sand where the water was originally for miles.

"Alright look, we'll think of something regarding the gups but for now we need to settle down. Quickly find that water then we'll talk."

Inkling breathed in a quick dry breath and put a tentacle on Peso's flipper.

"Hurry!" Pearl shouted from next to them.

Min, Natquik and Tracker's eyes grew and quickly ran out of the tent to the metal.

Natquik threw pieces of the octopod in the air and ran from one end to the other. Min checked underneath, behind and over the huge pile but was unsuccessful. Tracker's eyes widened, a huge smile followed by a triumphant laugh.

"We found them!!" He grunted as the three of them carried one barrel into the tent towards Peso.

"Great. Pearl, hold this side of inkling and I'll do the other."

Kwazii ran over and picked up a large knife. He jabbed it into the barrel and cut out a large hole.

They both plopped him in the water, hoping they made it in time.

An aggravating twenty seconds passed when suddenly Inkling's head burst from out of the barrel.

Everyone gathered around when they heard the sound of his pompous chuckle.

"How do you feel?" Peso asked, holding onto one of his now wet tentacles.

"Much better! The barrel's a little small for my liking but it'll do. Thank you. I don't know what I would've done without you all." He blushed.

"T'is good to have you back matey." Kwazii smiled

Barnacles smiled. Dashi tapped him on the back.

"Uh captain. So, we have good news and bad news."

He sceptically raised an eyebrow.

Ryla smiled. "The good news is that all of the metal is sorted! and we found tucker!"

Tweak frowned and stepped inside the tent dragging a heavy wagon.

"The bad news is that they've all dried up from the heat. Some of the fridge food has gone bad."

He rummaged through the pile of food and picked out some vegetables they could eat for dinner.

"Okay, these kelp cakes will be good for a while. Some of these carrots and lettuce are still good. Can't say the same for this ice cream." He chuckled. "Alright, well done. Let's take a break"

Inside the tent, it was cooler inside and quite spacious. There was a different situation everywhere you looked. Codish, the only vegimal they could find during the sandstorm was drawing in the sand with a melancholy look as though he missed the rest of the vegimals. Bianca, Pearl and their children were playing a game of charades to pass the time. In a small corner Paani was conversing with Shellington about solutions and Calico Jack and Ranger Marsh were playing a classic game of go fish.

"Alright everyone, here's our dinner for tonight. I know it's not much, but we have to ration. Codish, wanna help us out?" He asked kindly. The poor vegimal chirped sadly.

"Don't worry, we'll find the rest of your family." Dashi whispered, rubbing his little head.

Suddenly an ear piercing scream filled the air. Everyone turned to Koshi, Pearl and Bianca, their faces were pale.

......

It was a snake.