August 26th, 1939
“Thank you, come again,” Lukas told the customer after packaging her items. The lady grabbed her bags and quickly left the store without even responding. Once the lady had left, Ivan entered the store with the latest newspaper, “Lukas have you seen this?!” Ivan said to him showing Lukas the newspaper, Lukas didn’t respond as he was too busy restocking shelves. Ivan rolled the newspaper and whacked Lukas in the head with it, “Ow!... Dad! Ivan hit me!” Once Lukas had said that, a hefty man who looked like Geppetto from Pinocchio but with about 100 pounds heavier. “What is all this ruckus!?” Their Dad said looking at the two kids “Ivan hit me in the head with a newspaper,” Lukas said pointing at Ivan
“Toughen up cowpoke. You two have a store to maintain--” He couldn’t finish as he started bursting into coughing with blood. “You two have a store to maintain when I’m gone”
“We’re sorry Pop” Both boys had said in unison to Pop
“It’s okay boys, you’re still youngins,” Pop said slowly walking back upstairs where their home was. “When will he realize that 15 and 18 years old isn't that young?” Lukas said after he went back to restocking shelves. “When we do something really stupid and he says ‘You’re too immature for that age’” Ivan responded with his best impression of Pop, Lukas chuckled and agreed. Lukas went back behind the counter and started to read the newspaper that Ivan hit him in the head with. “Wasn’t the German submarine something Pop was telling us about yesterday?” Lukas said while eating an apple, the little bell at the top of the door signifying a new customer rang but it went right over their head. “Lukas, you have to learn to listen to people when they’re talking. That submarine was all Pop was talking about yesterday. He believes that the Germans are here for a different reason than just to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg,” The customer came to the counter with all the groceries she wanted to buy. “Isn’t someone going to take this money?” The customer said Lukas didn’t hear it but Ivan heard it and quickly walked to the counter. “Sorry ma’am, some people have trouble realizing when someone talking”

September 1, 1939
4:43 am“Lukas wake up! Lukas wake up! We have to go!” Ivan said screaming in Lukas’s ear, Ivan had to hit Lukas hard for him to eventually wake up. “What's going on?” Lukas said putting on shoes after he got out of bed. Ivan rushed to his closet and opened up a secret drawer that had a Kar98K and a Luger pistol and quickly rushed outside that consisted of gunfire from Nazis and Polish soldiers and tons of buildings being destroyed. All of a sudden the store and surrounding buildings were blown up from a tank causing the buildings to crumble down to the ground, tons of big pieces of stone falling on top of each other including onto Lukas bringing him to the ground.
“Lukas! Lukas where are you?!” Ivan said trying to find Lukas as Lukas was buried under stones. Ivan saw someone show from underneath a rock and used all of his strength to lift the stone. It was like Lukas had been in a coffin for many years and being opened up years later. Lukas felt like he couldn’t move and felt like he would soon be 6 feet under, as he was opening his eyes he was able to see that his country…his home, had been torn apart like Pompeii after the volcano.
Lukas was hopping on one leg with help from Ivan, “What happened Ivan?” Lukas said looking at the new Poland, “Nazis…Pop was right” Ivan responded while walking on the stones of what built their home. “Speaking of Pop…Is he…” Lukas said while slowly being able to walk on both feet again. Ivan shrugged his shoulders. “Either dead or captured like the rest of the Polish citizens” Lukas sighed and sat down on the cold, hard dirt. “We didn’t deserve this Ivan.” He said looking up at Ivan who was looking through his binoculars. “I know Lukas…I know”

The Rise Of A Hero
“How’s your ears, Lukas?” Ivan said putting his hands by the manmade fire, “What?!” Lukas responded in confusion, Ivan chuckled and went back to looking around Poland.
Lukas’s ears had finally stopped ringing from the explosion. “Ivan. I can hear. I can hear everything,” Ivan lit up, “So…What can you hear?” Ivan said sitting beside Lukas, Lukas chuckled “What can I not hear? The only thing I can’t hear is…Our dad” Lukas said looking at the manmade fire and getting sad. Ivan put his arm over Lukas’s shoulder. “We will find him Lukas, I promise,” Ivan said looking at Lukas
“Excuse me? I…I need help” Someone said walking up to the two boys, both boys made eye contact with the girl that came out of nowhere. “Hey” Ivan stood up and wrapped her up in his coat “Sit down, we’ll help you,” Ivan said helping her down to the ground. “What happened? I was asleep and then all of a sudden I woke up with a big boulder on my leg pinning me to the ground. I don’t know how long I was under there,” The girl said warming her hands up by the fire, Lukas shrugged his shoulders “Hitler. Hitler did it.” Ivan said looking through his binoculars and looking for more survivors. The sun started to set, and Lukas grabbed his journal which was his dad’s.
SEPTEMBER 3 1939Today we met this pretty girl named Cynthia, her mother is out of the picture but her pop was a Poland spy. I guess he didn’t do a good job considering where we are now. Now that I think about it, our families are quite similar, except mom died of tuberculosis…and I don’t know where my pop is. Maybe they’re similar, maybe they’re not. Cynthia seems to be really smart as she knows every city in Poland(Or at least what’s left) and every country in alphabetical order. It’s been 2 days and 17 hours since I last saw Pop. I miss him, but I will find him, and I’ll find him soon.

September 17, 1939
“So what’s the plan again?” Cynthia said looking at the two boys. “They invade us, we invade them,” Ivan said with an angry look in his eye, Lukas sat down in a corner with his pop running through his mind. “Hey, Lukas! I’m going to go out and scout and look for more survivors” Ivan said grabbing his weapons and gear. Lukas and Cynthia looked at him with a confused look “We don’t know what’s out there, there could still be some Nazis out there” Cynthia said trying to talk him out. “Yeah but Pop could also be there trying to find us, you never know. I’ll be back before sundown,” Ivan said putting his hand on her shoulder.
Ivan left the base and Cynthia and Lukas waited…waited…and waited.
“If he doesn’t come back by sundown, I want you to go find your dad and free all the trapped Polish people” Cynthia stared at Lukas with fear lurking in her eyes “I can’t. I won’t, what if you need help holding down the fort here,” Lukas said as he started to panic and Cynthia rolled her eyes “ My dad was a Poland spy, I think I know my around a gun.” She said with an aggraveted tone. Lukas grabbed his journal and opened it to the next empty page
September 17 1939Ivan still isn’t back and I’m quite worried about it, Cynthia seems to be staying pretty calm. I don’t know what to do if Ivan doesn’t come back, heck, I don’t know what to do without my Pop. I hope he’s still alive in prison, and not buried under a destroyed prison.

21:39 PM
The sun has set, and Ivan is nowhere to be seen. “Where is he?!” Cynthia screamed at Lukas, Lukas shrugged his shoulders while holding back tears. Ivan slowly crawls back to the fort. “Ivan!” Both people said loudly, Ivan crawled to their feet. “Nazis are still in Poland, dead and alive Nazis. I stole many papers from tons of corpses, but it was a trap. It’s always a trap, a Nazi shot me in the leg. Lukas you will have to save the citizens, by the time my leg heals, they could all be dead” He said trying to crawl to lean against a wall. “I…I don’t know how.” Lukas said laying out all the papers Ivan had found. “We’ll teach you,” Cynthia said referencing her and Ivan. Ivan nodded in agreement. Lukas grabbed Ivan’s Kar98k and set it beside one of the walls.

The Shadow Rises
“Well Lukas, it’s been 10 days and I think you’re ready,” Lukas said leaning against a wall while walking with crutches. All three of them huddled together around a rectangular table with tons of maps, lists of aliases, secret files, and much more incriminating information.
“Lukas you know the plan?” Ivan said pointing to Lukas. Lukas nodded “I hop on top of a prison bus and sneak into the German prison, freeing all the Polish citizens, taking all the citizens, and head to Füher Headquarters and take out the man that started it all. “You forgot one objective,” Cynthia said turning and looking at Lukas. Lukas heard her and got confused “Find and free your pop,” She said to him.
Ivan walked to a chest filled with Nazi stuff and dressed Lukas up in the perfect disguise. Black tactical boots, black Nazi vest, black long pants, and a black mask. “You look prestige, you look like a shadow blending in the night.
“I am the shadow,” Lukas said putting on black fingerless gloves. “We will be talking with you through the radio and earpieces,” Cynthia said tossing him an earpiece. Lukas hugged Cynthia and Ivan and walked out of the fort.

5 HOURS LATER
Lukas had arrived at the German prison, “I’m coming Pop,” Lukas said sneaking through the vents, he had fallen through a vent and landed in an empty cell. “Cynthia I managed to land in an empty cell, where do I go from here?” He said through his earpiece, she looked at the map of the prison and gave him a way out.
Just as Lukas was about to break out of the cell, each prison door opened at once “Lunch dirtbags!” Lukas went the opposite way all the prisoners were going and managed to sneak past most of the security guards. Someone caught Lukas’s eye, someone who looked like Geppetto from Pinocchio but about 100 pounds heavier. “Pop?” Lukas said pulling down his mask to reveal his face. Pop turned his head to look at Lukas, “Lukas?!” Pop responded, Lukas ran into Pop’s arms and held a tight long hug.

“Alright Pop, what do we do?” Lukas said after releasing from the hug, “The same thing Ivan has been teaching you,” Pop responded and Lukas nodded. “Guys I found Pop, he’s alive!” Lukas said to Ivan and Cynthia through his earpiece, Ivan and Cynthia celebrated on the other side of the earpiece. Pop helped Lukas free the Polish prisoners due to his connection with the other prisoners.
After the captured prisoners were freed and far from the prison, Lukas made an announcement,
“My fellow liberated souls, today, as we stand on the precipice of freedom, I urge you to remember the strength that lies within every one of you. We have endured the darkest of days and faced the cruelest of oppressors, and yet here we stand, unbowed and unbroken. In the face of tyranny, we have shown resilience. In the depths of despair, we have found courage. And now, as we gaze upon the fortress of our captor, we must summon every ounce of determination within us. As we march towards victory, let us remember those who could not be here with us today – the fallen comrades who sacrificed everything so that we may stand here now. Their memory shall fuel our resolve, their courage shall guide our path.”
The liberated prisoners cheered and applauded for him as his Pop stood back and smiled to see what his son had become.

Füher Headquarters
The liberated prisoners had arrived at the headquarters ready to murder to person who murdered their home. “Halt!” Two Nazi soldiers said to a big group expecting them to listen, Lukas pulled out Ivan’s Ludger pistol and forced both Nazis to surrender. Lukas kicked the big palace-like door open and knocked the two Nazis out after busting the door open. “Find that dirtbag!” Lukas screamed. Inside the labyrinthine corridors of the fortress, they pressed on, their footsteps echoing against the cold stone walls. Every turn brought them closer to their target, the air thick with anticipation and dread. Finally, they burst into the inner sanctum, their eyes scanning the room for any sign of their elusive quarry. But as they searched, their hopes began to falter – Hitler was nowhere to be found. With the determination falling, they spread out in search to find Hitler. Lukas finds the secret chamber with Hitler about to kick the bucket, but Lukas kicks Hitler’s bucket for him. “It’s over Ivan, it’s all over,” Lukas said through the earpiece. Lukas then spit on Hitler’s body and left the body there to decay to the bone, Hitler deserved worse.
New PolandLukas, Pop, and the liberated prisoners made it back to their destroyed home, some seeing it for the first time, many crying, falling to the floor, and finding loved ones’ corpses.
“I have some good news for you, Cynthia,” Lukas said hugging her, she got a puzzled look on her face. “Pop wasn’t the only lost father I found” Her face was no longer puzzled and lit up with joy and she ran to her father and jumped into her father’s arms.
All objectives were complete, Füher was eliminated, fathers returned, and families returned to their homes. People are unsettled with Poland, so why not remake it 10 times better?
After many hardworking months, New Poland had finally been established as the utopia they had always dreamt of.
“I wish Pop could see this place, he would love it,” Ivan said standing right next to Lukas. “He’s with Momma now, watching over us from above” Lukas responded as he looked into the sky.

THE END

I was considered to be the grouchiest, most disliked person that lived on Fourth Street; I even had an award for it. That award went into storage almost immediately, but not before my wife, Laura, saw it and made fun of me for it. See, me and Laura had…you know what, never mind. I’ll just introduce myself…

My name is Drake, or “Old Man Drake” as people usually call me. I live in a uniquely shaped house - it was 40 feet long, but only 7 feet wide, and I have a wife named Laura, although we never talk anymore, as well as 2 kids, Thalia and Jessica. Now, back in 1935, I ran into Laura… quite literally. I used to run marathons: the Boston Marathon, the Chicago Marathon, and the New York City Marathon were just 3 that I had run. During the Philadelphia Marathon is where the whole “meeting” between Laura and I had occurred. One collision of true love…or so we thought. After 2 years of happy marriage and both of the girls being born, I said that I wanted to have a third, hopefully a boy, so that I wasn’t going to be the only man in the family. Laura didn’t want that, though; so we got into a huge fight, which led to the purchase of our house. I live on the left side of the house, and she lives on the right side with both of our girls. Every so often, she would let one of the girls come over to my side, but they didn’t like me either. And so I was alone, without anyone to keep me company.

The Occurrence happened on March the 5th of 1942. I didn’t know about the Occurrence until around a week later, when Laura threw a paper airplane - not a text, call, email, nope, a paper airplane - telling me what had happened. Our girls had gone out to play with some of their friends in the early afternoon, and they hadn’t come back. It had been a week, and they still weren’t back. Clearly, I had to do something about this…and Laura agreed to go with me.

Very reluctantly, we met up in the middle of our house, where the only door in our entire house was located. Neither of us said anything, until she said, “I got a mysterious email this morning from a Mr. E, saying that our kids were ‘where the sun sets and under’. Kinda vague, don’t you think?” I didn’t say anything; she sounded like she didn’t want a response. I was just opening the door handle when Laura stopped me. “Wait! Don’t you think we should gather some supplies first?” “Yeah…” I muttered grudgingly. I didn’t like to look stupid like that. Laura and I gathered up some various items from around the house: water, food, first aid, basic things like that. With all of our supplies ready to go, we set out to find our kids.

I guess what we were doing was called a “Walk & Talk”...although it was a very one-sided ‘talk’. I didn’t like speaking, or walking, even though I used to run marathons. Even though I don’t like speaking, I do slightly enjoy writing. It’s a pretty easy way of keeping track of events like these without taking up too much space. Kind of ironic, actually; I don’t like speaking the words, but I don’t mind writing them. Maybe I should take up a career as an author. Anyways, as we were continuing to walk down the path, it hit us at the same time. “Where are we going?” we said in unison. “Let’s think about this… where does the sun set in Santa Barbara, California? Well, the sun sets to the west… and it hits the water at…”1,000 Steps Beach.“

Great. Now we get to descend the 157 steps to actually get down to the beach. Not my favorite thing to do, but not as bad as putting up with all of Laura’s talk. All she does is talk; blah, blah, blah. Anyways, she continued to yap as we descended those 157 steps, which takes way longer than you think it would. Once we were at the bottom, I actually started listening to Laura again; “...and I think we should split up to cover the most amount of ground before the sun sets.” “Yeah, sure.” I muttered. I just wanted this to be over with. Usually, I never left my half of the house, so to be doing so much in one day was unusual for me.

After a half hour of searching, neither Laura or I had found anything related to where our kids may be kept. We were almost ready to give up when Laura remembered something. “Wait! What about the other half of the clue? The ‘and down’ part?” “You’re right!” I said, in a joyous manner unlike myself. “But what could it mean…?”

Any passersby must have thought we were trying to make a symphony of um’s, hm’s, and ah!’s by the time we had thought of a single idea. “What if it’s underground?” Laura suggested. “No, how would that be structurally sound?” I questioned.” There were probably twice as many thinking sounds by the time the second idea was suggested. “What if they’re somewhere else? What if we got it wrong?” This truly put seeds of doubt in my heart. What if we had? Had we wasted all this time looking in the wrong place? Wait! There was a glimmer of hope; The sunrays were pointing to one place: a hole in the side of a cliff to the right of us! “Laura! Look!” I exclaimed. “The sun is pointing to that hole! I bet they’re in there!” “Yes! I knew we were in the right place!” Laura said with excitement.

It wasn’t very long until the first problem occurred. We peered into the hole and saw a tunnel…that was completely underwater. “You can hold your breath for longer than I can.” Laura pointed out. “You should go.” Reluctantly, I climbed into the hole and immediately fell into the water. It was cold…freezing cold. The only thing that stopped me was the thought that somewhere, our girls could be colder. “You okay?” Laura called out. “I’m fine!” I replied. After some investigating, I learned that most of this tunnel didn’t have any sort of breathing space in between me and the other side. That may be an issue. “Well, here goes nothing…” I thought to myself, and with a deep breath of air, I submerged myself under.

About halfway through the tunnel, my lungs were about to burst. Three-quarters through, I was scraping the top of the tunnel with my fingers, frantically searching for any spot to breathe. There! There was a hole! It was barely bigger than my hand, but it would do. I put my nose into the hole and took a deep breath. It smelled like salty sea water. It held me long enough until I felt the tunnel start to open up. Finally, I found myself on sandy ground. “Hello?” I heard a familiar voice say. “Thalia?” I replied. “Jessica?” Are you back there?” “Dad?” Thalia replied. “Is that you?” That was the first time in a long while that she had called me Dad. “Yes! It is!” I replied.

After a long bit of rejoicing and happiness, I asked them how they got into this hole in the first place. They led me to a door with a massive deadbolt on it. “A strange man led us down here and told us that he would be back for us eventually. A complete lie, of course.” I told them that instead of trying to pick the lock, they could’ve just aimed a strong kick near the hinges of the door and broken it that way. I then demonstrated it for them by doing it myself. “See? It works well!” The door led to a spiral staircase that went up to a trapdoor. I could hear a faint voice on the other side of it, so I threw open the trapdoor and a massive amount of sand came flowing down into the little chamber we were in. The voice was more audible now: “Oh, I hope he finds those girls…” The voice was Laura! Which meant…the trapdoor had been right next to where we were standing the entire time! I grabbed the sides of the opening and pushed myself out and then helped the girls up. Laura was as happy as I was to see them, opf course, but I’ll spare you that bit as well. Now is the time you would be expecting the great big happy ending, right? Well, I’m not keen on writing those sorts of things, so I’ll just give you a summary. Laura and I got back together, the kids were safe, we sold the house and bought something more conventional, and we all lived “happily ever after” like all those fairy tales say. Now that I’m finally done writing this, I’m going to bed.

This is a story about a plump little bird named Mr. Blueberry, and he loves eating blueberries, and since he’s king he can eat all the blueberries he wants. But one day he built a rocket ship and flew to outer space past the observable universe and eventually found a planet named “the blueberry” so he landed on it and looked around and he saw a blueberry person and then he ate it. “ARGHHH” the blueberry screamed in pain and DIED. But sadly poor Mr. Blueberry was convicted for murder and then he got mad and ate the blueberry’s parents and got convicted for murder again. So poor Blueberry had to go to jail. But when the prison guard came in he thought it was food so he ate the guard and guess what happened! He got convicted for murder a THIRD time and he got so mad and angry, that he ascended into the heavens and became a god, then he then ate everybody and got so fat and accidentally burned the planet to the ground when he threw up on it because he ate to many blueberry people and then felt very settled, and moved on to the next planet. But something happened…

But a god came down to fight him for the title “THE ULTIMATE BLUEBERRY” so Mr. Blueberry grabbed a super blueberry bomb launcher. But he was too lazy to stand up so he had to sit on a planet so he wouldn't fall over but almost pushed it out of orbit! So then the fight began…..
So Mr. Blueberry launched a blueberry bomb and health bars appeared and the enemy lost half health and then the enemy shot a cucumber but Mr. Blueberry got hit and had ¼ of his health taken away. But Mr. Blueberry, knowing that the enemy was a vegetable god, shot a super blueberry bomb at him finishing him off and Mr. Blueberry collected his loot and then ate some blueberries to get his health up. Then he went to the next planet “Strawberry planet”.....

When Mr. Blueberry got to the next planet by drifting in space for a few days eating asteroids from the blueberry asteroid belt he landed on it and almost pushed it out of orbit again. But then he decided to stay for a while so he became a citizen. But he didn't like the high taxes so he decided to do the right thing and committed tax fraud and impersonation and got convicted for it so he ate the tax collector when the tax collector came to his house to claim the taxes. Then he went on a diet because he could barely fit on the planet, but when he ate a non blueberry thing he threw up burning the planet to nothing. (let's add that to his list of crimes). So he drifted in space more and ate a few planets on the way to a new planet. Also he got so powerful he became a 4D being. He was a monster destroying the planet

After a long time drifting in space he found Earth…

But then some people his size came up to him and said he was trespassing on private property so he was convicted for trespassing (That's his 10th crime in this story!).

So poor blueberry pulled out the vegetable god's lifeless body and wacked both of the guards into a pizza black hole 5 light years away and strolled into the wormhole. But he then realized he forgot something so he went all the way back to the strawberry planet area where it used to be before it was burned to the ground and he grabbed his sandwich and went all the way back to the wormhole and entered….

When Mr. Blueberry came out he fell onto a planet and was arrested for a life sentence because of the crimes he committed, so he was in jail at the top of a mountain and his weight almost toppled the entire jail over the cliff because someone thought it was good idea to put him on the top floor!?!

Anyway Mr. Blueberry decided he got bored of eating prison slop because he burned half the jail down… so he stole blueberries from the special kitchen place!

But he knocked the whole jail off the cliff and when everybody else went to forever sleepy land he bounced straight out of the planet Into Blueberry king where he ordered a Blueberry sandwich and went back to his planet satisfied for breakfast until lunch time...

And he landed on it and knocked it straight out of orbit almost hitting the sun. But when the FBI found out about him they launched a full on revolution on him called “The blueberry revolution” but he just wanted blueberries so he stole some and was convicted for robbery and got the record of most crimes committed by a Blueberry bird. So he got so happy that he grew to his final form and shoved earth in a snow globe and put it in his treasure inventory slot, but his inventory isn't really secure so it got smashed a little. He was like a world destroyer, smashing everything.

While Mr. Blueberries were drifting in space for what felt like a million years. He got close to some planets and asteroids that the planets and asteroids started… drifting around him and orbiting around him and he became so big that he was considered a giant star due to the fact that he had things orbiting him…

But then he woke up and thought it was all a dream but then he saw he was still in space so he was relieved.

Shadow Of Valor

Old Man Welch

Mister Blueberry