Alice woke up to Luke shaking her shoulder gently, telling her it was time to go. Alice groggily sat up, rubbing her eyes. Then she remembered her conversation with Peter the other night and felt even more tired. She just wanted to sleep…
But she had to get up. Today they would go to Dueglestein, and everyone needed to be ready for something similar to happen to them like the last time they tried to get to Dueglestein.
“Alright,” Luke said, gathering the group together, “They know what we look like, and probably know that Adalene is traveling with us. They also might know our ship and are already looking for us. We need a plan. We need disguises.”
“Disguises?” Richard asked suspiciously, “Where are we going to get disguises?”
“Easy,” Helen said, “We make them. We use whatever we have and make ourselves look as unrecognizable as possible.”
“But vat could ve possibly use?” Adalene thought, resting her chin in her hand, “Ve don’t have things to make disguises, especially ones to fool ze Dueglesteiners.”
“You mean…” Peter said with a smile, looking over at Luke and Richard, and together they said, “The Doodoosteiners?” Then they doubled over laughing, each sharing a joke. Helen laughed as well, and Adalene and Alice shared a look, not understanding what was going on. Adalene raised an eyebrow, and Alice smiled at her.
“Anyways,” Alice continued, “What can we make into disguises with the limited resources we have?”221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt01SGO1mk3
A smile appeared on Richard’s face. “I might have an idea…”
…
“This was your idea?” Alice asked as she looked down at her disguise. Richard had the bright idea that they put bandages on each other to look like they had the plague or were injured.
“Look, it’s the best I could come up with what we have,” Richard said, inspecting his outfit. He already had the bloody bandages over his eye, so the outfit worked well on him.
“I think it’s quite clever,” Luke observed as he picked at the bandage around his arm, “So do we just stand here as they search us?”
“I thought we’d lay below deck and act the part,” Richard suggested, and as they neared Dueglestein’s border once again, they went below deck and lay there, pretending to be sick and injured.
“This is the Dueglestein defense patrol,” a voice called over the water once they entered Dueglesteinish waters, “Prepare to be boarded.”
Peter took a deep breath. “Here we go,”
Alice could hear the gangplank clanging against The Bowen’s hull. Then she heard the boots on the wood and exhaled a breath of her own.
“Where is everybody?” she heard one of the Dueglesteiners ask.
Another voice said, “Check below,”
The trapdoor above them opened, and a few of the soldiers funneled down, then their eyes widened as they saw the children laying on the floor, bandages covering them.
“What the-” one of them said, and another covered his nose.
“What is the matter, people? Why are you in this state?” the one who was covering his nose asked.
Luke faked a cough, and said in a raspy voice, “Please, we suffer from the plague. We need…help… Please…”
The one who covered his nose backed away with a gasp, scrambling above deck faster than Alice would’ve ever guessed.
The other one’s eyes widened as well, but he stood his ground. “Please, just quarantine for a few days until you are…healthy.” Then he went above deck as well.
They heard the Dueglesteiners scramble back onto their ship, and the gangplank raised.
There was a moment of silence while they waited for the Dueglesteiners to leave, and when they did Peter sat up quickly and began ripping the bandages off him. He laughed, and said, “My God, the Doodoosteiners are dumber than I thought! They fell for that!”
“Well they are Doodoosteiners,” Richard said with a smile.
“Vatever zey are ve still need to get to Dueglestein,” Adalene said, getting them back on track, “Ve still have a few miles to get to ze border and even zen ve have to be away from any of ze Dueglestein patrols.”
Alice nodded, and they all went above deck to row The Bowen in the direction of Dueglestein, preferably an area with not a lot of soldiers who were eager to capture them...
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