Chapter Ten: Missing Shoes:

“Guys, I lost my shoes.”

Hojo turned his head. “What?”

A guy shuffled uneasily. “I lost my shoes.” All eyes fell on him. Hojo gave him a confused look.

“How?!” he asked. The smaller boy shrugged.

“I don’t know. It just happened. I thought I had them with me,” he said. That boy looked like he wanted to run away. The boss rolled his eyes and groaned. The commander tried not to scream.

“How could you lose them at a time like this, man?” he asked.

“I don’t know!” the younger boy shouted. He grabbed the sides of his head. He sank down to his knees, wailing. One of the other boys rubbed him on the back, whispering in his ear. Their commander rolled his eyes and waved them off.

“Never mind that!” Hojo shouted. “Find them! We’ve got bigger shit to worry about. We’re about to attack in ten minutes.” His unit gave him confused looks.

“What?!” they shouted.

“You heard me!” Hojo said, puffing his chest out. “We have to make the first attack! If we don’t move, they’ll take us down first!”

“But what about--?” the shoeless boy was about to ask. The commander put up his hand. That frown on his face told everyone else that he was over this.

“Zip it! We will find you some shoes to wear!” he barked. Everyone else went quiet. Nobody dared to move. Hojo clapped his hands in the air before he took in a breath.

“Find the shoes and prepare to attack! Let’s move!” he shouted. The older boy clapped hard enough to make his hands hurt. His unit began to move around the room. Shoe boy stayed next to the other boy who tried to comfort him. He wasn’t going to be much help. Hojo shook his head and walked out to the command booth.

“How did I end up with such a pathetic unit?” he asked under his breath. Well, that was about to be the least of his worries in five… four… three… two…

Boom!

The boys all dropped to the ground. Now, they were under attack. The unit forgot about everything else and sprang into action. But what about the shoes?

We’ll get into that later.