Chapter 37 - Barriers

The chip mines were a desolate place. The tunnels were poorly lit, the floors were full of holes and sharp protrusions waiting to trip people and the air was thick with the orange dust of the nacho cheese flavoring. The miners hack fervently at the walls trying to break off chunks of raw chip in order to meet their daily chip quota. If they failed to mine enough chip they would be sent to work in the deeper tunnels where there were more unstable flavors. Those chips had to be mined with great care lest the chips explode in a blast of extreme flavor. The last of such explosions completely burned out the taste buds of 5 miners and 26 more had to undergo months of taste bud rehabilitation. Even deeper in the mines was Aaron (of course that Aaron!) who was assigned in the deepest part of the mines to use his “unique” “talents” to “mine” “chips”. Despite Aaron’s “legitimate” “job” “description” he was actually conducting a far more different task. He had been sent to the very deepest possible point in the mine, down to the tunnel that led straight to the molten snack center of the earth. He was stationed there to ensure that nobody ventured down this dangerous tunnel, and more importantly that nothing form the dangerous tunnel ventured up to the surface. This rather dangerous tunnel had not been sealed as it was located near an vein of extremely popular flavor of chip and the could not risk potential destruction of the delicate chips. Thus Aaron was stationed as a sentry, protecting the mines and the world from the dangerous snacks that lurked below.

▲▲▼▼◄►◄►BA! ▲▲▼▼◄►◄►BA! ▲▲▼▼◄►◄►BA!

Joe walked towards what was recently a forest, hopping that the lack of trees would allow him to find his destination easier. As Joe neared the edge of the ‘forest’ he saw an odd looking wall. The wall was made of stone, just tall enough to prevent one from climbing over it, however it only was about 20 feet wide. The center of the wall had a small wooden door and at each end there were large wheels which rested upon tracks in the ground. Joe attempted to walk around this wall that was sure to be a source of annoyance and grief but as he neared it the wall rolled along its track and positioned itself in front of Joe. Joe tried to run around the wall but it continued to roll in the way. It was surprisingly quick for a large heavy stone wall and no matter how hard Joe tried he could not outrun it. Finally tired and exhausted Joe knocked on the door, hopping to gain entry. “Who goes there?” Inquired a British sounding shade of blue “What business do you have with the wall?” “I am doing some stuff that requires me to go place, and that place happens to be past this the wall of yours” Joe was understandably untrusting of sentient color that controlled a moving wall and thus tried to keep details to a minimum. “What is your name?” Asked a German sounding green “only the most important may pass the wall.” “My name? I most certainly have one I assure you. As fo my importance I most assuredly have some, for I must do some very important stuff, stuff with importance so great that words can not describe it. “How do we know you are not lying?” Questioned the Spanish red “You could be an enemy of the wall, you may be here to destroy the wall!” “I, man who most certainly has a name, assure you that everything I said is the vaguest possible truth, you must believe me that I have no intention of harming your the wall. I only wish to pass through this barrier so that I may continue on my journey and complete my quest of no details.” “He must be lying!” Cried some Russian yellow “There is no stuff so important that warrants letting one through the wall unless it was a quest to save the universe from some airborne laughter inducing menace. The man with most certainly a name cannot be on such a quest or he would have simply walked around the wall as to not waste time getting through it.” “But a quest to save the world is the stuff I have to do. You must let me through or else the world as we know it may end!” “Bah! You only claim to be on such a quest now because we told you it would be the only way to get past the wall. Your feeble attempts at deception will not work on us.” “the wall and cease wasting our time!” “You must let me past! I must get past this the wall so I may find the magic 8-ball in the forest full of not trees so I may find the secret to destroying the indestructible flies so that I may return to the other side of the world where everything is different.” “If you will not leave on your own accord we will remove you by force. Guards, seize him!” At this a group of tough looking colour came out of the wall and headed towards Joe who was to stunned with the absurdity of what he had just yelled to a bunch of colour to react. The colours quickly surrounded Joe and started closing in, things looked grim until something started to shake inside Joe’s pack. Joe still somewhat bewildered opened up his pack unleashing the nefarious color that had grown within. ““Stand back!” Cried the color “I may look unusual but I poses power far greater than any of you. If you do not surrender now I will destroy all of you and your precious the wall.” The color charged at the surrounding colours who fell back in pain at the sheer sight of it. The color then leap onto the top of the wall easily defeating the foreign colours residing up there. In a final flash of eye melting color, the color jumped high into the air and crashed down upon the wall reducing it to a pile of terribly clashing rubble. Joe thankful that the wall was no longer in his way and eager to get the horrible sight out of his field of vision quickly skirted the rubble and headed on towards the edge of the ‘forest’.