1CHAPTER 2

"Who is Private Bananagoober, sir?" asked Sergeant Funnyfoot when Wally told the squad of soldiers who were to go with him. "And how is he worth eight of us?" Wally looked down at the soil. Then he looked back up and said, "These are our orders and I didn't make them. We are soldiers and we have to follow our orders."

The squad contained of eight soldiers: A dark blue rabbit named Private Pepperjinks, a yellow duck named Sergeant Funnyfoot, a medic named Crunchyjinks, a yellow mouse named Private Cheat, a green rabbit named Private Jabberblabber, a purple cat named Private Purpleziller, a yellow cat named Private Zillerspinner, and Captain Pinkertooth (Wally). They began their long journey to find Private Bananagoober.

The squad's first stop was a bombed town called Anbruchdorf or "Dawnville". It was raining when they arrived. "Thunder!" shouted Pvt. Pepperjinks to Pvt. Jabberblabber. He listened for Jabberblabber to reply. "Flash!" shouted Jabberblabber, who was running up as a scout. Pvt. Cheat saw some apples that had fallen out of a broken wagon. He looked for good ones and bit them, then threw them on to the ground. Jabberblabber waved over the rest and they moved up, hiding behind rubble. A distressed family was begging them to take their children. "Einnahme unser kinder!" they shouted. Pvt. Crunchyjinks translated it. "They want us to take their children," he said. Wally shook his head. "We can't take kids!" he replied sternly. Pvt. Pepperjinks climbed up and took the little girl. "What do you think your doing?" shouted Wally. Pepperjinks carried her to where the other soldiers were. "I can't leave her!" he replied. Suddenly a bullet went right through him. He leaned against a wrecked piano, clutching his chest in pain. He fell to the ground, bleeding. "He was hit before I heard the shot," said Pvt. Cheat. "It was a sniper." He found good cover and attached his scope to his rifle. Pepperjinks put his hand into his shirt and pulled out an envelope. "Here! Take this! It's to my dad!" he wheezed. The sniper that had shot Pepperjinks was looking around, trying to find who he was speaking to. "Pepperjinks get down!" whispered Pvt. Jabberblabber.

The sniper looked right at Pvt. Cheat but was too late to fire. Pvt. Cheat shot him right through the scope. He ran back to the rest of the soldiers. "I got him," he said. Jabberblabber took Pvt. Pepperjinks's message. They took a moment of silence. Private Pepperjinks had died. "Forget Bananagoober," whispered Pvt. Purpleziller to himself in sorrow.

The squad put the little girl back with the rest of her family. On their way to the refugee camp they came across a bridge connecting one side of a valley to the other. It was under control of Toonans. "We need someone to go left and someone to go right," said Wally. Pvt. Zillerspinner said, "I'll go right." Crunchyjinks was to be the scout. Sgt. Funnyfoot decided to go with Zillerspinner. "Now here's the plan," explained Wally. "You guys go right and—Who's going left?" There was a pause. Pvt. Cheat broke the silence. "I'll go left," he said. Wally instructed Pvt. Purpleziller to go with Pvt. Cheat. "I'll go right. You guys going left, I want you to surprise them and take them out. The guys going right and I will hold them off until you get there," explained Wally. "Now get going!"

The toons ran out into the field and hid behind rocks. The battle began. Grenades were tossed back and forth and shots echoed through the field. Finally the battle was over and Crunchyjinks, the medic, had been shot. The toons washed away the blood and put pressure on the wound. "You're gonna be okay, just don't look at it!" said Wally. "Is there anything we should do?" The toons continued to put pressure on the wound. "Give me some morphine!" cried Crunchyjinks in pain. Wally opened up the medical kit and pulled out the morphine. They began injecting it near Crunchyjinks's wound. Crunchyjinks's crying quieted. He whispered his last words and then he died.

The toons grabbed the Toonan who had shot Crunchyjinks. "Kein jagd ich bitte!" pleaded the Toonan. Pvt. Cheat rammed him against a rock. "Shut up with that Pig Latin!" he sneered. Sgt. Funnyfoot pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the Toonan. "Kein jadg ich!" he pleaded. Pvt. Jabberblabber protested, "This isn't right! Let him go!" Sgt. Funnyfoot looked at Jabberblabber. "After what he did? I don't think so!" he shouted. They quarreled for many minutes and Sgt. Funnyfoot ended up aiming his gun at Jabberblabber. "What? You gonna shoot me?" asked Jabberblabber sarcastically. "Go ahead then, shoot me!" Sgt. Funnyfoot knew he couldn't do it but he kept his pistol aimed at him. "Why would you shoot me anyway? Because I am trying to save someone who doesn't deserve to be shot?" asked Pvt. Jabberblabber. Sgt. Funnyfoot shouted back, "No, I'm gonna shoot you because I don't like you!" Finally the argument was settled and they all decided to have the Toonan dig Crunchyjinks's grave.

The toons aimed their guns at the Toonan as he worked. "I like Toonerica!" said the Toonan. Toonerica is where Wally and his soldiers were from. Then he sang, "Oh, say can you see? O-oh, say can you see?" The toons didn't say a word or show any face expression. "Forget Hitoonler! Forget Hitoonler!" he shouted in anger. Hitoonler was the leader of the Toonans. After the grave was dug they put a cloth over the Toonan's eyes. "Now I want you to walk one hundred steps forward and don't stop. Take off the blindfold and turn yourself in to the nearest Toonerican Toon of War camp," explained Wally sternly. He pushed him forward and watched as the Toonan walked away into the distance.

Wally put Crunchyjinks into his grave and buried him. The soldiers saluted their dead friend and continued their journey to the refugee camp.

Finally, the toons made it to the refugee camp. "Get me the dogtags you've collected from dead soldiers," commanded Captain Wally. The head medic brought over a bag of dogtags. Pvt. Cheat, Pvt. Zillerspinner, and Pvt. Jabberblabber began searching the dogtags for Pvt. Bananagoober's. They began to joke around and laugh. "Shut up!" said Pvt. Purpleziller. "These are dogtags of soldiers who died for their country!" The three other toons quieted when they were told this. They should honor the dead soldiers. After half an hour of looking through dogtags they did not find Bananagoober's. Capt. Wally walked up to the people leaving the refugee camp. He saw an old French toon and asked, "Bonjour monsieur, mener vous Bananagoober?" The French toon shook his head. Wally turned toward the rest of the crowd. "Does anybody know a Private Bananagoober? Private Flapjack Bananagoober?" he yelled. A soldier turned around. "Hey Captain!" he shouted. "Do we have a Private Bananagoober?" His captain said that he had someone who knows him. A toon ran up. "Do you know a Private Bananagoober?" Capt. Wally asked. The toon pointed to his ear and said loudly, "I'm sorry, you're going to have to speak up! A Toonan grenade went off right beside my head." Wally instructed someone to get a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote: Do you know Private Flapjack Bananagoober? He showed him the paper and the toon said loudly, "Yeah, I know him! We were in the same paratrooper group! We got scattered all over the place! We landed near a town called Mittedorf! It's east of here!" Wally wrote down his thanks and started his long walk to Mittedorf.