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CHAPTER 3
The toons were crossing a field when they heard an engine roar and tracks. "Panzer!" cried Sgt. Funnyfoot. "Get down!" They hid in the tall grass of the fields, their hearts racing. One of the Toonans spotted Pvt. Purpleziller and shouted some orders. The tank aimed and fired. It missed him and hit the ground. Dirt went flying everywhere, and when it was gone so was Zillerspinner. The Toonan spotted Pvt. Cheat and the panzer's barrel was aimed right at him. He got up and jumped out of the way just in the nick of time. Then, all of a sudden, the panzer burst into flames. The Toonans jumped out in flames. Capt. Wally shouted, "Who did that?" A few toons on the other side of the tank stood up. The one was holding a panzershreck. He pointed to himself and said, "Sir, Private Bananagoober." Then he started to point to the soldier beside him but Wally interrupted him, "Private Flapjack Bananagoober?" He nodded.
Wally and his squad, along with the toons they just met up with, went to the bridge Private Bananagoober and the rest of his crew were protecting. "This is the bridge we are supposed to protect. If the Toonans get it they can get across to a Toonerican refugee camp a few miles east of here," explained Bananagoober. Wally told him and his group to take a break but stay aware. He pointed to a bell tower. "Private Cheat," he said. "I want you to stay up there with Private Purpleziller and keep watch." Next Wally pointed to one end of the bridge. "This is the Alamo," he explained. "If they push us back this far, we're gonna have to blow the bridge up with this Composition B," he pointed to the pile of Composition B. "They'll probably have tanks so we're gonna need some Sticky Bombs," he said. The toons looked around in confusion. Private Bananagoober asked, "Sir, are you making that up?" Wally shook his head. "No. Do you have any Field Manuals? They're stated in there," he said. The other toons said they didn't have any Field Manuals. "Well, first you take your socks and stuff as much Composition B or other explosives as you can into it and coat the whole thing with axel grease."
The squad made as many Sticky Bombs as they could. Pvt. Cheat and Pvt. Purpleziller went up into the bell tower and the rest of the toons sat down on the steps listening to quiet French music. Capt. Wally was sitting in a chair with his feet propped up on a crate talking to Pvt. Bananagoober. "I'm trying to see my brothers' faces but I can't," said Bananagoober, looking into the sky. Wally sat up in his chair. "Well you don't think of their faces necessarily," he said. "You have to think of a context." Bananagoober looked down at Wally and asked what he meant. "Like something you and your brothers did. Something like that. For me I think about my wife and her rose garden," he continued. Pvt. Bananagoober thought for a minute and chuckled. "There was one time, I was in my bed and three of my brothers shook me awake and told me they had a surprise for me. So they took me out to the barn and brought me quietly up to the loft. So then I see my brother Zinger up there with Zippy Octoberry. Now talk about a girl who just took a nose dive off the ugly tree and every branch coming down! So they're about to kiss when Spunky yells, 'Zinger you're a young man! Don't do it!' So then Zippy hears this and she screams and goes running around the barn and knocks herself out!" He was laughing very loudly now. "So this makes Zinger mad and her picks up a shovel and starts swinging it at Spunky and Spunky says, 'What're you trying to hit me for? I was just doing you a favor!' So this makes Zinger even madder and he swings it and he loses his grasp, the shovel hits a kerosene lantern, and the whole barn almost goes up cause of this!" Then he stopped laughing his face straightened. "Then that was the last I saw of them. The next day they went off to basics training."
Suddenly a silent but steady rumble of an engine arose. The toons turned off the record player and looked up at the bell tower. Pvt. Cheat made some military signals. "Three Panzers, fifty infantry, and two Flak Cannons," Wally told the rest of the group. They all found good cover and loaded their guns. They had set up some Composition B in the path they were coming from and readied the detonator. When about ten infantry were there we turned the switch. The infantry blew to pieces. The Toonericans began firing at the Toonans. The Panzers sped up and began to make their way towards the fight. A Toonerican dog named Pvt. Nicklebump lit his Sticky Bomb. A Panzer began rolling past. He ran up but didn't make it. He blew to pieces right when he stuck it onto the tracks of the Panzer. A cat named yellow horse named Pvt. Crinklesnout was in charge of ammunition. He dashed around not knowing what to do. Pvt. Pepperjinks and Pvt. Electrosplat, a green mouse, were on the second floor of a building. A grenade flew into their hiding spot and they chucked it back out. Another one came in and they through that one out too. "I'm out of ammo!" shouted Pvt. Pepperjinks. "Crinklesnout!" They both called for Pvt. Crinklesnout. They heard foot steps. Someone was coming upstairs. "Crinklesnout…? Crinklesnout…?" It wasn't him. Pvt. Electrosplat fired his gun through the wall and they heard a thud when the Toonan hit the floor.
Suddenly, bullets came flying in. It hit Pvt. Pepperjinks in the throat and he fell to the floor. The Toonan came in and Pvt. Electrosplat ran up to him and whacked him with his gun. They began fighting. Soon they ended up beating each other on the floor. Pvt. Electrosplat pulled out a combat knife and tried to stab the Toonan. The Toonan grabbed the knife and rolled over onto Electrosplat. He began to push the knife into him. Finally, Private Electrosplat died.
Seven Toonerican troops jumped onto the stopped Panzer and fired into it from the top. Then they threw a grenade into it. Two Toonans pushed a Flak Cannon up to the top of a pile of rubble and began to shoot the Toonericans and they all died.
After a gruesome battle the Toonericans were pushed back to the bridge. "Alamo! Alamo!" shouted Sgt. Zillerspinner. Wally grabbed the detonator to the Composition B. A Toonan shot him in the hand. "Agh!" Wally shouted in pain. The detonator flew into the air and fell over by a parked motorcycle. Wally got up and walked over to it. He got shot in the chest and fell to the ground. He crawled toward it. He grabbed the detonator and turned the handle. The bridge blew to pieces. A Panzer slowly neared Wally. He took out his combat pistol and began to fire at it, knowing that it would do no good. Then, all of a sudden, the panzer exploded and a plane flew through the air. "P-38s, sir," explained Bananagoober. Wally looked up at them with wonder. "Angels on our shoulders…" he said. The Toonans had surrendered! Wally grabbed Bananagoober's shoulder and said, "Earn this…" Bananagoober's eyes filled with tears. "Earn it…" And then Captain Wally died.
CONCLUSION
Bananagoober, at age eighty-three, looked at Captain Wally's grave and began to cry. "I'll never forget what you said on the bridge that day, and I hope I have done enough in my life to earn what you did for me…"
