Corrugated Bastion

A towering cardboard carton stood upright in the open zone of the living room floor. An unyielding monolith in my path. I paced its perimeter, searching for structural seams. Along the lower edge, a reinforced paper packing tape bound the flaps tightly together. I braced my stance, digging my armored boots into the floorboards. Angling my curved wrist blade, I drove the point through the fibrous crease. A dry, tearing hiss echoed in the quiet air. With a measured downward stroke, the seam split wide, leaving a clean entry breach into the hollow interior.