Authors: K. A. Applegate
We all just stared.
“You will have to deal with any of Visser Three’s troops you encounter between here and the escape pod,” the gold-clad Hork-Bajir said. “Leave. Now.”
Visser One’s troops turned and marched away.
Rachel squeezed her massive tonnage into the hallway.
W
homp! Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!
Rachel made the steel floor vibrate with each massive step. Her leathery sides scraped the corridor walls so that I could only catch occasional glimpses past her.
The hallway was empty until we reached the guard station. Just as the Hork-Bajir had said.
Rachel didn’t even slow down.
Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!
I saw a flash of a Taxxon, foolishly running as if to cut her off. A few seconds later I had to jump over the crushed remnants of the big centipede.
A razor-bladed arm sliced the air inches in front of my face.
Rachel moaned. She was too big, too tight a fit in the corridors to turn and help, as half a dozen Hork-Bajir in Visser Three’s livery came screaming onto the scene.
I said.
I felt the same way. I was ready. I was mad and tired of feeling helpless.
The closest Hork-Bajir swung at me again and sliced a six-inch-long cut in the matted fur of my huge shoulders.
That was all it took. Like I said, gorillas are peaceful, almost gentle creatures.
But don’t go making one angry. Especially not when a boy who wants very badly to hurt some Yeerks is sharing space in the gorilla’s head.
“Hoohoo hoo hhawwwrr!”
I cried, and swung a fist the size of a cinder block into the stomach of the
Hork-Bajir. I gave it all I had. I put every ounce of the gorilla’s muscle into the blow.
The Hork-Bajir was lifted clear up off the deck. His head slammed the ceiling. He was down and out of the game.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw another Hork-Bajir leap at Ax. The Andalite’s tail flashed forward so fast you didn’t even see it move. The Hork-Bajir staggered back, minus an arm.
I decided right then — I kind of liked Ax.
Just then, right on cue, two more Hork-Bajir came up from behind us.
The Hork-Bajir rushed us.
“RRRRRRROOOOOWWWRRR!”
Jake let loose with a roar that must have been heard from one end of the mother ship to the other. It even scared me. And it sure made the Hork-Bajir hesitate.
He was on them, while they were still thinking about what to do next.
Hork-Bajir are very fast. But so are tigers.
One Hork-Bajir was down, with Jake sinking fangs into his snakelike neck. The other Hork-Bajir looked around to make sure no one could see him, then decided he’d like to live. He kept his distance.
Jake backed away but kept his face turned to the Hork-Bajir behind us. We trotted as fast as we could down the hallway, now a scene of devastation.
It was like the ant tunnels. We could only try to escape. The longer we tried to fight, the more the odds would turn against us.
Suddenly …
Then I was there, at the edge of a long shaft that went down and down, maybe forever. Rachel already looked small. Which was not easy for her to do.
instructed. Then added,
ships.>
You know, if it hadn’t been for the fact that I was just a few minutes from being trapped forever in a morph, and if there weren’t a dozen or so walking SaladShooters after me, it would have been fun.
I fell, but not too fast.
Twelve levels down, I plummeted past a Human-Controller who was getting ready to step into the dropshaft. He had a very human look of total amazement on his face. Possibly because while standing there, he’d seen a flying elephant, followed by a gorilla, a wolf, an Andalite, and a tiger.
I looked up the shaft. A big Hork-Bajir warrior was gaining on us. But there was nothing I could do until he reached us.
“Tseeeeer!”
Tobias’s talons came forward, outstretched, and slashed the alien’s eyes.
“Ghaahharrr!”
The Hork-Bajir clutched at his face. I guess he was too distracted to think about what floor he was heading to. He shot past us as we slowed to step onto the fifteenth level.
Hard floor under my feet again! A very good feeling.
She was shrinking even as she lumbered along.
They were only a dozen feet from us. A few seconds more and we would make it.
Rachel stumbled. She was half-human, half-elephant. A nightmare of pink and gray, with huge ears and human hair and fat arms and legs that had no feet.
I reached down and swept her up with my powerful arms. She was still large, maybe three hundred pounds. But not too much for me to carry.
We reached the door of the escape pod.
It closed behind us as we wedged our oversized bodies inside.
There was a surge as the escape pod ejected from the underside of the Yeerk ship.
My dense black fur was already starting to disappear by the time the pod rotated. I could see Earth below.
Earth.
And as the tiny ship turned, I could see the Yeerk mother ship.
It was kind of a joke now, I thought. The Yeerk mother ship. My mother on the Yeerk mother ship. Hah hah.
Before I became fully human again, before I lost the ability to thought-speak and had to return to words spoken out loud, I said,
battle. Humans and Andalites together would defeat the Yeerks. And we would free all of their slaves.
All of them.
I
guess there’s no such thing as a nice graveyard. But the place where my mom is remembered is as nice as it can be.
The grass is green. There’s a tree nearby. It’s always very quiet. You can smell flowers.
I hate going there.
My dad stood for a long time, looking down at the white marble headstone. It has my mom’s name. The day she was born, the day she died. And a message that says, “No wife, no mother, was ever more loved. Or more deeply missed.”
My dad and I stood a few feet apart. We didn’t say anything. We both just kind of cried.
You probably wouldn’t think I was the kind of guy who would cry. Mostly I don’t. Mostly I make jokes about things. It’s better to laugh than to cry, don’t you think?
I do.
Even when the world is scary and sad. Especially when the world is scary and sad. That’s when you need to laugh.
“Two years,” my dad said. It surprised me.
“Yeah,” I said. “Two years.”
He took a deep breath. Like it was hard for him to breathe. “I … I … look, Marco, I’ve been thinking.”
“Yes?”
“I haven’t been a very good father to you.” It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t say anything.
“Your mom …” He had to stop for a moment to get his voice under control. “Your mom would not be happy about the way I’ve been these last two years.”
What could I say? I decided to say nothing. “Anyway. I talked to Jerry the other day.” Jerry was his old boss. Back when he had a regular job.
My dad shrugged. “I guess we have to live, huh? I mean, we can’t … you know.” Another heavy breath. “Your mom wouldn’t want us to give up, would she? Anyway, I’m going in Monday to talk to
Jerry about getting back to work. You know … see if I still remember how to even turn on a computer.”
It was a big thing. A big decision. I guess what I should have done was run over to give him a hug and tell him I was proud of him. I
was
proud of him. But that’s not me.
“Oh, Dad, you never could figure computers out. Especially games.”
He stared at me with the blank eyes I had seen for the last two years. Then, suddenly, he laughed.
“You punk kid, I’ve forgotten more about computers than you ever knew.”
“Oh, right! So why did I always kick your butt whenever we played just about anything that required two hands and a screen?”
“I
let
you win.”
I made an extremely rude noise. “Yeah? How about if we just go home and play a game so I can show you how totally wrong you are?”
I couldn’t stop him from giving me a hug. I guess I didn’t mind all that much.
We walked away from my mother’s gravestone. The stone that marked the death of a woman who was not dead.
I raised my eyes up to the sky. The blue sky of Earth. My home.
She was probably gone from the mother ship now. Off to some other corner of the galaxy.
But wherever she was, no matter how far, I would find her.
Someday …
Don’t miss
T
hen, my antennae picked up a strange new scent. Sweet. Oily.
Dangerous. Somehow, I sensed that….
It hit me in a flash!
I blew out from under the paper.
“There! There’s one!”
Vibrations of a dozen feet running after me. And in the air behind me, a vast fountain that seemed to explode from thin air.
An upside-down fountain. Like a rainfall that came from a single point and spread out to fill the air.
A droplet landed on me.
Then another.
I felt my legs stumble.
The door. I could sense it, just ahead.
WWHHAAMMPP!
A foot! A near miss. I was slowing down! I could feel my roach instincts becoming scrambled.
I was poisoned. The nerve gas was beginning to work. My legs were tangling up. My antennae were waving frantically, unable to smell anything but the deadly rain of poison.
“That got him!” a voice said.
“Don’t crush him,” Visser Three yelled. “He may demorph to save himself and we’ll have ourselves an Andalite!”
I was starting to twitch. I couldn’t breathe. And then, faster by far than the feet that had chased me, some new shape swooped down.
I tried to run, but I no longer could.
Three monstrous cables closed around me, and I was up, up, off the floor.
THE INVASION
THE VISITOR
THE ENCOUNTER
THE MESSAGE
THE PREDATOR
K. A. Applegate’s ANIMORPHS
series has sold millions of copies worldwide, and alerted the world to the presence of the Yeerks. She is also the author of the bestselling Remnants and Everworld series,
Home of the Brave,
and the Roscoe Riley Rules series.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Copyright © 1996 by Katherine Applegate
Cover art by Craig White
Cover design by Steve Scott
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, ANIMORPHS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
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