THE PROBLEM
Rachel tossed and turned in her bed. She groaned and then let out a terrified scream. Her mother came quickly down the hall and entered her daughter's room. She flicked on the light and sat on the soft bed next to Rachel. She put her hands on her daughter's shoulders and gently shook her awake.
"Rachel, honey wake up. It's okay," Naomi said in a soft hush. I wonder why she's been having all these horrible nightmares. I wish she would tell me what's going on. Naomi thought as she looked down at the terrified girl.
Rachel's eyes flew open and she sat straight up and shouted, "Help me help me!" And then, waking up fully, she noticed her mother holding her shoulders looking worriedly into her terror filled eyes.
"Are you awake sweetie?" her mother said with a concerned voice. What on earth could she have been dreaming of?
"Yeah . . . I'm . .I'm fine. Just a bad nightmare," Rachel said, brushing back a strand of her blonde hair out of her face with a shaky hand.
"Are you sure you're okay? Do you want me to sit here for a while?"
"No mom, I'm fine really. Just a bad dream, that's all. Go back to bed, I'm fine."
"Okay . . . if you're sure . . ."
"Goodnight mom."
"Goodnight Rachel," her mother said wrapping her in a big hug and kissing her lightly on her forehead before getting up. When she reached the doorway she flicked off the light with a soft click and turned and said,
"I love you."
"Love you too," whispered Rachel as she tried to hold back the tears that had welled up in her eyes.
With that, Naomi walked out of Rachel's bedroom wondering again what could possibly cause Rachel to have such awful nightmares.
As her mother eased the door shut, Rachel turned over and buried her face into her clammy pillow. She let out a muffled scream of frustration and fear. Too much, this was all too much. I can't take much more of this! Rachel thought angrily as she pulled away from the pillow. She again, felt tears well up in her eyes and this time she couldn't hold them back. Quickly she rubbed them away with heel of her palm. No, she would not cry. She had a feeling that if she started to now, she might never stop.
She lay back down, and her thoughts drifted back toward her awful dream and her being an Animorph. She was sick of the tedious battles and the horrible nightmares that followed. This last nightmare had been a reoccurring one, and she was having it more and more often.
In the dream she and the Animorphs had been in yet another battle. Rachel had been fighting off several Hork-Bajir and had been backed into a cage. The cage closed on her and she couldn't escape or move for that matter, and she was forced to watch helplessly as her friends one by one, are killed until she was the only one left. And in the last part of her dream a Hork-Bajir comes over with a Yeerk reserved just for her and she screams for someone to help her as they lower the slimy slug to her ear.
She kneaded her temples and gritted her teeth, trying to erase the horrible images from her mind. As she stared up at her dark ceiling, she forced herself to think about something more pleasant, failing that, her thoughts drifted to the night when she and the rest of her friend's lives were changed forever and how they had had to grow up so fast. It was sad and depressing to think about. She shook herself. So don't think about it and stop pitying yourself and get over it. Things happen, and there's nothing you can do but press right on through, and to just keep going and hope that everything will work out. Stop pitying yourself and move on. Pity gets you nowhere. She thought angrily to herself.
Rachel didn't think that she'd ever get back to sleep with all the crazy thoughts and memories running through her head, but soon enough her eyelids grew heavy and she again, slipped over the edge of consciousness, and into the dark abyss of sleep.
"Oops I did it again!" caterwauled the radio/alarm clock, which rang annoyingly in Rachel's ear.
She turned over, balled her hand into a fist, and viciously beat her alarm clock into blessed silence. There is no way it can be time to get up all ready. The clock must be off. She rolled over and looked out the window. The bright blaze of the shining morning sun brought her hopes of an extra hour or two of sleep crashing down. She groaned softly and swung her legs over the side of her bed. Squinting, and with much effort, she walked slowly to the bathroom; like a corpse that had just laboriously pulled itself out of its dark resting place.
She was just soaping up her hair and grumbling about how school shouldn't be allowed, when she heard her phone start to ring. Great, just great, the person who's calling better have a good reason to be doing so or they are going to be having a very bad day. Rachel thought grumpily as she grabbed a towel and ran hurriedly into her room. Before she got to her phone, her feet lost there grip on the floor which sent her skidding across the hard wood floor, all the while wind milling her arms through the air like an inexperienced ice skater about to fall on her butt. She came to a sudden halt as her shin connected painfully with her small nightstand.
I swear if it's a sales person, that guy is going to wish he never hooked up with that job when he's through with me. She thought crossly as she rubbed her sore leg. She picked up the receiver and said in a rather sharp tone,
"Hello?"
"Hi Rach," It was Cassie.
"What's up?" Rachel said in a calmer voice. Yeah, what is up?
"Can you stop by my place before school? Because my cousin really wants to meet you before he has to leave town today," said Cassie hurriedly. Then she said even more quickly, "Please? He has something really important to tell you and get there as soon as possible."
"Sure Cass. I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Thanks," she said and hung up.
I wonder why Erek needs to talk to us so urgently. It must be pretty bad. Cassie sounded worried. Rachel thought as she dried off and changed quickly into her morphing outfit. She then headed down the stairs to the kitchen to grab a note pad. She tiptoed back up to her room and scribbled a note telling her mom that she was leaving to school early to finish up a project. After putting the note on her nightstand, she morphed to eagle and launched herself out of her window, towards Cassie's.
"Hey Rachel! Are you ready for our next round of fear, pain, and basic corruption of our souls? And, oh nice chicken legs, is that a new Calvin Klein fad or something?" Marco asked brightly from his usual sitting spot atop some bales of hay.
"Shut up Marco," Rachel grumbled as she finished demorphing. She glanced around. She saw Cassie giving a shot to a very angry and scared fox who was baring its teeth as if wondering if he should sink them into Cassie's exposed forearm. Cassie, seeing this, said warningly,
"Don't you dare."
The fox slid his lips back over his sharp white teeth and held still. Rachel sighed and said,
"Hey Cass. Do you know why Erek wants to have this little chit chat at this unholy hour before school?"
"I haven't got a clue but from what I heard from Jake, Erek sounded pretty upset."
"Where is everyone? I mean besides you and this idiot," Rachel said jerking her thumb and rolling her eyes at Marco, who at the moment was jumping off the highest bale of hay into a mound of the stuff giggling gleefully. Then, hearing Rachel's remark,
"Hey! This is seriously fun!"
Rachel rolled her eyes again at him and turned back to Cassie who had finished giving the now docile fox his meds and was now placing him back into his cage. Wiping her brow with a gloved hand, she looked up at Rachel and replied,
"They're on their way I guess."
At that moment Jake appeared with Tobias flying overhead. Rachel glanced up at Tobias with a slight frown, feeling that something was up because he was quieter than usual. He didn't even say hi to her. She noticed that Ax had not come in after Jake. Where was he?
"So what's up fearless leader? Where's Erek?" Marco asked, jumping down from the mound of hay while pulling a few pieces out of his hair.
"I don't know, but he should be here any minute." Jake replied.
"Where's Ax?" Cassie asked looking questioningly at Jake and then up at Tobias.
"Good question," Jake said looking up at Tobias too.
I haven't seen him since yesterday afternoon. And I couldn't find him this morning. answered Tobias. He looked away from them and started to preen himself nervously. He was just starting on his tail feathers when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. His head snapped in the direction of the barn door. Here comes Erek. Why's he running? Tobias stated more to himself than anyone else. Then Oh my god! Everyone get out of here! He flew down from the rafters and headed for the door. Rachel and the others followed.
Rachel looked around as she made it out of the barn. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The sky was in shades of orange, red, and deepest purple, the sun was just peeking over the mountains in the distance, and the meadow was as beautiful as ever. But as she looked at the edges of the meadow, where the green grass gradually turned into thick forest, she saw Erek. He was running toward them, flailing his arms frantically in the air and yelling for them to run. That's when Rachel saw why Tobias had yelled. There were about fifty Hork-Bajir appearing out of the forest behind Erek. They each held a dracon beam. She glanced at the others who, by the way they were staring around confusedly, had not yet seen the incoming Hork-Bajir. She was about to yell for them to start morphing when a gust of warm air and a dark shadow passed over them. She looked up to see a bug fighter flying overhead. It stopped moving when it reached the barn.
RUN GUYS RUN! Tobias shouted as the bug fighter took aim at the red building.
That snapped them out of their trance. Rachel was the first to come to her senses.
"Move it! Now. Run!" she shouted pushing Cassie to get her moving. She started running towards the woods.
"No! Hork-Bajir are in there. Tobias? Where can we go?" Jake asked in a tight but urgent voice as he noticed the controllers leaving the cover of the forest.
Follow me! Over here guys! Tobias said and flew off in the opposite direction of the bug fighter and the Hork-Bajir.
Jake took the lead with Marco, Cassie, and Rachel following suit. Jake heard the bug fighter's dracon cannon change it's aiming direction. He chanced a look back and with a wave of black fear, saw that it was aiming at them.
"RUN GUYS! They're aiming at us," he shouted, and ran faster still. He glanced to look at the others and saw that Cassie and Marco were falling behind and saw Rachel trying to push them to go faster.
Rachel could see Cassie tiring; starting to slow down.
"Oh no you don't! Keep running Cassie!" she shouted and grabbed her hand and pulled her ahead of her. She heard Jake yell,
"Over there! Get to those boulders!"
The Bug fighter was right above them now. It aimed . . .
Rachel felt the air fill with electricity. She saw Jake's hair stick up and felt her own do the same. She heard a loud buzzing as she passed a huge oak tree.
The bug fighter fired . . .
TSWWWWWW!
BOOM!!!!!!
A wave of intense heat blew over Rachel and she heard the tree explode behind her. She got right behind Cassie to shield her from the debris and then she felt herself being flung into the air and felt something hard and solid hit her in the back of the head. The world went black.
She awoke with the feeling of cold dirt pressing against her face. Blinking copiously, she lifted her head, which now felt as heavy as lead, and saw that she was sprawled across Cassie's lower back. She gripped the ground with her hands and rolled herself off of her. She tried to push herself up. As she did, the gritty floor beneath her felt less like nice solid, flat ground, but more as if she were inside a carnival fun house mirror. With the ground moving under foot it gave her the feeling of in vertigo. It felt as if the ground was slipping from beneath her. Despite this, she made it to her feet. This small accomplishment however, did not last long for as soon as she had stood completely erect her head started to pound and her vision blurred. Rachel swayed on the spot and put her hands on her head to stop the spinning. As soon as her hand touched her head she snatched it back. Her head had been soaked with something warm and sticky. She glanced down dazedly at her hand and saw that it covered in blood. With this sight not really registering in her mind, she glanced around to see where she was exactly. Through blurred vision Rachel vaguely noticed that she was in some kind of dark cave, with glistening wet walls that had a smell of old earth. She blinked again several times, trying to clear her eyesight. Little black dots that had been dancing only at the edge of her vision began to close in on her entire eyesight. At that, she felt her knees buckle under her and she fell backward. She hit the ground with a thud and rolled onto her side. Through squinting eyes and fading consciousness, she saw Cassie sit up with a groan.
Cassie rubbed her eyes and looked around. She saw Jake and Marco beginning to stir. They were sprawled on the strange dirt floor. No sign of Rachel. A wave of fear passed through her with a single thought. Oh god, have they been captured? Did Rachel get cornered and, rather than being captured, fought to the death? She suddenly wanted, needed to be on her feet. She put her hand behind her to push herself up when she heard a groan and felt something soft but solid. Cassie spun around and saw Rachel lying on her back with her eyes half closed. With horror she also noticed a pool of blood surrounding Rachel's head.
"Oh my god!" Cassie cried. She twisted all the way around, now completely facing Rachel. She took her limp hand in her own and checked for a pulse. There was a faint beating. She gave it a squeeze. At this, Rachel stirred. Her eyes fluttered open just a little.
"Ca . . .Cassie?" Rachel said in a hoarse whisper.
"Rachel! Oh thank god you're awake! Listen to me, you need to morph, now."
"I ca . .c . . . can't. I .. so tired. Sleep now," Rachel said as her eyes began to close once more.
"No!" ,
"Rachel, Rachel! Look at me! No don't sleep. You need to MORPH! Please."
Rachel's eyes opened a bit more. She knew she should morph, but she felt so tired and couldn't concentrate on anything for more than a few moments. She felt so tired maybe she would just rest for a while. No! She would not fall asleep! She tried to roll onto her stomach. The moment she moved a white-hot pain shot through her head. She groaned and fell back and the black dots at the edges of her vision closed in once more.
Cassie caught her and lifted Rachel up so she could sit up a little. "NO! Rachel don't go! Morph! Come on Rach, morph and you'll be okay," Cassie pleaded desperately to her friend. Rachel's body sagged in her arms. Cassie screamed and began sobbing.
Jake stirred and his eyes fluttered open. He groaned and pushed himself into a sitting position. He felt moist dirt press into his palm and breathed in the musty air. He blinked and looked around. He came to his senses with a start as he noticed his dark cave-like surroundings. He was just starting to panic, wondering where the others were when he heard and saw a sobbing and pleading form across from him. He saw the person look towards him.
"Jake! Help me. Oh god, please help me!" Cassie sobbed looking back at Rachel.
Jake ran over towards her and knelt beside Rachel's limp and blood soaked form. He grabbed her wrist and felt for a pulse. There was one but it was very weak.
"She's still alive," he said. But she won't be for much longer. "Cassie?" she looked at him, ready for directions. "You have to focus. What can we do for her?"
Cassie looked down at Rachel. "Give me your shirt," was all she said.
Jake gave her a surprised look and then understood. He quickly pulled it off and handed it to Cassie. She took it and wrapped it around Rachel's bleeding head, making a crude sort of bandage.
"That's all I think we can do," she said quietly without looking up at him. "Come on girl, wake up." Jake sat next to Cassie and put his arm around her, for the moment forgetting that they could be in a lot of danger.
Marco groaned and rolled onto his stomach. He pushed himself up with a groan as he took in his surroundings. Where are we? Where are the others? Thinking of this made him kind of panic and he leaped to his feet. Looking around, he noticed Jake and Cassie across from him. Rubbing his eyes to clear them and walking towards them, he called,
"You guys okay and where the heck are we?"
Jake twitched at the sound of Marco's voice. He had forgotten he was here too. How strange. He never forgot to make sure everyone was 'present and accounted for'. He shook this thought away and said,
"Cassie and I are. Rachel's not."
Marco's eyes widened as he noticed Rachel's limp form cradled in Cassie's arms.
"Oh god. Is she. . .?"
"No. Not yet anyway," Jake said grimly. "And as for where we are" he said looking up from Rachel, "I have no clue."
"We might have been captured, but if we have then where is that lap dog of Satan, Visser One?" Marco asked looking around. Noticing they were minus one hawk he added, "Hey, where's bird-boy?"
Jake's blood ran cold. Where was he? He hadn't seen him since he had woken up. The last time he saw him Tobias had been flying overhead trying to find a safe route away from the Yeerk's attack.
"Maybe he got away," he said not really believing it. If he hadn't escaped and wasn't here he was either a controller or dead. That outlook wasn't a good one so he pushed it out of his mind and focused on the problem at hand. One; Rachel was near death, and two, they had no idea where they were and could have been captured.
"We need to get out of here," Jake said changing the subject.
**********************
Erek ran to the nearest tree and made his hologram look like a small rock. He stayed there and was forced to watch Jake and his friends come out of the barn and be chased by the deadly bug fighter. He watched helplessly as it zoomed low, aimed and shot. He saw Cassie and Marco tiring and Rachel pushing them to run faster; saw Jake following Tobias; saw the blood red beam hit and blow up a gigantic tree; saw Rachel, still trying to make Cassie run faster and shielding her at the same time, get hit with a piece of debris; the others were knocked unconscious by the concussion of the blast. He watched as their unconscious bodies were thrown into the air and watched as the bug fighter caught and pulled them up into its belly, most likely taking them to Visser One.
He had failed them. He had warned them too late. They were captured.
A human controller walked by and Erek heard him give an order,
"Good work! The Visser will be very pleased. Now we are to capture and infest the rebel filth's families. Let's move!"
Hearing this, Erek changed his hologram to make him look like his surroundings, making him invisible to the controllers. He quickly sent out a message to the Chee-Net, calling for help. He needed to get the Animorphs' families to safety and needed all the help he could get.
******************
"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggggg," went the alarm clock. Naomi groaned and pressed the sleep button in a not so kind way, (it clattered to the floor and the batteries popped out). She swung her legs over the side of the bed with a groan, and headed for the shower.
After dressing in one of her nicer suits, she headed downstairs for some much-needed coffee.
"Rachel! Jordan! Sarah!" she called, "Get up!" Naomi listened for their usual reply of, "I'm up, I'm up."
She heard Jordan and Sarah's grumbles but not Rachel's. With a sigh she set down her mug and started up the stairs. As she stepped into Rachel's room, she first noticed with alarm that she wasn't in it, and then calmed down a bit as her eyes landed on the note that rested atop Rachel's nightstand.
"Another project to finish huh?" she thought aloud, "She's seems to have been having a lot of school projects lately." She frowned as she reread the note again. Naomi was beginning to get suspicious about all these 'school projects' but, she thought, Rachel had never gotten into any trouble before and this couldn't possibly be anything other than her simply trying to do exactly what she had written on the note. But then again, there's always a first time for everything . . .
Her thoughts were interrupted as Sarah called her,
"Mom! Jordan won't get outta bed!"
"Oh be quiet, you tattle tale," she heard Jordan growl.
Naomi crumpled the note and threw it in the trashcan as she turned to hopefully prevent yet another episode of arguing that they had had the previous morning.
As she walked hurriedly down the hall she heard Sarah shout,
"Who are those people?"
Naomi reached the room and saw her two daughters in a tangled heap on Jordan's bed. Jordan had stopped mid punch; raised fist above her head, to stare out her window. Naomi hurried over to the window and looked outside. There were two black stretch limos and a large moving truck and people were swarming out of them. What are they doing and why are they in our yard? Two men in black suits stepped out of one of the black limos and ran to open the large moving truck. The doors popped open, and out stepped something that could not have been of this Earth. It had blades and horns and spikes everywhere, maybe 7 feet tall, and a long dangerous looking spiked tail.
Jordan and Sarah let out screams of horror and quickly untangled themselves and flung themselves at their mother's sides. Naomi's face went pale and she gripped her daughter's hands. What the hell was going on here?
There was a crash and a bang as the front door was knocked inward. Naomi grabbed her girls and headed towards her closet. She flung it open and shoved them in. In a hurried whisper she said,
"Stay in here and don't you come out, no matter what happens."
They looked at her wide-eyed; Jordan pulled Sarah to her and nodded. Naomi quickly shut the door. At that moment the terrifying creature she had seen outside entered the room. She screamed and ran over to the corner to grab the lamp to hopefully use it as some sort of weapon, she didn't make it that far.
Through the slots in the closet door, Jordan watched as the monster pointed some sort of gun at her mother she screamed,
"Mommy!! Look out!!" but it was too late.
The creature fired the gun and her mother fell into a crumpled unconscious heap onto the floor.
A/N: U like it? U not like it? REVIEW!!! I love getting them! Who doesn't? Anywho, I'll post some more soon, IF I get some reviews that is.
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