Timmron 348

Warnings: Language, darker adult based themes not suitable for children, mild sexual themes and violence later to come.

Disclaimer: As much as I'd love to own a concept like Animorphs, I don't. It belongs to K.A Applegate.

Part One - 'Infestation'

Prologue

My storytelling has never stood to as apparently as my casual ability to simply meld into the thick of the background. Forgive my sudden intrusion of your time, although take heed of the quaint nature of my origins and for your own freedom protect yourself as if though I sought you out personally. Though perhaps with art rather than matter, I've spoken too much already rather than have shown you...

I must confess that I find the confines of your skull lulling me so far into security that I find myself prattling.

As my new host, you are entitled to inherit your new master's name as well as your new master's control. I am Timmron 348 of the Hett Niam pool.

Although you may address me as Timmron or Timmron 348 of your choosing, you will still address me as either the slave that is burdened with his begotten woes to his driver, or you will address me as the servant who walks with his neck bent and his legs bowed to his emperor.

In any instance, you are my property now, slave. Your mind and body are crushed now beneath the shapeless depths of my absolute control, and I feel it only fair to warn you that thoughts of escape shall remain as they are: mere traces of hope to cling unto until you discover for yourself the truths that so many shattered creatures scream inside their minds.

There truly is no escape in either mind or body, the truth being we dominate your mind, we assimilate your essence and for our own uses we lead those you love into this same slavery you've awakened in. There is no 'underground railroad' that could hide you from our omnipotent grasp, our control is absolute, and your body obeys my every whim and desire as if it had never been previously owned. That-

((We'll just see about that!)) The host mind retorted back rather hotly, apparently in a very savagely foul mood. ((I would split my own head open and crush you myself, if having to be reduced into STEALING other bodies hasn't killed you on the inside already!))

I retained a mental sigh away from my host, deciding at the moment that pleasant conversation would be best sought out within myself, rather than with this ignorant animal. As my body had flattened and unfurled itself deep into the crevices and over the abundant dips and valleys of the brain, already I could feel the electrical sensations of neurons prickling into a scabrous connection with my own mind. The body was slowly although absolutely betraying its previous owner, assimilating me into its thick matter as sparking pulses and crackling nerve ends melded together in a dizzying sensation as my palps became arms and legs, my new torso became apparent, and to the host mind's utter and complete terror, the eyes slowly fluttered open to my own will alone. All a whimsical murmur of movement, my host reasoned. It has to be my imagination, the host mind continued, science could not permit such things, mind controlling aliens were only found in movies and books, or in episodes of Star Trek. (Not that I had any idea what Star Trek was at that moment, but I would learn with time.)

But that was when she attempted to blink. It was horrifically astounding just how much of that boundless energy I felt brimming in her personality (as it became mine) she focused in foolishly attempting to defy me. Her orders were utterly clear and tranquil when they first began coming: blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink...

The neurons and nerves that had connected with my own rather easily intercepted such orders and ebbed them away so that they never even reached the eyes, the orders remained hopes and nothing more, their value consumed and crushed away by my control.

Blink. Blink...? Blink! ...Blink!

Though her orders slowly grew in intensity as she realized what was happening, still they met the same fate as her first attempts with her commands now hollowed and husked of their value here in a body that no longer belonged to her. Rather swiftly other orders began to bombard the now effectively conquered matter, slammed into me with such annoyances as I began to feel her thought patterns echo inside me and into my mind, opening them publicly for me to read as I desired...

Blink! Breathe! Run! Run...! RUN!

As simplistic as her orders were, still she waffled miserably at the task of recovering her own body as my control smothered the value and extinguished the meaning. Her thought patterns became fragmented at all that was going on, her reason became twisted by the fear like thin metal and creased permanently by what was happening, as it all would beneath the heavy umbrage of some inconceivable nightmare that would continually haunt her upon awakening... If this were something she could easily awaken from. But the fear and fragmented thoughts brought other bizarre presences I felt inside the mind with us that I assumed to be her family and friends as they brought pieces of memory, which I was quick to collect as she struggled beneath my sharpened intellect and the insurmountable grip my flattened body had on her brain.

Her name was Mandy, as I soon discovered. An involuntary, though I hardly needed her memories to inform me of that as I felt her emotions come welling into a sparking core near the back of her mind that nearly brought me into feeling the same things, being close enough to know what she felt without feeling these things myself; hatred, utter and unfiltered loathing, all of which surged above an undercurrent of terrible realization and overwhelming illness as she briefly discovered what was happening. All sorts of questions were now positively crashing like untamed waves inside her, sending up a spray of curses that curled into silent pleas for me to leave before they would resolve back into the questions and thus begin the cycle all over again. What am I going to do?! How do I get rid of this thing? What will my family do? What will mom think? Why is it doing this? Fuck this! Fuck all of this! Son of a bitch thinks he can get away with this, don't make me fucking laugh! Goddamnit, please leave...please get out of my head... ...Why won't it leave? ...What? ...What is it doing now? What is it planning to do, and what is it thinking? ...Are you laughing, are you enjoying this you fucking bastard?!

The irony of this rather extensive curiosity she had as her memories morbidly reported was that it was curiosity that led to such a fateful meeting between us. She had been curious to so many things, as most humans so ignorantly were (or at least that had been what I'd heard from Temrash 252, and that had been how he had come to meet his own host). By their curiosity, by their lustful intentions towards one another, and even by their faint assumptions alone humans had safely haloed themselves within some unpierced world of concrete perceptions telling them what was possible and what was insanity, and they obeyed without question their belittling policies bearing the decrees of safety and political correctness. Ridiculous.

If such a world as envisioned by the humans were strung together outside the leaves of their storybooks and unknown intentions, the very failure to accept greater standards and in that same instance the failure to accept their own social barriers would force it stumbling down as it collapsed into pieces on itself. We Yeerks however had cast such garbage to the furnace; humans were now a part of a greater union than they could ever comprehend contorting faces and bickering over whether one of their dark skinned ones was to be deemed black or African American, hence the constant struggles against our control. The rule of thumb I suppose in humanity is that if something is different, then surely it is wrong without question even if presenting the close-minded mentality behind that statement had only furthered their social evolution... I digress however from the memories I saw as I opened her mind, retaining these dark thoughts to myself for the time being.

She had joined the Sharing for the community service, in hopes that it would stand out on college applications she had prepared as a senior in high school, never once suspecting the truth. She had cleaned a local park, served alongside Teresa in the community soup kitchen and scrubbed a daycare center's walls clean of some juvenile graffiti within the course of three weeks, when she had been asked to become a full member. Naturally assuming this meant benefits or even references for her applications, she had agreed wholeheartedly without hesitation, especially with the mention of the Sharing's five hundred dollar scholarship for full members only up for immediate claim. The memories of excitement and eternal gratitude, of clear and thriving joy came clearly to me in the gray matter of her brain as I pressed my will further into her mind, unlocking it to me as clearly as if it had just transgressed...-"Ow...damnit... I hate my hair!"

Her voice was carried rather startling well down the empty foyer as she paced frantically, running a paddle-handle brush through the tangles and obdurate knots in her auburn hair. She spat out a colorful string of curses, barely tugging the brush through her thick tresses a final time and letting them fall past her shoulders before setting it aside with an unnerved sigh. She hooked her thumb into the tight pocket of her jeans, feeling the twenty-dollar bill her mother had left on the kitchen table for about the eighth time for assuring measure. She straightened her green pinstripe blouse, she bent her arms as she propped herself against the wall as she would do habitually whenever she was nervous.

Three weeks of breaking her back practically, figured she would be nervous when she would finally be getting a damn break over it at the last second, though when her group's leader had mentioned a secret ceremony she couldn't help understandably mulling over the most humiliating possibilities for some kind of fraternity initiation. The notion seemed ridiculous, but still, she hadn't felt very safe the way Teresa had smiled when she had replied: 'Yeah... ...Yeah, I can be here next Monday, five-thirty.'

Upon arrival at the citizen's center, the usual meeting place for The Sharing in the community, Teresa's surreptitious little smile hadn't seemed to dissipate from what it had been last Sunday when Mandy had answered her about becoming a full member. It didn't really matter, she'd be getting her references and her money, Teresa could have greeted her with a joint in hand and cancer hanging off the filter in a clown suit for all she cared. College wouldn't come easy to a family barely able to afford the textbooks, let alone a future at a university. A break was all she damn well needed, a break was all that she was after, she didn't mind giving up extra hours of free time for it or 'sacrificing herself when necessary to be part of something greater'...? Yeah. Real funny, Teresa, it's what I've been doing for the past two years, the difference being that it looks like I'll actually get some money for it. Believe it or not, jobs at 24/7's couldn't pave the way to Yale or even to community college and Hell, I haven't met anyone working at McDonalds who can actually afford to eat there.

"You're really thinking about the future, aren't you?" Teresa smiled softly, as Mandy found her disturbingly calm visage among a sea of casual expressions across the center lobby. She didn't normally talk to Teresa; in fact she damn well avoided that awkwardness rather intentionally. Teresa just seemed far too happy for a forty-two year old baby-sitter of a bunch of middle school kids every Monday and Thursday, she was sure that she had to be dying for a cigarette or maybe a drink to deal with the noise that she couldn't turn off or turn down with a knob, anything. It led her to believe that maybe there was something unorthodox beneath that sweet smile and soft voice; maybe she smoked a joint or two before each meeting or she stuck her thighs with rusty nails so that the little bastards wouldn't seem so bad in comparison, but something was definitely off even if Mandy wasn't sure yet as to just what it was.

Mandy nodded nevertheless, pressing her thoughts aside once again in place of a civil front. "Yeah, graduating," she said. "Kinda have to." She threw in a breathy sort of laugh for good measure and thumbed her hair back over her shoulder as she had the habit of doing when talk proved scarce. No problem at all with attending the Sharing and putting her best group effort forward, in fact when she did so the group found itself doing far better than the hopes and goals they set each meeting in the park or kitchen or daycare center could warrant, but for reasons even she couldn't explain it was one-on-one dealing with persons that she grew generally annoyed with. But Teresa never really said anything about it, she either didn't mind or she didn't notice.

The elderly woman laughed, the pitch low and dry like air whistling through a broken pipe. "Of course, I understand! A lot of high school students are in the exact same situation you're in!" Mandy laughed too, though she saw nothing funny about it. "But you know what? Those exact same students get great benefits from becoming full members of the Sharing! They get a good reference from their leader," she fanned her fingers across her chest with a soft smile to emphasize her point or maybe even her significance to Mandy, one of the two reasons of which she didn't care about. "They can also get after-school tutoring on classes for their major from real college students; a full list of community funded scholarships that only full members of The Sharing can apply for, it's a great start if you're looking to raise some money for yourself!"

Mandy nodded with a kind smile, but her thoughts deep down in her mind still registered aside from all the reasons and gentle prodding that there was something wrong beneath all the smiles that she hadn't quite substantiated. 'What the hell? I said yes, already, why are you still trying to convince me?' Her mind pleaded, though her mind and tongue didn't seem to be very close companions which in some instances was probably why half of her school didn't hate her. "Sounds great, that kinda stuff's exactly what I need, y'know?" was what came out, to Teresa's laughter again.

"It's greater than you can imagine, that's not even all the privileges you'll be getting as a full member!"
Again Mandy smiled shyly, thumbing her hair behind her ear as she followed Teresa down the winding corridor down toward the end of the hall. "Well, you kinda had me from last Sunday," she said awkwardly. "count me in." Teresa grinned; unhitching an iron key from a ring she wore dutifully on her waist and unlocked the door.

"Secret entrance." Teresa whispered, in the same tone adults used when trying to sound cool about something, but the strained effort dried out the tone and made them seem even lamer than they were before. But when she opened the door and revealed the utility closet, Mandy silently confirmed that Teresa had to be a pot head, no joke. And when she had guided Mandy with an arm only to lock the door behind them and conceal her inside, the benefits of full membership gave way to her earlier notions of what initiation could mean, although the fears of humiliation had ebbed away into inexplorable possibilities of waking up in a tub of ice missing half her insides, or waking up in an industrial bathroom chained to a pipe by her bony ankle with a hacksaw and a sadistically written note tied to the handle telling her 'Have fun!'

"Um..." Mandy found the words gumming inside her head, the mechanics between her thoughts and her tongue glitching figuratively and literally as she sought out a way to reword her question. "What exactly... ...is going on here?" ...Well, it was better than the original 'What the hell are you doing, are you fucking stoned?'. Teresa approached the rusted sink to the right, twisting the faucet upside down and the two valves in opposing directions with an eerie creak that opened a concealed iron door, doing all of this with the same stilled smile that implored Mandy to step forward and accept whatever she could be given. She beheld unnaturally eroded walls into a narrow cavern that descended by carved out steps spiraling deep down into a suffocating darkness.

As her guide pressed her forward, she felt the cold of the underground begin to slowly slip into her bones and erode away courage, half expecting to come to a stop by a black iron gate reading 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter in' as Dante had before his testimony of the Inferno. But upon this long way, Mandy suspected that her guide hadn't quite the same motivations as Virgil and unlike Dante she suspected that as she inched forward that she had been tempted into matters beyond conceivable escape.

Even as Teresa had explained everything about the Yeerks and of the true purpose of the Sharing as they reached the bottom of the deep cavern and even the choice to become either a Collaborator or a Controller, still Mandy remained confused to what was happening as half of the explanation died on ears deafened in disbelief. Still she pictured many things she could meet near the end of the cavern, the crackling of human marrow and the snap of flesh in some furnace below in a pit, the clamor of laments and verbal penances torn asunder by despairing sobs that would forewarn her of this fate if somehow she failed to revere God, and could not purge her soul of the evils that her priest had warned his congregation of so many times before. In fact, she damn well wondered if he had anything to do with this descending trench she found herself wandering into, she found herself feeling a lot of things and more alive than she had felt in a long while as she prepared herself to watch tears evaporate into a furnace.

As she beheld an amethyst sort of glow near the end of the descent, Mandy wanted to think of something funny. The fear she felt inside of her had become in such a short time so much more than the human mind generally accommodated; it wasn't the usual mechanical swirl of raw nerves in her stomach, the kind she could wash away with a glass of water before an exam came up, rather it was something rooted deep inside a sliver of her breastbone like a splinter that told her to turn away. It was something that told her that the eerie dark was encroached by cruel intentions and to turn and run away without stopping and that she needed to breathe in air from the outside again and feel the last of the sun before it smothered itself out and set in her mind forever.

The further she progressed down, down into the darkness she could feel the cold air becoming thick like stone that had crumpled to dust, it sent her breathing harsh and uneven with the umbrage and glow suckling the breath from her lungs and her hands clenched tightly into cold fists and oh God she needed to run, she needed to run... It would only take a few seconds to reach the outside again and breathe in that fresh air, feel that warmth that would tell her it's all right, and it was only growing worse the further she went... For the first time in her life, though she may not have comprehended it just then, she felt truly afraid...

"...I want to go back... ...No, no I said-did you hear me?! I said I wanted to go back, I want to go back, let go of me!"