Morbid, isn't it, to be writing about the Animorphs dying, being captured, and so forth? Very. These are written in the present tense for a reason – infested/dead Animorphs can't exactly tell tales, so it has to be narrated as the events are occurring; I hope it isn't too disconcerting. I'm underlining and italicizing anything from the original text; it kinda helps set the scene.

Book One - Never Given a Chance

Oh god, everything is racing through my head – I can't stop shaking. Oh god, oh god, oh god! This, the aliens, the – what were they, Hork-Bajir and something? – were headed our way! I desperately wished for the mental voice to ring in my head, but the Andalite was silent from his final resting place in the stomach of the monster that was now another Andalite, only not.

I don't know who panicked first. Maybe it was me. Maybe we'd just had all the fear and horror we could stand. It was like an electric shock went through all of us. We were running before I had a chance to even know what I was doing.

I gasped for breath, my lungs burning, cursing me for forgetting to breathe in my abject terror. I wanted to scream for us to split up, but choked on the words and the vomit I could taste welling in the back of my throat. We might as well have been a terrified herd in stampede, easy prey for the predators in hot pursuit.

A boy's scream pierces the night, sending convulsions down my spine and ice water in my stomach! Did somebody just get killed? Who was it – Marco, Tobias? I don't know, can't think, don't CARE! Damn it, I don't want to die, don't need the pictures of being mutilated into bloody pieces by those freaky centipede teeth! I should care, but god, I'm too scared out of my wits, and my life is all that matters right now!

A blur of blonde flashes into my peripheral view, screaming the words that I'd wanted to what seemed like an eternity ago.

"Split up! They can't follow all of us!"

I don't know if they can, Rachel, but they can definitely follow some of us!

She's running along beside me, hypocritical as that is – I'd have said something about it if it wasn't for the absolute fear coursing through every cell in my body. Whimsically, I even momentarily forget our perilous situation; a sudden blood-curdling cry from the darkness to the left halts the diversion, however, and I'm back to running on terror, on shot nerves wound so tightly that I'm sure they're one twitch away from snapping.

And abruptly, my world became vertigo as the ground slipped beneath my feet, the sharp jolt in my left toes telling me that I've tripped against a hard concrete slab. My elbow cracks against that same concrete, sounding as thought it was broken. Rachel streaks past me, stops, and looks back; I shake my head wildly, like a crazed animal.

"Don't be an idiot! RUN!"

Concern for her safety is banished from my mind by my arm being lifted up; I'd have cried out in pain at the extension of bruised and broken bone, but fear permeates my brain and serves its role as the most effective anesthetic. It does nothing, however, as the blade attached to the alien's arm slices into my torso like a bar of butter.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Warm wetness floods my shirt as my heart beats cool; looking down with wide eyes, I can see red-white bone reflecting the little light there was in the area. I should stop staring and do something, anything, to escape, but I can't – I'm held in thrall at the sight of the torn shirt and dark liquid over the pale bone. The terror is going away – everything is going away, all sensation. I...I can't feel my hands anymore. My legs sag as my knees buckle, and it's all so cold, so cold, like I'm freezing from the inside out.

I-I'm dying! No! I'm still just a kid! What have I done to deserve this?! I want to scream, but all my voice can manage is the whimper of the captured prey in its death throes as a dark haze fills my mind.

My head lolls to the side as my neck muscles relax, no longer having the strength to hold its burden up. As my vision darkens, I see the freakish alien figures beset someone – Rachel? – backed up against a mess of steel framework, but I don't particularly care anymore. No energy left to care...

So positively uplifting, isn't it? I wish it was longer, but really, there wasn't much left to say – nothing has happened at this point in the book. And yes, in the book itself, a human (Tom, I think) tells a Hork-Bajir that there's no need to capture, just kill.

If you want more to drag your days down, review?