CONTINUED….
Chapter 6
RACHEL
November 21, 2007
California
"Hey Tobias!" I yelled over the screaming mass of people and the blaring music. "Think we should leave now?"
Tobias yelled back, "Yeah, everyone's starting to get drunk!" He took a swig out of the glass he was holding, held it up like a toast, and started laughing.
I grabbed his cup and threw it in a trash can. Then I looped my arm around his and steered him toward the front door of the frat house, stepping over spilled bottles of beer and broken glasss. Tobias stumbled after me.
"You little drunk!" I exclaimed, laughing, once we got outside. "How many cups did you have?"
"Not that many," he said defensively, then stumbled over a rock and fell against me. I made a "tsking" sound.
"That's the last time I take you to a frat party!"
"But I was having so much fun," he whimpered.
"Maybe if you're a good boy, we can do it again."
He laughed and turned down a road that led to the beach.
"How does a romantic walk on the beach sound?" he asked innocently.
"Sounds great," I replied, and jumped on his back for a piggyback ride.
"Jeez, muscle girl, did you put on some weight?"
"Of course not, you're just getting weaker," I replied innocently. We joked lightheartedly until we got to the beach. A few people were walking around, but for the most part, the beach was empty.
"Look at the moon," Tobias said in awe. The full moon was huge, and the glare bounced over the small waves.
"It's beautiful," I agreed. Tobias put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a half hug. We walked along the shore.
After a few minutes, I stopped walking and turned around to face him. I brushed back a few strands of hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. "Why do you have to be so sweet?
"It's my job," he said with a grin. The strands of hair fell in front of his eyes again, and again I reached up to fix them. HE grabbed my hand and held it to his head, then kissed it.
"That was so Romeo," I whispered. Tobias wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer. He slowly moved his head down and kissed me. I could smell, and taste, the beer in his mouth, but didn't really care. We stoof there for a minute, lips together. I felt so safe in his arms. He pulled away and I putmy head on his chest, listening to his heart beat.
He held me in his arms, with his head on mine. We swayed back and forth. Finally, regretablly, we walked home.
Chapter 7
TOBIAS
We walked to our small apratment that we shared. Rachel went to get changed and I flopped down on the couch and flipped through the limited channels on our channel impaired tv. It was 1:00 in the morning, so nothing was on. I sighed and turned off the tv, then went to my room. I took a quick shower and threw on a pair of boxers. I went back to the living room and stretched out on the floor. Rachel came in and layed down beside me. We lay there, staring at the ceiling, when the phone rang.
I jumped up to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Tobias?" a familiar voice said.
"Jake! Hey, What's up?" An evil laugh followed.
"It worked!"
"What worked?" I asked, confused.
The voice suddenly got somewhat deeper. "One of my new toys!"
Insane laughter.
"What the…who is this?"
"My name is Illimist 227. How am I here? Well, you did not manage to kill me along with a few other yeerks. And we are tracking down the original Animorphs. See, we need your bodies. If people hear from you that the yeerks are good, they'll come back to us. We've already tracked down Jake, and even tortured him a bit with another one of your toys!"
I felt like fainting. Yeerks? Here? Rachel must have seen my face because she came over to me and mouthed, "Who is it?" I mouthed back, "Hold on a second."
"What'd you do to Jake?"
"He'll be ok, we wouldn't kill him. Yet. He's just going to have a bad temper. Forever. We also know everything about him." He cackled, and I could hear the voice change to a younger guy's. "We even have his voice!" It sounded so much like Jake that is was spooky.
"Now, if you will cooperate, we'll get your information too, along with showing you another new toy of ours." Before I could do anything, I heard a high pitched beep that almost broke my ear drum. Then I felt a tingle go up and down my arm, and it turned numb. I dropped the phone.
"Tobias!" Rachel called helplessly. Then I collapsed, and everything went black.
Chapter 8
RACHEL
"Oh my God!" I shrieked. "Tobias!" I fell to the floor beside him. I felt his bare chest for a heart beat, and felt one. "OK, what do I do?" I asked myself, panicked. "Call 911," I decided.
I dialed the phone and they said they would be there soon. "Now what? Ok, get it together. What happened on the phone? He was talking to Jake. But then he said, 'what did you do to jake?' I'll call Cassie to see if Jake's ok."
I picked up the phone and called Cassie.
RING
RING
RING
RING
"Hi, this is Cassie, I'm not here…"
"Urg! Answering machine! Now what? Call Jake. Yeah."
I dialed Jake's number.
RING
RING
RING
RI…
"Hello?" I heard a groggy voice answer.
"Cassie! What are doing at Jake's."
"Sleeping," she yawned.
"Ah, ok. Is something wrong with Jake?"
"Um, yeah, actually. He blacked out earlier. Had to go to the hospital. Howdya know?"
"It happened to Tobias!"
Pause.
"Really?"
"Yeah! The ambulance is coming now," I said.
"Call me when you get back."
"OK."
The ambulance came and I rode with Tobias in the back. He didn't move at all.
Chapter 9
TOBIAS
Everything was black. Then I woke up and I was falling, falling towards a rushing river. I flapped my wings, trying to fly up, but then remembered I didn't have any. So I fell, straight under the river. Water went up my nose and mouth, and I gagged. I rose above the water and yelled 'help!' at the tops of my lungs.
Suddenly all the water disappeared. I turned around and saw a bobcat lunging at me. I ducked and saw a raccoon waddling towards me. I turned around and saw a golden eagle rake its talons at my eyes. Then I saw Rachel.
"Help, Rach!" I ran towards her but she held up her hand in a stop motion. I stopped and she pulled out a dracon beam and held it up to my face! I blinked, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Rachel looking down at me.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" I yelled and covered my face.
"Tobias, Tobias, it's ok."
I looked around. I was in a hospital. Rachel held out her hand. I took it and lay there trembling.
"What happened? I had an awful…dream."
"You fainted." To the doctor, she asked, "Can he go home?"
"If nothing else is wrong, I suppose so, as long as he takes it easy for a few days.
I turned out that I was fine, and we went home. Rachel called the airport and booked a flight to Florida for the next morning.
CHAPTER 10
CASSIE
"Hey, Jake," I said softly as I shook him awake. "Are you ok?"
"Get away from me," he said and rolled over.
I laughed, "What a grouch! Come on, you have to get up, Rachel and Tobias are come…" To my horrible surprise, Jake sat up and slapped me. Hard. Across the face.
"I told you to get away from me," he pulled the blanket over his head. I sat there for a minute. I was stunned.
"Fine then! Stay there!" I said angrily. I started to get up but Jake sat up and stopped me.
"I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened! It was like I was possessed or something."
"Uh, ok…It's ok, I guess."
"I'm really sorry."
I smiled weakly. "Don't worry about it."
He swung his legs over the side of the bed. "What'd you say about Rachel and Tobias?"
"I said they're going to be here in a few hours."
"Ok." He got up, grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants, and went into the bathroom. I had already called Marco, and he would be over in about an hour. I heard the shower come on, and I worried about Jake.
Chapter 11
RACHEL
"Don't you think we could wait until later to leave?" Tobias grumbled. I had to admit, it was pretty early in the morning. Especially since we hardly got any sleep. "The sun hasn't even come up yet."
"We have to go see the gang ASAP, so we have to leave early. Have you finished packing yet?
"Pretty much, yeah," he answered.
"Let's hit the road then!" I said, too brightly.
"Mmmm-hmmm."
I drove us to the airport. It was only 5:00, and thanks to a new type of technology they came up with a few months ago, we could arrive in Florida around 9:30 or so.
When we arrived we grabbed our bags out of the trunk and went to catch the plane. While we were waiting for our flight to be called, we sat in a big room with large open windows so the passengors could watch the planes take off. As we watched a large plane leave, I saw Tobias's eyes widen and he started trembling.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I…I can't do it."
"Do what?"
"I can't fly. It's terrifying."
"You? You, who spent a large portion of your life living in the air? What do you mean?"
"I dunno, I'm scared."
"Don't worry about it. It's ok." Our flight was called. "Come on Tobias, we have to go."
He suddenly stopped trembling and he relaxed. "I dunno what happened! I'm cool now, but I was so scared! It's spooky."
I was silent as we walked to the boarding place, but secretly I was worried about Tobias. A lot.