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Chapter 4
"Could you please repeat that?" Cassie asked, rubbing her eyes. So far, all I had said was "Hello, I need to talk to you." She and I were the only ones in the barn. At five in the morning, I couldn't find the others to get them here. So, me- being me- had awakened Cassie in the middle of the night so I could tell her everything so she could tell the others everything in the morning.
I counted to five. "Are you awake yet?"
"No." She kept rubbing at her eyes.
"How about this for breakfast? Brandy is working for the Crayak- I think. A bunch of freed Controllers have stolen nuclear bombs and are planning to blow up the Yeerk pool, which, I must remind you, is under the entire city. They blow that up, everything goes bang; city go bye-bye. Thousands of lives lost. And, sadly, there will only be one up side."
Cassie was wide awake now. "What's that?" she asked. I could have sworn that she was halfway into shock.
I shrugged. "We won't be having any school Monday."
* * *
She went over to the girl's house- not Mel's, Brandy's. She had heard the conversation between Mel and the girl Cassie in the barn. She didn't know what a Crayak was, nor did she know what Controllers were, or how these Controllers- if they controlled something- could be free. All she knew was that this girl Brandy might know.
Brandy didn't.
Still, by the time she left, she and Brandy had devised a plan. However, she didn't tell Brandy that if the plan worked, she was going to kill Brandy and all of the others. It kind of made sense, actually. In some twisted way.
She grinned and looked across the street at Mel's house. It was nice to have power. Nice to be in control of the situation. Nice to be the hunter.
* * *
The others, hopefully, would not be contacting me. I'd told Cassie it was the only way. With so many people watching me, I couldn't risk getting them into trouble.
Brandy called me the next morning, which I think surprised both of us.
I picked up the phone on the second ring. "Hello?"
I heard Brandy clear her throat. "Hello? Could I please speak to- Mel? Melanie? Please?"
"Hey Brandy. You're talking to her. What's up?" I sat down. A polite conversation with Brandy? This was too much. I think I was going into shock.
"Mel? Um, I was wondering if you could come over here for a few minutes. I, like, REALLY need to talk to you."
"Uh-huh. Why?"
A pause. A few seconds later, "Please? I can't talk to you over the phone. Could you just come over please?"
Brandy needed help? What else was new? EVERYONE needed help. I sighed. Might as well do something.
"Sure. I'll be over in about half an hour. I'll have to catch the bus though."
"Okay. Thanks."
I put the phone down. Brandy was talking to me politely, asking my help, and actually saying thanks. Something was up. I had to find out what it was. Crayak? No, this wasn't his style- not that I knew much about what his style was- but this wasn't it. That left the option that Brandy was really serious. She probably wanted to know how she could suddenly appear and disappear from a certain place. I'd have to explain it to her- not really explain- I'd probably have to tell a flat-out lie.
I started walking to the bus stop.
* * *
I knocked on the door, but nothing happened. I knocked again and waited. I don't like waiting. Especially not now, when everything was a matter of time. I twisted the knob irritably. It turned.
I paused and looked around. Yep, something was definitely up. People in this city don't leave their doors unlocked- even if they were inside at the time.
I stepped in and looked around. This was apparently the living room. A Persian carpet- I think it was an imitation- was in the middle of the floor, surrounded by a bunch of deep chairs and a piano Brandy probably had no clue how to play.
Something hit me in the middle of the back. I remember flying forward, hitting my head on either the chair or the floor, and turning around. Matt's mom was standing above me with something that looked like a metal pipe in her hands. Brandy came up from behind her and looked at me oddly. She was surrounded with an odd light.
And then I passed out.
* * *
The next thing I knew, I was standing in the middle of the Yeerk pool, except I couldn't see myself. And from the way everyone around me was acting, I knew they couldn't see me either. I was invisible, which in my experience meant that I wasn't there. I must have been having some sort of out-of-body experience or something. I looked around me. Why was I here?
I felt a sudden onslaught of information. The others- a.k.a. the Animorphs- were here trying to find something to lead them to the freed Controllers. How had I known that?
Another blast of info.
The freed Controllers were already here.
My attention was suddenly attracted to a fly sticking to a wall in the McDonald's. I walked over to it. It started to fly away down a hall. I kept following.
Are you sure they're down here? Marco asked.
Of course I'm not sure, Jake answered irritably. He was in another part of the pool, also looking for hints or clues. But we need to find the freed Controllers before they blow up the entire city.
Well, I'm sorry to say it, but what if Marco's right on this one? Rachel cut in.
My thoughts exactly, Marco agreed.
I mean, Mel's never been wrong before, but there IS a first time for everything, right?
Shouldn't we make sure that she's wrong before we just abandon everything? Cassie asked. I mean, you said so yourself. She's never been wrong before. Do you really want to risk it?
I don't, Tobias said, making his first comment in the conversation. Jake, we're done searching the ammo tunnel. Ax and I are headed for the one that has Visser Three's quarters.
Hold up on that, Jake ordered. Wait for the rest of us. Just in case.
I heard Marco's private thought-speak to everyone except Jake. Just in case Bird-boy and Ax-man can't take down Visser Three and pretty much every single Controller in this place on alone. Just in case they don't want to commit suicide. Oh- wait. His thought-speak could be heard by Jake again. This IS suicide. Sorry. I thought this WASN'T for a second. What was I thinking?
I don't think you were actually "thinking," Marco, Rachel said. I have never seen you think, so why would you have started just now?
Ha. Ha.
I followed as a bunch of flies started flying down the hallway- I guess it was the only one left that they hadn't checked yet.
I saw things along the walls that got me a little distracted. Blood stains on the walls. Dead roaches and insects, sometimes a dead bat or two shoved up against the wall. If the guys got caught...
Looks like we found the freed Controllers, Tobias said sourly. I looked up and walked over to where the six flies were flying around near the ceiling in front of a door.
Ax made his first comment. Is the device they have with them the nuclear bomb you were mentioning?
Yes, Ax. That's it, Jake told him.
But it's just a box. Like, two inches square. How could that be the nuclear bomb? Cassie wondered.
It's probably just the trigger, Marco guessed. Really. Would you want to be in the Visser's quarters to blow him up when he could slice 'n dice you before you have a chance? They're probably going to hide somewhere down the hall and wait until he goes in.
I'm not even going to ask how you know how to psycoanalyze them, Rachel grumbled.
Lots of attempts to blow up the school or at least a toilet in the boys' bathroom. Caught every time.
Silence.
You know how to make a nuclear bomb? Ax finally asked, sounding somewhat awed.
Marco sighed. No, Ax-man. Human joke.
LAME human joke, Tobias agreed.
Well, Jake said. Now or never.
Never, Marco proposed. Everyone else ignored him.
Let's do it! Rachel said emphatically.
Everyone groaned.
They demorphed and then remorphed into their battle morphs, preparing for the worst, I guess. Ax merely demorphed. Then they went into the room.
There were five Controllers in the room- all of them had the same faint light around them that Brandy had had. They looked up as the guys went in. The biggest, yet most geekiest-looking guy in the group was the one holding the switch. He looked kind of nervous. Heck with that, they all looked a little nervous.
Jake took charge. I noticed that he was nervous, too. I mean, why wouldn't he be? He'd handled a lot of battle situations- even though he hadn't wanted to- but he hadn't exactly had any practice to become a pro at hostage situations. I couldn't believe this. This was actually a real hostage situation.
Listen. Um, you can't do this. You'd kill everybody. Not just the people in the Yeerk pool, but everyone in the city- everyone for miles.
"They'll die anyway," the man said.
The woman next to him added, "It's better than being a slave to those things."
"We'll be careful," said another. I looked at him. He must have been a seven-year-old kid. Ridiculous! A seven-year-old taking part in something like this?! But then again, the Yeerks had taken Karen, and how old had she been?
The man holding the switch was sweating. "Where were you, Andalites? Where were you when those filthy slugs came to Earth, huh? Where were you when they took me and my friends, my wife, my children? Where were you?" he was shouting now. If the guys didn't do something, there would be Controllers swarming all over the place. "Where were you?" the man had quieted his voice, but I knew it wasn't a good thing. His voice was dangerous now. "Where were you when Visser Three cut my wife's head from her body?"
He held up the switch. His thumb was on it, and he was shaking badly. Fear, anger, desperation, loss, I don't know. I went over to him and put my hand on his wrist.
This was my fault. I knew that. I was the one who had gone down to the pool that day. His wife had been in the pool, minding her own business, doing the Yeerk's duty or whatever. I'd gone down to save Brandy. I'd humiliated Visser Three. I'd defeated the Yeerks. The humans who had come out with weapons to help the Visser had been powerless against me. After we had left, the Visser had slain everyone for not being strong enough. It was my fault that this man who had later been saved by the Animorphs and Ax was now taking his revenge. It was my fault that he was going to kill every single soul in nearly a five mile radius- I'm not that good at knowing how much a bomb can blow up.
Neither was this guy. All he knew that one of the freed Controllers had been in the military and gotten a nuclear bomb that hadn't even been properly tested. This guy, an ordinary yet somewhat geeky Joe, had disabled the Gleet-Boifilters.
Now they were going to- Oh, my God.
This was all my fault.
The man was calm as I stepped back. He was scaring me now- just as I was becoming scared as I realized what I had done by using my power to save Brandy.
The man was no longer shaking. The sweat was still pouring down his face, but he was gradually stopping. He looked calmly at the Animorphs and Ax.
"No more," he said. He flicked the switch.
* * *
Everything was gone now. Every single thing that had lived was dead now. I could see that, even from this universe. I looked around. I had a feeling that I was crying, but I stopped myself. It had been my fault, after all. Let the other people cry for the life lost in that city. I would merely be the one they blamed, deep down in their hearts. If I cried, they would feel pity for me, but I didn't want that. I wanted the hate. I needed the hate. Hate was the punishment for what I had done.
I looked around and saw the lines of time, connecting lives together and separating them, ending when someone died. I found an entire section of strings that had stopped suddenly and one that went on, a single string out of the many. Mine. I found where it twisted around the guys' strings and started to untangle it. Something was pushing against me, but I pushed it away. With each knot I undid, I forgot something. Why was I even doing this to begin with? The guys and I were going to find out what was going on and stop the freed Controllers from killing everyone. Eventaully, I forgot everything. All I knew was that I had to keep undoing the knots. If I didn't, something really bad would happen- my instincts were screaming it out at me, and I had really good instincts. I did what they told me to do. Still, that little force that kept me from pulling strings apart left and right was... warning me? Who cared? It had to be better than killing all those people. I kept working at the knots. If they- who?- had never met me, I never would have gone into the Yeerk pool. If I hadn't met them, I would have never dicovered my full power. I would have never made the Yeerks capture Brandy. Matt's mom never would have begun to suspect me. All of those lives never would have been lost.
With a final tug, I undid the last knot.
The last thing I remember was that I had just started the calm before the storm. The twix bar before getting kicked out of the candy shop.
* * *
"And who knows," Mrs. Homesly, the English teacher at my school, asked, "what a gerund is?"
I knew the answer. I raised my hand.
"Mel?"
"A verb acting as a noun," I said confidently. She nodded her satisfaction.
What had happened? I felt... funny. Like I was brand new, but the new me was tired and somehow older, as if the other me had felt the weight of the world bearing down upon her.
"Now," Mrs. Homesly continued, "I have a test for you." A few kids groaned. Mrs. Homesly grinned. "Just to see how much you remember or have forgotten during the summer. Don't worry, you won't be graded."
She handed me my test. My hand brushed hers.
I remembered. We had taught the summer class together. We hadn't had a student named Cassie. Mrs. Homesly wasn't a Controller. Someone or something had undone the line connecting her to the Yeerks, something I hadn't thought of doing.
"Are you all right, Mel?"
I nodded. Brandy, sitting in the seat next to me, snickered. Did she know?
I sent a line out to find the others. Cassie was in Algebra, trying hard to stay awake and concentrate on what the teacher was saying at the same time. Her parents had tutored her. And she'd gotten some help from Erek- both a blessing and a curse. Marco had given up on trying to stay awake and wasn't bothering to hide it. He was about to fall out of his chair, so deep in sleep that he didn't even notice. Rachel was in the same class, wide awake and understanding everything. Jake was in history, yawning but still managing to take down some meager notes in his sloppy handwriting. Ax and Tobias were in Ax's scoop, watching a soap opera on TV.
I checked on Erek, my former teacher, quickly before tuning in completely to the test. He was in a class that seemed to be science, completely bored and yet slightly interested in all that we humans had gotten right and wrong. He was making a quick sketch of a life-like dog in his notebook. I looked at it quickly. I could tell just by looking at it that it was a German sheperd. What was wrong with him? Didn't he know that drawing things that looked like pictures themselves would get him into trouble? If someone saw that and told someone- Erek couldn't pull off being famous- He'd tried once. Thomas Jefferson had gotten lucky on a number of occasions, but Erek King was a totally different matter. The moron would get caught! Idiot! Without meaning to- if I did it at all-, the picture- I mean, DRAWING- caught on fire. Erek, slightly panicked, knocked it onto the floor and watched with the rest of his classmates as it turned into ashes, which disappeared themselves. He looked around, confused.
I went back to my own body and finished the test quickly. I had already known most of the answers- even without Mrs. Homesly's "help." I could once again touch someone and know everything about them.
Erek would tell the guys, I knew it. They would try and find out what had happened. I would be very hard to find, I knew that. I knew I could make sure that I was never found. Yet some force probably wanted them to find me. Some force that wasn't Ellimist or Crayak. They didn't light up the people and things they effected. The Animorphs and I would meet again.
I looked at Mrs. Homesly. There was a faint light around her now. A soft emerald hue shining faintly around her head. Had I done that to her? I hadn't noticed if whoever I had used my powers on had developed that aura around them. Or was that her true aura? No, because Matt's mom and Brandy had been surrounded by the same exact blood-red color, and I hadn't even used my power on Matt's mom.
Speaking of Matt, was he still my boyfriend? I smiled- I sure hoped so.
This red aura was a lot stronger. Possibly stronger than me. It was against me, I knew that. It had tried to kill me on several occasions. The Yeerks. Matt's mom. Brandy. The nuclear bomb.
Like I had told Leslie, though, I was hard to kill.
After all, so far, every time I had been killed, I'd rebounded. Maybe I was easy to kill, I guess. But it was harder to get me to stay dead, that was for sure.
Like Jenny, Cliff, Sly, and Chirp had said, I had a part of fate to play.
I was gonna play it for all it was worth.