THE RESISTANCE II
I stood by the tree, it was a big oaken tree, underneath the tree it was
slightly cooler than the already cool night, a gentle wind blew stirring the
leaves and rustling the branches.
Some of the wind ruffled my hair; I pushed away the long black strands of
my hair, some of them were stained wet, with my tears.
I Angela, who had no reason to cry, was crying. If I had ever cried it
would have been in frustration, caught up in my emotions.
This time I was calm, the heat of war had left me, no reason to retreat
to insanity to deal with it. As I said, underneath the oaken tree there was no
war.
But there was.
A silent war. A never-ending battle. My mind was torn; grief, rage, and
loss.
As I touched the branches of the tree the memories came back, the sweet
ones slowly, the bitter ones in angry flashes. The eye of my mind played back
the visions as if they were real, only I was standing far away looking at the
events unfold beside me.
A girl with long black hair and green eyes, standing at a lake, beside
her was a boy, he stood behind the girl, his hands covering her eyes.
"Don't peek." He whispered.
She stood excited, wondered what was the surprise. "I wouldn't."
He took away his hands from her face, stood back. "Open your eyes."
In front of the girl was stunning scenery; the sky glowed crimson and
gold, higher up was the light blue of the sky. Clouds; flat things that had been
swept by the wind their colors where similar to the sky, a tingle of red, yellow
and slight pink.
The lake was a mirror reflection of the surrounding landscape; the wind
that had brushed the clouds in the previous days was gone. Leaving the lake very
calm as if one could walk on it.
The horizon was nonexistent, huge mountains and behind that, vast forests
blocked it from view.
Everywhere there was greenery and a splash of lively colors, of course
there would be, it was spring.
She turned around to face him. "It's beautiful."
He grinned at her, his blue eyes shinning, his pale skin was glowing red
from the setting sun. His short slightly messy white hair looked like the white
of the snow tipped mountains.
I closed my eyes, don't think about his face…don't think about his face. But it was too late, my mind was already there, and it was screaming.
Stained red, his face was stained red, not from the setting sun but from
blood, his blood.
His once shinning blue eyes where dull, glassy, dead.
He may have been grinning, but his mouth no longer did, it was hanging
slightly open, and a red bloody line was draw at the corner of his lip and down
his face.
The girl held onto his lifeless body. Terror gripped her heart.
They were no longer at the lake, they where miles away, in an underground
chamber.
No stunning scenery. The sound of chirping birds was replaced by
terrified screams of despair and rage. The running water of the nearby waterfall
was replaced by the gentle sloshing of the sludgy molten like pool. The
beautiful sky was replaced by earth. And the spring mood was changed into a
desperate, distressed and agitated persona. It was a place that spoke of horror
and dread.
It was a Yeerk pool.
Standing off at the side of the pool was an Andalite. Of course, no
longer Andalite.
I shook my head, why was I remembering all this? There was no point in thinking about it.
"I'll be back!" The girl shouted, she shouted at the Yeerk, she
shouted to the dead boy.
"I promise!" She screamed, as if screaming would bring him back. She
wanted revenge, she wanted more than just revenge.
That alien had hurt her, hurt her far more than any other person in her
life.
He had taken away the one important thing in her life. And for that, she
promised that she will see that he paid, and she will see to it. To prove that the boy's death was not in vain.
It was over, I felt exhausted and tired, I sank down, back towards the
tree and crouched near the gravestone.
On the stone, engraved was a word, I looked at it silently. I dared not
to read the name out loud.
Alexis
I
buried him in our favorite spot, underneath the oaken tree. Alexis is a casualty
of war.
He was a comrade. A friend to the Resistance. Now, he is forgotten. They
speak of him no more.
I hadn't forgotten him, and although I do not speak of him in front of
the Resistance, I think about him a lot. Recall mostly.
And I wouldn't say his name again. Out loud. Never. Only in front of
his murderer, when I would take out the creature responsible for his death.
I also plan to end my life at that moment of sorrow victory.
In the same spot that Alexis died.
"Here's the deal." Cole was saying, "Whoever gets the short stick
gets to play as backup. And I'll tell you that there are three short
sticks."
I rolled my eyes, "Get it over with Cole."
"Shut up Angela." Cole snarled harshly.
"So now, are you going to shut him up?" I asked Max innocently,
"Isn't that your job?"
"Look, we're here on a mission. Let's not forget that."
"Oh, we are?" Bullet-head looked at Max in mock surprise, "I
thought that was ten minutes ago."
"That was ages ago." I grumbled.
"Come on." Genie said in exasperation, "I'll grab one first."
She did. And she had a short stick. "Oh."
Mitch drew next; he too had a short stick. "Hey, you chipped all of
them off? What's the point you dodo?"
Cole shook his head, I came up and grabbed one, I yanked it out of his
grip. "Long."
"Don't yank like that." Cole muttered.
Melody picked one, she too got a long one.
Max and Bullet-head took a long one.
"Huh?" Cole stuttered, "I play back up? Again?" Then he changed
the look on his face to a sly, mischievous one, "Don't I always?"
"We need you as back up to clear and exit and tell us when to move and
where." Max said, "If you've gotten a long stick I would have stuck in
backup anyway."
"So when are we going? And remind me of this mission of ours, what are
we doing?" Genie asked.
"We're going to stop the Yeerks from converting a Library into a
Yeerk pick-a-host."
"What? All of a sudden the Yeerks single out a quite place to get?
That's not going to be at easy for the Yeerks, us either."
"N-uh." Genie said, "Easy."
"How so?" Mitch asked.
"Come on, how many times have you seen it? Teens our age sometimes go
to the library to dig up research, right? How many times have we or other guys
like us been kicked out for messing around? If you can't remember then I'll
remind you."
"What if the librarian is a controller?" Cole wondered, "This can
go badly on us."
"Yeah, Pitcher will kick us out, sure, she's as old as the library
itself-which is pretty old- I don't think she'd be a controller, not the
kind of host I picture for a Yeerk."
"So, is she or isn't she?" Mitch asked.
"We could ask the Andalites." Max spoke up suddenly, "They have an
advantage over us."
"And a time limit." I reminded, "But it could work."
"Provided they help us." Cole said.
"They will, they have to."
Bullet-head turned to stare at me, "How do you know?"
"I know."
"How are you so sure?" Mitch asked.
"Because, they think we will screw up. If they help us we
wouldn't."
"Huh?"
"Look." I said impatiently, "We met the Andalites right? And they
met us, if we get caught and are made into controllers, the Yeerks might, just
might find a way to use us for bait to lure the Andalites into helping us
out."
"Why would they want to help us?" Bullet-head asked rhetorically.
"Didn't we almost kill one of theirs?"
Cole shook his head, "Odds too high against them in this war, they're
desperate for allies, even I can see that."
I nodded, "If it makes you feel any better, we'd be expendable
allies, Andalites wouldn't be worried that much if one of us died, they think
we're inferior. We learnt that from the Yeerks."
Genie shrugged, "I'm not sure."
"Well I am, and I'm going to try find them."
"How?" Max asked me.
"I'll deal with that."
"Alone?"
"It will work that way."
"No. I'm going with you." Max said.
"Whatever." I decided against arguing.
"Okay." Max said cheerfully, "The rest of you chill while we go
hunting for Andalites, I'm feeling this means going to the forest.
Bullet-head, I'm taking your dog."
"Sure, you need flash lights too."
"We'll get those."
I went upstairs and fetched my Dracon beam, my gun too. As an after
though I changed into my usual espionage outfit; black everything.
Then I headed outside where Max was waiting with Duke, Duke's a German
shepherd, use to be Bullet-head's dad's. His father was a policeman. Canine
unit. So Duke was well trained, we use him if we need to track someone down or
follow from a distance.
"What are we suppose to do? Shout our lungs out? I doubt that it will
work."
"Did you get Duke to sniff the living room?"
"Sure, he knows the sent."
"Then let's move."
And we did, for the most part it was a silent walk, we didn't turn our
lights on; the moon was out and there was enough light to see, we didn't need
to be seen not know.
"You know." Max said, "What if we see him before he sees us?"
"Then we give him a surprise."
"We're not doing that."
"Then why did you ask me?"
"So that you get the hint." He replied, "We're not looking for a
fight, we're going to ask for help."
"No, we're going to tell them to help us. Who said we're
asking?"
Max sighed, "You're impossible."
I stopped walking. Noticed that as silent as the forest was it wasn't devoid of activity. Looked at a lone badger going around his usual day's work. Observe ants, beetles and numerous insects get along with their lives.
"What?"
"You dragged yourself out here for a pep talk didn't you? It wasn't
for the joy of being with me was it? I don't think so."
"Angela-"
"Don't Angela me." I said angrily, "Will you stop acting as if
I'm three years old, I'm seventeen for god's sake, seventeen."
"Look, we didn't have time to talk about it maybe that was a bad
idea, maybe we should have talked about-"
"We wouldn't." I said coldly, I knew what he was talking about,
"No point opening up the past. That was history it will stay that way. Do you
understand?"
I started to walk again; Max reached out and grabbed my shoulder. I
stopped and glanced back at him, I saw him looking at me strangely.
"I understand Angela, but do you?"
"I think we're close." Max whispered.
Duke crouched low to the ground.
"Let's move on." I whispered back.
"Wait!" He hissed, "Did you hear that?"
I froze and strained to hear something. I did, it was a jumble of words,
along with music. I raised an eyebrow at Max, what was this.
Suddenly Max grinned.
"What?"
He shook his head still grinning, he started to mouth a word, I frowned.
TV?
I closed my eyes and concentrated on what I was hearing, now there were
no words but only music, music that was strangely familiar, something I've
watched a long, long time ago.
It was a Cartoon. Tom & Jerry. And the Andalite was watching
it.
I rolled my eyes sky high. This was coming from an arrogant species that
considered humans to be inferior and backwards?
The volume was on high, not too high but high enough for us sneak up
slowly…and before Max could open that mouth of his and call out to approve of
our visit I stepped out of the trees and said. "Hey, we want to talk."
The Andalite jerked, startled. He had caught sight of me as I walked out
of the trees. He muted the TV and then walked calmly up to me, I took a step
back.
Max managed to untangle himself out of a thorn bush and stomped the rest
of the bush moving forwards, Duke watched us from a distance.
How did you find me?
"You're not particularly clever." I said airily, I leered at him,
"Better cover your tracks next time."
Max glared at me, shook his head, he looked at the Andalite and said,
"I'm sorry about that, but we needed to find you, we need your help
actually."
Help? Plah! Who said we needed help? We need assistance,
assistance in doing an irrelevant job that wouldn't really affect the
situation.
You? Need our help? The Andalite laughed. Maybe I should have
covered my tracks.
"I'm not flattered." I muttered. I knew that Max was though.
"I don't suppose you'll let me talk to you're leader. Will
you?"
"Now why wouldn't he? We're perfectly harmless." The Andalite
looked at me in a strained kind of way, his eyes revealed a slight hint of
disgust.
He was trying to ignore me. I wasn't going to make that happen, no one
is going to ignore me.
"What? I said something wrong?" I masked my voice with genuine
concern.
No. He replied evenly, he seemed to want to say more but stopped
himself.
I'll have fun with this one later, when I get to know him better, why
rush ahead? I can play my games at ease. I smiled at him.
"So…?" Max asked looking at the Andalite.
I will arrange that. He replied, But under one condition.
"Which is?"
All of you in The Resistance is to be there.
Drat.
He paused and looked at me, No foul play.
Double Drat.
We told them the situation. It was urgent because of the amount of people
who visit the library. Kids, students, college students, adults, teachers, and a
lot more. And oddly enough, it seemed that there were actually people who loved
to 'hang out' in the library.
Weirdoes. Like Cole. Like Melody. Addicted to books. Cole got his brain
stuck in science fiction since childhood, while Melody got her imagination
running on fiction from a long time ago.
I don't like libraries. The only kinds of books I've read were the
horror ones. And occasionally fantasy.
Don't stare at me; I once fell in love with the mystic dragon. A
beautiful monster. A worthy animal if it had ever lived.
Mysterious. That's what I like.
Which is why I wear black. Melody wears casual so you got to figure what
she's like, and Genie's average, make nothing about her. Neither Genie nor
Melody got style, I try to encourage them to wear things that express something
about their character and I always get nowhere. The boys know nothing about
dressing up, or clothes for that matter.
There was this time when Bullet-head was looking for something light to
wear, it was a hot day and we had to spend a lot of time outdoors for
surveillance. He grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt. He reduced his jeans to
shorts by shredding the legs and tore the sleeves off his shirt. Fashion
statement?
Interesting question. I approved of it, no one else did. This kind of
stands against my point, doesn't it? Bad example.
Anyway. Cole was acting like his usual self; quiet, considering. Planning
something no doubt. Max though was much more diplomatic than usual. Mitch threw
a grin here and there. Melody was withdrawn as usual. Bullet-head eyeballed each
and every one of the Andalites and Genie aided Max in 'reaching out'.
I acted uninterested and unimpressed. Whenever asked a question I'd
pull on a sour look and replied sarcastically, my routine. Sure I'm not in a
bad mood but that was the way I wanted the Andalites to know me as; I believe in
first impressions. And I wanted to build a false one.
Why? Because it's part of
The Game. I cannot tell you what the game is and what is its rules or anything.
My comrades in The Resistance know of The Game. They know nothing more of it
other than its existence. They don't even know that I play it.
You will not believe the story behind it.
Let me back up a little. You passed a humongous border by believing about
the existence of aliens. The invasion. Yeerks. Andalites. The war.
There is a Game too. Played by two. They are the masters of this
universe, their names I can tell you quiet easily. It will mean nothing to you
of course, you have never heard of it. I am the only human that had.
And of these aliens, the Andalites I should say that heard the name of
the creature that I am about to mention, you will not believe me, because you
never have.
Ellimist.
What is the Ellimist? Who? Is it one? A she? He? Or even it? A group? A
race?
Even I do not know. But what I know is that he has an enemy; Crayak.
And I serve Crayak.
That day, the day that I remembered only too well, the day that I held
the gun and pointed it at my father.
He came to me, whispered.
I will make you become who you are.
I never truly understood what he meant by it. He said that I deserved
more, more than being treated like rubbish, more than becoming a mere figment in
the rolling sea of human madness.
He said that I will make a difference; I will become more than just a
human. I will become The Human.
The Aldrea. Prince Elfangor. Dak the Seer. The Abomination. The human;
Angela.
I don't know what I am destined to do, I have no idea. But I do know
that I hold a curious thread of time, and that it will happen.
Whatever it is. It will happen.
The Angela. I like the
sound of that.
Oh.
That was my reaction. Oh.
They were humans? Oh.
Why on Earth or off Earth would they trust us? It made no sense. To me
anyways. Max said that it was unimportant if I understood or not. He's right;
I could only care less.
There was more to the story than that, I know that there was two more
meeting with The Animorphs. I had not been there.
I was sick. And I stayed behind alone in Base, just me, Duke and Jewels.
It happens, hey I'm human. Human get ill at times. But I thought it was
more than that, I thought that there was something in the meeting said, about me
or about them, that I was not to hear. Or a conclusion I was not to reach.
The Game?
I was very sure. And that troubled me, was there something Crayak
didn't want me to hear. If then why didn't he send me his wildcard?
Drode and Drone, double wildcards, where one is seen and the other is
heard. Well not heard, but meddles around in your brain. Drone is virtually
non-existent. But just the same he is there. Think of him as a lost Soul. One
evil, sad soul. I like that.
I managed to know their names; Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, Marco and
Ax. One Andalite. This was a slight disappointment.
We were to get on with this mission of ours. The library thing. And you
want to know what infuriates me? I was not needed.
Ahhh! Who are they to
ignore me? Don't they understand what I would become? It was as if suddenly
there was this throbbing heat in my body, a fire that I couldn't get rid of.
With the fire glowed a red eye.
I glanced around my room, my eyes saw everything red. Red… red… red…
red! My brain started to spin uncontrollably. The red film over my eyes
became denser… blood. Crude, red, blood.
I dashed out of my room looking for something that repelled the red, my
eyes searched my surroundings. Nothing.
My breathing became short, blackness started to sweep from the corners of
my eyes, started to take away my vision.
I staggered outside Base and into the forest. The forest was the Base's
backyard. Duh, we were in the middle of nowhere.
Everything was green. Slowly, the black curtains were drawn back, my red
stained vision went to normal. Green. Peaceful. No blood.
I felt my brain relax, the wheels stopped spinning. I leaned against one
of the trees. My muscles eased.
The oaken tree.
For some strange reason I glanced down. At the ground.
I jolted. Jumped as if I was electrified.
The grave.
I felt the blood drain from my face.
I stepped back, trembling. The earth had been dug out, just underneath
the marked stone.
But the body…?
I spun round, nothing, I started to move away when I noticed a strange
smell. Smell of decay.
I looked up into the great tree.