Chapter 11 (Joe)
We stood at the end of the pier, a Hork-Bajir flanking me at either side, each having a secure grip on one of my wrists. I was not getting out of this one easily. There were sounds of water, like waves lapping at the shore. That was the only pleasant sound. Shouts and screams of pure horror filled the air. I think I could safely assume that nobody liked what was going down here. Ahead of us, a woman was being infested, a woman about the same age as my mother. She was kicking and screaming, but it made no difference, they just pushed her head under anyway. After a few seconds they pulled her up roughly by a handful of her hair. I could still see the grey slug slithering into her ear. With a squelching sound, it finally disappeared. The woman calmly stood straight and walked, unaided, down the pier.
I felt the grip on my wrists tighten. My turn. I was quickly and efficiently walked down the pier. Taking a quick, desperate glance to either side, I saw that several Controllers had turned out to watch. This had to be some event for them. Before I realised it, we'd reached the end of the pier. Slowly, for the first time, it finally dawned on me what they were about to do to me. They were going to make me a slave. I was just going to get up and walk back down that pier. I wasn't going to be in control of myself any more.
Desperately I struggled against the grip of the Hork-Bajir. I yelled and screamed, but they didn't hear me and I don't know what I said. But it didn't work. Grabbing a handful of hair roughly, just like they had with the woman before me, they shoved my head beneath the surface of the water.
Imagine someone pushing your head beneath the surface of a swimming pool. Well, that's what it was like at first. No problem, if I held my breath I'd be fine. That's when it started. Pain like nothing I'd ever felt before, even during the removal of my finger. Like someone had a drill to my ear and was trying to find out if it was true that my brain was the size of a small peanut.
As it shot through my skull, the pain forced me to take a convulsive gasp. I'm sure I inhaled half that Yeerk pool. And they still had my head under the water. I remember thinking, Let me pass out, please let me pass out. I knew exactly what was happening too. I could feel my brain slowly loosing contact with my body. And the pain… Oh man, if you think you've felt pain before, I suggest you take a trip to your local Yeerk pool to find out what pain really is.
Then, without any warning, the pain stopped. The only reminder was a dull ache, like a strong headache.
They almost ripped half the hair out of my head when they pulled me back out of the water. I lay where they had dropped me, hacking and gagging from the inhaled water. I coughed and coughed… and then I think I coughed some more.
I tried to get to my feet. It wasn't working. Oh heck! I thought, They've got me good this time. Anything to let me know I was still me. It was all a huge practical joke, and everyone was going to yell Gotcha! I was still holding onto that slim hope through the whole thing. Even after what I had seen here, what I had heard and thought about, I was still hoping it was this huge joke. I was hoping too much.
Joseph, said a sinister voice in my head. We have a lot to find out about you Joseph. More voices in my head? It didn't sound an awful lot like Visser Three. I wasn't so scared by this new voice.
You will learn to be afraid of me Joseph. What? Had this thing read my mind or something? It laughed. Think Joey, think. I'm inside your head now, watching what you're thinking, watching everything you've ever thought. I'm in charge here and you can do nothing about it. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to stand up and wave a banner humming the national anthem. I wanted my body back. I tried to open my mouth and say my own name. Nothing. I couldn't do it, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't do it. It laughed. Now I knew this was no joke.
Don't struggle Joseph. No host has ever taken on a Yeerk and won.
Get out of my head you… you… SLUG! I yelled. Yeah, I know. What an insult. But give me a break! I'd had a rough day.
I had never felt real hate before, not until then. I wanted to kill it. I have never never wanted to deliberately kill anything in my life, human or otherwise.
I wouldn't count on it. This is such an interesting mind, why would I leave? It sneered at me from inside my mind. The only place I knew my secrets were really safe. They weren't safe there any more.
I know everything about you Joseph. Anything I want to know. Your brain is like a computer to me. I look up what I need. I use you.
I won't let you!
Oh no? I could feel it rooting through my brain like it was a phone book. Taking what it needed to torment me. I know for a fact that you're afraid of spiders.
Spiders? Oh yeah. Spiders, big time. The little ones didn't bother me. The bigger ones scared me senseless. It's just the way they move. If they didn't have eight legs, just six maybe, it wouldn't be so bad. Ohhh. Creepy little buggers.
Just the bigger ones though. You don't like the way they move. I could feel the smug feeling it was having, teasing me like this. Laughing silently inside my head.
Only a miracle could save me now.