The sound of rain on our tent ceiling was the only sound that comforted our miserable group. We all sat in our new home. A worn out tent with it's share of holes. It was fairly large, big enough for four rickety bunk beds, a worn old table, two wobbly chairs, and a couple of old wooden trunks. Everything about the place was dreary, it seemed as though hope had given up and depression had made itself comfortable in the confines of our little hole in the ground. I sat on my cot with my legs pulled to my chest. I glanced at the others. Cally lay in her bed, still unconscious from the earlier attach, Zeek sat on the floor beside her, his head hung as he mumbled incoherently about something or other. Brad and Luke sat at the table, both attempting to keep a conversation going about something other then the attack. Jace sat by himself, on the floor in the corner of the room; just staring off into space, the only sign that told me he was still alive was the fact he blinked every now and then. And Shane sat on the cot next to me; he looked longingly out the plastic window, at the sad world outside. Yeah, depression was definitely planning on moving in permanently.
"Do you suppose the Animorphs went threw stuff like that?" Luke asked aloud, trying to put an end to the mood of hopelessness.
"Of course they did," Brad's face brightened. "They went threw it all!"
Brad wasn't exactly the smartest of our group, but when it came to anything, and I mean anything, involving Animorphs he knew it all.
"Just think..." Zeek spoke up, a tinge of self-hatred in his voice. "They didn't go threw the years of training we did, and we did ten times worse then they would of..."
"Zeek," Shane sighed. "Their first battle experience didn't even involve missiles.."
"But we went threw every possible training we could have; we prepared for all this crap." Zeek said visibly frustrated. "And we still failed miserably. We all almost got killed for crying out loud!"
Zeek was upset. For Zeek to get upset something extremely awful had to occur. Zeek's one of thoughts people that go around with a smile on their face 24/7. He doesn't get mad. He doesn't over react. He doesn't get upset. But you could tell he was all three of those things at that moment.
"We all new actually being in a battle would be a whole new experience," I said "plus we didn't exactly expect a surprise attach."
"How did the Yeerks know we were coming anyway?" Luke asked suddenly. "Our ship was cloaked, and from what I heard, us arriving were kept in the strictest confidence. Most of the soldiers here didn't even know about us."
"Traitor.." Jace whispered from his section of the room, never once he turned his gaze to us.
"What?" Shane looked at Jace with skepticism.
"There's a traitor in the ranks... A double agent..." Jace continued. "Someone who's leaking information to the Yeerks."
"Get real!" Zeek practically yelled. "There's no way in heck a Yeerk could get in here! Everyone who comes and goes is scanned for a Yeerks; all animals found within the vicinity are caught or shot. It's impossible."
"It doesn't have to be a Yeerk. It could be some just guy the Yeerks paid off to spy." Jace said, this time he turned towered the group, though his eyes were still distant. "Anyone greedy enough would sell out his own mother..."
"I sure hope your wrong..." Shane said. "Because if you're rite then we are going to have to suspect everyone in this camp of treachery..."
"We can't even start to think like that..." Cally said, her eyes still closed she must have been listening to the conversation. "If we do then we'll get our priorities mixed up and end up questioning every order and assignment we are given."
"Cally!" Zeek jumped up. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine." Cally smiled, opening her eyes. "I think most of my injuries have healed." She sat up and stretched to see if anything still hurt.
"Well that's one less thing to worry about." Brad smiled; relieved his little sister was awake.
I glanced out the window. It had grown dark as we'd been talking, and now outside the window it seemed as though we were trapped in a vat of ink.
"I think it's time we all got some sleep." I suggested. "The only one of us that has actually rested since we got here is Cally."
"You're rite." Shane sighed and lay down on his bed. "Let's get some sleep, no doubt tomorrow we will get our orders."
Brad and Luke got up from their seats and found their beds, and lay down, as did Zeek.
"Goodnight." Zeek yawned, realizing how exhausted he was.
"Night." Cally said lying back down and closing her eyes.
"Sleep tight." I said, crawling under the thin blanket.
"Don't let the bedbugs bite." Shane finished the rhyme.
"Hey, better bugs then slugs." Luke laughed.
"Got that rite!" Brad agreed.
Shane turned out the light that had provided barely enough to see, and we all settled in for the night.
At the time I didn't realize that Jace had stayed in his spot in the corner, just staring into the vast pit of darkness that dwelt outside our windows and that engulfed us once the lights were out...
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There I mentioned the Animorphs... I'm hoping to include the history of the Animorphs a little more in the up coming chapters. But I figured I'd better mention them soon because I was afraid I'd loose all my readers if I didn't... All two of them... ^_~