THE HUNTED
Chapter 5 Jake
Liar! Liar! So I gave up, did I? Liar!! I screamed, as I had been doing for a few minutes, at the Yeerk in my head. A Sub-Visser. He claimed it was an honour to be a Sub-Visser's host.
Some honour.
Crawl out of my head so I can step on you, you lousy good-for-nothing parasite!
Oh, the Sub-Visser replied. Defiant, are we? We'll see about that. I'll even let you watch as your friend here falls to the power of the Yeerk Empire.
I started calling him names which shouldn't be repeated… and I meant every single one.
Let's just see how much of your dignity remains after you caught Cassie, the Yeerk taunted. You know, it's all your fault. Let's put Cassie on your conscience. Yes, I think I'll apply for that mission. As a bonus, you'll be begging… for once.
That made me quiet down. For a few moments.
Ax, poor Ax, was still screaming. Because of my mistake. The Yeerk had a point. It was all my fault. And because of my mistake, the other Animorphs were going to be hunted down and caught, one by one.
I started crying, in my head. I had no control over my body. And I didn't have full control of my mind, either. The Yeerk read every one of my thoughts. He played my memories as movies, and he laughed at my tries to regain control.
He made me watch it. He made me watch as the Hork-Bajir lifted the Yeerk out of the box, and as the green-grey slug was, slowly and carefully, lowered towards Ax's ear.
My fault.
I couldn't close my eyes, and I couldn't turn away. And my mind couldn't close out what my eyes were seeing.
Yes, the Yeerk agreed. Your fault.
Ax's screaming stopped very suddenly. His expression was horrified, panicked. He tried to break loose from under my tiger body and from the grips of the very strong Hork-Bajir, but in vain. The Yeerk slithered into his ear. Then we heard Ax's thought-speech voice, which no longer was his;
Well, well, well… what have we here? Let's see… four legs, a deadly tail, four eyes, and weak arms. Can it be the second Andalite-Controller of the galaxy?
I didn't hear Ax screaming. But I'm sure that in his head, for only him and his Yeerk to hear, he was still screaming. I was also pretty sure that he wouldn't stop for a long time.
My body walked away from Ax. The Hork-Bajir helped him to his hooves. As Ax moved, looking around, and walked, it wasn't him doing it.
What are we supposed to do now? Ax's thought-speak voice asked.
Now? the Yeerk replied with my voice. Now, we go bird-hunting.
Tobias.
Tobias. What do you want with Tobias? He's useless as a host. He's a bird.
Oh, yes, my Yeerk agreed smoothly. Useless. But we want to catch your cousin, Rachel, alive. She'd be a useful host. And from what you know about her, she would never let herself be caught alive. She'd be trouble. Let's just say we'll keep the bird alive … in exchange for good behaviour from you others.
I started demorphing. Or, the Sub-Visser did it for me.
Ax started morphing a northern harrier. That's his bird-of-prey morph.
"Give me the rain coat," my voice ordered. "Hork-Bajir, move out. Position two. Don't go too close, and be careful not to alert the hawk. He has got ears better than yours. The one who alerts him of your presence will have to explain it to Visser Three!"
A Hork-Bajir handed me the rain coat he had been carrying.
As soon as Ax had morphed the harrier, he morphed back. His injuries - the ones that I, the tiger, had caused him - were gone. That was why his Yeerk had morphed. To get rid of the injuries.
We started walking towards Tobias. He wouldn't suspect a thing.
After all, we looked like Jake and Ax. We acted like Jake and Ax. So there was no reason for him to suspect that we were any other than Jake and Ax.
I kept quiet during the walk, saying nothing directly to the Yeerk. But I couldn't stop myself from thinking, and the Yeerk read and registered every single one of my thoughts.
I dreamt up these really unrealistic hopes. Of Tobias somehow escaping, and alerting the others in time. Somehow, Marco, Tobias, Rachel …and Cassie… would escape.
I had thoughts of being rescued, too. But my Yeerk laughed at those like the foolish, unrealistic dreams they were. There was close to zero chance for me or/and Ax to be rescued, and even less for us to escape.
We made a lot of noise as we came closer to Tobias's meadow, and his favourite tree. So it was no surprise when we heard his thought-speech voice in our heads;
Jake? Ax-man? Is that you guys?
"Yes, it's us," the Yeerk replied with my voice. "We need to head over to Cassie's barn right away."
Chapter 6 Tobias
My name is Tobias. I'm now, and probably permanently, a red-tailed hawk. But the Ellimist gave me back my morphing powers. So now I'm a boy who's stuck in hawk morph, but was given back his morphing powers by a being that makes humans look about as intelligent and sophisticated as amoebas.
There's the basics.
Rain was pouring down, and I was wet through and through. I would need a catapult to get me up into the air.
I can't fly in this weather, Jake, and you know that, I complained.
We can carry you, Ax offered. We need to hurry.
Fine, I said. You may carry me, if you want to.
Jake and Ax came closer, and when they were close enough Jake stretched up his arm for me to perch on. I fluttered down to it, and tried not to dig in my talons to deep in his skin.
I hate heavy rain, I commented. I really, really, hate this horrible rain.
"You can borrow my raincoat," Jake said. It hung over his shoulder, unused.
Without waiting for me to reply, he placed the hood over my head.
Thanks… I began, but then Jake's arm flew up and closed the hood around me. His - and Ax's, I think - hands secured the raincoat around me until I couldn't move a muscle, and barely could breath. One of my wings was twisted and on the merge of snapping.
Hey! What's going on? I demanded angrily. And scared, I must admit.
They didn't answer me, but I did hear Jake's voice say; "Bring the sack."
What's going on here? I repeated. Is this some kind of a joke? 'Cause if it is, it's not funny!
"No, no joke," Jake's voice said form outside the rain coat.
Our hosts are very sorry about this, Ax told me. then he added with a very un-Ax like, sardonic tone; For all the good it may do.
Yeerks!! I cried, alarmed.
"They have a tendency to react like that, don't they?" Jake remarked calmly.
I just realised something. If Jake and Ax were Controllers, then..? The others?
Some of them are free, so far, Ax's Yeerk informed me. But do not worry. They know nothing. We will catch them, too. We have quite many of Sub-Vissers in need of good hosts.
They dropped me and the raincoat into the sack. Then my wing snapped.
Great. For all the trouble I already had, I now had a broken wing, too. Just what I needed. Just what had been missing. Just great…
The pain of a broken wing, for those of you that never have been birds, is incredible. It isn't something you'll just say "it'll go over", or stand up again and ignore it. It HURTS. A lot.
This is definitely animal abuse, I said. I am so going to report this.
But I was morphing. My feathers were giving way to hollow fur that looked white. I was slowly growing larger. Bit by bit. I was morphing the polar bear that we had all acquired so long ago. So my talons and wings disappeared to give room for huge paws with black soles.
I mean, it was the only morph I thought would have a chance against Jake and Ax with their various dangerous morphs. I was growing large. And heavy. And seriously strong.
My beak melted and I grew a nuzzle. My mouth filled with sharp teeth.
I was almost completely formed before I started the serious growing. So I was a mini-sized polar bear when my weight started to rip the material in the sack.
I grew. And grew. So finally, the sack burst and I fell out. I landed roughly on the ground, but struggled up on all fours and began running away, and I was still growing.
Hork-Bajir. Everywhere! They had me surrounded. And I could hear Jake's voice over the shouts of the Hork-Bajir; "Get it! Get! It!! Or I'll make a necklace of your blades!!!"
I kept growing. I only had a tiny bit left… just a little larger…
I stood up on my hind legs. I was 3 meters high, at a minimum. I weighed almost a ton. And Hork-Bajir were only two meters! Well, "only" maybe isn't the proper word.
But the rush of power! The surge of confidence! Nothing could defy me! Nothing!
"HRRRRROOOOARHH!" I roared.
The Hork-Bajir closed in. I picked one, and fell forwards towards him. My front paws slammed down on him. He was puny and insignificant. He fell. I crushed him under my weight. Then I saw another in front of me. I remembered how Rachel, as a grizzly, had defeated the polar we had acquired. She had rolled into him.
I copied the move and rolled into the Hork-Bajir. He fell, too. I scrambled up on my paws and…stopped dead in my tracks.
Oh, no you don't, Jake's Yeerk growled. Not so fast.
In front of me were two polar bears. One had a touch of human, and one had a long Andalite tail sticking out behind it, and hooves. But they were changing quickly.
I had forgotten one thing; Jake and Ax had both acquired the exact same polar bear as I had.
Let me count for you, bird, Ax's voice hissed. Three genetically identical polar bears. Two against one. Two equals more than one.
Ehm… uh-oh?
Give up, Jake suggested. We don't have time for this.
That's why I'm going to keep doing this, I replied, thinking (too) fast. To waste your time.
You think you can waste our time? Jake's voice laughed. You overestimate yourself. We will simply sizzle you away with Dracon beams before we let you waste our time.
Give up, Ax's Yeerk told me, and demorph. It's the only sane thing to do.
Give up?
GIVE UP?
I don't do "giving up".
So I decided to be a lunatic. With a hoarse roar, I attacked.
Chapter 7 Marco
I finished the dishes as quickly as I could. Then I forced my father to promise that I wouldn't have to walk the dog for a week. After that, I rushed towards the door.
"Marco?" Nora asked from the living room. "Have you done your homework?"
No, I hadn't done my homework. Of course not. Why do your homework when you can go and get all scared n' bloody with your friends?
But to Nora I said; "Yes, I have!"
And I quickly made a mental note to scribble something down for my science assignment. Even though it was supposed to be fifteen pages long. Fortunately, I am the master of scribbling down nonsense.
I opened the door, and saw Jake and Ax in his human morph walking up towards the now opened door.
"Hi," I said. "Did Cassie call you too?"
"Yes," Jake answered after a moment during which he had seemed a little lost. "Yes, she did."
"She seems to have something big," I continued. "She sounded really upset."
"Yeah, I noticed," Jake said. "Let's walk. This weather is horrible to fly in."
We walked. We chatted along the way, of course. Jake and I argued about who would kick the other's butt on his new computer game.
"I am quite… teh… convinced that I could win this game," Ax said then. When he talks in human morph he is, every single time, amazed by the sounds his mouth makes. "Con-vins-deh. Con. Vinzzzz…"
What's the big deal with that, anyway? All those extra syllables drive me mad.
"Yeah, alien?" I said. "You'd cheat. You'd crack the system so only you could get points."
"That is not cheating!" Ax exclaimed. "Chee. Chee. Chee-ting. I am merely adapting the game to for-fill my purposes. Purrrrrr. Purrr. Poe. Poe. Poe-poe-poe…"
"You can't play, anyway," Jake said. "Partly because, Marco's right. And 'cause it's not safe to have you in my house if you have to demorph, and the game takes more than two hours. You could also get stuck in human morph if you get stuck in front of the screen, and that wouldn't be good."
The rain began to ease a little. Finally, it stopped.
"Let's take to the skies," I suggested.
"No," Jake said and looked around. Nobody was within sight. We were in a place near Cassie's farm, but we couldn't see it. And it was growing dark, so there wasn't much we could see.
"Ax, demorph," Jake said.
That was dangerous. If anyone saw us with an Andalite, and that person happened to be a Controller, or later became a Controller, or even told a Controller about it, we'd be in serious trouble.
Serious as in we'll quickly be brought down to the infestation pier in the Yeerk Pool.
"What? Here? What if someone comes along?" I said.
Ax demorphed, without questioning the order. Of course, he's convinced that Jake is his Prince, so he'd never question an order.
"I have a suspicion," Jake confessed in an urgent whisper. "I think Cassie is a Controller."
"What?" I demanded. "Cassie? A Controller?"
"I think this is a trap."
"Then we are sooooo dead!"
"I know," Jake agreed. "Look what I found in her barn on my last visit."
He pulled out a small cube-shaped box, with see-through sides. It was filled with what looked like dirty water… and in it was a live Yeerk. A small, green-grey slug that looked almost like a snail without its shell. Something you'd step on by mistake.
But this slug was dangerous. It would crawl into your head through your ear, wrap itself around your brain and take control.
Total control.
The thought made me feel cold.
"Cassie had that?" I asked in disbelief.
"Yes," Jake said. "And three more, just like it."
"Only four?" I sensed something wrong about this. Jake would never draw such horrible conclusions that quickly about Cassie. He adores her. Not that he'd admit it, but he kisses the ground she walks on.
"She has a Yeerk already," Jake whispered with something undefined in his eye. "Then one for you… one for Rachel… one for me… and one for Ax. I don't know about her plans for Tobias, but his bird skull is too tight to fit a Yeerk."
"I don't believe this," I stated. "Jake, this is Cassie. Hello? Cassie! You'd never find a Yeerk that could play Cassie… she's too sweet. And you guys hang out all the time. She hasn't gone to the Yeerk pool, and you know that! And you'd never suspect her for anything… unless… unless…"
Then a thought hit me. Cassie, I knew was okay. I had lots of proof. And besides, if Jake suspected that she was a Yeerk he'd drag her off and lock her up somewhere for three days so fast she wouldn't even have time to notice.
So Cassie was okay. She hung out with Jake, and when she didn't she was with Rachel. And Rachel would drag even quicker.
But what was Jake doing with a Yeerk?
"…oh, my god!"
I turned to run. Not a good idea. I should have morphed. If I had been lucky…
"Ax!" Jake said, his voice like a whip.
FWAP!
Something hit my skull hard. I let out a heavy sigh. I was unconscious before I hit the ground.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Author's Note;
*jumps up and down* Ooooh! A cliffhanger! Haven't seen those in a while!
Anyway. There it is. The second chunk of The Hunted. Review this one and I'll put the next one up.
Chapter 5 Jake
Liar! Liar! So I gave up, did I? Liar!! I screamed, as I had been doing for a few minutes, at the Yeerk in my head. A Sub-Visser. He claimed it was an honour to be a Sub-Visser's host.
Some honour.
Crawl out of my head so I can step on you, you lousy good-for-nothing parasite!
Oh, the Sub-Visser replied. Defiant, are we? We'll see about that. I'll even let you watch as your friend here falls to the power of the Yeerk Empire.
I started calling him names which shouldn't be repeated… and I meant every single one.
Let's just see how much of your dignity remains after you caught Cassie, the Yeerk taunted. You know, it's all your fault. Let's put Cassie on your conscience. Yes, I think I'll apply for that mission. As a bonus, you'll be begging… for once.
That made me quiet down. For a few moments.
Ax, poor Ax, was still screaming. Because of my mistake. The Yeerk had a point. It was all my fault. And because of my mistake, the other Animorphs were going to be hunted down and caught, one by one.
I started crying, in my head. I had no control over my body. And I didn't have full control of my mind, either. The Yeerk read every one of my thoughts. He played my memories as movies, and he laughed at my tries to regain control.
He made me watch it. He made me watch as the Hork-Bajir lifted the Yeerk out of the box, and as the green-grey slug was, slowly and carefully, lowered towards Ax's ear.
My fault.
I couldn't close my eyes, and I couldn't turn away. And my mind couldn't close out what my eyes were seeing.
Yes, the Yeerk agreed. Your fault.
Ax's screaming stopped very suddenly. His expression was horrified, panicked. He tried to break loose from under my tiger body and from the grips of the very strong Hork-Bajir, but in vain. The Yeerk slithered into his ear. Then we heard Ax's thought-speech voice, which no longer was his;
Well, well, well… what have we here? Let's see… four legs, a deadly tail, four eyes, and weak arms. Can it be the second Andalite-Controller of the galaxy?
I didn't hear Ax screaming. But I'm sure that in his head, for only him and his Yeerk to hear, he was still screaming. I was also pretty sure that he wouldn't stop for a long time.
My body walked away from Ax. The Hork-Bajir helped him to his hooves. As Ax moved, looking around, and walked, it wasn't him doing it.
What are we supposed to do now? Ax's thought-speak voice asked.
Now? the Yeerk replied with my voice. Now, we go bird-hunting.
Tobias.
Tobias. What do you want with Tobias? He's useless as a host. He's a bird.
Oh, yes, my Yeerk agreed smoothly. Useless. But we want to catch your cousin, Rachel, alive. She'd be a useful host. And from what you know about her, she would never let herself be caught alive. She'd be trouble. Let's just say we'll keep the bird alive … in exchange for good behaviour from you others.
I started demorphing. Or, the Sub-Visser did it for me.
Ax started morphing a northern harrier. That's his bird-of-prey morph.
"Give me the rain coat," my voice ordered. "Hork-Bajir, move out. Position two. Don't go too close, and be careful not to alert the hawk. He has got ears better than yours. The one who alerts him of your presence will have to explain it to Visser Three!"
A Hork-Bajir handed me the rain coat he had been carrying.
As soon as Ax had morphed the harrier, he morphed back. His injuries - the ones that I, the tiger, had caused him - were gone. That was why his Yeerk had morphed. To get rid of the injuries.
We started walking towards Tobias. He wouldn't suspect a thing.
After all, we looked like Jake and Ax. We acted like Jake and Ax. So there was no reason for him to suspect that we were any other than Jake and Ax.
I kept quiet during the walk, saying nothing directly to the Yeerk. But I couldn't stop myself from thinking, and the Yeerk read and registered every single one of my thoughts.
I dreamt up these really unrealistic hopes. Of Tobias somehow escaping, and alerting the others in time. Somehow, Marco, Tobias, Rachel …and Cassie… would escape.
I had thoughts of being rescued, too. But my Yeerk laughed at those like the foolish, unrealistic dreams they were. There was close to zero chance for me or/and Ax to be rescued, and even less for us to escape.
We made a lot of noise as we came closer to Tobias's meadow, and his favourite tree. So it was no surprise when we heard his thought-speech voice in our heads;
Jake? Ax-man? Is that you guys?
"Yes, it's us," the Yeerk replied with my voice. "We need to head over to Cassie's barn right away."
Chapter 6 Tobias
My name is Tobias. I'm now, and probably permanently, a red-tailed hawk. But the Ellimist gave me back my morphing powers. So now I'm a boy who's stuck in hawk morph, but was given back his morphing powers by a being that makes humans look about as intelligent and sophisticated as amoebas.
There's the basics.
Rain was pouring down, and I was wet through and through. I would need a catapult to get me up into the air.
I can't fly in this weather, Jake, and you know that, I complained.
We can carry you, Ax offered. We need to hurry.
Fine, I said. You may carry me, if you want to.
Jake and Ax came closer, and when they were close enough Jake stretched up his arm for me to perch on. I fluttered down to it, and tried not to dig in my talons to deep in his skin.
I hate heavy rain, I commented. I really, really, hate this horrible rain.
"You can borrow my raincoat," Jake said. It hung over his shoulder, unused.
Without waiting for me to reply, he placed the hood over my head.
Thanks… I began, but then Jake's arm flew up and closed the hood around me. His - and Ax's, I think - hands secured the raincoat around me until I couldn't move a muscle, and barely could breath. One of my wings was twisted and on the merge of snapping.
Hey! What's going on? I demanded angrily. And scared, I must admit.
They didn't answer me, but I did hear Jake's voice say; "Bring the sack."
What's going on here? I repeated. Is this some kind of a joke? 'Cause if it is, it's not funny!
"No, no joke," Jake's voice said form outside the rain coat.
Our hosts are very sorry about this, Ax told me. then he added with a very un-Ax like, sardonic tone; For all the good it may do.
Yeerks!! I cried, alarmed.
"They have a tendency to react like that, don't they?" Jake remarked calmly.
I just realised something. If Jake and Ax were Controllers, then..? The others?
Some of them are free, so far, Ax's Yeerk informed me. But do not worry. They know nothing. We will catch them, too. We have quite many of Sub-Vissers in need of good hosts.
They dropped me and the raincoat into the sack. Then my wing snapped.
Great. For all the trouble I already had, I now had a broken wing, too. Just what I needed. Just what had been missing. Just great…
The pain of a broken wing, for those of you that never have been birds, is incredible. It isn't something you'll just say "it'll go over", or stand up again and ignore it. It HURTS. A lot.
This is definitely animal abuse, I said. I am so going to report this.
But I was morphing. My feathers were giving way to hollow fur that looked white. I was slowly growing larger. Bit by bit. I was morphing the polar bear that we had all acquired so long ago. So my talons and wings disappeared to give room for huge paws with black soles.
I mean, it was the only morph I thought would have a chance against Jake and Ax with their various dangerous morphs. I was growing large. And heavy. And seriously strong.
My beak melted and I grew a nuzzle. My mouth filled with sharp teeth.
I was almost completely formed before I started the serious growing. So I was a mini-sized polar bear when my weight started to rip the material in the sack.
I grew. And grew. So finally, the sack burst and I fell out. I landed roughly on the ground, but struggled up on all fours and began running away, and I was still growing.
Hork-Bajir. Everywhere! They had me surrounded. And I could hear Jake's voice over the shouts of the Hork-Bajir; "Get it! Get! It!! Or I'll make a necklace of your blades!!!"
I kept growing. I only had a tiny bit left… just a little larger…
I stood up on my hind legs. I was 3 meters high, at a minimum. I weighed almost a ton. And Hork-Bajir were only two meters! Well, "only" maybe isn't the proper word.
But the rush of power! The surge of confidence! Nothing could defy me! Nothing!
"HRRRRROOOOARHH!" I roared.
The Hork-Bajir closed in. I picked one, and fell forwards towards him. My front paws slammed down on him. He was puny and insignificant. He fell. I crushed him under my weight. Then I saw another in front of me. I remembered how Rachel, as a grizzly, had defeated the polar we had acquired. She had rolled into him.
I copied the move and rolled into the Hork-Bajir. He fell, too. I scrambled up on my paws and…stopped dead in my tracks.
Oh, no you don't, Jake's Yeerk growled. Not so fast.
In front of me were two polar bears. One had a touch of human, and one had a long Andalite tail sticking out behind it, and hooves. But they were changing quickly.
I had forgotten one thing; Jake and Ax had both acquired the exact same polar bear as I had.
Let me count for you, bird, Ax's voice hissed. Three genetically identical polar bears. Two against one. Two equals more than one.
Ehm… uh-oh?
Give up, Jake suggested. We don't have time for this.
That's why I'm going to keep doing this, I replied, thinking (too) fast. To waste your time.
You think you can waste our time? Jake's voice laughed. You overestimate yourself. We will simply sizzle you away with Dracon beams before we let you waste our time.
Give up, Ax's Yeerk told me, and demorph. It's the only sane thing to do.
Give up?
GIVE UP?
I don't do "giving up".
So I decided to be a lunatic. With a hoarse roar, I attacked.
Chapter 7 Marco
I finished the dishes as quickly as I could. Then I forced my father to promise that I wouldn't have to walk the dog for a week. After that, I rushed towards the door.
"Marco?" Nora asked from the living room. "Have you done your homework?"
No, I hadn't done my homework. Of course not. Why do your homework when you can go and get all scared n' bloody with your friends?
But to Nora I said; "Yes, I have!"
And I quickly made a mental note to scribble something down for my science assignment. Even though it was supposed to be fifteen pages long. Fortunately, I am the master of scribbling down nonsense.
I opened the door, and saw Jake and Ax in his human morph walking up towards the now opened door.
"Hi," I said. "Did Cassie call you too?"
"Yes," Jake answered after a moment during which he had seemed a little lost. "Yes, she did."
"She seems to have something big," I continued. "She sounded really upset."
"Yeah, I noticed," Jake said. "Let's walk. This weather is horrible to fly in."
We walked. We chatted along the way, of course. Jake and I argued about who would kick the other's butt on his new computer game.
"I am quite… teh… convinced that I could win this game," Ax said then. When he talks in human morph he is, every single time, amazed by the sounds his mouth makes. "Con-vins-deh. Con. Vinzzzz…"
What's the big deal with that, anyway? All those extra syllables drive me mad.
"Yeah, alien?" I said. "You'd cheat. You'd crack the system so only you could get points."
"That is not cheating!" Ax exclaimed. "Chee. Chee. Chee-ting. I am merely adapting the game to for-fill my purposes. Purrrrrr. Purrr. Poe. Poe. Poe-poe-poe…"
"You can't play, anyway," Jake said. "Partly because, Marco's right. And 'cause it's not safe to have you in my house if you have to demorph, and the game takes more than two hours. You could also get stuck in human morph if you get stuck in front of the screen, and that wouldn't be good."
The rain began to ease a little. Finally, it stopped.
"Let's take to the skies," I suggested.
"No," Jake said and looked around. Nobody was within sight. We were in a place near Cassie's farm, but we couldn't see it. And it was growing dark, so there wasn't much we could see.
"Ax, demorph," Jake said.
That was dangerous. If anyone saw us with an Andalite, and that person happened to be a Controller, or later became a Controller, or even told a Controller about it, we'd be in serious trouble.
Serious as in we'll quickly be brought down to the infestation pier in the Yeerk Pool.
"What? Here? What if someone comes along?" I said.
Ax demorphed, without questioning the order. Of course, he's convinced that Jake is his Prince, so he'd never question an order.
"I have a suspicion," Jake confessed in an urgent whisper. "I think Cassie is a Controller."
"What?" I demanded. "Cassie? A Controller?"
"I think this is a trap."
"Then we are sooooo dead!"
"I know," Jake agreed. "Look what I found in her barn on my last visit."
He pulled out a small cube-shaped box, with see-through sides. It was filled with what looked like dirty water… and in it was a live Yeerk. A small, green-grey slug that looked almost like a snail without its shell. Something you'd step on by mistake.
But this slug was dangerous. It would crawl into your head through your ear, wrap itself around your brain and take control.
Total control.
The thought made me feel cold.
"Cassie had that?" I asked in disbelief.
"Yes," Jake said. "And three more, just like it."
"Only four?" I sensed something wrong about this. Jake would never draw such horrible conclusions that quickly about Cassie. He adores her. Not that he'd admit it, but he kisses the ground she walks on.
"She has a Yeerk already," Jake whispered with something undefined in his eye. "Then one for you… one for Rachel… one for me… and one for Ax. I don't know about her plans for Tobias, but his bird skull is too tight to fit a Yeerk."
"I don't believe this," I stated. "Jake, this is Cassie. Hello? Cassie! You'd never find a Yeerk that could play Cassie… she's too sweet. And you guys hang out all the time. She hasn't gone to the Yeerk pool, and you know that! And you'd never suspect her for anything… unless… unless…"
Then a thought hit me. Cassie, I knew was okay. I had lots of proof. And besides, if Jake suspected that she was a Yeerk he'd drag her off and lock her up somewhere for three days so fast she wouldn't even have time to notice.
So Cassie was okay. She hung out with Jake, and when she didn't she was with Rachel. And Rachel would drag even quicker.
But what was Jake doing with a Yeerk?
"…oh, my god!"
I turned to run. Not a good idea. I should have morphed. If I had been lucky…
"Ax!" Jake said, his voice like a whip.
FWAP!
Something hit my skull hard. I let out a heavy sigh. I was unconscious before I hit the ground.
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Author's Note;
*jumps up and down* Ooooh! A cliffhanger! Haven't seen those in a while!
Anyway. There it is. The second chunk of The Hunted. Review this one and I'll put the next one up.
