Chapter 10-Cassie
I took a leave of absence from work. The President was very understanding, and told me to take as much time as I needed. I didn't feel like doing anything.
I also told Ronnie to leave me alone for few days. He was fine with that. It's just I didn't feel like being pampered. I wanted to be by myself.
It was depressing. When you hear that four of your closest friends have died, it just hit you hard. I took it harder. Jake, Marco, Tobias, and Ax had been fellow warriors during the war against the Yeerks.
They were gone. I didn't remember what they looked like. Now I would never see any of them again.
I went back to my parent's house. They still lived at the same house. I told them about what had happened to Jake and the others. They grieved mostly for Jake, because they knew him the best.
The Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic was still running. I helped out my parents with the sick animals. Even though I was a qualified veterinarian, I didn't have the time to help out animals. Work kept me busy. It felt like old times.
But it wasn't right. I stood in the barn, all by myself. I was lonely, and it didn't feel right. Something was missing.
Marco should have been on a bale of hay, lazily putting his feet in the air. Jake should have been pacing around, looking down at the ground in intense concentration. Rachel should have been sitting on the hay, listening intently. Tobias should have been in the rafters, looking out for any sign of the Yeerks. Ax should have been standing near the entrance, on guard.
During the war, we often met at the barn. It was here we planned our insane missions, while I tended to sick animals.
I felt a pang of loneliness. Who were my real friends? Sure, I had friends in Washington, and I had Ronnie, but were they my true friends? No. The Animorphs were.
I had to go break the news to Jake and Marco's parents. It wouldn't be right not telling them, however painful it might be. They deserved to know what happened. I would tell them.
I visited Jake's parents first. His parents had moved to a house in Santa Barbara, where Jake had bought them a nice house that overlooked the ocean. I drove there and delivered the bad news.
Jake's mom was hysterical. I could understand why she would feel bad. She had lost one of her sons in battle, and now her other child was dead as well. Jake's dad looked devastated. Both of his sons had died.
It took some time for them to accept the reality. How could Jake die? they asked. He was the Jake, leader of the Animorphs, he had survived the war despite the odds. There was no way he could be dead, they said.
Eventually, they realized the reality that Jake was dead. From denial, to disbelief, and finally, acceptance. It was horrible.
I next went to Marco's parents. They lived in the home Marco and his dad had lived in before they faked their death. His parents came to grips with what happened more easily.
Marco's mom had been the former Visser One, the original leader of the Yeerk invasion. She cried some, but did not try and disprove what I had said. Marco's father just stood there in a stony silence.
When I drove away, I told myself I would never do that again. Telling people that their children were dead was horrible. The future of their family, the bright light of their life, had vanished. It was cruel.
I went back to my parent's house and took a walk. I needed my exercise, and I just wanted to get away from the terrible experience I had just endured.
Our town had been decimated by the Yeerks as we had been making our final battle plans. Most of it had been reconstructed, but you could still see the damage that had been done. The mall, which had been destroyed when we blew up the Yeerk pool, was just a charred steel skeleton. A new mall had been built a mile away, in the rebuilt part of town. Next to it, the abandoned construction site was scorched, blackened long ago by the Dracon beams of Bug fighters.
I walked through the abandoned construction site. Six years ago, on a perfectly normal night, me, along with four high school kids, did the same thing. It changed history in a way we never could have imagined.
FLASH!
"Look, it's a flying saucer!" I
exclaimed to my friends. I pointed to the sky. An alien ship was heading right
for us!
FLASH!
I continued wandering around the construction site. The wall that we had hid behind when we watched the former Visser Three kill Elfangor was still standing. I touched one of the Dracon scars.
FLASH! Noooooooooo! Elfangor called out, just before Visser Three killed him. I was crying.
FLASH! "It's okay, Cassie. It's okay," Rachel said.
I continued walking around the construction site. Something was here. I eyed an old shack. The roof was hanging off to the side. What was in there?
I started walking in the direction of the rusted shack.
FLASH! Yaaaaaah ha ha! Jake screamed as he dove in peregrine falcon morph.
FLASH! "Cinnamon buns! Bun-zuh!" Ax shouted in delight, as he ate a Cinnabon.
I was nearly at the shack. Why were my memories coming back to me? Something here was stimulating me to remember them.
I took a step inside the shack. It had a couple of old blankets, and some beer bottles. A homeless guy's home. Great. I was attracted to a hobo's hideout.
Yet I had been drawn to this place for some reason. There was something tugging at me.
FLASH! "Cassie, you're such a treehugger," Marco said. "This is a war. We just can't go around saving every animal."
FLASH! "Goodbye, Cassie." Jake's last words rang in my head.
I felt so alone. My friends were dead. I wanted them back.
"I WANT MY FRIENDS BACK!" I yelled to myself.
FLASH! "Remember them. Honor them. Save them." The Ellimist.
Wait. Save them? What was that all about?
"Save them," the Ellimist had said. Save who? My friends? The memory of them?
But how? I couldn't bring them back from the dead. Could I?
For a split second, I saw something I had seen before. It was a glowing sphere, taller than any human. It was white, and within it, millions of strands spun in a spiral.
And then it was gone.
What was it?, I thought. Then it hit me.
The Time Matrix.
With it, one could go back and forth in time. History could be changed. Entire families could never exist. It was the deadliest weapon ever created.
It was buried right beneath my feet, somewhere here.
"Save them," the Ellimist repeated in my head.
I would save my friends. I knew what I had to do.
For the first time in a very long time, I ran for my life.