Chapter 11 (Whitney)
We walked down the street towards the mall. In between the half broken building, there was nothing but emptiness. Like it had been cleaned or something. Everything was down, but there was nothing on the ground. It was like it was cleaned.
Weird.
But there was nothing. The buildings were empty. No people, no bodies, nothing. It was like....well, I didn't know quite what it was like. It was like there was an accidental bomb that went off and as much of it was cleaned up as possible.
Weird.
Either way, the closer we got to the mall, the more nervous we got. It was like there was something there. Something important. We were all waiting for Sam to come back to tell us what it was. None of us were going to morph, for fear of being noticed and killed.
But we walked, and walking we did. Overhead, I saw people flying by in the drop-shaft things. It was interesting, I will give the yeerks that.
"Interesting, isn't it?" I asked.
"Yeah, but I would prefer to see what needs to be seen, and get the hell out of here." Gordon said. I agreed.
"Well, maybe it is an event, and we are simply here for the preshow." Marco said.
{No, I fear this is simply what you need to see. The Ellimist believes you are going to lose, and he is trying to get you to believe him by doing this. I think he is trying to scare you into believing what he wants.}
"I figured that much, but why?" Jake said.
{Not the why, when?} Ax said. We all stared at him, I had no clue what he was talking about. {The Ellimist can make an world. The future has not happened yet, and maybe this is simply possibility. No future is permanent. This could be another dimension altogether.} he tried to explain.
But I tried to answer better, I thought I got it now. "This could happen, if some things are done improperly. This may or may not happen. He is trying to make us avoid the decision that would make this."
Then Rachel nodded her head. She got it, as did everyone else. Gordon kept his mouth shut. I guess he was trying to figure it out. He did that a lot.
We were just about to continue on with our lives, when Sam came back. He landed on the ground in front of us. He seemed excited.
"Wow." He said. "I mean, wow. You all need to see this. They have done a lot with the place." Really excited.
"What?" Tobias asked. It was odd to hear him use a real voice. It was kind of bland.
"Behind the mall. You can't see it from here, but it is huge. You really have to see it for yourselves. It is huge."
Even I was getting annoyed. "Just tell us what it was!" I shook my head.
He hesitated, but eventually let it out. "It is the yeerk pool. Now aboveground. And it is even bigger than before!" Why he was excited was beyond me. That seemed like a bad thing. Maybe it was the yeerk in him, expressing some of it's own emotions.
"Well, let's go and check it out. Maybe that is what we are here for." Jake said calmly.
So we began to walk. A few blocks later, we came to one of the drop- shaft entrances. We all looked at each other and shrugged. What harm could it do? We all got on, except for Sam. He flew ahead.
I noticed the drop-shaft was flawless. There was no wind and it was controlled by our thoughts. Like the normal ones. When I wanted to go one way, I went one way. At an intersection, it turned without hesitation.
But all of us had to go at slightly different times. Man, some of the wonders of technology. Deep in the back of my mind, I was trying to figure out how the damn thing worked. It was confusing, and I sure as hell never figured it out.
But it worked, and as I slowly went over the mall, the spectacle that was the yeerk pool. Man, it was amazing, surprisingly.
It was just like the yeerk pool we all knew, but it was bigger, and seemed to actually look fun. There was a giant TV screen, for drive-in movies. There was an entire docking bay, which had ships coming in and out of it. We only couldn't see them before because the building were in our way.
But it was there, and bustling with activity. There were people everywhere. And the one main difference from this yeerk pool and the one we knew was that the people there actually seemed happy. There were no screams of agony or moans of despair. This was a happy place.
That was what took me off guard. It was happy. The free hosts weren't crying, they were all voluntary. It was almost sickening, but how could you say that about something of this calibur? These people were content. I don't know how many times I have to say that to make sure you understand?
We were lowered to the side of the pool, one of the drop-shaft openings. We were greeted by three people, all of them well dressed. (As in not grubby or scantily clad. Not tuxedo's)
"Welcome back sir Sam. And a good greeting to you as well, Illnith." The first one said. Sam got a confused look on his face.
"It is good to see you here. Is there anything wrong?" The second one asked. Sam looked even more confused, but played along.
"I am fine, good to see you as well. No there is nothing wrong, just checking things out." He said. He played that out quite well. "You may leave now."
In an instant, they were all gone, ran away to do whatever it is henchman do.
"What was that?" Marco asked.
Sam shrugged his shoulders. "Beats the hell out of me." He acted confused again. But I think I knew why. Was the yeerk in his head Illnith? I decided to wait until later to ask him about it. I didn't want to start an argument here.
"Well, we should get moving, you never know what is around the next corner." Jake said. He began to walk away from the pool and us. But stopped when he saw none of us were moving.
Gordon shook his head. "No, something tells me we should stay here, for a while, anyways. There clearly isn't anything elsewhere." And he was right. The rest of the town was barren and empty. This is where the action was.
"I guess so." Rachel commented.
So we all stood around, waiting for something to happen. It wasn't 'till then that I notice Ax had morphed human. That was why the little brats didn't say anything about him.
Tobias was squinting, looking all around, but not seeing very well. He was used to hawk eyes and now he was straining to see something. I followed his gaze ad saw the water tower. The one we all left in the day before.
Except it was different. The top had been taken off, and now it was a glass dome. I personally wondered what it was.
I caught Gordon looking at it too. The rest were looking elsewhere. At the people, at the pool, whatever.
So we waited. Then the event happened.
At first it was a mere whistling. It got louder and louder until it hurt my ears. I shielded them. I looked up to see a cruise missile coming right towards us. But it was stopped by an invisible force, and it exploded.
There was no shock wave. I am assuming there was a force field stopping that. But then another two came in. Both aimed at two towers. One was a radio tower, the other was the EGS building. Both were covered in the same glass that the water tower was in.
But both attempts at destroying them were stopped it their tracks. A dracon turret mounted on the other edge of the pool fired and hit both of them. Still no concussion or wave.
"What the hell as that?" Marco asked as the dust settled.
"I don't know." Jake said silently. "And I don't want to find out." He began to morph to falcon.
"Happy to oblige." Cassie and Rachel said as they began to morph their respective raptor morphs. But we were all cut short by the arrival of another spacecraft.
As soon as Sam saw it, he fell to one knee. I went over to him and lightly held his shoulders. "Are you alright?" I asked quietly, so nobody else could hear.
He shook his head and said, "It's him."
The ship landed in front of us. Not over in the docks that the rest of the spaceships were, but right in front of us. The lights of it's hovering mechanism shut off and the door slid open. What came out it was completely unexpected.
Out popped Sam. An almost identical carbon copy. Maybe a few years older, but still. "Howdy." He said.
We walked down the street towards the mall. In between the half broken building, there was nothing but emptiness. Like it had been cleaned or something. Everything was down, but there was nothing on the ground. It was like it was cleaned.
Weird.
But there was nothing. The buildings were empty. No people, no bodies, nothing. It was like....well, I didn't know quite what it was like. It was like there was an accidental bomb that went off and as much of it was cleaned up as possible.
Weird.
Either way, the closer we got to the mall, the more nervous we got. It was like there was something there. Something important. We were all waiting for Sam to come back to tell us what it was. None of us were going to morph, for fear of being noticed and killed.
But we walked, and walking we did. Overhead, I saw people flying by in the drop-shaft things. It was interesting, I will give the yeerks that.
"Interesting, isn't it?" I asked.
"Yeah, but I would prefer to see what needs to be seen, and get the hell out of here." Gordon said. I agreed.
"Well, maybe it is an event, and we are simply here for the preshow." Marco said.
{No, I fear this is simply what you need to see. The Ellimist believes you are going to lose, and he is trying to get you to believe him by doing this. I think he is trying to scare you into believing what he wants.}
"I figured that much, but why?" Jake said.
{Not the why, when?} Ax said. We all stared at him, I had no clue what he was talking about. {The Ellimist can make an world. The future has not happened yet, and maybe this is simply possibility. No future is permanent. This could be another dimension altogether.} he tried to explain.
But I tried to answer better, I thought I got it now. "This could happen, if some things are done improperly. This may or may not happen. He is trying to make us avoid the decision that would make this."
Then Rachel nodded her head. She got it, as did everyone else. Gordon kept his mouth shut. I guess he was trying to figure it out. He did that a lot.
We were just about to continue on with our lives, when Sam came back. He landed on the ground in front of us. He seemed excited.
"Wow." He said. "I mean, wow. You all need to see this. They have done a lot with the place." Really excited.
"What?" Tobias asked. It was odd to hear him use a real voice. It was kind of bland.
"Behind the mall. You can't see it from here, but it is huge. You really have to see it for yourselves. It is huge."
Even I was getting annoyed. "Just tell us what it was!" I shook my head.
He hesitated, but eventually let it out. "It is the yeerk pool. Now aboveground. And it is even bigger than before!" Why he was excited was beyond me. That seemed like a bad thing. Maybe it was the yeerk in him, expressing some of it's own emotions.
"Well, let's go and check it out. Maybe that is what we are here for." Jake said calmly.
So we began to walk. A few blocks later, we came to one of the drop- shaft entrances. We all looked at each other and shrugged. What harm could it do? We all got on, except for Sam. He flew ahead.
I noticed the drop-shaft was flawless. There was no wind and it was controlled by our thoughts. Like the normal ones. When I wanted to go one way, I went one way. At an intersection, it turned without hesitation.
But all of us had to go at slightly different times. Man, some of the wonders of technology. Deep in the back of my mind, I was trying to figure out how the damn thing worked. It was confusing, and I sure as hell never figured it out.
But it worked, and as I slowly went over the mall, the spectacle that was the yeerk pool. Man, it was amazing, surprisingly.
It was just like the yeerk pool we all knew, but it was bigger, and seemed to actually look fun. There was a giant TV screen, for drive-in movies. There was an entire docking bay, which had ships coming in and out of it. We only couldn't see them before because the building were in our way.
But it was there, and bustling with activity. There were people everywhere. And the one main difference from this yeerk pool and the one we knew was that the people there actually seemed happy. There were no screams of agony or moans of despair. This was a happy place.
That was what took me off guard. It was happy. The free hosts weren't crying, they were all voluntary. It was almost sickening, but how could you say that about something of this calibur? These people were content. I don't know how many times I have to say that to make sure you understand?
We were lowered to the side of the pool, one of the drop-shaft openings. We were greeted by three people, all of them well dressed. (As in not grubby or scantily clad. Not tuxedo's)
"Welcome back sir Sam. And a good greeting to you as well, Illnith." The first one said. Sam got a confused look on his face.
"It is good to see you here. Is there anything wrong?" The second one asked. Sam looked even more confused, but played along.
"I am fine, good to see you as well. No there is nothing wrong, just checking things out." He said. He played that out quite well. "You may leave now."
In an instant, they were all gone, ran away to do whatever it is henchman do.
"What was that?" Marco asked.
Sam shrugged his shoulders. "Beats the hell out of me." He acted confused again. But I think I knew why. Was the yeerk in his head Illnith? I decided to wait until later to ask him about it. I didn't want to start an argument here.
"Well, we should get moving, you never know what is around the next corner." Jake said. He began to walk away from the pool and us. But stopped when he saw none of us were moving.
Gordon shook his head. "No, something tells me we should stay here, for a while, anyways. There clearly isn't anything elsewhere." And he was right. The rest of the town was barren and empty. This is where the action was.
"I guess so." Rachel commented.
So we all stood around, waiting for something to happen. It wasn't 'till then that I notice Ax had morphed human. That was why the little brats didn't say anything about him.
Tobias was squinting, looking all around, but not seeing very well. He was used to hawk eyes and now he was straining to see something. I followed his gaze ad saw the water tower. The one we all left in the day before.
Except it was different. The top had been taken off, and now it was a glass dome. I personally wondered what it was.
I caught Gordon looking at it too. The rest were looking elsewhere. At the people, at the pool, whatever.
So we waited. Then the event happened.
At first it was a mere whistling. It got louder and louder until it hurt my ears. I shielded them. I looked up to see a cruise missile coming right towards us. But it was stopped by an invisible force, and it exploded.
There was no shock wave. I am assuming there was a force field stopping that. But then another two came in. Both aimed at two towers. One was a radio tower, the other was the EGS building. Both were covered in the same glass that the water tower was in.
But both attempts at destroying them were stopped it their tracks. A dracon turret mounted on the other edge of the pool fired and hit both of them. Still no concussion or wave.
"What the hell as that?" Marco asked as the dust settled.
"I don't know." Jake said silently. "And I don't want to find out." He began to morph to falcon.
"Happy to oblige." Cassie and Rachel said as they began to morph their respective raptor morphs. But we were all cut short by the arrival of another spacecraft.
As soon as Sam saw it, he fell to one knee. I went over to him and lightly held his shoulders. "Are you alright?" I asked quietly, so nobody else could hear.
He shook his head and said, "It's him."
The ship landed in front of us. Not over in the docks that the rest of the spaceships were, but right in front of us. The lights of it's hovering mechanism shut off and the door slid open. What came out it was completely unexpected.
Out popped Sam. An almost identical carbon copy. Maybe a few years older, but still. "Howdy." He said.