You know how sometimes, when you're really scared, you'll get this taste like vomit at the back of your mouth?

"Get off!" I yelled. "Let go!" I twisted and writhed desperately. The faces around me were a confusing blur. Guys and girls alike, all with the same, half-guilty, half-cruel expression as they pushed me forward. But I wasn't going without a fight.

I shoved my elbow backwards hard, connecting with somebody. Their fingers clawed my shoulder as I was propelled forward another two feet. Now one of them was trying to grab my feet. All right, they could have one. I lashed out hard with a vicious kick. I think I may have broken her nose. I bit the arm that was trying to encircle my neck.

I couldn't even hear myself yelling over the din of the clamouring, laughing crowd. But I could hear Megan.

"Grab her legs! Grab her LEGS! Devon, you got her! Careful, you'll -- OUCH! Bet that one hurt."

It sure did. Devon didn't come back for seconds.

Megan's voice was laughing, like she was doing the blow-by-blow for an exciting sport. "Don't let her -- THERE you go! No, guys, more to the LEFT! Okay, that's good, just -- whoah, Rachel, CHILL! It's just a game, right?"

A game. Right. Megan, Tom, and I knew how much of a game this was. I guess if I had been smarter, I wouldn't have made such a big deal out of it. To the normal kids, I must have seemed scared out of my wits. To the Controllers, it must have seemed suspicious.

Neither was good.

I watched as, inch by inch, the Jacuzzi drew nearer. I fought them every poke, bite, grab, bruise, and kick of the way, but there were dozens of them and only one of me. Now I could see the lip of the Jacuzzi. The gently bubbling water. The Yeerks underneath. Megan's smile.

"Okay -- WHOA!! ...OKAY, we're gonna need a couple of big GUYS to keep this wildcat underwater! We're gonna make her WIN this prize if it KILLS her!" She laughed, and the crowd roared its approval.

They thought she was joking.

I was lifted bodily above the pool. I dangled above my worst nightmare for a moment, then they dropped me. With every gymnast instinct I had worked years to develop, I landed on my feet and grabbed the rim, trying to scramble out. I think I stepped on a few Yeerks in the pool.

Oh well.

Two of the football players, Aaron and Howard, stepped over the lip to hold me, at Megan's request. I noticed they stepped very carefully into the pool. Ah, I understood. Controllers.

"Okay, get a good grip on her HEAD. That's it!" she chirped. "Now, push her under on THREE. Ready? One..."

Another countdown.

"Two..."

This time, the one that signaled the doom of the human species.

Here came the three.

"Tsssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!"

"Aaaauuugghhh!! My face! My face!!" Howard released me to clutch at his face. I saw blood between his fingers.

"Tssseeeeeeeeeeer! Tseeeeeeeeeeeeeer!!"

Tobias. I could have kissed him in his hawk body at that moment.

Like a red-tailed demon, he dove, banked, and slashed at every head and face that exposed itself. He was a flapping, ripping, twisting nightmare on wings. Megan curled into a ball beside the pool. "Shoot it!" She screamed, as the microphone scraped on the ground, piercing the air with feedback. "SHOOT it!!"

Apparently, nobody had brought a gun. Everything was in total havoc. I had new respect for Tobias. Compared with a bear or tiger or gorilla, a lone hawk didn't seem like much of a threat. But as a human, without natural weapons, he was scary.

Man, was he scary.

{Rachel, I don't know what the HECK you were doing, but GET OUT OF HERE!} he shouted in my mind.

Out. Yeah, out of the Yeerk pool would be good.

I leapt over the side of the Jacuzzi, and started running for the gate. The scene was utter pandemonium. Everywhere, people were fighting each other to get away from the insane bird. Shattered debris covered the ground, trampled out of recognition. I ran, weaving my way through the crowd, body-slamming or punching when people didn't get out of my way. By the time I reached the gate, most people had crawled under something or gathered together in groups with some kind of weapon to defend themselves. I slammed the gate shut hard behind me, and kept running, straight into the little grove of trees. When I reached the crumpled mailbox I slid down to my knees, trembling, trying to draw breath.

One second away from infestation.

One second away from humanity's total enslavement.

I hunched over, and threw up. I couldn't stop shaking. Tears filled my eyes as I retched. When I was finished, I couldn't get up. I just sat there, quivering, staring down at the stinking mess in front of me.

"Oh, the wonderful life of an Animorph," I croaked, trying to take deep breaths.

Tobias landed in the tree above me. {What happened back there?} he demanded.

I didn't answer.

He was cold and angry. {Rachel, I stopped you from morphing elephant. Then I went to go get backup. When I got back, there you were, knee-deep in Yeerk water, about to be forcibly infested. The Yeerks know an Andalite bandit stopped you in particular from being infested. Do you see the small problem we have here, Rachel?}

I looked up, and wiped my mouth with a shaking hand. "Tobias . . . how about we pretend that I'm just as unhappy as you about this? How about we pretend that I almost had a slug shoved in my ear? How about we pretend that I need you to not be mad at me right now?"

{I just -- } he began, then stopped. Flitted his wings. Looked away.

At the house, Animal Abuse banged out a few pounding notes, then I could hear the indistinct shrill of Megan's voice. I couldn't make out what she was saying, though.

Tobias was silent.

{Could either of you bloated humans explain what has transpired?} a small voice asked.

Oh, yeah. Mary Sue.

{Mary Sue?} Tobias protested. {You're here? Where are you?}

{Trapped inside the somewhat-damaged metal canister,} she said resentfully.

Tobias looked at the mailbox lying on the ground, then at me. I smiled weakly and shrugged. 'Didn't want her to get hurt,' I mouthed.

He dipped his head in a nod. {I'd like to know what happened, too, Mary Sue. Rachel, want to explain yourself?}

There was a roar of approval from Megan's house.

{Quickly?} he added.

I outline what had happened as fast as I could. Then I stopped.

Oh, no.

Jordan.

Where was Jordan?

Apparently, Tobias asked himself the same question. As soon as I stopped, he launched himself into the air, and flew tight circles over Megan's house.

{Uh-oh. Rachel, you'd better get over here. Now.}

I was up and running in zero seconds flat. I pushed aside Megan's gate, and looked around wildly, ready to confront . . .

Nothing. Nobody was in sight, except for four or five people who had drunk themselves to sleep. "What the . . ?" Slowing, I jogged around the side of the house, to the backyard. It had been so full of people five minutes ago. So where had they all gone?

Animal Abuse's instruments stood on the stage, forsaken. The broken birdbath and shattered punchbowl lay silently on the ground. The only sound was the gentle sound of water from the pool and the Jacuzzi.

I approached the Jacuzzi cautiously. Inside, the Yeerk-filled water sloshed solemnly against the sides as bubblers on the bottom agitated its surface. The Yeerks were alone. Helpless.

{I don't see Jordan,} Tobias said.

I stared at the Yeerks. There had to be a couple hundred of them. I remembered the last time I had seen slugs in a Jacuzzi. Back when Jake had been infested.

Well, we had boiled almost all of those slugs. Why not these?

The heat button had an almost hypnotic power as I reached for it. I was killing hundreds of sentient, feeling beings. Cassie would be appalled. What if some of these Yeerks were a part of the peace movement?

In every war, there are casualties, Cassie.

I punched the heat button. A sucking sound started up. It didn't sound like a heater. It sounded like water being drained from a bathtub. The water began to swirl around, down a central hole. Into a pipe. The Yeerks were being evacuated.

"No!" I yelled, banging my fists against the side of the Jacuzzi. "No, no, no!!" It wasn't fair! They were mine! I should have been allowed to take them down!

The last of the water sucked down through the hole. It slid shut with a smug click. Numbly, I stepped away from the empty tub. I stared blankly around. And that's when I saw them.

Two big, thick metal doors. Set up behind the stage. The curtain that had been covering them had been pulled aside. Beside them, a green panel glowed with letters and numbers that a human never wrote. In front of them, the ground was torn up, as if the entire crowd had passed through them.

Because the entire crowd had passed through them.

I didn't have to test the strength of the doors. They were locked. No morph I had could break them down. And I knew where they led.

They were doors to the Yeerk Pool.