"Where are we going now?" Rachel asked.
"I have a safe house a few miles away." I said. "we can stay there until the heat dies down."
"how long will that take?"
"I don't know a day, maybe two, as long as there are no other strikes from us or you they'll relax there guard." We began to walk.
"No, I need to go now the guys are waiting for me, they'll get worried…"
"They'll have to deal with it, wait how did you get here anyway."
"Bus, I kept my face hidden so no one could see me."
"You'll never make it out of the station alive they'll be looking for you, you need to stay with us."
"Look I can't be gone more than a day before someone comes looking for me."
"Trust me you need to stay here if they get worried now, they'll be a hell of lot more worried if you have Yerk in your brain." That seemed to reach her she stopped arguing. We reached a fork where the road spilt off into a dirt one. We turned there and walked about a mile in silence when the safe house appeared.
It used to be the place where my family vacationed in the late summer. It was white with red trim two stories, had a balcony. I walked up to the large oak door and knocked. The door opened and Karen had me in a bear hug before I knew it.
"Erik, oh, Erik thank God your alive, I was so scared," She kissed me. "So scared." She put her head on my shoulder and I held her for awhile. Then she noticed the others. "How did it go?" she asked then she noticed Rachel. "Is that?"
"You know," Rachel said. "This is the most attention I've gotten in my life."
"Rachel, wow, I thought you were dead… I've always admired you I'm gad to see you, how are you and the others doing." As Rachel told her what she had told me about the Animorphs situation I looked at Karen, as I always did when I escaped a near death situation.
She had small nose and square face. Her eyes were a dark green with blue flecks in them. We had been dating since about a year after we began to fight the Yerks. Now I was positive that if it weren't for her I would have given up the fight a long time ago, and I knew she felt the same way. When either of us were feeling hopeless all we had to do was gaze into each others eyes and it would remind us of what we were fighting for.
Karen took her hand away from arm, and noticed the blood.
"Oh God, your bleeding." She said. I remembered the bullet grazing me.
"It's nothing Kare, I just got grazed by a bullet that's all."
"Morph it off quick." I knew better than to argue with her I walked into the house with Becky and Rachel gritted my teeth and morphed my cougar morph. It was Rachel's first clear look at how painful our morphs are.
"How can you guys stand that?"
"We just do, most of the pain fades after we finish morphing." Anna said. I morphed back quickly, the cut was gone, morphing is accomplished by a DNA shift injuries are not a part of DNA so they don't follow us from morph to morph.
I looked around in the house, it was very large the living room was encircled by the upstairs. The stairs themselves were mahogany, which led up to bathroom, and four bedrooms we had. There were tow other doors in the room, one led to a kitchen the other to a bathroom. From the kitchen there was another door that led to a hall with four more bedrooms, and yet another bathroom. At the end of that hall, hidden behind a large portrait of my late parents was a staircase, this led to the roof and a hidden sniper post chances were that Amy was already up there, Amy was a fine sharpshooter. The rest of the team should have been there but I didn't see them.
"Where is everyone?" I asked.
"Sleeping," Karen said, look at the clock. I checked the large grandfather clock on the far right wall. It was 10:30, the mission had taken longer than I thought, I had a horrible sense of time, and if it weren't for Karen I would have been stuck in a morph a long time ago. "You better get to bed too. I'll let Rachel have my bed and I'll sleep on the couch."
"Not gonna happen." I said. "You take the bed I'll take the couch." Karen didn't argue.
"Guys," Rachel said. "Can I use your shower?"
"Sure," I gave her directions and after she left I sat on the couch next to Karen. "I can't believe it, I thought the Animorphs are still going I thought they were dead."
"Erik," She said. "you remember what you've said you were going to do if you met the Animorphs?"
"Yeah, I do, I never thought it would happen and now that it has… do you think my idea would work?"
"I don't know, but the combined forces of our teams may make enough power to accomplish it."
"And if we did Erik, imagine it would be a real shot it the arm for both of us, we would be able put the Yerks against the ropes."
"Yeah I know, I'll ask her tomorrow,' I heard the shower turn off. "She's too tired today." Karen changed the subject.
"You know Erik, all of the beds here are double beds…"
"Karen, sweetie you know how I feel about that…" me and Anna had a strict Catholic upbringing, and we both had taken our faith a lot more seriously since we began fighting.
"You know Erik, I think you're an endangered species you are the only guy I know that would turn me down when I made such an offer." She kissed me on the cheek, goodnight Erik, I love you."
"Love you too Karen." Rachel walked by, and I pointed her to the upstairs bedroom. She went upstairs without saying a word. I picked up a deerskin quilt from a nearby rocking chair got a pillow from another chair lay down on the couch and went to sleep.