Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs. I wish I did, but I don't. - Anyways this story and any characters that are made up are mine and Cassie's. So don't use them without asking.
Just so people now this isn't just my story. My friend Cassie and I came up with this together. We're co-authors. I come up the ideas and she types them up. And the chapters will switch between Kitty's POV and Loren's POV. Enjoy!
Kitty's POV
I never did want to go with Tommy. Jason begged out of it, saying that he didn't feel well. I knew that was total crap, though. Loren had wanted to go, though. She was a party person, even for how shy she acted. So that's how I ended up with Tommy and Loren by the library.
The library was a squat, square building in the middle of nowhere. We had to walk about twenty minutes from the school to the outskirts of the town to get there. It was just a plain, brick building that looked like someone slapped it down in the middle of a field, and said, "Here the library shall lie," or something like that. It looked very out of place in the middle of a field, with one straggling dirt road leading to it. We walked down the road, scuffing up dust trails in our wake. I scrutinized the building, with a nagging feeling in the back of my head.
"Is this where the party is?" Loren asked skeptically.
"No!" Tommy said emphatically. It's just a meeting spot," he added cheerfully. We stared all around. There was no one else in sight. It was a deserted field with a winding dirt road, and a brick building. We were almost there.
"Okay, what is this?" I asked him. He smiled his heart-melting smile, and shrugged.
"I don't know. We're a little late, so maybe they went on without us," he suggested. Loren nodded. She believed everything that boy said. I shook my head, and followed her.
We went inside the library. It was cooler in there, and we sat down in one of the corners and conversed for a while. We talked mainly about nothing. Just the usual chit-chat, and the occasional girl walking by, staring madly at Tommy. He would smile back, and wave, but we all knew it was an act. He hated the attention he got.
With his light brown hair, dark complexion, and a melting smile, he was the center of attention of all the snobby, rich girls. He was built very nicely, and could beat even me at arm wrestling. I could usually beat the guys, and he was one of the only exceptions. Today he was wearing a white tee-shirt with some sort of sports logo on it; he didn't play sports, he just wore the stuff.
A little while later, he stood up and stretched. His muscles rippled under his skin. A girl looking at books, stopped looking at books, and looked very interestedly at him.
"All right," he said to us. "Time to get going. The party's starting," he said with a wink at Loren. We all thought he had eyes for her, but she had no interest in anyone, or at least that's the appearance she kept. I couldn't care one way or another.
We all stood up, and he led us to a door that I never knew existed in the library. He put a finger to his lips for silence, looked around nervously, and opened the door slowly. I saw some sort of a number pad next to it. I hadn't seen him push any numbers on it, though.
The door lead to a dark stairway. From what I could see, the steps were narrow and steep. There were a lot of them. I wondered what was going on. He had said that it was a meeting place. There hadn't been anyone there. And how did he know that it was time for the party to start?
The walls became increasingly damp as we went down. We could hear a lot of noise coming from the bottom. It sounded like a party, but I couldn't be sure. Loren gave me a nervous look, and I shrugged. I didn't know where we going, but I trusted Tommy. It took me a lot to trust someone. I had known him longer than I had known Loren, but I was closer to Loren. It got darker, and darker. Soon I couldn't see much of anything, and I had to feel the steps with my feet before moving down. I could hear Tommy walking down with confidence. He had been here before.
As we went farther down, Loren clung closer to me. I was getting a really bad feeling in my stomach. I wasn't the nervous type, either.
"Do you have any idea where we are, or where we're going?" I asked Loren. She shook her head. I couldn't see her, but I heard the rustle of her hair in the silence. That silence was soon pierced by a scream. That scream had almost inhuman qualities to it. Whatever it was, it scared me. Without a word, Loren and I dashed back up the steps. Tommy's voice followed us up, which made us go even faster. It wasn't quite Tommy's voice. At least not to my ears. It sounded sinister, and the echoes in the stairwell gave it an even more menacing quality.
It was a long way up those stairs. We weren't even halfway there, by my reckoning, and we were both panting. That was saying something. We were both in great condition. Loren was a runner, and I played whatever sport I could jump into. But still, we raced up those steps.
Even though we were panting, and our lungs were screaming for air, we kept going. We didn't want to be around when whatever had made that scream decided to come back up these steps. We had a little trouble in the dark, but as we went further up, it got a little lighter, and we were able to move a little easier. I ignored the burning in my legs and lungs, and pushed onward. Finally, we reached the door. We stopped, composed ourselves a bit, and opened it. Red lights lit up the stairwell, and a high-pitched wailing noise filled the air around us.
"Get them!" we heard a male voice say. We looked at each other, and ran for it. There was only one problem: our legs didn't want to run. The best we could do was walk a little way. Then we had to stop.
My legs felt like rubber, and they were shaking. The whole library was whirring with that high-pitched noise. We were the only ones in the library. Everyone else had left. There was no way we could get out of there before whoever was down the stairs came up to get us. We looked at each other. My mind was racing; I had to figure something out. We had to get out of there!
"Okay, Loren? Whoever is down there, I don't like it. I don't want them to find us. Let's hide." She nodded agreement. She hadn't really heard me, but she would follow me.
"Wait, Kitty?" she said.
"What? We don't have time for this," I said, eyeing the door to the steps.
"What if all that stuff your mom said was true?" she said quickly. "What it the Yeerks are real? How are we going to get away?" She sounded very worried.
"Well, we'll have to find a way," I said with a smile. "Can you run yet?"
"I don't think so," she said warily. "All right, what are you thinking?" she said. She knew me too well. I had gotten an idea, and she knew what happened when I got ideas. I shook my head, and stood up. My legs were feeling better, and Loren didn't weigh much.
"Oh, no you don't!" she yelped as I picked her up, and bolted out the door. I smiled at her, and then focused on running.
I didn't get very far, but it was far enough away from the library that I could hide. I ducked down in the tall grass after dumping Loren off my back. I peered towards the building. I had run around to the back. There were a few trees, and dense bushes behind me. I peeked up above the grass. There wasn't anyone coming yet. Then I looked behind me. I could see the faces of people hiding in the shrubs behind us.
"So that's where everyone went," I muttered. They must have thought it was a fire or something. All of a sudden, about thirty people poured out the front and side doors to the library and burst out, guns in hand. They fanned out, looking for us. Some of them held small white objects with red buttons on them. I had no idea what they were, but I knew that they weren't meant for making peace. I crouched down next to Loren, and started moving backwards. I grabbed the back of her shirt, and dragged her with me.
"Uh oh," she said. Uh oh was right. There was a great rustling in the bushes as the whole contingent of people hiding in the bushes moved deeper back into the woods. I backed up quicker. I turned around, and started crawling as fast as I could. I could hear Loren behind me, scrambling in the dirt. But we weren't quick enough. They saw us.
"You there, get over here!" the same male voice screamed at us.
"Let's move!" I yelled at Loren. She nodded, and stood up after I did. Then we made a break for the woods. We ran into the thick of the bushes, and I leapt over a few. Loren was behind me, but I couldn't wait for her. Besides, I knew that she would be all right. I looked all around for a place to hide. Loren caught up to me finally, after she cleared the barrier of brush.
"Psst! Over here!" A small child held out a hand to us, and we crawled into a small bush that I hadn't noticed. It wasn't the nicest thing to hide in. It had thorns, and flowers that smelled really bad. But it was big enough to accommodate all three of us.
"Thank you," I whispered gratefully. She held a finger to her mouth for silence. Loren sagged against me from weariness. I wanted to lay down, but I knew that we weren't safe there. I sat up straight, and watched carefully for pursuit. Loren closed her eyes, and her face twisted in pain. She was hurt. So was I for that matter, but I chose not to show it. I had to think of a way out of this mess.
The yelling became louder as the hunters came closer to us. I tensed, and Loren raised her head. Before she could say anything, I shushed her, and shook my head as the pack came closer and closer still. I peered out through a hole in the bush, and saw them, dressed like any normal person would be. Of course they're normal people I scolded myself. They wouldn't be anything else.
They came close enough that we could hear their conversations. I knew that they had seen some of the other people, but they didn't go after anyone. They looked menacing with the guns in their hands, and I knew that they meant to kill.
"Where did they go?" a voice said.
"I don't know. They must be in here somewhere," a female voice said.
"They're here all right. But I'll get them later," a familiar voice said.
"Oh, who cares? They're not here, and they didn't find us out. They didn't get far enough down the stairs to see anything. Besides, they're scared now, so they probably won't come back," another voice said.
"I already said, I'd get them soon. Just give them a little time. They'll walk into my hands," a male voice said. It sounded so familiar!
"All right, move out!" the first voice said. With that, the whole thirty of them left the trees and turned back towards the library. We all stayed where we were for a while, to make sure that they weren't coming back. After about two minutes, we all came out from hiding. The head librarian came over to me.
"Why were they looking for you?" she asked me suspiciously, eyeing me with her slate grey eyes. Her authoritative voice made up for her small frame. She was a little intimidating.
"They weren't," I lied.
"Hmmph," she replied, and walked away. I didn't care what she thought. I hoped she believed me, though. I didn't want to have to go into hiding like this again.
Loren tugged on my sleeve, and we started for home. We slowly down the long dirt road before we came to a street. It was the main street, which had two lanes in it. Our town wasn't very big.
It was going to be a long walk home, because we were so tired. We trudged along on the sidewalk for a while. Then we decided that we were hungry. So we went to the mall.
The mall was a decent-sized mall. It had all three department stores, lots of boutiques, clothes, electronics, pretty much everything. But all the stores were small. Before we went in, I looked around us. The mall was the middle of the town. And my house was on the other side. As I looked around the big parking lot, I became nervous. Suddenly, I wanted to go home.
But we couldn't, because we were hungry. We went in, and we saw Jason sitting at a table, eating what looked to be pizza. His short red hair could be seen a mile away. He motioned us over, and we moved towards his table.
"What's up?" he asked nonchalantly as we got to his table. I as on edge, so I snapped at him.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing. Now we have to get going, Jason," I said. He looked like I had just slapped him in the face. I'd apologize for it later. Loren just looked stunned, but she followed my lead, and we went into the food court.
As soon as we stepped on the threshold, the smell of Cinnabon, Italian food, and various other greasy, fast food restaurant smells assaulted us. All troubles were forgotten except for the growling in my stomach.
"Mmmmm, smells so good," Loren said hungrily. I agreed with her. We went up to the Italian place, and ordered some pasta. We sat down and ate like two hungry wolves. We ate so fast I didn't even really taste it. I was just so hungry, and food meant energy. I didn't like the feeling of being pursued.
When we had finished, we got some drinks, and left the mall. We got to the front door, and Jason was there, trying to get out. There was a pack of older kids around him, taunting him. He was surrounded by them, and they had something of his they were holding up in the air. Loren and I looked at each other, and broke into a trot. We got to where he was, and the older kids' attention turned to us.
"Jason, get out of here," I said tersely as I was pulled into the circle of boys with Loren next to me.
"I'm not leaving you here, what are you, crazy?"
"Get out of here," I repeated. "I'll take care of us." He gave up, and bolted. He got picked on all the time, and I felt bad for him. But the guys didn't even pay attention to him. Their main attention was focused on us. They started circling us, and there was no way out.
"Kitty, remind me to hurt you when we get out of this one," Loren said. I smiled at her. I knew we would get out of there. I didn't know how I would do it, but I knew that I would get out of there.
One of the bigger guys stepped into the circle, and advanced on me. I saw my opening. I tugged Loren's shirt, and she got the idea. I kicked the guy, and ran through the break in the circle. Loren was close behind me.
"Ahhh!" she cried as she fell face first on the sidewalk. One of the other guys had tripped her. I had to go back!
The guy had picked her up off the ground by her shirt, as I started running back. She didn't need my help, though. She stomped on his foot, which made him loosen his grip. She kicked back, and got him right where it hurt. Then she made a break for it.
We ran, side by side. After a while, the adrenaline wore off, and it turned into fun. It wasn't a long jog to the house, only about fifteen minutes at a fast jog. The food had refueled us, and we were able to pace each other reliably. We loved running together. We did it a lot, when we either needed to talk about something, or we just wanted to get out and do something together.
We rounded a corner, and came to my street. My house was at the very end of the street. I sped up. Loren kicked it up as well. It turned into a race. We were even for a while, and then she pulled ahead. I pooled all my strength, and put on a burst of speed. The house wasn't much farther. I had almost caught up to Loren when I hit the driveway. She didn't stop at the house, however. She kept going, right past the barn, to the woods. I didn't think anything of it. I just followed.
When we reached the trees, she collapsed into a heap of giggling girl. I fell down right next to her, and we pushed each other around for a bit.
"That was a lot of running," she said between gasps.
"Uh huh," was all I said. I pushed her just as she got to her knees, and she went over onto her back. I bent over her to make sure she was all right when she sprang up, and tackled me. I fell back into the soft grass. We kept going until my mom came outside.
"Where have you two been?" she asked, waving a syringe at us.
"Umm, just out and about," I said with a huge grin on my face.
"Sure you were," Loren muttered under her breath. I elbowed her in the side.
"All right, come inside then, and get washed up. Dinner's almost ready."
"Umm, Mom, we've already eaten," I apologized. She shrugged, and pointed to the barn. She didn't mind, but I had other things to do anyway. My mom was wonderful. She let me do a lot of stuff. As long as I was with someone, then it was okay. She didn't want me out by myself, though. So Loren and I went everywhere together.
"Go do your chores, then," she said to me. "Loren, there was a phone call for you," she said soberly. Loren looked stunned. No one ever called Loren, especially not at my house. Even though it was well known that we were best friends, it wasn't known that she almost lived with me. She looked at me, and I nodded. She went inside, and I went to the barn.
Things in the barn weren't too bad. I just cleaned a few cages, and checked up on the wolf and the hawk. The hawk was almost ready to release. In fact, there was nothing left for it to do but let itself heal. It had gotten a broken wing somehow. My mom had picked him up by the side of the road. We had set it, and it had healed, but he needed to use it a bit, to get back the muscle mass. I would tell my mom later.
The wolf was doing well. The splint that I had put on her earlier that week was holding, thank goodness. Those things were a pain to put on, especially on such a wild animal. She was beginning to get back her natural wariness, and I knew if that splint came off, we'd have to sedate her to get it back on. And that wasn't a fun thing to do. I had only barely managed to get it on her without her biting my arm off.
All of a sudden, Loren came trudging into the barn. The look on her face told me everything I needed to know.
"Again?" I asked softly. She nodded slowly. Sometimes when she stayed too long, someone would catch on, and she'd get in major trouble, or something would happen at home. Usually something happened at home. Her parents fought all the time, and her dad sometimes got violent.
"She's in the hospital," Loren said. "My dad wants me to go home." She looked at the ground. She hated going home, especially when her dad got mad. I gave her a hug, and we walked out of the barn.
"Are you going to be all right?" I whispered. She nodded, and walked down the driveway. I watched her go. Her hair glistened in the sunlight, but the bounce was gone from her step. She always tried to be strong, but it didn't always work.
I sighed. I hated watching her leave like that. My mom came out and gave me a hug. She knew what was happening. Somehow, she knew a lot of things. I hugged her tightly. There was a feeling in me that everything was not all right, and that it would all be very wrong shortly.
I ignored that feeling, and went into the house with my mom.
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