Okay, Tobias said, accepting that conclusion. Well, you guys are almost at the end of the two-hour limit. You'll need to demorph now. I saw a big pile of rocks, you'll be able to have some shade and privacy there.

They flew toward the pile of boulders, circling downward then fluttering gently to the ground. The area was nice and secluded, and well shaded by a rather large tree. The only problem was that this particular nice, secluded area was on the inside of the fence, a part of the infamous Area 51.

Once they had landed, four of the five Animorphs started demorphing. There was a thick layer of nice, soft, warm sand beneath them, which all of them were glad about since they didn't have any shoes. The sandpit was surrounded on all sides by large, jagged rocks, with no apparent way for anyone to get into the middle where the Animorphs now stood. This would eventually prove to be both an asset and a disadvantage.

Dressed only in their rather skimpy morphing outfits, the five Animorphs looked around at the sandpit where they were relaxing for the moment. A warm, softly keening wind blew over the rocks, pushing around the loose grains of sand and catching up the hair of the four humans.

"All we need now is a picnic lunch," Marco commented. "Tobias! Why don't you rustle us up some nice, juicy rats and toads?"

No need, the hawk replied calmly. Just eat that snake you're sitting on.

"Yaaaaahhhhh!" Marco shot to his feet in half an instant, churning up the sand and slapping frantically at his backside and upper-thighs.

Slade bit his tongue with the effort not to laugh. He couldn't help it, Marco just looked so hilarious. Out of the corner of his eye, Slade caught sight of a small, black snake slithering away from where Marco had been sitting.

"I'm bit! I'm gonna die! A rattler bit my butt!" Marco shouted, panicking and hopping around crazily.

It wasn't a rattlesnake, and it didn't bite you, Tobias said calmly. It was just a harmless bull snake.

"No snake is harmless," Marco muttered darkly. Raising his voice, Marco turned to look at Tobias. "You will keep your hawk eyes open though, right? You know, just in case a rattler does come for me?"

I will protect your butt from snake bite, Marco, Tobias said, sounding oddly solemn for making such a ridiculous-sounding statement.

"Let's just morph back now," Rachel suggested. "We don't really need to rest, I feel fine."

"There's no real rush, is there?" Cassie asked, not wanting to get back in the air so soon.

All of the Animorphs present, excluding Slade of course, knew that it was better for them if they were able to rest for a time between morphs. The four of them had indeed been in situations where they had not been able to take the necessary rest period, and they had all suffered for it to varying degrees. The process of morphing was a tiring one, requiring intense concentration and focus.

"No," Rachel said. "There's no hurry."

The keening wind blew through Rachel's hair as she stretched, causing the golden strands to shimmer in the late-afternoon light. Slade tried to make himself relax; but he kept hearing a sound, like soft footsteps closing in around them. None of his new allies seemed to be concerned in the least about this, and so Slade tried to calm himself down. Paranoia wouldn't do anyone any good.

"This is like one of those old Westerns," Rachel said, looking around at the Animorphs' impromptu hiding place. "The good guys are all up in the rocks hiding from the bad guys," she chuckled. "All we need now are six-guns and rifles."

As if on cue, eight men with automatic rifles came suddenly into the sandpit, weapons trained on the four of them. Two rifles each were aimed at the occupants of the sandpit; one aimed at their heads and the other aimed at their chests. Slade silently cursed himself for not telling his allies about the sounds he had been hearing, they might have been ready for this if he had.

"Okay now, here's what we're going to do," the lead soldier said, standing up and putting his hands on his hips. Under his breath, Slade hissed at him. "The four of you are gonna lay down, facedown in the sand, and place your hands behind your heads, fingers laced together."

For a moment, Cassie wondered about the soldier's choice of words. Four of us, but… Oh! He thinks Tobias is just a hawk! Cassie realized.

"But we weren't doing anything," Rachel protested, reminding Cassie of those times several years ago when Rachel would dig through her mother's closet looking for clothes to try on. Rachel's tone here was almost the same as it had been all those years ago when she would argue with her mother.

"You have illegally entered a restricted government facility. And you are in a world of hurt," the man said, looking them over with hard eyes. "Sergeant! Search them for weapons or contraband. And someone chase away that big old hawk," the man snapped. "He's staring at me."

"Yes sir, Lieutenant," another man, evidently the aforementioned Sergeant, answered quickly.

You guys, just go along with them, Tobias said, as one of the other soldiers came after him. Tobias flew off, but not without a bit of parting advice to his friends. I'll keep an eye out for you. Just play dumb.

"You heard him, Marco," Rachel whispered, winking at her often-sarcastic comrade. "Just be yourself."

Rachel considered it her task to keep up the morale of her fellow Animorphs by giving them someone to look up to, someone who showed little or no fear in the face of overwhelming odds. However, although she would never tell anyone, Rachel sometimes found that she was losing herself to the role she had chosen.

The rest of the strike force quickly jumped down from their position on the rocks. The four Animorphs quickly lay stomach-down in the sand, lacing their fingers together and placing their hands behind their heads.

Face almost in the sand, Slade gritted his teeth. He knew that he couldn't attack the enemy who had come into their hiding place so suddenly, not without putting his allies in unacceptable danger. True, they possessed their shapeshifting ability, and they probably could change into some pretty dangerous animals, but that didn't change the fact that they would be almost helpless while they were shifting from one form to the next.

The search that had been ordered was over almost instantly, since none of the Animorphs were wearing anything other than their morphing outfits. After the last of them had been checked over, which incidentally had been Slade who had had to restrain himself from punching in the face the soldier who had been searching him, the soldiers returned to their Lieutenant to make their report.

"Nothing of interest was found, sir," one of the others stated.

"All right." With a sharp nod the Lieutenant dismissed his man. Turning back to the four teenagers lying in the sand, he barked out an order. "All of you, on your feet! Put on your shoes and let's move out!"

"No shoes, sir," the Sergeant reported.