The Gardens 4:45 PM
Spoiler I know in this section I get close to the dreaded Power Rangers Cliché (when only one person can save the day) but there's not much avoiding it This chapter is rated M I will likely change the entire books rating soon. By the way after this story with David I need my readers to throw out some ideas on where they want it to go next.
I had been given a job at the gardens since I seemed to have a way with animals. (While I do the incident in question occurred when I was acquiring a mongoose that normally bit everyone who tried to handle it) I was getting ready to leave when I saw something. David was in line at one of the sea areas, and at the Killer Whale tank no less.
Shit! I thought, I knew that David had a plan and I wasn't looking forward to seeing it play out. I knew that I had to follow him. I walked into a bathroom and ducked into a stall. There I morphed, my hair grew and became snow white. My skin became a leather color, my eyes became a deep gray. I lost about 8 inches in height my arms and legs became thicker. Soon I was in a human morph I made through the Flrois maneuver. I walked back to the tank and saw that David was still there.
He touched the whale and got it's DNA. I followed him out at a distance. Once we were far out of range of sight David morphed a golden eagle. I did some quick human to condor morphing and followed him taking care to stay above his range of vision.
I knew where we were going. We were going to Topsail Beach, about an hours trip by air. Topsail was the location of some kind of leadership seminar on the war on terror. Anna and the others were going to crash the party, big time! When we reached the beach it had started to storm badly. It was some kind of tropical depression.
David swam out a little ways into the water and morphed a killer whale. I stayed as far from him as I could can began to morph myself. My teeth multiplied, my mouth grew wide. Fins shot out of my sides, I grew a dorsal fin and soon I was a full grown tiger shark. I continued to follow David at a distance, fighting the sharks instinct to attack the straggler. After a short amount of time I saw a bunch of dolphins swimming in the water full speed.
They saw the whale and began to run. They hid under a passing shrimp boats motor.
(Come on guys do you think that's going to scare me?) David said.
(No,) I said. (But this might.) I caught him off guard for a micro second and took a chunk of his right flank off. The blood in the water made the shark want to continue the attack but I fought it. My goal was to get him to bleed and run. David swam off as fast as he could, he knew the blood would attract other sharks.
(I thought I told you to sleep on it.) Jake said teasingly.
(I decided to save your sorry asses instead, how did it go?) I said.
(Put is this way,) Marco said. (Tomorrow the New York Times will have a headline stating that PETA is charging Al-Qudia with animal cruelty.)
(Which reminds me,) I said. (Anna, did you eat Kofi Annon like I asked you to?)
9:22 pm
There was a knock on the door. I went to answer it. Karen Lanely was standing in the doorway in her Pizza Hut uniform.
"Two mediums, one with pepperoni and mushrooms, one with anchovies and olives, Erik if I may say one member of your family is deranged." She smiled. Karen had long black hair and green eyes with blue flecks. She had a small nose and a square face she was unbelievably beautiful when she smiled it set every man in a 2 mile radius' blood on fire.
We had been flirting off and on throughout her career of delivering to us. I was afraid to ask her out though, Karen was one of the higher class kids at school it a kid like me wouldn't stand a snowballs chance in Miami landing a date with her. Then I was given a surprise.
"Hey I'm done with work, this was my last delivery, I can get them the money tomorrow. Would you mind if I had dinner with you two, my parents are out of town and I feel like eating with normal humans." I smiled.
"Sure come on in." She took an extra pizza out of the bag. "I brought my own." She said. We placed the food on the table and I called Anna in. Anna saw Karen and gave me a look that meant I was going to hear about this when Karen left.
We served ourselves and said a quick blessing. As we ate Karen started up a conversation.
"How long are you staying at this apartment."
"At least a year." I said.
"New house will be built by then." Anna said.
"I heard about the trust fund you guys had, oh, I'm sorry, I have no manners…"
"It's ok," I said. "We have a trust fund of a couple hundred thousand dollars plus life insurance, we can live pretty comfortably, but we're keeping in school anyway. "
"I'm sorry about what happened to your parents."
"Don't be, it's not your fault." Karen changed the subject.
"Did you guys here about that attack on the UN convention thing?"
"No, what happened." Anna said barley concealing a smile."
"A bunch of animals came out of nowhere and tore the place to shreds," Karen said. "did lots of damage but didn't kill anyone I don't think. People think it's a terrorist thing but that's not possible."
"How so?" I asked interested .
"For starters no one died, terrorism thrives on fear and I'm not afraid of someone destroying property that isn't mine. Second terrorists like bombs and fire not animals, third, well my dad was one of the guards, and he says that it looked for all the world like those animals were working on their own accord. He said it looked like an army squad attacking ."
"Your dad alright?" I asked.
"He's fine," Karen said. "Just got cut up a little when a crocodile knocked him through a window, he's back at work right now."
"Oh my God, I'm sorry Karen." Anna said almost blowing our cover. Karen didn't notice that Anna was apologizing for her actions though.
"Like I said, he's fine, it takes more than a reptile to put my dad out." She smiled. "Look I'd hate to eat and run, but I want to get home so I can feed the dog." I'll see you at school on Monday Ok?" I swear I thought I felt a slight tap on my leg under the table.
"All right see you then." I said
4:22 am
I woke up screaming, I was sweating bullets. Night Terrors, I had been having them ever since I joined the team. When I stopped screaming I heard a muffled yell. I grabbed a gun from my gun case and ran into Anna's room. At the door I heard a voice.
"Come on bitch, look on the bright side, at least you'll have had a good screwing before…" I burst through the door leading with my shotgun. I shuddered at what I saw. David was sitting on Anna's legs with his knees, her night gown had been ripped open. David had been fondling her when I burst in. He saw me yanked her up by her neck using her as a shield.
"I warned you fucker, you had to get involved, you may have stopped me this time, but I swear to you with your stupid God as my witness that I will finish the job, I am going to destroy you Erik, that's a promise." he groped Anna again and jumped out the window, morphing as he went. Anna covered herself and started to cry. I ran over and put my arm around her.
"Easy sis," I said. "stay calm he's gone now."
"Erik, he, he was going to rape me, I woke up and he was, just standing there. He grabbed me covered my mouth and, frenched me," She sounded like the very act made her sick, it made me want to lose the evenings pizza. "he… oh God, he told me what he was going to do to me." It was hard to hear the rest through her sobs, but I couldn't bear to give the situation any thought. I tried to get her to go back to sleep.
"I can't what if he comes back?" She sobbed.
"I'll stay be in here with the gun, if he tries it I'll neuter the bastard." Somehow Anna got back to sleep. I didn't even blink the entire night. Both of us stayed home from school the next day.
October 25th
6:45 pm
The team was planning to meet with David at Taco Bell. After I told the others about the incident Jake decided it was best to keep me away from David. Tobias agreed to help look after Anna. I had morphed in an ally, I was in my other human morph and wearing tattered clothes. I looked through the window and saw the others talking to him. I walked into the store.
Most people strayed out of my way. I walked over to the table. David rubbed beans and dip on Rachel's shirt. He turned around and was looking right in the barrel of my gun.
"I want my money pencil dick!" I said. "I'm not giving you anymore time, pay the fuck up." He looked scared. The fear in his eyes was wonderful, now he knew how Anna felt.
"Man I don't know what your talking about..." the store had cleared out, the cops would be here soon. I pulled the trigger. Most of David's skull went out the back of his head. A dark read mist settled over the tables. Rachel was covered in blood and spinal fluid.
I bent down and searched his body, I pulled out a wallet and took his shoes and a watch. I walked out. The other Animorphs were in shock, they knew that this was my morph. After I de-morphed and left the loot on a nearby bum I walked back towards my house and met Jake halfway, he told me to follow him into an alley.
"Holy shit man!" He said. "Why the hell did you do that? We had a plan to get rid of him, he wouldn't have to die even…" I stared Jake in the eyes and sneered the next words.
"He tried to rape my sister Jake, let me tell you a little something about my sister. She is the only thing I have left of my parents, she has been my friend when no one else will. She is my life and let me tell you something, I will make sure anyone who tries to hurt my sister dies," I began to yell. "Do you have any idea what she's been through! Do you!"
"Erik, I know what it's like to have a…"
"You have no fucking idea, what it's like to loose a family member! Your brother is infested, big fucking deal! You may see him again, my parents were shot in the back both of them are dead and I won't see them in this life again! The pain I felt at their death was much worse for Anna, she was closer to them than I was. She has been hurt enough, and no one Jake, no one is going to cause her anymore pain and live much longer." Jake yelled back.
"You are an idiot you killed a person, do you know that?"
"I have an idea yeah, but he…"
"No one should die Erik, not a human, we can't kill humans, we just can't. Erik if you ever do something like that again, ever you're off the team."
"No problem," I said. "I hope I won't have to do that again."