Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs or any related stuff from it. I just own Joshua, Ben, Jessie, and Jimmy/Sub-visser 1.
Chapter 5
We ducked into an alleyway. Two more controllers jumped out of the van. The van wouldn't fit in the ally but four men would be enough to handle two kids and a cat. We dodged through the alley. We came out onto a street, ran a block or two and ducked into another alley.
I demorphed.
"How did they know who we are?" Jessie asked.
"Jimmy's still alive," I said.
"Jimmy? How?" Ben asked.
"I don't know, but he has told the yeerks about us. So, we can't go home. They'll probably infest our parents, our friends, and our relatives," I said.
Jessie looked horrified. Ben appeared to be thinking.
"Come on," I said.
"Where are we going?" Ben asked.
"The zoo," I replied. "We need some big morphs."
"How are we going to get in," Ben asked.
"I guess we just pay and walk in," I said.
"But won't the controllers recognized us?" Ben asked.
"I don't think they'll have had enough time to spread the word about us," I said.
We fell silent after that. We walked to the zoo. It took awhile, but we finally made it just before the zoo opened. We waited outside, discussing what we should acquire.
Or at least, Ben and I did. Jessie was still silent. She hadn't said a word. She was probably thinking of her parents being infested.
I would have to remember to talk to her later. We didn't have time to worry about our parents right now. First, we had to find someplace where the yeerks couldn't find us.
"All right," I said. "We should acquire something to fight with. Some sort of water creature like a shark or a dolphin, a bird of some kind."
"How bout a hawk or falcon?" Jessie said. "They have excellent vision and hearing and they can fly of course."
"How do you know all that? What are you? A bird expert?" Ben asked.
"Sort of, My mom works here," Jessie said.
"So do you think you could get us in free?" I asked.
"No, I can but you have to pay."
"Oh, no I don't have any money." I said.
"Why not?" Ben asked.
"When I morphed my cat, my clothing didn't morph. So when I demorphed I threw on my pajamas. I then had to morph again to escape some controllers."
My "pajamas" were a very small shirt, and a pair of shorts.
"All right, well, I think I can pay for your ticket." Ben said.
"Thanks," I said.
We waited five minutes until the zoo finally opened. Ben paid for my admission and we went in.
I let Ben get ahead a bit and hung back with Jessie.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah," she replied.
"Well a little while ago you were kind of moping around. What changed?" I said.
"Yeah, well I was feeling a little sorry for myself, but I'm over it. I am not going to let some alien slugs enslave my parents or my brother," she said.
"Hey, just out of curiosity where are we going?" Jimmy asked.
"Let's check out the big cats," I said smiling.
"All right that's this way," Jessie said. She led us to a door marked employees only. "In here is the access points to the animals habitats." She led us a little farther and stopped.
"So what do you want to acquire?" she asked.
I looked out through some windows to see each different cat in their habitat. The tigers and jaguars were both in a tropical rainforest habitat. It would be easy for them to hide in the foliage and ambush me. The loins were out on a plain. But their were so many I would probably be spotted. There was the snow leopard it was lying on a rock in a mountain habitat.
"I'll take the snow leopard," I said.
Jessie opened the door. I walked into the leopard's cage. Jessie left the door open in case I had to make a run for it. I approached the leopard. He was asleep. I placed my hand on him and acquired him. I then made a beeline for the door.
"All right, now what do you want to morph?" Jessie asked Ben.
"How about a bear?" he said.
"All right on the way I can acquire the morph I want," Jessie said.
Jessie acquired a african wild dog, Ben a black bear.
We each acquired a tiger shark. It was relatively easy to acquire the shark it had wondered close enough for us to reach out and touch it.
We acquired a canadian goose for flying long distance.
I suggested we acquire an insect of some sort. So we headed to the spider house and acquired a black widow spider.
Now there was only one last morph to get. Our bird of prey morphs.