Authors Note: I'm imagining the Animorphs to live In San Francisco, and so this is where the fugitives much make their way. Of curse, we never found out exactly where they lived, all we know from the books was that it was in California. I guess San Francisco seems a likely city and it works for my story.

Chapter 8

Philip and I trekked north for an hour or so, led by Sam and Ferdie who were flying on ahead. I was still getting to grips with my moose morph. It's so strange morphing an animal for the first time, kind of like driving a new car. Of course, it's strange full stop, morphing any animal! The moose was a pretty decent morph; sure footed, good senses, able to cross through most terrains. It was a good swimmer, with was useful when we had to cross a river. Whilst Philip had demorphed, gone hawk and flown over, I'd just waded through easily, over to the other side before Philip was even fully hawk.

--Mags? Philip?-- I heard Sam call some time later. --We're coming up to a road now. We're nearly in the outskirts of town. You two might want to join us in the air.--

Philip, who had remained hawk and was now riding on one of my antlers, keeping watch around us, spread his powerful buzzard wings and soared up into the sky.

--Ok,-- I replied. --Be with you in a few minutes.-- I concentrated on my human self and quickly morphed back to human, then focused on my bird of prey morph. Soon, I was an enormous white-tailed eagle soaring over the tree-tops.

--Lets get over the road,-- I suggested. --It's a warm day - there should be some great thermals.--

We glided over the hot concrete, a few hundred meters away from each other to prevents arousing suspicion. I felt the pillar of warm air open up my wings, and I glided up lazily to the bellies of the clouds.

--This is so much more fun than the swan morph,-- I commented. --As a raptor, you can just drift about on the thermals, barely flapping your wings.--

--Well, with your wingspan, no wonder you can soar,-- said Ferdie. --Us falcons have to flap. But who wants to soar? I'm going to have some fun!--

I trained my laser-sharp eagle eyes on Ferdie, who was about three hundred meters in front of me, slightly to my right, dashing crazily through the air, up, down, left and right, like a fighter pilot. Suddenly, he tucked back his wings and went into a super-fast dive, rocketing towards the ground like a bullet. He opened his wings just a second before he hit the ground, then flapped back upwards towards Sam.

--Some fun, huh?-- he yelled to her. --Want to give it a go?--

--Why not?-- she grinned. She was a lanner falcon, which, like Ferdie's hobbie, was much more agile in the air than my eagle. The two of them went into their own little Top Gun display, showing off their dazzling aero-dynamics.

--Children,-- muttered Philip. His buzzard morph was more suited to soaring than acrobatics, and was gliding patiently along somewhere behind me.

From the air, and with my fantastic vision, we were able to make out the sounding landscape a lot better. I could just make out the coastline where we'd entered the new continent, seeing it sweep outwards and back in on itself in a smooth arch-shaped bay. I saw the forest sweeping for miles in all directions, the road below us cutting through the middle of the forest like a long, grey scar. And, to the north, I could make out the town, a sprawling mass of grey concrete in this otherwise very green and untouched area. The four of us flew on towards it, eager to get back to civilisation.

--Where shall we eat?-- asked Ferdie, to whom the subject of food was always very appealing. --There's a nice little restaurant down there.--

--Or a Mac Donald's,-- I observed. --Can't go anywhere without coming across a Maccie D's.--

--Well, we have to find some money first,-- Philip said. --Just like we did in Leeds. Keep an eye out for some cash.--

--How very glamorous,-- Ferdie said dryly. --How I wish we'd been able to morph credit cards.--

--Credit cards would have got us traced,-- Sam said.

We soared over the town, descending through the air, keeping an eye out for any money. It wasn't a very large town, there was your school, your shopping centre, or mall as I believe they call it here, your main roads and your blocks of houses in the suburbs.

--There's a little square on shops, guys,-- I pointed out. --Just behind that big radio transmitter. I can see loads of loose change dropped there.--

We flapped towards the parade of shops. Ferdie sighed when he saw the number of people around.

--Oh god,-- he said. --We're going to look like such skanks walking around picking up change.--

--Well, we need money to buy food, Flawless,-- said Philip. --If you can think of another way to get some quick cash, I'm all yours.--

--Busking? Anyone sing here? Ferdie? You like the sound of your own voice. Go and stand outside a shop and give us your stuff.-- I suggested jokingly.

--I'm not singing anything.-- Ferdie retorted. --Maybe you girls could put on a gymnastics display. At least you're wearing the right clothes.--

--Well you don't look too bad, Ferd,-- Sam said. --You're the only one who's covered their legs and is wearing shoes.--

--Yeah, Ferdie, you can get us the money and buy us breakfast,-- I laughed.

We demorphed behind a couple of old dumpsters. It was smelly, cramped and dark, but at least it was out of sight. Morphing is not a glamorous job. We crept out from behind the bins and went to pick up the money we'd spotted as birds.

"We look like such tramps," I said. "Look at my hair, Sam. It looks like a rats' nest!" I gave a half-hearted attempt to run my fingers through the knots, trying to brush out some of the dirt. Sam was brushing her leotard, the blue fabric filthy and torn.

"Maybe we could do with some new morphing suits too," she said, giving some on lookers a dirty look when she caught them staring.

I picked up a coin. "Are these US dollars?" I asked. "I'm not too sure what they look like."

Philip took the coin from me. "In God we trust," he read. "I think that's a quarter."

"How much is that in pounds?"

"Not much. About eighteen pence."

"Great," I said sarcastically. "That's going to get us far."

Ferdie came over to us, holding a handful of dirty coins and ripped notes. "This is everything I could find," he said. We sat on a bench and counted the money.

"Errr, six dollars and fifty cents," I calculated. "Not bad for a few minutes scrounging. I bet if homeless people did this, they'd make a lot more money than just begging."

"Yeah, but they don't have hawk eyes to look for it first," Philip said.

I stood up, giving the change to Sam. "Where shall we eat then?" I asked.

"Sam gave me a look and grinned. "Well, Flawless is going to hate it, but I think there's only one place we can go to buy something for this amount of money. And probably the only place where you'll get people dressed even stranger than we are."

Ferdie looked blank for a second, then rolled his eyes.

"Oh, please!" he moaned. "Do you know how bad that stuff is for you?"