You're in Harm's Way; I'm Right Behind
Marco
I've done a lot of stupid things to try and get girls before. Going to a classical music concert was one. Trying to compliment a girl on her body and accidently telling her that she looked like a guy also comes to mind. And then there was an incident involving "manscaping" that I swear I will take to my grave.
But nothing came close to standing barefoot on the cold linoleum floor of the elementary school while Rachel unloaded a bomb from her backpack.
Rachel looked surprised, for obvious reasons. She had no way of knowing that I had followed her all the way to Mertil and Gafinilan's house and waited outside, admiring her guts and wondering if she would even be able to pull it off. She didn't know that I had also followed her back to her house and waited as a bat in her next door neighbor's tree, until she finally came out and I was able to follow her to the elementary school.
She also had no idea whether I was there to help her or stop her. To tell the truth, I wasn't sure myself. Her plan was insane. She was trying to blow up a school. It was the kind of thing that could grant her a starring role on one of those True Crime specials: Teenagers That Kill or something. Granted, there weren't any kids in the school, but it was impossible to believe that all the Human-Controllers would escape. Rachel was doing what we had (as far as we knew, anyway) avoided for all of these years: intentionally killing humans.
And she was trying to do it alone. After the rest of us had voted no. After I had voted no.
But none of that mattered.
"Let me help you," I said.
Rachel's shoulders stiffened. "I don't need any help. I've got this covered."
I decided not to mention the two Hork-Bajir that had been headed her way as she was playing with the wires of the bomb. They wouldn't be bothering her now anyway.
I should have stayed in my gorilla morph. I was way too exposed as a human.
"You shouldn't do this alone."
"Well, you're the last person that should be helping me."
I snorted. "That's just ridiculous. Everyone knows that I am the evil genius. You may have gotten your fancy bomb all by yourself, but it doesn't look like you have much of a plan to get it close enough to do any damage."
"Evil genius?" Rachel raised her eyebrows but didn't smile.
"Yeah. I am the Giles to your Buffy. You might have the fighting skills, but you need my superior intellect to make sure you don't get yourself hacked to pieces." I regretted the Giles comparison as soon as it was out of my mouth. Sexless father figure, that's me.
Rachel rolled her eyes. "What does your superior intellect know about bombs?"
"They go 'boom'?"
Rachel decided not to dignify that with a response and went back to fiddling with her wires. Maybe she would just detonate the damn thing and put us both out of our awkward misery. I absentmindedly wondered who would play us in the movie version of this if we got caught by normal cops instead of the Yeerks. Obviously they would make a movie. They would pick some blond cheerleader type to play Rachel, probably Hayden Panetierre. Anyone that looks like Rachel would automatically get cast as the bitchy cheerleader in a movie. I think Shia LaBeouf would be good as me, even though we look nothing alike, but with my luck they would probably get Jonah Hill.
"Go home, Marco," Rachel snarled. It wasn't a bad idea. In fact, it was what I had been telling myself all night.
But here I was.
"I can't go home. You need me."
Rachel snorted. "You are the last thing I need."
Rachel might have wanted it to be true. But, for the moment at least, she was wrong. There was only one way she was going to get that bomb farther into the school.
"I'll distract them for you," I spit the words out before I could change my mind. In my head, I kept referring to it as a distraction, but that was really too nice of a word. I wasn't going to be a distraction. I was going to be bait. Things never really work out that well for the bait.
Rachel raised her eyebrows. She was intrigued. "They won't all follow you."
"No," I agreed. "But they will probably only leave a couple of guards behind. You would need to go in and take them out fast—very fast," I corrected. "Then, maybe if you managed to hide the bomb and the bodies…"
Rachel was considering it. So was I—admittedly, I wasn't completely sure that it could be done. It depended on how quick Rachel was, how many guards were left behind, and how bloody the fight was. Even if she managed to hide bodies, a pool of blood would give it away.
"No," she said, shaking her head. Her blond hair shimmered even in the dim light. "Too big of a chance that they would notice and move the bomb or deactivate it. This is my only chance."
"Well—"
"You distract them," Rachel said. "I'll take out the guards, hide the bomb and get out."
"How is that different than what I just said?"
"We don't leave time for them to come back and find the bodies."
I considered this. She had a point. "How long of a window are you thinking about?"
Rachel looked down at the timer on her bomb. "Five minutes."
"No way," I snapped. "There is no way that you could take out the guards and get out of the building that fast."
Rachel shrugged. "It depends on how many guards stay behind."
"You have no way of knowing…"
"Any longer, and they'll have time to send in reinforcements like they did before."
I was trying to do this my way and over-plan every detail, and Rachel was trying to do it her way: jump out of the plane without a parachute and figure out the details on the way down. Meanwhile, we were both standing in the middle of the hallway, basically waiting for the Yeerks to show up and kill us so we could avoid having to make any decisions. We needed to get moving.
"OK," I agreed. "Five minutes." I started to morph to gorilla, but then changed my mind. I was going to be pulling the Yeerks away from the area, which meant I would need to be able to outrun them. I needed something faster than a gorilla. I morphed to a cheetah. I would be sacrificing raw power for speed, but a gorilla can't outrun a Hork-Bajir. End of story.
Rachel programed the bomb for five minutes, but didn't start the countdown just yet. Dark brown fur began sprouting from her face.
When we were both finished morphing, I led the way through the school halls towards the Yeerk pool entrance, Rachel lumbered along behind me in her grizzly morph. She was walking on three legs and awkwardly cradling the bomb in the fourth.
We stopped around the corner from the entrance. So far we hadn't run into any other guards. They were all protecting the most important area. I was starting to get nervous. How many were going to be concentrated into the one area? How many would come after me, and how many would stay behind?
(Hide in that bathroom for now,) I told Rachel. (I'll let you know when to go.)
(I'll start the timer as soon as you tell me.)
I turned to leave. (Marco?)
(Yeah?) I turned back around so I was facing Rachel.
(Thanks for helping me. But this doesn't change anything.) For Rachel, that was close to heartfelt gratitude. She couldn't even say thanks without reminding me that she wasn't interested.
I laughed. (None of that matters, Rachel. If we both manage to survive this, Jake is going to kill us anyway.)
Rachel didn't say anything. I was glad that we were both in morph. I didn't want to overanalyze her expressions, and I didn't want her to read mine.
Walk away. Just walk away.
(Don't die,) Rachel said finally. And she ducked into the bathroom before I could say anything else.
I headed down the hall. Don't die. That would be easy to remember. It was my motto of the past three years, after all.
The cheetah's body was small—only around 140-150 pounds, about the same weight as my human body. But it had more weapons. Teeth. Claws. The liquid grace and lightning-fast reflexes of a cat. And, of course, the speed that had made me choose it.
I darted around the corner. The guards were in the middle of the hall, and there were more than I had expected. Six or seven Hork-Bajir, and two Human-Controllers. I ran for the nearest Hork-Bajir, leapt, and knocked him flat on his back. I sunk my teeth into his throat, felt the blood gush as he squirmed under me.
"GET IT!" One of the humans—a college aged woman with long brown hair—shrieked, but I was gone before they could pull a gun. I took off down the hall. I could hear several of the large Hork-Bajir coming after me. I peeked over my shoulder as I rounded the corner again. Four of them were running after me, along with the woman.
I led them away from the hallway where Rachel was still hiding in the bathroom. I couldn't reach full speed in the short school hallways, but I was still much quicker than the woman and the Hork-Bajir. I was heading for the exit before I realized the flaw. Like earlier in the night, the Hork-Bajir were not going to follow me out of the building. If I left, they would go back, and then Rachel would be doomed.
Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit. I was going to have to fight them here in the building for the next 4 ½ minutes, and then duck out at the last second, before the building went down.
If I lived that long.
Don't die.
I dove through an open door. I was in the cafeteria. It would have to do. The large digital clock read 11:03.
(Rachel,) I said. (Go.)
The Hork-Bajir and the woman ran into the cafeteria after me. I darted around them and knocked the door stop out of the way so that the door slammed shut, hoping that it would block out any sound from Rachel's battle.
The woman was pulling a gun out of her purse. I pounced!
"AAAAAAAHHHH!" She screamed as my claws dug into her shoulders. I opened my mouth and prepared to sink my fangs…
No. I couldn't do it. Instead of going for her throat, I went for her gun hand. The gun went flying across the floor, and I took off across the cafeteria, leaving her behind to cradle her mangled fingers. I leapt up onto one of the tables. Two of the Hork-Bajir were behind me. I crossed the cafeteria by leaping from tabletop to table top as the Hork-Bajir stumbled after me.
I reached the wall on the far side of the cafeteria and ran out of room to run. I cut to the right, jumping over the warming plates the cafeteria workers use to serve food and landing on a stack of milk crates that went crashing to the ground. One of the Hork-Bajir tripped over a milk crate and went crashing head-first into the warming trays. I took the opportunity to use his body as a vault and launch myself right into the face of his buddy.
Damn! One of the shoulder blades sliced into my left back leg. I slashed at the Hork-Bajir's face with my claws until it was a bloody mess.
Suddenly, I was flying through the air! WHAM! My body slammed into the painted cinderblock wall. I slid to the floor where I struggled to catch my breath. One of the other Hork-Bajir had caught up, grabbed me by the scruff of my neck, and flung me into the wall.
And he wasn't done. The two Hork-Bajir that I hadn't wounded were coming at me together. I climbed to my feet. This was bad.
"Prepare to die, Andalite." His words triggered Rachel's voice in my head again.
Don't die, don't die….
Quick, before even I had time to think about what I was doing, I dove for a Hork-Bajir ankle. I sunk my teeth into muscle and tendons, and kicked my back legs hard into the other Hork-Bajir's ankle. The second Hork-Bajir stumbled, but didn't fall. He grabbed me by my waist and yanked me away from the other Hork-Bajir's ankle. I tore out a mouthful of flesh as he pulled me away.
"MRRYYYYOOOWWW!" I flipped myself like an angry house cat and went crazy on the Hork-Bajir, clawing and tearing like mad at his face.
"AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!" he yelled as I slashed into his eyes. He threw his arms up wildly in panic. His wrist blades sliced into my legs, but I kept scratching with the blinding cheetah speed.
Until I felt the Hork-Bajir get a grip on one of my back legs. I had just enough time to think uh-oh before I was flying through the air.
CRASH! CLANK-CLANG-CLANK! This time, I had gone sailing through the door into the kitchen area and crashed into a wall of pans and industrial-sized pots that went crashing to the ground around and on top of me.
(Fuck,) I groaned. I struggled to my feet, but my left side was in agony. Broken ribs. It hurt to breathe.
That's when I saw it. The gun that the woman Controller had dropped. It had somehow been kicked into the kitchen, probably by one of the huge Hork-Bajir feet. It was useless to me as a cheetah. Unless...
How much time did I have left? I didn't see a clock anywhere. I stumbled over behind some tables and began to demorph as fast as I could. I grabbed the gun as soon as my stubby paws started to grow into fingers.
A Hork-Bajir crashed into the kitchen after me, blood dripping from his face. He threw the table in front of me out of the way, and there I was, completely human and holding the gun. The Hork-Bajir's eyes widened in surprise.
BAM! I shot the Hork-Bajir in the shoulder, but it wasn't enough. He was still standing. He slashed at me with his elbow blade; I scurried backwards, but his blade sliced through the flesh on my chest. I heard the blade scrape against my sternum.
"Aaaaaaaahhh!" I yelled involuntarily. Reflexively, before I even had chance to plan it out, I lifted the gun again and…
BAM! This time, the bullet went straight through the Hork-Bajir's head, and he crumpled into a very large, very bladed pile.
Morph! The sensible part of my brain was screaming at me. The other part was starting to panic. How much time had passed? I ran out of the kitchen, my bare feet slipping the Hork-Bajir's blood. The other three Hork-Bajir and the woman were gone. They must have heard Rachel.
The clock said 11:06. I rapidly began morphing to gorilla, stumbling towards the open cafeteria door as I did. (Rachel!) I yelled as soon as I could.
(Get out of here, Marco!) she yelled back, (I'm fine!)
I've known and fought with Rachel more than long enough to recognize the tone in her voice. She was definitely not fine. I bolted down the halls back to where she was planning to plant the bomb, moving at the gorilla's top speed.
Rachel was at the Yeerk pool entrance. There were three crumpled Hork-Bajir bodies on the ground and a human-controller, but she was still fighting four others. The bomb was nowhere in sight, so she must have managed to hide it before the extra Hork-Bajir had shown up. The woman whose hand I had destroyed was gone. Hopefully she had made a run for it.
BAM! BAM! BAM! I used the remaining bullets in the woman's gun, but I was rushed and my aim was bad. I only managed to hit one Hork-Bajir.
(MARCO! I told you to get lost!) Rachel cried. I didn't bother answering her, just went after the Hork-Bajir that was closest to me. I pounded him in the knee with one of my enormous fists and heard the bones shatter, but as he was collapsing, he dug a wrist blade into the right side of my neck. Blood squirted out in alarmingly high spurts.
(We need to get out of here,) I managed to keep my thought speak voice from sounding as panicked as I felt. There couldn't be more than a minute left.
Rachel bellowed and charged into the remaining two Hork-Bajir, sending them crashing into a row of cubbies. That's when I noticed that her entire midsection was sliced open. I could literally see her intestines starting to hang out.
(Let's go,) Rachel said. She turned and began running towards the nearest exit. I lumbered along behind her, but I could feel myself getting weaker rapidly as the blood continued to squirt out of my neck.
Rachel slammed through the exit, which set off a blaringly loud alarm. I followed her out of the school. As soon as we were a few feet away from the building, I started to demorph and I could see her do the same, although we both continued stumbling away from the building as fast as we could even as our bodies changed.
We were both almost completely human and running through the school's baseball field when it happened.
BAAAAAA—BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
We were only a couple hundred feet away from the building. I felt the heat from the explosion hit my back first. Rachel was right in front of me, and I instinctively pushed her down to the ground, then dove on top of her. It occurred to me that she was probably only going to be pissed off at me for trying to save her life yet again.
Debris from the school hit the ground all around us. My face was buried in Rachel's hair, so I could hear but not see the school collapsing. When I was pretty sure that things were done falling from the sky, I rolled off Rachel.
"God, you're heavy," she complained as she climbed to her feet, flipping her blond hair back as if we were chatting at the mall. I grabbed her hand and started to run again, pulling her behind me as I headed for the trees where we could morph and fly our asses out of there.
I never even looked back at the school to see the damage. It didn't really matter to me whether it had been destroyed or not.
There was only one reason that I had gone there in the first place, and I already knew that she was safe.