And yet again, thank you for the reviews especially from Evance, The Shang Kudarung, freak show, Atlastme, and metamorphstorm. I really need to get more creative ways to say that. And I'm glad I shocked some people by making Jake and Cassie Controllers. That's always fun.
And, sorry, but I think this chapter is gonna be a little shorter than normal.
To The Shang Kudarung: I looked at NaNoWriMo and it looks really cool so I signed up. I've never done anything like it but it looks like it could be fun. And I am writing this as I go along. You've found me out. I've found that that's what works for me because then when a character starts doing things I haven't planned (like they always do) I don't have to try and shove it back in its place. But I do have a general idea of what's going to happen. I think.
And to freak show: I'm going to explain how everyone got to be a Controller soon, probably the next chapter. They just need to meet Marco first. Hopefully you like his role in things.
--
-
Chapter #5: The Yeerk Pool
-
I woke to a nightmare. People were locked in cages, screaming, crying, yelling, rattling the bars, everything a person could do while they were trapped. What I assumed were Hork-Bajir guards roamed the premises, going in and out of my line of vision and looking like death on feet. And Rachel was beside me in her own cage, doing her own screaming at the guards and rattling the bars of her metal cage.
Sad to say but five minutes into the car ride over here the drugs had knocked me out only for me to wake up just now, feeling much better, but also a lot worse. This was the Yeerk Pool?
I will remember those cries for help and mercy for the rest of my life. It was horrible. Like Hell had come to Earth.
And Rachel wasn't exactly pleased with me either. "Oh so Sleeping Beauty's awake," she said spitefully when she noticed me sitting up.
"Yeah," I replied, a little embarrassed. This wasn't how I wanted to be remembered by her. As the guy who fell asleep when we were in mortal danger. "Sorry," I tried, sitting up and turning to Rachel somewhat bashfully.
"Never mind," she said shortly, sitting back in her cage to cross her arms over her chest and give me an irritated look. "Just tell me that you have a plan to get us out of here because I've got nothing."
"Um . . ." I said and tried to frantically rack my brain for a plan, any plan. But nothing was immediately coming to mind. "I'll think of one. I swear," I promised as I turned back to Rachel.
Rachel just looked all the more irritated. "That's what you said nearly an hour ago when we were being captured, idiot."
"Well I've been asleep, okay?" I said, trying feebly to defend myself. "I haven't exactly had the time."
"Yeah and who falls asleep in these kinds of situations?" Rachel replied contemptuously. "I mean, honestly. We're about to be killed or who knows what and you fall asleep."
"I was drugged," I said, trying to emphasize that it wasn't my fault, but Rachel obviously didn't care.
"So?" was her exact reply to that. "Fight the drug. Don't fall asleep and leave me to be mocked by these creeps on my own." This obviously was only going to start her on a whole other angry spiel. "And that's another thing. Cassie and Jake were being extra creepy and talking about your dad coming to save us. I told them of course he wouldn't because he's dead, but they just laughed." She looked especially annoyed by this and looked to me to demand, "What was that all about? What are you hiding? What is going on here?"
I sighed and sat back in my cage to lean against the wall. She did deserve the truth and it would probably be safer for her if she knew what exactly was going on. And so, in a quiet voice, I started to fill her in on the last month of my life. I told her about the lawyer and Mr. Visser. About finding my dad and having to hide out in his house for a month. About the alien invasion. About everything I had learned of the Yeerks. About everything I could think of.
And at the end of this, Rachel was silent for a long moment. Quiet as she tried to digest the fact that not only were we not alone in the universe, but that we were silently losing a battle for our freedom. Then she spoke, "You know, normally I would say you were crazy and needed some serious medication, but now?" She looked out at the cages of screaming, crying people, at the human and non-human guards. "Now that actually makes sense."
We were silent for another long moment after this, as Rachel was still digesting, but then that quiet was interrupted by a loud knock on Rachel's cage.
"Knock, knock," a voice said cheerfully and I looked up to see a Controller whose body I vaguely recognized in an I've-seen-you-around-somewhere-before-but-can't-quite-remember-where kind of way.
Rachel had no such problems. "Marco?" she gasped, instantly recognizing her cousin's best friend. "They got you too?"
"Yep," "Marco" said cheerfully, "They got me but good. Of course," here he looked a little secretive, "that doesn't exactly mean I've been taken out of the count." And, with that cryptic statement, he squatted down in front of Rachel and my cages and, looking this way and that to make sure no one was looking, quietly slipped Rachel a tiny, folded up piece of paper.
"That's a map of the Yeerk Pool with all of the exits and entrances marked in red, including those through the air shafts," he explained, lowering his voice furtively so that only Rachel and I could hear.
Unfolding the little bit of paper, Rachel blinked then showed me that that was in fact what it was.
"All of the cages are electric and hooked up to the mainframe," "Marco" continued, "so in exactly fifteen minutes, when thirty or so cages including yours mysteriously unlock, I want you up and running for one of those exits." Here "Marco" gave us an especially serious look. "I'm putting my neck out on this one for you so you had better escape or I'll come after you myself."
"Why are you helping us?" Rachel asked, looking suspicious. "I mean, you're a Yeerk, aren't you?"
"Marco" smirked. "Like I said, I may be a Yeerk but that doesn't mean I'm completely out for the count." Putting up a hand like he was in Boy Scouts, he continued with a solemn yet still amused look on his face, "The YPM lives on."
"YPM?" Rachel repeated, obviously confused.
But I recognized the acronym and gasped, "The Yeerk Peace Movement!"
"You got it in one," "Marco" said, still amused as he tilted his head my way in recognition. "And now I've gotta go."
"Wait!" Rachel said before he could stand and "Marco" quickly turned to her.
"What?" he asked impatiently.
"What about Cassie and Jake?" Rachel asked. "Are they in one of the cages that'll open?"
Here "Marco" looked at Rachel sympathetically. "I'm sorry. Jake and Cassie aren't in the cages. They aren't scheduled to feed today and it takes at least a day for promotions to go through."
Rachel looked dismayed. "But . . ."
"I'm sorry," "Marco" said again and then he quickly stood up and banged a hand down hard on my cage before Rachel could ask anything more. "Just you wait, Andalite bastard," he said loudly, I suppose just in case anybody was listening, "We'll see how cocky you are when your father abandons you and you become one of us." That said, he walked off.
"So do we believe him?" Rachel immediately asked, hunching herself closer to my cage so that we could talk without others overhearing and hiding the map in her hands. Obviously she wanted to believe him, but she also didn't want to because that would mean Cassie and Jake couldn't be rescued.
"I don't see why not," I replied with a small shrug. "I mean, what else can they do to us? We're already about to be infested."
"Yeah, but he's a Yeerk," Rachel said, with an emphasis on the name. She was acclimating herself to the idea of invading aliens rather well.
"I know, I know," I said, "I don't really trust him either, but it's either this or we sit here peacefully without even trying to escape before we're infested."
That made up Rachel's mind. "Alright, so we do it. Do you have a watch?"
I shook my head. "Just be prepared to run."
And so we sat, preparing ourselves to run at any minute. Fifteen minutes passed almost painfully slowly as we waited for the telltale click of a lock on our cages. But it never seemed to come. Instead there was a shout of rage from somewhere off in the side corridors.
"Andalites! They're here!" some Human-Controller yelled and all of the guards began to run enmasse in the direction of the screams.
There was the sound of a battle being played out somewhere out of sight. More shouts and screams of rage, feet moving and running back and forth, Andalite hooves clopping on the stone floor, the sound of bodies dropping, all of those kinds of things. And then the sound of the lock clicking open.
"Let's go!" Rachel shouted and shot out of her cage.
I came out just as fast, but then I was somewhat undecided. Did I go try to help Elfangor and escape that way? Or did I try and escape my own way?
"Tobias!" Rachel said, coming back to grab me by the arm and begin dragging me along with her. "Come on!"
That decided it for me and I started to run. Rachel let go of my arm and we ran side by side out of the actual pool area. By our side, the almost thirty other people that had been freed were running as fast as they could. And they were actually escaping because the Yeerks were a little busy dealing with the Andalite attack.
By then all of the Yeerks had been alerted to the Andalite attack, and maybe to the fact that the hosts were escaping, and the alarms began to sound. Loud and piercing, they boomed throughout the Pool as all of the escapees ran.
And, the Controllers having been alerted, it became a little harder to escape than before as we kept running into Controllers that were on their way to the Pool to help their brothers with either the Andalite attack or the escaping hosts. We punched and kicked at the Human-Controllers, fear and adrenaline giving us tremendous strength, and ducked around the one or two Hork-Bajir. We got maybe halfway to freedom before the Controllers became a serious threat to our escape and everyone began to panic.
TSEEEEW! TSEEEEW!
The person escaping on my right got hit right in the chest with a laser beam and he was down, probably dead. That sent the others into an even worse panic and people started to shove and push their ways through the corridors, making it so that nobody was going anywhere fast.
TSEEEEW! TSEEEEW!
Another escapee down and now the Controllers were right ahead. Three Hork-Bajir right in front of us, blocking the path, we panicked and turned around to run back the way we came only to run right into the battle with the Andalites.
TSEEEEW!
A small girl, maybe 10yrs old was killed right in front of me. She just fell over dead.
TSEEEEW!
Maril jumped over a downed escapee and turned around to face the Controllers chasing us. His tail shot out again and again to lob off the heads of the Human-Controllers and gut the Hork-Bajir.
TSEEEEEW! TSEEEEW!
Human-Controllers continued to fire their strange laser guns at every non-Yeerk. And Hork-Bajir pushed right into the middle of the group of escapees and Andalites and began to use the deadly blades they were born with, slashing left and right. Blood was spilled, coating the floor and I slipped, barely scrambling to my feet in time to avoid a Hork-Bajir stepping right on my head. Taxxons were even introduced as they immediately crowded into the already crowded area and began to feed on the downed escapees.
TSEEEEW!
Elfangor and Erithin worked together to chop through the masses of Controllers attacking them. Blood spurted everywhere from the now headless humans, coating both the escapees and Andalite in the red fluid. I got some in my mouth and, disgusted, I spit this out.
TSEEEEW!
A shot right where my foot had been seconds before!
Aximili was by himself, but holding his own against a pair of Hork-Bajir. Those dead, he jumped over their downed bodies to lob off the head of a Human-Controller with a gun.
Meanwhile, the escapees were still panicking, running this way and that, just trying to escape though this was almost impossible as the Controllers continued to arrive.
TSEEEW!
Another escapee down, another Taxxon going into a feeding frenzy.
TSEEEW!
Erithin was hit by a stray laser and his tail faltered as a burnt out patch appeared on his left haunch. Another Human-Controller used this time to hit him again, only for Erithin to dodge just in time and flick his tail around so that the Controller's head rolled off his shoulders. More blood spurted out.
TSEEEW! TSEEEW!
A laser beam hit the back of my foot and I tripped, falling to the floor only to almost be stepped on by Maril.
(Tobias! Get out of the way!) he shouted, almost falling over me only to steady himself and snap his bladed tail out to slash at a Taxxon who thought I looked like a good meal.
Scrambling to my feet again, I ducked out of the way of a wild swing from a Hork-Bajir and tried to find Rachel in the chaos. We had been separated at the door by a Hork-Bajir coming straight at us with a gun.
TSEEEW!
A bleeding Hork-Bajir roared angrily and sunk its arm blades right into an escapee, pulling it out with blood all over it and immediately trying to slash at Aximili. Aximili responded by snapping out his tail, missing the Hork-Bajir by inches as the other alien dodged out of the way.
TSEEEEEW! TSEEEEW!
Elfangor snapped his tail out and took out a nearby Human-Controller. Blood spurted out of the gaping wound across the Controllers neck and the human went down choking on his own blood.
TSEEEW!
Another shot at me, but I ducked just in time. Adrenaline pumping through my veins, I nearly jumped out of my skin when somebody suddenly grabbed my hand.
"Tobias! This way!" Rachel shouted, appearing out of nowhere and obviously having consulted the map. Following her, dodging past Elfangor locked in battle with another Hork-Bajir, the two of us broke off from the chaos to run down a quieter part of the Yeerk base.
"Which way?" I asked as I panted for breath when we reached an empty area. Rachel had grabbed up one of those strange guns from one of the dead Human-Controllers and had used this to get rid of any Controllers that had come our way. Luckily, there hadn't been many as most of them were already at the battles site.
Rachel consulted the map again then pointed to the right. "This way. There's an air vent in the next room that leads outside.
"Are we gonna be small enough?" I asked, somewhat worried that we'd only get stuck in there.
"Marco wouldn't have given us this map of air vents if he thought we'd be too big," Rachel replied, obviously deciding to trust the Yeerk controlling Marco's head.
And so we went into the room with the supposed air vent. It was high up on the ceiling, but there were chairs in the room so we just used those to reach it.
Pulling myself up and into the vent after Rachel, the two of us began the long crawl through the vents. I had a rather nice view of Rachel's rear end as we went and, embarrassed by this, I tried to avoid looking though I couldn't avoid it completely because I did need to look where I was going or else I would run right into her. Every once and a while she would have to stop to consult the map and would pause in the middle of the vent.
In the distance we could hear the screams and dying yells of various Hork-Bajir and Human-Controllers, but I tried to not think about that as we crawled. That battle back there would be in my nightmares for years.
Eventually we came to the end of the vent and Rachel turned around—a really complicated maneuver when in such a small space—so that she could kick the vent covering off. She did this and then slipped out, falling the six feet to the ground below us to land in a crouch. Following her out, I didn't land nearly as nicely and fell on my ass. Only my dignity really hurt, Rachel helped me stand up and I looked around at where the vent had led us. We were in a an alleyway behind what looked like a 7-11 and, walking out onto the sidewalk, I was surprised to find that we were only a block away from the school.
"So now what?" I asked, turning back to Rachel.
Rachel looked back up at the vent worriedly. "Where do you think Cassie and Jake are? Do you think they were in there fighting?"
I didn't know really and, thinking about them and Marco, I frowned. "I'm sure they're fine," I eventually said lamely.
At that, Rachel turned to me and said sarcastically, "Right. They've only been taken over by alien slugs. Nothing to worry about."
Well she had me there. "I mean, besides that."
But Rachel ignored that as she was already on to something else, a serious look crossing her face. "We are going to rescue them, right?" she asked me. "I mean, we aren't going to leave them like that, are we? We can't."
I didn't know about that either and I frowned. "But what can we do?"
"Well you've got your dad and his friends, right? Weren't they the ones in there kicking serious Yeerk butt?"
"Yeah . . ." I said warily, thinking I knew where this was going.
"So get them to save them," Rachel said. "I mean, if anyone can do it, they can."
"I guess I could ask," I said, a little doubtfully, "but I don't think they're gonna be happy with me for a while. I mean, I wasn't exactly supposed to leave the house."
But Rachel looked determined. "Well get them to save them or I'm gonna go down there on my own. I'm getting Cassie and Jake back, no matter what."
And the scary thing was, she actually looked serious.
--
TBC?