I only went to help with the setup once. After much arguing, I finally agreed to go help. When we got there, I looked out the window with shock. It was the fifth week into construction, but so much had been completed. I remember having been driven around this area a couple of times. Back then, it was a vast emptiness. But now it was radically different. I know that the main entrance was at Rawlins, where I lived, but it only looked a little different from the house. Here, up close, you could see paved roads, and buildings that resembled houses in perfect rows for practically as far as the eye could see.
The one thing that I was curious about was the border. I had seen it before, but had paid little attention. There was a fifteen-foot-tall fence that had been put up along the entire perimeter of the area. It had razor wire along the top, and the way the chain link had been attached to the poles made it look like it was electric. On both sides of the fence, about five feet away from it, was more chain link fencing. This had barbed wire on it, and did not appear electric. Other than that, everything appeared to be almost normal.
We approached the main gate, and stopped next to a booth. A armed man walked out, talked to my mom for a moment, and then let us drive on. We went past one of the large buildings that were probably the main buildings for this place. The one to the left had large windows that let me see into the building.
There, looking out a window was one of the aliens. It looked an awful lot like a lizard, to start with. It was at least seven feet tall, if not more. It looked greenish-brown, and had blades all over it. There were four on the forearms, three going up the upper third of its neck, and two near the heels of its feet, which looked more like claws. It looked like a killing machine.
I stared at it as we drove by, and it took notice of us.
It looked at me.
I could've sworn my heart stopped beating. We stared at each other until we were out of sight.
We drove for about five miles, past countless rows and rows and rows of plain-looking houses. We took a left, and drove for another five miles, past more and more rows of houses. How many aliens were going to live here?
As we drove through the refugee camp, I noticed that there were towers that resembled the cell phone tower on the end of our block. They were placed about a mile apart, with some strange box-thing on top instead of an antenna. At the base of each tower was a door that appeared to lead underground. I thought back to something on the news about that. The Yeerks would leave the host to feed on Kandra rays, or something like that.
We kept going for about five minutes and arrived at the construction site. There were no aliens there, thank God. It was all human.
We stopped and got out of the car. There were people hauling things like plywood, two-by-fours, wiring, and air conditioning ducts around to various planned house sites.
We went to the man in charge told us a little about how this was going to work, and then he assigned us all different tasks. The houses were part of a design for the military for quick-setup structures, only slightly modified for taller occupants and a concrete foundation. Dad got to work with wiring, Josh went to work with putting up drywall, Ty, my oldest brother, went to help with a nail gun, and I went to help with moving lumber to the sites.
My partner, Ricky, and I, went over to where they were unloading the lumber. We would each grab a couple pieces of wood and put them over our shoulders and move them to a site.
We both worked at this for about an hour. The truck left, and another, laden with joists, took its place.
The joists were small, so they were relatively easy to move.
We were on our fifth joist when my hand slipped and it hit my toe.
"Ow!" I yelled. I did my best to suppress other, less respectful words.
"Cameron, you okay?" Ricky asked me.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said through gritted teeth.
Nothing felt broken, but Ricky had me go to the First Aid station just in case.
I walked over there, and the nurse checked me out.
"Nothing's broken, but it'll bruise," she said. "I think you'll be fine. Just take a ten minute break, alright?"
I nodded and gingerly walked back to the construction site. I told Ricky that I was going to take a break, and another person took my place.
I went over to a bench and sat down. So far, five houses had been built and completed in the time that we had been here. No wonder we were already halfway done. It took an hour and a half to construct five houses, and with at least five thousand people working for one day, that was a lot of houses.
I stood up, suddenly restless. I wasn't going to go back to work right now, so I decided to walk around.
I went in between the rows of houses, admiring the number of structures that had been set up. I walked up a hill and down over the other side. And wished I hadn't.
About three hundred yards away in the same row I was in, was a couple of Hork-Bajir talking to each other. I went left one row, and crept closer. It sounded like they were talking in English, oddly enough.
"…tunately, we haven't yet managed to gain a voluntary human host yet." The voice sounded scared, like it didn't want to talk about whatever it was talking about.
"Then try harder, or I'll hand you over to the Visser." This voice sounded deeper and more menacing than the last.
"I am sorry for failing you, Sub-Visser two-two-nine," The first Hork-Bajir said.
"You will be."
I held my breath as they walked away, trying not to make any sounds that would alert them to my presence. As soon as they were gone, I headed back towards the site.
What did they mean by voluntary human host? I didn't know, and I wasn't sure I wanted to know.
I arrived at the site, and started working again with Ricky, ignoring the pain in my foot.
I didn't trust these aliens at all. What I just heard freaked me out. Could the Yeerks enter humans too? If that was the case, were they really here as refugees?