It was a boring wait, but avoiding the detection of Cryhalis and other people monitoring the zoo wasn't that hard. It was possible we were being recorded and didn't know – but I wasn't too worried about that, unless someone actually came for us. If that were the case, well, the Kelbrid would still have a hard enough time finding outcasts from human and Andalite culture. Not much could find an Animorph that didn't want to be found.
I also considered that the Cryhalis and other people being pressured by the Kelbrid weren't exactly thrilled. The Cryhalis in particular had been pushed around by quite a few groups of people in the last few centuries, meaning they really had very little reason to cooperate with anyone else. To them, the current situation with the Kelbrid was probably one in a long line of persecution and following orders against their will. Why even care about another group asking for help?
Whatever the excuse was, even when the zoo declared itself closed for cleaning, we were still there.
"Hiding in bathrooms and other random areas to avoid being spotted by small anthropomorphic dragon creatures," Marco muttered. "How annoying."
‹We should morph and prepare to leave.›
"The question is, what morph? 'Good' morphs, bad vision. Good vision, 'bad' morphs. What do we have that could get by unnoticed but could also see enough to figure out where to go without the guidance of some better morph? From this distance, I mean."
"We may have to, you know, sneak close enough as humans and go from there," I offered, knowing even as I said it it was dumb.
Marco rolled his eyes at me.
‹We are not a great length of distance from the exhibit,› Ax said thoughtfully, ‹Perhaps the wolf spider and dragonfly morphs?›
Marco turned a few shades lighter. I shuddered myself. Our memories with either of those morphs weren't very inviting.
"Man. We should have gotten a plethora of morphs before leaving. Okay, what do we have?"
"Uhm... Well, the dragon fly and spiders," I began ticking off, "A lizard in my case."
I was not fond of my memories with the green anole lizard, but eating a spider and losing a tail wasn't nearly as bad as the near disaster we had experienced nearly getting trapped in morph.
"Ax and I have mice."
"Is that good enough?"
"I guess so."
And we morphed. Not long after we'd made the decision, I found myself crawling up a wall and trying to listen in. Ax and Marco, in contrast, were hugging the wall and staying behind anything they could.
But we had slightly better vision than a bug, and much better hearing and smell. It wasn't an opportunity to go in, with our metaphorical guns blazing. But it was better than nothing, and we had more of an opportunity to notice the things happening around us.
‹I just hope we can get by without being attacked by some predator.›
‹Or taken to be part of this exhibit. I mean, mice are supposed to be the most intelligent life on Earth, after all.›
‹Douglas Adams? Glad to know you're branching your literature away from Playboy,› I muttered dryly.
‹Actually, I just saw the movie.›
‹What are you two talking about? There is no way that a mouse could exceed humans in -›
‹Ax! Chill,› Marco said, ‹It's just a comedic science fiction. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Just a cultural reference. Breathe, man.›
Ax snorted derisively. He never really developed a taste in television. He still loved These Messages and the corny soaps my mom used to watch while we were at school.
‹Okay, right up here.›
I turned and continued following Marco – at least, from the wall. I could see in both directions – and my eyes weren't required to stay in one place – so I tended to move around more while walking to get a better picture of what was going on.
‹Shhhh. Hang on.›
I waited for Marco and Ax to tell me what was going on – I couldn't hear a thing.
‹Voices,› Ax reported, ‹I believe we can get through using this vent.›
‹Vent? Really? They're going to make it this easy?›
I crawled down the wall to them, and everyone demorphed. Even on a mission, we were trying to make sure we refreshed the time clock as much as we could anymore, not interested in being nothlits that wouldn't be useful on a spacecraft. Making sure as we started looking like ourselves again that we weren't in the line of vision from any exhibit. The vent didn't look like it would be easy to open.
"Well? Stealth, or aluminum puree?"
"Just tear it up as little as possible," I said, "We don't have time for delicacy, but we don't want to leave a calling card if possible, either. The guys from the Blade Ship are probably going to take advantage of this opportunity too."
Ax used his blade to peel the vent covering away from the wall. I mean, almost as perfectly as using scissors to cut a wrapper. Our third consecutive morph – more for Ax who had been maintaining human form most of the trip – and we were once again two mice and a lizard on a mission.
It wasn't long before I could smell human and Andalite inside the vent. Marco and Ax picked up their stride alongside me. Left, right, down, right, down. I didn't keep track of it – knowing Ax would, and even if he didn't we were all leaving behind a distinguishable scent from everything else on the planet. The scent had been blown around in the vents for a while, but the strength of the main direction was pretty overwhelming.
Everything was going well. Until suddenly, I heard a rapid succession of clicks and dinks.
‹Did anyone hear that?› I felt stupid for asking it – they probably had better hearing than my morph. But I suddenly felt plunged into a horror movie. I was imagining It or something out of The Mist.
‹Hear what?› Marco asked, interrupting Ax.
.
‹Oh. That. You know what? I don't like that.›
‹Me either.›
‹Prince Jake,› Ax said tersely.
‹Yeah?›
‹We have what appears to be an indigenous creature in our presence.›
‹Do I want to know?› Marco said, cringing.
I turned, facing one of my eyes the way Ax was looking. If I could have, I would have dropped.
It was a centipede. Or at least, this planet's version of a centipede. But it was more of a centipede like a tarantula was a spider – this thing was large, dry, glossy looking. Huge pincers and soulless eyes looked at me. The legs, so strange, where making the clink and dink noises. Way longer than I was, a bit wider. Even longer and wider than Marco and Ax in their mouse forms.
And a lot more agile, apparently.
‹Oh crap!› Marco yelped. ‹We so need to get out of here!›
Marco started hauling his tail the other way. The centipede-thing shot forward, baring teeth.
Teeth?
‹Marco, no!› Ax and I shot after him.
‹Marco, you need to bring that... thing... back this way.›
‹This is not the time for calm lectures!› Marco shrilled.
‹MARCO! THIS WAY! NOW!›
I could swear I saw him glare at me with his little mouse eyes. But he turned and ran back toward me.
Me? I began to demorph. Not enough to crush myself, but enough to hopefully crush this weird creature.
‹Marco! You should get past Jake very shortly if you do not want to be stuck on the wrong side.›
It was hard not to feel disgusted as a mouse ran past my growing head. I mean, I knew it was Marco, but it was still also a mouse.
Sometimes, these things are a bit hard to justify.
‹Are you trying to kill me?›
But Marco was past now, and I was twisting to make sure I blocked the area where Ax and Marco were as much as I could. Continuing to demorph.
The centipede creature kept running at me. Disgusting. I lifted what was turning into my torso up high. Any second now...
It was beneath me! I dropped myself on top of it, hoping to crush it under me.
I was instead rewarded with a horrible set of bites.
"AAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
I couldn't even tell if I could thought-speak, or if I was talking out loud. Or if the sound was just in my head. I didn't know anything, I didn't even care who heard me. This thing was trying to eat me alive. I felt moisture as I began bleeding freely, and other than that, nothing but the insanity of pain I hadn't felt in a long time. Raw, physical pain I would do anything to get rid of.
I lifted up and slammed down again.
WUMPH.
WUMPH.
WUMPH.
No matter what I did though, this thing wasn't stopping. It wasn't dying. All I was rewarded with was a hissing sound. I'd just managed to tick the creature off.
What? What was I doing?
Keep slamming, I thought, but it wasn't coherent anymore. Its teeth had already started causing serious blood loss. Cramped, too, could barely breathe.
The pain... I could barely feel a thing.
Ax... Marco... I kept trying to thought-speak. Or just speak.
Too late.
‹Prince Jake!› I heard someone saying something in the distance.
Don't call me Prince, I thought. Irritated. Why couldn't they leave me alone? I just wanted to rest.
‹Prince Jake! Push yourself to your left side!›
Ax. Ax was trying to... Something. Trying to help me. But he sounded too far away.
Okay, I thought. Rolled just enough to where I tapped the wall to my left. Stared at the thing eating into my stomach, and the entrails coming out of my body.
Like a piranha. I felt like it should trouble me, what this thing was doing. I should be upset, that it was eating my lizard-human body. But instead I just felt a giddy, distant fascination. Like it was happening to someone else. Like I was watching something gross but cool on Animal Planet.
"Jake! Hang on!"
TSEEEEEEEEW! FWAP! FWAP!
Heat flashed up into my face. But I couldn't see anything. I didn't really "hear" anything either, so much as felt the vibrations of people and noise around me.
A new, intense pain, but far away. Cutting.
TSEEEW!
‹Prince Jake! Morph! Morph back!›
Morph what? What was I?
‹Prince Jake, if you do not morph now, you will not survive. You were a lizard. Morph back to lizard.›
I tried and I couldn't get a picture of what had been in my head. Ax sounded worried. It was important. I had to remember.
Marco might have been worried, but I couldn't hear or see him, really.
I hated lizard morph. Didn't I? Wasn't there something...
The spider. Eating the spider.
No, no. I remembered eating the spider. Not being able to stop my legs from moving forward. Running in that lizard gait.
Feeling the legs twitch in my mouth.
Lizard mouth...
But even as I was losing consciousness, I felt some changes begin.