Chapter 27

The Taxxons writhed into the room like elephant seals, their grotesque bulk rippling with each lumbering step. Not that they were slow. Taxxons apparently can move faster than a human can run.

One of them turned immediately toward one of the injured humans. I could see the struggle as the body lunged after food but where the Yeerk within strained to reign in its host. The instinct to consume meat was too much for the Yeerk to overcome, and I watched in horror as the Taxxon began eating one of the downed Controllers.

The first Taxxon was joined by two others, the corpse ripped apart and divided between the three giant maggots. More of the monsters were coming in now, at least a dozen, possibly more. Each was fitted with their bizarre Ghostbusters pack, and they had Dracon beams, and they didn't seem to have any problem using them in the tank room.

We ran.

I already knew we needed to reach Elfangor. He had been planting the bombs and we needed to get out of this room before they went off. We'd already closed about a third of the distance before the Taxxons had shown up, but now we were hauling ass.

All six and a half tons of Tobias turned when he saw the Taxxons. He trumpeted loudly and started charging. I saw Dracon beams fire, a hole the size of a cantaloupe appeared in one of Tobias's beach-blanket ears. But that didn't stop him. It didn't even slow him down.

I wouldn't be surprised if the oversized caterpillars weighed more than a ton. But Tobias lowered his head, skewered one of the Taxxons with his tusks, and like a living forklift, he raised the writhing worm up and whipped his head sharply to the left. As the momentum threw the Taxxon sideways, the tusks tore it open. I could smell its innards from thirty feet away. Diapers left in the sun would smell like potpourri compared to Taxxon guts. It was still alive and wriggling despite the horror of its wounds, but its brethren were on it before it could get up.

I learned firsthand that Taxxons are cannibals.

Rachel joined in. She bellowed as a Dracon blast burned part of her back, but she rammed into the soft meat of a Taxxon hard. The Taxxon may have been heavier, but it shuddered with the impact, and Rachel grabbed one of its crab-like appendages in her jaws and crushed it. Her claws ripped at the apparatus strapped to it's back. I could hear the hiss of pressurized gas escaping.

Tobias, meanwhile, stomped one like a giant tube of toothpaste. He just lifted a foot and bore his weight down. The way the Taxxon ruptured… I still get nauseous thinking about it.

For a second, I thought we might actually be okay.

But then Rachel took another Dracon blast.

The bear collapsed roughly. She had been in a full gallop toward another Taxxon, and when she went down on the smooth floor, momentum caused her to slide another dozen or so feet. She was a massive mound of fur, and she wasn't moving.

But I was.

I could feel the heat and smell the strange ionization in the air as Dracon beams flashed around me. I was just as big as a grizzly, but I had a fluid agility no bear could ever match. I slashed at the sides of the nearest Taxxon. My claws didn't do much of anything to the potato bug sections of exoskeleton, but the sides of a Taxxon are surprisingly soft. And a tiger's claws are unimaginably sharp. I slashed at the hoses of its breathing pack, and I ran to the next.

Cassie was too small as a wolf to attack a Taxxon head-on, but she was faster and way more agile. She snapped her iron jaws onto the spidery armadillo legs and pulled. Foul-smelling ooze gushed from the hole where the leg had been attached. It wasn't enough to bring the oversized worm down, but it squelched out obscenely in pain, and Cassie grabbed onto another leg. She couldn't maul them like I could, but she could hobble them.

A Taxxon rushed at me, and I dodged effortlessly. I was about to leap into the Taxxon when it just burst like a water balloon.

Marco had found one of the Dracon beams, presumably pilfered from one of the downed Taxxons. And his gorilla fingers were more dextrous than Taxxon pincers. The image of a gorilla wielding a laser gun would have been comical if I wasn't so amped with murderous rage and panic. Marco took aim and fired.

The Taxxons backed up. Half of the Taxxons left alive were eating the ones we'd killed or injured, and I made a mental note very quickly that you didn't have to kill a Taxxon yourself. Not if there were more than one in a room.

Marco picked off two more Taxxons. *Get her out of here!* he thundered in thought-speak.

Rachel.

Tobias had picked her up so the downed bear was lying limply over his tusks.

*Rachel?!* I called out.

*God, say my name so everyone can hear it.*

She was alive.

Rachel was alive.

I felt relief like Tobias had been standing on me and had just then lifted his pachyderm foot from my chest. She was alive.

*Still think we should stay?* I asked her, choking on my emotions.

*Quitter,* she said, her thought-speech a little muffled.

*Stay with us, girl,* Cassie said. *You need to demorph.*

*Yeah, Cass, I'll get right on that. Did you make sure to bring my headshots while we're at it?*

The explosion shook me to the bone. Tigers have incredibly sensitive hearing, and big cats might not feel fear the way humans do, but my god do they not like loud noises. The lights in the facility went out immediately. The alarm that had still been going this whole time went quiet. It was only in the silence that I actually realized it had still been going off.

When it's too dark for a tiger to see, it's too damn dark.

And then the second bomb went off.

Then the third, the fourth. One after another. I lost count after the eighth. I think the tiger had gone deaf by then.

We were alone in the dark. I didn't know where Elfangor was, I was terrified to call out in thought-speak, and we had no way of keeping track of the Taxxons.

I hoped they were as blind as I was. Tigers have some of the best low-light vision around, and if I was blind…

I felt the Taxxon mouth on my lower back before I could finish my thought. I roared in pain.

Light flashed in the dark.

I saw strobe light flashes of an Andalite, blaster aimed at the ceiling, using his weapon flash as a flare. And just like that, the Taxxon that bit me was suddenly dead.

It was dark again, but from the flashes of Elfangor's weapon, I had seen a path. It wasn't wide, but I could make the straight away in the dark. *Tobias, Rachel, demorph, now.*

"Way ahead of you, cuz," I heard Rachel whisper. Or maybe that's all I could hear after the explosions. There was a definite persistent ringing left.

I felt human hands grope for my fur, and I growled in the pitch black so the others could find me.

Humans aren't good at walking blindfolded, but apparently tigers aren't really bothered by it. I didn't have much of a scent trail, but I recognized Elfangor's scent from our raccoon practice in his valley, and I desperately clung in my mind's eye to the image of the narrow path.

The light slowly flickered back to life.

More than half of them didn't flicker at all, and half the ones that did immediately exploded in bursts of glass bulbs.

But I could see.

Elfangor was waiting for us just ahead, and I dared a glance behind. There were messes of dead Taxxons, a few crumpled heaps of unconscious human-Controllers that the Taxxons hadn't eaten, but I saw no more Taxxons alive. There were huge chunks of concrete that had been pitted by errant Dracon fire or Elfangor's flare burst. Water or pool fluid gushed like broken pipes from the areas where we had ripped up or otherwise destroyed docking stations. Gurneys littered the floors. At least a hundred human hosts had actually managed to sleep through the whole fucking thing. Those were some deep comas.

And the tanks were boiling.

*We have to go,* Elfangor said.

*You could have warned us,* I said without malice. I was too tired and in way too much pain to be mad. I didn't have the energy to spare for that.

*Taxxons came in from the other entry point,* Elfangor said, clearly out of breath. His tail, I realized, was caked with Taxxon ooze. *The detonator was activated prematurely. Taxxons can see in total darkness. Infrared. I would never have left you in the dark intentionally.*

I remembered the intrinsic panic I had felt as an Andalite just from closing my eyes. I suddenly suspected Elfangor's burst of laser fire wasn't for our benefit.

*Talk later,* Marco said. *Skip to the part where we leave.*

*I am all for the leaving,* Cassie said.

*How do we get out of here?* I asked. There was no chance in hell that we could go out the way we came in. The Taxxon bite stung like acid, the bullet wounds throbbed distantly, and I'm pretty sure I was at least half-deaf and concussed from the explosions. I wasn't to a point where I couldn't fight, but I was getting to the point where fighting wasn't my first choice. And all of us, myself included, did have that squirrel morph. *Do we go small and try to sneak out or do we stay big and fight it out?*

*That is about the breadth of our situation,* Elfangor said.

*Vote?* I asked.

*We must hurry,* Elfangor said. *If the Taxxons failed, they'll send Hork-Bajir next.*

"I just hit the reset on my grizzly," Rachel said. "I still got some fight left."

*I'm too tired to fight,* Cassie said. *I vote run.*

*Second,* Marco said.

"I'm not getting out of here in elephant mode and the only other morphs I have aren't any good for fighting."

I was tired too, but I wasn't sure six squirrels could get out without incident. Elfangor had a weapon, Marco had a weapon, and Rachel was a weapon. If we all went small, we were going to lose those assets.

*Okay,* I said. *We split the difference. Cassie and Tobias, morph back to squirrel. Marco, I hate to ask, but you have the laser gun. Go with Rachel and Elfangor.*

Marco didn't like that idea at all. *So you three get to scurry out of here while we get buried in Hork-Bajir?*

Tobias had an answer for that. "Guys, we have no idea what's on the other side of that door. Three of us in squirrel gives us some recon. Squirrels scout out an exit path, heavy hitters in case we need it."

*Fine, whatever, let's just go,* Marco said.

Rachel was already halfway to bear when Cassie and I started morphing human. It was darker in human morph, and colder. But I could hear the hissing of the tanks. I don't know how many Yeerks were in those tanks, or even how many tanks Elfangor had hit in that blast. I wondered idly how long they could survive, how many we had killed. I didn't have any remorse for it. Honestly what made me the most uncomfortable was the pervasive thought that for all this, we hadn't hurt them as much as I thought we would. For all I knew, this wasn't the only tank facility.

But I didn't have time for such thoughts. The second I was fully human, I had to push into the squirrel morph. This was actually my first time I had morphed the squirrel. I hadn't thought I'd need it, so I hadn't bothered practicing it. I was actually used to shrinking by this point. The only morph I had that didn't involve shrinking was the tiger. Well, and Chapman.

All in all, being a flying squirrel wasn't much different than being a raccoon, at least not in terms of instincts or sensory input. I had good hearing, I could see in the dark, find food, that sort of thing. I was just way smaller. I recognized the panic instinct of a prey species, but I was pretty primed on retreat as it was, so that wasn't really a drawback. Actually, I was just happy to have night vision again.

I was considerably less happy about being a few inches off the ground.

Cassie and Tobias were right beside me. The giant forms of a bear, a gorilla, and an Andalite loomed over us like skyscrapers. The panic instinct throbbed in my brain.

*Alright, let's get the fuck out of here,* I said.

*Alright,* Marco said, holding the Dracon beam tightly in his ham-sized fist. *Mind scoping out the hallway?*

Bastard.

I scampered up the concrete wall, the sharp, gripping claws of my fingers and toes making the vertical surface easily accessible. I was squeezing through the vent opening when Cassie and Tobias caught up to me.

*Some night, huh?* Cassie said.

*Yeah, some night,* I echoed.

The other side of the door was exactly what I expected.

We were all going to die.

There were ten Hork-Bajir on the other side of the door. At least twenty humans, all carrying Dracon beams.

A crew of what had to be technicians stood off to the left, no doubt to try to undo or otherwise repair the damage Elfangor had done to the tanks. They had forklifts loaded with hoses, tanks, and spools of cable. All of them had tools.

Even Yeerks have EMTs, I guess.

*We're porked,* I whispered.

*Thought-speech is only received by those you intend to hear it,* Elfangor answered.

*That would have been good to know hours ago,* I hissed. *We have a fucking army outside this door. Humans and Hork-Bajir. All armed. Should we try back-tracking the way we came in?*

*No,* Elfangor said. *They'll likely have similar postings at all points of access. If we delay further, they'll just open the doors from their side.*

*How many shots does your gun have?* I asked. *Does it have ammo or some kind of charge?*

*Andalite shredders do not deplete,* he answered. *Neither, however, do Dracon beams.*

The corridor was maybe thirty feet wide, and the door was ten feet tall. It was built for the forklifts at the very least. But that meant the vent we'd come through was at least fifteen feet off the ground. None of the Controllers were looking up at the vent.

I had an idea. The kind of idea that you know is stupid the second you hear it in your own head, but it was the only idea on the table. I prayed it wouldn't get anyone killed.

*Tobias, Cassie, you're not going to like this, but follow my lead. Elfangor, Marco, when I give the word fire through the door. All of you stay clear of the door, hug tight to the wall. You're gonna have return fire immediately.*

*Jake?* Cassie asked, *what are you thinking, babe?*

*Something crazy.*

I leapt off the wall. My legs pushed off the concrete wall like an Olympic swimmer. I launched like an arrow, up and outward, and the second I hit the peak of the jump, I was flying. Flying squirrels don't actually fly, of course, but gliding is still incredible. It's like being a really small version of Batman. The furry skin flap of my glide membrane opened not like a parachute but rather like a kite. My tail acted like a rudder, steering me through the air.

And I was on the far wall, behind the Controllers below.

And for the love of whatever gods exist in the universe, no one noticed. Cassie and Tobias followed.

*Okay, here's where this is going to get hairy.* I told them what I wanted to do.

*Jake, man,* Tobias said, *You must have giant balls, dude.*

*Have any better ideas?* I asked.

*Not really, no.*

*Cassie?* I asked.

*I trust you,* she said. That, more than anything, gave me confidence.

Tobias bolted to the left, and Cassie to the right, never leaving the wall. They both stopped at the last human-Controller on their respective side and took position. I had the harder, more stupidly insane part of the plan.

*Marco, Elfangor, be ready,* I said.

I dropped down and flew into the back of the center Hork-Bajir. My claws gripped into the thick, leather hide of the giant alien.

*Now!* I yelled.

So many things happened all at once. The first is that all the humans toward the middle of the group saw me glide past them. I saw heads turn as I sailed through the air. Next, the Hork-Bajir may have been huge, but it noticed me hit it in the back. And when something hits you in the back, you turn around.

By the time the Hork-Bajir was even halfway through turning, I was bolting down to the floor. I ran along the length of the alien's spine, down the length of its tail.

Cassie and Tobias did the same thing on the outer flanks, gliding out into the nearest Hork-Bajir and then scampering down.

It sounds stupid, but I did have a method to my madness. See, when each human saw us, they inadvertently turned slightly. And when the three Hork-Bajir felt the impact of a tiny rodent and went to turn around to see what had bumped them, they turned significantly more.

The effect of this is that a significant number of enemy Dracon beams were not being aimed at the door.

So when Elfangor and Marco opened fire, instantly killing two Hork-Bajir and three humans, the errant blast of mis-aimed Dracon fire hit another Hork-Bajir.

Tobias had landed the closest to the forklift crew, and he bolted into the mass of Controllers before the engineers noticed him. He rocketed past me and I ran after him toward Cassie.

Marco and Elfangor fired again. One beam hit nothing except the wall, but the other sliced off a Hork-Bajir's arm and hit another human. Panic fire went off again.

But the Yeerks reigned in surprisingly quickly. They took aim at the door and fired. I could smell hot metal as they essentially melted the door. One of the humans hit the button and forced the door open.

For a second there was nothing.

Slowly, cautiously, a Hork-Bajir took two steps into the dark room. Hork-Bajir apparently don't watch slasher movies. The second it was in the room, Elfangor's tail blade came down like a guillotine. The neck of a Hork-Bajir is at its thinnest right behind the skull, and apparently Elfangor knew that.

The head landed with a little splat, but the impact of the body was just like dropping a ton of bricks.

Another blast of Dracon fire lanced from the other edge of the door. I couldn't tell if it hit anything, because right then, Rachel exploded out through the ruined door.

She swung her massive paw into the chest of a Hork-Bajir and the sound of her claws penetrating alien turtle meat will stay with me forever. The Hork-Bajir screamed, and tried to slash at the bear with its tail, only for Elfangor to amputate it mid-swing. Rachel threw it to the side and mauled into another. Elfangor fired down the hall, vaporizing a forklift and sending the engineering crew into survival mode.

Marco followed behind, Dracon beam held in one hand as he ambled in a tripod gallop. He fired into one Hork-Bajir, and with his other hand, he grabbed a Hork-Bajir by its dinosaur neck. There was a gurgling sound and then the gorilla pulled. Hork-Bajir aren't as heavy as Taxxons, but I was willing to bet that nine feet of reptile monster outweighed the largest gorilla. That didn't stop Marco from throwing the Hork-Bajir, though.

Me and the other squirrels weren't just watching this melee, either. We were in it. Tobias was right about what he'd said earlier: Squirrels aren't good for fighting. But my damn if they aren't the best at causing unmitigated distraction and bedlam.

My gambit had paid off, and by breaking their line just enough, we were able to cut down on the Hork-Bajir and scatter their fire away from the door. Elfangor, Marco, and Rachel were our heavy hitters at the moment, and we let them deal with the Hork-Bajir.

But we still had a ton of armed human-Controllers to deal with.

I scampered up a leg and into a guy's face. I felt him move to swat me away, and I pushed off and leapt onto the shoulder of the guy in front of him. Cassie and Tobias saw me and followed my lead. I got to tell you, playing tag with three flying squirrels is a game you can't win. Not as a human. What we lost in size and power, we made up for in agility. We couldn't fight the humans, but by zipping from one to the other, we kept them in a constant state of disarray.

One Controller finally lost his temper with the storm of squirrels and fired his Dracon beam. He missed Cassie by only half a second, but for as quick as we were, it might as well have been half an hour. And the Controller Cassie had been crawling on was burned through the chest.

*Oh, we pissed them off,* she said.

*Pretty sure,* I said, jumping again, *that they were pissed off to begin with.*

The heavy hitters had finished the Hork-Bajir, and Rachel was now bitch-slapping humans like she was swatting flies. A love tap from a grizzly could smash your skull, so I'm not sure how gentle she was being with them, and while I would have reservations about it later, I didn't care right then how many people we had to kill.

For all my posturing about casualties a few days ago, once the shit had hit the fan, all I wanted was to get out. And there was no way we were getting out without killing people. I knew I already had.

*Squirrel patrol,* Marco yelled, *find us an exit!*

*On it,* Tobias answered. I saw him bolt up to the same lighting rigs I had used as a lizard last time and take off down the corridor.

*Cassie, come on, after him.*

Tobias didn't overstate the value of having three squirrels as advance recon. Behind us, Rachel padded along beside Marco and Elfangor. Both of them kept their weapons ready. We could see more Controllers running up ahead. Across the dividing wall, I could see more forklifts moving.

*Okay, to the left, now!* Cassie shouted.

We turned through a door just seconds before another crew of human-Controllers ran past.

I saw humans running like military police, carrying more Dracon beams. Hork-Bajir followed.

And my heart sank as I saw the unmistakable blue fur of the Andalite that followed.

He had a dark aura about him. Elfangor could broadcast his emotions to some extent, and the lizard had either been too far away or just lacked the emotional framework to be affected by it. But this was a thrumming pulse of disdain that made even the squirrel instincts wary.

Visser Three was right behind us.