Disclaimer:- I don't own animorphs, Scholastic does
"BreeEEET! BreeEEET! BreeEET! BreeEET!"
Eyes snapped open, and I turned and saw the red numbers of my alarm clock. I reached out and automatically hit the snooze button, trying to get my bearings. I was at home, in my nice soft warm bed, and I really didn't want to get up. Was it the weekend yet? No, I had school. Did any missions happen last night? The yeerks ...
Suddenly the dream I had last night came flooding back into my memory. Me, as a yeerk... but it must have been a dream, after all; here I was, still in my own body, still the animorph Jake. I laughed in relief, glad that a dream was all it was. It was rather disturbing though, maybe I've already had too much stress caused by all the battles we have had.
What time was it? I looked at the clock that flashed 6:32 am. I rolled over, I could afford to sleep in a bit more, and I would have slept in a bit more when my Dad knocked on my door.
"Wake up Jake, you're going to be late for school."
"I'm up! I'm up!" I groaned, flipping the blankets off and rubbing my eyes. I quickly changed my clothes and brushed my hair before stepping out of my room to get breakfast. Still groggy, I almost ran into Tom...
...My older brother Tom who was secretly a controller.
"Hey, easy there midget!" Tom ducked out of the way just in time.
"What? Oh hi. Sorry Tom." I had gotten used to putting up a fake-nice routine to keep up appearances. Tom couldn't know I was an animorph, couldn't get suspicious.
"You okay midget?" Tom's brow furrowed in a look of concern.
I quit rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "I'm fine. Why?" Tom hesitated a moment. "I think I heard you screaming something last night. You sounded scared."
My heart skipped a beat. What did I yell in my sleep last night? What had Tom heard?
"Nightmare." I quickly supplied the best response. It was the truth, after all.
Tom continue to press. "Sounded pretty bad then. Want to talk about it?"
"No thanks." I pushed past him, a little too rudely, and marched down the stairs, looking forward to breakfast. Tom followed.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs I was greeted by the scream of metal scraping on metal, of hissing and sizzling. My Mom had cooked something for breakfast, it seemed. The smells of eggs permeated through the air, making me hungry.
"Woah, what's this?" Tom marveled as he looked over Mom's shoulder.
"I thought I should do something to help you boys eat healthy." She explained as she pushed scrambled eggs onto some plates. Scrambled eggs with herbs and cheese and toast, it seemed. I scoffed it down while Dad sat bored, looking at the newspaper and muttering about politicians.
"I've also got some oatmeal of you boys want it..." Mum suggested.
"No thanks." I shook my head, reaching for the coco-pops instead. Truth be told, Marco on a previous mission had an oversupply of oatmeal when we tried to use it as a weapon against the yeerks; apparently yeerks get addicted to one flavour of it. Needless to say, I have had enough of it already, and could do this morning with a good dose of refined sugar.
Mom saw me pour in the coco pops and milk into my bowl and scoffed, shaking her head. She turned to Tom and gave him a smile, a look, as if to say what should I do with him? Tom gave a slight smirk, glancing at me and then nodding back at Mom.
...I had no idea what that was about.
I finished breakfast, gathered my school things, slung my backpack over my shoulder, about to leave and head out for school, when Tom stopped turned up again by the front door. "Jake, are you sure you're okay?"
"Look Tom, I'm fine. Really, there's nothing to worry about." The more Tom pressed the subject, the more nervous I got. Did he suspect me?
"You know I'm you're older brother right? If you're having any problems, I'm always there for you." He gave a look of concern.
...Yeah. I wasn't falling for that. I knew what was sitting in his brain, controlling his body.
"Tom, if I was having any trouble, I'm sure you'd be the first to know." It sounded a little too mechanical of a response. Trying to hide it, I feigned annoyance, waving to the front door. "I'm going to be late for school." Tom stepped aside and let me pass, and I let out a sigh of relief.
I needed to be more cautious around my home.
I began the short walk to my school. It was a nice day, the sun was out but there was a cool breeze warning of winter fast approaching, but not so bad it was unpleasant. The air was fresh and I let in a deep breath. I looked at the blue sky streaked with clouds, and spotted a bird-of-prey circling above. It gave a "tseer" and I wondered if it was Tobias. Looking around, making sure nobody was watching, I gave the bird-of-prey a wave. There wasn't any reply however, instead the bird gave another "tseer" and flapped away.
Maybe it wasn't Tobias then...
Shrugging, I kept walking, but as I saw more kids walking to school along with me, I didn't spot Marco turn up like he usually did. I shrugged to myself again, it was probably nothing. He could be late, or early, or sick.
But with both of our double lives, with so many fight we had been in, worry began to trickle into my mind.
The bell rang and I sat down for roll-call. Usually I had the same roll-call class as Cassie, but she wasn't sitting in the class either. I sat and pretended to read my book, looking around the classroom for her as the teacher called out names. But when Cassie was called, no-one answered. The teacher shrugged after calling for her a second time and decided she was absent for the day.
First period came and went. Then second, third was maths, Rachel was supposed to be in my class, but she didn't turn up either. I sat worried, trying to pay attention to what the teacher was scrawling on the blackboard. Something about sine waves and calculus. I couldn't focus, where were the other animorphs? What was happening? I needed to look for them, but I needed to also play it cool, pretend I was just a normal kid at school and not act suspicious. I had to wait, sit down and jot down notes, until the bell rang again.
Eventually lunch came and all the kids crowded into the cafeteria. Usually I grabbed a tray and sat next to Marco, but even looking around the place, I couldn't see him. I was really getting worried. Again, though, I needed to pretend I was a normal kid. All I could do was sit down alone and eat my lunch in solitude. It also, strangely enough, struck me how I didn't really know much about the other kids in my school. I had lost track of who was who, too busy involved in my life as an animorph.
Alone, I tried looking around the school corridors, wondering if I could find some indication of what happened to them, some rumour of "Oh, Marco's just got the flu." Something to reassure me, anything when I spotted Erek King by the school trophy case.
"Erek!" I exclaimed, relieved to see a friendly face, a face I knew to know about our fight against the yeerks. I sped up my walking and headed to reach him. But when Erek spotted me, he froze, gave a look of fear, grabbed his bag and ran off.
"Hey, Erek! Wait! I need to know..." He ducked around a corner, so I ran after him, but when I turned I saw nobody in the corridor.
Of course, Erek could project a hologram to hide himself. He could of gone, he could still be there and hiding. He could be anywhere. But what was even odder, was why would he both run and hide from me?
"Erek?" I tried calling out, hoping he was still around even if I couldn't see him, hidden under a hologram. "Erek it's me, Jake." No response.
"Erek?" I prodded again. "Erek, I don't know why you're avoiding me, but the others aren't here, I need to know if anything's happening." Still no response.
"Erek, where are you?"
A bunch of kids entered the corridor. Kids I recognised as being part of the sharing, the front for the yeerks.
"You looking for Erek?" One of the kids asked. "You mean Erek King? I don't think he's here, but I know he goes to the Sharing."
"We have a meeting on Saturday night, we can pass on whatever you want to tell him then."
"Or you can come join us and tell him yourself. Sharing's cool."
"No thanks." I turned around and headed back the other way.
"Hey, you're Tom's little brother aren't you?" One of them pressed. I stopped and shrugged. Didn't turn. "Yeah."
" ...You know, Tom's been a bit concerned about you lately. He was hoping you could join the Sharing, because there we can help you with any problems"
"Thanks for your concern..." I replied, a little too mockingly over my shoulder. My heart was pounding, however; There was too much pressure from the yeerks getting me, specifically, to join lately. Added with the others being missing, I was getting really nervous. Did they suspect? Were they after me? Did they already have the others?
I needed to play it cool.
"...But I'll be fine. I'll catch up with Erek later, thanks." I gave a rough wave and went back down the school corridor. I really needed to find the other animorphs, but I was still stuck in school, so I headed for the library, try to get some studying done.
My last period was English. I sat looking out the window, listening to Mr Vines talk about Frankenstein. I was semi-interested on what he would mark my essay on it as when he said I had in fact finished it late, but I was also hoping to spot Tobias outside, or someone. I couldn't see anybody, or anything though.
"Did Victor really give the new monster a chance? True she might have become evil, true she might not have liked the monster, but Victor had no way of knowing..." Mr Vines prattled on. I turned back to the teacher, trying to focus on the lesson at hand.
After what seemed like forever, the final bell rang. I shoved my books back into my bag and took off, hurrying out of the building. First thing was first, I would walk over to Marco s home; It was the closest at least.
After a brisk walk, I stood in front of his home. Rang the door bell. Waited...
Nobody answered.
I rang the doorbell again and tried looking inside, but it looked dark, like no-one was there to turn any lights on. Where-ever Marco was, he wasn't at his home.
Now I was really getting worried.
I considered morphing and checking out what it was like inside, but when I checked to see if anyone was watching I saw too many school kids, all headed home for the weekend. I also saw the group of Sharing kids from before watching me.
Okay, play it cool, pretend I was just a normal kid, just concerned where my friend was. I moved on and headed back to my home.
As soon as I entered, I headed straight to the phone. Checked no-one was watching, and dialed Rachel s number. The dial tone rang. And rang... And rang ... Until I got an answering machine.
"Rachel? Are you there? It's me, Jake, can you call me back as soon as you can." I hung up, heart pounding, worried. I needed to morph, go find the others.
"Jake, who were you calling?" I must have jumped ten feet into the air, I hadn't seen my mother.
"I was just calling Rachel. You know, my cousin, I needed help with a maths problem." I rushed out an answer a bit too hurriedly.
"Well, I heard Naomi was out taking her daughters on a camping trip. Just for some family time between them."
"A camping trip?" I squeaked. "Oh, okay, I'll try getting back to her later."
Crud, where was everyone?
Nothing for it, I rushed upstairs into my bedroom. Dumped my bag on the ground. I checked the door and headed to the window, planning to morph into a falcon. I looked out, only to let out a sigh of too-soon-relief when I spotted a bird of prey sitting on a nearby tree. A red tailed hawk!
Tobias! Please let it be Tobias!
"Tobias, is that you?" I asked the hawk. The hawk blinked and gave no reply. I looked down, around the home, I couldn't see anybody watching.
"Tobias please, tell me it's you." The hawk only gave a call and flew off, heading up into the air, out of range of my voice.
No way was I giving up. I stepped back, glanced at my closed door to my bedroom, and focused on the image of my dog, Homer. Fur sprouted along my body, my nose pushed forward. I fell onto all fours when my hands and feet changed into paws. I didn't wait for the morph to finish and called out in thought-speak.
((Tobias! Please tell me you can hear me! The others are missing, and I think the yeerks know I'm an animorph ))
((Jake... )) I swore I was never so relieved to hear Tobias speak since... well, there already had been so many battles where he saved my skin.
((Oh, thank God, it is you Tobias. Do you know where the others are? Are they safe?))
((...Please Jake, just stop.)) I could have sworn I heard Tobias voice crack.
((Tobias...)) My voice was low, concerned. ((...What's going on?))
((Jake, whatever you do, don't go looking for us. Don't even try to contact us.))
((...What?)) Why kind of reply was that? What was wrong with Tobias, why would he tell me that? ((Tobias why are you telling me that? What...))
((Goodbye, Jake.)) I could hear a mournful call of a hawk, and deep down, I knew he was gone.
But why?
((Tobias? Tobias! Come on man, speak to me!))
I heard nothing but silence.
((Tobias, please, don't go... the yeerks... ))
I still heard nothing, and the feeling of devastation crashed down onto me. The other animorphs were gone, who knew what had happened to them? Tobias wouldn't talk to me, and suddenly I felt scared and alone.
'Keep it together Jake, you were supposed to be the strong leader!' I mentally slapped myself. I knew I could trust Tobias, I'd trust him with my life. Whatever reason he had for abandoning me, for telling me to not look for the others, I was sure he had a good reason. I hoped so. I just had to trust him and sit tight until whatever was happening would blow over.
But the feeling of being abandoned still stung.
I sat down, put my head on my paws, trying to let the dog's instinct take over, cheer me up with the dog's happy-go-lucky nature. After a moment I gave up and was about to morph back into human, when the door to my room opened and Tom entered, looking down at me.
Me... Or Homer shouldn't of been that suspicious being in my room. I gave a bark and waved my tail, trying to act the part. But instead, Tom just smirked at me, and asked. "Well, are you going to stop pretending now and morph out?"
((Oh no... ))