Chapter 16 Jake:

I woke up, my mind groggy. I couldn't think right. What had happened? I was following Cassie, then...

"Oh no, David." I said, remembering what happened. But not believing it.

"What's wrong, Jake? Not happy to see me?" He mocked, it was David.

I looked around, trying to move. But I couldn't, I was chained to a wooden pillar.

But I didn't know where I was. It looked like some kind of old building, like a small factory.

Wait, I didn't notice it before, but there were other people in here. But none I recognized. There were seven pillars in the room, I was chained to one. The rest were empty, except for one across from me. It was hard to tell what it was. It was some kind of bird. I recognized the bird. Then it hit me, it was Tobias!

I didn't recognize him. He was all beaten and broken. His right wing was gone, nothing but bone, blood and skin. His left wing was sliced and cut to the bone. Almost all of his feathers were gone.

I didn't want to think about it, but Tobias wasn't moving. Either he was unconscious or,... I didn't want to think about it. If he was, then David was going down by either me or Rachel.

"Hello, Jake. How are you? Can I get you something to eat, maybe to drink?"

He was smug. He knew he had me. Even if I could get past him, I could see eight other people. Ranging from a little younger than me to a few in their twenties. But these people weren't chained like me. They were standing, sitting or leaning around. Some had knives, another had a baseball bat. Two were standing by Tobias, where he was in a cage. Three were watching me. Two in front of the door. And another standing by David. Even if I could get out of these chains, I couldn't get past all those people. Not as myself, but as tiger I could take them out and escape in less than three minutes. But David was here. He knew that I would be helpless in mid-morph. I was stuck, I couldn't do anything.

"What do you want, David?" I asked, looking around the room, trying to find a way to escape.

"What? No small talk? No how are you David, or long time no see, David?" He said with a smirk on his face and a sound of disgust in his voice.

"Where am I? What is this place?"

"Now now, Jake. Jake, the fearless leader of the Animorphs. Jake the champion of the Ellimist, the destroyer of the yeerk pool and conqueror of the Crayak. What, no witty remarks or threats on my life for killing a member of your little band of Animorphs."

What? Was this true, or was he trying to just send my mind into panic, but Tobias has here and he looks dead, Did David really kill him?

"Speechless?" He asked with a smirk. "I can't imagine why. Oh, did your stupid little brain finally realize that I have you beat? Have you finally realized that that pathetic creature over there is actually that wimp Tobias? But don't worry, I didn't kill him, not yet. But I did kill one of your friends already, at least he should be dead by now, my guys picked him up yesterday, something about taking him to the hospital to see his dad. Now, who might that be?"

"Marco!" I screamed in anger. I jumped towards him, until the chains that bound my wrists and ankles were at their limit and stopped me. In a moment I felt myself morph ever so slightly, I was morphing tiger before I knew it. But David didn't see it, he was too busy laughing.

Wwwhhaaamm! The guy with the bat slammed it into my head, slamming it back. I started demorphing back to human.

I fell back to the ground, my vision blurred and me coughing up blood.

"Now now Jake."David said. "If you keep doing that you're going to end up hurting yourself. You didn't even let me get to the good part, I have something planned for all of your little friends. Now I have to admit, I misspoke, Marco is not dead, not yet anyway. But someone will die, one of your little Animorphs."