Chapter 22
"Wonderful news! The base has been erased! Not a trace! You did a great job, Humans. This is unusual because Humans don't usually do great jobs!"
We put up with yet another one of Groof's 'jokes.' They were just as brilliant through hologram speakers.
Nobody was going to cheer it. It wasn't our fight. It never was, and we weren't about to fake joyousness to appease our eccentric taxi man. He wasn't bothered and continued to laugh even as he continued to tell us about the effects our mission's success would have. Something about a delay to Kelbrid plans. A whole load of bullshit that barely mattered to any of us.
The invasion of Earth meant nothing to us? Was Ax more important than our home? Part of me was daring enough to say yes.
Groof finished up and said his goodbyes. His hologram died away, leaving us all alone, back in our old, run-down home in the middle of nowhere. Ely and Sten had made a commendable effort to make our return a cozy one, but there's only so much a comfy seat and apple pie can cure. Some things just aren't curable. It's not a view on life I was happy to own; but then, a person's views aren't deliberate.
Ely plodded over to me, carrying a small metal tray in his hands. He bent down as much as his hunched, old body would allow. "Coffee, sir?"
I sighed, barely shifting from my collapsed position in the odd-smelling, scarred leather seat. "Jake doesn't like it when you call me sir."
"My apologies," he replied.
I stared down at the small cup of coffee on the tray. Steam rose gently from it, swirling and twirling into nothing. I rejected it politely, and Ely wandered away, always so determined to serve. I returned to inner contemplation when he left. Well, it wasn't so much contemplation, I guess. It was restraint. Resistance. The wall was cracking again. The claws were scratching at its surface. Scritch-scratch.
Scratch.
Scratch.
SCRATCH.
"Marco. Dude."
"Huh?" I blurted. My head shot to Jake. He was standing over me.
Scratch the itch.
"You need that implant," he told me. Stubborn, cold as he had become.
"Implant?" I groaned. "I don't know what you're talking about…"
He wasn't buying it. "Not being able to speak Kelbrid got us all in the shit down there. Not just you. All of us."
I turned my head away. I had no other reaction, no other response.
"Do you object?"
I said nothing. Not a yes. Not a no.
"This keeps happening, dude," Jake said, voice just a little more emotional. "I get it. You don't want an implant. You-"
"They know where you are," I interrupted. "They all do. Surote. The Kelbrids. The Andalites. I bet even the Skrit Na. You upset just one of them…"
I let it hang. Maybe Jake knew it all along. Maybe not. Perhaps he was happy taking the risk, putting his life totally in the hands of some rogue Yeerk and his peace-loving pets. Peace-loving pets that just ordered us to destroy a Kelbrid base. How many did I kill to maintain the peace? Oh, wait, of course I remembered! I remembered vividly.
When I looked back, he had gone. He was on the other side of the room, gazing blankly out of a window. The sun's rays lit up his face.
"Marco is quiet. Is Marco sad?"
Sten had approached from the other side. His large, bladed body hung over my seat, and I had to twist my neck to look up at him. I looked instantly back down, feeling a chill up my spine.
SCRATCH!
I couldn't anymore. I couldn't. I pulled myself off the sofa with shuddering breaths and dragged myself quietly to the front door. I sensed eyes watching me, but I didn't care so long as they didn't follow. Please, nobody follow…
I walked out into the woods, deep into the trees, to leave them behind. Down where nobody would think to look. Nobody followed, and I was so relieved to know that. Nobody could know. They wouldn't allow it, and they wouldn't understand.
I found the patch. I had covered it with leaves and buried some twigs strategically. I had stored the trees in my memory, remembered the dip where I had found them. Not even the recent rains could change it. When I arrived, I fell to my knees on the dirt and began digging. I pulled the leaves away, threw out the twigs, and shoveled the soil. The corner of the bag emerged, and I gently, ever-so-carefully, removed it from its hidden home. I lifted it to my line of vision.
"Oh, fuck. Fuck!"
The white powder had greyed and turned to slush. Water drip-dropped from the tiniest little leak in the corner of the plastic.