Applegate, K A - Animorphs 04 - The Message Read online

Marco isn't interested in being in charge, or even in being part of a team. He wants us to just quit the whole thing. He wants us to forget the Yeerks and forget morphing and just try and stay alive.

  But at the same time, it's Marco who is very aware of all the security problems. He's the one who makes sure we never discuss anything on the phone, where enemy ears might be listen ing in.

  Rachel is my closest friend. She has been for years. How can I explain Rachel? First of all, she and Jake are cousins, and they have a lot in common. They seem to grow strong people in that family, because Rachel is the strongest person I know. It's like nothing ever intimidates her. She's totally fearless, or at least that's how she seems.

  To look at her you'd think, Oh, she'll grow up to be some airheaded model, because she's very tall and pretty and blond. But I pity anyone who mistakes Rachel for a wimpy airhead.

  Sometimes I think Rachel likes the way every-

  18 thing has worked out. It's like all along there was this Amazon warrior locked up inside of her, and now she has an excuse to bring it out.

  But she was not a person who believed in dreams very much. "Well, okay," she said, "if we're done with the dreams, let's - "

  "Rachel," Jake interrupted, "I think I have something that may be interesting." He pulled a videocassette out of his bag.

  "Cool. Let's watch a movie," Marco said.

  "Not a movie," Jake said. "I guess no one else watched the late news last night?"

  "I was busy watching my taped reruns of Mis ter Rogers' Neighborhood," Marco said, giving Rachel a sly look. "Last night it was the one where it was a beautiful day in the neighbor hood."

  Jake rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, the way he'd done a million times before when Marco said something irrelevant or annoying. "Rachel, can we go downstairs and use your VCR?"

  "Sure," Rachel said.

  We trooped down the stairs. Except for Tobias, who fluttered down above our heads.

  "Hey, Tobias," Marco said, "I've been mean ing to ask you, are hawks like seagulls? I mean, do they poop while they're flying?"

  «Depends on who's down below,» Tobias shot

  19 back. «Let me just put it this way - if you get on my nerves, you'd better buy a hat.»

  Down in Rachel's living room, Jake turned on the TV and popped in his cassette.

  "There was just this one small story," he nar rated, as, on the screen, an old guy in a bathing suit held up a piece of what looked like metal.

  "So now we're interested in hairy old guys who should be wearing shirts?" Marco asked.

  "This old guy says he found that on the beach. It washed up during the storm a couple of days ago. Watch."

  The camera focused on what looked like a jagged piece of metal, about two feet long and one foot wide. As the camera zoomed in, I saw what looked like letters. Only they weren't any al phabet I had ever seen.

  Now the tape was showing the anchorwoman smiling, and then it went blank. Jake turned the VCR off.

  "Okay . . . so?" Marco prodded.

  Jake sighed. "So the night the Andalite landed, when I went inside his ship to get the cube that gave us our morphing powers, I saw writing."

  I felt a chill creep up the back of my neck.

  "I could be wrong, I mean, I'm not some ex pert," Jake said. "But I think it was that same al phabet. Those same kinds of letters."

  20 Suddenly no one was laughing. Not even Marco.

  "I think what washed up on the beach is a piece of an Andalite ship," Jake said.

  Suddenly, without warning, I felt the ground swirl beneath me. I fell straight back, not even caring that Jake caught me in his arms just be fore I hit the carpet.

  21

  I was falling, falling, falling.

  Falling into the sea.

  Splash! I hit the water. But still I fell. Down and down and down through blue-green, sunlit layers of water.

  «I 'm here,» a voice called to me. «l am here. I cannot survive much longer. If you hear me ... come. If you hear me ... come.»

  Suddenly I opened my eyes. I stared up at Jake's concerned face.

  Glancing across the room, I saw Rachel with the telephone to her ear, preparing to dial.

  "She's awake!" Jake said.

  "I'd better still call an ambulance," Rachel said.

  22 "No!" Marco snapped, "Not unless we know she's hurt. It's too big a risk."

  Rachel's eyes flared the way they do when someone tells her something she doesn't want to hear. "I'm calling nine-one-one," she said tersely.

  "No, Rachel, I'm okay," I said. I sat up. My head felt a little woozy, but I was all right.

  Rachel hesitated, her fingers just above the keypad. "What about Tobias?"

  I looked around the room and saw Tobias spread out on the floor, one wing crumpled beneath him.

  He looked dead.

  I jumped up and ran to him.

  "Rachel, Cassie seems okay, and nine-one- one can't help Tobias," Jake said.

  Rachel replaced the receiver and ran over to Tobias.

  "He's not dead," I said. I could feel him breathing. Then, just as suddenly as I had, he woke up. His enormous brown hawk's eyes opened, instantly fierce.

  His first reaction was pure hawk. He hopped up and flared. Hawks flare just the way cats do when they're trying to intimidate someone. They hunch their shoulders and fluff up their feathers to make themselves look bigger than they are.

  "Everybody stand still," I said quickly. "It's

  23 okay, Tobias, you were just out for a minute there."

  He quickly gained control over the hawk in stincts. «That was strange,» he said.

  "It happened to me, too," I said. "I passed out. And then I had the dream again. Only this time I could hear an actual voice. Or at least I heard thought-speech."

  «Me, too,» Tobias confirmed.

  "Okay, now this is getting weird," Rachel said. "Because at the same time I thought I kind of felt something."

  "Yeah," Jake agreed. Marco nodded.

  «l know this sounds crazy, but ... but it's like someone is sending out a distress signal. Like they are calling for help.»

  "Only this someone is in the water, or under the water, or something," I said. "Seeing that video, seeing that writing, it was like suddenly the message grew stronger."

  "Or it may have just been a coincidence," Jake said. "This isn't a dream. I don't know what it is, but it isn't a dream. Even I halfway saw something. This is some kind of a communica tion."

  "Well, this is all very interesting," Marco said, "but so what? I mean, are we getting some kind of psychic message from the Little Mermaid? What are we supposed to do about it?"

  24 Jake looked closely at me. "Cassie? Was the voice in your dream a human voice?"

  I was startled by the question. I hadn't really thought about it. I actually laughed. "When you asked me, the first thing that popped into my head was no, it isn't human." I laughed again. "But that doesn't make any sense."

  «I t's not human,» Tobias said suddenly. «l understand the meaning of what it's saying, but it's not human. It's not 'speaking' in words, really.»

  "So what is it?" Rachel asked. "Yeerk?"

  I let my mind drift back to the dream. I tried to hear the sound in my head again. "No, not Yeerk. It reminds me of something ... of some one."

  «The Andalite,» Tobias blurted.

  I snapped my fingers. "Yes! That's it! It re minds me of the Andalite. When he first thought-spoke to us. That's what it's like."

  "The Andalite," Marco muttered. He looked away. I knew he was remembering. We all were.

  We had been walking home from the mall at night. Walking through a big abandoned construction site, when the Andalite ship had ap peared above us.

  It landed, and out came the Andalite prince, fatally wounded in a battle with the Yeerks some where in space.

  25 He was the one who had warned us of the Yeerks - the parasite species that inhabited the brains of other creatures and enslaved them, making them Co
ntrollers. It was the Andalite who had warned us, and who, in desperation, had given us the great and terrible weapon - the power to morph.

  We had been hiding, cringing in terror, when the Yeerks caught up with the Andalite. When Visser Three himself, the Yeerk leader, had mur dered him.

  I shuddered at the terrible memory of the An- dalite's last, despairing cry.

  "Yes," I whispered. "Tobias is right. It's an Andalite. That's who is calling to us from the sea. An Andalite."

  For a few minutes no one said anything.

  Then Rachel said, "He died trying to save us." She looked defiantly at Marco. "I know that doesn't mean anything to you. But the Andalite died trying to save Earth."

  Marco nodded. "I know. And you're wrong, Rachel. That means plenty to me."

  "Yeah? Well, if there's some Andalite calling for help, I'm going to try and help him," Rachel said.

  I looked over at Jake and we shared this look, like "Oh, big surprise, Rachel is ready to go." I hid my smile and Jake kept a straight face.

  26 "Tobias?" Jake asked. "What do you say?"

  «l don't know if I should have a vote. I'm the one person here who isn't going to be much help dealing with water. Besides, you guys all know how I'd vote.»

  Of all of us, it was Tobias who had stayed longest at the Andalite's side, even as the An dalite ordered him to get to safety. Something really deep had gone on between the Andalite prince and Tobias.

  It was my turn. "I can't just ignore someone crying out for help, if that's what this is."

  We all looked at Marco. I could see Rachel getting angry, like she was ready to jump all over Marco if, as usual, he disagreed.

  Marco just grinned. "I really hate to do this. I really hate to disappoint you all." Then he grew serious. "But I was there at the construction site, same as all of you. I was there when Visser Three - " Suddenly his voice choked. "What I mean is, if there's an Andalite who needs any thing, I'm there."

  27

  Y ou do realize that if we're down here at the beach because of that news story, some Con trollers are probably down here, too?" Marco asked for about the tenth time.

  "Yes, Marco," Jake said patiently. "But maybe Cassie and Tobias can get some feeling from being down here, closer to the sea."

  "So let me get this straight - we are now making decisions based on Tobias and Cassie's dreams, right?" Marco said. "And yet my dreams are totally ignored. The fact that I once dreamed about staying home and watching TV in total safety, that means nothing, right?"

  "Right," Jake said flatly.

  We were at the beach. The same beach where

  28 the guy on the news had found what we now be lieved was a piece of an Andalite ship. It was night, with a sliver of moon that painted ripples of silver across the black water. A salt breeze blew off the water, making me feel peaceful and yet a little overwhelmed, intimidated, the way the ocean always makes me feel.

  There is nothing as big as the ocean. It's like this entirely different planet, full of strange plants and fantastic animals. Valleys and mountains and caves and broad, flat plains, all hidden from our sight.

  All I could see was the surface. All I could feel was the barest edge of the ocean, rushing over my toes as each wave crashed ashore.

  But I could sense it out there. I could sense how vast it was, and how tiny I was.

  "How about my dream of living long enough to get a driver's license?"

  Jake gave Marco an exasperated look. "Marco, you can turn into a bird and fly. You could do it right now. Why would you care about driving a car a few years from now?"

  "The babes," Marco said instantly. "Duh. You can't pick up girls when you're a bird." He glanced overhead, where we could see just the hint of dark wings against the canopy of stars. "No offense, Tobias. The wings are great, but I'm

  29 thinking of something bright red with about four hundred horsepower."

  Marco's cooperative mood hadn't lasted long. I knew it wouldn't. Marco is never happy unless he's complaining about something. Just like Rachel is never happy unless she has something to fight against. And Tobias is never happy, pe riod. He thinks if he's ever happy, someone will just come along and take his happiness away.

  "So, Cassie?" Rachel said. "Do you feel any thing?"

  "Well, I feel a little embarrassed," I admitted. "And a little foolish."

  "Maybe we could try calling the Psychic Friends," Marco suggested. "Hi, is this Psychic Friends? I've been dreaming about aliens lately - "

  "Why Cassie and Tobias?" Rachel wondered aloud, ignoring Marco. "Why would they get these images so clearly and the rest of us barely felt anything?"

  Jake shook his head. "I don't know. I mean, okay, say you're an Andalite. And you want to call for help. Who do you want to come and rescue you? Other Andalites, obviously."

  "Tobias isn't an Andalite, and neither am I," I pointed out.

  "I know," Jake said. "But maybe this commu-

  30 nication, whatever it is, is tied into the ability to morph. You know, like morphing ability makes you able to 'hear' it. That way, only Andalites would be able to receive the call for help."

  "Which still doesn't explain why Tobias and I _"

  "Maybe it does," Marco interrupted, serious again. "Look, Tobias is permanently in morph. And Cassie, you're the one who has the most tal ent for morphing." Then he flashed white teeth in the dark. "Besides, you know you like animals more than humans, so it's like you're halfway into morph, anyway."

  Suddenly a dark shape swooped low over our heads. «Lights!» Tobias said. «Up ahead on the beach. There's a bunch of people moving in a line with flashlights, like they're searching for something. You can't see them yet because they're hidden by that dune. But they'll be here in a couple of minutes.»

  "Who are they?" Jake demanded.

  «l can't tell,» Tobias said. «My eyes may be great during the day, but at night I don't see any better than you do. I'm a hawk, not an owl. Fortu nately, I still hear pretty well. You guys hide in the dunes. I'll be right back.»

  With that he was gone.

  "Come on," Jake said. "He's right. Let's hide in the dunes."

  31 We crouched down in a pocket between two dunes. I lay flat on my belly in the cold sand and peered through the tall sea grass, focusing on the bright line of the surf.

  Tobias was back a few minutes later.

  « It's them,» he said. He came to rest on a piece of driftwood. « It's a group from The Sharing. Chapman is with them.» He turned his head to look at Jake. «Tom is with them, too.»

  The Sharing is a front organization for the Yeerks. Supposedly it's this group for all ages, like Girl Scouts or whatever. In reality it's a way for the Controllers to try and recruit new volun tary hosts. As impossible as it may seem, some humans actually decide to become hosts for the Yeerks. The Yeerks like it that way. It's easier for them to have a voluntary host instead of a host that resists their control.

  The Sharing is very subtle, of course. People are brought along very slowly, over time. New members have no idea what it's all about at first. They think it's just fun and games.

  I don't know when they tell the members what's really happening. By then I guess it's too late. They either become hosts voluntarily, or, like Jake's brother Tom, they are taken, anyway.

  "Tom is with them?" Jake asked.

  « I'm pretty sure,» Tobias said. «Some of the senior members - Chapman and Tom - are fol-

  32 lowing behind the others. I could hear some of what they were saying. They're very worried about that fragment of Andalite ship.»

  "So it is Andalite?" Rachel asked, excited.

  «l guess so,» Tobias said. «l heard something else, too.»

  The way he hesitated made me tense up. "What?"

  «Something about Visser Three having vi sions. That's what they said. Visions. I guess the visions made the Visser cranky. He was on the mother ship at the time and decided to shove a Hork-Bajir out of an airlock because he broke the Visser's concentrations<
br />
  "It's because of Visser Three's Andalite body," Marcosaid.

  "That's the connection. These dreams or vi sions or whatever they are must be some kind of communication that's only supposed to be heard by Andalites."

  Suddenly I saw the line of flashlights swing into view. There must have been twenty people strung across the beach, all looking down at the sand, moving forward slowly.

  "They're searching for any other fragments," I whispered.

  A part of the line stopped moving. I heard someone yelling. Others came running up, ex cited.

  33 "What did they find?" Jake wondered.

  "I don't. . ." Then, in a flash, it came to me. "Our footprints! Four sets of fresh footprints that suddenly turn off into the dunes!"

  "Let's get out of here," Jake hissed. "Now!"

  Too late!

  The flashlight beams raced across the rippling sand and up the side of the dune. In an instant a dozen flashlight beams focused on the notch where we crouched.

  We slithered back, down and out of sight. Then we jumped up and ran.

  "We should morph!" Rachel gasped as we stumbled over the sinking sand.

  "No!" Marco said. "Tracks. We would leave tracks that went from human to animal."

  "Get them!" someone yelled. Chapman, I think. He's our assistant principal at school. I knew his voice from hearing him yell in the hall ways.

  Jerky, wild beams of light danced all around us. We ducked and ran as fast as we could. But running across the sand was like running through quicksand.

  Jake was gasping out whispered instructions. "Double around ... if they follow us deeper into ... the dunes ... we can double around . . . get to the water. . . then morph ..."

  "There! There! I see them!"

  34 A beam of light swept over me. I could see my shadow, long and twisted, projected on the sand. I dodged left, out of the light. Just in time.

  BAM! BAM!

  Gunfire!

  Someone was shooting at me.

  35

  It seemed totally crazy.

  I mean, I've been in one-on-one combat to the death with seven-foot-tall Hork-Bajir war riors, and I've been shot at by Dracon beams that sort of disintegrate you slowly. But I'd never been shot at with plain old everyday guns.