Chapter 9
“AMANDA!!!” I screamed again feeling the ash beneath my hands.
“Get up, and get ready for infestation,” a voice said from behind me. I turned and saw a man aiming a Dracon beam at me.
“You killed my wife,” I said, standing up.
“Put your hands behind your head,” he said calmly.
“YOU KILLED MY WIFE!!!” I screamed and punched the man in the face. He wasn’t expecting it, so he fell back a little bit. I used this time to hit the Dracon beam out of his hand. It fell to the ground and I kicked the man in the face as hard as I could. He dropped to the floor and I kicked him again for good measure. I picked up the Dracon beam from the ground, wiped the sweat from my eyes, and put it to the highest setting. I aimed the beam at the over head Bug Fighter and with perfect precision I fired at the engine, completely destroying it. The Bug Fighter fell to the ground with a loud crash and exploded 30 meters from me. I got into my car and drove toward my storage garage. I opened it, and made my way through the mountains of old CDs, lawn mowers, old tables, and boxes until I found what I was looking for. I opened the box labelled ‘Weapons’ and pulled out my scabbard. I kissed it and through it over my shoulder. I took two Glock 22s out of the box and put them in my pocket. I took the M16 and put it in a holster around my waist. I put a belt of hand grenades on, and held my newly acquired Dracon beam. Let them come, I’d be ready. I dropped my suit jacket to the floor and ripped the arms off my shirt. I needed mobility. I stepped outside and walked through the streets. I noticed two Hork-Bajir holding a young boy down. I fired. The young boy was cowering in fear while two Hork-Bajir smouldered beside him. I kept walking and saw a band of Taxxons coming up a hill, I fired at one and watched the others eat him. I then repeated the process until there was only one left. I tried to fire, but the Dracon beam was out of power. I threw it aside and picked up my M16. I put a neat hole in the Taxxon’s upper body and walked away as it attempted to eat itself. I saw a human controller walk towards me with a Dracon beam in his hand. I put a hole between his eyes. I walked over and picked up his cell phone. I called Ms. Koren, hoping to get in touch with her to see if Karen was alright. There was no answer. I screamed up at the sky, holstered my M16 and ran. I ran into a park and looked behind me. A dozen or so Hork-Bajir were behind me, Dracon beams levelled. I took a grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it at the crowd of aliens behind me. I managed to take out half of them and kept running. I drew my sword and ran. I decapitated a Hork-Bajir that popped out from behind a slide in front of me and kept running. I ran right into someone and we both fell to the ground. I looked over and saw an M16 on the ground next to my longsword. I stood up quickly, grabbed the sword and threw the M16 to the person on the ground. He lay face down, and I couldn’t make out his face, but his uniform was army.
“Pick up your weapon and help me!” I yelled at him, as the Hork-Bajir approached.
“If I recall correctly, I was the one who gave you orders,” the man said standing up. It was Stern. The words ‘after all, this is just revenge’ flashed through my head. I ignored it and held my sword tightly in my hand. He picked up his rifle and stood by my side.
“Just like old times, eh Nabet?” he said smiling. I didn’t smile, my wife was dead and my daughter was missing, I didn’t think I would ever smile again. The Hork-Bajir came closer and Stern started firing. I ran forward and slashed wildly at the mass of scales and blades. After only 30 seconds, the Hork-Bajir were all dead.
“Well Nabet,” Stern said, lowering his M16, “I think we may need you back at ATF-1. It seems that those kids weren’t as thorough as we had all thought.”
I followed Stern back to the base and walked through the familiar area. Only once I passed the security gate did I sheath my sword. Stern took me to a conference room with the rest of ATF-1 sitting around. When I entered they all clapped. I raised my hand to shush them and sat down.
“The Yeerks are back,” Stern said, “and this time we don’t have a bunch of kids to help us fight. One of them is dead, four are missing, and one wants nothing more to do with the war. What this means soldiers, is that we’re back. We need to stop the approaching aliens. We need to send these god damn slugs back to where they came from. We need to show them that this is our planet, and they can’t just take it from us.”
Everyone in the room started cheering. They were optimistic. Something about watching everything that ever mattered to you disappear before your eyes takes all the optimism from your mind. I sat and listened to Stern describe the plan to get the Yeerks first out of our city, then the rest of the planet. I sat and listened, not really paying attention, the last moments with Amanda racing through my mind over and over again. After explaining the plan, Stern stood up.
“Get a good night sleep tonight soldiers, tomorrow is a big day,” he said. Everyone stood up and headed towards their rooms. I walked to the T.V. in the mess hall and turned on the news. The news anchor was sombre and sitting beside a bottle of whiskey, taking shots every couple of minutes. He was talking about the reinvasion before he began reading a list of casualties. Amanda was one of them. When he was finished he pressed his finger against his ear.
“The Yeerks have taken another life,” he said, “the main street bridge was shot down, killing 50 people.” He then read off the list of people killed on the bridge. The last name said was Janice Koren. My heart sank even deeper into my chest. Karen was dead. I switched off the T.V. and walked to my bunk. I didn’t sleep at all that night, my mind replaying Amanda’s death over and over again. At 0530 everyone got out of bed, showered and headed to our meeting spot. Stern was standing there, in front of a large pile of weapons.
“Alright soldiers,” he said, “it’s time to send these sons of ****es back to the stars. Grab an M16 and a Shredder and hit the streets. Eliminate any and all controllers you see. Use deadly force. If you aren’t sure about someone, kill them anyway. This is not a time to be a hero, this is a time to be a soldier. Wars aren’t won with hugs and kisses, they’re won with death and destruction.” Stern handed everyone an M16 and a Shredder except for me and someone else in the group named Alyssa. “Alright everyone, go out there and kill some Yeerks! Show them that this is our planet and they won’t take it without a fight!” everybody cheered again, “Nabet, Giddings, I need to speak with you in my office please,” he said, gesturing for us to follow him. Everybody in ATF-1 left the base screaming, holding their weapons at the ready except for Alyssa and me. We followed Stern to his office and he shut the door.
“Alright, you two are the best soldiers we have in this unit, which means that you’re going to have a special weapon. We just got the authorization to give this out, but only three people per base are allowed to have it. You two and General Doubleday are the only people here who will have this, even I won’t.” Stern then used a key to open a small closet, turned the tumbler on a safe inside, opened it, pulled out a small box, punched in a code, opened the box, and bulled out a small blue cube. “This is called an Escafil Device. This will grant you the same powers that the Animorphs had, allowing you to become any animal that you touch. Use this power wisely.”
Alyssa and I stood, jaws open and eyes wide.
“You’re giving us the power to morph?” Alyssa asked.
“That is correct,” General Doubleday said, walking into the room, “each of you two touch one end of the cube.” We did and felt a small shock. Doubleday then explained how to acquire morphs and how to become them.
“Alright you two,” Stern said once Doubleday had left the office with the Escafil device, “we’re taking a trip to the zoo.” The three of us got into a jeep and drove to The Gardens. Stern flashed his military ID and they were expecting us. Somebody got into the jeep with us and directed the driver to behind the animal cages.
“We have flyers behind here, nighters are over there, fighters are in those rooms there, don’t go in without me, and finally divers are over there,” she had obviously dealt with morphers before. Alyssa went first, she got a falcon, a gorilla, a dolphin, and a bat. Then it was my turn. I first went into the aviary and the tour guide tranked a bald eagle and a snowy owl for me and I acquired them. Next I went into the wonders of the deep sea exhibit and repeated the process for a great white. Then finally I acquired a lion. Alyssa and I were instructed to morph our flyers, fly into the city and look for controllers, then to demorph, morph into a fighter, and take them out. This was more a training exercise then actually hurting the Yeerks. Stern wanted us to get used to our new power. So I looked over at Alyssa, she smiled at me, and began to shrink. I concentrated on the eagle and felt itchy all over. I looked at my arm and saw a strange pattern begin to form. Feathers erupted from the pattern and I began to shrink. I felt my lips and nose shoot out then harden. My legs grew hard and my feet became talons. And then I had become a bald eagle. I tried to speak, but all that came out was a weird screech.
<Nabet, this is amazing. Just think what you want to say and it happens. It’s so cool!> Alyssa said to me.
I tried it, <Hello?>
“Alright soldiers, now that you’ve both figured out thought speech you need to go out there and find trouble, both of your morphs have very keen eyes and it shouldn’t be any trouble to find anything at all. Good luck and remember, two hours,” Stern said. He then stepped into the jeep and drove off.
<Uh, Alyssa, do you know how to fly?> I asked her.
<No, but I think that the bird does. If you let the bird take over I think that we’ll be ok. At least, that’s what I’ve heard,> she replied. She then flapped her wings and took off into the air. <OH MY GOD, THIS IS AMAZING!> she screamed.
I let my mind go and waited for the eagle to take over. Almost immediately my wings began flapping and I took off into the air. I flew beside her and we soared over the city looking for controllers. After several minutes we saw a group of controllers attacking a soldier from ATF-1. We landed nearby, demorphed and remorphed into our fighters. A gorilla and a lion with a scabbard on its back then emerged from an alley and charged at the controllers.
“What the?” one of the controllers said before I mauled his face off. I jumped to one of the Hork-Bajir and ripped into its stomach.
<This is for Amanda you sons of ****es!> I yelled, attacking all the controllers that Alyssa wasn’t punching in the face with her massive gorilla fists. Eventually all the controllers were dead.
<Are you alright Rick?> I asked the soldier lying on the ground. He didn’t respond. I turned him over with my paw and his gaze was completely blank. He was dead.
<He’s dead, let’s keep going,> I said to Alyssa. She nodded her big gorilla head and we patrolled the streets.
For two months ATF-1 patrolled the streets eliminating the controllers from the city until none remained. Against all odds we took out all of the controllers that were in the city, and other cities followed suit and soon there were no controllers anywhere in North America.
ATF-1 had moved to a new base in Nevada. We were now dealing with controllers in other parts of the world. Sending planes filled with soldiers to different cities that were overrun with Yeerks and taking them out. It was tough work, and we had many casualties. Stern, Alyssa, Bill, and I were sitting at a conference table watching the monitor as somebody was debriefing us on a particular village in Africa.
“Sir, the village has more Yeerks than it does humans,” the man on the monitor said to us, “by my calculations, the village is 75% controllers, 15% terrorists in league with the Yeerks, and 10% civilian. If we don’t act fast, they will take over the rest of the village and spread.”
“Thank you soldier,” Stern said, “stand by for orders” he shut off the monitor.
“Sir, the village needs to be dealt with,” I said, “I don’t think that there is enough time for us to send a team of soldiers there and take them out before they spread. I believe that a tactical nuclear strike is our only option.” Losing my wife and daughter had made me cold, but I was thinking rationally and that was truly our only option.
“Nabet, we can’t nuke the village. There are civilians there. My superiors would have my head, not to mention the moral issues with it,” Stern said.
“Sir, it’s our only option.”
“I said no soldier. I need to go for a walk and think about this,” Stern said, standing up. He walked out of the room and I followed him. We entered his office and were alone.
“Sir, what do you think is the alternative, you and I both know that this is our only choice. We can’t let the Yeerks spread any more. This would show them that we were serious, that we mean business. You said so yourself wars aren’t won with hugs and kisses, they’re won with death and destruction.”
“Nabet! We aren’t discussing this! I will send a jet with two dozen soldiers tomorrow. They will take out the Yeerks.”
“I’m sorry Carl,” I said to him.
“What?” he asked right before I hit him on the head with the hilt of my sword. He instantly fell unconscious. I took his clothes and shoved him under his desk. I placed my hand on his forehead and concentrated on him. I walked away from the desk and focused on him. I felt the changes begin. My muscles grew a little bit and I shrank a few inches. My hair grew longer and my nose grew a little bit shorter. I threw on Stern’s clothes and walked back into the conference room.
“Soldier,” I said to Bill in a voice that was not my own, “call him back, I’ve made my decision.”
Bill punched in a few numbers on the monitor and the soldier came back on the screen.
“Get out of the village now, you have 5 minutes before I send out a tactical nuke.” I said to him. He swallowed hard and nodded. The monitor turned off and I walked to the war room. I placed my thumb on the scanner and the button for the nuke surfaced on the control panel. I imputed the coordinates and waited until 5 minutes were up. Once they were up I took a deep breath and pressed the button. May god have mercy on their souls.
