Me.
I guess you'll never know.
I make mistakes. I fail sometimes. Sometimes I'm just plain stupid. Sometimes there is no right answer to the problems we face, but what can you do but keep trying to figure the answer out, anyway? What else can you do?
About a week went by after the fire before I went to Cassie's house. She was in the barn, taking care of the sick animals.
I didn't ask her any questions, and she didn't ask me. I helped her put a splint on a deer with a broken leg. It was nice because, you know, it was
146 just a good thing to do, no second-guessing, no doubts.
And after a while Cassie and I started talking and even laughing. The others came over and we talked about flying. But instead of flying, we stayed there and shoveled the manure out of the barn.
The six of us shoveled dirty hay, and Marco made dumb jokes, and Ax tried to eat a cow pie, and Rachel moaned about Cassie's pathetic taste in clothing, and we were us again.
For now.
147 Don't; miss
« I his was not easy to figure out,» Tobias said proudly. «Hours and hours of following known Controllers. Then I had to keep stealing peeks in through the windows. I even morphed to human to check out the inside. That's how I found out about the Happy Meal.»
We were flies. The six of us. We were zipping madly around inside a McDonald's. It was maddening. The scent of food was everywhere. Pickles. Meat. Ketchup. Grease. Special sauce.
My fly body thought it had died and gone to heaven. Outside of a good trash dump, there's no place a fly likes more than a fast food restaurant.
«What about the Happy Meal?» Cassie asked.
«Why is the meal happy?» Ax asked.
Tobias decided to answer Cassie's question. «That's how you signal. That's the code. You go up to the counter and say, 'I'd like a Happy Meal. With extra happy.' That's the signal.»
148 I flew upside down along the ceiling, looking for a place to land and rest. I buzzed to a nice greasy patch near the deep fryer, turned a back flip, and set down. My mouth - actually, it was more like some insanely long straw that could curl up - extended down and began spitting digestive juices onto the grease, then sucking up the resulting goo.
Hey, I know it's gross. But it was either that or keep resisting the fly's desperate cries for food! food! food!
«After you place the Happy Meal order, you go around like you're going to the bathroom. But instead, you take the other door. The one that goes to the kitchen. You go in - and here's the cool part - you go into the walk-in refrigerators
«Then what?» Jake asked.
«Then I don't know. I could never see inside.»
«0kay. So here's the plan,» Jake said. «We watch till someone orders the Happy Meal with . . . what was it?»
«Extra happy,» Tobias said.
«ls it just my imagination, or did the Yeerks develop a sense of humor?» Marco asked.
«0nce we have our Controller, we follow him in. No problem,» Jake said. Then he added grimly, «0h yeah, no problem. A little picnic in the Yeerk pool. I'm sure they'll all buy that.»
149 «Um, Jake?» Marco said. «You said that last part out loud. We heard it.»
«0h. Sorry.»
«Mr. Inspiration^ I said with a laugh. «Come on. Let's -»
«Uh uh uh! Don't say 'Let's do it,' Rachel!» Marco yelled.
We took turns hanging out above the counter. But we didn't have too long a wait till a woman came in and ordered a Happy Meal with "extra happy."
We buzzed easily along behind her as she went through the door and into the kitchen. Then into the walk-in refrigerator.
«Gotta get out of here, man,» I said. «This cold is slowing me down.»
«Yes, this body has no ability to regulate body temperature,» Ax observed. «What a strange idea. You humans do many unusual things.»
«Ax, I don't think we're exactly responsible for -»
«Yes, I know. I was attempting to make a joke. A human-style joke.»
«Great,» Marco muttered. «Funny Yeerks and now a funny Andalite.»
The Controller woman waited patiently and, after a few seconds, the back of the walk-in refrigerator split and opened wide.
150 She stepped and we flew through the opening. It really was going to be easy this time.
BrrrrEEEEET! BrrrrEEEEET! "Unauthorized life form detected." BrrrrEEEEET BrrrrEEEEET! "Unauthorized life form detected."
The Controller woman looked around. I saw her blue eyes, each the size of a swimming pool, turn and look. Through the shattered, splintered fly vision, I could see her focus.
Then she muttered under her breath, "Security fanatics. It's just a couple of lousy flies."
But the mechanical voice was giving instructions now.
"Shut your eyes tightly to protect against retinal damage from the Gleet BioFilter."
«The what?» I asked.
«Get out of here!» Ax yelled.
«What?»
«0ut! Out! Out!» he yelled.
Ax never yells. So if he does yell, you have to figure it's a good idea to pay attention.
I spun around in midair the way only a fly can do, and I hauled wing for the still-open crack that led to the refrigerator.
Suddenly, the whole world blew up in a dazzling explosion of light. I felt my compound eyes melt. I flew on, blinded, blew through the rapidly narrowing crack, and hit the cold air.
«l'm blind!» I cried.
151 «l think we all are,» Ax said calmly. «We're lucky to be just blinded. A Gleet BioFilter destroys all life forms whose DNA is not entered into the computer controls. Andalite technology, of course. The Yeerks must have stolen the specifications^
«Ax, are you telling me that filter thing will wipe out any life form except the one they program it for?» Jake asked.
«Yes, Prince Jake. I'm sorry to say, yes. Everything but the particular human-Controller.»
«Then we're shut off from the Yeerk pool,» Tobias said. «They must have this same technology at all the entrances now.»
It was hard to get too upset by the idea of being locked out of the Yeerk pool. But it was frustrating. And it kind of made me mad. I didn't like the idea of being outsmarted by the Yeerks.
«There must be some other way in,» I said.
«l'd like to know what it would be,» Marco said.
For a moment no one said anything. Then Cassie said, «Well . . . there is one way.»
«l take it back!» Marco said. «l take it back! I can tell by your tone, Cassie, I really don't want to know.»
152 It's surprisingly simple. Amazi affordable. And totally powerful. Unfortunately, using it means going back to the Yeerk pool. But Rachel and the other Animorphs have no choice. They have to try to slow down the invasion. If tl don't, who will?
^
ANIMORPHS #17: THE UNDERGROU
K.A. Applegate
K. A. Applegate, The Warning
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