Chapter Two

<Thanks, Toby,> Jake said dryly.

The leader of the free Hork-Bajir bowed her head.

“I’m not criticizing,” she said. “Your plan is a good one. But only if everybody cooperates. It’s a good thing this was just a war game.”

Jake, Rachel, and Marco began to demorph. When he was human again, Jake gave me an odd look.

“The plan depends on rapid response and following orders. Where were you, Cassie? And why did you demorph before I gave you the safe signal?”

Good question. I’d forgotten we weren’t supposed to come out of roach morph unless Jake gave us the okay.

If we came out of the pipe and didn’t hear Jake’s private thought-speak, it meant that we should keep out of sight. Wait for further instructions. I felt my face get hot. “Sorry.”

Jake shrugged and turned to Toby. “What about the others? Did any of them get it right?”

Toby hesitated. “Well, let’s just hope the Yeerks don’t launch an attack any time soon. The adult humans need much drilling. Or else they will need a lot of protection.”

I guess it’s time to explain a few things. Like why a seemingly average kid was diving into mud and crawling through pipes. As a roach. My name is Cassie.

At first there were only five of us. Just five ordinary kids. Until one evening we hooked up at the mall and decided to walk home together. Through an abandoned construction site.

Mistake number one.

Because that’s where we stumbled on a crashed spaceship. And an alien named Elfangor.

And ended up in this war.

7 | P a g e

The pilot was close to death. Before he died he told us an amazing but true story. That Earth had been invaded by Yeerks, parasitic, sentient sluglike things that had been infesting bodies of various species around the galaxy. Now the Yeerks were on our planet. Busily invading the human race. Taking human bodies as their hosts. Elfangor also gave us a small blue box. A cube that held the key to the most valuable piece of technology his people, the Andalites, had ever developed. The ability to morph.

That was the beginning.

Later, we were joined by another Andalite. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. Ax. A cadet in training. A kid like us.

Like we were, once. Because none of us will ever really be kids again. Now, a hundred or more battles later, I’m not sure exactly what we are. In the eyes of the innocent world, we’re still children. But in our own eyes…

We’ve won some of those battles. Lost others. At least we’ve come out alive. But the war rages on.

And everything is different. Because now, the Yeerks know we’re not “Andalite bandits.” Now they know we’re human. Most of us, anyway. They even know our names. They know who our families are, too.

Which meant we had to tell our families everything. About the Yeerks. About the Andalites. About why we call ourselves Animorphs. About the months of fighting and the incredible danger and the exhausting emotional drain. We didn’t have time to break the news to our families gently. Not with the Yeerks on the way. We had to evacuate our homes—our lives—immediately. Just about all of our parents are still in shock. Who can blame them? Even after everything I’ve witnessed, after everything I’ve done and had done to me, sometimes I can’t believe it’s real, either. Sometimes I just know what at any minute I’ll wake up from this nightmare.

So now we’re in hiding. Me and my parents. Rachel, her mom, and her sisters. Her father lives in another state. There was no time to find him. Marco and his parents are here, too. Tobias and his long-lost mother, Loren. Everyone except for Jake’s parents. And brother.

8 | P a g e

We’re taking refuge with the colony of free Hork-Bajir. So far, the Yeerks haven’t found this new camp. For now at least, we’re safe.

The Hork-Bajif are by nature gentle tree-dwellers. And, well, by our human standards, not too bright. But Toby, their “seer,” is different. She’s done a good job of leading her people. Keeping them safe on a daily basis. Troubleshooting in emergencies.

Toby and Jake discussed logistics as we walked back to camp.

“The trenches need to be at least eight feet deeper,” she said. “And the escape pipes need to be imbedded in concrete to keep them from shifting.”

“What if they fill up with water?”

“That’s an easy problem to fix,” Toby answered.

Jake nodded. But he didn’t ask any more questions. Like how Toby planned to fix flooding pipes. And how long it would take. And could Taxxons dig up the pipes, concrete or no concrete.

That wasn’t like Jake. Jake was usually way in front of any situation. The truth was, and it hurt me to admit it, Jake just wasn’t Jake anymore.

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