He concealed the bottoms of the straws in his fist.
"Next time let's play some other game," Marco said as he drew a straw. "Yahtzee, maybe. I don't like games that involve life and death."
One after the other, we each drew a straw. A long straw. I looked carefully at the straw in my hand. Yes, it was a long one.
Jake looked shocked. He held the short straw.
We were all shocked. Somehow it just seemed automatic that Jake would be there with us.
Marco grinned. "Sooner or later we had to try a mission without you, oh great and fearless leader."
Marco could joke about it. But none of us felt right going in without Jake. Now it was too late to change that.
"Okay," Jake said briskly. "You guys know what to do. I'll use the wolf morph. The Yeerks will be on the lookout for wolves." He started to walk away. Then he stopped and looked back. "Be careful, all right?"
"Go ahead, Mom," Rachel said. "We can handle this."
"At least we hope we can," I muttered.
Jake walked away and was quickly out of sight.
44 "Okay, we have to be ready as soon as Jake starts making trouble," Rachel said. "We hear something go down, we run toward the perimeter of the compound, staying just back in the trees, morph, and hope we can find the way to the building."
"What do you know about these termites we are morphing?" Ax wondered.
"They're like ants," Marco said.
"Actually, they're related to cockroaches," I said. "I looked them up in one of my mom's books. They have a society like ants, but roaches are closer relatives. They eat cellulose -- the stuff in wood. Bacteria in their guts digest the wood. The worker termites . . . they, urn, they eliminate their waste. And the soldier termites kind of eat it. I think, judging from the termite Tobias brought us, that we are going to be morphing soldier termites."
The three of them were staring at me, looking a little sick.
"Well, Ax wanted to know," I said.
A light!
"Look!" I hissed. "Way off through the woods. That must be on the far side of the compound.
The spotlights just went on."
We could hear the sounds of human voices yelling. And then, the wild, defiant howl of a wolf.
"That's it. Let's rock," Rachel said.
We ran toward the compound. We ran, hunched low, scurrying from tree to bush. Then, as we got still closer, we dropped down and crawled on all fours.
I heard shouting and the eerie zap of Dracon beams being fired.
"I hope he's okay," I whispered. I didn't think anyone could hear me.
But Ax said, "Prince Jake is very smart. He will be fine. "
"Do you guys think we're close enough now?" Marco wondered.
We were closer than we had been the day before. Just a few feet from the edge of the clearing. All of us hunched down behind one large tree trunk. Even Ax, which, in his normal state, is awkward for him.
We huddled close, like some big group hug. When we morphed we would become tiny. And even a few feet between us would seem like a mile.
"Time to go termite," Rachel said. She had her arm around my back.
I was already sick with fear. Afraid for Jake. Afraid for my friends. Afraid of the very thing I was about to become.
45 "Can I just say that this sucks?" I muttered.
"Amen," Marco agreed. We were shoulder to shoulder. My head touched his.
And then, as my very bones rattled and my teeth chattered from fear, I began the process that would dissolve my bones, and melt away my teeth.
Down, down, down.
Falling . . . falling forever. It was like I had jumped off the Empire State Building and was falling. Yet even though I fell, I never quite hit the ground.
I was going from a girl of less than five feet to an insect less than a quarter of an inch long. I was becoming something that could have crawled inside my own ear.
Already the others who had been so close seemed to be a long way off. With my eyes still mostly human, I could see Rachel's face lose its features, and bulge out. I saw the monstrously big mandibles spring like black, sideways tusks from her mouth.
And then, my eyes went dark.
I was blind.
And I was glad.
46 Chapter TWELVE
I couldn't see, but I could feel the antennae as they extruded from my forehead.
I couldn't see, but I could feel the extra set of legs growing from my sides.
I could sense, rather than see, that my head was huge compared to the rest of my body.
I could sense that I had a swollen abdomen.
I could feel the massive pincers where my mouth had been.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to scream so badly, but I no longer had a voice. I no longer had a tongue.
I was less than a quarter of an inch long. I was as long as any two or three letters on this page. Grains of sand were the size of bowling balls to me. With my wildly waving feelers I could sense a huge, long shaft, like a fallen log. It was over my head. I slowly realized that it was a single pine needle.
I waited for the termite's instincts and mind to suddenly surge within my own. But the termite brain -- such as it was -- wasn't saying anything. It was totally silent.
My senses brought me almost nothing. I was blind. I could feel vibrations from sound, but they were vague. The termite's sense of "hearing" was not as good as its relative, the cockroach. I knew. I had been a cockroach.
All I had was a sense of smell. Or something like smell that came from my antennae waving in the air.
"Everyone okay?" I asked shakily. I desperately wanted to talk to someone. Anyone. I needed to know the others were alive.
"Yeah," Rachel answered. "I guess I am okay. It's just that I can't see anything. "
"Termites are blind, except for the queens and kings," I said. I must have sounded much calmer than I felt.
"These are very strange creatures," Ax commented. "I feel no instincts. It's as if they are just a body. A machine."
"Well, let's get these bodies outta here," Marco said. "Sooner or later the Yeerks are going to get tired of chasing Jake around the woods. "
"Which way?" Rachel asked. "Slight problem -- we're totally blind. "
"I . . . maybe I'm crazy, but I get this sense . . . this feeling . . . like something is calling to me," I explained.
"Okay, maybe," Marco said. "I have the same feeling. Like someone yelling from a long way off. "
47 "Let's follow that. Whatever it is," Rachel said. "It's as good a direction as any."
I set out toward the vague, distant voice. I had no idea if the others were going in the same direction. I guess they were all within a few inches of me, but I couldn't tell.
The termite legs were not very strong or very fast. Not as fast as an ant's. I could feel the rocks I was climbing over. Or the grains of dirt, I guess they were. They felt like rocks, anyway. Jagged, sharp-edged crystals, seemingly as big as a human head.
I motored on all six legs, trying hard not to think about anything but moving forward. Just keep moving, I told myself. Don't think about how small and defenseless you are.
"Hey. I feel something," Rachel said. "It's ... I guess it must be the edge of the force field. " At the same time I reached the force field myself. I felt it as a tingling hum that vibrated my tiny body. I could feel the rocks around me vibrating. I could feel the very air around me dancing.