And that's how we ended up discovering the evil horses that threatened all of humanity.
But I'd better not get ahead of myself. First we had to drive to the Dry Lands.
Chapter 2
It was dark by the time we got away from the city, away from the far edge of forest and out into the area we usually called the Dry Lands.
The Dry Lands aren't exactly desert. I mean, we're not talking cactuses and so on. But the area is a kind of wasteland of scruffy grass and lots of emptiness that seems to stretch on and on forever. Here and there you'll see a tree, or maybe a few trees, but mostly it's all just grass and wildflowers and scrub and piles of boulders that jut up out of the ground like they were piled there by some ancient giant.
Not that we saw much of the Dry Lands that night. It was highway all the way there. An hour of highway, with all three of us crammed in the front seat of the pickup. My dad won't let us ride in the back. It's not safe.
But of course Rachel and I couldn't really talk much, with my dad right there. It's not just that he's a parent. It's also that he doesn't know anything about our lives as Animorphs.
"So, who's Crazy Helen?" Rachel asked, desperate for anything to talk about.
"Probably shouldn't call her that," my dad said. "Even though that's what she calls herself. She's an old woman, maybe eighty years old. She has a trailer behind a souvenir shop she owns. I met her years back when there was trouble with the Dry Lands horse herds."
"There was a problem with intestinal parasites," I explained. "Worms."
"For who? The horses or Crazy Helen?" Rachel asked.
"There it is," my dad said, interrupting my search for a really funny comeback to Rachel.
He pulled the truck up to a souvenir stand topped by a gigantic billboard that read LAST CHANCE SOUVENIRS. The billboard was bigger than the actual store. The store was closed and looked like it had been for years.
Behind the store was a trailer. It was an Airstream. You know, one of those silver, bullet-shaped trailers? There was an awning out front trimmed in bright Christmas lights. Even though it was nowhere near Christmas.
Crazy Helen came out when she saw us pull up. She had stringy gray hair and was wearing a faded flowery blouse over patched jeans and cowboy boots.
"Hey," Rachel said. "It's you,Cassie. In sixty or seventy years."
I "accidentally" dug my elbow into Rachel's side, and we both laughed.
"Actually, Cassie, you'll end up running some big volunteer organization that saves unhappy chickens and whales or whatever," Rachel said, softening her sarcasm.
I kind of liked that picture of my future. Although I wasn't sure how I was going to work with chickens and whales at the same time.
"She's over there. Over there,"Crazy Helen yelled as soon as we piled out of the truck. "It's a big roan mare. She's acting all funny. Like maybe she's been eating the loco weed."
"Loco weed?" Rachel asked me.
I shrugged.
"Hi, Helen," my dad said calmly. "We'll go take a look, see what we have.
How have you been?"
"Those darn aliens still won't let me sleep," she said.
I saw Rachel stiffen. I gave her a wink. In a low whisper I said, "Different aliens."
"They keep sending me the messages through my teeth," Helen said.
"They keep on telling me they're gonna land, right out here. But I haven't seen a Martian land in forty years. Very untrustworthy. Very, very sneaky, untrustworthy folks."
"Who?" my father asked.
"The Martians, that's who." Crazy Helen laughed. It wasn't an insane laugh. More of a gentle, knowing sound. I wondered sometimes if Crazy Helen was really crazy, or just playing a game.
"Well, we'll go look at this horse," my dad said.
Rachel and I shone flashlights into the dark. The moon was up, but it was just a sliver and didn't cast much light. And soon we were beyond the pool of light from the trailer and the billboard. Out in the absolute blackness you get when you're far from the city.
The flashlight picked out stumpy trees and bushes and rocks. The only sound was the rustling of the tall grass as we walked.
My father and I peered deep into the gloom, looking for a horse. Rachel, on the other hand, turned to look back toward the highway.
"Hey. Is that the horse you're looking for?" Rachel asked.
"Where?"
"There. Back by the road. Back by that pay phone."
My dad and I turned back to look. A scruffy roan horse was swaying from side to side as it walked. Swaying like a drunk.
As we watched, the horse seemed to be attracted to the telephone. It picked up the receiver with its mouth and let it hang off the hook.
And that's when things got strange. The horse lowered its head to the ground, picked up a twig in its lips, and seemed to be poking the tele- phone keyboard.
"Am I crazy, or is that horse trying to make a phone call?" Rachel said.
My dad shrugged. "Must be disoriented. Doesn't know what it's doing.
Come on, let's get over there."
I dropped behind a few steps to fall in with Rachel.
"That horse is dialing the phone," Rachel said in a whisper.
"Sure looks like it," I agreed.
"Ordering a pizza?" Rachel suggested.
"Hay, alfalfa, and extra cheese?"
My dad was getting close to the horse. The horse spotted him, and hesitated. Like it wanted to complete its phone call. But also wanted to run away. It decided to run. Only it wasn't really up for running. The best it could do was wobble off into the darkness, practically falling over as it went.
"Whoa, girl, whoa," my dad said in his calming-the-animals voice. "Whoa.
I'm just trying to help you."
But the horse wasn't interested. It swayed and wobbled and drifted away as fast as it could. I lost it in the darkness, but then we heard a WHUMPF sound.
I broke into a run and soon caught up to my father. He was kneeling over the fallen horse. The horse was still trying to stand up, but it was out of it.
"What do you think it is?" I asked my dad anxiously. The horse was sweating profusely. It glared at us with huge brown eyes.
"Well, it could be a lot of things," he answered. "But I'd put my money on snake bite. Try and keep her calm. I have to get some things from the truck. I'll be right back."
"Snakes?" Rachel said.
"Sure. There are lots of snakes out here," I said. I patted the horse's flank and made soothing noises.
"Not at night, though, right? I mean, snakes are probably a daytime thing . . . right?"
"Not always."
"Great. This is much better than the mall. Poison snakes and phone- calling horses."
Suddenly I noticed something happening to the horse's head. "Look!" I cried.
There, crawling its way out of the horse's left ear, was a slug. A large gray slug.
"Is that what I think it is?" Rachel whispered.
"Yeah. I think so."
The gray slug wormed its way out of the horse's head. It plopped heavily on the gravel and grass beneath it. And then it started to writhe away.
I'd seen those slugs before. We both had.
"Yeerk," I whispered. "There was a Yeerk in this horse."
The Yeerk crawled into the darkness. I glanced back and saw my dad still digging through his medical supplies at the truck. And that's when the pale stallion appeared.