Animorphs #5: The Predator by K. A. Applegate

Author:K. A. Applegate
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: HaveRead, my-books, vl-ficscifi, Fiction
ISBN: 9780545387972
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Published: 2011-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Mandibles working. We would touch the carcass. We would judge its size. If it was too big to carry, we would hack it into smaller pieces and carry the chunks to the colony.

<You have to take control! You have to fight! You have to get a grip!>

Or enemies would come. And kill.

The smell of enemies was everywhere.

There. We had reached the dead beetle. I scented the air. I touched it with my legs, touching again and again to learn the size.

I? My legs?

Confusion.

<Fight! Fight it! You have to get control!> It was big.

The others were with me. I opened my cutting mandibles wide and bit into the beetle, slicing tough shell, biting into meat.

<Listen to me. You are losing. You have to fight!>

Fight?

Suddenly, I realized that there had been something … a sound. Yes, not a smell. Not a smell. Not a feel.

<You are humans! You are humans! Listen to me. You are not ants. Fight it! Fight it!> Yes, not a smell or a feel. In my head. My.

Me. Marco.

<AHHH!> I screamed inside my own head. Tobias said later that it scared him half to death. He thought I was being killed.

That wasn’t it at all. I had been reborn.

<AHHHH! AHHHH! AHHHHH!>

<What’s the matter?> Tobias cried.

<I … I … I lost myself,> I said. <I was gone. I was lost. I didn’t even exist.>

<Get out of that morph!> Tobias said.

But I could hear the others now, snapping back into reality. Becoming again. Crying.

<What kind of creatures are these?> It was Ax. He sounded terrified. Terrified. <They have no self! I was lost! There was nothing to hold on to. They are not whole. They are only parts, like cells. Just pieces. What kind of foul creatures are these?>

<Listen. You guys morph back,> Tobias said. <This sucks. This isn’t right.>

<Hive,> Cassie said, sounding shattered. <They are social insects. Part of a colony. A hive. I should have guessed. I should have known. Ax is right. Each of us is only a part. Like a single cell within a human body.>

<Guys? I see other ants. They’re coming your way,> Tobias said.

<How far away?> Jake asked. <Can you see them up there?>

<I’m not in the tree. I’m right here. I’m standing right over you. You’re only a few inches from my right talon.>

<I don’t want to have to do this all over,> Rachel said. <Let’s do this. Let’s get it done.>

<Are we all in control now?> Jake asked.

One by one, we said yes. It was only partly true. Yes, I had gained control over the ant mind. But it was still there. It was powerful in a totally new way. It was the simplicity that made it hard. The ant was a piece of a computer. Just a tiny switch, a part of a much bigger creature—the colony.

<Guys?> Cassie’s “voice” in my head. <If you try, you can kind of use these ant eyes—a little, anyway. If you concentrate you can notice light and dark. It’s like watching a TV screen with the brightness set really, really dark.

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