The Hidden by K.A. Applegate

Author:K.A. Applegate
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

It was total mayhem.

Screams. Shouts.

Grunts of pain.

Snarling.

Rachel shot past me, a lethal blur of fur and teeth. Launched herself at the closest Hork-Bajir and ripped its throat out.

That’s when the buffalo came up from behind me and charged into the fray, slamming and trampling Hork-Bajir, mindless of its own open wounds.

TSEEEEW! TSSEEEW!

The clearing lit up with a blinding flash and another tree exploded.

I couldn’t drop the blue box, so I couldn’t fight. Couldn’t help my friends. I was glad the buffalo had followed us, glad to see it take my place in battle, but I was afraid, too. If the Hork-Bajir-Controllers noticed I wasn’t fighting, noticed my jaws weren’t free to defend myself …

I hunkered down and belly-crawled under a thick bush.

THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!

The helicopter hovered directly above us. The downwash pounded us with dirt and pine needles and rubble. The spotlight flooded the clearing. There really was no place to hide.

It was a bloody, gruesome scene.

Severed Hork-Bajir arms and legs twitching in the dirt. Growing pools of blood. Taxxons feasting, drooling, like something out of a slasher movie — only this was real.

TSEEEWWW!

I bolted out from under the bush.

The spot near where I’d been hiding exploded in a shower of rocks and dirt.

<Run, Cassie!> Jake shouted. <Just go! Head for the beach! We’re right behind you!>

Leave them and run? I paused in the shadows, torn.

THWOK! THWOK!

TSEEEW!

A pine tree shattered.

The spotlight shifted toward me. Searching for the morphing energy.

Searching for the blue box.

We took off, zigzagged, and somehow managed to lose the helicopter. The Bug fighters swooped and zipped through the sky, blasting anything and everything that moved, but at least they were still focused on the woods behind us.

<For now I guess they think we should be too beat-up to run,> Marco said, limping.

<Good,> Jake said, padding along beside me. <Let them keep thinking that.> He glanced at me. <You okay?>

<Yeah,> I said shortly, tightening my jaws around the blue box.

He must have noticed my tone, because he said in private thought-speak, <I’m sorry I yelled at you before. It kind of came out wrong.>

<That’s okay,> I said, too weary to hold a grudge. <I understand. We can’t lose the blue box, no matter what.>

<The forest is thinning and there is a road up ahead, Prince Jake,> Ax said, slowing. <Should we keep going?>

<Yeah, we’re going to have to cross it to get to the beach,> Jake said.

<There’s probably going to be a whole mess of them patrolling the road,> Tobias said quietly.

<Controllers,> Rachel sneered.

And probably even more Hork-Bajir, I thought.

We crept beneath huge clumps of sticker bushes lining the edge of the road.

<All right, I’m open for suggestions,> Marco said. <How do we get across without being seen?>

<Morph to flies,> Rachel said immediately.

<Flies can’t carry the blue box,> Jake pointed out.

<Okay, so I’ll morph elephant, kick some butt, and carry it across myself,> Rachel snapped back.

<Not a good idea,> Marco said. <We’ve been doing okay so far because the goon squad’s been so spread out searching for us. Now they know we’re in the area and they’re gonna swarm us.

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