The Journey by K.A. Applegate

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

Most Omnipotent Leader! Catastrophe has stuck our ranks! The alien is full of bizarre lightless caverns and caustic fluids! Two of the weaker males have succumbed! But even though some of us are blinded, we are the boldest of the bold! We will march forward to the beating organ, stop it, and embark on our plan to conquer the universe!

— From the log of the Helmacron Females

I couldn’t see my friends by the time they arrived. The acid had splashed into my eyes, eaten away at the vulnerable eyeball, painfully blinding me. But I heard a clumsy flap, flap way overhead. Wings. Bat wings. The perfect morph for “seeing” in the dark.

<Stay away from the acid!> I shouted to them.

Tseeew!

Tseeew!

<And the Helmacrons.>

<Hey, that was close!> Cassie complained. <We’ve got to figure out a way to take the Helmacrons’ toys away.>

<What can you see?> I demanded.

<There’s only one way out,> Cassie reported. <We’re going to have to go back up the esophagus. You too, Rachel.>

Great. That meant I had to morph a bird or bat. That meant passing through my human form — and hoping I wasn’t burned alive in the process.

I braced myself for a new phase of pain.

<Okay, I’m going to morph out.>

<Rachel, try to do it as fast as you can,> Tobias said in private thought-speak.

I began to shrink. My trunk collapsed into my face with shocking, slamming force. I fought to keep my half-formed nose and mouth up in the air.

Vaguely, I was aware of the sound of Dracon beam blasts and my friends’ thought-speak voices. I tried to focus on them. Anything to distract me from the blistering agony.

<Prince Jake, I believe we have a problem,> Ax was saying. <I’m not sure we can go back the way we came. Some sort of circular muscle has closed off the passageway.>

<A sphincter!> Cassie, of course.

<So, we’ll tell Marco to open it,> Jake said.

<Think again. That muscle keeps food from traveling up the esophagus. It’s involuntary. Like breathing. Marco can’t control it.>

<We’re trapped?> Jake said.

<Trapped above a sloshing pool of acid,> Cassie confirmed.

<Something else,> Tobias said. <A couple of the Helmacrons aren’t moving.>

<Dead?> Jake asked.

<Digested.>

“Agggghhhh!” I yelled.

My leathery hide had smoothed, softened into human skin. Was I fully human? Must have been, because an intense agony hit me, made me gasp and swoon.

My skin was burning! And it felt like I was being rubbed with red-hot sandpaper. Eaten away by flame and acid. Tightening, as if it were shrinking away from the bone, shriveling into ash.

I gritted my teeth. Morph! I ordered myself. But my brain was foggy with pain. I couldn’t … concentrate. I was nauseous and sweaty and my heart was beating way too fast.

<Keep going, Rachel!> Cassie cried somewhere far, far away.

<I hear the humans over there!> one of the Helmacrons shouted.

Tseeew!

Tseeew!

Through the incredible pain seeped anger. I was starting to get incredibly ticked off. Marco slowly digesting me, Helmacrons shooting at me. No way was I dying here, like a piece of bacon in a frying pan.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.