Read The Stranger for Free Online Page A
Authors: K. A. Applegate
into his own cockroach form. His own outer clothing would be sacrificed, left in the dressing room. That would look strange, but not as strange as five separate sets of clothing.
Marco said,
Jake said.
We scampered like a very tiny, very gross army beneath the divider that separated us from the next dressing room. This was the dressing room Marco believed led to the Yeerk pool.
I said.
One of the cooler parts of being a roach is the ability to walk right up most walls. We shot up the wall and cowered beneath the roof formed by the little triangular seat.
I rested, facing straight up on the wall. Tiny spines at the end of my legs gripped the small bumps of the painted wall. I could see two of the others just above me, parked like low-slung tobacco-brown cars. Their antennae waved around, just as mine did, picking up scents, feeling vibrations.
And then, quite suddenly, it happened. The door of the dressing room opened. A shape so tall, it might as well have been a skyscraper, came into the room.
Marco announced. As if we hadnât noticed. As if our little roach brains werenât screaming at us, âRun! Run! Run!â
Then, I heard a soft snap.
The mirror on the back wall of the dressing room swung open. I felt an assault of damp air, rich with a mineral scent. I had smelled that aroma before. Memories came rushing into my head. Memories I wished I could forget.
Jake yelled.
We tore down the wall, hit the carpet, and blazed for the doorway. The feet of the Controller were just ahead of us, monstrous building-sized shoes that lifted and swung ahead, disappearing from sight.
In we went after the Controller. The door closed behind us.
Jake said.
Marco replied.
D own into the Yeerk pool.
The very last place I ever wanted to go again.
The first time we went to the Yeerk pool complex, we had taken an incredibly long stairway.
This time it was more of a ramp. It wound downward at an easy angle, no worse than walking down a driveway. And to our roach bodies, which barely experienced gravity, it was like walking on level ground.
Under our scampering feet there was bare dirt, covered by footprints. We climbed in and out of depressions that seemed to be several feet deep, by our cockroach standards.
We let the Controller pull away from us, even though we could have moved as fast as he was.
No point in taking the risk of getting stepped on.
It was dark all around, with only an occasional bare electric bulb, high, high overhead like some dim sun. Still, we wanted to be careful not to be seen. My antennae were tuned in for any vibration that might be another Controller on the path.
Down, down we went, curving and twisting between rock walls.
Jake asked. Ax has the ability to keep perfect track of time, even without a watch. Itâs a very useful talent.
Marco said, just to make conversation.
We had two hours total in any morph. At two hours and one minute, we would be stuck. Like Tobias. And this was one time I actually agreed with Marco. I was not interested in being a roach forever.
Cassie reported. Over, down. Over, down. Over, down. Seventy-five steps.
At last we sensed that the walls were no longer hemming us in. The path had emerged into the cavern itself.
Our roach âeyesâ could not see it, but I remembered the first time I had looked down on the Yeerk pool.
It was a vast underground cavern.
We scampered like a very tiny, very gross army beneath the divider that separated us from the next dressing room. This was the dressing room Marco believed led to the Yeerk pool.
One of the cooler parts of being a roach is the ability to walk right up most walls. We shot up the wall and cowered beneath the roof formed by the little triangular seat.
I rested, facing straight up on the wall. Tiny spines at the end of my legs gripped the small bumps of the painted wall. I could see two of the others just above me, parked like low-slung tobacco-brown cars. Their antennae waved around, just as mine did, picking up scents, feeling vibrations.
And then, quite suddenly, it happened. The door of the dressing room opened. A shape so tall, it might as well have been a skyscraper, came into the room.
Then, I heard a soft snap.
The mirror on the back wall of the dressing room swung open. I felt an assault of damp air, rich with a mineral scent. I had smelled that aroma before. Memories came rushing into my head. Memories I wished I could forget.
We tore down the wall, hit the carpet, and blazed for the doorway. The feet of the Controller were just ahead of us, monstrous building-sized shoes that lifted and swung ahead, disappearing from sight.
In we went after the Controller. The door closed behind us.
D own into the Yeerk pool.
The very last place I ever wanted to go again.
The first time we went to the Yeerk pool complex, we had taken an incredibly long stairway.
This time it was more of a ramp. It wound downward at an easy angle, no worse than walking down a driveway. And to our roach bodies, which barely experienced gravity, it was like walking on level ground.
Under our scampering feet there was bare dirt, covered by footprints. We climbed in and out of depressions that seemed to be several feet deep, by our cockroach standards.
We let the Controller pull away from us, even though we could have moved as fast as he was.
No point in taking the risk of getting stepped on.
It was dark all around, with only an occasional bare electric bulb, high, high overhead like some dim sun. Still, we wanted to be careful not to be seen. My antennae were tuned in for any vibration that might be another Controller on the path.
Down, down we went, curving and twisting between rock walls.
We had two hours total in any morph. At two hours and one minute, we would be stuck. Like Tobias. And this was one time I actually agreed with Marco. I was not interested in being a roach forever.
At last we sensed that the walls were no longer hemming us in. The path had emerged into the cavern itself.
Our roach âeyesâ could not see it, but I remembered the first time I had looked down on the Yeerk pool.
It was a vast underground cavern.
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