Read The Visitor for Free Online Page B
Authors: K. A. Applegate
quite.
I could feel the tail sprout from my tailbone. A long, hairless tail. Not at all attractive.
My legs practically disappeared, they were so small. I was a chubby little ball of fur no more than two inches long, with four tiny feet.
Then the fear kicked in. The shrew’s fear.
It hit me so hard I began to shake. I rattled with terror. I quaked with terror.
I was surrounded! Predators everywhere! I could smell them. I could see them — huge, looming, slow-moving creatures standing over me.
“Rachel? You okay down there?” It was Cassie. She lifted the folds of my clothing off of me.
I heard the voice and sort of understood it, but it was more like distant thunder. It didn’t really mean anything. At least not to the shrew.
It was looking for a way out. Its brain might havebeen terrified, but it was also amazingly smart. It was evaluating every possible escape route. It was measuring the distance between the three sets of legs. One set of legs moved slightly.
I was off like a shot.
Running! Running!
Blades of grass seemed six feet tall. Twigs were like fallen trees that I had to scramble over. My little feet moved with incredible speed. I scooted past a beetle that seemed to me to be as big as a dog.
“Rachel, you have to get control!”
I knew they were right. I even sort of understood what they meant. But the terror was so strong. The urge to survive was so powerful.
And at the same time there were other feelings. Hunger. I smelled nuts. I smelled dead flesh. I even smelled the maggots squirming on the dead flesh.
And I wanted them. I know it’s too gross, but I wanted to eat those maggots.
Heavy pounding footsteps behind me! I turned sharply and ducked under a bush. The steps went barreling by before stopping and turning back toward me.
They were faster than I was, but not as agile. I could get away. I could get away and find that dead smell and gorge!
< Rachel, it’s Tobias. The shrew is in control. You have to assert yourself! Tell it to stop running.>
Fear! Hunger!
Fear! Hunger! Run!
Grass and twigs and dirt. Low scratchy branches over my head. The smell of food. The smell of a dog that had urinated on this bush.
More loud footsteps and far-off rumbling voices yelling. They were trying to catch me. But I was fast! I was clever!
But not clever enough. I ran out from under the bush.
Like a shadow inside of a shadow, I felt it descend on me. Terror like nothing I’d felt before swept over me. Something deep, deep inside my shrew brain cried out.
It was the ultimate fear! The ultimate horror! It was the enemy I could not defeat!
And it was coming for me!
CHAPTER 8
I dodged, but too slowly. Huge talons closed around me and suddenly my little feet were running in air.
The voice was in my head. I understood the words. It cut through the terror at last. I held on to that voice.
I looked down and with my dim shrew eyesight saw the shadows shooting past below.
School? Yes. I remembered school. Quite suddenly the shrew mind lost the battle for control. It was like a switch had been flipped. I was in charge. I knew what I was. I knew
who
I was.
I said.
He circled around and landed with perfect gentleness on the ground.
“You okay, Rachel?” Jake’s voice.
“It’s like Jake’s lizard,” Cassie suggested. “He had a panic reaction, too. The other animals we morphed were all kind of big, dominant animals—gorilla, tiger. My horse was skittish, though.”
I could feel the tail sprout from my tailbone. A long, hairless tail. Not at all attractive.
My legs practically disappeared, they were so small. I was a chubby little ball of fur no more than two inches long, with four tiny feet.
Then the fear kicked in. The shrew’s fear.
It hit me so hard I began to shake. I rattled with terror. I quaked with terror.
I was surrounded! Predators everywhere! I could smell them. I could see them — huge, looming, slow-moving creatures standing over me.
“Rachel? You okay down there?” It was Cassie. She lifted the folds of my clothing off of me.
I heard the voice and sort of understood it, but it was more like distant thunder. It didn’t really mean anything. At least not to the shrew.
It was looking for a way out. Its brain might havebeen terrified, but it was also amazingly smart. It was evaluating every possible escape route. It was measuring the distance between the three sets of legs. One set of legs moved slightly.
I was off like a shot.
Running! Running!
Blades of grass seemed six feet tall. Twigs were like fallen trees that I had to scramble over. My little feet moved with incredible speed. I scooted past a beetle that seemed to me to be as big as a dog.
“Rachel, you have to get control!”
I knew they were right. I even sort of understood what they meant. But the terror was so strong. The urge to survive was so powerful.
And at the same time there were other feelings. Hunger. I smelled nuts. I smelled dead flesh. I even smelled the maggots squirming on the dead flesh.
And I wanted them. I know it’s too gross, but I wanted to eat those maggots.
Heavy pounding footsteps behind me! I turned sharply and ducked under a bush. The steps went barreling by before stopping and turning back toward me.
They were faster than I was, but not as agile. I could get away. I could get away and find that dead smell and gorge!
< Rachel, it’s Tobias. The shrew is in control. You have to assert yourself! Tell it to stop running.>
Fear! Hunger!
Fear! Hunger! Run!
Grass and twigs and dirt. Low scratchy branches over my head. The smell of food. The smell of a dog that had urinated on this bush.
More loud footsteps and far-off rumbling voices yelling. They were trying to catch me. But I was fast! I was clever!
But not clever enough. I ran out from under the bush.
Like a shadow inside of a shadow, I felt it descend on me. Terror like nothing I’d felt before swept over me. Something deep, deep inside my shrew brain cried out.
It was the ultimate fear! The ultimate horror! It was the enemy I could not defeat!
And it was coming for me!
CHAPTER 8
I dodged, but too slowly. Huge talons closed around me and suddenly my little feet were running in air.
The voice was in my head. I understood the words. It cut through the terror at last. I held on to that voice.
I looked down and with my dim shrew eyesight saw the shadows shooting past below.
School? Yes. I remembered school. Quite suddenly the shrew mind lost the battle for control. It was like a switch had been flipped. I was in charge. I knew what I was. I knew
who
I was.
He circled around and landed with perfect gentleness on the ground.
“It’s like Jake’s lizard,” Cassie suggested. “He had a panic reaction, too. The other animals we morphed were all kind of big, dominant animals—gorilla, tiger. My horse was skittish, though.”
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