43 - 21/22/23 - All Blasted Wolves No Cassie

My body burst from the tunnel like a cork from a bottle. I was in the cavern Ax had carved out. I slowed just enough to catch sight of the others. An Andalite, two wolves, and a bear, sprawled on the floor like they were taking a nap.

<Go!> Rachel cried.

(...)

A pressure wave of natural gas shot from the pipe. It ripped across the chamber and sent us tumbling through the air. Taylor. Me. The others.

Tumbling . . .

Straight for the tunnel!

<Ahhhh!>

Taylor blew right past me, propelled by the gas, a swirl of blond hair and pink flesh.

And she was laughing.

(...)

FweeeeWOOOOOOOOSH!

The force of a fire hose. A hurricane.

<Ahhhhhh!>

We were shoved down the tunnel at breakneck speed. We slapped the sides. Slipped on slime. Gasped for air.

We were absolutely powerless!

Dirt scratched my tender eyes, blinded me.

Bammm!

I slammed the dirt wall. It knocked the wind out of me so I couldn't breathe, couldn't think.

<I cannot . . . stop!> Ax exclaimed.

<Grab onto each other,> Jake yelled. <Bite into each other. Anything!>

<No air!> Rachel gasped.

The tunnel was narrowing. The Yeerk pool was near. I was farthest down the tunnel, out in front. We were going to fly from a hole in the dome with me in the lead. We were going to burst from the opening. BASE jumpers with no chutes.

We were going to die.

It would end for me where it had all begun. That cavernous hell. In seconds, we'd be five blobs on the pavement, gobbled up by Taxxon guards.

Ba-BAMMM!

Marco slammed into my rump.

<Ugh!>

Jake plowed into Marco. Rachel plowed into Jake.

KA-bam!

Ax careened into Jake's rib cage, crushing him. Crushing us all.

My legs, dozens of sharp sticks, scraped the tunnel sides. I stretched them out as far as they would open. Strained to make them catch hold.

<Can't breathe!> Marco gasped.

Acute pain shot to my core. Momentum snapped off my legs. I was insane to think I could stop us.' It was like trying to stop a car traveling seventy by opening the door and dragging your foot on the pavement. Not happening.

But I had a hundred legs. And the tunnel was narrowing.

<I see light.'> I yelled. There it was. The red circle that glowed like a harvest moon. Coming nearer and nearer. It was now. Or it was never.

<Ahhhhh!> I cried, and dug in what legs I had left. They punctured the dirt, scraped the stone, snapped like twigs.

"Skreeeeeeyaaaaaa!" A shrill scream from the Taxxon. A primal yelp of despair.

But the legs were slowing me. They were slowing us!

Still, the force of the gas, of the others pressing against me - I'd explode! I was a balloon about to pop. My thin skin was being pushed to the limit . . .

But the pressure of the wall was slowing us down.

I felt blood vessels fail, blood course into my eyes. My head was even with the Yeerk pool hole. It was all a blur. We inched forward, against our will. Sheer agony. The march toward death.

<Can . . . not . . . breathe,> Ax whispered.

Six inches, five inches, four inches . . .

Four inches and holding.

The pressure didn't push us any farther. It eased. And then it disappeared.

No one said anything. I called to them. Their one-word answers came in gasps. We all needed air.

<Move, guys. Move.'> I said. <We have to get back.> I twisted my massive body up and around and only then did I realize that the Taxxon was less affected by the gas. My alien physiology let me breathe in the noxious environment.

<Lungs . . . burning!> Jake sighed.

Their bodies, dark forms in the dim, distant light from the Yeerk pool, straggled lethargically along the tunnel.

<I can't,> Rachel said slowly.

(...)

There they were. Four weak, dying animals. Mine for the feasting. Their smells. Their warmth.

It was the hardest thing I've ever done.

<They're not food,> I chanted. <They're not food.>

The legs I had left were on fire. My hunger was alive. I slid my friends along the tunnel with my big Taxxon head.

<They're not food!> I screamed.

After far too long, the dirt gave way to concrete. It was the sewer chamber.

We'd made it.

(...)

We were conscious. We were breathing. We were alive.

Barely.

No one needed to say, <Demorph.> No thought had ever been stronger in my mind.

"The gas is off." Those were the first words out of Jake's mouth when he'd finished demorphing, the only words anyone managed to form. "How?" he whispered. He stood for a minute, numb and dazed. Incredulous. "How?"

Silently, we followed Jake up and out of the sewer chamber. He began to remorph to peregrine falcon. Marco, Rachel, and Ax followed his lead, went raptor.