Termite

"Time to go termite," Rachel said. She had her arm around my back.

I was already sick with fear. Afraid for Jake. Afraid for my friends. Afraid of the very thing I was about to become.

"Can I just say that this sucks?" I muttered.

"Amen," Marco agreed. We were shoulder to shoulder. My head touched his.

And then, as my very bones rattled and my teeth chattered from fear, I began the process that would dissolve my bones, and melt away my teeth.

Down, down, down.

Falling . . . falling forever. It was like I had jumped off the Empire State Building and was falling. Yet even though I fell, I never quite hit the ground.

I was going from a girl of less than five feet to an insect less than a quarter of an inch long. I was becoming something that could have crawled inside my own ear.

Already the others who had been so close seemed to be a long way off. With my eyes still mostly human, I could see Rachel's face lose its features, and bulge out. I saw the monstrously big mandibles spring like black, sideways tusks from her mouth.

And then, my eyes went dark.

I was blind.

And I was glad.

I couldn't see, but I could feel the antennae as they extruded from my forehead.

I couldn't see, but I could feel the extra set of legs growing from my sides.

I could sense, rather than see, that my head was huge compared to the rest of my body.

I could sense that I had a swollen abdomen.

I could feel the massive pincers where my mouth had been.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to scream so badly, but I no longer had a voice. I no longer had a tongue.

I was less than a quarter of an inch long. I was as long as any two or three letters on this page. Grains of sand were the size of bowling balls to me. With my wildly waving feelers I could sense a huge, long shaft, like a fallen log. It was over my head. I slowly realized that it was a single pine needle.

I waited for the termite's instincts and mind to suddenly surge within my own. But the termite brain - such as it was - wasn't saying anything. It was totally silent.

My senses brought me almost nothing. I was blind. I could feel vibrations from sound, but they were vague. The termite's sense of "hearing" was not as good as its relative, the cockroach. I knew. I had been a cockroach.

All I had was a sense of smell. Or something like smell that came from my antennae waving in the air.

<Everyone okay?> I asked shakily. I desperately wanted to talk to someone. Anyone. I needed to know the others were alive.

<Yeah,> Rachel answered. <I guess I am okay. It's just that I can't see anything.>

<Termites are blind, except for the queens and kings,> I said. I must have sounded much calmer than I felt.

<These are very strange creatures,> Ax commented. <I feel no instincts. It's as if they are just a body. A machine.>

<Well, let's get these bodies outta here,> Marco said. <Sooner or later the Yeerks are going to get tired of chasing Jake around the woods.>

<Which way?> Rachel asked. <Slight problem - we're totally blind.>

<I . . . maybe I'm crazy, but I get this sense . . . this feeling . . . like something is calling to me,> I explained.

<Okay, maybe,> Marco said. <I have the same feeling. Like someone yelling from a long way off.>

<Let's follow that. Whatever it is,> Rachel said. <It's as good a direction as any.>