B27C9/10 - Recover From Gunshots

<Here, give her to me,> Marco said, appearing beside me and taking Cassie in his arms. Blood oozed from a large wound in his neck and streaked his shoulder. Two nasty gashes ran down his right arm.

<What's going on out there?> I asked Marco, reaching back in and lifting Lourdes out of the closet with my trunk. Nothing to an elephant. Elephants can lift trees. An android was a feather.

<Jake got away. He's already around back.>

<How?>

<Tobias. He snatched some cop's gun and is flying around like psycho-bird, scaring everyone half to death. Even Strake is trying to crawl under a squad car.>

<Then let's do it,> I said.

<Now or never,> Marco agreed.

Stumbling, we turned in the tight space and came face-to-face with a cop. He was sweating, shaking. I couldn't blame him.

But his expression changed. I saw a new fear. And then, a familiar hatred.

"Andalites," he said.

Sneering, the cop raised his pistol and pulled the trigger.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Cassie yelped.

Marco jerked, swayed, and pitched forward, disappearing down into the dark, dank crawl space.


(...)


I blinked, too shocked to move.

The sharp, acrid scent of gunpowder filled the air.

The blast still rang in my ears.

"Give me the android, Andalite," the cop snarled.

I barely heard him.

Marco. Cassie.

I looked down into the crawl space.

They lay in a tangled, lifeless heap.

Their dark blood pooled and inched across the hard-packed dirt floor, spreading in an ever-widening circle toward my feet.

Thoughts skittered and blurred in my brain.

I was pinned. Trapped.

Backed up against the stairs to my right, Marco and Cassie to my left.

I was caught between their bodies below and the human-Controller cop poised on the creaky slope of flooring in front of me.

If I moved any way but forward, I'd crush Marco and Cassie.

But if I moved forward, I'd be dead.

<Marco? Cassie?> I shouted frantically.

Nothing.

If they were dead, this guy had killed them.

And now he was going to kill me and take Lourdes.

And the Yeerks would brutalize the Chee.

Grow stronger with their technology.

Become even harder to beat.

My muscles trembled and hate blackened my heart.

He'd killed my best friend.

He might even kill me. Fine. But he wouldn't get the Chee. Because I'd kill him first.

"Give me the android, Andalite," he repeated, raising his pistol and centering it on my already damaged forehead. He stepped forward, closing the gap between us to five feet.

<No. I don't think so,> I said.

I lifted my trunk, hoisting Lourdes high over my head. I hoped this nonviolent Chee warrior would forgive me for using her as a bludgeon.


(...)


My trunk, weighted with the android, slammed down on the Controller, buckling his knees and smashing him through the rotted floor to the crawl space below.

He twitched once and lay still. He was still breathing. I wasn't sure if I was glad about that.

Tobias swept in through the shattered front window and pulled up sharply. <Rachel, the Animal Control van just pulled up out front! Cassie's mother's with them and they have dart guns! We've got to get out of here!>

<l have to get Marco and Cassie,> I said, laying Lourdes on a hunk of stable flooring and dipping my trunk down into the crawl space.

<Your head wound is bleeding profusely, Rachel,> Ax said. <You must demorph before you become too weak.>

<In a minute,> I said stubbornly, fishing around in the darkness until I located one of Marco's hairy gorilla legs. I curled my trunk around it and hauled him up and out of the crawl space.

He hung upside down from my trunk, his arms swinging slowly, his body battered and matted with blood and dirt.

And then he opened his eyes.

<Stop the ride,> he said weakly. <I want to get off.>

<Marco!> I shouted, so startled that I almost dropped him. <I thought you were dead!>

<Yeah, well, sorry to disappoint you,> he mumbled.

The ground around us trembled. Chunks of plaster rained down from the ceiling and hairline fractures webbed what was left of the walls.

<I'll go out and distract Animal Control,> Tobias said, skimming back through the broken front window.

<Hurry, Rachel,> Ax warned as he waddled toward the front door. <I believe this building is unstable.>

I swung Marco up over my head and dropped him on my broad, leathery back.

<Can you hold on up there?> I asked. <At least until we get out to the railroad tracks?>

<Can King Kong climb the Empire State Building?> he retorted, grabbing handfuls of the thin, wiry hair on my head and gripping me with his knees.

Again I reached into the crawl space and curled my trunk around Cassie's limp wolf body.

It was still warm. Her heart was beating beneath her fur.

I went weak with relief.

<Grab her,> I said. I held her up, my knees trembling, until Marco pulled her into his lap.

I reached back down for Lourdes. I could hardly see. One of my eyes was blinded by blood. The other was strangely blurred. I swung the android up onto my back.

<Head for the nearest circus,> Marco said.

We bailed.