Chapter 5
THE JOB
“I headed down there and started to work…“
The vest was made of some sort of interlacing interconnecting scale. It looked kind of greenish, it took forever to piece together. The scales were very strong and light at the same time and I wondered what they were for.
I surmised that it was for some type of war material or equipment. It wasn’t any of my business. Well it was, but at the time I was concentrating on reading the handbook and taking pictures of it in case I needed it later, for the Shape Shifters. Or for work, well that’s my excuse. Not a very good one but I got away with it. Although I think the supervisor doesn’t like me, but the workers seemed to be ok about another worker, maybe even happy. I thought they were thinking that another worker meant more production.
The supervisor walked up to me and roared in a harsh tone “GET TO WORK!!”
I flinched and said in a feeble voice “I’m new, I don’t know how.” He softened an imperceptible fraction and gave me a manual then took my camera, said it would be returned later and walked away. I was about to correct him but after he yelled at me I decided that it was in my better interest to keep silent. I clutched the other guidebook and placed it in my inner jacket pocket for Jake. I continued my work until my shift was over and left for home, collecting my camera along the way. The pictures were erased, all of them, including the pictures of me and my friends. Dang it.
I went home and handed over the manual to Jake, who was waiting at the door.
“Decent job” he said in a dry tone. “But we already have a couple of these, sorry nice try though.”
Now that hurt. I lost all those pictures for no good reason. But I kept a straight face, sacrifices must be made. I mean, he bled for his cause. It was a small price to pay for freedom.
The next couple days at work went by without a hitch. The Shape Shifters called a meeting. It was in a small stretch of woods surrounded by some car dealerships. I was there to witness the entire group together, all five of them. There was Jake, Keith, Rachel, Kathy, and Tobias in his hawk form.
I said “What’s up?” and Keith immediately said, “The sky.” Jake playfully punched Keith in the arm and said “let’s get serious. Now we know, thanks to Bender here, that the company is giving massive amounts of cash to some kind of boy/girl scouts called the Sharing. We already know though that the Sharing is a front organization for the yeerks to recruit new members. Its sick, but some people actually chose to be infected. Some have no choice, once the bribe is made they can’t refuse, once they know, they are either going to die or get infested. The yeerks have an easier time controlling you if you’re a volunteer, if you don’t fight it. So do however much it takes so you’re not taken alive. They can read your memories and thoughts just like reading a book.”
Keith added to the conversation saying “One other thing we know is that they can only stay in their host’s body for 2 days before they have to exit into a sort of pool in order to soak in kardana rays. After a while they get back into their host body and continue with the host’s life.”
Rachel jumped up saying, “We need to hit them now while we have a chance! Instead of sitting here talking about it.”
Jake stood up and said “first we need to give bender the morphing power. Bender come here.”
I came, Jake held out a sort of blue cube. It was kind of small so I took it and it sort of felt like it was tingling my fingers and my hand. Like a shock but it didn’t hurt. After a minute or so Jake pulled it away and put it in his pocket.
Rachel then said, “Now let’s get him some morphs, then we go.”
Chapter 6
MORPHS
The five of them took me to the Zoo by bus. I had to pay though. I guess that’s another reason I had the job. They were teenagers, they couldn’t pay for larger stuff, and they can’t drive at all. Jake said Keith hit like, 50 mailboxes one time. They didn’t go into detail though and I didn’t ask.
We arrived at the gardens which is a combination of an amusement park and zoo. Kathy had a free to get in ticket because her mother worked there, the rest of us had to pay to get in though. I had to pay for Keith, he’s always broke after his mom died and his dad quit his job.
Me and the Shifters went into the back of the gardens where the larger animals were. When we got there a sort of rampaging monkey charged across hiss cage and almost broke it. Although he didn’t get very far, a worker from the gardens was kneeling and taking aim with a tranquilizer gun and fired. The dart made a hiss as it exited the barrel, it flue though the air and struck home, right on its butt. The gorilla stumbled and fell right on its face.
I would of laughed but the worker was eyeing us and I was pretty sure we weren’t supposed to be there. He called a security guard that was passing by and I decided it was in all our interests to run, so I turned and ran. The others turned and ran with me, Jake looked back for a split second and said “hurry up Rachel, Kathy split off. Keith stick with me Bender go hide inside one of the nicer animals cages.” I turned and ran into a different corridor, one with the same concrete walls, ceiling, and floor.
On one wall there was a door and I ran into it hoping it had at least a non-murderous animal in it. When I looked inside I was disappointed at what I saw. I was standing on a balcony 20 feet from the ground and so close I could touch it was a giraffe’s head. I almost laughed, but I was being chased by a bored cop on a mission so I climbed over and grabbed the neck of the giraffe and slid down. It wasn’t very happy at that point, so it almost threw me off but I managed to stay on long enough to reach the ground it kind of hurt but I got up and ran pretty fast so I was ok…
TO BE CONTINUED
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