The Invasion Read Online Free PDF Page B

you find, kill.”
    The first voice had been Hork-Bajir. The second voice was human. And the weird thing was, that voice sounded familiar. I tried to think. I knew I’d heard that voice somewhere. Where?
Where?
    “Just save the head,” the human told the Hork-Bajir. “Bring that to me and we can identify it.”
    I slid quickly along the wall.
    The light followed just steps behind me.
    I racked my brains. Had there been a passageway …? Yes, there it was. As silently as I could, I slipped into it. The flashlight beam was just inches behind me.
    I kicked something soft.
    “Hey!”
    It was a man! He had been lying on the ground, wrapped in a blanket.
    “Hey, get outta here. This is
my
place, and I ain’t got nothin’ for you to steal.”
    I started to warn him, but one of the Hork-Bajir was
there!
    The flashlight landed on the homeless man’s face. He blinked like an owl.
    There was an alcove. Right behind me. I backed through.
    The homeless guy screamed. I heard the sound of a scuffle.
    Maybe the guy got away. I hope so.
    But I never found out, because with the Hork-Bajir distracted, I ran.
    I ran and ran and ran. And as I ran, I really hoped it was all just a dream.

CHAPTER 7
     
    S omehow I made it home. I don’t know how. I have no memories of anything after that last sight of the Hork-Bajir.
    I wish I had no memories of
anything
that happened that night. If only I could forget it all …
    I called around to the others. Everyone was shaky, but they were all alive. Rachel kept trying to apologize for leaving me. Marco just kept asking me if I was
sure
this wasn’t a dream.
    I guess I should have had the worst nightmares of my life that night, but I didn’t. The world of nightmares was a joke compared to my new reality.
    But by the next morning, a Saturday, I half believed it all
had
been a nightmare. The only thing that seemed real … really
real
… was the way the Andalite had of smiling with just his eyes.
    I woke when my mom started pounding on my door.
    “Jake, are you awake in there?”
    I was now. “Um, yeah,” I groaned. “I’m up.”
    “Your friend Tobias is here.”
    “Tobias?” What was Tobias doing here?
    “It’s me.” Tobias’s voice. “Can I come in?”
    “Um, sure.” I sat up in my bed and blinked several times, trying to get my eyes unglued. The door opened. I heard Tobias say thank you to my mom.
    He was glowing. I swear, he was glowing. Not like he was radioactive or anything, I don’t mean that. It’s just that his eyes were shining bright, and his face was one big grin, and he seemed to be tingling with energy, bouncing like he couldn’t stand still.
    “I did it,” Tobias said.
    I tried to get my hair to go in one direction by raking my fingers through it. “What are you talking about?”
    I was yawning when he answered.
    “I became Dude.”
    I stopped yawning. My mouth actually snapped shut. Dude is Tobias’s cat. “Huh?”
    Tobias glanced around like there might be spies in the room. “I
became
Dude. Just like the Andalite said.”
    I just stared.
    “It was so amazing. It didn’t hurt or anything. I was petting him, and thinking about the whole thing last night, right? So I thought, why not give it a try?” He was pacing back and forth, snapping his fingers, bursting with enthusiasm. Very
unlike
Tobias.
    “I didn’t even know how to begin. So I just made sure the door to my room was locked. Fortunately, my uncle was still asleep.”
    Tobias has the most screwed-up family I know. He never knew who his father was, and his mom just decided to leave him a few years ago. Since then he’d been shuttled back and forth between his uncle here, and his aunt, who lives on the other coast. His aunt and his uncle can’t stand each other, and it’s like Tobias is some burden they each try to shove off on the other. I get the feeling neither of them cares about Tobias.
    “So there I was, just sitting on my bed, thinking about it. Concentrating. Thinking about becoming