The Reaction

by K. A. Applegate

  I shook my head. "It's not that. I feel . . . weird. I feel distorted. I feel like something is happening inside me."

  "The allergic morphing?"

  125 "I don't think so. I have that under control for now. I think maybe I'm having that thing." "What thing?" "You know."

  "The hereth illint? Now? Here? Now?" I nodded. "Yeah. Here. Now."

  126

  ?Oh, no," Cassie wailed.

  But she wailed quietly, because Bart Jacobs was still sitting next to us. He was talking to his assistants and getting ready to go out on stage.

  Barry had finally finished telling a funny story. The audience roared with laughter. Cindy Sue was starting to introduce the animal guy. He stood up and straightened his clothes. An assistant came rushing up with a leash for Bart to take. On the end of it was the llama.

  «Hi again,» Marco said. «Hey. We're in show bz I always knew I'd make it. Maybe I didn't exactly expect to make it as a llama . . .»

  ". . . here he is, Bart Jacobs!"

  Applause. Bart moved out, dragging Marco

  128 along behind him. His assistants were already lining up the other animals. Jeremy Jason was in a dark corner having an angry conversation with someone.

  Meanwhile, I was falling apart.

  Ax hadn't mentioned that hereth illint is extremely unpleasant. It started with a wave of such intense nausea I almost launched my lunch right then and there. But behind the sick stomach came something much worse. Total disorientation. My body was rejecting the crocodile DNA. But the croc inside me didn't go peacefully. Before it could leave, it surfaced inside me. I could feel the cold, calculating crocodile mind bubbling up within my own.

  I was losing control of my own body!

  At exactly the same time, in the same body, two completely separate brains were looking out at the world through my eyes. The croc was nervous. He wasn't used to this. He didn't know where he was.

  But crocodiles aren't just brainless, ruthless killing machines. They are smart, ruthless killing machines. And the crocodile got right past the fact that it was in a place no crocodile should ever be. It got right to the important stuff. It focused on what it needed to do.

  And what it needed to do was eat.

  The crocodile tried to swish its tail. But it didn't

  127

  have a tail. So it shook my ?our ?no, my butt.

  ?Rachel! What are you doing??

  ?I ?I'm not ..,?I managed to say. Then the crocodile decided he was tired of trying to swim. He was just going to run after his prey. And he did have legs.

  Before I could even resist, I was racing across the floor, waving my arms like an idiot and shuffling like a demented lunatic. I raced right at Jeremy Jason McCole.

  Right at him, with my massive crocodile jaws open for the quick kill!

  Except that I didn't have crocodile jaws.

  ?Ahhhh!?Jeremy Jason yelled as I bit down on his shoulder.

  Cassie grabbed me and yanked me off him.

  "She's a big fan, Jeremy Jason! She loves you!"

  "Get this crazy girl away from me!" Jeremy Jason cried.

  I tried to bite Cassie.

  Bart Jacobs's assistant led Marco offstage and another shoved a giant tortoise out into the lights.

  «l killed out there, » Marco said. «They love me - hey! Hey!»

  I bit Marco on the neck. Fortunately, human teeth aren't very deadly.

  Cassie dragged me off and now, a little too

  130 late, I was beginning to be Rachel again. But that wasn't the end of my problems. Because even as my human mind rose to the surface again, I felt my weight increase. I felt unbelievably heavy. And I felt the back of my outfit stretch and strain. It tugged at my neck and sleeves.

  Suddenly, I was the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Something very large was growing on my back. And I had a really bad feeling I knew what it was.

  Now I understood what Ax had been talking about. See, I knew the crocodile DNA was going to be expelled from my system. I just didn't realize it would become a full-grown, twenty-foot-long killing machine in the process.

  But what's sad is that even this wasn't the worst of it. See, the whole thing was making me very upset. I was mad. I was scared. I was mad at how scared I was. I was a whole basket of extreme emotion.

  And I wasn't rid of my allergy just yet.

  129

  3

  CHAPTER 22

  ?Rachel!" Cassie gasped.

  "I know!" I said.

  "We have to get out of here!"

  "I know!"

  Cassie grabbed me and quick-stepped me off the stage. We brushed rudely past Jeremy Jason, who recoiled in horror from the looney girl who'd bitten him.

  We brushed past the clipboard woman who yelled, "Hey, stop! You can't leave!"

  "She has to blow chunks!" Cassie said. "I think it's stage fright."

  "Down the hall. On the left!"

  By the time we reached the ladies' room, I was beyond hunchback. I looked like a buffalo.

  131 "What are we going to do?" Cassie asked.

  "Like I know?" I shrilled. "I have a crocodile coming out of my back! And . . . and I think I'm ... grrr . . . rroowwwr!" I looked in horror at my hands. Yes, thick brown fur was growing. Fur I knew well.

  Grizzly bear fur.

  "Ax said you have to focus! Control the process! Or something like that."

  I glared furiously at Cassie. I could no longer speak. I was making a warp speed change to grizzly bear. And not just the feet this time. My blunt muzzle was protruding. My fingers were growing short while my fingernails were becoming the black, hooked claws that could disembowel an elk.

  And at the same time, the crocodile was emerging from my back. It was literally crawling and squirming out of me.

  It didn't hurt. But oh, man, was it creepy. Creepy beyond any creepiness. And I'm a girl who's seen some creepy things.

  "Oh, no!" Cassie whispered in utter horror, staring at whatever was happening on my back.

  Someone tried to open the bathroom door.

  "Go away! Occupied!"

  "I have to go," a woman's voice whined.

  "Trust me," Cassie grated. "Go somewhere else."

  132 «Cassie!» I cried as soon as I got thought-speak. «This crocodile. He's not me. Do you understand? He's a real, out-of-control crocodile!»

  Cassie shot a desperate glance around the bathroom. It was way too small to hold a twenty-foot crocodile as well as a grizzly bear.

  «Cassie. The croc will kill you.»

  Now the crocodile was so heavy it was weighing me down. And in the bathroom mirror I saw the horrendous image of a crocodile snout growing and emerging in the area just behind my own neck. I would have been knocked to the ground by the sheer weight of the reptile, but as he was growing, I was becoming the grizzly bear. And grizzly bears are extremely strong.

  "I don't have a morph that can beat a crocodile!" Cassie said. "Nothing can fight a crocodile!"

  «Then get out!»

  "I can't! You're blocking the door with your crocodile tail!"

  «Get in the stall! Quick! The head is almost formed !»

  I saw myself reflected in the mirror. It was an image from the nightmares of a madwoman. It was insane! Two heads seemed to be growing from the same body: grizzly bear and crocodile. The croc snapped its toothy jaws, trying them out.

  133 «Rachel, what if the crocodile attacks the bear?»

  I was surprised to hear Cassie using thought-speak. «Cassie, are you morphing in there?»

  «Yes!»

  «To what?»

  «Um ... um ... a squirrel!»

  «A squirrel? A squirrel?»

  «It was all I could think of!»

  I felt a slurping, sliding sensation. It was like my guts were being ripped out through my back, only it wasn't really painful. More like extremely nauseating.

  Then I felt the weight drop off me. I heard a loud series of thuds.

  The hereth illint was complete. I had
"burped" the crocodile.

  It lay splayed across the tile floor, its big tail wrapped uncomfortably in the corner, blocking the door.

  As for me, I was fully grizzly bear now. I stood erect, with my big shaggy head brushing the acoustical tile ceiling. I felt the amazing power in my massive shoulders. I felt the invincibility of the grizzly bear.

  Nothing that lived could take down a grizzly bear. Except. . . except for perhaps the huge reptile at my feet.

  Over the top of the stall door I saw a squirrel,

  134 hunkering down on the toilet seat, shaking and quaking in squirrel style.

  «The crocodile is eyeing me,» I said. I felt terrible dread. You don't really know how deadly an animal is till you've been that animal.

  I'd been the crocodile.

  Grizzly bears are unbelievably powerful. They can swing their big paws and knock a horse to the ground. But the grizzly had no weapons to use on the crocodile. Not even the grizzly's ripping claws would tear a hole in the croc's scaly armor.

  And once that crocodile latched its jaws onto any part of the bear, the bear... me ... would be ripped apart, piece by piece.

  The crocodile eyed me coldly. It smiled its toothy crocodile smile. And then it lunged.

  135

  I saw a flash of teeth.

  And then I saw a flash of gray.

  A bushy tail and tiny hands and big brown eyes went rocketing past.

  «Cassie!»

  The gray squirrel leapt over the toilet stall door, flew through the air, landed on the crocodile's ancient dinosaur head and started scrabbling at its big slitted eyes.

  The croc went nuts. It forgot about me, and began thrashing insanely in an attempt to throw off the squirrel.

  And someone chose that very moment to try to get into the bathroom.

  136 "I can't find another bathroom! I have to get in!" a woman said.

  The crocodile thrashed its tail.

  I lunged down at the crocodile, swiping with a paw the size of a canned ham.

  And we all hit the bathroom door.

  WHAM-BOOOM!

  The door exploded from its hinges! Out rushed a crocodile with a squirrel on its head, and a grizzly bear.

  "AHHHHHHH!" the woman screamed. I think she found another bathroom after that.

  I tripped over the crocodile. I hit the floor. The croc was on me in a flash.

  I tried to get up on all fours, but man, that crocodile was fast! With no time to get up, I could only power my way down the hall by clawing. I sunk six-inch claws into the walls and propelled myself, scooting along on my back, like some weird out-of-control grizzly skateboarder.

  I scooted in terror, ripping the walls apart as I went. The croc scooted after me, snapping at the air just millimeters from my hind legs.

  Cassie had almost been thrown. She was holding on to the croc's neck with all her strength, but she couldn't reach his eyes anymore.

  And then, still scooting, I ran out of the hallway. With one last push I scooted on my back out

  137 into the backstage area, trailing a huge crocodile and a chittering, manic squirrel.

  People standing around off the set began to notice us.

  "Ahhhhhh!"

  "Help! Help!"

  "Run! Run! Ruuuuun!"

  Suddenly, crocodile jaws caught my leg.

  HhhhhoooRRRAAWWRRR! I bellowed in pain.

  A llama broke free of a trainer's hand and rushed with insane courage at the crocodile. There was absolutely nothing Marco could do, but he tried anyway. And it didn't take a lot of time before he was thrown clear. But he scrambled right up, and came back for more.

  "Get those animals out of here!" the clipboard woman screamed.

  "They're not my animals! They're not my animals!" Bart Jacobs yammered as he ran to hide. "I don't know where they came from!"

  The croc started thrashing, grinding the bones in my leg. It was literally trying to tear my leg off!

  And it hurt.

  It hurt a lot.

  ROOOWWWWR!

  "Oh, no! The show will be ruined!"

  "Should we go to commercial?"

  "Who cares? Run! Ahhhhh!"

  138

  Maybe it was the sight of the brave-but-insane charge of the llama. Or maybe it was the fact that Cassie was once more scrabbling at the crocodile's eyes. But he opened his jaws just an inch.

  Just enough.

  I yanked my crushed leg out of the croc's mouth and tried to get far enough away that I could turn and fight head-on. Like that would work.

  Unfortunately, this move ended up dragging the entire battle - grizzly bear, squirrel, llama, and crocodile - out onto the set.

  Out to where Barry and Cindy Sue were gamely trying to interview Jeremy Jason McCole.

  139 Out to where Jeremy Jason McCole was just starting to say, "Barry and Cindy Sue, I'm involved with this group that I think is really a wonderful organization. I think-"

  Out to where brilliant lights illuminated our snarling, snapping, slashing, chittering, roaring ball of fur, claws, tails, scales, and teeth.

  Barry leapt out of his chair and backed away at amazing speed.

  Cindy Sue was cool. She just kept saying, "Can we get Bart Jacobs to come out here and remove his animals?"

  Of course Bart knew better than to get involved in a fight between a crocodile and a bear. "They aren't my animals, you silly twit!" he yelled at Cindy Sue.

  It was Jeremy Jason who was most surprising. He didn't run away. He didn't scream. He froze. He froze as stiff as a statue. The only thing that moved was his eyes. They kept growing larger.

  That's when I noticed an Andalite had emerged, though he kept himself beyond the range of the cameras. And he carefully stayed there. It was Ax!

  «What does it take to stop this thing?» Cassie asked me desperately, as she tried to rake over the croc's eyes.

  «More than any of us has,» I said grimly.

  Suddenly, the crocodile jerked its entire body

  140 with incredible violence. I was in grizzly bear morph, and I never would have believed anything was that much stronger than a grizzly. But when the crocodile thrashed, we all knew it.

  Cassie had been thrown. Much farther than Marco. I lost sight of her as she was flying through the air, squirrel tail flapping like the tail on a kite.

  And now there was nothing between me and the crocodile.

  This was an animal that fed by dragging full-grown wildebeests and impalas into the river. I was bigger than its normal meals. But this crocodile had a grudge against me. It had started to chow down and I'd gotten away. And it didn't like that.

  It came for me. And let me tell you something: You do not ever, ever, ever want a crocodile looking at you for dinner.

  Was I scared? Oh, yes. If I stood and fought, I'd lose. Period.

  «Okay, that does it,» Jake said. «We are out of here!»

  Jake. He'd caught up to us. And he didn't sound happy.

  Then in my head I heard Cassie's thought-speak voice. «I'm at the light switches! I think I can turn off the lights! Get ready to run!»

  «What?»

  141 «When the lights go down, everyone bail!» Cassie cried.

  «I'm ready,» Marco said.

  And that's when fate intervened. Marco was climbing to his llama feet. His hooves splayed suddenly on the waxed floor and he plowed into the back of Jeremy Jason's seat.

  The actor - or the Yeerk in his head - was still frozen in horror. And he stayed frozen as he fell from the chair and landed directly in front of the crocodile.

  142 The audience screamed in renewed horror.

  Cindy Sue finally broke and ran.

  Barry was yelling ridiculous directions in total panic. "Get a stapler! Get a stapler!"

  I think that's what he was saying, anyway. I was a little distracted.

  Jeremy Jason was no longer frozen. "Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh! Save me! Save me! Get it off me!"

  And with my dim bear vision, I could have sworn I saw something
slimy and gray come crawling out of Jeremy Jason's ear.

  And that's when the lights went out.

  «Okay, run for it!» Cassie cried.

  Sudden darkness! Not pitch-black, but too dark for cameras or the audience to see.

  143 Total pandemonium in the audience. It's one thing to see wild animals up on a set. It's a whole different feeling, sitting in the dark and not knowing whether those wild animals are going to come rampaging into the audience.

  The entire studio was nothing but screams. Screams and animal roars. And above it all, the shrill, horrified scream of Jeremy Jason.

  "Save me! Save me!"

  I saw a rush of movement from offstage.

  Suddenly an Andalite was leaping through the air. It landed directly on the crocodile's back. The Andalite tail flashed.

  Flashed!

  Flashed!

  Flashed!

  And suddenly the crocodile let go of Jeremy Jason.

  «Ax?» I asked.

  «Yes,» he said, sounding grim.

  I knew Andalites are tougher than they look. I'd fought alongside Ax before. But nothing ever impressed me as much as that. That crocodile was a tank. It was unstoppable!

  And now it was stopped.

  «Where's the Yeerk?» I asked Ax.

  «l saw the Yeerk leave this human a few seconds ago.»

  So I had seen a slug crawling out of Jeremy

  144 Jason! The Yeerk had panicked. It didn't want to be swallowed up along with its host body.

  It was crawling around on the dark stage like a snail without its shell.

  «Everyone okay?» Jake asked.

  «Yeah,» I answered.

  «Alive,» Marco said. «Not happy, but alive.»

  «Then let's get out of here!» Jake yelled.

  «Definitely,» I agreed fervently. I looked down at the stilled crocodile head. You know, even dead, it just scared the pee out of me.

  Possibly because it was still very close to a yelling, screaming, cursing, hysterical Jeremy Jason McCole.

  I bailed. I ran for the far side of the stage. But as I ran, I felt one of my massive bear paws step on something.

  Something warm and squishy.

  Something that felt like a slug.

  «l don't think the Yeerk made it too far,» I said.

  145

  We demorphed in the ladies' room. Ax did the opposite, morphing into his human form.

  But we had lost Cassie.