The Invasion by K. A. Applegate Read Free Book Online Page B

do all this recycling stuff.
    When I was finally done mowing and trimming and raking, I hopped on my bike and took off.
    I had arranged with everyone to hook up at Cassie’s farm. It isn’t exactly a normal farm, although it had been in the old days. And they do still have horses and a cow. But now the big red main barn isthe Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. Cassie’s father runs it. They take in any kind of injured animal except pet-type animals. There are always lots of birds, along with squirrels and deer and skunks and so on. Sometimes they get a bobcat or a fox or even a wolf.
    Cassie’s mom is a vet, too, but she works at The Gardens. That’s this huge amusement park that also has a zoo—or I guess they call it a wildlife park. Luckily, Cassie really loves animals. It would have been hard, having her parents, if she
didn’t
really love animals.
    Me, I have a dog. Tobias has a cat. Cassie has everything from porcupines to polar bears.
    By the time I got there, Marco, Tobias, and Rachel were already waiting outside the barn. Rachel had her face turned up to catch the tanning rays of the sun. Cassie wasn’t there yet. I figured she was doing chores. She had tons of work to do around there.
    “Hey, guys,” I said.
    Rachel opened her eyes and immediately thrust a newspaper at me. “Look,” she said, pointing to an article.
    I started to read the article. It wasn’t very long. It said that police claimed there had been a disturbance in the construction site the night before. It said several people had called, claiming they’d seen flying saucers landing there, followed by bright lights.
    “Cool,” I said, looking up. “So the cops know about it now. That’s a relief.”
    “Keep reading,” Rachel said.
    The article went on to say that the police had arrived on the scene and found a group of teenagers playing with fireworks. The teenagers had run away. Fireworks were discovered at the scene. The police spokesman had laughed at the reports of flying saucers. “It was just a bunch of kids playing where they shouldn’t have been,” he said. “There were definitely no flying saucers. People shouldn’t be so quick to believe nonsense.”
    “But this is a total lie,” I said.
    “Ding ding ding ding! Correct answer. Johnny, tell our contestant what he’s won,” Marco said.
    “Did you see the last part?” Rachel pressed.
    I read the last sentence. It froze me up good, I can tell you. Police were offering a reward for information on the teenagers.
    “They’re looking for
us
,” Marco said.
    “Why would the police be … I mean, why would they lie?” I wondered aloud. But the answer was pretty obvious.
    Marco laughed his sardonic laugh. “Let’s see, Captain Brilliant—would it be because the cops
are
Controllers?”
    “Probably not
all
the cops,” Tobias pointed out.
    “If the police have been infiltrated by the Controllers, who knows how many others have, too?” Rachel asked. “Teachers? People in the government? The newspapers and the TV?”
    “Math teachers, for sure,” Marco joked.
    We all looked around nervously, like we expected to find ourselves surrounded by Controllers.
    “I tried to tell myself it was all a dream,” Rachel said.
    “Been there,” I said.
    For a while no one said anything. We all felt the same terrible feeling — like we were all alone. Like suddenly we were dealing with stuff that was way, way,
way
over our heads.
    Marco spoke first. “Look, why do we have to deal with this? I say we just forget it. We never talk about it. We never
morph.
We just deal with our own lives.”
    Tobias and Rachel both looked at me. They were waiting for me to argue with Marco.
    “Marco, I halfway agree with you —” I started to say.
    Suddenly Marco just went ballistic. “We could get killed!” he yelled. “Don’t you get it? You saw what happened to the Andalite. I mean, this is perilous stuff, Jake. This is for real. Real! We could all get killed.”
    Tobias was looking at