The Visitor by K. A. Applegate Read Free Book Online

get control!”
    I knew they were right. I even sort of understood what they meant. But the terror was so strong. The urge to survive was so powerful.
    And at the same time there were other feelings. Hunger. I smelled nuts. I smelled dead flesh. I even smelled the maggots squirming on the dead flesh.
    And I wanted them. I know it’s too gross, but I wanted to eat those maggots.
    Heavy pounding footsteps behind me! I turned sharply and ducked under a bush. The steps went barreling by before stopping and turning back toward me.
    They were faster than I was, but not as agile. I could get away. I could get away and find that dead smell and gorge!
    < Rachel, it’s Tobias. The shrew is in control. You have to assert yourself! Tell it to stop running.>
    Fear! Hunger!
    
    Fear! Hunger! Run!
    Grass and twigs and dirt. Low scratchy branches over my head. The smell of food. The smell of a dog that had urinated on this bush.
    More loud footsteps and far-off rumbling voices yelling. They were trying to catch me. But I was fast! I was clever!
    But not clever enough. I ran out from under the bush.
    Like a shadow inside of a shadow, I felt it descend on me. Terror like nothing I’d felt before swept over me. Something deep, deep inside my shrew brain cried out.
    It was the ultimate fear! The ultimate horror! It was the enemy I could not defeat!
    And it was coming for me!

I dodged, but too slowly. Huge talons closed around me and suddenly my little feet were running in air.
    
    The voice was in my head. I understood the words. It cut through the terror at last. I held on to that voice.
    
    I looked down and with my dim shrew eyesight saw the shadows shooting past below.
    
    School? Yes. I remembered school. Quite suddenly the shrew mind lost the battle for control. It was like a switch had been flipped. I was in charge. I knew what I was. I knew
who
I was.
     I said.
    He circled around and landed with perfect gentleness on the ground.
    
    
    â€œYou okay, Rachel?” Jake’s voice.
    
    â€œIt’s like Jake’s lizard,” Cassie suggested. “He had a panic reaction, too. The other animals we morphed were all kind of big, dominant animals—gorilla, tiger. My horse was skittish, though.”
     I said. That was the understatement of all time. I could still smell death and hear the thousands of feasting maggots. And to me those things still meant dinner. I was horribly hungry.
    â€œAre you sure you’re going to be able to maintain down there?” Marco asked. I saw him peering down at me from a million miles up. “You still look a littlenervous. Your tail is twitching and your little nose is sniffing like crazy.”
    
    Before I could object, Marco reached down and scooped me into his hands. He held me up and looked into my eyes. “I’ve never seen you look lovelier, Rachel. Very cover girl.”
    We walked down the block. Marco set me down at the bottom of the tree where Fluffer was still hiding out on a high branch.
     I said.
    â€œNot
too
far,” Jake said. “We have to be able to get between you and Fluffer fast.”
     I said,