We reached the shack. It was a depressing, half-fallen-down mess with a wood floor and log walls and a roof that only covered half the place.
There was a bird's nest of some type in the rafters. Bushes had grown in through a hole in one wall. There were beer cans and soda cans strewn around, but they all looked pretty old. Nothing recent.
Tobias had chosen well. We would probably be left alone for the three days.
Tobias, with his laser vision, had found a few feet of rope in an old campground. He flew back with it in his talons and Marco and Rachel tied my hands behind my back.
"Sorry, Jake," Marco said. "But that's the way it is. If you're still in there, you understand."
"We'll loosen the rope every couple of hours so the circulation isn't cut off," Rachel said. "I'll be here for the first shift. Cassie and Marco are going back with Ax, to get him prepared to play you." She smiled. "He already has the serious, responsible-sounding thing down. They just need to give him a sense of humor and stop him from playing with every sound he says."
It sounded fairly good to me. But I was nervous that only two of them would be around to guard me.
Of course, one of those two was Tobias. I could never run fast enough to hide from him. And Rachel could morph into a wolf and run me down.
67 But it bothered me that the Yeerk in my head had not lost his cockiness.
In fact, he was reveling in a fantasy of promotions and power. "Within a few hours I will be back with my kind. I will personally tell Visser Three all I know. It will be the end of your little band. The end! Visser Three will promote me again. It will be the fastest series of promotions ever. I'm already in the one-hundreds. I could rise to the nineties. I will be an Under-Visser. In a few of your years, who knows? I could be a Visser!"
But it was more than just talk. I could see the pictures, too. The images his mind conjured up.
They were sketchy, but I saw Visser Three nodding his head as my Yeerk, still in my body, showed him my friends. They were all bound and gagged and lying helpless on the floor of Visser Three's Blade ship.
Why was I seeing this? The Yeerk was able to shield his other thoughts. Was this fantasy too emotional for him to hide from me? Or was he actually showing off for my benefit?
"Do you have these fantasies a lot?" I said, as cruelly as I could.
"You want to laugh at my fantasies? Shall I delve into a few of yours? Let's see what's hidden deep in your brain, human."
And then, to my horror, I was no longer in the cabin. It was a bright, huge gymnasium. But not exactly a gym. A sports arena. Yes. With thousands and thousands of fans.
I felt like crawling away. I knew this fantasy. It was kind of lame, I guess. But I could not escape. The Yeerk could play my fantasies as easily as sticking a cassette into a VCR.
In my fantasy people were cheering. And there I was. In a pro uniform. I was older. But I still looked pretty much like myself.
The game clock was at five seconds. Four. Three. I set up and took an incredible three-point shot from mid-court.
Swish!
The stadium went crazy! Cheering. Horns sounding. People chanting my name.
And there was Cassie, in the stands. Smiling at me. She was sitting with my parents.
And there was Tom.
He walked out onto the court and threw his arms around me. He patted me on the back.
"Great game," he said. "As usual."
End of fantasy. The images disappeared.
68 I felt very small suddenly. Very unimportant. Very weak.
"Ah, yes," the Yeerk said, and laughed. "It shocks you that I can play your thoughts back for you. Your brain is no different to me than one of your primitive human computers. I open any file I like. I play any software. I use you. I own you. I dominate you. You are nothing anymore.
Just an echo. Just a ghost haunting the machine of your own brain!"
"Yeah?" I managed to say. "Well, you're a screw-up who is tied up in a cabin in the woods. In three days, you're dead."
"I won't be here three days," he said.
"You'll be here, far from your stinking Yeerk pool. No Kandrona rays. And you'll shrivel and die and crawl out of me." I had been calm. But then, I lost control. "You'll die! You'll die like the others died! You think you'll win? You'll lose! You'll LOSE! You can't control me! You can't control me! You can't control me!"
"Oh?" the Yeerk asked with silky menace. "That's just what your brother said. At first. Shall I show you? Shall I play one of Tom's memories for you? I can feel you cringe. I can feel your fear. Yes. Yes, I will. Here, enjoy a preview of your future."
It was as if a third mind had joined us. It was real. So completely real. Not like a vision or a movie or something. I felt this. I felt it exactly as if I were there.
My brother's mind. His thoughts. His memories, as clear as if I were seeing them myself. Tom . .
. some piece of Tom that the Yeerk still carried with him . . .
It was from just a few days earlier.
He was sitting at the breakfast table, across from me. I saw myself through his eyes. I looked . . .
distant. Distracted. Preoccupied.
"Hey, midget. What's up?" he asked me.
"Not much. How about you?"
"Oh, I'm going to a meeting."
"The Sharing?" I asked him.
"Yeah. We're doing some cleanup in the park. You know, do our part for the community and all.
Then we're having a barbecue afterward. You really should join, you know. We'd get to spend more time together."
It was just as I remembered it. Except that now, I felt Tom's emotions, not mine.
The real Tom. The true Tom who was crushed beneath the Yeerk's control.
69 He was crying. Sobbing, helplessly, silently.
"Not Jake," he cried. "Leave Jake alone. Leave my brother alone. I'll . . . look, I'll never trouble you again. I swear it. Just leave Jake alone."
The Yeerk waited while the full impact of direct contact with Tom's mind sank into my own.
Tom was defeated. Desperate. He spent his time wishing he could die.
He had given up any hope of escape. Given up.
"That's how it always is," the Yeerk said. "At first the host fights, or at least tries. But hour after hour and day after day they see that they cannot rule their own bodies. The host sees that no-one even knows what has happened to him. No one knows he is lost in his own head. And, over time, hope dies. The host becomes a faint, shattered creature. Like your brother." The Yeerk was telling the truth. That was what made it so terrible. It was true. I could feel Tom's complete, utter despair.
I could feel that he had accepted defeat.
I knew that all he wished for now was an end.
And I knew, also, that I was no stronger than Tom.
But still, one hope lingered in me. "Three days," I told the Yeerk. "In three days you will die."
"Wait and see, human. Just wait and see."
70 Chapter 18
I found out very late that first night why the Yeerk was so confident.
Rachel was keeping guard. Tobias was nearby in a tree.
They had brought food - some sandwiches and some juice, which "I" had eaten. Then, as Rachel sat nearby, reading a book by the light of a flashlight, the Yeerk pretended to sleep.