Free The Stranger by K. A. Applegate Page B

give up,” Jake argued stubbornly.
    â€œAll we ever do is lose,” Marco said. “We annoy the Yeerks. Maybe we blow up a ship, or have some little success. But the invasion marches on. And all we ever do is barely escape with our lives. We’re like some baseball team that never wins a game. And now, according to the Ellimist, we know it’s going to be a whole losing season. We aren’t going to the play-offs.”
    â€œI don’t care,” Jake said. “I’m not giving up.”
    â€œJake,” Cassie said. “See this?” She held up her left arm and pointed to a scar above her wrist. “I got this from a raccoon. The raccoon had been caught in a trap. Its leg was broken. I was trying to free it so I could save it. It bit me.”
    â€œWe’re not raccoons,” Jake said.
    â€œAren’t we? Compared to the Ellimist?” Cassie said. “Isn’t it just possible he’s right? That what he’s trying to do is save at least a part of the human race? That he’s just trying to get us out of the trap and fix our broken bones?”
    â€œCassie’s right,” Marco said. “If the Ellimist wanted to hurt us, he could just destroy us. You know it as well as I do. Fine. I’m going to let him get my leg out of the trap. But I have some conditions first. There are some people going with me. But if the Ellimist can save those people along with me, then I have to say yes.”
    Marco looked at me. Then Jake and Cassie and Tobias all looked at me. The vote was now two against two. I was the deciding vote.
    It would mean no more battles. It would mean that somewhere, wherever the Ellimist took us, there would be no job in another state for my dad. There would be no more painful decisions for me to make.
    I opened my mouth. I started to speak.
    I PROMISED I WOULD ASK YOU AGAIN .
    â€œUh-oh,” Marco said.
    I WILL SHOW YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND .

I WILL SHOW YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND .
    In an instant, we were gone from the barn. The five of us and Ax stood side by side in the middle of an empty field of scruffy, unkempt grass. There was a long, low, tumbledown building a hundred yards away.
    The Ellimist was nowhere to be seen. We were the only people around: five humans and one Andalite. Five real humans.
    â€œTobias!” I said.
    â€œYeah,” he said, looking down at his hands. “This routine again.”
    Jake looked angry. Cassie marveled. Marco tried to smirk nonchalantly, but wasn’t succeeding. No one looked tired anymore.
    Ax skittered nervously on his dainty hooves and stretched his tail, as if preparing to use it.
    â€œThe Ellimist again,” I said. “Did you guys hear —”
    â€œYeah, we heard,” Jake said. “So we get another chance to change our minds.”
    â€œWhere are we?” Cassie wondered. “I mean, something about this looks familiar. But I can’t quite place it.”
    I had the same feeling. Like this empty, dusty, blasted landscape was familiar. It was Tobias who saw it first.
    â€œThe school,” he said.
    â€œWhat?” I said. “No way.” But he was right. I looked again and realized that I knew each of those tumbledown, destroyed buildings.
    â€œOkay, I don’t like this,” Marco said. “I don’t even halfway like this. I mean, normally I’m all for seeing the school blown up, but I really don’t like this.”
    â€œWhen did this happen?” I wondered aloud. “I skip one day and the place burns down?”
    â€œI don’t think so,” Cassie said in a strange, distracted voice. “I don’t think this is something that’s happened, past tense. I think we’re talking future tense.”
    â€œOr just tense,” Marco muttered.
    I looked over at Cassie, wondering what she was talking about. She was staring intently up at the sky overhead. Then off toward the horizon.
    â€œThe