The Invasion (4 page)

T
hey have come to destroy you.
It was strange, the way we all just knew he was telling the truth. No one said “no way” or “you’re making it up.” We all just knew. He was dying, and he was trying to warn us of something terrible.

They are called
Yeerks.
They are different from us. Different from you, as well.

“Are you telling us they’re already here on Earth?” Rachel demanded.

Many are here. Hundreds. Maybe more.
“Why hasn’t anybody noticed them?” Marco said reasonably. “I think someone would have mentioned it at school.”

You do not understand. Yeerks are different. They have no body like yours or mine. They live in the bodies of other species. They are …

I guess he couldn’t think of a word to explain Yeerks, so he closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate. Suddenly a bright picture popped into my head. I saw a gray-green, slimy thing like a snail without its shell, only bigger, the size of a rat, maybe. It wasn’t a pretty picture.

“I’m guessing that was a Yeerk,” Marco said. “Either that or a very big wad of slimy chewing gum.”

They are almost powerless without hosts. They—

Suddenly we felt that blast of pain, straight from the alien. I could also feel his sadness. He knew his time was almost up.

The Yeerks are parasites. They must have a host to live in. In this form they are known as Controllers. They enter the brain and are absorbed into it, taking over the host’s thoughts and feelings. They try to get the host to accept them voluntarily. It is easier that way. Otherwise the host may be able to resist, at least a little.

“Are you saying they take over
human beings?”
Rachel asked. “People? These things take over their bodies?”

“Look, this is serious stuff,” I said. “You shouldn’t be telling us. We’re just kids, you know. This is, like, something the government should know about.”

We had hoped to stop them,
the alien continued.
Swarms of their Bug fighters were waiting when our Dome ship came out of Z-Space. We knew of their mother ship and were ready for the Bug fighters, but the Yeerks surprised us—they had hidden a powerful Blade ship in a crater of your moon. We fought, but … we lost. They have tracked me here. They will be here soon to eliminate all traces of me and my ship.