The Invasion by K. A. Applegate Page A

sound. I looked down the hall, then back. It was one of those electric carts, like a golf cart. It was coming toward us.
    “Just act natural,” Cassie hissed. Marco slipped out and she slammed the door on Big Jim. “As long as it isn’t a security guy, we’re probably okay.”
    The cart came up to us. Its driver was a man wearing a stained tan lab coat over his jeans. In the back of the cart were two large white plastic buckets full of something brown and horrible-smelling. “Hey, you’re Cassie, right? The doc’s kid? How’s it going?”
    “Fine,” Cassie said. She waved casually, and the man drove right on past.
    “That was easy,” Rachel said. “He didn’t even seem to care that we’re back here.”
    “Well, where next?” Cassie wondered. We were at a four-way corner. There were blank, white-painted hallways in all directions. An electric golf cart was parked there, too.
    “What are we near?” I asked.
    Cassie thought for a moment. “Okay, that walkway leads to the outer exhibits. That one leads to the offices and storage facilities. These two go around the main building exhibits. We’re close to … let me see … um, bats and snakes that way. The jaguar and the dolphin tank that way.”
    Rachel started down the hallway to our right. “Dolphins. I love dolphins.”
    “Wait,” Cassie said, trotting after her. “What are we going to do with dolphin morphs?”
    “I think we should go out to the big exhibits,” Marco said. “Let’s get serious about this. We need firepower. Come on.”
    “Let’s stick together,” I said as Marco started down the hall. I reached out to grab him before he got too far away.
    And that’s when the voice yelled, “Hey! Hey, you! What are you kids doing back here?”
    I saw a guy in a brown uniform.
    “Security!” Cassie yelped. “Oh, man, they’ll take us all into the office. They’ll call my mom. I do
not
want to explain this to her.”
    “Split up!” I said, trying to sound like a leader. “Just like at the construction site: One guy can’t get us all!”
    “This guy looks like my grandfather,” Rachel said. “Not like that Hork-Bajir that was after us.”
    “You kids hold on!”
    “Oh, man. Oh, man,” Cassie said. With that, she took off down one hallway. Rachel and Tobias went after her.
    Marco was already twenty yards down the other hall, the one that led out to the large exhibits. I ran to catch up.
    The guard reached the corner. I saw him glance toward Tobias and the girls. Then he looked at me and Marco. I guess Marco and I looked more suspicious, because he chose us.
    “Stop! You kids better stop!”
    “Let’s grab the golf cart!” Marco said.
    “Steal a golf cart?”
    “If we don’t take it, that guard will.”
    “Good point.”
    We jumped in the cart. Marco slid behind the wheel. He turned the key to “on.” He looked at me. “Just like driving bumper cars, right?”
    “Only you try
not
to hit anything.”
    He put his foot down on the pedal. The electric motor made a whirring sound, and we took off. Straight toward the wall.
    Bam!
    “Hey, try steering,” I yelled.
    We backed up and took off again. We picked up speed. Enough to pull away from the guard, but when I looked back, he was still jogging after us.
    “He’s going to have a heart attack,” I said.
    “Which way?”
    “What?”
    “Which
way?”
    I turned around to face forward. We had reached a T-corner. “Right!” I yelled.
    Naturally, Marco turned left. I nearly fell out.
    Almost immediately, we reached another corner. This time Marco did choose right. And I
did
fall out of the cart.
    I hit the linoleum and rolled. Then I was up and racing to catch the cart.
    “What are you doing?” Marco demanded when he saw me. “Quit playing around.”
    I just gave him a dirty look and climbed back in.
    “I think we lost the guard,” Marco said.
    “I’m fine, thanks for asking,” I said. “Just a few bruises. Maybe a cracked skull. Nothing serious.”
    “Where do