The Invasion by K. A. Applegate Page B

you think we are?”
    “I think we are in the longest tunnel I’ve ever seen,” I said. It was more and more like a tunnel now. The floor was still linoleum and the walls were still whitewashed, but the lights were getting more spread out, so you definitely had the feeling you were underground.
    “I wonder if they caught the others,” Marco said. “Now do you see why it’s crazy to think we can beat the Yeerks? I mean, come on: We can barely beat zoo security.”
    “We haven’t beat anyone yet,” I said grimly. “Look!”
    Way up ahead, there were two guys in brown uniforms.
    “Maybe they don’t know who we are,” Marco suggested. “They might think we’re regular employees.”
    “Maybe. But not if they get a good look at us.” I pointed. “There’s a turnoff. Take it.”
    We turned. At the same time, the guards startedyelling. The side corridor grew narrow. Too narrow for the golf cart.
    “Ditch it!” I jumped out. Marco jumped after me. We could hear the guards’ footsteps as they ran down the main tunnel. These guys were in better shape than the old man. These guys could run.
    The corridor ended abruptly. There were two doors, one a little to the left, one a little farther to the right. They were labeled P-201 and P-203. No help at all.
    “Pick a door,” Marco said.
    I took a deep breath. “Door number one.” I opened P-201. A blast of fresh air hit me. Sunlight blinded me. I blinked, trying to get my eyes to adjust.
    The rhinoceros blinked, too. “Ahhhh!” I yelled.
    “Ahhhh!” Marco yelled.
    We jumped back and slammed the door.
    “Wrong door!” Marco said.
    “Definitely wrong!” I agreed.
    “Hey, you kids! Stop right there!”
    The guards were just at the end of the corridor.
    “Gotta try door number two!” I said.
    “Do it!”
    We opened the door and ran through.
    There were trees all around us. Trees and grass. We were in the shade. Sunlight filtered down through the leaves. Just ahead the bushes gave way to open grass.
    “Where are we?” Marco asked.
    “Like I know?”
    We worked our way through some bushes, keeping a careful eye out in all directions. We didn’t see any animals. Just some birds up in the trees.
    “Hey, there are people!” Marco said. He dropped down behind a bush and pointed.
    There were people lined up behind a railing. They were high up. Or else we were low down. I parted the bushes to get a better look. The people were leaning against a railing at the top of a high concrete wall. They couldn’t see us because of the bushes. But they were definitely all staring at
something.
    “We’re definitely in one of the habitats,” I said. “Those are people looking at … at whatever is in here with us. I’m just hoping it isn’t that rhino. That thing was
way
too big.”
    “How do we get out of here?”
    “I don’t know, let’s just get away from the door. Those guards will be coming after us any second.” But, you know, in the back of my mind I was thinking, Hmm, why
haven’t
those guards come after us yet?
    Marco and I crawled through the bushes and around the bases of the big trees. We reached a corner of the wall, hidden from all the people above.
    “That is an awfully high wall,” Marco observed. “That’s got to be thirty feet high. This is not good.That wall is high for a reason. There’s something in here that they don’t want to escape.”
    I scanned the wall. There was a steel ladder set into the concrete about fifty yards away. “I guess that’s the only way out.”
    “Let me ask you something,” Marco said. “Why haven’t the guards come after us? I mean, if this was, like, the deer and antelope exhibit, they’d come right in, wouldn’t they?”
    “We have to think, not panic,” I said. “I am trying
not
to think about why the guards didn’t come in here.” I moved back into the shadows of the bushes. “Besides, maybe there’s nothing in here at all.”
    I squatted down on my haunches.
    My butt touched something