Things Read online

“What’s to stop the blob from capturing us as soon as we leave this pilot’s seat?” I asked.

  Frasier and Jessie looked at each other, realizing we were still trapped.

  “There’s only one thing to do,” I announced.

  Jessie tossed her matted hair off her face and looked at me with narrowed eyes. “What?” she asked suspiciously.

  “You two run for the crack,” I said quickly. “I’ll stay here till you’re both through, then I’ll follow.”

  Frasier squared his shoulders and pushed up his glasses. “I’ll stay,” he said bravely.

  I shook my head. “I’m the fastest runner. I’ll do it.”

  “But—” Frasier began.

  I cut him off. “No arguments. They must already be plotting their next move. We don’t have much time.”

  “He’s right,” said Jessie. “If one of them tries to attack while Nick’s running we can come back out. One of us will make it this far. They’ll have to let us go or we’ll blow their whole ship up.”

  “Go,” I insisted. But I have to admit my stomach twisted as they dropped off the big stone seat and raced for the crack Jessie had found.

  I looked at the dark blob. It rocked and bulged. Fog boiled off it. Tentacles burst out of one spot, then another, but each time the blob sucked them back.

  Jessie and Frasier slipped into the shadowy spot and disappeared. “Okay, Nick,” Jessie shouted. “Run for it.”

  I took a deep breath, jumped, and hit the floor sprinting. I put down my head and pumped my arms, trying to ignore the cold spot twitching between my shoulders.

  “Faster,” screamed Jessie. “It’s coming!”

  34

  Somehow I poured on even more speed. But it seemed to take forever to cross that long stretch of emptiness.

  A puff of mist fell over my head and shoulders.

  Finally Frasier’s arm snaked out of the crack in the ship wall and grabbed me. The crack was narrow and I scraped my ribs diving inside.

  Something wet slapped the rock above my head. Frasier winced. His face was white. “Tentacle,” he said, pulling me farther inside.

  It was dark back there, especially with Frasier blocking out the glow that came from the cavern.

  He crouched and a little of the alien glow spilled through the crack. I saw Jessie crawl off into the dark.

  My heart lurched and I lunged after her. Frasier grabbed the back of my shirt.

  “We found a trapdoor!” said Jessie like it was the neatest thing ever. She hooked her fingers in a rusted iron ring and pulled on the old wooden door. It came up slowly, creaking loudly, like it hadn’t been opened in years. Spiderwebs hung off it.

  “It’s a mine shaft,” said Jessie excitedly, ducking her head inside. “Look, there’s even a ladder. A real ladder for human feet.”

  “I don’t like it,” said Frasier. “We’ll only be going deeper underground.”

  Jessie lowered herself over the edge, onto the ladder. “It feels strong enough,” she said, going down.

  “She’s right,” I told Frasier. “It’s our only chance.”

  “Hey, guys! I found an old oil lamp,” Jessie yelled happily from below. “And some matches, too.” Almost immediately a soft glow of normal earthly light drifted up the shaft. It was beautiful.

  Frasier sighed and looked around like he might find some alternative route. But at last he put one foot gingerly on the ladder.

  “I hate ladders,” he said and then stiffened. “What’s that?”

  I heard a scraping noise on the stone behind us. And hissing sounds were coming from the cavern.

  Frasier froze. I risked a glance behind me. A tentacle was probing along the crack, exploring it.

  But something else was blocking the alien light from the cavern. I craned my neck to see out through the crack.

  It was the blob creature! It was coming toward us! It oozed and bubbled across the cavern floor faster than I would have thought possible.

  “Quick, Frasier,” I shouted, jumping down onto the ladder next to him.

  He stood frozen for another second. But the slurping, burping sounds were coming closer. And then another tentacle—WHAP!—slammed into the crack.

  Frasier let out a yell and flopped onto his belly, wriggling down the ladder. I pushed on his head and grabbed for the iron ring to close the trapdoor.

  “Hurry,” shouted Jessie.

  A tentacle slithered through the crack and whipped straight at us.

  I flinched and missed my grip on the trapdoor ring.

  The tentacle quivered and began to dive toward me. I grabbed the ring and jerked on the door.

  The door stuck. The slimy tentacle glommed onto my wrist and instantly coiled around it. It tore my fingers off the ring.

  Frasier pushed up in front of me. He grabbed the tentacle and tugged with all his strength.

  SNAP!

  It came free and I was jerked backward. I teetered, wheeling my arms, then grabbed the ladder.

  “Urggh,” Frasier gurgled.

  Jessie screamed, “It’s got him!”

  I looked up. The tentacle was wrapped around Frasier’s neck. It was pulling him up out of the shaft.

  “I’ve got his feet,” yelled Jessie. “Get it off him!”

  But I couldn’t reach that high. Frasier was half out. His eyes were bulging and his tongue stuck out.

  He was strangling!

  35

  Frasier’s feet kicked feebly.

  “I can’t hold him!” cried Jessie. “It’s too strong.”

  I gripped Frasier’s arm and hauled myself up. His eyes were rolling horribly. Strangling noises were coming from his throat.

  The slimy tentacle was wound completely around his neck and the tip was probing up the side of his head toward his ear.

  Using Frasier’s shoulder I pushed up, jumped, grabbed onto the tentacle, and hung on it with all my weight.

  It didn’t release its hold even slightly. I felt the strength of it pulsing under my hands.

  But then I realized it was stretching! I was pulling Frasier back down inside the shaft!

  If I could only get his head below the door! “Pull on his feet again, Jessie,” I called down.

  Immediately Frasier dropped another few inches. The tentacle was stretching, stretching. I could feel its slimy skin getting tighter as Frasier sank lower into the shaft. But Frasier was gurgling, unable to speak as the tentacle tightened around his throat.

  Finally, I gritted my teeth, hoping I wouldn’t fall into the shaft, and chinned myself up on the tentacle, keeping my eye on the door ring.

  With the last of my strength, I leaped up and grabbed the ring with one hand, dropping my weight onto that arm.

  The door popped free and fell with a massive crash.

  SQUUI—SPLAT!

  The tentacle was severed.

  Frasier fell against the ladder unconscious, the limp tentacle end still wrapped around his throat.

  “Help me get him down,” I called to Jessie.

  Together we maneuvered Frasier down the ladder to the floor of the shaft. We propped him against the wall, catching our breath.

  The light of the old rusted lamp cast flickering shadows on the dirt walls.

  “Ugh!” cried Jessie, pointing, her mouth working soundlessly.

  Exhausted, I looked at Frasier. Only then did I notice that the tip of the tentacle was stuck inside his ear!

  I lunged forward to pull it out but suddenly Frasier jerked upright.

  “You-must-obey,” he said in a deep, menacing, robotic voice. “Listen.”

  Then he slumped back against the wall again, looking shocked but awake. Feeling my stomach rise, I snatched the tentacle out of his ear and flung it against the wall. It fell limply to the floor like a bag of jelly and didn’t move.

  “What did it mean?” Frasier asked wonderingly in his own voice.

  Jessie was holding her hands against her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “But I felt a nudge in my hea
d. Like—like—”

  She shuddered and shook her head hard. “Let’s get out of here,” she said. “I don’t want to think about it. I just want to get as far from these things as we can.”

  Frasier nodded and climbed unsteadily to his feet. “Where are we? Anybody know?”

  Jessie lifted the lamp. “If you look close you can see the label. ‘Harley Mine,’” she read, pointing it out.

  “The old Harley Zinc Mine,” I said wonderingly. “That’s been closed for nearly a century.”

  Frasier shivered. “I hope we can find a way out.”

  “Why didn’t the alien smash its way through the trapdoor and follow us?” asked Jessie suddenly. “They melted a whole spaceship into the mountain, what’s the big deal about following a few humans down a little old mine shaft?”

  “Maybe they’re allergic to zinc,” I said.

  “Yeah,” said Frasier. “Or maybe that blob is melting its way through that rickety wooden door right now. I vote we get out of here.”

  My head jerked up in alarm. Staring up the dark shaft I imagined black goo bubbling through the old wooden door like tar. I scrambled to my feet. “Let’s go.”

  We scurried off into the low tunnel with Jessie in the lead, carrying the lantern. For a long time my attention was concentrated on what was behind us rather than what was ahead.

  I kept listening for sounds—the blob’s bubbling belches or the slurp and snap of tentacles. But nothing came after us. Nothing I could hear or see, anyway.

  I started noticing more about the tunnel we were in. It wasn’t smooth, like the alien tunnels.

  Instead it was rough, carved out of rock and dirt with pick and ax. By humans. We could see the marks their tools had left.

  And every once in a while we came to an area shored up by old timber supports. The timbers were thick but old and rotten. These supports no longer stood straight but leaned and buckled under the weight of earth and rock. They looked like they would topple at a touch.

  We moved gingerly around them and went on. Jessie kept lifting the lantern in hopes of sighting some end to the tunnel.

  “I think we’re still going downhill,” Frasier said nervously after a while. “I’ve been all over Harley Hills and never discovered a mining tunnel. I think the openings to the outside have all been closed up.” Frasier’s voice rose fearfully. “I think we’re trapped in here.”

  “Zip it, Frasier,” snapped Jessie, holding the lamp up and squinting into the dimness beyond. “Every step we take is a step farther from those alien horrors.”

  But just then the arch of timber supports we were passing under creaked and shuddered ominously. We hurried past and hunched our shoulders, expecting the mountain to crash in on top of us.

  A few rocks fell behind us and we pressed against the side of the tunnel, not daring to breathe. We heard rumbling deep in the hill. Somebody whimpered.

  Suddenly there was a sharp CRACK!

  One of the supports gave way and the rock wall caved in with a thundering noise. A flood of dirt followed, thickening the air.

  When the rumbling stopped, Jessie lifted the lantern. The tunnel behind us was completely blocked.

  “At least the aliens can’t follow us now,” I said, coughing at the thick dust in the air.

  “The only way we can go is forward,” said Jessie. “Carefully.”

  We kept to the center of the tunnel, walking as lightly as we could. I tried to keep from thinking of all the tons of rock and earth above us, held up by nothing much.

  We walked on for a long time, losing track of whether we were going uphill or downhill. Every time there was a shower of dirt or a few pebbles dislodged and rolled, my heart leaped into my throat and my stomach shriveled to a hard knot.

  Then two things happened.

  The lamp began to flicker and smoke. “It’s almost out of fuel,” said Jessie in a frightened whisper.

  And the second thing was, the old mining tunnel came to an abrupt end.

  But there was no light at the end of this tunnel.

  36

  Jessie held up the lamp to inspect the wall blocking the tunnel. The feeble light guttered.

  “It’s a dead end,” breathed Jessie. “No way out.”

  The lamp flickered once more and died.

  Frasier wailed into the blackness. “This is it,” he moaned. “End of the line. We’re going to die like rats in here. No one will ever know what happened to us.”

  “Shut up, Frasier,” Jessie hissed.

  “Come to think of it, I’d rather have my brain eaten by aliens,” Frasier babbled on. “At least it would be quicker. But we don’t even have that choice. We can’t get back!”

  How could it end like this? I ranted silently. My heart pounded like a hollow drum. We’d been through so much. Bursting with frustration, I shoved at the wall that was our doom, slamming my weight into it.

  It moved.

  For an instant my mind went blank. Then prickles of hope began to break out all over my skin. But—could I have imagined that the wall moved?

  I shoved it again, putting my shoulder into it. It made a deep scraping noise.

  RRRRRRRUUU!

  “What was that?” exclaimed Jessie.

  “The tunnel’s caving in!” cried Frasier.

  “No,” I said. “Come and help me push. This isn’t a dead-end wall. It’s a door.”

  “What!?”

  “Really!?”

  In our eagerness we stumbled against each other in the dark. Dirt cascaded down on our heads. We all got quiet again. Then we lined up against the wall, shoulders in.

  “PUSH!” I ordered.

  The massive door slowly creaked open, showering us with clods of dirt and pebbles. Faint light seeped in from the other side.

  As soon as it was wide enough we slipped through.

  “Wow,” I breathed, hardly believing my eyes.

  I knew this place. I’d been here before, many times.

  “We’re in our own basement,” Jessie exclaimed.

  “Let’s get out of here,” said Frasier.

  We headed for the stairs, passing the huge mounds of dirt Mom and Dad had made digging the other tunnel. The basement door at the top of the stairs stood open and light filtered down over us.

  We rushed up the stairs into the light. It was no alien glow this time but good old Earth sunlight.

  Stumbling into the kitchen, we kept going. We flung open the back door and ran outside, lifting our faces to the sun and breathing in the fresh air.

  For a moment the three of us felt totally at peace. It seemed like we had the whole town to ourselves. There wasn’t a soul around.

  Not a person, not an animal, nothing. For a long while we didn’t speak.

  Then Jessie sighed. “What are we going to do?” she asked.

  “We need a plan,” said Frasier. “We have to figure out some way to save our parents and the other folks. The only way to do that is to get rid of the aliens.”

  My eye caught a movement in the street out front. I jerked to attention, my heart beginning to race again. “Right now there’s only one thing we can do,” I said urgently.

  “What?” asked Frasier.

  “Hide!” I said, jumping to my feet. “They’re coming back.”

  Turn the page to continue reading from the Visitors ebooks

  1

  You can’t escape the brain stealers. They’re coming to get you. Hide in the basement. Hide under the bed. It doesn’t matter where you hide, because the brain stealers will find you and they will steal … your … BRAIN!

  That’s what I was thinking after we managed to narrowly escape the aliens who had crashed their mothership in the dark spooky hills beyond our town.

  “We” is me and my twin sister Jessica and our best bud Frasier Wellington. Three twelve-year-old kids against an alien invasion from outer space! No wonder I couldn’t stop shivering.

  We’d been deep inside the caverns under Harley Hills and rescued Jessie from
her alien abductors. We’d seen the bubbling lake of glowing liquid where the ghastly creatures were born. We’d been chased down shadowy tunnels by slimy tentacles that stretched for hundreds of yards. We’d tumbled into crumbling old mine shafts that no one remembered existed anymore.

  We’d run and run and run. And we’d barely escaped with our lives. But it wasn’t over yet, not by a long shot.

  We were standing in my backyard, our faces lifted to the sun as our hearts slowly returned to normal. I could hardly believe how good the sun felt after all our time underground. I wanted to stand there forever.

  For a moment the three of us felt totally at peace. It seemed like we had the whole town to ourselves. There wasn’t a soul around.

  Not a person, not an animal, nothing. For a long while we didn’t speak.

  Then Jessie sighed. “What are we going to do?” she asked.

  “We need a plan,” said Frasier. “We have to figure out some way to save our parents and the other folks. The only way to do that is to get rid of the aliens.”

  My eye caught a movement in the street out front. I jerked to attention, my heart beginning to race again. “Right now there’s only one thing we can do,” I said urgently.

  “What?” asked Frasier.

  “Hide!” I said, jumping to my feet. “They’re coming back.”

  Frasier looked toward the street. “I don’t see anything. Relax, there’s nobody here but us.” He closed his eyes, enjoying the sun on his face. “Chill out, dude.”

  He thought talking like that made him cool. Wrong. Good old Frase was a real brain and he knew more big words than the dictionary, but he was your basic cybernerd. Pens in his pocket, thick glasses, and a tendency to fall down when you least expected it. He probably heard “chill out, dude” on some lame old video.

  “If we don’t find a place to hide, we’re likely to be chilled out forever,” I reminded him impatiently.

  “Nick’s right,” said Jessie, her eyes darting around anxiously. “Just because we got away doesn’t mean we’re not in danger.”

  Frasier made a face. “You guys are such wusses,” he said. “The invaders are trapped under Harley Hills. If they weren’t, they would have come after us. As long as we stay away, we’ll be safe.”