The Monster Apocalypse

CHAPTER TWENTY

"I don't believe it!" Ash said. "This whole time I thought we were living out a real-life horror movie. Now... it's a 1950s science fiction movie!"

"For God's sake, not now, Ash," Brin said. She looked up at Mr. Barker and clasped her hands behind her head. "What should we do?"

"I don't know. I haven't dealt with aliens before."

"No? You haven't taken part in any werewolf vs. alien wars we haven't read about in the history books?"

"Has anyone seen the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still?" asked Ash. "So great. The old one, of course. The new one with Keanu Reeves was a complete waste of time and money—"

"Ash! Please!" Brin turned toward the flyer saucer. It didn't look a mile away any longer. Now it was close enough for her to see the little white men stepping out of it. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

"Is that them?" Ash asked.

"Those are aliens, all right." She looked at Mr. Barker. "We can't just sit here. We can't just let them take all of us. I didn't come this far to be swallowed up by an alien spacecraft, Mr. Barker!"

"You're right," he said. He looked back at the terrified faces of all the passengers, then glanced down at his driver's side door handle. He pulled it with his left hand and kicked the door open. The van was only going about 15 MPH.

"We have to jump," he said. "We all have to jump away from the van!"

"But how do we know they're evil?" Ash asked. "Maybe they're friendly. Maybe they just want to talk to us."

"They're pulling us toward them, like a magnet," Mr. Barker said. "They have no intention of letting us drive away. They want us on board. They want to probe us, dissect us, kill us!" He looked at Brin, then the others. "Everyone! Get out of the car! Now!"

Mr. Barker jumped away from the van, landing on his left side. He rolled up against the mounds of dirt next to the paved road.

Brin stayed put for a second. It felt so strange to be in a moving vehicle, with no person in the driver's seat. It was like she was stuck in a car wash, with the machinery below doing all the work, and a blinding red light smashing against the windshield instead of soap and hot water.

She looked back. "Well! You heard what he said! Get out!"

Brin pushed her door open and looked down. She sighed, closed her eyes, and kicked herself away from the van. She landed on a bed of shrubs, on her back. She looked up to see a medley of red beams dotting the night sky like leftover fireworks.

Valerie struggled opening the van's sliding door, but Justin helped her, in a hurried fashion. The van was closing in on the flying saucer.

When he pulled it open, Valerie was the first to unbuckle her seatbelt and roll away from the vehicle, landing hard on the pavement. Anaya followed, bouncing on her belly and rolling into the dirt, near Brin.

Brin looked back at the spaceship. The front of it opened slightly, allowing a walkway to touch down to the ground. The walkway looked just big enough for the van to fit inside.

Ash was the next to hit the ground, followed by Justin, who nearly head-butted Valerie as he crashed awkwardly against her.

Brin waited for Dylan and Brent to leap away from the vehicle—but when five additional seconds became fifteen, Brin stumbled up to her feet in panic.

"Dylan! Brent! Hurry up!"

"I can't!" Dylan shouted from inside the van. "My seatbelt! It's stuck! I can't get out! Oh God, I can't get out!"