The Brain Invaders

Chapter 7

I curled into the tiniest ball I could in the white porcelain bathtub. I had pulled the shower curtain closed, and I prayed that he wouldn’t be able to see a figure behind it. The curtain was clear plastic and printed with colorful fish and seashells. There was a solid white liner underneath. Nothing like hiding in a bathtub with a slug-infested human peeing inches away.

I was so nervous that I started to pee my pants.  I was afraid to breathe. Afraid that one tiny twitch would alert him. My stomach ached. My arm burned. I squinted so tightly that my eyes hurt. Please, please, please, dear God, I prayed. Don’t let him find me. Please, oh please.

          He unzipped his pants. A stream of water hit the water in the toilet. He zipped up his pants, flushed the toilet and turned on the faucet. I listened as his hands rubbed together under the water. Then he turned off the water and a few seconds passed before I heard footsteps and the kitchen chair scraping across the kitchen floor.

Phew! That was too close. I wondered how the others were doing. 

“They found a spy Friday night,” Cassie’s dad said. “A teen-ager. A girl.”

“Where?” asked Mrs. McGee.

“Peeking in a window.”

“And?” D.J. asked.

“And the usual,” Cassie’s dad said. “They questioned her and ran some tests. Of course, she’s now one of us. O-690.”

          I remembered what Zach had said about the bingo numbers. They were sort of like Social Security numbers. A way of organizing everyone. When they ran out of the regular numbers, they started adding 0’s to the end. That’s why Police Chief Sanders was I-210.

 “Did we learn anything?” asked Mrs. McGee.

“As a matter of fact, we did,” Cassie’s dad said. “We learned how they can tell if a human has one of us living inside of them.”

“How wonderful,” Mrs. McGee said.

“N-35, a doctor, examined the girl. He found a mark on her lower right arm in the shape of a flame. It looked like a birthmark, but it turned bright red when she was near one of us.”

“You know what that means?” D.J. said.

“Yes,” said Mrs. McGee. “It means that we’ll be able to detect our enemies and control them before they can destroy us.”

“Precisely,” said Cassie’s dad. “Which brings us to this meeting. Our leader wants to speed up the takeover. We need to find human hosts for the rest of our comrades. And quick. They are growing weaker and weaker without a human host.”

“Thank goodness those divers found us and we weren’t stuck at the bottom of the ocean forever,” Mrs. McGee said.

“Yes,” Cassie’s dad said. “Humans are a stupid race. They create weapons only to have those weapons be used against them. They think they’re smart but what they don’t understand is that when you manipulate one thing it affects a thousand. Look at us. Proof that when you fool with nature, it might become something far worse than the original thing you feared.”

I strained to listen to Cassie’s dad’s speech about the important work they were doing, how they would one day rule the world. He talked about the different people they had recently brought on board and how important they were to their mission. He mentioned a high school teacher and a dance instructor at the studio where Cassie takes lessons. Both opportunities to reach younger people.

“So, what about the chocolates?” D.J. asked.

“Yes, the chocolates,” Cassie’s dad said. “To help hasten the takeover, our leader had Connie create some special chocolates. They contain a sleeping agent. Here, take some boxes with you. Whenever someone eats a chocolate, they’ll fall asleep, making it easy to implant a brother.”

“Candy. What a great idea,” Mrs. McGee said. “Who can refuse Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprises from Connie’s Candy Box.”

“Precisely,” Cassie’s dad said.

“And the candy makes it easier for us to deal with people on our own,” D.J. said.

“We will continue to do our big Friday night bingo game, but use the chocolates to spread the takeover on a smaller scale,” Cassie’s dad said. “You just have to let the leader know when you give a chocolate so he can have a comrade there for implantation.

“In addition, he wants everyone to bring at least one guest to next

week’s bingo game. Can I tell him he can count on you both?”

“I’m all set,” said Mrs. McGee. “My neighbor, Carrie Hampton, is coming.”

“Aunt Millie said she’d come,” D.J. said.

“Great,” Cassie’s dad said. “And I’m bringing my wife. She’s promised to come along with me if I agree to see a psychologist. She thinks I’ve been acting strange lately. I’ve agreed of course. The psychologist is one of our own, B-5.”

“Things are going so well,” said Mrs. McGee. “Now if only we could get more kids involved.”

“I’m working on that, too,” said Cassie’s dad. “My daughter will be coming on Friday also. Once I get an implant in her, she can work on getting her friends involved. D.J., you have a sister, right?”

“Yes, but we’re not close anymore.”

“Well, get close,” Cassie’s dad said.

“I’ll work on it, but it’s not going to be easy. She has a mind of her own. Before I forget, I need to tell you what happened the other day. I was in the bathroom standing behind my host’s mother. She used hair spray. It knocked me out. I lost control of D.J.’s brain for a few seconds. It was scary. Stay away from

that stuff. It’s lethal.”

“What was that?” Mrs. McGee asked.

“What?” D.J. said.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Cassie’s dad said.

“I thought I heard...It’s the garage door.”