The Brain Invaders

Chapter 22

“Get off her,” I yelled, flinging the sea slug on the floor.

Suddenly, all of the sea slugs raised their slimy heads and made an awful growling noise.

          Cassie jumped up. We took the cans of hair spray we had stashed in our backpacks and started spraying.

Zach, Kate and Ryan were watching through the door window, waiting for the signal. They ran in with bags filled with cans of hair spray. Our attack had begun.

We weren’t sure what to expect. We knew that hair spray was bad for them. We hoped it was real bad.

“Don’t let any get away,” yelled Zach. He held a can of hairspray in each hand and sprayed them at the same time in different directions.

 “Cassie and Alex,” Ryan yelled. We’ll spray. You guys use the brooms to bat them into the center. It’s too hard to spray and beat ’em back at the same time.”

Cassie and I picked up the brooms and worked the perimeter, beating them into a circle as the others sprayed. They tried to bite us and wrap themselves around our legs and our brooms.

“Watch it, Cassie,” Kate yelled. “There’s one on your back.”

Cassie tried to shake it off but the thing stuck to her like those vinyl holiday window decals my Mom is always buying.  

“Duck your head, Cass!” I yelled, and flipped the slug off her back with my broom.

Zach, Ryan and Kate emptied one can after another. At first, the hair spray didn’t seem to have much of an effect. You could tell the slugs didn’t like it. They twisted and turned their ugly heads trying to avoid the spray, but they weren’t dying like we had hoped. In fact, they seemed to be getting stronger.

“Must be that stuff coming out of the sprinkler system,” Zach yelled. “It’s making them stronger.”

Zach turned to run toward the switch on the wall but a slug wrapped its slimy body around his legs and he fell. He wasn’t holding a can of hairspray so he couldn’t spray the slug. He tried to shake the slug off, but it became thinner and wrapped around his legs tighter.

I grabbed a can of hairspray and ran to Zach. I sprayed the slug and beat him with the broom until Zach was able to wiggle free. Zach made it to the switch and turned off the smoke while the rest of us kept spraying and hitting the slugs with brooms.

They were getting weaker. They weren’t fighting like they had been. They were slowing down, not squirming as much. All of a sudden, the sea slugs made this horrible gurgling noise and started to shrivel. Like worms on a sunny sidewalk that didn’t make it back into the ground in time.

When our attack was over, we didn’t have dead slugs scattered in a circle like we thought we would. We had piles of chalky dust. No skin. No tentacles. Nothing but fine gray powder.

“What the heck were they?” Ryan asked.

Kate walked over to a pile of dust. “There’s something in there.”

“Is it moving?” Cassie said. “If it’s moving I’m so out of here.”

Zach used a broom handle to push the thing out of the dust. He picked it up. It was a small black square about the size of a thumb nail. Zach turned it over in his hands. It’s a microprocessor. Haven’t ever seen any quite like this, though.”

We found microprocessors in every pile of dust.

 “How did the slugs get microprocessors in them?” Cassie asked.

“And why?” Kate said.

“See this,” Zach held out a microprocessor and pointed to cover.

We gathered around Zach and looked. There, in small print, were the letters CIA. The image of a sea slug formed the letter “C.”

  “I’ve seen this seal before,” Zach said.

“Where?” Kate asked.

“On that black box.”

“The one your uncle took from the ship?” Ryan asked.

“Yes,” Zach said. “This seal is on the lid of that box.”

“Didn’t you say your uncle told you he had a feeling that the box was important and somehow connected to the slug?” I asked.

“Yes,” Zach said. “That’s why he took the box with him when he jumped ship. It’s all beginning to make sense.”

“Not to me,” Cassie said. “I’m totally lost.”

“Last night,” Zach continued, “I was able to break into secret CIA files. I don’t know why I didn’t make the connection sooner. I learned about a secret mission that involved using genetically engineered sea slugs as weapons of war.”

“Genetically engineered what?” Cassie said.

“Sea slugs. That’s what these were. And if I’m right, that black box is the controller. I’ll go get it. Maybe it can help us figure this all out.”

“What do we do about this mess?” Ryan asked.

All of the humans were still sleeping. We didn’t know how long the sleeping chip they had eaten would last.                   

“We’ll clean up while Zach gets the box. I’ll look for garbage bags in the kitchen,” I said.

I found garbage bags and a cardboard box and Zach found a push broom and dust pan. We put all of the microprocessors in the box along with the  bingo cards and the sleeping chips. We wanted all of the evidence so we could prove what happened.

We had no idea how Mom and the others whose bodies were being used were going to be affected. Only time would tell.

There was a knock on the door.

“Oh no!” I said. “We forgot about them.”

“Forgot about who?” Cassie asked.

“The other humans with the sea slugs for brains. They’re here with sea slugs to implant in the new players. What do we do now?”