The Brain Invaders

Chapter 25

"What's going on?" asked the girl from the grocery store as she walked over. "Why am I here? And why's everyone sleeping?"

Then she saw the slugs in the men's mouths. I can't even begin to describe her slasher-movie scream. It scared me just hearing it and I knew what was going on. And the worst part, it woke up the others.

It was like the room was on fire and everyone was trying to get out of the burning building. Panicked people screaming and running and pushing and shoving. Fighting to get to the exits. I saw a guy with a gut as big as a beach ball step on the leg of a petite woman who slipped on the floor and fell. Another man picked her up and carried her out. It was complete craziness.

Mom and Cassie's parents ran over to us. Mom's face was red and blotchy. It gets like that when she's upset or nervous or worried. They fired questions at us and we tried to answer but there was just too much going on and we needed to focus on the slugs.

I looked at mom. "I'll tell you everything, but right now you have to trust me. We need to help these men."

"But..."

"Mom, I mean it. Not now."

I've never been that abrupt with Mom, but I knew that's what it would take for her to back off.

The girl with the gift, the one who had been caught, ran over.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you," she said.

Kate picked up the girl's arm. She had the mark.

 "We'll talk later," Kate said.

The girl nodded.

The slugs dropped out of the men's mouths and slithered onto the floor. Cassie and I sprayed them. They tried to bite us and wrap themselves around our arms but Ryan and Kate beat them down with the broom handles. Eventually, they shriveled like the rest and turned to dust.  

I picked up the two microprocessors and stuffed them in my shorts pocket and cleaned up the dust.

I looked at Mom. "Don't ever ask me to play bingo again."

Mom and Cassie's parents and a few others who had stayed began firing questions again. I didn't blame them. I would have been asking a ton of questions, too. They wanted an explanation, and it was up to five kids to try and explain it to them. That was, if we got the chance.

Apparently the code Zach had punched in had sent a signal to the CIA. It must have been some kind of emergency beacon.

There were sirens and police cars and a helicopter in the parking lot. I had never seen so many cops in my entire life. It was like they were mice fighting over the only piece of cheese left in the world.

They swarmed the firehall. Reminded me of the swat teams I've seen on TV. They wore blue jackets with CIA in white lettering on the back and carried long  guns that were definitely not of the Nerf variety I was used to.

They grabbed the microprocessors, the bags of dust, the bingo chips and cards and they didn't say anything to anyone.

 "Now wait just one minute," Kate said. "You're going to come in here, take all of this stuff and not tell us what's going on. That's just 100 percent not fair."

 A man in a black suit, the only one not it a blue jacket, turned around. He nodded his head toward Zach. "I think your friend has probably already told you."

Zach swallowed like he was trying to get a basketball to go down his throat knobby throat.

"We know you infiltrated our files," said the man, looking at Zach. "We never thought we'd find out what happened to our failed mission. As you know, very few people knew about it and most of those died years ago."