Welcome to Alien Inn

Chapter 15

"Oh, Dotti, what am I going to do? If only you could talk and help me figure out how we're going to get out of this mess," Matt said, hugging his pet close.

Matt hadn't been able to bear seeing the results of the Plyomith's transformation from huge, ugly aliens to creatures who looked like duplicates of his family. He had come back to his room where he could lie on the bed and think. But his brain was paralyzed with fear. He turned over on his stomach and pounded the bed in frustration.

What am I going to do? I couldn't find the power source for the computer! I can't fight the Plyomiths! They're a lot bigger than me, and they have powerful weapons! I have nothing! I'm just a kid!

And time had to be running out. Bart had told him that he would have to wait his turn to go back into the room at the end of the hall. Naturally that meant they would be taking his family back in there first to do more experiments.

They had already made his father forget about his job and the big project he was working on. And his mother would never have allowed him and his sisters to miss a day of school unless they were sick and about to die. But now, she didn't care. She wanted to stay snowed in at Snowed Inn! It was as if his parents had completely forgotten about their home and the life they'd had before they came to Snowed Inn.

What do the Plyomiths have in store for us next? The question sent shivers up his spine. He didn't want to even try to imagine the things they might do. He just wanted to get his family out of there.

Dotti whimpered and snuggled close to him. Matt looked down at her, and tears came to his eyes. The monster aliens were even doing things to good old Dotti. Maybe he hadn't always been on his best behavior, Matt had to admit, but his dog had never hurt a thing in her life. She wouldn't even chase cats!

His jaw was set with determination when he went downstairs with Dotti a short while later. As soon as he entered the main road he sensed something else was wrong. When he had left to go upstairs, his family had all been talking to their mirror images.

Now the room was silent.

Quickly he glanced around. Ashlee and Julee were sitting up straight in overstuffed chairs, while the other two girls sat on the floor playing a game. His sisters' jaws were slack, and their eyes looked glazed, as if they were sleeping with their eyes open. His mother was on the couch, sitting beside the woman he thought was Mrs. Rogers, staring absently into the fire.

Matt gulped hard. His family all appeared to be in a world of their own.

"Hey, everybody! What's going on?" he called, but no one answered.

Suddenly he took a closer look at the two women. The one on the right was his mother, wasn't she? He shook his head. They looked so much alike, he wasn't sure anymore. Maybe the woman with the dazed look was Mrs. Rogers and the other one was his mother. Then why didn't she seem to recognize him? What was happening?

"Mom? Mom!" he shouted. "It's me! Matt!"

He spun toward his sisters and the other two girls, staring hard. Which ones were Julee and Ashlee? He couldn't tell that either.

His mind was whirling. Even if he found a way to get his family out of there, he wouldn't know which ones to take with him!

Matt heard the sound of a door closing and wheeled around to see two men who looked just like his father come out of the hall. One of them plodded along like a zombie, and the other man held on to his arm and guided him. Matt watched as they came into the main room and one of them directed the other to sit down.

"DAD!" he screamed. "Dad, listen to me! You've got to snap out of this! It's a matter of life and death!"

But is his father heard, he didn't let on.

Slowly Matt's mind seemed to clear as he began to understand what was happening. The aliens were duplicating his parents' bodies, all right, but they were also emptying their minds. The Plyomiths were stealing his family's identities!

Why? What did they want? And worst of all, what would the aliens do with all of them when they had everything they wanted? Throw them away like empty peanut shells?

Matt felt someone looking at him. He knew who it was before he turned around.

Bart was staring straight at him, smiling triumphantly.