Things

by Rodman Philbrick

  “My parents, too,” said Frasier in a quiet, fearful voice.

  Mrs. Wellington was small and kind of round. Frasier gasped as she bent over and put her arms around a rock that was twice as big as her head.

  She tried to stand but the rock didn’t budge. She kept tugging and straining at it, refusing to give up.

  “My mom doesn’t even like to carry the grocery bags in by herself,” moaned Frasier. “She has a bad back.”

  Mr. Wellington was right beside her but he ignored his wife and kept working on his own like a robot.

  Finally Mrs. Wellington struggled to her feet, clutching the rock to her chest. She began to stagger across the rockslide, her legs buckling at every step. It didn’t look like she was going to make it.

  Frasier started to his feet but I pulled him back. “You can’t help, Frase,” I said. “They’re too far away.”

  He knew I was right. He watched, balling his hands into tight fists, as his mother tottered under her heavy load. Frasier’s father brushed past her, carrying his own big boulder. Mr. Wellington dropped his rock on the pile they were making and headed back for more, passing his struggling wife once again.

  Frasier groaned through clenched teeth. But his mother didn’t fall. She finally dropped her rock and went back for another, passing my parents without a glance.

  My mom and dad each carried stones so big I knew they couldn’t see where they were going over the uneven slide of rocks. My nerves jumped with every wobbly step they took.

  Then a rock slid under my mom’s foot. As she slipped, the boulder in her arms went flying. She fell heavily onto the rocks and her own rock landed right on her foot. Dad walked right around her and kept going without even a backwards glance.

  Shouting, I jumped to my feet. It was Frasier’s turn to pull me back. I knew he was right but my blood was boiling. “The aliens are going to pay for this,” I vowed.

  Frasier nodded. “They’ve turned our parents into ants,” he said angrily. “Ants obey the queen, right? And our grown-ups obey the aliens. Whatever the aliens want, the people do. Never thinking about what might happen to themselves. Or each other. Or their children. They’re going to keep digging until they uncover the alien cave. No matter what.”

  My mother got painfully to her feet. She picked up her boulder again and, limping, continued on her way. It was horrible. Unless—

  “What if it’s not the alien ship they’re after?” I said, feeling a flicker of hope.

  Maybe the adults had a real reason to work so hard, whatever the cost to themselves. “Maybe they’re trying to rescue my sister!”

  Frasier glanced at me. “I don’t think so.”

  21

  “Listen, Frasier,” I said, turning to him all excited. “One time, when Jessie was little, she wandered off into the woods and got lost. It was getting dark and my parents were frantic. Then the whole town got together and searched until they found her.” I smiled, warming to the idea. “It could be happening again.”

  Frasier shook his head. “You’re deluded, dude,” he said. “These are just husks of people. They don’t help each other. They don’t even speak to each other. Do they look like people frantically searching for a missing girl? They’re not even calling out her name.”

  We watched our parents drop their loads of heavy stones and immediately turn back for more. “They’re not human anymore, Nick,” he said sadly. “And by now Jessie is an alien, too.”

  I wheeled. Shock traveled through me like a thunderbolt. “Take that back,” I shouted, raising my fists threateningly. “Take that back or you’re dog meat.”

  Frasier backed away from me, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “Sorry, man,” he said. “It was just a thought. I didn’t mean it.”

  We watched the adults in silence for a short while longer. Suddenly, as a few more rocks were moved, a large section of the cave was exposed. A beam of light shot up from inside, visible even now that the sun was up.

  What Frasier had said scared me as much as it angered me and I felt desperate, not knowing what to do next. I wished I could still sense Jessie, so I would know where she was.

  Then I got an idea.

  “Let’s go down and ask them,” I suggested excitedly.

  Frasier frowned uncertainly. “Ask them what?”

  “Ask them if they’re looking for Jessie,” I explained. “Even if they’re not, they’ll know where she is. We’ll make them tell us.”

  Frasier swallowed and looked across to Harley Hill. I knew he was thinking that there were a lot of them and if they wanted to overpower us they could. Then we’d find out where Jessie was, all right. We’d be right there with her. Caught.

  “We can outrun them if they start to come after us,” I argued. “And we know these hills a lot better than any of them. There’s a million places we can hide.”

  It took us a while to cross to Harley Hill and the rockslide area. When we got there the adults had exposed enough of the cave mouth for a full-sized human to fit through. Pinkish-yellow light poured over them as they worked, making their stiff faces shine like plastic.

  We peeked around the side of a tall boulder, working up courage to show ourselves. “Here goes nothing,” said Frasier as he stepped out.

  Quickly I joined him. We stepped right into the path of Mr. Burgess, our school principal. He was lugging a stone as big as his oversize belly, and his face was pouring sweat.

  “Excuse me, Mr. Burgess,” I said in a trembly voice, “are all you people searching for my sister, Jessie?”

  His head jerked up and his startled eyes widened at the sight of us. He opened his mouth to speak. At first no sound emerged. Then the slithering thing crossed his blank eyes.

  And the next second he started making a horrible high-pitched screeching noise. His tongue stuck out and started to whip around like a snake. It was some kind of alarm!

  “EEEOOOOOOOEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOIIIIIII!”

  The piercing noise was so loud my eardrums started vibrating like they would burst.

  The others dropped their rocks and turned toward us. All of them began to march in our direction, hands outstretched.

  “Run!” Frasier shouted in my ear. I could barely hear him but it didn’t matter because I was already running. Maybe we should have turned and run back the way we came, but we didn’t.

  With the adults surging toward us, there was only one other place to run to.

  The cave.

  We jumped over the low mound of rocks remaining at the mouth of the cave and darted inside. The hum grew louder and all around us the light brightened. I felt bombarded with alien light and that strange hypnotizing noise. At the same time the walls seemed to close in around us.

  “Talk about jumping out of the frying pan into the fire,” shouted Frasier. His hair stuck up in spikes on his head and his eyes were big behind his lenses.

  “Shut up and run!” I yelled, and plunged deeper into the tunnel.

  Behind us came the sound of a thousand zombies hunting us down.

  22

  We ran like the wind, our feet scarcely skimming the cave floor. Our hearts were bursting with the fear of being caught by people we’d known all our lives—people who had been turned into monsters.

  My mind flashed with pictures of horror—my parents carrying Jessie through that dark, low tunnel to the aliens, my parents snatching me and Frasier and throwing us into the alien pool where tentacles snapped us up like fish bait.

  I was so filled with fear I didn’t notice how far we’d run. But suddenly Frasier stopped and leaned against the side of the cave tunnel to catch his breath.

  Only then did I notice that there was no sound except for our own heavy breathing and the low alien hum. Nobody was chasing us.

  “Why bother coming after us?” asked Frasier, mopping his brow with the end of his shirt. “We’re already going where they wanted to take us.” He shivered and pulled away from the wall. “I think we’d better go back. We’ll find a way past those adu
lts.”

  But I hardly heard him. I was getting a strong feeling that Jessie was close by. And this time I felt that she could sense me, too!

  “We have to go on,” I told Frasier. “Jessie’s in here somewhere. And she knows that I’m coming. She’s waiting for me.”

  Frasier looked worried. “How do you know?”

  “I can feel it.” I shrugged, helpless to explain. “It’s a twin thing. I can’t tell you how I know. I just know.”

  Frasier swallowed hard and nodded. I would have understood if he wanted to go back but I was grateful he didn’t.

  As we went on, I tried not to wonder if we would ever get out of here alive. The tunnel was round and smooth. The rock walls were swirled with colors—purple and gold and blue. It would have been beautiful if we hadn’t known the kind of creatures that made it.

  The hum seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. It crept under our skin and seeped into our blood until it seemed like our insides vibrated. I was afraid it would take over our brains, swallow us, and spit out the human part, like it had with our parents.

  But the pull from Jessie was strong. I concentrated on that, trying to shut out the hum that threatened to turn my brain into static.

  “Nick,” Frasier said suddenly. “I just had a bad thought.”

  “What?”

  “Maybe it’s not Jessie in your head,” he said slowly. “What if it’s the aliens, pretending to be Jessie so they can lure us in here?”

  A shiver traveled down my spine. “NO,” I said, louder than I meant to. “It is her. I’m sure.”

  I might have tried to explain it better but just then we came to a fork in the tunnel. “This wasn’t here before!” I said.

  Frasier cautiously looked down the new tunnel. It glowed faintly and was the same smooth rock as the one we were walking in. “So these slimy alien creeps created a new tunnel. That’s an excellent reason not to go down there.”

  “You’re probably right. But that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” I said.

  “I knew it!” said Frasier.

  “Look, Frase, we already know what’s at the end of the main tunnel,” I said, shuddering at the memory.

  I took my first step into the new tunnel. I braced myself, waiting for whatever new blast of alien horror was in store for us.

  23

  The hum seemed even deeper here. It picked up the beat of my heart, making it thud like a bass drum. And the glow seemed pinker, maybe a little brighter.

  But the light still had no source and no temperature. It wasn’t warm or cold, it just was.

  This tunnel was almost exactly like the main tunnel. I realized how easily we could get lost in here, where everything looked the same—smooth and alien.

  But nothing happened to us. And I could still feel Jessie, trapped in a dark place where she couldn’t move.

  “I think she’s down here,” I said excitedly to Frasier, starting to hurry through the tunnel.

  “I hope you’re right, man,” he said. “’Cause something’s down here. Feel that wind?”

  As he spoke, a rush of air ruffled over my scalp. I shivered though it wasn’t cold and broke into a run. Suddenly I felt I had to find Jessie right away. I felt movement around her, the excitement of alien creatures.

  “Hey! Nick! Wait up,” called Frasier.

  “We’re running out of time,” I called back. “The things know we’re here.” My voice echoed: “We’re here-ere-ere.” It spooked me, sending my heart into a spin.

  Suddenly the tunnel ended.

  It opened into a huge immense round cavern. The curving dome of the roof towered so high over our heads we had to crane our necks to see it all. The glow seemed brighter up there but we still couldn’t see any source.

  “Wow,” said Frasier, beginning slowly to circle the walls. “Awesome!”

  Long, thick stalactite structures came down from the roof and melded into huge support struts. The tops of the stalactites were thick but blurry, almost lost in the glow from the roof.

  Strange big twisted structures rose from the floor of the cavern. Some had small protrusions, almost like handles, sticking out of them. There were other protrusions sticking out of the smooth walls.

  It was familiar, something like the cavern we’d found at the end of the other tunnel. But this one was much bigger and more organized-looking.

  The eerie glow had a menacing feel to it. There was a presence here that we couldn’t see. It filled me with dread as heavy as lead.

  I didn’t think we’d be allowed to walk around here by ourselves for very long.

  But Jessie’s fear drowned out my own. I could feel her calling help me, help me inside my head. She was very close. I reached out with my mind, trying to find her.

  “Metal and rock melted together,” Frasier said wonderingly, running his hand over one of the twisty things sprouting from the floor. It rose in a tall, sweeping curve that towered over his head. “It looks like it’s supposed to be something. Like it has a purpose.”

  He ran his hand over one of the odd formations sticking out of the side of the strange structure. “And these things, what are these?”

  Suddenly he jerked his hand away and looked around, his eyes widening. “Nick, this is no cavern. This is the UFO itself! The ship that burrowed into the hills!” He stared straight up and the cavern’s glow poured down over his awestruck face. “We’re inside it, man! Inside the mothership!”

  And then another voice shouted right into my ear. “Nick,” cried Jessie. “I’m here! Right here!”

  24

  I whipped around, expecting to see Jessie right behind me. But there was nothing there. Nothing anywhere. Everything was just as it had been, bathed in pinkish-yellow alien light.

  Frasier was staring at me like he was afraid I’d been possessed by the aliens. “Nick, are you okay?” he asked. “Didn’t you hear what I said about the mothership? Why are you twirling around like that?”

  “Nick, where are you?” cried Jessie’s voice again.

  I whipped around in the other direction. “Don’t you hear Jessie calling?” I asked Frasier. “She’s right here!”

  My sister sounded like she was standing next to me. But I still couldn’t see her. I looked around wildly, trying to figure out where her voice was coming from.

  Frasier looked worried. “I don’t hear a thing, Nick. There’s nobody here but us.” He didn’t say it but I could tell he was scared that the aliens were playing games with my head. And we all knew who would win those games.

  I whirled as Jessie’s voice sounded in my ear again.

  “You’re too close, Nick,” Jessie cried fearfully. “Be careful!”

  It was no use. I couldn’t figure out where she was by listening. Her voice was inside my head. But I knew she was in here, inside the mothership.

  They had her hidden but I would find her. I ran to the wall and began banging on it. But it felt as solid as rock.

  Then I noticed again the handlelike structures that stuck out of the wall. They might be hatch handles, or doorknobs to other rooms in the ship. In one of those rooms Jessie was being kept prisoner.

  Excited and terrified about what else I might find, I grabbed one of the structures and pulled down. It seemed to move a fraction, then stop. It was smooth but kind of sticky to the touch. The feel of it made my skin crawl. It was made for tentacles, not human hands.

  But I was sure I had felt it move. Gritting my teeth, I grasped the thing as hard as I could and threw all my weight on it.

  “Nick, what are you doing?” yelled Frasier. “Stop! Those look like control levers!”

  The “lever” stayed put. I let it go and ran to the next one, wiping my sticky hands on my shirt. My stomach twisted in disgust as my slimy fingers stuck to the cloth. I pulled them free but now my shirt was sticky, too.

  The next “lever” was higher. I would have to jump to grab it. I backed up a few feet to get a running start.

  “What are you—?” Frasier
started to ask. Then I launched into my sprint and he could see what I was doing.

  “NO!” shouted Frasier as my feet left the ground in a spectacular leap. My hands grasped the lever. I winced at the cold stickiness of it.

  “DON’T!” yelled Frasier. “If you pull on the wrong one it might—”

  My full weight jerked down on the lever. My heart leaped into my throat as the lever moved. It seemed stiff at first, then it slid easily, depositing me on the floor.

  With a smooth WHOOSH a huge slab of molten wall began to slide open.

  “Get away from there!” screamed Frasier.

  “Nick!” shouted Jessie. “I’m here! Right here!”

  25

  Light poured out of the fissure in the wall, dazzling my eyes. “Jessie!” I cried. “I can’t see you. Tell me where you are!”

  “Jessie?!” Frasier came up behind me, squinting as he tried to peer into the widening opening. “Is that really you?”

  “Be careful!” yelled Jessie. “Don’t let them grab you!”

  “I hear her, too, Nick.” Frasier said excitedly. “She really is inside!”

  As the wall continued to slide, the glow from within grew brighter, spilling out onto the cavern floor. But I couldn’t see through the light. It was like glowing pea soup.

  I stepped forward and grabbed the side of the opening to hoist myself inside.

  “Nick, wait!” urged Frasier. “They’ll get you! You don’t know what’s waiting in there!”

  But I had to go. If the wall closed up again I might never be able to get inside. Jessie would be trapped with the aliens forever.

  I stepped into the glowing fog.

  “Be careful, Nick,” cried Jessie. “They’re coming!”

  One leg disappeared into the light, then the other. I couldn’t see my arms. The fog of light swirled thickly around me and I realized I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.

  I fought down panic and took another step. My foot stuck to the floor. I pulled harder and my foot came away with a loud sucking sound. I felt like I was walking in three inches of thick warm tar. I couldn’t see it but I knew it wasn’t anything as nice as tar.