Part 4 (1/2)

We flew down into the rocks and demorphed.

It was a nice little enclosure, with tall, rounded boulders all around us and clean, dry sand under our feet. We were completely hidden from anyone coming in any direction.

Tobias came to rest beside us as Marco, Rachel, and I returned to our human forms. Of course, as always when we came out of a morph, we were in our morphing suits, and barefoot.

The sun beat down, but we were mostly in shade. A warm breeze blew and whistled between the rocks: WHEEE-HEEEEEE-WHEEE-EEEEE-WHEEE ”All we need now is a picnic lunch,” Marco 50.

said. ”Tobias! Go rustle us up some juicy rats and toads.”

'No need,' Tobias said coolly. 'Just eat that snake you're sitting on.'

”Yaaahhh!” Marco screamed as he leaped to his feet and began slapping his behind frantically.

A small black snake slithered away from the pocket of warm sand where Marco had been sitting.

”I'm bit! I'm gonna die! A rattler bit my b.u.t.t!”

'lt's not a rattler, and he didn't bite you,' Tobias said. 'He's just a harmless bull snake.'

”No snake is harmless,” Marco muttered. ”But keep your hawk eyes open in case a rattler does come for me.”

'l will protect your b.u.t.t from snake bite, Marco,' Tobias said solemnly.

”Let's just morph back,” Rachel suggested. ”We don't need to rest. I feel fine.”

”There's no rush, is there?” I asked.

Morphing is tiring. It wears you out. Sometimes we've had to morph very quickly with no rest between shape changes. But that's not the best way to do it. You feel much more energized if you wait a little while.

Rachel shrugged. ”No. No rush.” She stretched up on her toes and looked around at the boulders. The WHEE-EEING wind caught her hair and blew it in her face. ”It looks like some scene from an old Western. The good guys are up here in the rocks hiding from the bad guys. All we need is six-guns and rifles.”

CHICK-CLICK!.

'What the -' Tobias cried.

CHICK-CLICK! CHICK-CLICK!.

I froze at the sound. I'd heard it before in real life. And I'd heard it on TV a thousand times. It was unmistakable. It was the sound of weapons being c.o.c.ked.

I looked upward and there above us, pointed straight at our heads, were the black muzzles of automatic rifles.

I was so busy staring at the guns, it took a few seconds before I even noticed there were people holding the weapons. They wore helmets covered in camouflage fabric. Desert-style camouflage in shades of tan and beige. Their uniforms were desert camouflage, too.

Their faces were not friendly.

One of the soldiers stood up and put his hands on his hips. ”Okay now, here's what we're going to do. The three of you are gonna lie down, facedown in the sand, and place your hands behind your heads, fingers laced together.”

I thought, The three of us? Of course! They thought Tobias was a hawk.

”But we're not doing anything,” Rachel protested, sounding pretty much like I remember her sounding years ago when her mom would catch us rifling through her closet looking for clothes to try on.

”You have illegally entered a restricted government facility,” the man said. ”And you are in a world of hurt. Sergeant! Search them for weapons or contraband. And someone chase away that big old hawk there. He's staring at me.”

”Yes, sir, Lieutenant.”

'You guys, just go along with them,' Tobias said as he opened his wings and began to fly off. 'l'll keep an eye out for you. Just play dumb.'

”You heard him, Marco,” Rachel whispered with an exaggerated wink. ”Be yourself.”

Naturally, Rachel was completely unafraid. But then, Rachel is never afraid. I was afraid. But that's because I'm sane, unlike Rachel.

The soldiers leaped down from the rocks and quickly searched us as we lay facedown in the sand. It was a quick search: We were wearing our morphing outfits.

”All right, get up. Put on your shoes,” the lieutenant said.

I winced. Shoes! Oh, man, we'd never be able to explain this.

”No shoes, sir!” the sergeant said.

I saw the frown form on the lieutenant's face. ”Hey. Wait a minute. It's a couple of miles back to the road. How'd you get here without shoes? For that matter, there hasn't been a car down that road all day. How did you get here at all?”

I looked at Rachel. Rachel looked at Marco. Marco put on a big grin and said, ”It was the Martians, Lieutenant. We were dropped here by aliens.”

Chapter 9.

”My name is Captain Torrelli. I am in charge of security for this facility.”

We were in a very small, very airless, very brightly lit room. There were no windows. And whenever the door opened you saw a guy in an Air Force uniform.

A tough-looking guy in an Air Force uniform.

A tough-looking guy in an Air Force uniform, cradling a small machine gun.

There was also a bulletin board. On it were small posters reminding everyone that ”Security is our business.” And exhorting everyone to tolerate ”Zero Defects.”

But there was also something more familiar that caught my eye. One of the little flyers was for The Gardens. The Gardens is the big combination amus.e.m.e.nt park and zoo where my mom is one of the vets. Below the flyer was a sign-up sheet, bearing a lot of names.

”Hi, Captain,” Marco said. ”How's it going?”

The captain glanced over at the lieutenant who had picked us up. The lieutenant just shrugged.

”Now look, kids, maybe you don't realize it, but you're in trouble,” the captain said.

”Yes, sir, we realize we made a big mistake,” I said. ”It was totally an accident. We didn't even know there was anything back here in the Dry Lands. And boy, we'd never, ever come back again if you let us go, that's for sure.”

I smiled innocently. I nudged Rachel and she smiled innocently as well. I prayed that Marco would get a clue and smile innocently so we could just - ”So. Where do you keep the alien?” Marco asked.