0.4 by Mike Lancaster Page B

orange squash and rolled the glass around on my trouser leg.
    ‘I . . . I need to ask something,’ I said. ‘And . . . well, there’s no sort of easy way to . . . Are we talking
aliens
here, do you think?’
    Both Lilly and Mrs O’Donnell looked at me seriously.
    It was Lilly who spoke first.
    ‘There’s no such thing as aliens,’ she said definitely.
    ‘Wow, I had no idea that scientists had actually figured that out,’ I said. ‘Last I heard they were still keeping an open mind.’
    ‘You know what I mean. No little green men and silver spaceships.’
    ‘That’s not the only kind of alien life possible,’ I said. ‘Has anyone seen
Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
’
    Mrs O’Donnell sighed.
    ‘You do realise that was a
film
?’ she said caustically. ‘Not a documentary. And
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
wasn’t
really
about aliens. It was about Communism, and theremake was about the changing roles of men and women in modern society.’
    ‘I thought they were from outer space,’ I said grumpily. ‘In fact, I remember them saying that the pod things that took over people and changed them
were
aliens.’
    Mrs O’Donnell’s face told me that she thought I had missed the point that she was making.
    ‘The differences in text and subtext aside,’ she said, ‘you’re thinking that alien pod creatures arrived in Millgrove during a village talent show, and took over everybody except the handful of people hypnotised by a boy magician?’
    ‘Yeah, well you put it that way and it sounds kinda stupid,’ I said. ‘But pod people was only meant as an example from a science fiction movie. We
are
agreed that something weird happened, aren’t we? I mean, this isn’t everyday Millgrove, is it? People that we know are acting
strangely
. We recognise their faces, but no longer recognise
them
.’
    ‘We have no way of knowing what happened when we were in trances on that stage,’ Mrs O’Donnell said, ‘but surely it’s more likely that it’s
US
who are at fault, that we’re seeing things differently–’
    ‘Have you managed to get any TV or radio signals?’ I interrupted. ‘Managed to reach anyone by phone? Are you getting anything on your computer except those symbols we were looking at earlier?’
    The look on her face answered my questions for me.
    ‘Look,’ I said. ‘I’m a kid. I know that. But it doesn’t mean that I’m incapable of seeing what’s going on around me. We are in deep, deep trouble here, and if you want the absolute truth I really don’t know what to do about it. But I do know that hiding my head in the sand is the wrong thing to do.’
    I was getting frustrated and flustered.
    I was even waving my arms in the air.
    ‘I think that’s why Lilly and I ran here. To get an adult to help us work out a way to put all this right. To bring our parents back to us. To make things go back to the way they were. We need you, Kate.’
    It was the first time I’d called her, or even thought of her, by her first name.
    ‘OK,’ she said, getting to her feet. ‘We’ll go and find Rodney Peterson and then we’ll head out of town. We’ll get help. We will find people who can figure this thing out.’
    ‘Thank you,’ I said.
    She smiled.
    ‘It’s fine, Kyle. Now let’s get going.’

22
    We got into Kate’s car and the plan was simple. Stop off and check on Mr Peterson, and then get the heck out of Millgrove.
    None of us was really surprised when it refused to start. The car didn’t make a sound. There was no
ignition straining against a flat battery
sound. Not a spark of life in the engine at all.
    So we walked down the deserted streets, aware of just how strange it was that they
were
deserted. We knew that there were people inside those houses, but there were no signs nor sounds of life. It made me think of those ghost towns in Westerns. If a couple of spiky tumbleweeds had blown past, I don’t think they would have looked out of place.
    No life.
    Stillness.
    It was as if the