"13 - Alien Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pike Christopher)

'I was not sleeping. I was knocked unconscious from the brutality of his unwarranted attack.'
George was surprised. 'Really? He didn't try to hurt me.'
Sally straightened and then leaned back against the wall. The floor was covered in grey carpet. The walls were also grey but the material felt more like plastic than wood. The only light was from the earth below. The alien craft seemed to be hovering two hundred miles above the Pacific Ocean and the West Coast. The sea was still bright but it looked as if night had come to Spooksville. She must have been out more than just a few hours. She wondered if they had performed horrible experiments on her body while she was unconscious. It was a disturbing thought, but she wouldn't have put it past them. She had seen what Mr Snakol really looked like Ч some kind of lizard monster from the dark side of the galaxy. She did have a small bandage on her right arm, right beside the vein.
'Tell me what has happened to you since we last saw you,' Sally said.
'You know that Mr Snakol asked me to stay after class. The moment everyone was gone he led me into the back room, and before I knew what was going on he locked the door. Then he had me sit down and he brought out a needle. He said he needed just a little of my blood for an important experiment he was performing.'
'You let him stick a needle in you?' Sally said. 'What kind of wimp are you?'
'I didn't just let him do it. I knew it wasn't right, that he wasn't a doctor. I put up a fight but he pinned me down, and you can't believe how strong he is. But the first syringe of blood he drew Ч I was able to knock that aside. It broke all over my clothes. You can't imagine what a mess it made.'
'Actually, I can imagine,' Sally said flatly. 'Go on.'
'He finally got his test tube of blood out of me. He studied it in some kind of microscope he had, but it wasn't a normal microscope. Then he said I checked out, that my blood was OK and I could go with him to his ship. Of course I told him I didn't want to go anywhere, but he ignored me. He threw me this white gown and told me I had to wear it on the ship so that we didn't bring a lot of germs there. Then, after I put it on, he pulled out some kind of funny black box and pushed some buttons and suddenly we were here.' George paused. 'I have been here ever since. They tried to feed me, but all they have are frogs and hamsters.'
'You say they. Is there more than one of them?'
'Oh yeah.'
'How many?' Sally asked. 'Exactly?'
'I don't know. Not many, I think. After I was teleported here, when I was being led to this room, I saw maybe six Lizzies.'
'Lizzies? Is that what they call themselves?'
George nodded. 'Yes. Mr Snakol says they are from a far away world, but that their world is dying.'
'So they want our world?' Sally demanded.
George hesitated. 'He didn't say that exactly.'
Sally stood. 'But that is what they want. They are invaders. They have to be destroyed. It is either us or them.' Sally pulled George to his feet and put her hands on her shoulders. 'George, it's up to us. We have to save the world. If we succeed the future generations of mankind will remember us as the greatest heroes of all time. But if we fail, millions of years of enslavement and torture will ensue.'
'Really?' George said.
Sally let go of him and walked around the room. 'I have seen alien monsters like this before. Not exactly the same but close enough. They have no mercy. They worship evil. The only thing they respect is brute force.'
'Did Mr Snakol really knock you out?' George asked.
Sally rubbed her head. 'George, I didn't just decide to take a nap in the middle of the day.' In reality, she had fainted after seeing his lizard face and the needle he was about to stab her with. Of course, she didn't want George to know that. It didn't sound like he had fainted, but put up a good fight. Maybe he had more guts than she realised.
'But how can we stop them?' George asked.
Sally pressed on the door. There was no obvious knob.
'Do you know how to open this?' he asked.
'I think it's locked.'
Sally took a step back from the door. 'When was the last time Mr Snakol was here?'
'A while ago. When he brought you in.'
Sally reached down and tore off a portion of the hem of her white gown. 'I bet if we make a lot of noise, someone will come,' she said.
George was puzzled. 'Why are you tearing that cloth?'
'You'll see. Just follow my lead. We're going to make a lot of noise, and then, whenever who comes in, we're going to attack them.'
George shook his head. 'I told you how strong they are. It would be a waste of time.'
'Listen,' Sally said. 'You're new to Spooksville. You don't know how to handle these kind of situations. Me Ч I'm an old pro. Just do what I say and you'll be a hero.'
George was nervous. 'But I don't want to be a hero. I just want to go home.'
'Like these lizard monsters are going to deliver you back to your front doorstep. You have to get a grip on yourself, George. This is reality. These are evil aliens. If we don't escape quickly, they will eat us alive. And they'll probably eat you first.'
'Why me?'
'Because you look more tender than me. We're going to start screaming now. When someone appears, just follow my lead. Don't be afraid.'
George nodded. 'Just don't get us killed.'
'Death is an old friend of all of us who have grown up in Spooksville,' Sally said.
They started screaming. Within a minute a Lizzie Ч neither could tell if it was Mr Snakol or not Ч appeared. His face was green and ugly. He looked like a swamp lizard on steroids. He had claws instead of hands and a sickly green fluid dripped from his open mouth. He wore a tight silver suit but did not seem to be carrying any weapons. Seeing he was unarmed, Sally wasted no time. She literally threw herself at him.
He threw her back at George.
The two landed in a pile and the Lizzie left.
'That did a lot of good,' George mumbled, rubbing his head.
Sally staggered to her feet. The Lizzie had been as strong as George said. There was no way they were going to be overcome by hand to hand combat. But perhaps that would not be necessary. Sally smiled when she saw the small white piece of cloth jammed in the door. She had thrown it towards the door the moment she had leapt at the Lizzie. Now she just hoped it would be enough to allow them to open the door. Kneeling beside it, she gestured to George to come close.
'I am assuming this door must seal to lock,' she said. 'We might be able to push it open. On the count of three, push as hard as you can in the direction it slides when it opens.'
'Wait,' George said. 'What are we going to do when we get out of here?'
'Take command of the ship and fly it down to Washington DC. There we will turn it over to the President of the United States and in return for our heroic work we will be awarded the Medal of Honour and hopefully a large gift of cash from the Congress.'
'But how are we going to take over the ship?' George asked.
'George,' Sally said patiently. 'You ask too many questions. When you're in situations like this, you just have to wing it. OK? Now I am going to count to three and you and I are going to push. One . . . Two . . . Three!'
Sally had been right. The door was no longer locked.