Every single military person standing around throws their body on top of us. Through the gaps in the arms and legs, I watch as lasers zing from the orbs, connecting them all, glowing so brightly that it hurts to look. I feel the intensity on my face as the radiance heats my skin.
Two people race toward Dad, and they are carrying a metal box. Dad closes the lid on the black case, and the bright light dims to a glow that I can see through the seams. Carefully, he lifts and places the case in the metal box before locking that lid, and then he and the other two people leave everything there and take off sprinting across the clearing right toward us.
Boom!
The metal box lifts about a foot off the ground and silver dust shoots out of its seams. Then the box falls back down to the dirt and starts popping around as the spheres punch out from the inside, leaving huge dents in the box.
But just as quickly as it went off, the box comes to a sudden stop.
Panting, I gaze out from under all the people, searching for my dad. He’s right here. On top of our body pile.
Slowly, everyone begins crawling off, and after that, Scarlett’s shaking is the first thing I notice.
Then Fynn’s breathing. Heavy, but not wheezing.
Beans’s death grip on my arm comes to me third.
Rocky’s heartbeat filters in last, and I realize he’s pressed up against me. Protecting me.
All of us, actually, are squished together, protecting one another. Me and the Scouts, with Hoppy in the middle of us all.
I blink a few times but see only dots, blink a few more times, and my vision slowly returns. I look for Dad again, and he’s already back across the clearing near the metal box, talking to several of the military people.
We’re alive. We’re alive!
Everyone moves around, beginning to clean up, and Dad crosses the charred grass back our way. I don’t waste a second jumping up and running into his arms.
“Dad,” I sob into his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
He doesn’t say anything, just squeezes me tight, and I think it has to be about the best hug he’s ever given me.
Dad finally lets go. “You, my dear, are in a lot of trouble.” He casts a disciplinary look over my friends. “All of you are.”
Yeah, I saw that coming.
Two of the military people cut Mary Jo and her son from their restraints, and once she’s on her feet again, she turns a snarly look onto my dad. “Where’s our money?” she demands.
Dad shakes his head. “We don’t pay for misinformation.”
Scarlett jabs her finger in the Masons’ direction. “They kidnapped us and locked us in a shed!”
“Oh, we didn’t hurt ’em.” Mary Jo waves off Scarlett’s accusation. “We was just trying to keep ’em in one place like you said. We called ya, didn’t we?”
Me and my friends all look at each other. What is she talking about?
Dad turns to Otis and merely lifts his brows, clearly wanting an explanation.
Otis casts a guilty look to the ground. “Things did get a little out of hand, but we didn’t hurt ’em. Scared ’em, sure. Every kid needs a good lesson every now ’n’ then.”
“Your job,” my dad says, “was to keep them in one place if you found them, and to consult on the terrain.”
Otis gives a little shrug. “Sorry,” he mumbles.
Dad folds his arms and looks between Otis and Mary Jo, and then he turns and looks at all of us. “Did they hurt you?”
Reluctantly, we all shrug and shake our heads because the truth is, the Masons didn’t actually hurt us. Just scared us real good.
“See,” Mary Jo says. “They’s fine. And I bet they did learn a lesson with all their lying and snooping.” She straightens up. “Thanks to us.”
“Okay, so we did lie and snoop,” I grudgingly admit. “But it’s not your job to teach us a lesson. You really did scare us.”
In response, Mary Jo just snorts.
“B-b-but what about Old Man Basinger?” Scarlett stammers. “We think they might have killed him.”
Mary Jo scrunches up her face. “We ain’t never killed nobody. And I saw Basinger just the other day.”
“But you have his shotgun in your shed,” Scarlett says.
Mary Jo scoffs. “I’ve had that thing for over a decade. Basinger gave it to us in exchange for some moonshine.”
“Then whose skeleton was that?” I ask.
Dad holds his hand up. “It’s true, Mr. Basinger is alive and well. What skeleton are you talking about?”
“In the cave, Dad. There was a skeleton, and it was wearing a hat with Old Man Basinger’s name in it.”
Edge bursts out laughing. “I can’t believe you guys fell for that fake bag of bones. I wish I could’ve been there when you found it. Did you scream?” He laughs some more. “I bought that at a Halloween shop a couple of years ago. I was actually hoping one of my cousins would find it.” He slaps his leg and hoots some more.
I scowl at him, and Scarlett steps right up and kicks him in the shin.
“Ow!” Edge jumps back, and I smirk.
Rocky narrows his eyes. “You were hanging near the cave, waiting to see if someone found it, weren’t you?”
Edge shrugs. “Sort of. I was actually out looking for the meteor when I ran into you all.”
“That’s the only reason why you teamed up with us. Why you were nice to us.” Beans peels his lips off his braces. “You knew we were your best bet at finding it.”
Dad gives Edge a good long study. “You’re one of the Basingers, aren’t you?”
“What?” My jaw drops. “You never said that!”
Edge shrugs again. “Harmless omission.”
I turn to my dad. “He locked us in that shelter. And he was going to steal—”
“I was going to let you out,” Edge says. “Or at minimum tell someone where you all were.”
My jaw drops again. “What, after you kept everything for yourself? You’re awful!”
Dad motions a military guy over. “One of my team will give you a ride home. I’ll be talking to your parents and your grandfather tomorrow.”
Edge’s cockiness disappears, and I grin. Good. He deserves whatever he gets for being so mean. And to think I thought he was cute.
Dad nods to the Mason Clan. “My team will escort you home, too.”
Mary Jo casts one last growly look our way, before heading off.
“Junior,” I call, and he turns around. “Thank you again.”
He gives a little smile and nod, and I watch as he jogs across the grass and ducks between two trees.
With his arms folded, Dad turns and looks at all of us. “Now, for you all. The fort. The tree house. The basement. All the little notes you left. There will be no more of that. There will also be no more camping trips. I can’t speak for your parents, but I will say Annie’s grounded for the whole summer.”
I hang my head. That’s a long time.
There’s silence for a moment as the punishment sinks in.
Scarlett nudges me and whispers, “Your dad is pretty great.”
I nod. He is. This whole thing—this is why Dad kept telling me to stay at Rocky’s. He knew something might happen with the meteor shower.
“Are you a spy, Dad?” Because I always thought he was an accountant.
“I work for the Department of Defense,” he says. “What you saw was a top secret project. It was being tested during the meteor shower, and obviously several things went wrong.”
“So they were bombs?” Beans asks.
“They weren’t supposed to be, but it was turning into that,” Dad says. “The red, the vibrating. The closer the components came to each other, the more they reacted. I don’t think you kids realize how close we came to an explosion.”
We all exchange a surprised look. Thank God the military showed up.
“Then what were they supposed to be?” Rocky asks.
Dad smiles a little. “Without giving great detai
l, it was a spy satellite system we were testing.”
“Wow,” Beans whispers. “What were you spying on?”
“Mmm, a few things in the area,” Dad cryptically says, with an involuntary glance in the direction of the caves. A spark of curiosity has me exchanging silent looks with my friends.
“No.” Dad points at all of us. “Get those looks off your faces. Like I said, we were testing the satellite system, and if all went well, we planned to use it for other classified things. However, as you saw, things didn’t go as planned.”
“What about the silvery stuff that was everywhere?” Scarlett asks.
“Yeah,” Fynn says, looking down at some of it stuck to his arm. “We’re not infected, are we?”
Dad chuckles. “No. Best way I can explain the silver dust is that it’s like exhaust. It spewed out of the balls as they tracked through the sky. It will not harm you, don’t worry.” Dad motions toward his team working all around us. “By the time they’re done cleaning, it’ll be like none of this even happened.”
“What about the Masons?” I ask. “It seemed like you knew them.”
“Actually, Mr. Mason helped us five years ago with some mapping of the caves. When we were having difficulties obtaining signals from the project this time around, we asked him to assist in the ground search. It was about that time that I realized you kids were gone, and I asked him to keep an eye out for you as well.”
Dad makes eye contact with each of us. “I deal with some pretty scary things in my job, but nothing has ever been as terrifying as thinking about you kids out here in the hills by yourselves. You will never scare me like that again. Do you understand?”
We nod.
I glance over at Beans, and it hits me what this all really means. There is no crashed meteor. No money. Beans is leaving.
I grasp his arm. “We can still figure it out,” I tell him, and my brain scrambles for a new plan—anything that’ll stop my best friend from leaving.
With a sad smile, he shakes his head. He’s given up. But I don’t accept that. We can still figure something out, can’t we? We have to!
But even as my mind races, the reality of the whole situation sinks in. One of my best friends is moving, and no amount of plotting or strategy is going to change that. It’s out of my hands.
We’re just going to have to figure out how to see each other even though we’ll be an hour apart. Because there’s no way I’m saying goodbye to Beans.
Eventually, the place is cleaned up and Dad leads us away, along with the rest of his team. But it’s only when we’re away from the clearing and back in the woods that I remember the metal box. The military people never did take it.
Pausing for a second, I glance over my shoulder, through the trees and back into the clearing, and my hands fly to my mouth. There by the box, looking down at it with egg-shaped eyes, stands a tall thing with long arms and legs, a small head, and skin that seems both speckled with green and also see-through at the same time.
I blink hard, not even sure if I’m actually seeing the creature or not. But as quick as it’s there, it’s gone.
CHAPTER 26
Sunlight flickers across my lids, and slowly, I open them. It’s Saturday morning and I’m supposed to help Mom clean the house.
Ugh.
But I do have my last swimming lesson today and I’m excited. I get a certificate and everything. I can dive now. And hold my breath under water for almost a minute. I can swim freestyle for five whole laps without stopping.
I mean, I’m not going to go and join the swim team or anything, but at least now I don’t freak out at the thought of water. And I made some new friends. In fact, tomorrow they’re all coming over to my house to watch a movie and eat pizza.
With a stretch and a yawn, I lie here for a second thinking about Monday. The first day of seventh grade. Summer’s been good (even with being grounded), but I’m definitely ready for school to start. Mom offered to drive me, Fynn, and Rocky as a first-day-of-school treat, but they both said no. Rocky’s riding with some of his football friends, and Fynn’s riding with his girlfriend.
That’s right—his girlfriend.
They met at Vacation Bible School and she lives on the other side of town. Her family just moved here from Kentucky. Every time she sees me and Fynn hanging out, she gets all mean, grabbing his hand and holding it so tight I swear his fingers are going to fall off. But Fynn still hangs out with just me and Rocky all the time, so I really don’t care.
Anyway, I promised Junior I’d ride the bus with him on the first day. Dad did some calling around, and even though the other two Mason boys are being “homeschooled” by Mary Jo, Junior stood up to her and insisted on attending a real school. So he and I are going to sit next to each other on the bus, and I’m excited about it.
My walkie crackles. “Annie, it’s Rocky. Over.”
With a grin, I pick it up. “This is Annie. Over.”
“Beans is going to be here tonight. Over.”
I sit straight up in bed, excitement bouncing all around inside me. “I know. Can’t wait! Over.”
“Be at my place at eight tonight. Over.”
“I’ll bring Pringles. Over.”
Setting my walkie down, I bounce out of bed and nearly skip through all of my chores. This is the first time we’re all going to hang out together since our adventure. I can’t wait to see Beans. He still had to move, but we talk on the phone all the time, and he seems happier at his dad’s house. I’m glad for him, even though I miss him like crazy.
That evening, Dad points his finger at me as I’m heading out the door. “Do not go on Basinger’s property.”
“I won’t. I promise.” There’s no way I’m going to risk being grounded again.
“I fully intend on calling Rocky’s father to check up on you multiple times,” he says.
I laugh. “Okay, Dad. I promise.”
Mom waves me off. “Have fun. Be back by ten.”
I jump on my BMX and race over to Rocky’s. I take the rope ladder all the way up to the tree house.
Fynn, Rocky, and Beans are already here. I’m so happy Fynn didn’t bring his girlfriend. He’s been pretty cool about that when there’s Scouts stuff going on.
There’s a pizza box sitting in the middle of the tree house, a real telescope set up next to the window, a cooler full of RC Colas, and some of Fynn’s homemade brownies with what look like coconut shavings on top.
Ducking under the overhang, I plop down beside Beans and toss the chips I brought into the center. I give Beans a hug. “Missed you.”
“Me, too.” He gives me another look. “Hey, are you wearing lipstick?”
“It’s lip gloss, thank you very much. Scarlett gave it to me for my birthday.” I straighten up, daring any of them to say anything.
Rocky smiles, and it zings all kinds of butterflies through me. “Well, what do you know? Annie’s a girl.”
I nod. “Yes, I am. I may even wear a dress and a bow on Monday,” I say, even though there is no way I’d ever wear a bow. A dress maybe, but never a bow.
Laughing, Fynn offers me hand sanitizer, and I shake my head as I reach for a slice of pizza.
Fynn asks, “Did Scarlett tell you she’s coming for Christmas break?”
“Yes!” I say. “I can’t wait.”
Rocky plops a pepperoni into his mouth. “Christmas break, you say?”
As usual, like with Rocky and Scarlett stuff, a little bit of jealousy sparks in me. I honestly don’t know if Rocky is still crushing on her. He never talks about her, and all Scarlett talks about is some older boy she likes.
Sometimes I wish everything could go back to the way it was before I started liking Rocky, and Fynn got a girlfriend, and Beans moved. But some of the changes have been pretty great. Like becoming friends with Junior and Scarlett, doing things with my new swim lesson pals, and also the whole maybe-being-brothers thing between Rocky and Fynn. Their parents are still dating, and believe it or not, they’re
already talking marriage. Seems soon to me, but whatever. They seem to really love each other. More importantly, though, Rocky is excited about the idea of being stepbrothers with Fynn.
But back to Scarlett. I never would’ve guessed, but she and I have turned into good friends. We talk on the phone at least once a week, and we’ve even gotten into the pen pal thing.
“I saw Edge at the Dairy Queen last week,” Fynn says. “I flipped him off.”
We all laugh.
I tell them, “And I saw him out working in Old Man Basinger’s field. He did not look happy. I think he got in worse trouble than we did.”
Beans reaches into his backpack and pulls out a copy of National Enquirer magazine. He opens it up to a dog-eared page. “You guys seen this?”
There’s a grainy picture of a tall, long-limbed thing, with a small head and big oval eyes. In the bottom right-hand corner is a photo of Mary Jo with a headline that reads:
MY ABDUCTION BY AN ALIEN!
I’ve thought about that creature in the clearing, wondering if I actually saw an alien or not. I even asked my dad about it, and he just laughed it off. I couldn’t tell if he was faking or not.
I don’t know, and I’m not sure I ever will. But for the hundredth time since that weekend, I tell my friends, “I told you I saw something standing in the clearing as we were walking away.”
I wait for them to roll their eyes or laugh, like they have every other time I’ve said it this summer, but this time they don’t give me that reaction. This time I think they might believe me.
Taking a bite of pizza, I chew and swallow, thinking specifically about that afternoon in the clearing with the silver balls. “So, um, you guys ever think about that spy satellite system? I know Dad said they were testing it, but why this area? What do you think they were really looking for? Do you think there’s something hidden in one of the caves?”
I look at Rocky, Rocky looks at Fynn, Fynn looks at Beans, and then they all three look right at me. Though no one says it out loud, and it’s against all our parents’ rules and restrictions, I know they’re all thinking what I am:
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