Terror from Outer Space

by Robert Vernon

  In all the time Spence had known Mike, he’d never known Mike to tell a lie. So if his friend said that the water wasn’t real, Spence was going to do his best to believe him.

  “This isn’t real. This isn’t real. This isn’t real,” he repeated.

  Ben stumbled and then fell over a box as he tried to make his way to Winnie. He was having a tough go of it and could barely catch his breath. Not only was it difficult for him to see where he was going because of the darkness, but he also wasn’t nearly as thin as Winnie—which meant he couldn’t squeeze through areas she had. He got back to his feet and pushed a packing crate out of his way.

  “Hurry, Ben!” Winnie called over the radio.

  “Almost there, Winnie! I think I can see your flashlight up ahead!”

  “Ben!” It was Mike’s voice. “This is important! Go back and get Spence! We think he might be in some real trouble!”

  “But what about Winnie?” Ben asked, gasping for breath.

  “Forget about Winnie! This is urgent!”

  “What?” Winnie’s voice sounded furious. “‘Forget about Winnie?’ Let me tell you something, Mike Fowler!”

  Ben took a deep breath and started back the way he came. “I wish they’d just make up their minds,” he muttered.

  The water in the test chamber had risen higher than Spence was tall. But he discovered that he didn’t have to swim if he jammed his legs and free arm against one side of the tube and held his back against the other side. In this position he was able to shimmy toward the top of the tube, keeping his head and walkie-talkie a few inches above the rising water line.

  “Spence, are you hanging in there?” Mike asked over the walkie-talkie.

  “Yeah, but I think”—Spence accidentally took in a mouthful of water and coughed again—“I think I’m running out of time here!”

  Chapter 15

  BEN STAGGERED BACK to the large main room where the detectives had split up earlier. He could see the hallway that Spence had gone down, but he needed to catch his breath before he could continue on. He bent forward—with his hands on his knees—and took a couple of deep breaths.

  That’s when he heard the sound of a bouncing rubber ball. A bell inside the ball jingled each time the ball hit the ground.

  Ben didn’t even need to look up. The small red ball rolled to a stop between his feet. On the side of the ball there was a gold star. And in the middle of the star was the letter “C.”

  A hideous giggle came from someplace in the darkness and echoed off the walls.

  “Oh, no,” Ben groaned.

  “Ben? Are you on your way to Spence?” Mike’s voice asked from the walkie-talkie.

  “Mike, I’ve run into a slight snag.”

  “What kind of snag?”

  Ben already knew what he would see, but he had to look up anyway—just to confirm it.

  Twenty yards away, the figure of a clown emerged from the shadows. He had chalk-white skin, wild emerald-green hair, and a red rubber nose. He wore a purple ruffled suit emblazoned with stars, moons, and comets. His ruby-red lips pulled back to form a grin that was unnaturally wide—almost reaching to his ears.

  “It’s Clarence the Cosmic Clown.” Ben was barely able to say the words.

  “The clown from that comic book?” Mike asked. “Ben, go get Spence now! You know that clown can’t be real!”

  Clarence swaggered across the room and stopped directly in the path Ben would need to take to get to Spence. Reaching into his pocket, the clown pulled out a long balloon that immediately inflated in his hand. Clarence pantomimed a surprised look and let it drop to the floor. The balloon began to move on its own toward Ben, slithering across the floor like a snake.

  “Looks pretty real to me,” Ben’s voice trembled.

  “I promise you! None of what you’re seeing is real!”

  “That’s what you told Spence,” Ben reminded Mike.

  The balloon snake slowly wrapped itself around Ben’s ankle.

  Spence had shimmied to the top of the glass test chamber and could go no farther. His forehead was now against the ceiling, and the water continued to rise. He could hear Mike trying to get Winnie and Ben to help him, but it sounded like they had problems of their own. There was no longer room for the walkie-talkie to remain dry. As the water reached the mouthpiece Spence hit the button for one last transmission.

  “Would somebody—anybody—do something!”

  Mike and Commander Schaeffer listened helplessly to the calls for help. All Mike could do was try to encourage his friends.

  “C’mon, guys! Spence needs you!”

  “But these spiders.” Winnie’s voice was on the verge of tears. “Some of these things could eat a small dog!”

  “Winnie! Ben! You’ve got to listen to me,” Mike pleaded. “I’ve learned something very important lately. You can’t let your feelings mislead you. You’ve gotta trust what you know is true!”

  With no place left to run, Winnie found herself backed into the corner of the room. She stepped onto a chair to get off the floor, which was teeming with spiders. She tried to hang onto a nearby bulletin board, but it broke away from the wall and crashed to the floor. Winnie could now see a large gaping hole in the wall where the bulletin board had hung. Out of the dark cavity rose a spider that was as big as a dog.

  “It’s not real,” Mike’s voice repeated. “Trust what you know is true!”

  “I want to, Mike! But there’s a spider here that’s large enough to eat me!”

  “You know there’s no such thing! Winnie, you can beat this!”

  “How?”

  Mike’s voice remained calm. “Trust what you know to be true and take a step of faith.”

  With a sudden, quick burst of speed, the spider was now only a couple of feet away. Winnie could see herself reflected in all eight of its eyes. “I don’t think I can,” Winnie admitted.

  “Spence’s life is on the line!” Mike reminded her.

  “Okay, Mike. OKAY! I’ll try . . . for Spence!” Winnie reached a trembling hand toward the huge head of the spider. “There’s no such thing as giant, man-eating spiders. There’s no such thing as giant, man-eating spiders.”

  No longer able to look, Winnie closed her eyes tight and let out a small scream as she grabbed the head of the giant spider. It felt lumpy and full of strands, almost like the head of a mop.

  Winnie slowly opened her eyes to see . . . It was a mop! She was holding nothing more than the head of a mop! In fact, there wasn’t a trace of a single spider in the entire room.

  “It worked, Mike! It worked!”

  Ben stomped on the balloon snake that Clarence the Cosmic Clown had sent after him. It was a short-lived victory because Clarence had already moved on to juggling a series of balls. The crazed look in the clown’s eyes made his evil intentions clear.

  “All right, Ben,” Mike radioed. “You heard what happened to Winnie. Now it’s your turn!”

  “Yeah, okay.” Ben took a tentative step forward. “I think I’m ready.”

  “Just one step at a time,” Mike reminded him.

  As Ben walked forward, Clarence threw one of the balls at his feet. It exploded in a shower of sparks, smoke, and confetti. Ben let out a startled yell and ran back to the shelter of a large crate.

  “I want to believe you, Mike! I really do! He just seems so real!”

  In the conference room, Captain Schaeffer tapped Mike on the shoulder. “Your friend has probably only received a low exposure to the compound. Perhaps he’s open to a positive suggestion as well.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know exactly. But try to get him to think of something that he could use to fight back against his fear.”

  Mike thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “I think I’ve got it!”

  Ben had never been more afraid in all his life. He slowly peered around the crate he’d been hiding behind.

  Clarence the Clown stared at Ben from only a few yards away. He was illum
inated by a spotlight coming from some unknown source high in the warehouse. Steam-driven calliope music echoed faintly throughout the room.

  The clown pulled a multicolored pinwheel from behind his back and smiled, showing his crooked yellow teeth. He then blew into the pinwheel, causing its blades to spin round and round. It all looked rather innocent, but Ben knew better. Something bad was about to go down; it was just a matter of when.

  “Ben!” Mike’s sudden voice over the walkie-talkie startled Ben.

  “What?” Ben watched the blades of the pinwheel spin faster and faster. And grow larger and larger. They were almost hypnotic.

  “Remember when the Action Rangers met Clarence the Clown?” Mike asked.

  Clarence suddenly flicked the pinwheel toward Ben, and the spinning cluster of blades shot forward. It hit the crate next to Ben and tore right through it like a buzzsaw.

  “Right now’s not a good time to be discussing comic books, Mike!” Ben anxiously searched for something more solid to hide behind.

  “Yes, it is,” Mike insisted. “Think back, Ben! What was the one thing the Action Rangers used to beat Clarence?”

  Ben pushed over a stack of boxes toward Clarence. The clown easily jumped over the obstacle as if he had springs in his shoes.

  “Mike, I really don’t think I’m gonna come across an Action Ranger Cosmic Pie Launcher anytime soon!”

  “But, Ben, you’re holding one in your hands!”

  “Right! Good try, Mike. But, no, I’m not—” The words caught in Ben’s throat. He looked down into his hands and saw that he was holding the defensive weapon no Action Ranger would ever be caught without.

  “Wow!” Ben’s eyes filled with wonder. “An Official Model X-4 Plasma-Powered Coconut Custard Pie Cannon!”

  Clarence came to a halt as he, too, recognized what Ben was holding. The toothy smile quickly disappeared and the calliope music ground to a halt.

  “All right, Bozo!” Ben racked a round into the cannon’s chamber. “No more clowning around!”

  The glass tube that entrapped Spence was almost entirely filled with water. He gave up trying to save the walkie-talkie and let it sink to the bottom of the chamber. With only an inch of air left, Spence tilted his head back and filled his lungs with air one last time. A moment later the air pocket had completely disappeared. Spence started sinking to the bottom of the chamber and wondered how long he would be able to hold his breath.

  Clarence the Clown was no longer laughing. He desperately tried to get away as Ben fearlessly marched forward, shooting pies in his direction.

  “Oh yeah!” Ben yelled. “Now this is what I’m talking about!”

  The bazooka-sized cannon at his waist recoiled, again and again, unleashing an endless supply of coconut custard pies. Clarence yelped in fear and used his spring shoes to dodge from one side of the room to the other. Pies flew in all directions, splattering everything they hit.

  Ben switched the lever on his pie cannon to full-automatic and began spraying down the room unmercifully.

  Clarence upended a table and ducked behind it. Using the table as a shield, the clown picked it up and charged forward. Ben fired pie after pie—but it was useless; Clarence was too well protected.

  The onrushing table hit Ben in the chest and sent him sprawling onto the ground. The Plasma-Powered Coconut Custard Pie Cannon fell out of his arms and spun across the floor—disappearing in the shadows.

  Clarence didn’t waste any time. The clown dropped his shield and sprang forward. Ben rolled onto his back and looked up to see Clarence towering over him. The clown was holding four pinwheels. The blades began spinning faster and faster. Clarence threw his head back, laughing hysterically.

  Ben could see a twisted mixture of triumphant glee and pure deranged insanity in the clown’s crazed eyes.

  SMACK!

  A pie hit Clarence squarely in the face and splattered coconut custard over the wall behind him. The round rubber nose on his face let loose with a miserable squeak.

  “Say hello to my little friend!” Ben lay on the ground, holding a small, single-shot version of the pie cannon. “Action Rangers always carry a backup!”

  As the coconut custard slowly dripped down his face, Clarence began to fade away. Within moments he had completely disappeared, and all signs of the epic pie fight were gone.

  Winnie rushed into the room. She seemed startled to find Ben on the floor. “Well, what’re you doing just sitting there?”

  Ben began to explain, but Winnie rushed past him and sped down the hall. “C’mon! We gotta save Spence!”

  Chapter 16

  WHEN WINNIE RAN UP TO the experimental chamber, she thought she had arrived too late. Spence lay lifelessly near the bottom of the water-filled glass tube. As Ben ran up behind her, Winnie frantically searched for a handle or latch that would release the thick Plexiglas door.

  “Just open it!” Ben yelled.

  “There’s no handle!” Winnie screamed.

  Ben grabbed a nearby old wooden folding chair. “Stand back!”

  He swung the chair as hard as he could directly into the glass chamber. On impact, the chair splintered into many termite-infested pieces. It didn’t even crack the thick glass tube.

  “Oh no!” Winnie bitterly dropped to her knees beside the chamber, but then noticed that the chair’s impact had made Spence’s eyes blink open. “He’s not dead yet!”

  “Yeah, but he soon will be!” Ben cried.

  Spence wildly pointed at something at the base of the chamber.

  “What? What is it, Spence?” Winnie’s eyes followed to where Spence was pointing. In the dark, she could barely make out a small, two-inch metal square at the base of the chamber. “A foot lever!”

  Winnie smashed the lever down and the door sprung open, releasing a torrential wall of water. Spence was carried out with it—coughing, sputtering, and gasping for air.

  “Spence!” Ben ran to his side. “Holy smoke! You could’ve drowned in there!”

  Spence looked up at him in frustrated disbelief. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!”

  Mike and Commander Schaeffer impatiently paced the conference room, waiting to hear if Winnie and Ben had saved Spence in time.

  “Eagle One! We’ve got Spence!” Winnie’s voice reported over the radio.

  “Is he okay?” Mike asked.

  “Wet. But otherwise just fine!”

  “Great! Now you can get us out of here. We figure that we’re one floor up. Directly above the test chamber.”

  “We’re on our way,” Winnie assured him.

  “But be careful,” Mike warned. “I’m pretty sure they’ve got a guard stationed outside our door.”

  In the outer hallway, a guard sat at a small table, humming to himself while he played a game of solitaire.

  A rat suddenly ran out of a nearby doorway, darted directly toward him, and disappeared under the table. The startled guard yelled in surprise and jumped to his feet, knocking his playing cards off the table and across the floor.

  “Dirty rodents!” yelled the guard, embarrassed that he had allowed himself to be startled by such a small creature.

  The rat continued on its way down the hallway and scurried into a large storage closet.

  The guard couldn’t help himself. He just had to chase after it. Not that he was expecting to find anything. He knew that most rodents have a unique ability to disappear into the smallest of cracks. The guard stepped into the storage closet, snapped on his flashlight, and was surprised to spot the rodent immediately. The rat was in the far corner of the closet, running repeatedly into the wall. The rat finally hit so hard that it flipped over onto its back.

  And that’s when the guard realized he could hear the faint sound of motorized gears spinning. He took several steps deeper into the closet and crouched down to examine the rat. By the time he realized that it was a rubber decoy on a radio control car frame, the door behind him had slammed shut.

  Spence, who was still drip
ping wet, shoved a small metal pin into the storage closet door’s lock, and snapped it off. “That’ll hold him for a while.”

  “Way to go, Spence!” Ben exclaimed.

  “Yeah,” added Winnie. “That’s what I call a rat trap!”

  Ben found the guard’s key ring sitting on the table where he’d left it. Ben tossed it to Winnie, who was waiting by the conference room’s door. As she began trying various keys in the lock, Ben picked up his walkie-talkie.

  “Mike! The cavalry is here!”

  In the hangar adjacent to the conference room, Charles Munson watched his men offload the final items out of the space shuttle.

  “The air should be clear now. You can lose the gas masks,” he called to his men. “And get the Explorer rigged to blow! I don’t want a shred of evidence left behind!”

  “Sir!” A guard ran up, pointing to the walkie-talkie in his hand. “I came across some suspicious transmissions on another frequency and thought you should hear it!” The guard lifted his two-way radio so Munson could listen.

  “Mike, we’ll have you out of there in just a second,” a young girl’s voice said.

  “Way to go, Winnie!” the boy named Mike responded. “Just wait until you see who I have in here with me.”

  Munson’s face turned red with anger, and he grabbed his own walkie-talkie. “Shaw!” he shouted into the radio.

  There was no response. Only radio static.

  “Shaw!” Munson repeated. “What’s happening up there?”

  Still no response.

  Munson pointed at two of his nearby men. “Matthews! Duhame! Come with me! Hurry!”

  The conference room door swung open, and Mike and Commander Schaeffer rushed out into the hallway.

  Winnie wondered if she was seeing things again. “Commander Schaeffer?”