Invaders From Mars Read Online Free PDF Page B

fell on his face, taking out a quarter of the city. His legs continued to walk as he rocked back and forth, eating sand.
    “Why don’t you bring Tokyo back to the house. Dinner’s almost ready.” He started back over the hill.
    David turned off Godzilla, got on his knees and started to gather up the city and cars. He tried to get up, but fell forward. Something was holding his left foot.
    David froze, clutching the buildings and cars to his chest. He tugged his foot again, but couldn’t pull it away. The toys slid from his arms and quietly scattered on the sand. David’s mouth was suddenly dry and hanging open, his breath drawing in and out a bit faster. He could feel pressure on each side of his foot. He pulled one more time, weakly, but it wouldn’t let go.
    Images began to form in his mind: a hand? A claw reaching out of the smooth white sand?
    Adrenaline surged through David and a sudden chill blanketed his whole body as he watched his dad disappear over the crest of Copper Hill.
    Something green, maybe? Something with scales and talons? Something very strong that might begin to pull him, drag him down into the sand? Something that might, at that very moment, be rising out of the sand behind him, reaching for his back with its other claw? He couldn’t bring himself to look over his shoulder.
    A whimper quivered from David and turned into a scream as he tore himself away and frantically crawled across the sand. “Dad!” He kicked up sand as he got to his feet and ran, stumbling across the pit toward the trail, shimmying up the incline to Dad, who was already hurrying back over the hill. “Dad!” David gasped, grabbing his dad’s hand and pulling him down the drop-off and onto the sand, pointing.
    “What, Champ? What is it?” Dad asked, startled by David’s outburst.
    “Some—something in the—” David stopped, staring at the spot where he’d been playing. The toys were scattered over the sand. A few feet from them, a half-buried branch stuck out of the white sand, one forked end lying where David’s foot had been.
    The fear subsided rapidly and David lowered his arm, his mouth still open. It had just been a branch caught on his sneaker. He looked up at his dad, who was still anxiously awaiting an explanation.
    David remembered something that Dr. Wycliffe had asked: “David, do you ever imagine things when you’re awake? Things that don’t seem like a nightmare, but seem real? It’s important that you tell me so I can help you.” He remembered the doctor’s “too-pay,” his squeaky voice, and snapped his mouth shut, blinking a few times. He didn’t want Dr. Wycliffe’s help, and if Dad thought he was having nightmares while he was awake, he just might have to go back to that fat little man behind the big desk.
    Swallowing hard, David said, “Nothing, Dad. I guess it was nothing.”
    Dad looked from David to the branch, then back to David again, smiling. He seemed to know then what had happened and he squeezed David’s shoulder.
    “Okay, Champ. If you say so. C’mon back to the house now.”
    “Yeah, I’m coming.” David went back to his toys and slowly began to pick them up again, keeping an eye on the branch.
    Must’ve been buried in the sand, he thought, and my foot pulled it out.
    It certainly looked like a claw with bony, crooked fingers, slowly rising from the sand, ready to grab and hold whatever or whoever might be in reach.
    Only a branch, he said to himself silently.
    Just the same, he kept his distance.
    The night settled slowly and comfortably over David’s house and yard, over the quiet hill in back. There was no breeze to stir the scrub pines into which the crooked trail disappeared, and they remained perfectly still, standing like guards over the hill’s surroundings.
    The peacefulness was suddenly broken by the hollow, metallic scream of the back screen door as David and his dad came out into the back yard. They’d turned out all the back lights so the yard was dark.