They Came From Planet Q Read Online Free PDF Page B

smoky red dust and across the ground. It looked fake-o, but what great B-Monster didn’t look fake-o? Leery knew what he was doing.
    The They Came from Planet Q theme music in the background swelled louder and louder and I clutched the armrests of my seat. In the background, a low rumbling thunder sounded like the worst storm ever was brewing.
    And then, just as I felt like I wasn’t scared anymore . . .
    Everything went black.
    The screening room was dead silent.
    â€œIs everyone all right?” I said softly.
    â€œYou mean even though it’s the end of the world as we know it?” Jesse said.
    But of course this was just a movie moment. Oswald Leery had us right where he wanted us. A beat later, the rumbling thunder sound effect started up again. There was a bright flash of red. Up on-screen, a faint glow took over the sky. Everything was red. A massive cluster of UFOs circled, headed for the ground, dropped down, and then descended into a wide crater. Dust blew everywhere.
    The narrator’s voice boomed: “Earthquakes! Panic! Fire! The bots from Planet Q would do whatever they could to get the last remaining firequartz stone in the universe!”
    Up on-screen, UFOs transformed into land-roving robots. The bots’ metal arms shook in the air. Crooked metal legs covered with loose treads moved across the dusty Earth. The robots probed at stuff with twitching metal antennae that curled out from their heads. Different sized lightbulbs flashed from their midsections, too. Their mouths opened wide, exposing rows of sharp metal. Their robot teeth looked like knives!
    The robots moved in and out of the canyon, trying to find the firequartz rock they needed. They moved with great speed at first, but then they started to slow. The journey across space to visit Earth, running on nothing more than firequartz dust, had wiped them out. Soon they would be powerless. But still, they kept up their search.
    Each time they dug into a stretch of land, the bots split the Earth and caused tremors and quakes all over. Tremors! That was the shaking we felt inside the mall when we were with Big Wally.
    Music played low in the background as the camera slowly pulled back and showed buildings crushed and towers toppling from an aerial view. There were people and cows and even chickens lying by the side of the road. Some had robot tire tracks on their bodies.
    â€œEwwwwwww!”
    My pulse raced hard.
    Up on the screen, out of the haze, a man appeared.
    Roger Rogers!
    In one hand, he carried a camera. My camera, to be exact! He took pictures of all the action around him. In his other hand, he carried something that looked like a gun . . . no, a power drill . . . no, a laser machine . . . no . . .
    What was that thing?
    He aimed it at a break in the firquartz. Then he took aim and fired. There was a blinding white light and then a red, smoky cloud. Before you could say Planet Q, the last remaining firequartz got zapped.
    It no longer had any power.
    â€œHow cool is that?” Damon whispered to me. “That zapper thing hits the firequartz with so much power and heat that it messes up the magnetic force.”
    All at once, the movie screen went black. Again.
    â€œIs the movie going to come back on in a minute?” I said.
    Unfortunately, it wasn’t. This was a real-life blackout. The projector’s backup generator had finally stopped, too, thanks to all that magnetic interference.
    â€œThis happens all the time at the Drive-O-Rama,” Damon mumbled, trying to sound like he wasn’t completely scared out of his wits. “T-t-technical difficulties, that’s all.”
    â€œUm . . . is anyone else scared?” I asked.
    Normally, I don’t lose it in the dark, but this was no ordinary dark. This was “we’re in a spooky castle and there’s a monster army of robots coming to get us in about five minutes” dark.
    We acted like we were so smart and in control. But it was the