"They don't look so tough now," Michael said, echoing Kyle's thoughts.

"We have to move quickly. Once they're in the air, we'll never see Liz again," Max said.

"What's the plan, Max?" Michael asked.

"No plan. We just go in and hit them with whatever we can, and we go from there," Max said.

"Looks like its about to go down on the street," Michael said.

"And we're not leaving until it's finished," Kyle added.

Michael gave Kyle a thin smile, but Kyle could see Michael's face setting into… what? His friend had had the same look during the confrontation with Gomer. Michael looked dangerous… and so did Max.

Kyle felt a rush of optimism and decided that he wouldn't want to be those aliens in the ship right now.

"Looks like they haven't turned on the cloaking device," Michael said.

"The what?" Kyle said.

"Whatever it is that creates the black cloud," Michael said.

"It might be a defensive weapon, or just a by-product of their energy source," Max said. "Let's hope we'll get close enough to do some damage before they turn it on. Let's go," Max said.

The boys moved quietly but quickly down the other side of the rocky hill. The ship was less than a football field's length from the bottom.

Kyle's heart was hammering in his chest, but not in fear. He remembered the feeling from the big games of his high school football career. He was "flipping the switch." That was what they had called it on the team. Flipping the switch was the change that came over you when you played the game. Athleticism could get you only so far on the field. To win, you had to turn a corner, you had to get aggressive. Kyle felt pretty aggressive now. He felt like he was ready for anything.

"Come on," Max said. "Let's get as close as we can with- out giving ourselves away.”

The trio had taken less than ten steps when Kyle heard a click from up ahead. Kyle kept moving until Max's hand went up and he said, "Stop.”

Instinctively, Kyle went as quiet as possible. Something was ahead of them, and Max was pointing to it.

There was that sound again, a high-pitched click, fol- lowed by another one. Kyle couldn't place the sound, then he realized he didn't like it… it sounded unnatural.

It took Kyle's eyes a moment to focus in the moonlight. Then he saw a figure up ahead. It was tall, taller than Michael… mabye seven feet in height. And though it was roughly the shape of a person, Kyle immediately knew that what he was looking at was no person.

He was looking at a monster… something out of a nightmare that Isabel and a girl named Jessica had shared.

The color of its reptilian-looking skin was hard to make out in the moonlight, but Isabel had called it brown and Kyle thought that was probably right. The shape of the head was the creepiest thing about it. The mouth was wide, but the head was relatively narrow at the top, and it came to a rough point in the back of the creature's skull. The yellow eyes were hard to look at. They had a mali- cious intelligence. And they were looking right at the three boys.

"He sees us," Max whispered.

"Why isn't he doing anything?" Michael wondered aloud.

"I don't think he takes us very seriously," Max replied.

Michael lifted his hand, "Well, he can take this seri- ously.”

"No," Kyle whispered back. "No fireworks or energy balls or whatever it is that you guys do. You'll sound what- ever kind of alarms they have. Let me take him the old- fashioned way. It'll be quick and quiet.”

Max turned his head in surprise.

"I've taken down two-hundred-and-sixty-pound defen- sive linemen on the field," Kyle said. "If I get into trouble, I'll call you and you can come back for me. Come on, we're losing time.”

As if to punctuate Kyle's comment, the ship began to hum. Then a few of the exterior lights switched on. If the ship took off…

Max studied him for a moment, "Okay. He's yours.”

Turning to Michael, Max said, "We'll circle around him and meet up at the center of the ship.”

Kyle nodded and took a step toward the creature. "Man, are you ugly," his whispered to himself.

Freshman year, the coach had decided that all the play- ers take a karate course offered by the phys ed depart- ment, for discipline. Like most of the guys on the squad, Kyle had not taken it very seriously, but there was one thing the instructor had said that Kyle had remembered. He had been showing them how to crack boards with their hands.

"Before you strike, see your hand breaking the board. If you can't see it, you'll never be able to do it," he had said.

This is just like the all county championships. Now there were some scary guys, Kyle thought.

Kyle noticed the creature eyeing him with interest. When it tilted its head, Kyle got the distinct impression that it was amused by him and his friends. There was a sound of footsteps from the direction that Max and Michael had gone. The creature's head turned quickly and scanned the area. It fixed on Max and Michael.

That was it. Kyle started running. He was less than fifty yards from the alien and he covered the ground quickly.

As he got closer he saw that the creature was fairly bulky up top… broad in the chest area. Its legs and lower body were thinner. Kyle knew what to do now. When he was only yards from the alien, he got himself ready and fought back the revulsion he felt.

Massive upper body means a higher center of gravity, he heard the coach say in his head. In that case, hit them low, the voice continued.

At the last second, he threw himself forward, at the crea- ture's lower thigh. He hit the creature with his shoulder. The creature didn't have time to move. The alien obviously didn't, think humans posed it a physical threat.

Then again, maybe he knows something we don't, Kyle thought as he took out his opponent with the best hit- and-wrap move of his post-football career. Like he learned on the team, he wrapped his arms around the alien's rough skin so it couldn't throw him off.

The rest was physics. The alien was going down.

He met with much less resistance than he expected. The creature immediately fell back, and Kyle realized that it was lighter than it looked. Though he couldn't be sure, Kyle thought he heard a solid snap as he made contact. Kyle and the creature went down together in a heap.

As soon as they hit the ground, he let go and scrambled to put some distance between himself and the alien as he tried to get to his feet at the same time.

Something grabbed his foot.

It's got me with its claw, Kyle thought, fighting down panic.

Kyle felt himself getting pulled closer to the creature and all he could think about was its wide mouth full of teeth. As he slid closer, Kyle heard a series of loud clicks from the alien. They went right through him and brought the panic closer to the surface. While he squirmed and tried to get away, Kyle felt the second claw trying to find purchase on his body.

I'm caught, his mind cried out.

Out of instinct, he reared up with one foot and slammed it where he thought the creature's head would be. He made contact with something and felt the second claw jab him in the stomach. He brought his foot down again and, this time, he heard a satisfying thud and knew he had landed a very solid blow. Kyle had hurt him. Sud- denly, the creature released him and… as far as Kyle could tell… went still. He wasn't sure, because he didn't turn around until he had scrambled several feet away.

When he did turn around, he saw the alien lying in a heap. It didn't move and had stopped making its horrible sounds.

Got him, Kyle realized. He had won one for his friends and for himself. A quick smiled formed on his lips, but Kyle knew they were a long way from done. He had to get to Max and Michael. Kyle pushed off the ground and found that he couldn't get up.