-o0o-

"Come on, Petal! You're being ridiculous!"

"No," she snapped, adjusting the fit of her tinfoil hat, "You're staying right there where I can keep an eye on you."

Trevor squirmed in his restraints. "This is absurd!"

"Too right! Giant spaceship over head, then you climbing on top of the garden wall like some sort of zombie, what were you thinking, Trev? I'm not taking any chances!" Petal wrapped a final loop of duct tape around him, securing her brother—and his fuzzy dressing gown—to the chair, finishing the job by plunking a tinfoil hat on his head.

"Petal, honestly! You really think tinfoil's gonna help?"

"I didn't go climbing the garden wall, did I? Face it, I was right this time."

Trevor rolled his eyes. "So what? Even a broken clock is right twice a day. It's a signal hijacking, Petal. It's another hoax, just like that crash into Big Ben. You'll see."

Petal was unconvinced. "If it was a hoax, why'd they blow up Downing Street, then? There's things going on out there, Trev. Weird, alien things they don't want us knowing about. I'm sorry you're too thick to see the truth."

Petal was about to remind her addled brother of that incident with the shop dummies, when there was suddenly a mighty crash in the garden. She yelped in terror and leapt behind Trevor's chair, shielding herself.

"What the hell was that?!" Trevor exclaimed.

"They've landed!" Petal shrieked, cursing herself for not forcing Trevor to wear the tin hat earlier on. The aliens had probably already locked onto every house where someone had gone wall-climbing-zombie and were invading there first.

"Get hold of yourself. I think something just fell. Un-tape me and I'll go see what it was."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Petal retorted sharply, still huddled safely behind him.

"Yes."

Petal stared around his chair, to the French doors that led out into the back garden. They were mud-splattered from whatever had just landed out there. The choices were frighteningly diverse. "It could be anything. A bomb, or a robot probe or a piece of the spaceship falling off—"

"Then go have a look."

"It could be dangerous!"

"Then let me go have a look."

"That could be just what they want us to do."

"Petal! Stop being strange and go see what fell into the bloody garden!" Trevor finally demanded.

Petal hesitated. "We'll go together and look," she decided, tearing Trevor's duct tape restraints.

He stood up and immediately crumpled his tinfoil hat into a ball. He tossed it straight at Petal's head. "I think the only weird alien thing round here is you," he grumbled, marching to the French doors and yanking them open.

"Trev, wait!" Petal squeaked.

"Oh my—!" Trevor froze in the doorway, mouth agape.

"What?" Petal queried (still safely behind the chair).

Trevor stared out for a few seconds longer, then quickly slammed the doors shut again and joined Petal behind the chair.

"What was it?!" she demanded.

Trevor stared past her, wild-eyed. Petal shook him roughly. Finally blinking, Trevor swatted her hands away. "It—there's…" Looking at Petal again, he suddenly swiped her tinfoil hat and plunked it onto his own head. "An alien crashed into the garden!"