War of the Worlds, Chapter 3
By Lucky_Ladybug
Mr. Smith was just staring at the little green men, totally dumbstruck.
"Observation?" Mr. Jones repeated. "But why?"
"We want to see . . . what makes you tick," one of men replied.
Finally Mr. Smith seemed to find his voice. "Why can't you just observe us here on Earth?"
"We have been," another one said. "Now we want to see how you react in a different environment!"
"This is outrageous!" Mr. Smith exclaimed. "What if we don't want to go?"
The men didn't answer. One of them had pulled out some kind of scanning device, and seemed to be intently staring at the readings on the small monitor.
"They don't seem to be human!" one whispered in hushed tones.
"Oh, great!" Mr. Smith muttered. "Now they'll *really* want us!"
"What are they, then?" another asked.
The one with the scanner shrugged.
"Maybe they are from the planet Orb," a third suggested, looking frightened.
"What are they talking about?" Mr. Smith wondered.
"Play along," Mr. Jones advised. "Maybe they'll leave us alone."
"They are more powerful than us, whatever they are!" the first declared, turning off the scanner.
"We must leave them be!" the second exclaimed.
Without warning, there was a burst of smoke. When it cleared, the little men were gone.
"Well, that was a strange experience," Mr. Jones commented.
"'Strange'?" Mr. Smith repeated. "That wasn't strange---that was totally wacked out!"
"Well, I suppose we can't tell anyone about this," Mr. Jones sighed.
"They'd throw us in the nut house," Mr. Smith agreed. "We'd be a whole lot of help in there!"
"We'll keep it to ourselves for a while," Mr. Jones agreed.
******
Later that day, Mark was in his office going over some files when Delores peeked in.
"There's someone to see you, Mark," she announced.
Mark looked up. "Oh? Who?"
Before Delores could answer, a short, balding, slightly overweight man walked in. He carried a briefcase and was listening to a portable radio with headphones.
"Hello, Doctor Bone!" he exclaimed.
Delores gave Mark a strange look. "'Doctor Bone'?" she repeated.
Mark chuckled. "He never has got my name right." To the new arrival, he said, "Hello, Attorney Evans!"
"This fella's an attorney?" Delores said to herself, looking him up and down.
"Oh, Doctor Bone, I was just in town and thought I'd drop by to say hello," Attorney Evans chirped. He rushed on, "I'm thinking of permanently moving out here, Los Angeles is such a beautiful city!" Attorney Evans had a small law firm back in Mayberry, North Carolina, but occasionally his cases took him out to other states.
"Oh? But what about your practice back in Mayberry?" Mark asked.
"You say why did I buy a laptop in a bayberry?" Attorney Evans asked, puzzled.
Delores, who was still hanging around, turned to Mark. "What is it with this guy?" she asked.
Mark shook his head, slightly amused. "Well, he never goes anywhere without his radio. Usually he turns the volume up so loud, he can't hear anything else." Raising his voice, he called, "Attorney, turn your radio down!"
"No, I didn't burn my stereo!" Attorney Evans said in amazement.
Mark got up, walked over to the Attorney, and removed one of his headphones. "I said, turn your radio down!"
"Oh. Well, why didn't you say so?" Attorney Evans complied.
Mark sighed in relief. "Now, if you moved out here, Attorney, what would happen to your practice back in Mayberry?"
"My brother would take it over," Attorney Evans replied. "We've been talking about it, and he said he'd like a chance to be the head of the firm. I'd open my own out here, or join one already in existance. I have a few lawyer friends out here." The Attorney paused, then said out of the blue, "You know, I saw some little green men climbing into a strange saucer on my way in here."
Mark, who was sitting on the edge of his desk, nearly fell off. "What?"
"Oh, yes," the Attorney said. "I remember thinking, I wonder if they're aliens, but then I didn't pay any more attention to it because I was listening to Kerry, my favorite disc jockey."
"Aliens!" Delores repeated. "Mercy me!" she exclaimed in a long drawn-out voice.
"Attorney, where was this?" Mark asked.
Attorney Evans paused. "Well, I suppose it was around to the side," he said. He checked his watch. "About fifteen or twenty minutes ago."
Suddenly his pager beeped. Attorney Evans looked at the number. "Oh, it's my client! I'll have to go! I'll see you later, Doctor Bone!" Hurriedly, he rushed out the door, turning up the volume on his radio until Mark and Delores could hear it through the headphones.
"Now he's a strange one," Delores commented. "Where in the world did you meet him?"
Mark grinned at the memory. "Well, last October, he was trying to call a Marine friend of his, and he got the number wrong and called Community General instead. Somehow we met up just as I was going off to investigate a house reported to be haunted and he decided to tag along. We've been friends ever since." He paused, suddenly growing serious again. "I wonder about those green men he saw," he mused. "I wonder if they were in the hospital. . . ." He suddenly turned and hurried out the door.
"Hey, where you off to?" Delores asked.
"I'm going to find out if anyone else saw the green men," Mark replied.
******
Mr. Smith was sorting through some more papers when Mr. Jones came up to him. "Hey, did you hear?" he asked.
Mr. Smith looked up. "Hear what?"
"A friend of Dr. Sloan's saw some little green men leaving the hospital," Mr. Jones replied. "Now Dr. Sloan is going around asking everyone if they saw them too."
"Wow," Mr. Smith said. "Do you think we should tell him our story?"
"I suppose," Mr. Jones mused. "I hope it won't start an international panic, though."
"We'll just have to make sure that what we say doesn't leave these four walls," Mr. Smith said.
"Let's go find Dr. Sloan, then." Mr. Jones started off down the hall. Mr. Smith hurriedly refiled the papers he had been going through and took off after him.
******
As they wandered through the halls of corridors, they met up with Jack and Amanda, who were talking about some Dr. Winfield.
"Hey," Mr. Smith greeted them.
"Hey," Amanda replied.
"I guess that was some experience you had, Jack," Mr. Smith commented.
Jack sighed. "Yeah. Pretty strange. And Dr. Winfield has totally flown the coop."
"We've looked everywhere for him," Amanda added. "With no luck."
Just then Jesse came along. "Hey guys," he said. "I found something interesting in Dr. Winfield's locker."
"Yeah? What?" Jack asked.
"A receipt for a stun gun," Jesse replied, holding the paper up in a plastic bag.
"Sounds like we have a closed case," Jack said. "Winfield owns a stun gun. He's no doubt the one who knocked me silly."
"Yes, but why?" Amanda wondered. "We still don't know the 'why' of the matter!"
Jack sighed. "That's true."
"Well, hope you guys can figure things out," Mr. Smith said. "We'll see you later."
They exchanged goodbyes and then Smith and Jones continued on down the hall. Suddenly they heard a patient in a room nearby complaining loudly. Curious, the duo peeked into the room.
"There's too much racket going on here!" the patient shrilled. She noticed Mr. Smith and her eyes widened. "You!" she exclaimed. "You're back! Haven't you caused enough trouble?"
Mr. Smith was baffled. "Huh?"
"You . . . You came in and went through all my things, and then you just disappeared in a cloud of smoke!" the patient yelled.
"Ma'am, you must have me confused with someone else," Mr. Smith said.
"No, no, it was you, barbarian!" the patient screamed. She paused. "You certainly changed clothes in a hurry! You were wearing a leather jacket and white T-shirt. And how did you manage to disappear like you did?"
"Hold on a minute," Mr. Smith, holding up his hands. "Something's not quite right here. I would never go through someone's personal belongings."
"Of course you would deny it!" the patient yelled.
Mr. Smith turned to Mr. Jones. "Do you know what's going on here?" he asked.
Mr. Jones sighed, then slowly nodded. "Othniel told me that there would be many complications to this case. He mentioned that an evil spirit from Purgatory might try to impersonate you."
"What?" Mr. Smith burst out. "Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Othniel said you'd find out when the time was right," Mr. Jones replied.
Mr. Smith sighed. "Othniel sure is hard to figure out sometimes." Then he grinned. "Of course, the bad guys always screw up somewhere. They didn't realize that when I'm wearing the leather jacket and T-shirt, no one can see me."
"What are you two conspiring over there?" the patient demanded.
Mr. Smith gave the patient a long look, then turned to Mr. Jones. "Do you think we should reveal ourselves?"
Mr. Jones paused. "Well, your evil twin might try to convince her that we're the bad guys . . ."
"He's already done that!" Mr. Smith sighed.
". . . but," Mr. Jones continued, "I have a feeling that she could be a big help on this case, so I would say we should tell her the whole story."
Smith and Jones slowly walked over to the patient's bed.
"Ruby Henry," Mr. Smith began.
"How do you know my real name?" the patient asked. "I never use that name anymore. Everyone knows me as Paula Mason."
Mr. Jones smiled. "God knows your real name, Ruby."
Ruby sat up straight in her bed. "Are you angels?" she asked.
Mr. Smith grinned. "Not quite. We're kinda like heavenly guides."
"We're working undercover here at the hospital," Mr. Jones added.
"We don't want to worry anyone, but we're here to stop an alien invasion," Mr. Smith said.
Ruby didn't seem worried. "Aliens? Oh, I knew there were some little creatures running around up to no good, but I could never get anyone to believe me."
"Apparantly, the case is deeper than we thought," Mr. Smith continued. "That guy you saw snooping around is an evil spirit trying to impersonate me."
Ruby was outraged. "This is terrible!" She looked closely at Mr. Smith. "I don't know how I ever mistook him for you. His eyes were so cold and unfeeling. Yours are warm and full of compassion. I will do anything I can to help!"
"We were hoping you'd say that," Mr. Jones said. "Just tell us if you ever see his evil twin again."
"And I have a feeling you will," Mr. Smith added.
"I most certainly will!" Ruby declared. "Anything else?"
Mr. Smith grinned. "One more thing. Please don't tell anyone who we really are. We can't have our cover blown."
Ruby gave them a conspiratory smile. "My lips are sealed!"
******
As Smith and Jones left Ruby's room to resume the search for Mark, a million thoughts went around in Mr. Smith's mind. He'd had no idea that there was anyone else involved in this besides aliens. This was much more serious than he'd thought.
By Lucky_Ladybug
Mr. Smith was just staring at the little green men, totally dumbstruck.
"Observation?" Mr. Jones repeated. "But why?"
"We want to see . . . what makes you tick," one of men replied.
Finally Mr. Smith seemed to find his voice. "Why can't you just observe us here on Earth?"
"We have been," another one said. "Now we want to see how you react in a different environment!"
"This is outrageous!" Mr. Smith exclaimed. "What if we don't want to go?"
The men didn't answer. One of them had pulled out some kind of scanning device, and seemed to be intently staring at the readings on the small monitor.
"They don't seem to be human!" one whispered in hushed tones.
"Oh, great!" Mr. Smith muttered. "Now they'll *really* want us!"
"What are they, then?" another asked.
The one with the scanner shrugged.
"Maybe they are from the planet Orb," a third suggested, looking frightened.
"What are they talking about?" Mr. Smith wondered.
"Play along," Mr. Jones advised. "Maybe they'll leave us alone."
"They are more powerful than us, whatever they are!" the first declared, turning off the scanner.
"We must leave them be!" the second exclaimed.
Without warning, there was a burst of smoke. When it cleared, the little men were gone.
"Well, that was a strange experience," Mr. Jones commented.
"'Strange'?" Mr. Smith repeated. "That wasn't strange---that was totally wacked out!"
"Well, I suppose we can't tell anyone about this," Mr. Jones sighed.
"They'd throw us in the nut house," Mr. Smith agreed. "We'd be a whole lot of help in there!"
"We'll keep it to ourselves for a while," Mr. Jones agreed.
******
Later that day, Mark was in his office going over some files when Delores peeked in.
"There's someone to see you, Mark," she announced.
Mark looked up. "Oh? Who?"
Before Delores could answer, a short, balding, slightly overweight man walked in. He carried a briefcase and was listening to a portable radio with headphones.
"Hello, Doctor Bone!" he exclaimed.
Delores gave Mark a strange look. "'Doctor Bone'?" she repeated.
Mark chuckled. "He never has got my name right." To the new arrival, he said, "Hello, Attorney Evans!"
"This fella's an attorney?" Delores said to herself, looking him up and down.
"Oh, Doctor Bone, I was just in town and thought I'd drop by to say hello," Attorney Evans chirped. He rushed on, "I'm thinking of permanently moving out here, Los Angeles is such a beautiful city!" Attorney Evans had a small law firm back in Mayberry, North Carolina, but occasionally his cases took him out to other states.
"Oh? But what about your practice back in Mayberry?" Mark asked.
"You say why did I buy a laptop in a bayberry?" Attorney Evans asked, puzzled.
Delores, who was still hanging around, turned to Mark. "What is it with this guy?" she asked.
Mark shook his head, slightly amused. "Well, he never goes anywhere without his radio. Usually he turns the volume up so loud, he can't hear anything else." Raising his voice, he called, "Attorney, turn your radio down!"
"No, I didn't burn my stereo!" Attorney Evans said in amazement.
Mark got up, walked over to the Attorney, and removed one of his headphones. "I said, turn your radio down!"
"Oh. Well, why didn't you say so?" Attorney Evans complied.
Mark sighed in relief. "Now, if you moved out here, Attorney, what would happen to your practice back in Mayberry?"
"My brother would take it over," Attorney Evans replied. "We've been talking about it, and he said he'd like a chance to be the head of the firm. I'd open my own out here, or join one already in existance. I have a few lawyer friends out here." The Attorney paused, then said out of the blue, "You know, I saw some little green men climbing into a strange saucer on my way in here."
Mark, who was sitting on the edge of his desk, nearly fell off. "What?"
"Oh, yes," the Attorney said. "I remember thinking, I wonder if they're aliens, but then I didn't pay any more attention to it because I was listening to Kerry, my favorite disc jockey."
"Aliens!" Delores repeated. "Mercy me!" she exclaimed in a long drawn-out voice.
"Attorney, where was this?" Mark asked.
Attorney Evans paused. "Well, I suppose it was around to the side," he said. He checked his watch. "About fifteen or twenty minutes ago."
Suddenly his pager beeped. Attorney Evans looked at the number. "Oh, it's my client! I'll have to go! I'll see you later, Doctor Bone!" Hurriedly, he rushed out the door, turning up the volume on his radio until Mark and Delores could hear it through the headphones.
"Now he's a strange one," Delores commented. "Where in the world did you meet him?"
Mark grinned at the memory. "Well, last October, he was trying to call a Marine friend of his, and he got the number wrong and called Community General instead. Somehow we met up just as I was going off to investigate a house reported to be haunted and he decided to tag along. We've been friends ever since." He paused, suddenly growing serious again. "I wonder about those green men he saw," he mused. "I wonder if they were in the hospital. . . ." He suddenly turned and hurried out the door.
"Hey, where you off to?" Delores asked.
"I'm going to find out if anyone else saw the green men," Mark replied.
******
Mr. Smith was sorting through some more papers when Mr. Jones came up to him. "Hey, did you hear?" he asked.
Mr. Smith looked up. "Hear what?"
"A friend of Dr. Sloan's saw some little green men leaving the hospital," Mr. Jones replied. "Now Dr. Sloan is going around asking everyone if they saw them too."
"Wow," Mr. Smith said. "Do you think we should tell him our story?"
"I suppose," Mr. Jones mused. "I hope it won't start an international panic, though."
"We'll just have to make sure that what we say doesn't leave these four walls," Mr. Smith said.
"Let's go find Dr. Sloan, then." Mr. Jones started off down the hall. Mr. Smith hurriedly refiled the papers he had been going through and took off after him.
******
As they wandered through the halls of corridors, they met up with Jack and Amanda, who were talking about some Dr. Winfield.
"Hey," Mr. Smith greeted them.
"Hey," Amanda replied.
"I guess that was some experience you had, Jack," Mr. Smith commented.
Jack sighed. "Yeah. Pretty strange. And Dr. Winfield has totally flown the coop."
"We've looked everywhere for him," Amanda added. "With no luck."
Just then Jesse came along. "Hey guys," he said. "I found something interesting in Dr. Winfield's locker."
"Yeah? What?" Jack asked.
"A receipt for a stun gun," Jesse replied, holding the paper up in a plastic bag.
"Sounds like we have a closed case," Jack said. "Winfield owns a stun gun. He's no doubt the one who knocked me silly."
"Yes, but why?" Amanda wondered. "We still don't know the 'why' of the matter!"
Jack sighed. "That's true."
"Well, hope you guys can figure things out," Mr. Smith said. "We'll see you later."
They exchanged goodbyes and then Smith and Jones continued on down the hall. Suddenly they heard a patient in a room nearby complaining loudly. Curious, the duo peeked into the room.
"There's too much racket going on here!" the patient shrilled. She noticed Mr. Smith and her eyes widened. "You!" she exclaimed. "You're back! Haven't you caused enough trouble?"
Mr. Smith was baffled. "Huh?"
"You . . . You came in and went through all my things, and then you just disappeared in a cloud of smoke!" the patient yelled.
"Ma'am, you must have me confused with someone else," Mr. Smith said.
"No, no, it was you, barbarian!" the patient screamed. She paused. "You certainly changed clothes in a hurry! You were wearing a leather jacket and white T-shirt. And how did you manage to disappear like you did?"
"Hold on a minute," Mr. Smith, holding up his hands. "Something's not quite right here. I would never go through someone's personal belongings."
"Of course you would deny it!" the patient yelled.
Mr. Smith turned to Mr. Jones. "Do you know what's going on here?" he asked.
Mr. Jones sighed, then slowly nodded. "Othniel told me that there would be many complications to this case. He mentioned that an evil spirit from Purgatory might try to impersonate you."
"What?" Mr. Smith burst out. "Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Othniel said you'd find out when the time was right," Mr. Jones replied.
Mr. Smith sighed. "Othniel sure is hard to figure out sometimes." Then he grinned. "Of course, the bad guys always screw up somewhere. They didn't realize that when I'm wearing the leather jacket and T-shirt, no one can see me."
"What are you two conspiring over there?" the patient demanded.
Mr. Smith gave the patient a long look, then turned to Mr. Jones. "Do you think we should reveal ourselves?"
Mr. Jones paused. "Well, your evil twin might try to convince her that we're the bad guys . . ."
"He's already done that!" Mr. Smith sighed.
". . . but," Mr. Jones continued, "I have a feeling that she could be a big help on this case, so I would say we should tell her the whole story."
Smith and Jones slowly walked over to the patient's bed.
"Ruby Henry," Mr. Smith began.
"How do you know my real name?" the patient asked. "I never use that name anymore. Everyone knows me as Paula Mason."
Mr. Jones smiled. "God knows your real name, Ruby."
Ruby sat up straight in her bed. "Are you angels?" she asked.
Mr. Smith grinned. "Not quite. We're kinda like heavenly guides."
"We're working undercover here at the hospital," Mr. Jones added.
"We don't want to worry anyone, but we're here to stop an alien invasion," Mr. Smith said.
Ruby didn't seem worried. "Aliens? Oh, I knew there were some little creatures running around up to no good, but I could never get anyone to believe me."
"Apparantly, the case is deeper than we thought," Mr. Smith continued. "That guy you saw snooping around is an evil spirit trying to impersonate me."
Ruby was outraged. "This is terrible!" She looked closely at Mr. Smith. "I don't know how I ever mistook him for you. His eyes were so cold and unfeeling. Yours are warm and full of compassion. I will do anything I can to help!"
"We were hoping you'd say that," Mr. Jones said. "Just tell us if you ever see his evil twin again."
"And I have a feeling you will," Mr. Smith added.
"I most certainly will!" Ruby declared. "Anything else?"
Mr. Smith grinned. "One more thing. Please don't tell anyone who we really are. We can't have our cover blown."
Ruby gave them a conspiratory smile. "My lips are sealed!"
******
As Smith and Jones left Ruby's room to resume the search for Mark, a million thoughts went around in Mr. Smith's mind. He'd had no idea that there was anyone else involved in this besides aliens. This was much more serious than he'd thought.