Signs

Ch. 4: It's Not Like They Didn't Warn Us.

A/N: (I'm in a large space ship with two aliens.) Hey every one! I'm going to Mars! (I look to the aliens) Hey guys, what's for dinner? (The aliens beep Morse code signals. They have forks and knives in their hands. They are looking at me.) Oh boy...


The next morning Heather, Dib, and Abri awoke to the sound and smell of cooking bacon.

"Ooooh, yum!" Abri muttered, yawning, she sat up. She looked confused.

"Um, Mrs. Greenwald," she said putting on her glasses.
"If I broke a couple of ribs, it would hurt to breathe, would it not?"

Mrs. Greenwald poked her head out through the kitchen doorway.

"I would certainly say so, why?" she asked, turning her attention back to the bacon.

Abri still looked confused.

"It doesn't hurt anymore..." she whispered.

Dib laughed.

"Whoa, it's like 'The Others'! Maybe you're really dead and we don't know."

Heather looked frightened.

"Stop it!" the five year old snapped at Dib.
"Abi's fine...Aren't you?" she asked, looking at the teenager.

Abri ran her fingers through her short brown hair.

"I- I'm not sure. I feel fine, but- how could five broken ribs heal overnight?" she whispered.

"I saw another one of those aliens last night." Dib whispered out of Heather's hearing range.

"What?!" Abri whispered.

"It was looking through the window- right at you. Maybe they can heal." Dib said.

"I think that they did that just so they could fight me again." Abri said, turning on the news.
"Sooner or later were are going to have to come clean about why we're here. This is bad, fifteen crop circles in India within the last 24 hours." she said.

Dib looked at the television.

"It's like War of the Worlds." he said.

Abri turned off the TV.

"I regret dissing H.G. Wells in literature class." she said.

They sat down at the dining room table. Breakfast was set before them but the paranormalists only picked at their food.

"Is something bothering you two?" asked Mrs. Greenwald.

Dib sighed.

"Oh, just realizing that we are now in the days of the end of- OW!" Dib said as Abri stepped hard on his foot. Abri cleared her throat.

"No, we're just not all that hungry." she said as Dib scowled at her. She put on a set of headphones. A CD player was in her hand, she pressed the play button. Heather's brother, Graham spoke up.

"Who are you listening to?" he asked.

Abri took a bite of a piece of bacon.

"Theory of a Dead Man." she said.

Graham smiled.

"You've got their new CD?" he asked.

Abri shook her head.

"Spider-Man soundtrack."

Graham's smile widened.

"You are my new best friend!" he said.

Abri smiled a little.

"If I die you can have it." she said.

Graham looked confused.

"Pardon?" he said.

"If something happens to me, which it most likely will, you can have my CD." Abri said simply.

Mrs. Greenwald looked as confused as her son.

"Tell, me again, why you two are here." she said.

Dib took a sip of orange juice and spoke.

"We are paranormal investigators. We came here to investigate the crop circle in your field. We were just going to look and run, but Abri here had to go all motherly, when she saw Heather crying in a rocking chair on the front porch." he said.

Abri stood up.

"Thank you for your hospitality ma'am. We'd better get going." she said. She and Dib turned and walked out of the kitchen. Heather jumped out of her chair and ran out the kitchen door. Mrs. Greenwald stood up and tried to stop her, but the little girl was too fast. She ran up to Abri and threw her arms around her legs, sobbing.

"I don't want you to go!" she said.

Abri was startled, she bent down and looked Heather in the eye.

"I have to go. Dib and I can't stay here. There are other pretty pictures we have to go look at in other fields." she said, remembering the story she told the five year old the night before.

"You never told me how the story ends." Heather said.

Abri closed her eyes and sighed. She didn't want to frighten the girl, but she didn't want to lie to her ether. But the second choice was the only way.

"Well, after the bad thing left, the other bad things realized that the two good people who came to look at the pictures couldn't be stopped. So they stopped making the pictures and went away. The little girl was sad when the good people had to leave. They told her that they would be back. They said that if the bad things came back, they'd come back too. They didn't want the little girl or her family to get hurt." Abri said.

Heather looked at Abri in the eyes.

"That's not really how it will end will it?" she asked quietly.

Abri's mouth fell open slightly.

"I hope it ends that way." she whispered.

Heather handed Abri her teddy bear.

"Here." she said.

Abri looked startled.

"No, I couldn't. But I've got something for you." she said, she pulled her rosary out of her pocket.
"Here. It helped me whenever I got scared. Say," she looked at Heather's bear.
"It can be a necklace for your teddy bear." she said, putting the rosary around the bear's neck.
She stood up and opened the door. Dib handed Heather a piece of paper.

"Give that to your mom, okay? It my cell phone number, tell her if any of the bad things come back, call us and we'll be back." he said.

Heather stepped out on the front porch and nodded, hugging her bear.

Abri and Dib walked down the road. They both looked back and saw Heather standing there, waving. Abri sighed.

"Nice kid." she said.

Dib laughed.

"Why were you acting all motherly to her?" he asked.

Abri chuckled.

"Hey, I've got three kid brothers, I can't help it." she said. They didn't talk again until they were a mile down the road.

"Can I use you're phone?" she asked.

Dib pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and handed it to her.

Abri dialed a number and spoke.

"Yes, may I speak with Agent Black Hawk, please? Fine I'll hold." she said as she walked, Dib knew she had dialed the Swollen Eyeball society number. Abri was getting impatient.

"C'mon, pick up, pick up , pick up- Arwin! Lady Thrax here- yes, I'm fine, listen have you seen the news?! 15 crop circles in India within the last 24 hours! Don't get cute with me, I know that I am wrong now. I now know that crop circles mean something. If only we knew how to decode them... Wh- what's so funny? Zeek just got fired?" she said.

Dib heard the voice on the other side. It sounded like a young British man.

"Yeah, he's going around shouting, 'my life is over'! it's rather funny." said the British guy.

Abri chuckled.

"I'll go lower the flag to half mast." she said sarcastically.

Dib heard Arwin again.

"Do you want to go see 'Signs' tomorrow?" he asked.

Abri sighed.

"Arwin, we don't need to see it, we're living it. Keep tabs on any newspaper, media, or radio report you hear." she said.

Dib stopped and looked at the sky, he pulled on Abri's arm. Abri turned was about to speak when suddenly the phone died. Birds began flying in every direction. Dib pointed at the sky, a strange V-shaped object with bright lights hovered slowly in the sky.

"Don't blink." he said.

Abri pulled out a pair of binoculars.

"That ain't no government air craft." she whispered.

Dib pulled out a camera and began snapping photos. Neither of them blinked. Suddenly, the object vanished.

Dib smiled.

"If you could have David Ducoveni, better known as Muldar, or Mel Gibson here with you, who would it be?" he asked.

Abri gritted her teeth in thought.

"Um, Mel definitely." she said. The cell phone rang. Abri answered it.

"Hello?"

Arwin spoke in a frightened voice.

"Abri, you know that house that you and Dib were just at?"

Both Abri and Dib felt dread begin to grow in their stomachs.

"Y-yes. Why, what's wrong?" she stuttered.

"Get down there now!" Arwin said.

"What happened at that house, Arwin?!" Abri shouted into the mouthpiece.
"Tell me, dammit!" she said. Suddenly she dropped the phone, she looked up and saw more of the V-shaped crafts in the air.

"God Almighty." she whispered. She and Dib ran back to the farmhouse. They stopped when they turned the corner.

The house lay in ruins. Smoke was still hanging in the air. The two paranormalists silently prayed that Mrs. Greenwald and her family were still alive. Dib and Abri sifted through the wreckage. Mrs. Greenwald and Graham were dead, but Heather was missing. Abri looked around, calling Heather's name. She tripped over something. She stepped back and fell to her knees.

"No... Oh God no." she whispered. A small arm was lying underneath some wreckage. A brown, soot- covered teddy bear lay next to the arm. A red and gold rosary was wrapped around the hand. Abri pulled back the burned wood and debris. What she saw made her fight to hold back tears.

Heather was dead. She lay there, her face streaked with soot and cuts. She was still clothed in her nightgown. Abri broke down.

"Oh God." she whispered.
"Oh God, oh God. I know what crop circles mean now." she said, raising and looking at Dib.

Dib nodded.

"I do too. They are targets for aliens to come and blow up the houses. It's final, we're at war." he said.

Abri nodded. Dib went on.

"It's going to be like no war in recorded history. It's going to be the War of the Worlds."

A/N: Stupid crop circle documentaries! Stupid H.G. Wells! Anywhoozle..I didn't want to kill Mrs. Greenwald and family, but- sadly, it made a good plot twist. I'm gonna go cry...(Sniff)