When Arthur returned home that evening, he was surprised to see his parents collapsed on the living room couch, totally exhausted. The TV was turned on, with a newscaster presenting the latest rhino statistics.

"Uh...Mom, Dad, I'm home," he announced.

"Urgh," said Mr. and Mrs. Read, nodding weakly.

In the kitchen, Kate sat in her high chair, crying and throwing food. Arthur glanced at her and found, to his relief, that she was still human...or, rather, aardvark.

"It must not affect babies," he told himself.

Then he heard loud pounding noises coming from his bedroom. He vaulted up the stairway, threw open the door...and gasped in utter horror.

His bedroom looked like it had been hit by a weapon of mass destruction. His mattress had been ripped open, feathers blanketed the floor, the toys had been flung from the shelves, the mirror was shattered, holes had been punched in the walls...

...and in the middle of it all frolicked four rhino kids--D.W., Vicita, and the Tibble twins.

"Hi, Arthur," said D.W. in a gravelly but cheerful voice. "We ran out of stuff to break in my room. You don't mind, do you?"

Behind D.W., the rhinos Tommy and Timmy squared off at each other.

"My horn's bigger," said Tommy.

"No, it's not," said Timmy, and the boys charged, collided, and fell on their backs.

Arthur gritted his teeth. His eyes bulged. He breathed heavily. He held out his hands and curled his fingers, fully intending to strangle his sister...

...and then he suddenly relaxed.

"I mustn't get angry," he said to himself. "If I get angry, I'll turn into one of them."

"That's...fine, D.W.," he spoke calmly. "I won't be sleeping here tonight anyway."

With that, he walked slowly to his closet, opened the door, and found to his relief that his sleeping bag was undamaged. He pulled it out, brushed off the accumulated dust, and unfolded it.

While he did so, Rhino Vicita scurried into the closet and grabbed Arthur's fishing pole. Holding the reel end with one hand, she pulled back on the other end until the pole was bent into a 180-degree arc, then let it fly.

"Ow!" cried Arthur when the pole struck the back of his head. His anger began to rise again.

"Must stay calm," he muttered as he dragged the sleeping bag out of his room. "Must...stay...calm..."

Leaving the sleeping bag on the floor next to the upstairs bathroom, Arthur went in to get his toothbrush and toothpaste. "Mom, Dad, I'm staying at Brain's tonight," he called to his parents.

"Uh-huh," his parents replied almost inaudibly.

As Arthur bent over to roll up his sleeping bag, a Bionic Bunny action figure came flying from his bedroom and struck him directly in the nose.

"Oops," said Rhino D.W. "Sorry, Arthur."

Arthur smiled at her and rubbed his nose. "Good throw."

----

When Arthur entered Brain's house, lugging his sleeping bag, he noticed that the kids--Brain, Buster, Francine, Muffy, Fern, and Molly--were already dressed in their sleepwear. They sat on the couch and on the floor, watching the news on TV.

"Hey, Arthur," said Buster. "What happened to your nose?"

"I had a run-in with the Four Preschoolers of the Apocalypse," said Arthur, rubbing his scratched nose.

"It's an apocalypse, all right," Brain remarked as Arthur laid down his sleeping bag. "They've blocked off the highways leading in and out of Elwood City. They're afraid rhinocerosis may spread to other cities."

"Although no cases outside of this city have been reported yet," Fern added.

"They're saying that one fourth of all the kids have become rhinos," said Francine.

"It's scary," said Molly darkly. "It's, like, the end of the world as we know it."

"It must be hard for you especially," Muffy said to her. "All your friends have changed already."

"Yeah," said Arthur curiously. "What made you decide not to?"

"Let's just say," Molly answered, "that I know a bad thing when I see one."

Fifteen minutes passed as the kids shared their worries and Buster munched on some chocolate bars he had brought along. Finally all the kids, Brain included, laid their sleeping bags on the living room floor and started to crawl in.

"Why aren't you sleeping in your bedroom, Brain?" Arthur asked.

"I've got to stay out here and keep an eye on you guys," Brain answered.

"I hope all those chocolate bars you ate won't give you nightmares," Muffy said to Buster.

"Chocolate actually helps me sleep better," said Buster.

"Especially in school," Francine quipped.

"This is cool," said Fern. "It's like a slumber party, only there's boys."

"We should do this at Muffy's," said Buster.

"Don't get your hopes up," said Muffy.

Brain turned off the lamp and laid down on top of his bag. "Be careful what you dream about," he advised. "I don't want to see any horns when I wake up. If at any time you feel yourself going..."

"Run to the bathroom, quick!" joked Arthur.

"That's not what I meant," said Brain.

"Well, good night, everybody," said Francine. "Pleasant dreams."

Several minutes later all the kids were snoring, except for Buster, who lay awake, wide-eyed with fear. His sensitive rabbit ears were picking up a strange noise...

Into Brain's living room crept a small, green, scaly vine. It grew longer and moved about, hovering above all the kids in turn. Buster gasped in fright when he saw it floating over him briefly. Then he noticed a house plant suspended from the ceiling not far away; he had probably imagined it moving.

Having examined all the kids, the vine accelerated its growth, producing larger leaves...and seven child-sized pods, strewn over the floor and the furniture.

Buster became increasingly anxious as he heard a noise like someone trudging through a field of slime. Moving his eyes back and forth, he thought he saw a large vine rising from the floor, but then noticed a power cord nearby.

"Must be the chocolate bars," he thought.

The pods opened, and out of them crept mucus-covered duplicates of the kids, their eyes glowing phosphorescently in the darkened room.

Buster closed his eyes tightly. "It's just fireflies," he told himself.

The pod clones began to chant monotonically. "Destroy the originals...destroy the originals..."

Buster sat up and screamed.

Brain quickly reached up and turned on the lamp. "Are you all right, Buster?" he asked.

"I...I think so," said Buster, panting. "It was just a bad dream."

"Aliens?" asked Fern.

"You had the same dream?" Buster marveled.

"I dreamed it too," said Muffy. "Alien pod people taking over our bodies."

Arthur extended his arms as he sat up. "The...rabbit...knows...our...secret..."

Buster screamed in terror again.

"Stop scaring him!" said Brain sternly. "You know what might happen."

"Sorry," said Arthur, lowering his arms.

The kids went back to sleep, and before long the rays of the morning sun awoke them.

Fern yawned, stretched, and glanced at her watch. "Eight o'clock. We're late for school!"

"School's closed," mumbled Arthur drowsily.

Brain sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked around the room. Arthur. Molly. Francine. Muffy. Fern. No Buster.

Brain gasped. Buster was nowhere to be seen...

(to be continued)