CHAPTER 3: Six Normal Mall Rats

(MIKE'S POV)

It was five minutes until seven pm, and I was at the Mall on an unusual mission. I had to find Tobias.

I had planned it out carefully several hours earlier, and it was only now that I spotted a crucial flaw in my 'master plan.' I didn't know exactly what Tobias looked like. So I began to think of ways I would recognise him. But the only thing distinctive about his appearance was his untidy dirty blonde hair. Instead I thought of the kinds of things he was interested in, and I remembered that he liked reading. I headed towards the Bookshop.

Fortunately for me, there were only five other people in the store. Other than the shop assistant at the till, there was an old man looking at some classic novels, a young couple in the reference section, and a boy about my age (thirteen years old) looking at the sci-fi books.

He was about average height; he had brown eyes, dirty blonde hair that stuck up in all directions, and a dreamy expression on his face. I was almost positive it was Tobias; but 'almost positive' wasn't good enough, I had to be sure. After all, the fate of the planet was depending on me to get this right.

I took a deep breath, casually walked up to him, and said, "So, you like science fiction books?" He suddenly snapped out of his daydream and looked at me suspiciously for a few seconds, and then he smiled.

"Yeah I love Star Trek and Star Wars and things like that with aliens in. It's so cool! What did you say your name was?" he asked.

"My name's Michael," I said. "But I'd prefer Mike."

"Nice to meet you Mike, I'm Tobias," he replied.

My heart leaped! Yes! I had done it! I had found Tobias! But I still had a job to do. I had to stay with him until we ran into Jake and Marco; then the real game would begin.

(JAKE'S POV)

"Okay Jake, you've just crossed the Nether Fjord, so watch out for the Sleaze…! No!" Marco screamed in despair as I was eaten by the Sleaze Troll for the third time.

My name is Jake. My friend Marco and I had just run out of quarters for playing arcade games, so we decided to head home. We were just heading for the exit, when two guys came walking towards us.

I recognised the guy with the dirty blonde hair to be Tobias; he was new at school and had instantly become some kind of a bully magnet.

I actually met Tobias in the boy's bathroom at school. Two guys were shoving his head down a toilet and laughing while they flushed.

I didn't recognise the other guy, but I guessed he was Tobias' friend. He was about as tall as I am and of medium build. He had short dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. He was wearing black Adidas pants and a navy blue T-shirt with a picture of a dolphin on it.

"Hi Tobias, who's your friend?" I asked. The boy stepped forward.

"I'm Mike," he answered.

"Cool. I'm Jake, and this is Marco. So, you guys want to walk home with us?" I asked them. "We're going through the construction site." For a split second after I said those words, I swear I saw a weird grin appear on Mike's face; but it quickly disappeared, replaced with a more casual smile. Probably wondering how long he would be grounded for if he was caught.

"Sure," Mike said. So we carried on walking towards the door, when I spotted Rachel and Cassie coming out of a clothes store.

Rachel is kind of pretty I guess. Actually she's gorgeous, looks just like a supermodel, but I don't really think of her that way since she's my cousin. She looks like she just walked off the cover of one of those fashion magazines that girls idolise. Rachel has long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She always looks very clean; as if she could walk through a mud slide, a sandstorm, and a tornado, and still come out perfect. She's also very fashionable, and always knows what to wear in any situation.

Cassie however, seems like the opposite. For one thing, she usually wears a plain shirt and jeans, or something else completely casual. I've never seen her in a dress, I'm not even sure if she owns any (not that I care). She's dark skinned and wears her hair short most of the time. She had it longer for a while, but then she went back to having it short, which I like. Cassie is a quieter person than Rachel, more peaceful, like she always understands everything on some different, more mystical level.

I guess you could say I kind of like Cassie. Sometimes we sit together on the bus, even though I never know what to say to her.

"You guys going home?" I asked Rachel. "You shouldn't go through the construction site by yourselves. I mean, being girls and all."

That was a mistake. I should never have suggested to Rachel that she's weak or helpless. Rachel may look like Little Miss Teen Model or whatever, but she thinks she's Storm from the X-Men.

"Are you going to come and protect us, you big, strong m-a-a-a-n?" she said. "You think we're helpless just because…"

"I'd appreciate it if they did walk with us," Cassie interrupted. "I know you're not afraid of anything, Rachel, but I guess I am."

Rachel couldn't say much about that. That's the way Cassie is – she always has the right words to stop any argument without making anyone feel bad.

So there we were. The six of us – Marco, Tobias, Mike, Rachel, Cassie and I. Six normal Mall rats heading home.

To get home from the Mall we could either go the long way round, which is the safe way, or we could cut through the abandoned construction site and hope there weren't any axe murderers hanging around there. My mum and dad have sworn to ground me until I'm twenty if they ever find out I've cut through the construction site.

That's if they ever find out, I thought with a smile.

So anyway, we crossed the road and headed into the abandoned construction site. It was a big area, surrounded on two sides by trees, with the highway separating it from the Mall area. There's a broad, open field between the construction site and the nearest houses. It's a very isolated place.

Originally it was supposed to be this new shopping centre. Now it was just all these half-finished buildings looking like a ghost town. There were huge piles of rusted steel beams; pyramids of giant concrete pipes; little mountains of dirt; deep pits that had filled up with muddy water; and a creaking, rusted construction crane that I had climbed once while Marco stayed below and told me I was being an idiot.

It was a totally deserted place, full of shadows and sounds that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. When Marco and I went there during the day, we always found all these beer cans and liquor bottles. Sometimes we found the ashes of little campfires back in the hidden nooks and crannies of the buildings. So we knew that people came there at night. All that was on my mind as we crept through the site.

Suddenly, Mike and Tobias stopped. Tobias pointed at the sky, almost straight up. "Look," he said.

"What?" I didn't want to be distracted because I was pretty sure I'd heard the sound of a chain-saw killer creeping up behind us.

"Just look," Tobias said. His voice was strange. Amazed-sounding, but serious at the same time.

So I looked up. And there it was. A brilliant, blue-white light that scooted across the sky, going fast at first, too fast for it to be an aeroplane, then slower and slower.

"What is it?" I asked.

Tobias shook his head. "I don't know."

I looked at Tobias and he looked back at me. We both knew what we thought it was, but want to say it. Marco and Rachel would have laughed, we figured.

I glanced at the others to see who else had spotted it. Mike and Cassie had seen it, Marco and Rachel hadn't.

"He's here," Mike whispered. He was staring at the sky and grinning.

I glared at him. "What are you talking abou…"

"It's a flying saucer!" Cassie yelled.