Five piles of bloody tissues lay on the dining room table; each searched until they resembled tulips, a small piece of metal in the center of each flower.

Most of the bleeding had stopped, Jim still had pieces of tissue stuffed in his nostrils to catch the leaks.

Only Marie faced the ordeal again. Dried tears and smeared make up telling of the first failure to clear the alien device from her sinuses. She still held the camera, only this time she held it like a weapon and threatened to hit anyone who came within reach.

“You’re going to have to try again,” Turner touched a tender spot on his scalp. The girl had not hit him hard, but she had drawn blood with the lens guard. “If you do not get it out, then we must leave you behind, and I do not want to do that. Do you understand?”

“It hurts.”

“I bet the aliens will hurt you a lot worse if they get their hands on you,” Jim countered in a nasal voice.

Carol rolled her eyes at Jim’s over reaction. “Try Marie.” She closed on the defensive girl and claimed the camera, then handed a wad of tissue to Marie. “You have been a rock all night when all of us have been weak. I need you to be strong about this.”

“Oh no,” Marie moaned and hesitantly raised the tissues to her nose. After a moment, she blew her nose tentatively, cried again. Carol raised her hand to take the tissue.

Neither woman saw Turner move swiftly behind the girl. He grabbed Marie in a hug with one arm while he held her mouth shut with his right hand. Before Marie could react, he squeezed her abdomen with his left arm and a violent rush of air came out of Marie’s nose.

He let go of the girl and moved out of the way before she could hit him, then waited for Carol to take the tissue from the Marie.

“That was smooth,” Jim observed, as Carol used the tissue to clean Marie’s upper lip of blood.

Barb looked at her brother-in-law with distaste and spoke for the first time since the aliens had arrived. “You are such an ass.”

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Carol cradled Marie to her shoulder as she handed Turner the tissue. The man walked to the dining room table and to search for the device.

He listened to Marie cry from pain and shock as he searched. Marie was a good kid and hurting her was not the highlight of his night. Eventually, he found the artifact in a clot of blood. Straightening, he turned to Carol and nodded with a sigh of relief.

“See, it’s all done,” Carol held the child.

“Let’s go.” Jim clapped his hands and walked to the kitchen.

A series of gunshots, followed by the thunder of a long explosion, came from outside the house, stopping Jim before he was out of the dining room.

“That was interesting.” Turner walked to the window while unconsciously wiping his hands on his pants. “Hunting rifles at first, but I don’t know what caused the explosion.”

“Who cares?” Jim burst out. “Let’s get out of here.”

Marie worked her way clear of Carol’s grasp and reclaimed the camera. With one hand holding a new tissue to her nose, she brought the camera up and walked to the window beside Turner.

Nothing was moving in the yard. Several small objects were now lying on the ground near the foot of the UFO’s ramp.

A reflection in the window caught Turner’s eye. He spun and caught Marie’s upraised arm just before the girl brought the camera down on his head.

“I’m trying to keep you alive...” he looked at the exposed flesh of the girl’s arm and stopped. Jerking Marie to one side, he took cover behind the door, where he was certain the aliens could not see him make his new discovery.

“Who the hell are you to know what we have to do?” Sally rose to the moment. “I do not know you from Adam. You are probably helping the aliens.”

Carol, as caught by surprise by Marie’s action as the rest of the people in the room, watched as Turner held the struggling girl’s arm close to his face and examined a red mark that showed signs of swelling.

“Stop that.” Turner looked at the mark and understood the subtle trap the aliens had set. “Look at this.”

Uncertain, she wanted to see the next chapter in the aliens’ ingenuity, Carol looked at the offending arm and saw the swelling close up. It looked like the skin had been slit and a cylindrical object placed next to the muscle, then the skin somehow healed.

“What is it?” Carol looked up to see Turner was pulling up the sleeve of his shirt.

“Unless I miss my guess, it’s another tracking device,” he nodded in satisfaction as he moved his arm and displayed a similar mark. “The bastards figured we would catch the tracking device they placed in our noses, so they put another one in our arms. If we had stepped out of the house with these things still in our arms, the aliens would have been able to pick us up with ease.”

“How do we know that’s the only one?” Barb crossed her arms and covered herself.

They looked at Turner and watched him sigh with a grimace. “Strip.”