4 Flog Slab

Chapter 4 FLOG SLAB "Did you hear that?" Pep said excitedly. "He spoke!" "I didn't hear anything," Coke said. "What did he say?" "It sounded like frog slab," Pep said, "or something like that." "Flog slab," repeated the alien. "He said it again!" Pep shouted. "It's not frog slab," said her brother. There was an L sound in there. Like, flog slllllab." The twins tried to figure out what flog slab could possibly mean. "Maybe flog slab is his name," Pep guessed. "Flog Slab. It's kinda cute, actually." "That's a pretty weird name," Coke said. "Well, what do you expect an alien from another planet to be named?" asked his sister.

"Bob?" "We haven't established with certainty that he's from another planet," Coke told her. "He could be in disguise. This could all be a hoax. Maybe we're in the middle of some reality TV show. They just want to freak us out to get a reaction." "So as I was saying," Pep said to the alien. "My name is Pep. Pepsi McDonald, to be specific. We're twins. We're thirteen years old. We live in California. We're on a cross-country trip." Coke looked around to see if there might be a camera crew hiding behind him. As he did, two more aliens came out of the shadows and positioned themselves on either side of the first alien. One was slightly bigger than the first one, and one was slightly smaller. Other than that, they looked similar. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Pep shrieked. "There are three of them!" She leaped into her brother's arms and hid

her face so she wouldn't have to look at them. "Flog slab," said all three aliens. They stared at the twins with piercing red eyes. "I don't like this!" Pep moaned, tears running down her cheeks. "They've got us outnumbered now. I want to get out of here." "Flog slab," said the first alien. "Flog slab," said the second alien. "Flog slab," said the third alien. "Maybe they're a family," Coke said, trying to look on the bright side. "And maybe the family is going to kill us!" Pep shouted. "Maybe they're going to do bizarre medical experiments on us first, and then kill us." "You watch too many science fiction movies," Coke said. "Maybe they're friendly." "Let us go!" Pep shouted at the aliens. "Let us out of this place!" "We mean no harm," Coke said, holding his hands up and making a V sign with his fingers. "Let us live in peace."

"Flog slab flog slab flog slab," chanted the aliens. The aliens droned on and on. Coke closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears in a desperate attempt to block out the sound. "Stop saying that!" he hollered. "They're driving me crazy! It's some form of mind control! Make it stop!" "Flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab." The aliens appeared to be excited now, as if they had made some connection with the two Earth children behind the bars. Their chanting picked up a little speed. There was urgency in it. It continued droning on in the background as Coke and Pep tried to figure out what they should do. "Flog slab probably doesn't mean anything," Coke guessed. "Maybe it's just a random noise they make. Like cows moo, cats meow, ducks quack, and these guys flog slab."

"Flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab flog slab." The chanting was getting louder and more insistent. Each of the three aliens was saying "flog slab" in a slightly different tone, creating a haunting, harmonic effect that served to calm the twins' nerves and put them into an almost hypnotic state. It had been a long day, and now it was getting late. Coke and Pep were exhausted from their experience, and the droning sound of "flog slab" was like a mantra. A spell. After a short period of time, both of them lay their heads on the floor, closed their eyes, and fell into a deep slumber. As soon as the twins were asleep, the three aliens stopped chanting and scurried around on their little feet. One of them opened the bars that had separated them from Coke and Pep. The others wheeled in two long, metal tables. Seemingly with no effort, they lifted Coke and Pep onto the tables and rolled them into the

next room. It was an amazing place—there was a wall made from hundreds of video screens of every size, from postage stamp to big-screen TV. There were no knobs, dials, or switches anywhere, like you would expect in a high-tech hospital or airplane cockpit. Every screen was controlled by touching it, which the aliens did with amazing dexterity and speed. In the middle of the room was a large, white machine that resembled the devices hospitals use to shoot magnetic resonance images of patients. It was, in fact, very much like an MRI machine, but much, much more powerful. While the twins slept, the tables they lay on were wheeled into this machine. One of the aliens touched a screen on the wall, and a purplish band of light shone on Coke, then Pep. The light, accompanied by an otherworldly humming sound, traveled up and down their bodies like a scanner or photocopy machine. Then it stopped and repeated the procedure a