The Alien Visitors

By Alida van den Bos

When two brothers, Steve and Paul found some
strange rocks on their property they consulted a
geology professor who, while doing some tests, almost killed
himself. An Alien, called Xander, appeared out of nowhere
and warned them the rocks were very dangerous and could
destroy the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477149027

Alida van den Bos

Born in the Netherlands, Alida lives on the Central Coast, near Newcastle, Australia. Her love of writing has been a lifelong pursuit leading her to become a novelist ten years ago. Alida emigrated to Australia in 1959 with her husband and two children where adventure beckoned and the family tried opal digging in Coober Pedy and Lightning Ridge. A move to midwestern New South Wales town of Orange where her third child was born and with her husband started a horse stud, aptly named Running Hoofs, leading to success in local and metropolitan racecourses.

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Copyright © 2012 by Alida van den Bos.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

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Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-Two

Chapter Forty-Three

Short Synopsis

‘The Alien Visitors’

To my family and my patient husband

who put up with me

and my editor George Gunston.

Chapter One

Steven Langford, a young man of twenty-five and his brother Paul twenty-nine, were in the middle of an argument when a young lady, Mairi McKenzie, visited their property, The Billabong, and parked under a tree in the shade.

The two young men were so absorbed in their verbal fight they hadn’t seen her driving in.

Paul, who’d been trying to contact his uncle Leo for days and knew Steve had been to see him, was yelling at his brother, ‘You couldn’t leave him alone, could you?’

‘He was old and sick, he was dying anyway, I just accidently helped him out of his misery,’ Steve yelled back defending himself, ‘you’d do it for a dog, wouldn’t you?’

Turning away from his angry brother he saw his girlfriend getting out of the car she’d just parked’

Not yet aware of their visitor, Paul went on with his accusations, ‘You killed him, didn’t you?’ Suddenly seeing the car parked under the tree and realising who it was, he quickly went inside the house.

Mairi lived in Glen Innes with her arthritic mother who needed her help at times. She worked for a solicitor as a legal secretary where she met Steven and liked him instantly. She thought he was very good looking with his blond wavy hair, cheeky smile, and oozing with confidence. Before long they started dating.

As she was getting out of the car, she heard Paul’s last remark.

Realising Mairi must have heard some of their angry conversation, Steve’s, mood darkened. As he hadn’t expected her visit, he approached her and bellowed, ‘What on earth are you doing here? You know I told you before I’d be too busy today. Paul and I are working on something and we don’t need any visitors!’

It was now Mairi’s turn to be shocked at his outburst. ‘Yes, I can see your dilemma, I wasn’t supposed to hear that, was I?’

Angrily she turned, and yelled over her shoulder, ‘I wanted to surprise you but I can see I’m not welcome here, thanks for nothing!’

Getting back in her car she slammed the door and reversed onto the road in a hurry with Steve calling after her, ‘Stop, stop Mairi. Please don’t go, I’m sorry, I can explain.’

With tears in her eyes Mairi ignored him and kept driving away as quickly as she could. She had no idea where she was going, and soon after came across a road sign which read, Glen Innes 30 kilometres. Still upset by what had occurred she turned into the road hoping it would get her home.

After about one kilometre the road turned to gravel. Angrily she drove on without slowing until her car hit a pothole. ‘Don’t brake, don’t brake,’ she told herself as the car continued on, totally out of control. After bouncing of several boulders that lined the side of the road, she finally came to a stop with her car facing the direction she’d come from.

Sitting in the car for several moments, she tried to catch her breath with a mixture of emotions racing through her mind, anger at Steve for his behaviour and gratitude that the car didn’t flip. Fearing the worst, she got out slowly to assess the damage and surprisingly all she could see was a flat tyre and a few stone chips on one side. Opening the boot looking for tools, all she could find was a spare tyre.

Unsure of how to change a tyre, Mairi took out her mobile to call the NRMA for help.

Pushing in the numbers, she hoped she didn’t have to wait too long, but no matter in which direction she held the phone there was no signal. In desperation she looked around and saw an old house situated just off the road and partially hidden by trees. The gate was open, so she reasoned there were no vicious dogs to worry about.

Walking briskly to the front door, she noticed a bad smell coming from somewhere. She’d seen a few sheep grazing in the distance making her think there could be a dead sheep lying around.

The door was slightly ajar when she knocked. No answer, but the smell was stronger and she heard a zooming noise she didn’t recognise. She knocked again a bit louder and at the same time called out ‘Anybody home?’ Still no answer. Pushing the door open slightly, she waited for some response.

The stench was now so bad, it was sickening. Only the need to use a phone to call for help kept her going. Holding her nose, she stepped inside, trying her best not to breathe in too deeply and then she saw it, a dead body lying on the floor, blowflies zooming around, maggots crawling all over it, eating its flesh.

The bad smell emanating from the body made her run outside where she was physically sick, with tears in her eyes blurring her vision, she turned and bumped into Paul who reached out to steady her before speaking. ‘Hey, hey,’ he said. ‘What’s your hurry?’ He had a fair idea of what she’d seen, but instead asked, ‘Did you see a ghost?’

Still upset, Mairi couldn’t talk. With his arms around her, Paul could feel her trembling and no wonder with the horror she’d seen. Trying to calm her down he dried her tears, stroked her hair and held her close. ‘I’m here, I’ll help you,’ he assured her.

Taking control of herself she finally managed to blurt out, ‘There’s a dead body in there and the maggots are eating him.’

He still had his arms around her and inwardly cursed his brother for being so callous. He liked Mairi a lot and wished she was his girl. When she’d left he’d seen her going the wrong way to Glen Innes where she lived, and knowing she must have been upset he’d decided to follow her. He almost missed seeing her make the turn into the gravel road, a longer way to Glen Innes.

He knew it was a bad road and he thought she was driving too fast. He had to reverse quickly to catch up with her and saw she’d stopped near his Uncle Leo’s cottage and wondered why her car was facing the way she came. Then he saw it. A flat tyre!

‘Were you looking for help?’ Paul asked.

Feeling slightly better, Mairi moved away from him and pointing at her car she explained, ‘I couldn’t find any tools and my mobile didn’t work here so I went to the house hoping I could use the phone to ring the NRMA.’ After she said that, and thinking about the dead body and the smell still in her nose, tears sprung into her eyes again.

Paul, really feeling for her after the treatment his brother meted out to her, patted her on the back saying, ‘Don’t worry; I’ll fix it for you, it’s no problem at all.’

Lifting her spare tyre out of the still open boot he found the tools under the wheel.

Watching him closely, she asked, ‘Can I help?’

‘No, I’ll be right,’ he replied as he shot her a big smile. ‘Just watch me and when it happens again you know how to do it. Okay?’

She nodded, thinking how different Paul was from Steve. He was not quite as outgoing as Steve and not as good looking, but he was sensitive, caring, and she loved his smile.

Paul, a chemist, and about four years older than his brother had his own pharmacy in Emmaville. Steve was the outdoor athletic type, and growing up together on a large cattle station, Paul could ride a horse as well as Steven and sometimes on weekends he came to help round up cattle.

‘There you are,’ Paul said interrupting her reverie, ‘All fixed, ready to go.’

‘Thank you Paul, I’m so glad you followed me. Shouldn’t we ring triple O and tell them about the body?’

‘Of course, leave it to me. You’d better go, but don’t take this road, it’s longer and quite bad. Take the road you came on, you’re facing the right way now anyway.’

Mairi was glad she could leave the place and luckily there was no other damage to the car. This time she drove away slowly.

Watching her as she drove away, Paul made sure he couldn’t see anything else wrong with her car, and there wasn’t. She actually had the same Toyota model he had, only hers was white and his car was blue. Paul now knew exactly what she had encountered when she stepped inside the cottage He remembered Steve being there about a week before and when he asked, How was Uncle Leo? Steve had evaded the question.

He thought he’d better wipe out all traces of her ever been there in case there would be an inquiry. Quickly he wiped the front door as she may have left some fingerprints on it, then he was satisfied thinking it would probably have been all she touched.

Still angry with his brother he wondered why Steve had not called for an ambulance as soon as it happened days before.

He was sure his brother had something to do with his uncle’s death. He’d even admitted it earlier when Mairi had arrived.

He wondered if Mairi had put two and two together after hearing some of the conversation. and thought he’d better warn Steve about what she’d seen and maybe worked out how the old man died. Getting into his car he saw the rock and remembered Steve had given it to him to test.

Steve told him he’d found it on the property when rounding up some stray cattle. The strange thing was, his dog growled at it with his hair standing up and then crept away from it. That was before they had the fight.

Paul now had a good look at it and thought it could contain some precious white metal. He was sure it wasn’t gold or silver. Curious to find out what it was, he planned to test it in the small laboratory he’d built onto his house, as soon as he got home. They both agreed to keep quiet about it, not even tell Mairi or any member of the family.

Mairi wasn’t planning on stopping at Steve’s place, in fact she was still angry with him for being so rude. Driving slowly she changed her mind, thinking maybe she should tell him about what she’d seen so Steve could notify someone as Paul’s mobile probably wouldn’t work there either.

After parking the car in the same place under the tree again she closed her eyes for a moment wondering how to describe the gruesome scene she’d witnessed, when suddenly the door opened and Steve was there, a big smile on his face, asking, ‘Did you have a good sleep? I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.’

Dumbfounded, Mairi looked at him questioningly and said, ‘What do you mean, having a good sleep, I just drove in here, and what about the dead body and the flat tyre and… Stopping her in mid-sentence Steve put his arm around her to help her out of the car as he said, ‘You must have had a bad dream. Come on, let’s go inside and have afternoon tea.’

She hesitated for a moment, but Steve ushered her in and put her in an easy chair. ‘You sit down, I’ll make the tea, you must have worked too hard, he said convincingly as the phone rang. It was Paul who’d finally come into range where his mobile worked, telling Steve what had occurred.

Of course Steve knew Mairi didn’t have a bad dream, he just wanted her to forget what she saw. ‘Yes, Mairi is here,’ he said into the phone, ‘The poor girl must have been so tired that she went to sleep in her car and had a bad dream about a dead body and a flat tyre and she’s still upset. Come and have afternoon tea with us when you finish that special job, okay?’ He hoped Paul understood what he wanted him to do.

Beginning to doubt herself, Mairi almost believed she’d really had a bad dream, Steve could be so convincing.

He put out another mug. ‘Paul is coming to have tea with us,’ he explained. ‘We’ve been rounding up cattle for the saleyards and Paul helped putting them on the truck.’

Mairi was still confused. Was Steve a good liar or did she really have a bad dream? She decided to ask Paul when he came in and started talking about something else. ‘How are your parents, are they home?’

‘Oh, yes, they’re not going anywhere anymore. Sadly, dad has to keep mum locked up all day and he doesn’t want us to help.’

‘Your mum has got Alzheimer’s, hasn’t she?’

‘Yes, unfortunately she does, it’s so sad to see her staring into nothing. She doesn’t know us anymore, she doesn’t even know dad.’

‘Shouldn’t she be in one of those special homes Steve?’

‘She should, but dad doesn’t want her to go, he does everything for her now, he feeds her, washes and cleans her and watches her like a hawk because if she ever gets out of the house she doesn’t know how to get back.’

‘It must be so hard for you not being able to help.’

‘Yes it is, Steve said quietly as he put a plate of biscuits on the table, then continued, ‘I think I hear Paul coming, let’s have our tea.’

Paul didn’t want to stop at his brother’s place, he wanted to go home and test the rock, but after he called Steve and realised Mairi was there, he knew Steve didn’t want her to know about Uncle Leo and tried to cover it up.

He understood he wanted him to swap his good spare tyre for her flat one.

Because they had the same type of car Mairi would never know the difference. Although he was still angry with his brother, he didn’t want Mairi involved either, so decided to play the game.

Reluctantly he changed the tyres so Mairi didn’t have proof she hadn’t been dreaming. He didn’t like it, he hated to lie to Mairi, but Steve was his brother.

Entering the kitchen he greeted Mairi as if it was the first time he’d seen her that day. She looked surprised, but if she had any doubts before they were now almost gone. She didn’t see the secret meaningful look Paul shot Steve.

After finishing her tea Mairi stood and ready to go she patted Snowy, Steve’s dog who had taken a liking to her and was lying at her feet. ‘I love dogs,’ she stated, ‘They never lie.’ Expecting some denial from either of the men, Steven raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

After she left, Paul confronted his brother, with a threatening face he demanded, ‘Tell me, what did you do to Uncle Leo, how did you kill him?’

Feeling guilty, Steve took a step back and with two hands pushing Paul away he began, ‘All right, I’ll tell you. I went there to see if he would sell his property to me because as you know, in his will dad leaves half this property to Uncle Leo and the other half to us, which I don’t think is fair with me doing most of the work here.’

‘Come to the point Steve,’ and raising his voice Paul went on, ‘What happened?’

‘Okay, pipe down, and I tell you, ‘Steve declared, ‘Uncle Leo was sitting in his chair with an empty whiskey bottle in his hand, laughing sarcastically. So you want my fucking land, he sung out.

Then, waving his empty bottle he yelled, ‘and you can’t give me another drink?’ So I went through his cupboards and all I could find were empty bottles so I told him, and you know what a cantankerous old man he is. He came at me, raising the bottle in mid-air, and I was ready to defend myself, but he just stopped and fell on the floor, the bottle all broken up in little pieces. I thought he’d had a stroke, his eyes were glazed all over staring at me in disbelief.’

‘My God,’ Paul interrupted, ‘Why didn’t you tell me this before?’

‘I panicked. I ran outside and sat in the car for a while.’ Raising his voice Steve continued, ‘I swear to you Paul, I never touched him.’

Looking at Paul expectantly, wanting him to believe him, Steve added, And that’s the gospel truth.’

Paul thought for a moment, then said, ‘Okay, I believe you, but I didn’t see any broken glass when I went in there.’

‘No, that’s because I went back, I had to make sure he was dead you see. I felt his heart, but there was no heartbeat. I cleaned up the broken glass so whoever found him wouldn’t think there’d been a fight. The only thing you can accuse me of is not trying CPR or dialling triple 0. He’s better off dead anyway, he had cancer as well as a bad heart.’

Now feeling a lot of empathy for his brother thinking he might have done the same thing, Paul slapped him on the back, saying, ‘You did well, I only wish I’d known.’

Getting his car keys out of his pocket he remembered he still had the rock to test and when taking it out of the car, Snowy, who’d followed him, growled angrily and crept well away from it. As he opened the door, he grinned, thinking whatever it is, it makes a good dog deterrent.’

As soon as Paul left, a big smile appeared on Steven’s face. He thought he’d played that well. If Paul, who was always critical of his stories, believed how Uncle Leo died, he’d be in the clear if ever there was an investigation.

Chapter Two

On her way home, not being able to shake off her dream, Mairi suddenly remembered that in her dream her car had a flat tyre. She needed petrol anyway, so she stopped at a service station and asked the attendant to check her spare tyre as she wanted to be sure it wasn’t flat.

After the attendant had a look at it, he told her there was nothing wrong with the tyre which