Richard Maples

“ Their wrinkled skin hung from their bulgy bodies in thick folds. Insect feelers waved over their humped backs. Flat expressionless faces glittered in the light of their lamp.... He shuddered.
After they'd looked at the rock, two of them started climbing in the direction from which it had rolled. The third stayed behind, beaming the light to guide the way.
Cringing against the hill, he moved along the ledge to a point where it curled past a jutting crag. ”

“ The beings!
They stood on a platform next to a trap-door. Three of them: squat, fat, and silvery-white ... like the insects he often found under flat rocks.
One held the light. The other two carried strange looking boxes. They made their way down a ladder and began to set up the boxes on the ground. This was his chance, he told himself. While they were busy, he could climb to the top of the hill and escape down the other side. ”

“ He'd been very little then and it was hard to understand. But they'd explained it carefully—over and over again.
The rockets were a test. They'd been fired by beings on another planet. Some day the beings themselves would come to invade. ”