Five minutes of staggering around produced no results, however. Patrick finally called it. “Nope. There’s nothing here. Let’s try the other one. Which direction?”

I checked the phone, then pointed.

“This doesn’t look any more encouraging,” I said, examining the second location. As with the first, the grass was simply shorter. Not bent, not eaten or cut, just not as tall.

“I wonder if water would disappear if it hit the ship,” Patrick mused as he wandered around the patch. “Next time we should buy a couple of Super Soakers and just squirt water in all—Ouch!”

We stared down at Patrick, who had inexplicably fallen over backward and was holding his forehead.

“Nice trick,” Nat said. “You trying out for a gig as a mime?”

“I ran into something,” Patrick said, pointing upward with his free hand from his position on the ground.

Nat and I exchanged a glance, then went into the zombie routine again. This time, though, we quickly found something. Something invisible.

It seemed to have a hemispherical underside, at least as high up as I could reach. Smooth metal, slightly slick and cool to the touch, no seams or edges that I could find. As the tallest of us by almost half a foot, I was able to walk around and map out the ship. It didn’t come down to ground level, and was maybe twenty feet in diameter. Of course, if the curve extended higher, the actual diameter could have been much larger.

“Found a leg,” Nat called out.

Patrick and I hurried over to her side. There was a very slight depression in the soil, hockey-puck shaped, about three feet in diameter. Patrick stamped his foot. “The ground’s dry and packed down. To leave an impression like that, this sucker must be heavy.”

“I don’t think it’s parked on one leg,” Nat said. “Look around.”

In short order, we found two other depressions, forming a tripod that would fit comfortably into a twenty-to-twenty-five-foot circle.

“Tripod. Makes sense.” Nat put her arms around something and began tracing invisible structures with her hands. “Not huge. Also, not cylindrical. Feels like struts and hydraulics. A lot of mechanical detail, anyway.”

I stood for a few moments, staring up as the reality washed over me. “Holy crap, guys, we found it. An actual flying saucer. Or a spaceship, anyway.” All three of us smiled—big, huge grins.

“You guys look like the Joker,” Natalie said.

I pushed on my cheeks, trying to relax the muscles. “This is gonna hurt in a little while.”

Patrick’s grin disappeared as he gazed up into the seemingly empty air. “Uh, I hadn’t really thought past this point. What now?”

“We try to get in. Or at least get their attention.” I took off my backpack and reached inside, pulling out the alien gadgets.