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they had been holding, relieved, they heard the screech of brakes behind them. They whirled to see a car that had been hurtling around a bend in the road only twenty feet away bearing down upon them.
    And there was no way in the world that it could possibly stop before it hit them.
     

 
    CHAPTER SIX
     
    The Transparent Men
     
    Jenna closed her eyes and braced herself for the impact of the car.
    Zachary reacted instantly, diving into his sister and pushing them both out of the car’s way as it screeched by them, missing them by mere inches. The dive sent them tumbling headlong down a large, grassy hillside that bordered the road, arms and legs flailing. They landed in a heap at the bottom.
    “Owwww,” moaned Zachary, moving his sister's foot from its resting place on his neck. They rolled apart and tried to catch their breath while they took inventory of the minor cuts and bruises they had collected on the way down. They were both still slightly dizzy.
    “Are you okay?” asked Jenna.
    “Yeah, I guess so. Are you?”
    Jenna nodded. She was shaken but she would be fine. Thanks to her brother. Where did he get reflexes that fast? And he had been so decisive. Just like in their kitchen when she had almost fallen into the portal. And then she remembered the silly generator he had insisted she carry with her. Maybe there was something to his story, after all. She wondered how long it would take before the Omega waves would start helping her.
    “We're not exactly off to a great start,” observed Zachary.
    “It could have been worse,” said Jenna. “A lot worse. And it almost was. Thanks for throwing me off the road.”
    “No problem,” he said. “Although tackling you like that isn’t something you usually thank me for,” he added with a grin. His expression became serious once again. “We’re just lucky that our mission to find Mom and Dad didn't end before it began. We need to really stay alert from now on.”
    Jenna nodded in agreement as they pulled themselves into a sitting position and looked toward the road on which they had arrived. The car that had almost hit them, a boxy red two-door, had finally come to a full stop about thirty yards beyond where they had briefly been standing. If Zachary hadn't thrown them out of the way they would have ended up as two giant bug-smears on its windshield.
    A very tall driver and slightly shorter passenger exited the car and walked to the edge of the road to look down the hill.
    Jenna saw them first and gasped. It couldn't be .
    They appeared to be ordinary men, except for one extraordinary feature.
    They were transparent.
    YUCK! Jenna almost gagged. Thankfully, both the driver and his passenger were wearing normal pants, but their shirts were transparent and underneath them, so were they. And not just their skin. Their muscles were transparent also. You could see everything . All their inner . . . workings.
    Even transparent jellyfish gave Jenna the willies, but jellyfish were nothing compared to the sight of these two. This was too much. You could see their skulls and all of their internal organs. Their hearts beating rhythmically. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Their lungs filling up with air. Even tiny rivers of blood coursing through their veins and arteries. They were grisly, living illustrations in a medical textbook.
    Jenna jabbed her brother in the ribs. “Look up there,” she whispered through clenched teeth. “Do you see those guys?”
    Zachary did and his mouth dropped open. “Uh-huh,” he mumbled. He and his sister instinctively crouched lower to the ground, trying to melt into the hillside so they wouldn’t be seen. “I wish I hadn’t eaten Mom’s disgusting dinner,” he whispered, fighting to keep a meal in his stomach that suddenly wanted to come back out. Finally, he was forced to look away from the men to let his stomach settle.
    “Uh-oh,” whispered Jenna. “We're in trouble.”
    Zachary glanced up to see the two men walking down