Steve Donaldson entered the dark interior of the strange house.
“Careful kids,” he cautioned. “It's a mess in here.”
While his eyes slowly adjusted to the dim conditions in the house, he carefully picked his way through piles of debris. They had entered what appeared to be a cavernous entry hall of some sort. It was now strewn with the remains of broken furniture, shattered glass, and twisted, rusted metal.
“What a dump!” said Alan.
“Be careful,” cautioned Janet. “Watch out for... rats... or raccoons... or... whatever rabid vermin might want to build a nest in a dirty place like this.”
“Yeah, this might not be a real safe place for us to spend the night,” murmured Steve. “We'd better just go back to the car.”
“Wait, Dad!” said Megan. “What's this thing?”
“Megan, don't pick anything up!” snapped Janet.
But it was too late.
Megan had spotted a small, flashing red light on the floor. Stooping down to investigate, she had picked up a futuristic looking hand-held device of some kind. It was about the size of a remote control, oblong in shape, and molded out of a single piece of some aluminum like metal. On one side of the device there was a series of tiny, unmarked, gray buttons – about two dozen of them. On the other side of the device there was simply that small, flashing red light. The device seemed to have no display panel on it, nor did it have any discernible markings or lettering. Megan even peeked through a crack on the side and saw it was basically empty, no machinery at all.
It was if someone had tried to make a box look life some fake sci-fi thing.
“What is this thing?” muttered Megan.
“Put it down,” said Janet. “I've got a bad feeling about that thing.”
Naturally, Megan pushed one of the small, gray buttons.