Seven-year-old Mink Morris is excitedly playing a new game sweeping the attention of all the younger kids in a suburban neighborhood in a Scranton set some time in the not-too-distant future. As she runs into the house to retrieve some pans and tools, her mother inquires what’s going on. Mink says only that the kids are playing a new game called Invasion! She goes back to meet her playmates who greet her with silverware and can openers and assorted kitchen items they also went to their own houses to retrieve.
An old boy of twelve wants to join the game, but is told in no uncertain terms by Mink that he’s too old. As suburban life in the not-too-distant future plays out with all its mundane and commonplace routine, the game goes on and Mrs. Morris occasionally looks through a window to take notice. At one point, she sees her daughter talking to a rosebush, but there is nobody there.
Mrs. Morris soon learns the identity of this “invisible” friend: Drill. Drill is from another planet—possibly Mars or Saturn—and he is the leader of the invasion. Mink is remarkably honest in her answers to her mother’s inquiries about Drill. Such as, for instance, that any invasion can only be successful some members of the enemy is engaged to help out the invading force. Even when Mink specifically mentions that older boys Pete Britz and Dale Jerrick are scheduled to die first, her mother still responds with a patronizing attitude to Mink’s unquestioned sincerity.
Mink casually mentions that she might become queen once the adults have also been killed. Which will be necessary because adults are dangerous on account of not believing in Martians.
A little while later, Mrs. Morris receives a call from a friend who lives in New York. She learns from her friend that Invasion! is also a popular game up north where the kids are doing the same sort of collecting of household items for someone named Drill as they are doing outside her own home. Mink enters a short time later and shows off a trick with a yo-yo that disappears when it reaches the end of the string. Her mother asks her to do the trick again, but Mink she can’t before cryptically adding that zero hour is five o’clock.
As the day winds down, Mrs. Morris hears a playmate named Peggy Ann crying and running away from her daughter. When she asks what’s going on, Mink informs her that Peggy Ann’s gotten too old to play game, suggesting perhaps that Peggy Ann just grew up too fast.
Shortly before 5:00 PM, Mr. Morris arrives home and she is caught short by the realization that the kids outside have suddenly become quiet. An unnatural and disturbing kind of quiet. Hearing an electrical buzzing sound, she asks her husband if the kids were playing with any electrical to which he answers they just had pipes and hammers. A sudden dawning realization overcomes Mink’s mother and she begs her husband to go outside and tell them to stop the invasion. But she’s too late.
A series of explosions rock the neighborhood and Mrs. Morris grabs her husband and forces him up to the attic against his protestations that the explosions are clearly not coming from there, but outside. As they wait behind the closed attic door, Mrs. Morris has become hysterical, shouting what sounds like nonsense to her husband, begging him to be quiet since they’ll be discovered soon enough. Footsteps are heard approaching and Mr. Morris dares to know who has invaded his home. Finally, they hear Mink’s little voice calling out in question of where they are hiding. The humming sound and the footsteps approach the closed attic in combination.
Through the crack in the door, a strange eerie glow is accompanied by an unpleasant smell and weird sound and this finally does the trick of convincing Mr. Morris that all is not right. The lock melts, the door opens and Mink’ angelic face appears with tall shadows of blue behind her.
“Peekaboo,” she says.
