David Gardiner
David Gardiner was the son of George Gardiner and Ellen Gardiner. He lived with his parents in a small, idyllic town near Camp Puller, where his father worked. David attended W.C. Menzies Elementary School, where he was frequently tormented by his cruel teacher, Mrs. McKeltch. One night during a meteor shower, David saw something huge with flashing lights descend from the sky and vanish beyond the hill behind their house. By the time he woke his parents up, however, it was gone. George promised to have a look in the morning.
The following day, David found that his father was acting strangely, drinking boiling-hot coffee and claiming to have seen nothing untoward in the sand pits beyond the hill. When he returned home from school, George had never left for work, and so his mother called the police. Chief Ward arrived with another policeman, Officer Kenney. The two went over the hill. Just as they were out of sight, George returned with another man, whom David recognized as his friend Heather's father, Ed, who was acting in a manner similar to David's father.
When the two policemen returned, so were they. That night, George took Ellen over the hill... and when she returned, she was behaving just like her husband, the police and Heather's father. David sought refuge at school, only to discover Heather and Mrs. McKeltch were acting strangely, too. Like George, all of the afflicted people had strange scars on the backs of their necks.
While at school, he noticed Chief Ward talking to Mrs. McKeltch, and the two discussed something being destroyed at midnight that night. David found the only person who he could talk to was the school's new nurse, Linda Magnusson. He told his story to her, and she believed him after seeing a band-aid on the back of Mrs. McKeltch's neck. She gave David her house key and told him to go to her home to hide from his parents there. On the way out, he had to evade his parents who had come to pick him up, and hid in a van that turned out to belong to Mrs. McKeltch. Not knowing he was in the back, she drove out to the woods, then stopped, got out, and continued on foot.
Curious, David followed her into a strange network of underground tunnels, which it turned out led to the buried object he'd seen land the previous night, a buried spaceship. It was crawling with Martian drones, and David watched as Mrs. McKeltch reported to their leader, the Supreme Intelligence. He fled, and sought assistance from Linda. The two returned and found the tunnel sealed off somehow, but at the nearby sand pit, witnessed NASA technicians Hollis and Johnson get sucked underneath the sand by something unseen.
Realizing the Martians were underneath the entire town, the pair left in Linda's car, briefly hiding in the school to evade Chief Ward and Officer Kenney, whose attempt to kill them was interrupted by the intrusion of a Martian digging machine. Ed had cut the lines out of town, and so Linda was unable to contact the state police. The only person David could think of who could help them was General Wilson, his father's boss at Camp Puller, and so he and Linda drove there. They found Wilson and his second in command Sergeant Rinaldi able and willing to help - especially after Hollis and Johnson attempted to assassinate the General, and then more mind-controlled NASA technicians, given access by George, drove an explosive-laden truck into the rocket set to launch and explore Mars.
David rode with General Wilson to the sand pit and mostly became a mere spectator as the Marines set up to battle the aliens. They watched helplessly as Sergeant Rinaldi was accidentally knocked into the pit and pulled beneath the sand. David's parents weren't at the house. Nor had a sweep of the Marine base turned them up. Reasoning that they were in the buried ship, David ran out onto the sand and let himself be taken. Linda, running after him, was captured as well. When he awoke, he found Linda unconscious and witnessed Rinaldi being taken over by the Martians via a needle in his neck. Escaping from the drones, David confronted Mrs. McKeltch and the Supreme Intelligence, who refused to release his parents and the other mind-controlled people. David punched the Martian leader, and Mrs. McKeltch was eaten by a drone.
Fleeing, David ran into General Wilson and Captain Curtis, who had broken into the tunnels and killed the mind-controlled Rinaldi. He led them and their men to the Martian control room where the Marines battled the Supreme Intelligence, causing him to retreat and begin preparing the ship for liftoff. They planted a bomb, rescued Linda from the mind control process, and then began to flee. When they discovered the Martians' digging machine had filled in the escape tunnel, it was David who figured out how to work one of the dead aliens' ray guns to blast the tunnel entrance open once more, allowing everyone to escape. But he still hadn't found his parents.
Suddenly, as he turned to go, he heard George and Ellen calling to him. Realizing they were still under the Supreme Intelligence's power, he fled from them. They chased him, and in so doing were spared the destruction of the Martian ship, which blew up in mid-takeoff. His parents' neck-devices shorted out, freeing them from the aliens' control, and the three embraced...
...only for David to awaken in bed. It had all been a dream! Just as he was relaxing, he turned and noticed the Martian ship landing. For real, this time. He ran to warn his sleeping parents, only to find he was too late. The Martians were already in his parents' bedroom. David loosed a scream of despair.