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"Any sign of the mailman?" he quickly asked, knowing that one of Andy’s presents from his father was being delivered by mail today.

"Sir, no sir!" yelled Sarge a little too loudly into the mic. "I am truly disappointed that a civil servant of this glorious nation would even CONSIDER being late to his duly appointed task! He has currently been listed AWOL for forty five minutes, sir!"

"Great... now what could be keeping him today of all days." Woody said almost under his breath. This was all that was needed to ruin Andy’s birthday. After thinking for a second he yelled over to his friend, "BUZZ! Any sign of the mailman?"

Buzz turned to look out the window and glanced down both directions of the street. He could see the mailman’s uniform through the trees about twenty steps away from the house. The mailman was walking slowly as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Buzz turned back to Woody and said, "Woody... He is heading up the walkway to the door now. He appears to be taking his time with the whole thing as well"

Woody smiled, not paying attention to the inflection of Buzz’s voice, and depressed the button on the walkie-talkie, "Sarge, everyone to their posts! Operation Let’s Party is a GOOO!! Delivery in T-minus 30 seconds!"

Chapter 2

Andy was barely able to sit on the stairs and wait in anticipation for the mailman to arrive. His dad had promised that his birthday present would be arriving by mail today.

Andy’s mom looked out the kitchen window as she watched his sister playing in the back yard with Sid’s sister, Hannah. She was a regular visitor now and she guessed rightly so that the little girl had developed a crush on Andy. Smiling to herself, she went back to the refrigerator and checked on Andy’s cake. She could not imagine how her sweet boy had developed such a fascination with video games but she figured it was just a phase and would grow out of it once he discovered girls. His dad had been the same way when he was young.

As she went back to look out the window she noticed a lot of commotion coming from outside and peered through the curtains to take a better look. Confusion clouded her face as she was confronted by something that didn’t make sense to her. Several driveways had cars with luggage and furniture piled on top them. Every person visible was running around their cars as if they were running from a fire.

Perplexed, she walked into the foyer where she knew Andy was waiting for the mailman. She saw him sitting on the staircase with his hands under his chin, staring at the door. Her thoughts turned to her husband who should be home soon as well. She knew nothing was wrong because her husband calls whenever something is wrong... He always calls.  That was one of the things she loved about him the most.

Andy’s head lifted off his hands when he saw the shadow of the mailman appear through the frosted glass of the front door. Excitedly, he jumped up and ran to the door.

Sarge pressed the button once again on his walkie-talkie. "Eagle Eye to Command. Eagle Eye to Command. The cargo is on the field. I repeat... the cargo is on the field."

Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang, waited quietly to hear the next message.

In the back yard, Sid was yelling for Hannah at the top of his lungs. His voice held such an odd tone that she became frightened for a moment with the fear that the "old" Sid had returned.  That fear subsided as she saw him climb the fence to the back yard and come running to her.

"We have to leave right now! Everyone is going crazy!" He said, breathing heavily.

"What? NO! Andy’s party is soon and I want to be here with him... with her!" she corrected herself quickly. Hannah wasn’t ready to admit that she had a crush on Andy to herself let alone have her brother find out. She was here to be around Andy even if he was only into games and his friends.

"Hannah, dad is at home and already has the car packed! We are going away from town to visit grandma up north... People are killing each other and doing VERY bad things to each other. I don’t want anything to happen to you!" He was almost in tears thinking about the images he had seen on television and had heard from his father.

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