“A bright beam of light shot from the center of the UFO and struck one of the storage facilities. After several minutes, the light turned off, and the craft slowly flew away. Once it was out of sight the base’s power returned.”
Jack leaned toward Amber, her eyes filled with interest. “Here’s the strange thing. The building the UFO shined the light on had radioactive waste canisters scheduled to be disposed of during the next solar flight. It drained all radioactivity from the containers. They were inert.”
She looked astonished. “That is strange. What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know. Maybe the UFO refueled itself with the radioactivity.”
“Wow.” She leaned back into the sofa.
She jotted some things down. “Have you ever seen a UFO…?"
Shannon barged into Jack’s office, wide-eyed and out of breath, interrupting the interview. “Mr. Slater, come quick! There’s a craft outside. Hovering over the parking lot.” She took a breath to calm herself. “An actual flying saucer!"
The air around the asteroid fragment burned above 3,000 degrees. Its red-white tail stretched out behind it for miles, swirling and dancing like a long fiery tentacle reaching for space. Small pieces of it broke off and burned up.
A massive chunk remained.
It struck the Earth just outside of the field with the force of a ten-megaton bomb, creating a 6,000-foot crater. The heat generated turned a nearby lake into steam, draining it completely. The force field absorbed a significant portion of the energy and the heat blast before it shot another 126 miles outward, where it consumed the rest of the blast’s power before jumping again.
The force of the impact shook the Earth. Tectonic plates weakened by fracking decades ago shifted, creating an earth-shattering quake throughout North Texas.
Buildings and homes began to shake.
Leech and Raven came and collected the prisoners. They led them to an old barn about twenty-five yards away. While Raven held a weapon on them, Leech attached each prisoner’s shackles to long chains hanging from rafters above.
Once finished, they left, while someone else Jack didn’t recognize positioned himself by the door.
The barn reeked of human waste and old vomit. Bamboo grew near the walls with smeared human remains and piles of bones.
He looked up and examined where the chains were attached to a ring anchored in the rafters. He wondered if they might be able to break the heavy wood rafters if everyone worked together. Just maybe.
Automatic gunfire split the quiet. Bullets ripped through the barn’s wall as everyone cowered for cover. Maybe a rescue? No, now there’s laughter. Damn. And to top it off, his stomach started cramping. Those damn beans.
The hours dragged by; the laughter and gunshots outside thinned out. A muscle cramp in his stomach made Jack retch what little food he had left. Damn beans. His dry mouth ached for water. He felt hot. He looked out the barn door through dancing stars at one of his captors who took a large gulp from a bottle of whiskey. He considered asking for help, but worried he might get shot instead.
“Damn it!” someone shouted outside. “I think this place is haunted.”
“What ya mean?”
“I just walked into sump-on solid that ain’t thar.”
Jack heard laughter from the guy’s friends.
“Ain’t funny. I swear thar’s sump-on.”
Someone staggered across the opening and slid down the wall. A bottle fell next to the unconscious figure.
A fresh round of gunfire erupted, minus any laughter. Screams of pain filled the air. The guard’s eyes widened as his handgun that had been tucked in his belt floated away, and aimed at his head. Sweat formed on his forehead as he tried to reach for the weapon. It went off. The back of his head blew up. He fell back, blood gushing from the wound.
Jack’s eyes bulged as an apparition appeared and slowly formed. First a neck, followed by a chin, nose and cheeks, then finally t’Nina’s beautiful blonde hair floating over invisible shoulders. The gun still floated in the air over the dead body.
Is the food poisoning making me see things?
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.