ENC 1101-B3 & B4: Writing for Discovery

It had been a miserable night. I had just had a crappy time at the Homecoming dance, and after dropping my whiny date off at her house, I just wasn’t in the mood to go home and call it a night. So I gave my best friend, well, my only friend, Will, a call.

“Hey Will,” I said. “That dance sucked. Alyssa was such a bitch. She even got pissed at me because I didn’t have enough money to rent a limo.”

“Yeah, Paul, it did suck. You wanna go fishing?”

“Sure, man. I’ll meet you at the lake in half an hour,” I said.

Will and I always went fishing when things weren’t going our way or when we just needed a break. As I was driving down the windy, dark road I remembered the time that we both flunked our history midterms and then decided to skip the rest of our classes and fish. Fishing wasn’t exactly the coolest thing to do at our school, and by now we were pretty used to being called rednecks and Bubbas. But we didn’t really care; we never felt like we fit in at that school anyway.

When I got to the lake, Will was already there, sitting on the ground baiting a hook. He had not even gone home to change, instead he had just thrown on an old t-shirt from the back seat of his Bronco and grabbed a pole from the stack in the bed. I walked around to the back of my truck and grabbed a rod, all the while wondering why the old Ford that had served me so well wasn’t good enough for Alyssa. Then I sat down next to my friend. After making a good cast, Will and I began to talk about the dance.

“Homecoming is definitely not all that its cracked up to be,” said Will.

“Yeah, I would’ve had a lot more fun if I would’ve taken your cousin,” I told him. Will’s cousin was definitely one of the prettiest girls in the school, and she was a lot cooler than Amy. And she was a year younger than us.

“Yeah, sure you would’ve, but than I would have to kick your ass,” Will shot back half jokingly, but half seriously. He was very protective of his cousin. “Besides, Allyssa’s really hot. If she just wouldn’t open up her mouth…”

We both had a good laugh at that. It was great to be able to joke around after trying to make sure everything was perfect for Alyssa all night. Through our laughter, we suddenly became aware of a noise off in the distance.

It was a low droning sound, almost like what the engine of a very large boat would look like. But it was not a boat, as the surface of the lake remained perfectly calm. And it was getting louder.

“Paul, what is that?” Will asked me.

“I don’t know, you think maybe the military base is doing something?” I asked back.

“No way, that’s like 30 miles away. I don’t know what it is.”

Slowly, lights began to appear on the horizon. First red, then green, then blue. They were peaceful and beautiful off in the distance, but as they got closer they appeared chaotic and out of control. We were almost mesmerized.

Dumbfounded, I blurted out the words that we were both now trying to say-

“I think it’s a flying saucer.”

“You don’t believe in that stuff, do you?” Will asked me.

By now, we could make out the shape of large triangular craft in the fog of lights. At first it appeared to be hovering over some trees in the distance, but we then realized that it was slowly moving in our direction. The noise it was making by this time was almost deafening, and a fierce wind began to blow our tackle all over the ground. The surface of the once calm lake was now churning with waves. We just stood there, shielding our eyes in awe. We both had no idea what to do next.

Suddenly a blinding flash of white light burst forth from the ship. After our eyes readjusted, we realized we were standing in the middle of a white spotlight coming down from it!

“Holy shit, run Paul!” Will screamed at me. We sprinted for my truck. To my horror, the light followed us across the ground as we ran. I just knew that something horrible would happen if we stayed there frozen in the light.

We both dove into the cab of my truck. Luckily, it started right up. As I floored the gas pedal, gravel and dirt flew up from underneath my tires, and we took off back down the dark country road. Through all of the confusion and sea of lights, I had lost track of the ship. But the awful noise was still all around us, even drowning out the rumble of my old truck at 80 miles an hour.

“Will, where is it at? I lost it!” I shouted in a panic.

“It’s following us, Paul! I think its getting closer! You gotta go faster!”

I could barely see the curves of the road as we now flew through them at over 100. The white light of the ship, which was now right behind us, was shining through the cab. My twenty year old truck could not take more of this stress. By now, smoke was pouring out from under the hood, making it even harder to see. I looked over at the engine temperature gauge and saw that it was in the red. We were about to become sitting ducks. Just then I noticed the tunnel.

Ahead of us, the road went through a mountain. If we could just make it into the tunnel, the ship would not be able to follow us and we would be safe.

“Go! Go! Go!” Will screamed at me. Smoke was filling up the cab, and all of the garbage in my truck was being thrown all over the place. “We’re almost there!”

“We screamed all the way until we made it into the tunnel. We had made it. Inside, it was eerily serene. The soft white safety lights of the tunnel contrasted sharply with the chaos of multicolored lights still splashing around in search at the exits of the tunnel. The truck stopped smoking as it cooled down, and I thought that maybe we would actually be alright. We dared not speak.

And it was not over. Through the fog at the end of the tunnel, we suddenly could make out four silhouettes approaching. As slowly crept closer to the truck, we could make out the hideous features, their huge black eyes on their large heads, sitting atop wiry gray bodies. Aliens!

“Quick! Put it in reverse!” Will screamed into my ear. As I slammed the shifter into reverse, I looked over my shoulder and saw four more of them behind us!

Will was hysterical by now. “Shit, no! Forward! Just drive! RUN THEM OVER!”

I threw the truck back into drive and mashed on the gas pedal. The tires squealed and smoked as the old V-8 roared to life. We were headed full speed right toward the aliens, we were so close! As we approached the final feet, the headlights illuminated their nasty disfigured faces. But we didn’t have time to dwell on their appearance. CRASH!!!

The truck plowed into the four ugly bodies. Pieces flew in all directions. Most of one was tossed over the hood right through the windshield, and its mangled arm grabbed ill. He started punching it right there in the seat and then tossed it out through the now smashed back window. Blood was all over the hood and cab, but it was not ours. We were alright.

We raced onward out of the tunnel and into the open road. The ship was nowhere to be seen, and the lights of town greeted us a few miles ahead down the hill. My friend and I had survived the craziest homecoming night of our lives.