ENC 1101-B3 & B4: Writing for Discovery

The road was never ending. It curved left and right from time to time, but mostly it was a straight path into the unknown. Sometimes, John thought he was going in circles and therefore constantly glanced at his folded map for reassurance. He let out a yawn and eyeballed his watch to find that he had been driving for ten hours, while the sun was creeping to the west to go to sleep. Being all alone on a highway in the middle of Nevada is strange, especially when one thinks negatively. Like what would happen if the car broke down? Pushing his negative thoughts away, he smiled and knew that there was only an hour left on the road until he would reach the campsite. John’s astronomy class was already there, setting up tents and making bonfires. One of the greatest meteor showers in history was occurring that night, and John had no intentions of missing a wink of it.

Thinking about the beauty of the star filled sky, John’s hazel eyes began to shut. Before he could let himself fall asleep, he pulled off to the side of the road and walked around for a few seconds. He quickly hopped back in the car, and blasted the radio with some banjo filled country tunes. Thirty minutes had passed and John neglected to realize how dark the world around him had become. The road was pitch black, and all that could be seen were the yellow road stripes visible from the high beams, and of course the sky, which had a billion freckle like stars glinting down at him. The feeling of being all alone in a large dark place sent a shiver down his spine. John looked up at the sky and at that instance he saw an enormous shooting star, which appeared to be falling to the earth. He followed it with his curious eyes and then suddenly, out of nowhere, a large pop echoed from under the car, and it sent the car veering off the road. “Shit!” he exclaimed. He pulled over and located the flat tire, which had a hole about the size of a fist in it. “What the hell did I hit?” He opened both doors of his baby blue 1978 Ford Mustang, to illuminate the gravel, increasing the visibility of the tire. He popped the trunk and proceeded to remove the spare, when suddenly his cell phone rang. He pulled it out from his pocket and the caller id read “No Service.” He answered the phone, and in the background heard heavy breathing, but no reply. John said hello two more times, until the breathing stopped and the person on the other end of the line hung up.

Not being a fan of practical jokes, he threw his phone on the dashboard of the car and began to change the tire. The wind began whistling, throwing his dirty blonde hair in every direction, and sending goose bumps throughout his body. As he began to jack up the car, the cell phone rang again. He let it ring four times before answering it. Once he did, he heard a bunch of numbers being pressed rapidly before the person hung up. Nonetheless, he was running late and had no time for these games. He quickly threw on the spare tire and tossed the flat one in the trunk. He was on the road again for about twenty minutes when he heard another loud pop, and the car veered off the road once more. “No freakin way!” John looked at the tire that he had just changed, and it was fine. However, the left front tire was now destroyed. Now that John had no second spare, nor did he have tools to plug the tire, he grabbed his cell phone to call for help. When he tried calling his friends at the camp site, the phone did not complete the call because the phone read “No Service.” He took a deep breath, took his travel bag out of the back seat, and began walking toward the camp ground.

In the distance he could see a flame and knew that the camp ground was close. The scent of warm roasted marshmallows and hot chocolate filled the air, luring him closer to civilization. With only a few hundred feet to go, he began to walk faster until he heard footsteps behind him. John stopped and turned around. “Hello, is anyone there?”, he muttered. No one answered, and so he kept walking, but feared that someone was following him. Out of no where a white glowing object was visible in the distance. It approached him at almost the speed of light, until it was right in his face. The glowing object resembled a child, without any hair and with big oval shaped eyes. His teeth chattered as he observed it staring right at him. It was very skinny, with bones protruding from its shoulders, knees, and arms. John was frozen staring at this creature, assured that it was not from this planet. It began to approach him, hovering a foot above the ground. The hairs on John’s hands rose, as he began to feel very cold, and felt his level of fear rising to heart attack level. Now it was in his face. It grinned with the ghostly hole of a mouth, where there appeared no teeth. John let out a silent cry, and the creature put its mouth to John’s right ear. As John shut his eyes, knowing his life was over, the creature whispered “We . . . are . . . coming . . . soon.” It then dashed over his head and was gone.

John was so freaked out that he ran all the way to the bonfire trying to scream for his life, but nothing had escaped from his mouth. By the time he had reached the cheery crowd of friends applauding his arrival, he was out of breath and coughing immensely. All at once the campers started questioning where he had been. Before John could catch his breath to speak, one student looked up and shouted “Wow, look at that.” Meteors were falling from the sky and landing way off in the distance. They were appearing by the dozen, each emitting balls of light. “Why are they falling like that?” the student muttered. John dropped to both knees and cried out “They’re Coming!”