Gomer studied Kyle for a few seconds, and then began to back away.

"You're lucky," Gomer said to Kyle, trying to sound tough.

Kyle felt a rush of satisfaction. He had won this show- down, and had done it without striking a blow. Maybe Gomer wasn't much of an opponent, and this hadn't been much of a contest, but it still felt good to win one… to win something. As Kyle watched Gomer help Dawn into his pickup, he felt his body relaxing slowly. Rather than wait- ing around, he decided to lock up and go see the others. He would have plenty of time tomorrow night to work on the van. He pulled the large shop area doors shut. They were the old-fashioned kind that opened from the sides instead of the newer ones that opened up and down.

The doors were heavy and squeaked on their wheels as he pulled them together. Then Kyle locked the two doors together with the padlock and looked up in time to see Gomer's pickup heading down the road into the rapidly darkening sky As soon as he turned away, he felt an odd vibration in the ground.

Earthquake? he wondered.

Inside their room, Max felt the ground shake underneath him. He was immediately on guard. Instinctively, he turned to the others to make sure they were okay. His best friend was wearing the same hyper-alert expression than Max was sure was on his own face.

"What was that?" Liz asked.

"I don't know," Max replied, a chill running up and down his spine. He had a very bad feeling about whatever was going on. By the look on his best friend's face, he was not the only one.

"Let's check it out, Maxwell," Michael said, getting up.

Max was on his feet in a second.

"Wait here," Michael said to Maria.

"We'll be right back," Max said to Liz.

"You'll be right back? You're going to leave us here while you check out whatever is out there?" Maria said.

As Maria spoke, the shaking of the ground turned into a deep rumbling that was getting stronger.

"She's right," Max said. "Everybody stay together. We'll find Kyle and go from there.”

Kyle ran toward the road and followed the lights of the pickup as it drove away from the garage and the center of town. As the ground started to shake even more around him, Kyle saw the pickup begin to weave on the street. Then he heard a loud crash and saw it come to a sudden stop, as if it were slamming into a wall that he couldn't see. The rear of the pickup seemed to lift into the air and hang there for an instant.

Then the lights in the pickup went out. Kyle could still see the outline of the vehicle, but it began to dim in front of him. No, that wasn't it. The truck wasn't dimming. It was just getting darker, much darker. Looking up, Kyle could still see the night sky and stars clearly above him, but the road around the pickup was nearly pitch dark.

Looking into the darkness made Kyle queasy. Then he was not just queasy, he was nauseated. Something about the darkness made him want to…

The world seemed to be moving in slow motion, and then Kyle heard someone call his name. Max. It was Max. With effort, he turned away from the sight in front of him and saw Max and the others approaching him at a run. They were looking at him and past him toward the pickup.

Kyle wanted to tell them not to look, but then the dark- ness was gone, and he saw a bright light shining on his friends.

The ground continued to shake, harder. Kyle turned quickly to see a large, brightly lit… something hovering over the ground.

The ship, if that's what it was, was big. Almost as big as Johnny's garage. It also seemed like a perfect cylinder… almost like a giant, solid pipe. It was covered with maybe half a dozen small white lights and another half a dozen large searchlights that moved and crisscrossed over the road and surrounding area.

For a terrible moment, Kyle saw one of the searchlights point directly at him as his ears told him that his friends were right behind him. The light was blinding, and Kyle had to close his eyes and then turn around. Finally, he could see the searchlight's circle track away from him. He tried to focus on his friends, but a bright afterimage obscured his vision.

When his eyes began to refocus, he turned around to see the cylinder continue to hover. Then the lights went out all at once, and Kyle heard a rush of air as the ship raced away.

He tried to track it with his eyes, but he looked away when he saw the cloud of darkness again. When he looked back, the ship was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, my God," he heard Maria say from behind him.

18

Uh, my God, Max, it was a ship!" Liz said from behind.

Max nodded, still looking out into the sky. It was a ship, there was no question about that, Max thought. The only question was what they did now. His instinct was to pile himself and his friends into the van or whatever vehicle was handy and get as far away from Stonewall as they pos- sibly could. "Kyle, are you okay?" Max asked his friend.

"Yeah, I got here a few seconds before you did," he said. Kyle didn't look hurt, but he was obviously shaken up. There was something else, too, something in his face.

"Are you sure?" Max said.

"I think so. I feel a little sick," Kyle said. He explained about the black cloud that had hidden the ship, or what- ever it was. "Looking into that darkness made me feel sick to my stomach, I can't explain it," Kyle said.

"What kind of technology was that? What kind of ship? Max, who are they?" Liz asked.

"That was nothing like the ship that brought us here. A Skin ship maybe?" Michael said.

"I don't think so," Isabel said in a very firm voice. "I think I know exactly who they are, or at least what they look like.”

"Who is it?" Max asked.

"The monster from Jessica's dream. I think she was dreaming about the things that took her," she said.

Then a sound disturbed the quiet around them. Until Max heard it, he hadn't realized how quiet it had been. Since they had arrived, there hadn't been any of the usual insect sounds, not even the endless chirping of crickets that usually went on all night.

This sound was a growling. No, not a growling… it was someone moaning.

"Help me," a weak voice said.

"I'll go," Max said. Then he caught a glimpse of Liz's face and corrected himself: "We'll all go.”

The group approached the pickup. The truck was angled toward them, and Max could see that the front end was pretty well smashed.

As they approached, someone pushed his way out of the pickup. Max recognized him immediately.

"Gomer," Kyle said.

The large man staggered away from them, to the side of the road.

"Gomer," Kyle repeated as he rushed to the pickup to look inside.

"Gomer!" Kyle shouted. Gomer finally turned around and looked at Kyle as if he didn't recognize him.

Max saw that the tow truck driver had a bloody nose. Other than that, he looked okay.

"Where is Dawn?" Kyle asked.

"They took her," Gomer said, his voice weak.

Max knew that the next logical question was: Who took her? But Kyle didn't ask it. They all knew.

"What happened?" Max asked.

"I don't know," Gomer said. The man's head seemed to clear a small fraction, but he still looked like he was in a fog.

Shock, Max thought.

Kyle had produced a rag from somewhere and handed it to Gomer. "Put this on your nose," Kyle said.

Liz put a hand on Gomer's shoulder and said, "Gomer. Do you remember anything?”

That seemed to bring him out of his haze a little more.

"We were driving… then it got dark all of a sudden," Gomer said. He was struggling to remember details.

"Then we crashed into… something," he said, shaking his head, "but there was nothing there.”

Gomer took a breath and continued. "It was too dark to see, but there was noise. Dawn screamed. I tried to grab her, but something had her… The dark, there was some- thing wrong with it.”