2
Encounter
Peter Turner sat nervously in the living room of his home waiting for his father to come home. He'd heard on the news that Cheryl Windsor’s trial had been recessed early that afternoon. Stan usually came straight home after a trial was over. When he hadn't shown up by 4:00 o'clock, Peter began to worry. His mother, Rebekah, called his office but no one there had heard from Stan either. Next she called Paula Waters, Stan’s partner, but there was no answer at her apartment. Peter had a hunch his father had gone to Possum Kingdom Lake, 125 miles west of Dallas, to look for his client Cheryl Windsor, who’d been abducted right in the middle of her murder trial. He figured his father must have come to the same conclusion he had. The aliens had taken her. Peter wasn't sure why they’d done it, but he guessed she must have known something they didn't want her to talk about on the stand in front of the press. As Peter was thinking, the telephone rang. It was Paula. His father was missing!
His mother became frantic at the news and immediately called the police. The dispatcher put her through to a sergeant who said they‘d already been contacted by his partner and had contacted the FBI. He told her to stay at home, remain calm, and they'd contact her if there was any news. She hung up and immediately began to cry. Peter felt his mother’s pain and wanted to tell her about the aliens and what they'd seen at the lake, but he had promised his father he wouldn't tell anyone about it. Peter didn’t know what to do. Finally he decided he had to go to Possum Kingdom Lake and look for his father. There was no other choice. Neither the police, the FBI, or his father's private investigators knew about the aliens. Peter was the only one who knew what was going on. He was his father's only hope.
Since Rebekah wouldn't have allowed Peter to take her station wagon to look for his father, he told his brother Reggie he was taking it to visit a friend and would be back in a few hours. Reggie warned him that he'd get in trouble for taking the car, but that didn't stop him. Ten minutes later he was on the road to Possum Kingdom Lake. During the three hours it took to get there, he thought about what he would do if he found his father. He had no weapons and even if he did, he doubted they'd be any match for what weapons the aliens might have. His only hope was to find his father and pray he'd have an opportunity to free him. If not, there was a mobile phone in his mom’s station wagon, so he'd at least be able to call the police.
It was dark when he arrived at the stable where he and his father thought the cave entrance was hidden; a cave that led under the lake to Cactus Island where the aliens landed and hid their ship underground. It was a huge metal building that his father believed was built over the mouth of the cave to hide it from neighbors and passer-byes. On the radio the announcer had warned of a line of thunderstorms moving through Palo Pinto County and, sure enough, it arrived just as Peter did.
When he drove up, billows of smoke were pouring out of the metal building. Panic stricken, Peter jumped out of his car and stopped a fireman working the blaze. "What happened here!" he screamed.
The fireman stopped and looked at him."There's been an explosion. The place has been burning for half an hour."
"Oh, my God!"
"You can't be here," the fireman said. "You should go back to the main road."
"But I think my father was in there. I've got to go in and see."
"No. No. Nobody can go in there. What’s your father’s name?"
"Stan Turner."
"The attorney?"
"Yes.”
“Oh, he's okay. He's on his way to the sheriff's office."
"Really? Where’s the Sheriff’s office?"
"In the courthouse at Palo Pinto."
"You mean the courthouse off the main highway, the one that sticks up over the trees?"
"That's it," the fireman said smiling.
"Thanks."
For a moment Peter watched the firemen, police, and FBI agents who were swarming around the building like bees tending to their hive. What had happened here? He couldn't wait to find out. The news that his father was okay comforted him, but he wanted to see him in person to make sure. He debated whether to go to the sheriff's office or just drive home. Then he remembered his father didn’t have a car with him. The aliens had brought him here in a van. He would need a ride home, so it made sense to go to the sheriff's office. He got in the big station wagon and headed back toward Palo Pinto.
Halfway there he caught up with the line of thunderstorms that he'd encountered earlier and the rain became so intense he could hardly see. Not wanting to smash his mother's car, he decided to pull over and wait for the rain to let up. Twenty minutes later it was still raining just as hard and he was beginning to worry that he might miss his father. That would ruin his plan. He wanted to be the one to bring his father home, so his mother wouldn't be mad at him for taking her car.
He started the engine and continued cautiously back onto the highway. As he was pulling out the wind became so strong the car began to shake. Peter swallowed hard and looked around wondering if he was sitting in the path of a tornado. Memories of a Colorado encounter with a tornado years earlier came flooding through his mind. They’d been driving down the freeway one afternoon when his father told them a tornado was coming down the median straight at them. Just as Peter looked up a big Ryder truck was tossed in the air like a tin can and tumbled off the highway. The car if front of them stopped suddenly, so his father slammed on the brakes nearly throwing them to the floor. For several anxious moments they watched the tornado advance toward them. His father told them that if the tornado was going to hit them, they'd have to abandon their car or they'd surely die. Luckily the tornado had gone up in the clouds just in the nick of time.
Peter unbuckled his seatbelt. Warily, he accelerated down the highway. He couldn't see a thing it was so dark. Suddenly, the lights went out and the engine stalled. Fear shot through him like a hollow point shell. He looked around trying to get his eyes to penetrate the total darkness. Intermittent flashes of lightning provided the only illumination.
What should I do? This is too dangerous. What if an eighteen wheeler comes barreling around the bend and crashes into me? I've got to get the car off the road. I'm a sitting duck out here.
He cranked the engine but nothing happened. He tried again but all he heard was a faint clicking sound like you hear when the battery is dead. After banging the steering wheel a few times, he resigned himself to the fact that he'd have to push the car off the road himself.
He climbed out into the torrential downpour and began pushing with his left hand while he steered with his right. Intermittent flashes of lightning provided just enough light to see where he was going. Fortunately, the road was downhill so as he pushed the car gained momentum. When it had picked enough speed he jumped back in and shut the door. A hundred strides down the road a flash of lightning revealed a gravel road going off to the right, so he turned onto it and rolled to a stop.
Now that he was safe from any traffic all he had to worry about was the tornado. Peter looked around expectantly, still seeing nothing but darkness. He knew the odds of getting hit by a tornado were slim, so the fear that had gripped him earlier began to wane. What concerned him now was how he'd get his car started once the storm had passed.
As Peter was contemplating his predicament, lightning struck a power pole nearby. An eerie blue glow permeated the sky around him. He wondered if his car had been hit. Another strike hit the ground nearby nearly causing him to jump out of his skin. The car began to shake again, then suddenly was lifted off the ground at least ten feet before being dropped hard onto the gravel.
The eerie blue light hung in the air even after the lightning strike. The rain suddenly stopped. Peter looked around in shock and panic. As the minutes ticked off, the blue light intensified. Peter suddenly realized it was coming from directly overhead. He opened the door, looked up warily, and gasped at the huge spaceship hovering overhead.
He knew in an instant he’d made a mistake not obeying his father. The a
liens had discovered he knew of their existence. His father had told him to stay in the living room when he was being hypnotized by Dr. Gerhardt, but Peter hadn’t listened. He’d suspected his father was working for the CIA and the aliens, but he wanted to be sure. They’d have to eliminate him now. Oh, God! What am I going to do? Peter slammed the door, frantically rolled down the window and stuck out his head. "I won’t tell!" he screamed. But he knew that wouldn’t matter. Why should they trust him? They couldn’t afford to. He knew they existed, and for that they had to strike him dead!
Panic gripped Peter like a vice, but he told himself to remain calm. There had to be a way out of this. He knew he was a sitting duck in the car. If he stayed put, they'd hit him with a laser and he'd be incinerated in an instant. The car began to shake violently again. What were they doing? Were they going to take the car into the ship? "You're not taking this kid!" he screamed as he opened the door and made a run for it.
He ran along a fence line and then through a grove of trees. Suddenly he slammed into the drenching rain that had been deflected by the ship. He kept running, faster than he'd ever run before. He had to get away. Behind him he heard the big spaceship emit a deep whirring sound and he could tell it was coming after him. Somehow he ran even faster, but it wasn't enough. A beam of light shot out from the ship temporarily blinding him. His legs were lifted off the ground and he was sucked up in the beam like soda pop through a straw.
As he was pulled into the ship the sensation reminded him of body surfing when he was on vacation in California. When the big wave broke over you, there was nothing you could do but let it drag you along until it lost its momentum. If you fought it, you'd only injure yourself. This felt the same way so he instinctively relaxed and just waited. The beam sucked Peter into the ship and spat him out onto a slippery surface. He rolled over twice and slid hard against a spongy wall. It was cold, wet, and dark as midnight. Peter was petrified. He began to shake incessantly and could hardly breathe.