Val shifts through the trash behind the big box store, A-Mart, and pulls out a small carton of just recently aged out brownies along with a package of vacuum-sealed raw chicken set to expire tomorrow, and throws them over the lid into his cart. Hopping out he dusts off his knees, as though he wasn't covered in several oil and dirt stains already. It's safe to say he hadn't bathed in a very long time. A small brown and red dog, a mutt with signs of a few different breeds in its floppy ears and round body, barks at Val and pushes on his leg. "Oh, right. Thank you Girlie." He pulls out a pre filled needle and removes the orange cap, squirting a small amount to test its readiness before jabbing himself in his toned tan abdomen and injecting the insulin. "Come on let's go home. We've got good eats tonight."
His pickup truck is anything but pretty. An old Ford with one red door and one green, the hood is hanging on for dear life and the tailpipe is rattling as it shakes down the highway. The back of the truck is stuffed with what seem to be minor antique items along with boxes of food pushed just against the door. The third hand vehicle drifts further and further away from the city until only miles of desert make up his periphery while staring down the long road ahead. The sun melts into the orange canyons, pulling a blanket of stars in tow that fill the night sky.
The western nomad pulls out his mobile phone and starts to list the items he found for sale using the pictures he took during the haul earlier in the day when, without warning, a loud boom reverberates through the canyons. Val nearly turns the truck over as the shockwave shakes him from his concentration on the sales site. Gripping the wheel and regaining control he sticks his scruffy head out the window and looks up. A ball of fire is hurdling through the air in a freefall. Was it a jet of some kind? A new airplane? The testing fields aren't but a few hundred miles away, he thought. But the closer the ship got the more alien it appeared. The flames gave way to reveal a long needle-like body offset with razor-thin wings and a tall tail. The ship lands with a metallic crunch as it skids and screeches the length of two football fields, before coming to a stop, having dug several feet firmly into the Earth.
Val rips the steering wheel to the right, off the road, and into the moonlit desert. Several antique items are strewn across the highway in his wake. Someone might need help and from here, he thought, it seemed as though the ship was in more or less one piece. Maybe they could explain where the hell they came from if their in as decent shape as this bird. Stopping just beside the vessel he pulls out the flashlight on his phone and begins inspecting the side.
It was a nearly seamless design, and the hull, despite falling through the upper atmosphere, was ice cold to the touch. This can't be one of ours. This is years ahead of anything Val ever saw in his years in the Air Force. A sound like an animal exhaling, as the ship gives way to reveal the thin outline of a doorway in the wall of the hull, sliding open and down to become a ramp. Val steps on cautiously and enters. Girlie barks from the cab of the truck but at that point it was too late.
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