The Circle Opens

I saw it. The star fell from the heavens above. It fell onto Old Man Megrugre's farm land. There wasn't much of an explosion, if one at all. My friends and I jumped from the back of the old Dodge truck we were sitting upon, throwing our beers out into the woods. Harry and Mike stayed in the back, while Troy and I got into the cab.

The drive wasn't that long. The old dirt roads rolled under the worn and greying tires of Troy McDougall's truck. The dark desolate road unfolded in front of us, the dark forest running along side us. When we came to a small trail in the forest, Troy let off the accelerator and pushed on the brakes a little, allowing him to turn into the woods easily.

The path to Megrugre's farm was narrow and overgrown, but that's the way we wanted it. Donald Megrugre would never notice it, leading into his farmland. Troy cut the lights out in front of his truck, no one would notice us out here.

We drove up to where it had landed, a smoldering crater. I was surprised, no doubt as were the other guys, that old Donnie Megrugre himself hadn't come out here to take a gander at what had landed.

It was a big black ball. So big, in fact, that it reached up to at least ten to fifteen feet. We examined it closely. It had a LOT of creases.

"Hey guys, I'm going to check out the other side." I said.

"Be careful, man. I don't know what the hell this thing is, but it sure as shit ain't no weather satellite." I nodded. I snatched the cigarette out of Harry's mouth and took a long drag on it.

"In case it's my last one." I explained sarcastically. Harry grinned, snatching back the cigarette. I took a deep breathe of the cold March air, savoring it in a way only a condemned criminal headed for Old Sparky can. Then I began my journey around the meteor or what ever it was.

Little did I know how much of a journey it was going to be. The giant ball must have been at least twenty feet around, if not larger. I had to be only a few feet from the opposite end of where my friends were waiting for me when I saw Mrs. Megrugre, lying on the ground, pale faced.

I ran toward her, hoping the pale face wasn't a permanent thing. I bent down to check her pulse, I was a Emergency Metro junkie before all this happened, and then was when I felt the back of my shirt go up, and a hard clanking on my back, like somebody had hit me with a steel bat. I fainted.

I woke up in a short daze. I felt great when the daze cleared. Everything seemed so clear, so absolute. It was almost an ecstasy. I looked around, Mrs. Megrugre was standing in front of me, a stern look on her face. I turned around to find Mr. Megrugre standing, also with a stern look on his face.

"Thank you for that. I was beginning to think that I'd have to wait till morning to have a body of my own. Are there any others ready?" I heard myself say.

"Yes, we can take all of the others here." Mr. Megrugre answered.

"Good. This time it's going to work. Let me lead, they won't expect it if they get it from me first." I said without thinking about it. For a moment my mind was blank, a black screen.

I turned from Mr. Megrugre and began walking around the ship. I heard Troy shout to me, and I replied, telling him that I had found something interesting and that he should come check it out, but that the other guys should stay back and guard the truck. They must've heard me, because after some rather loud discussion I heard footsteps coming our way. It was Harry. I signaled to Mr. Megrugre, who had been following me with some warmed transit cells, backed off.

I greeted Harry with a soft smile and asked where Troy was. Harry said that Troy had been busy taking a leak. Judging from the way he looked, I could tell he wasn't lying. I motioned with my hand for Harry to follow me, and he did. I slowed, allowing for him to get ahead of me. When I was sure that he was at least five feet from me, I jumped on him, pinning him and lifting the back of his shirt up. Don appeared from around the ship and got the master out of it's cell. Harry's shouts were muffled by the ground, in which his face was firmly planted.

I took the master from Don and held it to Harry's neck, letting it to do the rest. When the struggles Harry was putting up stopped I got off him, helping him. He brushed himself off and looked around.

"Alright, lets get the others. I want this quick and clean. By tomorrow we should have this entire area." he said. And that's the way it was, quick and clean. Troy put up a small quibble, but once his master was secured, everything fell into place. The town was basically easy. Don was a member of Town Council and was able to recruit all of the other members. Troy, Harry, Mike and I were able to recruit the local bar, Trixie's, and from there on, for us anyway, it was butter.

There was never any stereocast concerning the impact of the mysterious object. It was just... forgotten. Before three days had passed, we had secured almost the entire town. There was always the person or family who was out of town visiting family or on business. We would deal with that problem at the borders of town with road blocks.

Temper Hills was the first of many cities to be had by us, and soon, I would go to visit Kansas City. There I would send for crates full of masters in transit cells and would begin recruiting...