Thunderbirds Are Go!
Halloween Specials 2021 Edition
Disclaimer: All rights reserved. I do not own Thunderbirds or any affiliated characters with the show.
The Night Crawlers
By Jeff Tracy
During the second week of September, my family was plagued by a series of events that still puzzle us to this day. It's strange to admit that things are happening in this world that we can't begin to understand. Sure we know about other indigenous species that exist in space, but our understanding of the unknown remains untapped. It was a warm night when the first incident happened. I had stayed up till the early hours of the morning, surviving on a pot of strong coffee. My boys were en-route home from a rescue mission in India and had been gone for several hours. I sent the rest of my sons to bed, as I figured there would be no use in them staying up with me. When the clock struck 11, Thunderbird One returned to the base, her motors flickered through the night sky. Thunderbird Two shortly followed as Virgil gently set her down on the slipway which ran along the shoreline towards the cliff face. I made a habit of greeting my boys before sending them to bed. I found that it helped ease my conscience that way. By half 11, they had done just that. Virgil stretched his limbs as he dragged his heels towards his room. Scott followed him as he slumped along the corridor towards his room. As I prepared to turn in for the night, I caught a glimpse of a strange light out of the periphery of my right eye. It streaked across the sky and vanished behind the highest peak on the Island. I didn't think it was anything substantial. Perhaps it was just a shooting star?
I shrugged it off and went to bed, ignoring the luminescent green glow which covered the northern peak of the island. Fatigue dictated how my mind worked at that time. I was too tired to investigate it further. I went to bed and stirred for a while, unaware of the bizarre events that transpired outside my window. As I slumbered, I could hear an array of bizarre noises which skulked outside the villa. The distinct sounds of shifting, grunting and grinding could be heard from the swimming pool. They had a rhythmic pattern to them. Half asleep and with no intention of leaving my bed, I sat up to listen to these sounds. As they continued, I clambered towards my window to see if I could find the source of these sounds. All my eyes could see were the twinkling stars in a cloudless sky, accompanied by the calm sea which reflected them. As I adjusted my eyes to the night, I thought I could see strange, unearthly shapes moving about in the dark. The problem was, I was so tired that my eyes could have easily deceived me. Again, I shrugged it off and returned to bed.
At breakfast the next morning, I awoke to the alluring smell of fried eggs. The family had already begun without me as I had managed to oversleep by an hour. As I took my place at the table, I could hear my boys natter amongst themselves. Their topic of conversation was interesting.
"Say, did you guys hear anything strange last night?" asked Alan. "I thought I could hear something moving outside."
"I didn't hear anything, bro," replied Scott. "I was too tired after that Indian fire. I could have slept for America."
Alan frowned. "I'm telling you, I hear something."
"Your mind was playing tricks again, Alan," scoffed Gordon. "That's what you get for watching "Zombie Flesh Eaters," before going to bed. When will you ever learn!"
"Leave him along, Gordon," Virgil added. "He loves his horror films too much. I for one didn't hear anything either."
"Yeah well, I did!" I interjected as my boys turned their attention to me. "I heard something too, only I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or not."
"What did you hear, Dad?" asked Scott, curiously.
"I don't know. It sounded like something was grunting and walking around the pool area."
Kayo entered the room at this point in the conversation. She couldn't help but overhear our discussion and decided to make her contribution.
"You know there's a way to find out right?" she said. "I heard something too when I was going to the bathroom. I think we should check the security footage."
"We have security footage?" Gordon asked.
Kayo shot him an unimpressed look. After finishing my coffee, I agreed with her idea. A short while later, we all headed for a small booth that sat behind my desk. It was concealed behind a hollow wall that slid back at the press of a button. As the false compartment slid back, We entered the confined space and crowded around the single computer terminal. Kayo operated the terminal which switched on the island's 12 security cameras. The first 6 showed nothing out of the ordinary, but when we analysed the footage from the camera which overlooked the pool, our jaws dropped in awe and terror. The camera caught what appeared to be a large, drawing pin-shaped figure, standing by the edge of the pool. After a few minutes, it stretched out what appeared to be a leg and took a few clumsy steps towards the patio doors. It had long, thin legs which tapered into two tiny feet at the bottom. The legs then spiralled in a cork-screw way, forming a small body. It had no arms and instead of a head, was a small, greyish-white ball which kept in proportion with the rest of its body. As it continued to stagger across the patio, it picked up momentum until it made its way towards the far end of the villa. The last 5 cameras continued to track this thing until it disappeared up the dirt trail and into the woods which led towards the peak. Then, the footage abruptly ended.
"What...was that!?" Alan trembled.
"It had no arms," muttered Scott in disbelief. "And it's head….it…"
"I haven't seen anything like it before," Added Virgil. "It didn't look human."
Meanwhile, Gordon remained silent as he stood back from the rest of the crowd. I looked over at him, noting the deep look of concentration in his eyes. He had seen this thing before or at least heard about it. When I pressed him for information, he resisted, chalking it up to superstition. The rest of the day carried on as routinely as possible, but the video footage continued to stab away at me. While Scott and Alan were away on a mission in Thunderbird Three, I took the time to do some research of my own. The creature we had caught on camera shared an uncanny resemblance to a mysterious cryptid that once walked in the preserved woods of the Yosemite National Park. As I dug deeper, I had unearthed other reported sightings from Carmel county and Fresno in California. Some of the sightings originated in Poland. Investigators dubbed them 'The Night crawlers' with claims that they were a part of Native American folklore. Of course, the claims were debunked, but it only added to the mystery surrounding these beings.
As the noonday sun began to set over the horizon, night descended on the island once again. Thunderbird Three returned to her silo after another successful mission, and the family gathered around the table for dinner, only no one was hungry. We were all too paranoid that these things would pay us another visit, so I figured that it would be best if I stayed up all night to keep watch. Scott protested the idea before insisting that he'd join me. As the clock reached the 21sr hour, I made my decision clear. Later that night, Scott and Kayo accompanied me to a stakeout point that we had set up above the cliff which overlooked Thunderbird Two's hangar. From there, we had a good view of the villa along with the path which ran into the trees beyond. Nothing seemed to disturb the serenity of the night for about an hour, Scott and Kayo periodically scanned the area with the high powered binoculars which were mounted to a tripod.
"Nothing so far," he whispered. "If these things do come back, we should be able to see them."
Suddenly, the green flash of light drew our attention as it shot down into the trees once again, followed by the same green glow that I had witnessed the previous night. It hugged the dark outline of the trees until it gradually faded out of existence. We watched and listened keenly as we heard a faint rustling coming from the trees. The suspense had become unbearable once the sounds ceased. What was going on there? I wondered as I grew uncomfortable in my crouched stance.
"I think I can see something moving over there," whispered Kayo. "Yeah. Something is moving."
"Yeah, I can see it too," agreed Scott. "It's skulking about in the dark."
As they said that, the first of the Night Crawlers came into view. It strode out of the trees, crushing rocks under its thin legs. The three of us sat there in bewilderment as this thing stepped out into the clearing. Our rational minds wrestled with this enigma. What was it exactly? Where did it come from and was its intentions, hostile? As it ventured over towards the back panelled wall which concealed the kitchen, our attention was drawn back to the trees. A second figure emerged from the forest. It was much smaller than the first one and appeared to be hesitant of its surroundings. If I had to estimate the size of this thing then I'd say it was around 15 meters tall where the taller one looked to be around 5ft tall. The second creature looked identical to a drawing a witness had made of the Fresno sightings. It seemed incredible to think that these beings might have been Extraterrestrial in origin, but the thought had crossed each of our minds. The taller creature made a lap of the patio while the smaller creature approached the doors to the villa. It tilted forward as if it was peering through the glass. Its spiralled body glistened in the moonlight. It didn't seem to do anything more than investigate its surroundings. I didn't feel any sense of hostility from them at all. Were they as curious about us as we were about them?
Kayo began to fidget as her muscles tightened. She balled a fist, ready to charge at them. I reached over to her and place my hand on her wrist. She understood why by reading the look in my eyes. Once they finished their search of the property, the two creatures turned back the way they came, up the path towards the trees. I had to see where they were going and sprang from my cover. The three of us bolted across the clearing towards the path, after the creatures. We could hear a faint rustling up ahead, but couldn't get a visual of them, It sounded as if they were heading in every direction, making it impossible for us to choose a path.
"They went this way!" exclaimed Scott.
"No, they went up the hill!" Kayo replied as her sharp eyes spotted the two unearthly shapes. "There they are!"
"I see them!" I cried. "Hurry!"
We pressed on up the hill towards a small rocky plateau that boasted a splendid view of the island. It was where our satellite antennas were positioned, allowing us to keep in contact with Thunderbird Five. The two Night Crawlers were heading straight for them and I feared that they were going to damage them, believing that this could be a precursor to an attack of some kind. I overtook the others, exerting myself up the small incline towards the plateau. The distant shapes ahead vanished in the dark, their grunting sounds softened into melody in the distance. When we finally reached the plateau, however, the creatures had gone except for a large ball of green light that lit up the night sky like the blast from a nuclear explosion. We had to shield our eyes from this light for fear of burning our retinas. The light emitted a heat that singed the hairs on my arms and a dull hum reverberated through the air. It felt as if a magnetic force had surged through my body, causing my bones to rattle. I could hear my son call out to me only I couldn't respond to his cries. And then, as if it had been switched off at the mains, the light vanished. It simply blinked out of existence, restoring the calmness of the night.
The three of us sat there, shivering at the extraordinary yet terrifying encounter we had just witnessed. My lip quivered as I tried to keep a calm composure. Kayo was the first to gather her wits. She helped us to our feet and together, we set off down the path towards the villa below. I felt dizzy and weak from the encounter as my surroundings swayed around me. I had the sudden need to vomit, gripped by the crippling sensation of nausea. Yet, I took comfort in knowing that I wasn't going through the ramifications of this alone. Over the next few days, Scott, Kayo and I fought a temperature that left us dehydrated and delirious. Grandma and Brains did everything they could to aid in our recovery. As the last week of September approached, I managed to regain my strength. I asked about the creatures, desperate to know if there had been any more subsequent sightings. There were none. Whatever it was that surveyed our home had vanished without the intention of returning. When Scott and Kayo recovered, the three of us informed the family of what had happened to us up on the plateau. Alan revealed that John had tracked this thing as it left the atmosphere shortly after its departure from the island. He couldn't determine what it was, only that it didn't move like a conventional spacecraft. That sealed the deal for me. We had been visited by Extraterrestrial beings from another world. The problem was that without the answers, there could be no resolve.
All we could do was pretend that it never happened. I couldn't tell the story to the GDF nor my friends at the space agency. They'd only laugh me down or call me a kook. I guess some things are meant to be left unsolved. But should I ever decide to release this account to the world press, please keep an open mind when I say that these things are real? I've seen a few impressive hoaxes over the web, but they pale in comparison to what we saw that night. The Night Crawlers are real, possible peaceful and are out there somewhere.