Fifteen minutes later

Martin and Roberts had driven quite far from the cottage before they reached the filed, about ten or so miles to be exact. When they finally arrived at the field, which was just about a mile or so from the nearest village, they saw that a large crowd had gathered from the village, as well a few more people from the cars that Martin had seen pass his house.

Martin drove his car into a small field near a bunch of trees where a few other cars, most likely the ones he had seen pass them earlier on, were parked. When he had parked the vehicle, he and Roberts got out and Martin took out the car key and put it in his pocket.

"Righ', let's go an' 'ave a look," Roberts said and he walked off towards the crowd of people a few metres down the road; Martin followed.

As they approached the crowd, Martin looked at the trees near him and saw that a large number of birds had gathered on the braches to look at what had crashed. A few squirrels were climbing the branches just below the tops of the trees and were also heading towards the crowd. Wow! Everyone, including the animals, was curious about what was going on, but what exactly was going?

Finally, they reached the crowd. Everyone in it was talking to one another and looking ahead of them as if they were looking at something. What was it?

"Whaddya thinks goin' on?" Roberts asked.

"I don't know," Martin replied. "Uh, excuse me?" he tapped a man standing in front of him, who was talking to a woman standing next to him, on the shoulder. The man and the woman turned to face him. "Sorry to disturb you, but what exactly is going on?"

"Something crashed in the field," the man replied.

"Crashed in the field?" Martin repeated and the man nodded.

"Yeah, c'mon, I'll show you two," he said and he led Martin and Roberts through the crowd, having to push a few people aside, but they did not seem to care. Martin and Roberts followed close behind quickly to keep up with him.

After about a minute, they reached the edge of the crowd and both Martin and Roberts went wide-eyed.

About a hundred feet ahead of them was a huge rock, about thirty feet high and about forty feet across. Its sides were hissing with steam and it was a dark brown/maroon colour. It must have been powerful when it crashed because it had driven deep into the ground and left a small trench that had been caused from when it had crashed. A huge mound of earth about forty feet high was on the other side of the rock.

"My goodness!" Martin breathed, breathless with shock. This was the strangest thing he had ever seen. "What kind of rock is that?" he asked.

"Apparently It's a meteorite," the man told him.

"A me'eori'e?" Roberts repeated and the man nodded.

"Yeah. Someone in the village reported hearing a massive crash out here in the fields last night and when someone came out of their house this morning, they saw a large cloud coming up from the field and they thought a fire had started and word quickly spread from then on and this crowd is pretty much the result of it," the man concluded.

"Oh," they looked back at the rock and watched it emanate more steam and hissed loudly. A few policemen a few metres down from them were keeping a few people back from trying to climb into the pit. Martin stood transfixed at this thing. Why had a meteorite crashed here?

It was then he noticed something else about the meteorite as well. Well, not exactly the meteorite but the ground around it. It had created a pit rather than a crater and it had skidded across the ground as well. Martin was no expert on meteorites, but he certainly knew that when they crashed, they did not skid across the ground or create pits rather than craters. Something was not right about this.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" someone was shouting from behind and a few people stepped aside, with Martin, Roberts and the man who had led them to the front of the crowd, watching, to reveal a short and quite fat man dressed in black robes. He was holding a Bible in his hands and had a necklace of the cross come to a halt on the edge of the pit. "Oh my," he said upon seeing the meteorite. He gave the sign of the cross on himself. "May the Lord above see this on this day," he said.

"Oi! Keep back there, sir!" a voice barked from further up the side of the pit and Martin and Roberts looked at the direction of the voice to see a policeman shouting at a man who was trying to venture into the pit. One of the policemen grabbed him and pulled him away from the edge.

"Oi, what are ya playing at?" the man growled at him.

"Stoppin' you from 'urting yaself, you berk!" the policeman replied in a stern voice. "Now c'mon, back off from the pit. C'mon, everyone back a little bit!"

"Oh dear," Martin said.

"Oi, look!" a woman suddenly shouted, pointing at the meteorite.

Everyone around her, including Martin, Roberts, the man and the priest, looked at the meteorite and their eyes went wide.

Even though it was a hundred feet away, they could actually see the side of the meteorite facing the crowd moving! It was actually moving! Little pieces of the meteorite were falling off like flakes. By this point, everyone was watching it. Even the policemen who had stopped the man who wanted to get into the pit had gone quiet and wide-eyed.

"What the bloody Hell's it doing?" another nearby man asked.

Before anyone could reply…

VRRRRRUUUUUUMMMMMP! CRASH!

The side of the meteorite had swelled up like a balloon and then collapsed in a shower of dust. Martin and few people covered their noses and eyes as the dust passed through them, coughing slightly but it passed and faded within a few seconds. When they looked back, Martin could not believe what he was seeing.

The meteorite was actually a kind of cave. The rest of it had not collapsed; it just remained how it was. From his point of view on the edge of the pit, Martin could see from the sunlight as it shined down on the meteorite a kind of silver coloured floor inside it.

"What is this thing?" he asked himself.

"I wish I knew that meself," the man next to him said.

"Should we go down there and 'ave a look?" a nearby woman asked.

"No, everyone stay where you are!" a policeman barked. "That thin' could be dangerous!"

"How?" a man barked.

"It could collapse completely!" the policeman barked back.

An argument was beginning to break out among the policemen and a few people in the crowd. Martin watched all this from where he was standing. Thank God he was not over there or he would probably end up being involved in the middle of a punch up.

As he looked back at the now open meteorite, Roberts muttered something.

"Sorry?" Martin asked, having heard him.

"I've jus' had a feelin'," Roberts replied. "Wha' if there's someone in there?" he asked.

Martin did not reply but looked back at the meteorite. Roberts did have a good point. What if someone was in there? Would they come out? Or would they wait for someone to go in and look for them?

"This is very strange," Martin said to himself.

"You got that right," the man next to him said.

Then, someone shouted: "Hey, look! Something's moving from within the meteorite!"

Everyone looked at the meteorite and gasped or went wide-eyed and began to mutter amongst themselves. Something was moving! They could just about see it from the sunlight. Something was definitely in there.

Then, it came out.

Everyone gasped at the sight of the creature. Martin muttered "My goodness!" under his breath and Roberts said something that Martin could not hear because of the talking going on behind him.

The thing people had seen was actually a creature. It looked like a dragon. It had a kind of silver coloured skin with two arms and two legs, though it was walking on the arms as well as the legs, four fingers on each hand, two of them being big fingers, and four toes on each foot and sharp claws on each of them. The creature had a kind of thin body as if it had not eaten for a long time. Its eyes were a shiny black colour, it had two small slots in the side of his head to act as ears and it had a small snout with two nostrils on the front. Scales that looked like silver fire ran down its back. It had no tail and two thin horns were protruding from the top of its head. Its mouth was a kind of V shaped and saliva that was coloured a kind of dark green was dripping from it.

"My God, what ugly brutes!" the nearby priest exclaimed.

Martin just stared in shock and awe at this creature. He could not believe what he was seeing. Never in his entire life had he ever seen anything like this kind of creature. As far as he knew, there was no such thing living anywhere in Great Britain, or even anywhere on the planet! What was it?

"Wha' the 'ell is that thin'?" Roberts asked.

"I don't know," Martin replied.

The creature ambled out into the sunlight and growled a little when the beams of light shined down onto him, raising one of its arms to shield its eyes. After a moment, it lowered its arm, probably having gotten used to the intense sunlight, and looked up at the crowd with its black eyes. Everyone was staring back at it with wide eyes and was muttering to one another and pointing at it.

Martin could help but feel uncomfortable as the creature looked up at the crowd. Although he could not tell, somewhere inside him he had a feeling that this creature was staring up at the crowd with hatred and anger in its eyes. He could not be sure because it did not have any eyebrows to give it an angry look, but still he just felt uneasy.

The creature growled and hissed at the crowd, bearing its many sharp teeth inside its mouth as if it were a predator on the attack. Then, it reared up slightly, drawing a wave of muttering from everyone who could see it, and then dropped back down on its arms and ambled back into the meteorite, disappearing into the darkness inside it.

"What the Hell was that?"

"Did you see that thing?!"

"Oh, how ugly it was!"

"I've never seen anything like that in my life!"

"What do you think it was doing?"

"Why has it gone back into the meteorite?"

All of these questions were ones no one knew the answer to. Martin was asking himself them, but he just could not find an answer. He did not know what these creatures were, where they had come from and, probably most importantly, why they were here. Why were they here?

"'Ey, I've got an idea!" Roberts said all of a sudden. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white handkerchief. "Anyone go' a stick?" he asked. "Oh, never mind," he said, finding one on the ground near him. He picked it up and tied the handkerchief to the end of the stick. A few curious people watched him questionably.

"What are you doing, Roberts?" Martin asked.

"They're probably scare'," he replied. "Well, we 'ave to show 'em tha' we won't 'urt 'em,"

Roberts stepped into the pit and began cautiously climbing down the side. He stopped about ten feet from the edge of the pit and looked up at the crowd, who was mostly now fixed on him.

"Anyone else wanna come?" he asked.

"I will," the man next to Martin piped up and followed Roberts into the pit. Roberts looked over at the priest.

"And Mr pries', you be'er come as well. They migh' be religious folk,"

"Yes, good point," the priest said and he wobbled over to the area of the pit where they were and climbed in after them to the bottom of the pit. The man and the priest walked over to the meteorite, but Roberts stayed where he was and looked up at Martin.

"You comin' Marti'?" Roberts asked.

"Uh," Martin replied, looking at him and then at the meteorite with unease in his voice. "Uh, no thank you, Roberts. I think I'll stay here,"

"Ya sure?" Roberts asked. "They migh' be fond of ya research and stuff!" he told Martin.

"No, I'll stay here," Martin said.

"Ya sure? Last chance?"

"Yes, I'll definitely stay here, Roberts," Martin said.

"Alrigh', suite yaself," Roberts walked off towards the meteorite. Martin watched him go and felt unease rise through him again. Something was not right here, but he just could not figure out what it was he was having a bad feeling about.

Roberts, the man and the priest approached the meteorite, Roberts waving the stick with the handkerchief at it.

"Hello there," he was shouting. "Don' be scare'. C'mon, come out, we won' 'urt ya. Look," he held up the stick. "Friends! We're friends,"

"May the Lord welcome you to our country," the priest said, holding up his Bible to show it to those inside the meteorite.

"C'mon out, we won't hurt you," the man was saying. "We'll show you around our village. You'll like it here,"

Nothing seemed to be working to draw the creature out. Maybe they were scared, or maybe they were planning something in return. Whatever it was, Martin had a feeling that it was not good.

As the three men began to step towards the meteorite, they stopped suddenly as they saw something moving within the blackness of the interior of the 'meteorite'. Martin saw it as well, as did more people around him. The sound of mechanical whirring filled the air and the three in front of the meteorite looked at each other, a little concerned.

"What is that noise?" the man asked.

Before either Roberts or the priest could answer, a large shape suddenly rose out of the meteorite and everyone stared in awe at it. The shape was a tall mechanical spire that was a shiny chrome colour and was coming out from something within the meteorite, though no one could see. The spire was tall, easily the length of a lamppost, and split into three sections. The first section, the bottom part that protruded from the 'meteorite', was at a diagonal length and was connected to the second section that made up the middle. At the top of the second section was the third section; a large cylindrical-like object dotted with bright green neon lights and some strange hieroglyphical-like writing along the sides. Sticking out of the bottom of the cylindrical object was a claw-like appendage with a chrome coloured ball at the end that was glowing a fiery red/orange colour and looked to be opening and closing like an eye, observing the crowd of people with slow movements to the left and right.

"What the Devil is that?" the priest asked.

"I don' know," Roberts replied.

A collective gasp and murmur arose when the cylinder began. Slowly at first, but then faster and faster until it was almost a blur. Then, the sphere, or more fittingly the eye, snapped open and focused its gaze on the men in front of it. The three men in the pit watched intently with the crowd. A charging sound filled the air as the front of the ball began to glow the colour of fire. What was it doing?

Something inside Martin's head was telling him to run. Whatever it was this thing was doing, it did not sound good, at all.

Then, a beam of light, similar to when a lighthouse shines out across the sea, shot out of the silo and covered the three men in it. They shielded their eyes from the light, as did a few people around the edge of the pit despite it being sunny. Then, a beam of the orangey/red colour shot out of the silo towards the three men.

A chorus of screams filled the air as the beam struck the men. A blinding light came out of the pit and blinded the crowd. Then, silence fell over the pit and the light faded. When Martin lowered his arm from his eyes and looked into the pit, a woman from further up screamed and another behind him fainted into the arms of her husband standing next to her. Martin gasped.

On the ground where Roberts, the priest and the man had been standing was a small powdery pile of skeletal remains. Everything else was gone. Their clothes, the items they had, even their very skin and what was inside their body … it was just … gone.

Then, the eye pointed up at the crowd and the cylinder rose up like a bear rearing up for an attack, the glow, having dimmed for a brief moment, becoming brighter once more amidst the charging sound.

"RU-U-U-U-N-N!" a nearby man yelled.

All hell broke loose as everyone scrambled to get away from the pit. Martin ran as fast as he could, though almost tripping up and falling over several times as he ran. Behind him, he heard a charging up sound and he looked over his shoulder to see the cylinder fire another beam of light at a large group of about twenty people that were running towards the forest. The beam of fire followed and the people, along with the grass they were standing on, were incinerated instantly. A small fire erupted at the base of one of the trees and very quickly it began to lick at the bases of the other trees around it. The birds and squirrels and other animals in the trees immediately fled from the scene as they watched the danger unfold in front of them.

As Martin ran, a group of people began to form in front of him as they headed towards the cars. Suddenly, another beam of fire struck them and vaporized them instantly. A cloud of dust was thrown into the air and Martin ran through it. Coughing and spluttering, he fell over onto the ground. As he got up, he heard another charging sound and turned over to see the cylinder aiming past him…directly at one group of people that were at the cars!

Oh no! Martin thought in terror.

The beam fired and struck the cars and the people. The people screamed as they were burned to ash in the blink of an eye and the cars seemed to burn away to nothing with them. A small fire erupted out of one of the cars that had been shielded from the beam by the car next to it. More flames erupted across the grass, setting it alight quickly.

Martin got to his feet and ran towards his car, which was partially shielded by the trees. Behind him, more screams of both men and women filled the air as the beam fired again, incinerating two policeman and a woman that were trying to hide in a large bush near the side of the road. The bush was instantly vaporized and turned to ash, along with the three people hiding in it.

Finally, after having to jump over the growing amount of fire, Martin reached his car and jumped into the seat. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he grabbed his key but was shaking so much that when he tried to put the key in the ignition, his hand would miss. He used his other hand to keep his hand with the key still and he thrust the key into the ignition. The engine spluttered and backfired loudly, which Martin feared would draw the attention of the cylinder. He reversed the car and drove at full speed down the dirt road away from the pit.

Suddenly, a pillar of fire seemed to explode behind him. The heat burned his back and he looked to see the beam following him up the road. He slammed his foot on the accelerator and drove faster, praying he would get away. The beam got closer and closer, turning the very road to a scorched landscape and creating a blaze on the grass. The heat on Martin's back was growing unbearable.

The beam must have come to a stop, but Martin drove on, wanting to get as far away from it as possible. However, he smelled smoke and he saw a small hole in the side of his shirt from where the heat had vaporized it. His skin underneath was a little red as well, but other than that, he was okay. When he was a few hundred feet from the pit, near the top of a small hill the road went over, he looked back at the pit, his eyes filled with disbelief and horror.

All of the trees that had been around the crowd were on fire, much of the grass was also burning and some parts around the pit were scorched black and smoking. The cylinder, which Martin could clearly see even though he was far from the pit, had retreated back now and he watched as it turned left and right as if checking there was nothing near it before it descended back into the pit and disappeared from sight.

"My God!" Martin whispered under his breath.

That was the scariest few moments of his life. Never had anything like tried to kill him, or anyone for that matter. That thing … that cylinder … it was not from Great Britain and he was beginning to think that it, along with that creature he saw … that … they were not of this Earth.

Snapping back into reality, he drove the car onward down the dirt road again back in the direction of the cottage. Far off in the distant sky, black clouds began to roll over, a distant boom of thunder rumbling from within them.