Lisa yawned for the twentieth time. She shouldn't have tried to drive so far in one day. She wished she had pulled into that last rest stop and just taken a short nap. But she was afraid to stop alone at night. Too many creepy people these days.

"I probably would have been just fine. I'm such a chicken," Lisa thought.

She rounded a bend in the deserted highway and saw lights blinking on the side of the road. She slowed a bit to get a better look. A large round object with what looked like a very long antenna sat at the side of the road. Most of it in the grass and trees that had been the scenery for the past twenty miles. A number of trees had been crushed.

"What IS that thing?"

Lisa watched in her rearview mirror until the thing faded from sight. Suddenly a blinding flash of light went off behind her, and she almost jumped out of her seat. She had to close her eyes, and she swerved, almost running off the road.

What was that? She looked in her rear view mirror and saw a faint blue light floating about twenty yards behind her.

Lisa blinked several time. "Maybe it's just that light you get in your eyes when a flash bulb goes off. Yeah that's all it is." She spoke aloud trying to keep herself calm because she wanted to floor the gas pedal and drive like a crazy person.

She kept looking in the rear view mirror even though she told herself not to. "Stop being so paranoid. Snap out of it, don't panic. But the light is still back there...that's no light in the eyes thingy, it's real!"

Lisa gave in to her panic and floored the gas pedal, but no matter how fast she drove the light stayed right behind her. She began to breathe rapidly and could feel sobs wanting to surface. She tried to keep control but it was no use.

"I should have listened to Mike," she said, choking on her sobs. "He said aliens were on their way. He said he saw something strange on the monitor he has connected to that deep space satellite. Now the aliens are here and we are all going to die! What will they do to us...use a probe, they always use probes. I don't want to be probed!! Maybe they will attach mechanical parts to us like the Borg on Star Trek! They will make us into mindless drones. I don't want to be a Borg. They're so ugly! I have to find a place to hide...maybe in a cave, but what good will that do. I'll end up starving to death. I don't like camping, I'm not good at it. I don't know how to make a fire. I'll have to eat my food raw, I'll have to eat rats or something. I can't eat raw rats...I'm going to starve! Oh man, I'm going to be sick."

Lisa felt bile rising and tasted it in her mouth. She was sobbing and whimpering intermittently with the occasional scream every time she looked in her rear view mirror. The light stayed right behind her, sometimes getting closer, then backing off.

"What are you waiting for?" she sobbed. "Just beam me up and get it over with!"

Up ahead she saw the lights of a diner. She turned into the parking lot, tires squealing. She parked in the shadows, and turned off her lights. In her mirror she saw the light turn into the parking lot too.

"Oh great! Now I've led the alien to a bunch of people. Now we're all going to die! I'm so stupid!"

She crouched down in her seat, and put her hands over her eyes. She didn't want to see the end coming, but she couldn't resist and spread her fingers, just a hair.

She heard a loud noise and something floated up beside her. It had a green body and a huge black head. It was hideous.

"Why are they always green?"

The creature reached up and removed its head.

"Oh, I'm going to be sick!"

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she closed her eyes and sat back, awaiting her fate.

There was a loud rap on her window. "It's trying to get in!"

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Is it talking to me?"

She turned her head slowly, and out of the corner of her eye she saw a young man in a bright green jumpsuit with a black motorcycle helmet under his arm.

"Are you okay?" He asked again.

"Oh man, am I an idiot."

"What?"

She let her window down a crack. "Oh yes, I'm fine."

"I've been behind you the last twenty miles or so. There's something wrong with the light on my bike. It went dim and I could barely see the road. I was so glad you were ahead of me. I kept your taillights in sight, kind of like a homing beacon. You were really hauling weren't you?" He laughed and it was such a nice laugh.

She laughed too, maybe a bit too loudly. She was just so relieved.

"Yeah, I'm a lead foot."

"Did you see that huge satellite back there?" he asked.

"Is that what that was?"

"Yeah, the trailer it was on came apart and the thing went flying off the road into the trees. Then it blew a fuse or something, big ol' flash of light. Scared me so bad I almost wrecked my bike." He laughed his pleasant laugh again.

Lisa laughed too as she exited her car, but at herself for having such a wild imagination.

"Let me buy you a cup of coffee. It's the least I can do after using you as a homing beacon. My name's John by the way." He held the door to the diner open for her.

"I'm Lisa, and coffee would be very nice," she replied.

As Lisa entered the diner, John looked out across the parking lot to the darkness beyond, and saw the floating orbs of his companions. His eyes glowed in response, then he walked into the diner, and shut the door behind him.