The dark horizon has turned gray by the time they arrive.

“Goddam, Sax, what the bloody hell is it?”

“I-I dunno.”

The object is enormous, as tall as a two-story house, with reptilian wings that expand a good sixty feet from tip to tip. The creature is black as night, perched on a pair of three-pronged talons that seem to grip the barren limestone surface. An enormous, reflective, fan-shaped tail remains motionless, several feet above the ground, while a series of tentacles jut out from the abdomen. The faceless, horn-shaped head seems to be pointed at the heavens. The statuesque being appears lifeless, save for the luminescent amber-gold glow of a disk-shaped organ located on one side of its torso.

“Could be one of them remote aerial vehicles the Air Force is always flying about?”

“Maybe we ought to call someone?”

“You go ahead. I’m going to take some photos.” Saxon aims his camera, snapping several shots while his girlfriend tries the car phone.

“Phone’s dead, nothing but static. You sure you paid the bill?”

“Positive. Here, take a photo with me in the picture, you know, so I can show how big this thing is.”

“Not too close, okay, luv.”

Saxon hands Renee the camera, then moves to within fifteen feet of the being. “I don’t think this thing’s even alive. It’s just perched here, like a char-broiled condor.”

A golden hue appears on the horizon. “Perfect timing. Wait for the sun, it’ll make for a better photo.”

The first rays of dawn peek out over the Pacific, the solar light kissing the surface of the creature’s reflective tail.

Saxon jumps back as the tail rises with an hydraulic hiss.

“Son of a bitch, the thing’s activating.”

“Sax—look—its eye’s starting to blink.”

Saxon stares at the amber disk, which is flashing off and on faster and faster, its color darkening to a crimson hue.

“Come on—” He grabs Renee’s wrist and runs back to the Jeep. Slamming the vehicle into gear, he accelerates north across the wide-open expanse of flatland.

The orb deepens to bloodred, then stops blinking. A spark ignites along the outstretched wings, bursting into a brilliant, white-hot, silvery flame.

With a blinding flash, the creature detonates, unleashing an unfathomable amount of combustible energy that expands outward across the entire Nullarbor plateau at the speed of sound. Shock waves from the nuclear explosion seep through the porous limestone rock.

Vaporizing everything in its path.

Saxon registers the searing-hot, sixteen thousand-degree blast wave a nanosecond before his body, his girlfriend, the Jeep, and the terrain evaporate into a sizzling, toxic gas which is swept upward into the atmosphere in a hellish vacuum of microcosmic dust and flame.

Gulf of Mexico