Looking out at the animals in their pens, Kane debated whether he should go check on them or not. He probably stood there longer than he normally would have, but he was waiting to hear if there was any distress. Hearing none, he decided to head around the back to the north side of the house. If what Phillip was saying about the turtle creature was true, he needed to get eyes on whatever it was. And he needed to see if it was coming in their direction or not.

  Kane paused as he rounded the corner of the house. He couldn’t tell if the dark spot had gotten bigger, more violent, or if he hadn’t looked at it in long enough that his mind was making it out to be more than it had been. He took an internal sign to clear his mind, took a deep breath and put his rifle at the ready, and walked towards the first hill.

  Once he got to the north side of the house, he headed for the high point on the property. He looked first towards the north to Fort Carson, then slightly more northeast towards Colorado Springs. Something was going on at Fort Carson; there was an unusual smoky haze in the area. This wasn’t like when they were doing the firing drills; there was something different about this haze. Kane couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

  Colorado Springs seemed like giant birds were flying over it. It reminded him of Labor Day weekend when all the hot air balloons would lift off. But these weren’t balloons; these were bird-shaped, but some were longer than birds. Flying lizards, maybe? What was he thinking? He was recalling some of the monsters Afterson had talked about when trying to convince him to go to those games at the bookstore. No, those creatures weren’t real; there had to be a better explanation for what those things were. What Kane knew for certain, though, was that they were not hot air balloons. They were moving sporadically and were intended to be balloons blowing in the little wind there was.

  Kane looked over his shoulder at the house that held his wife, his kids, his best friend, and his family, “I need to get a closer look. I need to know what we are dealing with," Kane thought as he turned back towards the north.

  To Kane’s surprise, as he was turning, he noticed to the east that everything looked normal. The sky was blue, the grass and cacti were green, nothing looked amiss. Kane let his mouth fall open a little. How could that be? How could some places be untouched, it seemed like, and other areas be changed? Stealing his resolve, Kane walked down the hill towards the northern edge of his property. He needed to know what was going on; his family depended on him to know what was going on.

  A slow 30 minutes or so later, Kane arrived at the back fenceline of his property. Normally, when checking fences, Kane can get to that area in about 10 to 15 minutes. However, today, he had paused to take a knee and look around, checking for creatures, danger, he wasn’t sure what else to be looking for. His military training had taught him to take it slowly and methodically. But over a decade out of the regiment showed him how out of practice he was.

  He kicked himself a couple of times over about not having stayed up on his training. He had always meant to run drills himself, and with his wife and kids, but something he had thought at the time was more important had always popped up. Now it was too late, they were behind the 8-ball, all of them, the time to need it was now, and he hadn’t prepared himself or them.

  Kane shook his head slightly. Now was not the time to think about that. He hadn’t seen the turtle creature Phillip had described or any other creature besides a few rabbits. Phillip couldn’t be lying to him. Was Phillip that sleep-deprived that he hallucinated it? No, there were definitely unnatural things flying and circling Colorado Springs right now. Kane wasn’t close enough yet to really see what they were. And in the time that Kane was walking, he had seen creatures fall from the dark spot above Fort Carson. Some flew away, some just dropped.

  From seeing the creatures coming out of the dark spot, Kane had determined the spot wasn’t as high as it had looked originally. Kane had been under the assumption that it was above the height of Pikes Peak, but Cheyenne Mountain was lower than Pikes Peak and closer to where the spot was. The optical illusion had made it look higher. In fact, based on where the creatures appeared and watching their falling pattern, the spot was probably at the same height as Cheyenne Mountain’s peak at most.

  It didn’t look like it was on top of Cheyenne Mountain, though; the creatures fell through the air, not down the side of the mountain. The creatures were also falling on the east side of the slope, not the south, which gave Kane some relief. This seemed to force the flying creatures to all go east to Colorado Springs, not south towards them.

  Kane realized he had stopped at the barbed wire fence delineating his property from their neighbor to the north. An older man owned the property. The few interactions Kane had with the gentleman were cordial. The man preferred to keep to himself. Kane and Callie tried to be good neighbors, keeping their fences maintained so the cows wouldn’t venture off like the goats. However, if the goats wanted to go someplace, Fort Knox itself probably wouldn’t be able to keep them in. Kane couldn’t remember his neighbor's name. They had so few interactions, Kane reached into his pocket to grab his phone. Maybe Callie remembered the old guy's name; she was better at that than him.

  Before they got Charlotte and Jonny Boy, she had made a point to talk to all the neighbors she could in case they got out. Those cows were a big investment for their homestead and had already paid them back in the beef they had gotten from the babies and from the milk Callie got from Charlotte. Charlotte wasn’t currently in milk because she was due with her third calf in the next month. Callie liked to give her a break before she calved; she believed the other ranchers when they said it made for a stronger mom and a stronger baby.

  “SHIT!” Kane nearly yelled, coming out of his thoughts. He left his phone on his nightstand. With everything going on this morning, he must have put it back down and then left it instead of putting it in his pants pocket. He probably only had his pocket knife with him because it was left in his pants from the day before. “Idiot,” he murmured to himself, looking back towards the hill that hid his house.

  “Should I go back?” He thought, still looking at the hill. “No, I need to see if I can find that turtle creature. The old man will understand if I see him."

  Kane pushed down the middle barbed wire string with his rifle and bent down to go through the fence. He took a knee just on the other side of the fence, leveled his rifle, and looked around. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, he slowly got up and decided to head more north and east. Phillip had to have come from that direction, so in theory, the creature has to be somewhere that way.

  Kane got all the way to the northeastern fence post of his neighbor's property without seeing the old man or anyone else, for that matter. The usual rabbits and jackrabbits hopped off with his approach, but nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. The sky above him was still blue, but he could tell now, almost a mile closer to Fort Carson, that the dark spot wasn’t a cloud like it appeared at first glance; it was more like a void.

  And it wasn’t black like Kane had thought, either; it was a dark grey like a shadow in a dark candlelit room. It only looked black because of the unnatural contrast of the blue sky next to it. The hard edges of the dark spot weren’t so dark either, just like a shadow when it hits the edge of the candle's light. What was that thing? It had a movement to the shadow that made it almost seem alive. The lightning-esque flashes were definitely multicolored but seemingly dulled somehow.

  The fence post Kane was kneeling next to was about 20 feet off the road, and thankfully, there wasn’t any fencing running along the road, just the occasional fence post and t-posts, like there either used to be a fence or the old man was planning on putting up a fence. Kane hadn’t had a reason to go down that road, so he had no idea. Kane looked up and down the road as he kneeled there. Not seeing any cars or people or even creatures, natural or unnatural, Kane took a deep breath, exhaled, and got up to move to the hill on the other side of the road.

  As Kane got to the top of the hill, he saw something large, but slowly moving, a couple of hilltops closer to the highway and to the north.

  “Holy shit!” Kane exclaimed quietly, dropping into a prone position at the top of the hill more out of training than because he was actually worried the creature would see him.

  There it was, Phillip was right, that thing did look like a giant turtle, but the head wasn’t right. Kane had seen a lot of turtles living in the Midwest, then down south at Fort Benning, and finally in Colorado. This turtle didn’t look like any of the ones he had seen before. The shell looked like a box turtle, but with a lot more moss or something green growing on it. But the head, it's possible it was like a snapping turtle. It had a beak like a snapping turtle, but the eyes were like venomous snakes, slitted and large. The turtle-thing was facing south; it wasn’t looking at him, but he could see that the eyes moved independently like chameleons. He had never seen a turtle do that.

  The beak also looked more like an anteater; it was long, and the mouth was only at the end. If Kane didn’t know any better, he thought he might see a long, skinny tongue protruding out like in those documentaries he watched as a kid. The thing was moving like a turtle, slow lumbering, but it was moving. Maybe it was its size that made it appear to be going faster than it actually was. It was bigger than a minivan; from this angle, it looked closer to an 18-wheeler in length, and its shell was proportional.

  Kane slowly worked his way into a kneeling position to get a better look. The cholla cactus was starting to get in the way of his view of the creature when he was prone.

  Kane dropped back down, reading that last message.

  “Shit, shit, shit!” Kane screamed at himself silently. He lay there with his rifle leveled at the creature. Kane didn’t care what the system, or whatever it was, said; if this ‘docile’ creature turned to him, he was going to shoot at the, hopefully, soft eye.

  The tortle swung its head slightly in Kane’s direction but continued on its path south along the interstate. Kane lay where he was watching it meander past. It was definitely bigger than an 18-wheeler. The tortle was a couple of hills to the east of him, but now, seeing the true size of it, if it turned, it could be on him in seconds, even with its slow pace. Kane slowly shifted, keeping his eyes and rifle on the creature until it was probably a mile plus south. He then, once again, got into the kneeling position and scanned the surrounding area for any other creatures. Seeing none, he decided to head back to the house; he had seen what he had come out to see. A couple of hours had probably passed; it was time to wake Phillip and see if they could get a hold of Stern.

  An hour or so had passed since Kane had left. Callie was trying not to watch the clock, but she was getting concerned. Callie had gotten up 30 minutes or so after Kane had left to use the bathroom and realized Kane had left his phone on the nightstand. She didn’t know if that was intentional or if he had just forgotten it. Either way, it made her nervous knowing there wasn’t a way for him to tell them if he was in trouble. He needed to come back so they knew what to do.

  Carlie and her had tried to turn on the TV, but every channel was broadcasting a warning to stay indoors and not to engage the creatures, whatever those were. It also said the National Guard and Red Cross would be coming door to door to check on people, if they needed medical services, to call 911, but they stressed ONLY for medical needs. The message kept repeating itself with the logo of the president behind the closed captions. After trying a couple of different channels, Callie resorted to the few movies they purchased on Prime. The kids were watching a nature documentary, and Cosette and Giana had both fallen asleep. Josie was intently watching the documentary, and Eliza had grabbed her notebook and was humming to herself while doodling and half-watching the program.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Carlie, I need to go check for eggs and make sure the animals have water. It is a warm day out there. Should I wake up Phillip, or do you think it will be okay?” Callie asked her friend who had volunteered to wash the dishes.

  “Phillip was so tired, I don’t want to wake him," Carlie looked out the kitchen window towards the animal pens, “I haven’t seen anything unusual out there all day, and I haven’t heard anything unusual either. I think you would be okay going out. Just be quick about it.”

  “Okay, I’m going to grab my pistol just to be sure," Callie said as she went to her bedroom to grab her little handgun. She usually only wore it during coyote season when the predators got more adventurous, coming closer than she liked to her livestock, or when she knew she was heading into town. One too many people had told her stories about unpleasant happenings in either Colorado Springs to her north or Pueblo to her south for her not to want to have some source of protection. After years of practicing and doing the drills Kane had asked her to, she was familiar with her handgun, but she still didn’t like the idea of having to draw it.

  Walking back out of her bedroom, she took a quick look at Eliza and Josie, then walked to Carlie, “Can you keep an eye on me and grab Phillip if you see anything unusual?”

  “What qualifies as unusual nowadays? Isn’t everything we have seen since yesterday morning unusual?” Carlie said through a smile, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

  “Good point,” Callie said, smiling back. Then she headed to the front door and went out with Zeus running between her legs as she went.

  “Damn it, Zeus!” She yelled.

  “I HAD TO PEE!!!!” the dog yelled as he rounded the corner of the house to go to one of his usual spots in the backyard.

  Callie shook her head and walked towards the goats and chickens. She could already see that Jonny Boy and Charlotte were up next to the fence; they were surely waiting for their water trough to be filled. She couldn’t remember if she checked it yesterday; they were probably really thirsty.

  “My goodness, Mom, it is about time that oaf of a cow won’t stop belly aching about his water,” Turbo harrumphed indignantly.

  “Please don’t call me mom, call me Callie,” Callie said as she walked past Turbo, who had his front legs on the fence post so he could look above the pallet fence at her.

  “Well, my pardon, also, may we be let out. This scallywag you call Greg won’t shut up about the cactus bloom he wants to eat, and I, as well, would like to find a delicacy to nibble on," Turbo swung his head side to side.

  “Not right now, sorry boys, we don’t know what is out there, and we don’t want you to get hurt," Callie paused just long enough to look at Turbo before continuing her walk to the water spigot.

  “Well, my word, that is rude! That being said, it won't hurt us. How undignified," Turbo said, getting down from the fence and walking away.

  “What did you just say? The thing? What thing?!” Callie shouted, turning to face where Turbo had been. Sudden fear paralyzed her. “What is out here? Is it dangerous?” Callie thought, still frozen.

  As she stood there, too scared to look around, Zeus came from the back side of the house with something in his mouth. Callie turned slowly to look at her way too happy pup coming up to her with what looked like a ball of fluff in his mouth.

  “Look, look, mom! I caught it! Don’t zap me, though, I didn’t hurt it. Look, mom, look mom, look mom,” Zeus continued repeating as he skipped up to Callie.

  “Mom, don’t hurt it!” Josie yelled from the front door, “It isn’t bad!”

  Carlie was grabbing Josie’s arm, trying to get her back in the house. With some struggle, Josie was back inside, and Carlie was walking at a quick pace to Callie. At the same time, Zeus dropped whatever it was at Callie’s feet. The furry thing was curled up in a ball, a large ball, but a slobbery, furry ball, nonetheless. As it started to uncurl itself, what looked like fine needles shot out at Zeus’ nose, making help whelp and run away.

  As Callie stared down at it, a notification flashed across her vision from:

  “Zeus, where did you find this?” Callie asked, taking a small step back from the creature.

  “The ball tried to hide in the swing set. I found it, I found it. MINE!” Zeus said as he swatted his paw at his nose, trying to remove whatever the thing had sent at his face.

  “Zeus, leave it,” Callie said as she bent a little to look at the creature that was slowly unsticking and straightening itself.

  Callie suddenly remembered she had DETECT EVIL AND GOOD. But how could she activate it? She straightened and opened her menu. She went to the skills page. She stood there for a second and then tapped on the words. Suddenly, there was a green glow around Zeus and Greg, who had come to the fence to look at what was going on. She looked down at the creature lying at her feet, the Porcupus. It had a slight blue glow around it. What did that mean?!

  As the creature stretched out to its full length, it looked like a furry grey caterpillar, but it was as round as a 5 lb. bag of flour. As it stretched, all 8 legs came out from the bottom sides of its body; each leg looked like it had a hand at the end.

  Carlie, seeing the creature for the first time, squealed in shock and fear. Zeus ran up to her and leaned on her legs with his mouth open and tongue out, looking proud and happy with himself. Either he had finally removed the needles from his nose, or he had determined just to ignore them. Carlie instinctively reached down and grabbed the top of Zeus’s head.

  “What is that... “ she trailed off as the system must have put the same notification up for her that it had for Callie.

  “Umm, what do we do with that?” Carlie finally asked, petting Zeus for comfort.

  “I don’t know,” Callie said, still looking down at the creature who was now curling and uncurling each leg.

  “Don't put me in the damn thing's mouth again, you can start with that!” A voice came.

  Callie startled backwards as Zeus stood back up and stared with a cocked head at the creature on the ground.

  “Hey, rabbit! Come pick a fight!” The gangster voice of Charzar came from behind Callie.

  Callie turned to Charzar, seeing a yellow-orange glow around the puffed-up chicken.

  “I’m not a rabbit, you dimwitted vagabond!” the porcupine said hop walking towards Charzar. The glow around it turned from blue to yellow.

  “Stop it, both of you!” Callie said, not knowing what else to do. The glow around the porcupus turned back to a blue color.

  “Let me at it! The damn pigeon didn’t give me enough of a fight!” Charzar said, kicking at the chicken wire of the chicken run.

  “Charzar, don’t make me eat you," Callie said in a bewildered tone. What was happening?!

  “No fun,” Charzar finally said, still puffed up but walking down the fenceline to where Callie could now see feather remains of a pigeon.

  “Well, now that that bullshit is settled,” the porcupus said, turning towards Callie and Carlie, “My name is Alexandrus Minartus Reginus III of the Pornicus lineage."

  Callie and Carlie’s mouths dropped open.

  “Now, if you would kindly point me back to the Rift, I have some unfinished business with a particularly dazzling mistress from the Parnifer lineage, and I wish not to be late, Alexandrus said, turning what can only be assumed its head back and forth, looking for something.

  “The Rift?” Callie finally said.

  “What the fuck is happening!” Carlie exclaimed through stressed tears.

  “The Rift, my good ladies, is what formed under my bum on my way to see the mistress," Alexandrus said, seeming to think Callie and Carlie knew what he was talking about.

  “That didn’t answer them, you twit," Turbo said, coming back to the fence, putting his feet back up on the fence next to Greg.

  “Darling, could you please give a few more details?” one of the female goats said from the other pen. Callie wasn’t sure, but she thought maybe it was Blonde.

  “Because you asked so nicely, my lady,” Alexandrus started, “I would, but I don’t know anything more than I was walking along, and then I wasn’t. The Rift opened up, and I found myself here. I didn’t know where else to go, so I kept walking in the direction I was already going. I know the Hunters and the Frowlers were having some big war thing, but that rarely involves porcupus. We are a dying breed, us nobles of the porcupus, we must procreate! If I cannot make it to my mistress, are there any porcupus in the area that I may . . . . delight with my company?”

  Greg busted out in a goat laugh, “Damn man, you're worse than me!”

  “Have some dignity, you miscreant!” Turbo head butted Greg’s side. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough that Greg let out a bleat of surprise. Then the two started head-butting each other and throwing verbal insults back and forth.

  “Umm, I don’t think so,” Callie said to Alexandrus, “I need to fill the waters.”

  Callie turned back to the spigot, grabbing the end of the hose as she did. She walked over to the cow's water trough, which was, in fact, empty. She let out a small shiver at what had just occurred, then looked up at her cows.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Charlotte said.

  “Yup, don’t see that every day,” Jonny boy replied, walking over to the water trough.

  “I, uh, I’m sorry for not filling this sooner," Callie said, unsure if she was supposed to talk back or not. Was it like with humans that it was rude not to address the person talking to you? Or were they not talking to her?

  “I haven’t seen any more . . . Porcupus, I think it said it was, but there is a rat-like thing that ran to the road a little bit ago, Mom," Charlotte said, also walking over to get a drink now that there was water in the trough.

  “Please don’t call me mom,” Callie said.

  “Oh, I am sorry . . . what would you like to be called? I have been Charlotte my whole life and wish to stay that if I may," Charlotte said as she lifted her head to look directly at Callie.

  “I think Callie will be fine. Thank you, Charlotte," Callie said, moving the hose now that the trough was full. She moved onto the girl goat's pen.

  “Callie, the babes would like to get out to play. Are they able to? We haven’t seen or heard any other creatures besides the rat Charlotte was talking about," Either Fearne or Mabel said, they were standing next to each other, so Callie wasn’t sure which one it was that spoke.

  “Not until Kane comes back, I don’t want to risk anything happening to any of you or your babies, sorry,” Callie said, finishing filling up the trough and moving onto the chickens and remaining goats. Turbo and Greg were still arguing and head-butting. Callie had a feeling that they would continue until they could be let out to roam away from each other.

  Zeus and Carlie had already headed back to the house. Callie turned off the water spigot and went to check for eggs. As soon as she lifted the lid of the nesting box area, five chickens started squawking and snapping at her.

  “What the fuck!” Callie yelled, quickly moving her hand that she had, out of habit, already started reaching for the nesting boxes with.

  “INTRUDER! EVIL HAND! PROTECT THE DROPLET!” The chickens were screaming, still trying to peck at Callie.

  “Stubborn witches,” Charzar said, coming into the coop from the run door. He quickly but efficiently herded the chickens away from the nesting boxes and out the door to the run.

  “VIAL HUSBAND! WICKED COCK!” The hens were screaming at Charzar as he stood in the door, not letting them back in.

  “Oh, hush and go eat!” Charzar said as he squatted in the doorway, showing he wasn’t going to move.

  “Thank you,” Callie said as she grabbed the eggs.

  “I didn’t do it for you; they get mean when they don’t eat,” Charzar said, not moving a feather.

  Callie finished checking on the rest of the chickens, who were wandering around their run like it was a normal day. Greg and Turbo were still slinging insults at each other, but the head-butting had at least stopped. The baby goats, seeing what the boys had been doing, were now attempting to head butt each other while the 3 moms lay chewing their cud. The normalcy of it all threw Callie off, and she had to pause.

  “My lady, might I inquire what you have in your hands?” Alexandrus, whom Callie had completely forgotten about, said as he approached her feet.

  “Oh, uh, eggs. We eat them, Callie said.

  “How undignified, Alexandrus said, “I much prefer the sweet nectar of fresh dew on luxurious grass. But I will settle for a sprig or two of lettuce if you have any. Wild or grown does not matter.”

  “Umm, I might have some?” Callie said, walking towards the house.

  “Umph!” She heard behind her, looking to see a tumbling Alexandrus, “My word, the ground is uneven," He said as he finally straightened himself and started to follow her.

  Callie made it to the house before Alexandrus caught up with her. She put the eggs on the counter, told Zeus to ‘leave it’, and walked to the fridge to see if there was any lettuce for Alexandrus.

  “Mom, he doesn’t eat lettuce; he was just trying to come inside," Josie said, walking over to her mom.

  “What are you saying, Josie? How do you know what he eats?” Callie said, standing up, still holding the fridge door.

  “I don’t know, but he eats berries,” Josie said, grabbing the raspberry container.

  She started walking towards the door.

  “What are you doing?” Callie asked, shutting the fridge.

  “Going to give him some berries," Josie said.

  “Wait, don’t give him all of them,” Carlie said, grabbing the container. Then, with a shocked look on her face said, “Maybe we give him just a couple.”

  Josie seemed satisfied with that and turned around to grab a small bowl from the cabinet. She put a few berries in, left the container on the counter, and then walked to the front door.

  She hesitated, “Dad doesn’t want us outside, maybe you should take it out, Mom.”

  Callie took the bowl from Josie’s hand and headed out the door. Alexandrus had just made it to the bottom of the steps. Panting, he curled the back half of his body up so it looked like he was standing and reached for the bowl with his two highest arms.

  “Ah, the little miss heard me. Good, thank you," He said as Callie handed him the bowl. Alexandrus then proceeded to go around the edge of the house towards the backyard using just his back 4 legs to walk, using the other 4 to hold the bowl as he went.

  “What in the ‘Men in Black’ did I just see?” Callie muttered, turning around to go back inside. As she was reaching for the front door, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kane walking towards her.

  She let out a relieved sigh and ran down the steps and ran to hug Kane. Kane swung his rifle out of the way and hugged her back.

  “You aren’t supposed to be outside," Kane said with a tone that spoke of annoyance but also relief at seeing his wife.

  “We forgot to fill the water troughs this morning, and I got the eggs. Good thing I did, the chickens are going broody," Callie said, not ready to let go of her husband's chest yet.

  “Okay, did you see anything unusual?”

  “Yeah, but we can talk about it inside,” Callie said, finally letting go and grabbing Kane’s hand.

  They walked into the house together. Kane leaned his rifle against the wall by the front door again. He paused and made sure to put the safety on; he knew Phillip had done gun safety with Cosette, but Giana was too young to not put the safety on. The few seconds it would take to flip that switch was better than not having it with the three-year-old running around.

  Kane squeezed Callie’s hand gently and let go, heading for the stairs. Callie watched Kane go, then walked over to the large window in the living room. Josie came over to stand next to her mom.

  “It's coming," was all she said before she headed down the stairs.

  Callie watched her daughter leave in stunned amazement before returning to look out the window.

  “What is coming?” Callie murmured to herself.