by Joe Stanley

“This is Unit 14, come in Unit 20.
This is Unit 14, come in.
Come on Sheriff…”

Luke grumbled as he splashed along the pools of the flooded River road. Suddenly, the dark sky lit up like day. It seemed like a sun was rising up from the forest. He stared, slack jawed, as it floated for a second before it streaked up through the clouds and out of sight.

Like the Sheriff, he was forced to slam on his brakes, but for Luke this was to avoid hitting the sheriff’s car which sat, dark and quiet, in the road. Also like the sheriff, he gawked at the muddy channel and the tangled heaps of trees. Likewise, he felt an odd revulsion to the glowing, golden oil he found along the way.

But at the end of the trail, whatever had made it was gone. There was only a depression, as if something impossibly heavy had pressed its bulk into the ground.

And to the sinking of his heart, which would never truly rise again for the rest of his days, he found no sign of Sheriff Donner.

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