That Night

That Night

Al looked out the window at the rising moon. He could see their parking lot, lit by the sign high over their building, thankfully nobody had come in yet.

He and Frank had been skeptical about opening a diner here. The building was perfect, the location too, the only food for miles. But they needed something to grab the attention of the cars on the freeway, just over a hill. They’d solved this with their sign, raised sixty feet into the air in full view of the highway. They couldn’t afford much, so they’d only put one word on it, “Eat” which lit up, in blazing red lights ten feet high, easily seen for miles in all directions. Open all night they got all the business they needed. But not tonight.

Something was very wrong, the TV was out, the phone had no signal, computers dark. The only lights they could see were their own, running because of their emergency generator. A generator they would turn off now if they could get to it, but they couldn’t. Whatever it was, they couldn’t hide and there would be no help coming.

Frank came over, “See anything yet?”

“No, maybe when the moon gets higher…”

Just then a dark shape came over the hill. The dim moonlight catching the top of the shape showed a huge expanse of green, undulating as it crested the hill. Coming into the dim light emanating from the parking lot, it appeared to be a huge blob, the size of a semi-truck, with enormous yellow eyes and a gaping tooth filled mouth. It was lurching over the landscape, directly toward the diner.

“What is that!” Frank cried out, in shock, disbelieving his own eyes.

“I don’t know,” Al said quietly, “I just hope it can’t read…”