A cool breeze blew over the desert that evening as John and Gillian shared the porch together. The sun had set, and John was sitting with his pipe dangling from his lips and a newspaper in his lap while Gillian sat across from him with her legs folded under her.

"It's a wonderful evening, isn't it John?" Gillian said. Her eyes were wandering the horizon as she enjoyed herself.

"It is wonderful." Said John. He sat the pipe aside for a moment and folded the newspaper. "It's even more wonderful that I'm sharing it with you."

Lights flickered over the mountain tops at the edge of the desert.

"What is that?" Asked Gillian.

John glanced over the top of his newspaper and shrugged. At first the light looked like a very bright, twinkling star, of which there were plenty to see in the desert sky at night. However, the longer he watched, the brighter, and closer, it seemed to get. Before long he was pretty sure that it had moved from the backside of the mountain range forward to their side.

"I've never seen anything like that." John said. He folded the newspaper and set it aside and then placed his pipe down next to it. Gillian joined him as he walked up to the edge of the porch and leaned against the rail. She pressed her body close to his side, her hair brushing his neck, her bosom resting against his ribs. He wrapped an arm around her and savored the moment, the way she felt in his arms.

"Why, it almost looks like its out near Grover's Garage!" She said. John agreed. The small mechanic shop and convenience store was in that area somewhere.

Or had been.

Suddenly the night sky lit up as what was surely Grover's exploded.

"It's the commies!" He shouted. She molded herself tighter to him, her brunette hair covering her face as she nuzzled into his arm. "They're attacking us!"

"What are we going to do?!" Gillian said. Panic seized her voice. John wrapped her tighter in his arms.

"Don't worry, honey; I'll protect you! Let's head toward town! The military will save us soon!"

The two of them sprinted from the porch to the Chevy that was parked in John's driveway. It was a nice car, a convertible, and he never had to put the top up because of the wonderful weather of the Arizona wilderness. The car started the first time he turned the engine and then they were off, speeding down the highway toward town as quickly as he could go.

He saw his house disappear in a fireball in his rearview mirror.

Another light was ahead of them over the road. John tried to stop, but it was too late. A beam hit the car and shut it down. Gillian screamed, and then, before she could finish, a bright green laser hit John, disintegrating him in the seat next to her.

She screamed even louder. Then she felt her body being lifted out of the car by a bright light, and watched the car pull away below her. She glanced up and caught the bottom of the craft opening up as a mechanical circular sphincter rotated counter clockwise.

Then she was inside...