Kevin stumbled on through the fog, having long since lost all sense of direction. He no longer knew which way led back to the camp, and he was almost considering giving up and letting his pursuers catch up with him: at least then he’d have someone he could follow back. But then he’d probably get the shit beaten out of him too, so maybe he’d better run for a while longer. He could still hear Adam and the others calling for him somewhere behind him, and it sounded like they were getting closer.

It was Kevin’s first summer camp, and he was hoping it would be his last. He’d begged his parents not to make him go, but they’d insisted. They thought it would be a great way for him to make new friends, something he really struggled with at school, and they wanted him to feel more comfortable hanging out with other boys. Unfortunately for Kevin, he still found himself being picked on almost constantly, and the bullies here were actually worse than those at school. Three older boys in particular – Adam, Mike and Tyler – seemed to enjoy tormenting him more than anything, and they usually didn’t stop even after Kevin had started crying, which usually didn’t take long to happen. They were all seventeen and athletic, while Kevin was only thirteen and small for his age too, and he knew he had no chance if he tried to fight back.

One morning, however, he’d had enough. It was the last day of camp, and, since he would hopefully never see them again, he decided to stand up to the three bullies. While they were all eating breakfast, he got up silently, dumped his bacon and eggs on top of Tyler’s head, and ran like hell. The breakfast hall erupted with laughter as Kevin charged out of the door. It was very foggy outside, and, if he could remain hidden in the woods until the bus came to pick them up, he’d have gotten his revenge and avoided being beat up for it.

But he hadn’t figured on them being this determined in following him. He must have run over a mile into the woods, and he didn’t feel able to run another yard. All the while he heard their voices, somewhere close in the fog, yelling about how they were going to make him pay. Sooner or later, he was gonna have to stop, and then it’ll be over for him. He felt like crying – again – just like the cry-baby everyone kept on telling him he was.

“Oh God, I wish I was dead!” he thought miserably, as he kept on stumbling forwards. “I wish I’d never been born! I wish…”

Before he could complete that thought, he tripped over a rock and fell face first into a muddy pool. It happened so quickly, he never felt any pain. Instead he just lay there, in a cold slurry of mud that felt like it was sucking him down. He lifted his face and gasped for air, the mud running into his eyes. He could still hear voices, but they sounded more distant now, though they still seemed like they were getting closer. But there was another sound which bothered him more. A sort of dull, rhythmic, thumping sound. It grew louder as well, and each time it sounded the ground shook more and more, until it felt like a miniature earthquake was happening all around him. Kevin was literally too scared to move: it sounded for all the world as if some enormous, unseen monster was approaching him. He wanted to get up and run, but the mud – and his paralyzing fear – held him down. Then, appearing out of the fog, he saw something which made him scream like he had never screamed before.

What looked like a colossal black boot, bigger than a building, slammed down into the ground less than a hundred feet from him, its shockwaves causing the ground to shudder and the fog to scatter. Kevin screamed, his body unwilling or unable to move, and he wondered if he was in some kind of nightmare. Above the boot a towering leg rose up into the fog. It seemed to be covered in the same black, rubberlike material that the boot was made from. Whatever kind of creature it belonged to had to be immense. Kevin wondered where the other leg was, but found out when he looked up a split second later. A large black shape was directly above him, and it was coming down straight for him.

“Please, God, no!” he cried, wondering if he should say some kind of prayer. But there was no time. The giant foot came crashing down on top of him, and there was nothing more.

Not far away, Tyler, Adam and Mike stopped dead in their tracks. They had heard the screams, and had felt the earth shaking. But what was even weirder was the immensely bright light shining down on them from somewhere ahead. It couldn’t be the Sun: it was much brighter, bright enough to break through the fog, and its strange yellow color didn’t look natural.

“Did…did you guys hear that?” Mike asked, sounding quite nervous.

“Yeah…it sounded like that little bitch screaming,” Tyler said, eager to keep going. “He must have fallen down or something…of course, he could just have stubbed his toe… it doesn’t take much to make him cry!”

“I was talking about those thuds…guys, I think there’s something out there!”

“Yeah, fucking Bigfoot’s out there!” Adam said, and he and Tyler began to laugh. “It’s probably just an earthquake or something. You get earthquakes all over the place, even up here in the mountains. Now, are we going to check what’s going on ahead or not?”

“Maybe we shouldn’t…”

“Jesus, Mike, don’t be a pussy! It was just an earthquake, okay? Come on – we promise we won’t let Bigfoot molest you!”

“Hey, fuck you, Adam! I’m not scared, got that?”

“Uh-huh, sure. That’s why you’re still hanging back there, while we’re already going again…”

“I’m coming, okay? Give it a fucking rest…”

He set off reluctantly after his pals, hoping they were right about the whole earthquake thing. They could all still hear the thuds, though they couldn’t hear that kid Kevin screaming anymore. All the while, that strange light got closer and closer. At last they stumbled into a vast clearing in the forest, or what was left of the forest: there were fallen trees everywhere, and the ground was an expanse of soggy mud, no doubt due to the intense rain they had had last night. But that wasn’t what got the guys’ attention.

A massive sloping platform, like a ramp of some sort, rose ahead of them, rising up into the distance. It was smooth and metallic-looking, and covered in places with strange markings. Behind it, seen only dimly through the fog, was some kind of gigantic dark structure, which also looked metallic. It was this strange ‘building’ that the light was attached to, far above the boys’ heads. None of what they saw made any sense: this humongous structure shouldn’t be here, and yet there it was.

“Holy shit…” Adam gasped.

“Yeah,” Mike repeated. “Holy shit…”

“What…what the fuck is it?”

“I…I don’t know…”

“Come on,” Tyler suddenly suggested. “Let’s go and take a look.”

“You’re…not serious, are you?”

“Yeah, we don’t even know if it’s safe to…”

“Oh, stop bitchin’, will ya? I just wanna take a quick look, just to find out what’s going on. We can’t be trespassing – we never saw any signs or fences, right? Besides, that little shithead is still out there somewhere, and I still want to watch him squeal while I beat the fuck out of him. Come on, let’s go!”

He began to leave, and the other two followed him, neither wanting to look like a coward. They reached the bottom of the vast ramp, or whatever it was, and began to ascend it. It was much bigger from up close – at least 1,000 feet long, and it rose about 300 feet into the air. When they’d finally reached the top, they saw that they were standing in an enormous doorway, roughly the same size as the ramp. Even though they pretended not to be, the three boys were each scared half to death. It felt like they were in a bad dream of some sort.

“This…this isn’t right,” Mike whispered. “We shouldn’t be here…”

The others felt the same way. They were in a vast room of some sort now: it was too large for them to guess its true size. Ominous clanging and thudding noises echoed through the foggy atmosphere, and ahead of them was nothing but darkness. Suddenly the floor felt as if it began to rise – as if he whole building was rising up somehow – and the boys were knocked down to the floor by the pressure. At the same time, the ramp began to rise, swiveling up to close the doorway.

“No!” Mike yelled, running for the door. “You fucking retards! I told you we shouldn’t have come!” He ran as fast as he could, but kept tripping over large grooves in the floor.

“Shut up, Mike! We can still make it!” Tyler yelled back – but almost immediately he knew that they wouldn’t.

The door was closing at an alarming speed, and he realized that they actually were rising up. The fog outside sank out of view, and he could see clear blue skies and the tips of the highest mountains, though they too soon disappeared from sight. Air was rushing through what was left of the opening, creating shrieking winds which literally blew the guys off their feet and back into the room. By now they knew there was no chance. They were trapped – trapped in some sort of strange aircraft, or…

“A spaceship!” Adam yelled, the roaring wind drowning out his words. “We’re in a goddamn spaceship!”

The pressure caused by the accelerating floor grew higher and higher, and the boys could no longer stand. They were pressed flat onto the floor, their heads pounding, and they felt as if they were being crushed. It didn’t take long for them to black out, though not before they saw the doorway closing completely, locking them inside an impenetrably dark, gigantic room.