The alien thing \u2013 white and oblong like a small refrigerator \u2013 was still smouldering and popping as Brad slid down the loose soil into the great gouge it had\u00a0cut into the earth. Suddenly isolated Brad felt his drunken bravado slither away.<\/p>\n
He looked up to where the crowd had gathered on the crater\u2019s lip. For a moment Brad considered scrambling back up the soft slope but the pressure of the crowd\u2019s expectation kept him pressed into this hole in the earth.<\/p>\n
He turned back to the alien thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHi!\u201d Brad said, softly, acutely aware of all the eyes looking down at him. \u201cI come in peace?\u201d<\/p>\n
Suddenly the thing chittered and throbbed. Rob yelped and leapt backwards, stumbling, and sprawling into the warm dirt.<\/p>\n
Dozens of whip-like tendrils morphed out of the alien thing\u2019s body, seemed to sniff the air, then flicked in his direction.<\/p>\n
Brad screamed.<\/p>\n
Somebody up above laughed, but he could hear the rest of them gasp and feel them stepping back, leaving him alone.<\/p>\n
The alien thing shivered and, silently, a seam split down one face. Fierce white light ripped the night. Brad raised a hand, blinded.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongratulations dear friend!\u201d The voice crackled. \u201cYou have been\u00a0chosen as the most fortuate, winner of\u00a0a very\u00a0grand prize in the Antarean lottery. To claim your uncountable winnings simply place thirty kilograms of \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n
Thud! Crack!<\/p>\n
Brad started kicking the alien thing. From above, on the lip of the crater, the growling crowd surged forward as one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The alien thing \u2013 white and oblong like a small refrigerator \u2013 was still smouldering and popping as Brad slid down the loose soil into the great gouge it had\u00a0cut into the earth. Suddenly isolated Brad felt his drunken bravado slither away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[19],"tags":[42,92,46,35],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27AP7-id","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1129"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1767,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions\/1767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}