The smell of aviation gas roiled out of the ravine in a foul cloud. It was a wonder the UFO had not ignited the gas with its pyrotechnic hunting methods.

John stopped short of the lip to the depths and considered their options. The other actors waited as if they had already decided John would lead their small group while the large local man watched the UFO as it hunted the men he knew.

“Get back,” John warned them all, then pulled a lighter from his pocket. He did not recall smoking, but the lighter was in his pocket. Maybe he had picked it up in the house. It did not matter; he had the damn thing when he needed it.

With his thumb, John flicked the cover back then spun the wheel. A small flame ignited at the top of the lighter. He gazed at the flame for a moment and wondered if he was doing the right thing, if he had chosen the right path, then hurled the lighter into the ravine and dove for cover.

With a surprisingly quiet explosion, the ravine burst into a ball of flame, a huge fireball sailing up into the sky, the entire back yard revealed in a lurid red.

John sat up and watched the volcano subside, the first gout of flames dying rapidly until only the brush and wreckage in the ravine were burning. Crawling on his hands and knees, he moved to the edge of the ravine and held his hand out over the lip. The heat was enough to make him understand he had spent most of the night in the cold and was sorely lacking in body heat.

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The distant sound of rotor blades broke him from doubting the wisdom of the deception method. “Come on,” he waved to the others, then climbed over the lip and began a cautious descent into the ravine.

It was no worse than standing too close to a campfire. The smoke irritated his eyes and made him cough, but John found the fire tolerable.

Dirt fell against his neck and back, a sign the others were following his example.

Midway down the side of the ravine, John used handfuls of dirt to douse the fire consuming a large bush, then braced his feet against the thick trunk and looked up to check the progress of the others.

The air above shimmered in the heat, distorting the people descending the side of the ravine in a slow line. Stars above mixed with sparks and embers from the flames until the whole seemed to move in a ballet designed to give John vertigo. He gulped and tried to breathe through his nose, but his mouth opened wide in a silent scream as the UFO sailed majestically overhead.

For an agonizing eternity, he watched the UFO sail past the edge of the ravine and into full view. He waited for the aliens to kill them all as they clung to the steep dirt wall, but the ship continued on a shallow arc and passed out of sight on the other side of the ravine.

John took a breath and coughed smoke.

How long could they stay in the ravine?

“Come on Casey,” he said aloud, pleaded for the man to finish reviving the rest of the survivors.