I slammed hard on the gas, and as I did a loud popping noise ruptured through the sky. I had remembered hearing once about how some of the world's fastest planes could break the sound barrier when they flew fast enough, and they would make a loud popping noise when they did. I had never actually heard it in my life before... but that noise that I heard then had to be it.

A bright blue shock-wave lit the air surrounding the thing, reminding me of a flash of lightning. For the brief moment that it was illuminated by the blue flash, I could just barely make out parts of its features; it had a long neck, leathery wings and what appeared to be a massive beak on its face. It tore through the air above us and as it did... the car lights, radio and clock flickered on and off rapidly.

"What was that?!!!" Aaron screamed from the back seat.

The rumbling noise it made as it flew echoed from behind us, and then the whistling noise started again. I saw the flash of light and the blue shock-wave in the rear-view mirror, and heard the loud popping noise again as it tore through the air and broke the sound barrier. The moment it did, all the lights in the car flickered yet again.

As it sped over us, much closer than the last time, I felt my heart momentarily stop as the engine stalled for a brief moment.

Jared aimed the gun at the flying creature, though there was no way he would ever be able to hit it.

As the creature swooped around in the air in front of us, preparing to dive again, I voiced my thoughts, "What's that blue flash of light? What does it mean?!"

Jared shook his head, "Every time that thing's flown over us, the car's gone haywire. Could it be some sort of EMP or something?"

I had almost reached the same conclusion myself.

If that was the case... then what's it doing?

Is it going to keep flying by until it stops the car... then swoop in for the kill when we have nothing to escape with?

As it dove by us again, this time creating a flash of light so brilliant it momentarily blinded me, I realized that we were utterly powerless.

All of the lights in the car flickered, then shut off. The engine made noises that sounded like it was in its death throes.

We were like a wounded animal, bleeding out and trying to limp away in a dry desert with a vulture circling overhead. There was nothing we could do, no way out.

Only a miracle could save us.

I felt my last sliver of hope crumble away as the sound barrier broke yet again and the blue burst of light filled the sky for as far as I could see.

Instantly, the car completely shut down and we slid forward until we stopped pathetically in the middle of the road.

I tried to scream with rage and terror, but nothing came out.

To have struggled all this time, only to be preyed on by something we couldn't even fight against...

The three of us frantically looked out the windows for the flying thing.

"Where did it go?" Aaron asked, his voice shaking so much he was barely legible.

I listened intently... all I heard was the rain.

There were thick trees all around us, maybe if we ran now we could hide in there. We'd have to abandon our stuff... but it was the only way.

Maybe it wouldn't be able to reach us through the trees... it was pretty big, right? Yeah, maybe that would work.

I was about to tell Jared and Aaron what we should do, when a loud repetitive noise filled the air above us.

It was unmistakably the sound of massive wings flapping. Huge gusts of wind rocked the car as the thing above us slowly lowered itself... Two glowing orbs that gave off white beams of light entered my vision in front of the car.

Were those... its eyes?

With a sudden motion that made all three of us jump off our seats in fear, the thing dropped to the ground about twenty feet ahead of us, revealing the entirety of its house-sized form.

The first thing I thought of when I saw it was the time my father had taken me to the natural history museum in Crestland to see the dinosaur fossils. Its body's general shape bore a very close resemblance to the drawings of the pterodactyls I had seen then. Its general shape was the only feature it shared though, the rest of it had to have been spawned from the dark skies of hell. It stood on its two short stubby hind legs, supporting the rest of its body with its wings, which reminded me of those of a bat's except... the "fingers" extended much, much longer than they do on any bat I had ever seen, making me think of the wriggling worms I had once seen in the rotting corpse of a stray dog I had seen as my dad had driven me home from the museum. Its neck... it almost seemed like the majority of its body was made up of its long, pole-like neck. Its torso really was barely there. Its neck ended by connecting to its pterodactyl-esque head.

That head... the placement was all wrong. It was upside down. The beak had saw-like teeth lining the entirety of it, jutting out at random spots, and it nearly reached the car it was so long. The lights from its eyes slowly dimmed, revealing maybe its strangest feature:

In place of normal eyes, all I could see was... static. Like what would show on a television set when it couldn't connect to a station.

As the three of us were frozen in place, staring at the grotesque being in utter awe and terror, it stared back at us with its eyes full of white-noise, tilting its head as if it was unsure what to do with us.

A dim blue light throbbed from where the two wings connected to its neck-body. Was that the source of the shock-waves...?

I heard Jared's breathing grow ragged next to me.

He was the first to break the staring contest with the thing, aiming the gun directly at the pulsing blue light and firing. Though I heard the gunshot... it was as if nothing had come out of the gun. Jared screamed with a fusion of panic and rage, "firing" the gun again.

The flying thing tilted its head as yet again nothing happened.

Then, it lifted its long wriggling worm-like fingers off the ground and spread its wings wide. Its eyes flickered and flashed, then glowed bright like spotlights and a long spiky tongue rolled out of its mouth.

It turned its upside down head up to the heavens, and let out a monstrous shriek that shattered the windows in the car and made it feel like my eardrums would shatter as well. Just as I thought my mind itself would shatter, it stopped, violently flapped its wings, and took off into the air.