“Hey, we have to get you out of here.” I came around him and put one arm under his shoulder. Somehow, we managed to get him to his feet. He was massive. Probably at least a foot taller than me and he was all muscle. We stumbled forward. He tripped and almost fell. It was through sheer strength of will that I kept him upright. We had to get away from the vehicles. I had no plans to die today.

We kept moving and made it to the tree line. Not a second too soon. The ground shook and we were thrown forward as my car erupted. We tumbled down a small hill and landed in a deep puddle, sending a splash of water up when we landed. I coughed and spat the sludge from my mouth. Great! My cell was probably ruined now too. I turned so I was leaning on my elbows and watched as what was left of my car turned into an inferno. Flames shot at least twenty feet into the sky. My car was a total goner.

At least my night couldn’t possibly get any worse. This was just what I needed. Not! At least I’d saved the guy. I turned to look at him. Whatever was in the road didn’t resemble a car. So, what was it? I tried to get a good look at the guy, but I only had the light of the fire, and we were a distance from it.

He hadn’t moved since we’d collapsed over here. He was lying face up. At least I didn’t have to worry about him drowning in all this water. What if he was injured or worse? I crawled toward him and looked down at his chest. I still had no idea why he was half naked, but he was ripped. And breathing. Thank goodness. Wait a second.

I squinted and stared down at him, leaning closer to inspect his chest. Were those scales? They were flesh colored, so it was hard to tell but his skin looked off. I reached into my pants and plucked out my phone, praying that it worked so I could turn on the flashlight. It did. That was a small miracle.

I shone it down on him. They were scales. Flesh colored scales. How in the world was that possible? People didn’t have scales. It had to be a tattoo. A really well designed one. I put a finger on it. It felt weird, scaly. Not possible. It had to be some sort of weird body art. People did all sorts of crazy things nowadays.

His skin was soft but the mosaic like pattern reminded me of a lizard sort of. It kind of felt like one too.

The guy groaned. His left arm shot up and went to his forehead. There was something sticking out of his arms right by the elbows. Glass maybe? I moved my light, then fought back the urge to scream. It wasn’t glass. The guy had fins. Small bluish-purple fins by his elbows.

I fell backward on my butt as the guy began to move. He opened his eyes and they landed on me. They were almost the same color of his fins. Beautiful, but not human. Oh shit. Well, Max, you’ve really gotten yourself in a pickle now.

I scooted away from him.

“Aurora?” he asked. He slowly sat up. He scrutinized me for a moment. “You’re not Aurora.” He turned to look at the wreckage. The fire was still burning hot.

My eyes followed his line of sight. The flames had died down a little. I could see some of what was in the fire. There was my car and the object. It was rectangular. Definitely not a car. It was small and a sleek black color. Oh God. Was it a spaceship?

That was crazy, right? I shot to my feet. Maybe it wasn’t. It would explain the guy’s weird scales and fins. I took a few steps backward, my feet sliding on the muddy terrain. Was this dude an alien? He didn’t fit any alien profile I’d ever seen in a movie. For starters, he was hot. Aliens weren’t supposed to be hot.