Jim Weary had just taken the road out of town when his cell phone rang. Annoyed, he turned his radio down and grabbed the device from the cup holder. "Hello?"
"Jimmy, where are you?" It was his mother. When Jim's father died she had suffered a mental breakdown and was now prone to depression if he didn't visit her often in Gambier, Washington.
"I'm on my way there, mom. I just left Seattle."
"... How long until you get here?"
"It's about five hours away. If you have any problems, all you have to do is call Elaine. Her number should be next to the phone."
Jim's mother started to reply, but he interrupted her. "Listen, mom, I have to go." He had just noticed two military Humvees blocking both lanes of the road. Several soldiers were standing near them, holding assault rifles. Jim slowed to a stop and got out of his car.
A soldier approached him. "Sir, you need to turn back. All roads leading to and from Seattle are closed for the time being."
"What the hell is going on?"
"Hey, man, I'm just following orders. You need to turn back."
"well, I'm just trying to get to Gam-"
"Get back in your vehicle and drive away before we have a problem."
Jim cursed and angrily got back in his car. He checked the clock on his phone: 10:16 am. After calling his mother back and attempting to explain the situation to her, he started his car and drove back the way he had come. Jim figured he had earned some time away from his crazy mother anyways.

Jim spent the rest of the day in his apartment, watching TV and browsing the internet on his laptop. At about 9:30 pm, during the middle of his marathon of the "Predator" movies, his stomach decided to remind him of his foolish decision to skip lunch. Automatically he got up and went to his kitchen, but the mere thought of eating another ham sandwich made him feel sick. Jim decided he needed real food.
He resolved to try out a retro diner that had caught his eye the other day: Donovan's Diner. It was one of those homely, locally-owned restaurants that always seemed to have the best food. It was only a few blocks away, so he decided to walk.

-Donovan's Diner-
A girl with red hair tied back in a ponytail was behind the counter staring blankly off into the distance. When she heard Jim enter she looked up with a fake smile plastered on her face and recited the well-rehearsed line "Hi, I'm Jenny! Welcome to Donovan's Diner. What can I get for you today?"
Jim rubbed his eyes wearily and said, "Just get me the special."
"One special coming up!"
Jim sat down at the booth and wondered whether he should have actually looked at what the special was. He looked around the diner which was fairly empty, only six people including himself and Jenny, who had left to the kitchen to prepare his special.
A business man wearing a suit was sitting by himself in the corner talking on his phone with a worried look on his face, nervously holding a suitcase.
Two cops were enjoying their dinner a few tables away from Jim. The first cop was a tall man, probably in his late forties, with short blonde hair that was slightly receding. The other was a much younger man with a gaunt complexion and brown hair. Joking and laughing, they were the only sources of noise in the restaurant.
The last was a woman who looked to be in her early thirties. She had an eclectic sense of fashion and wore half-moon spectacles. She was typing furiously on her laptop as she finished her forth cup of coffee.

Jim stared out the window at the dark, empty street, wondering what he was doing with his life.
Finally, Jenny came to his table carrying the soup he had apparently ordered.
"Enjoy!"
As Jenny left to take care of the other customers, Jim stared sadly at his soup, watching the chunks of unknown origin float around in the murky liquid. "Here you go, Kathy," she said with a smile to the woman frantically typing on the laptop. Before she could resupply Kathy's coffee addiction, however, what sounded like a large explosion sounded off in the distance. The clientele all looked up, alarmed. Even the two cops had stopped their banter to look out the window into the dark night, with only a few street lamps revealing portions of the street outside.
Another explosion, this one closer, made the ground rumble beneath their feet.
Jenny looked over her shoulder at the kitchen and called "Uh, Dad..."
The two cops had already risen, their hands quickly resting on the holsters attached to their belts.
An older man wearing an apron and a hair net came out of the kitchen and said with a heavy Irish accent, "What's going on out here?"
More explosions could be heard now, their thunderous (i Boom)s echoing across the city, most far away, but some were too close for comfort.
"Uh, I'm going to have to call you back," said the business man before slipping his phone into his pocket.
Suddenly, the street before them burst as if it had been hit with a missile, sending dust and rubble in all directions. In the aftermath, sitting in a small crater, lay a metal container the size of a car. There were no markings on it, but it was covered in small panels.
The group stood in silence, watching the metal pod. Nothing happened.
When nothing continued to happen, the blonde cop said "I'm gonna check it out." and walked towards the door. The other cop reached out for him and said, "No, wait, James!", but the man just waved him off.
"Wait here Oliver, I'll be right back."
Nobody else objected, and the group continued to watch in stunned silence as James entered the street. As if on cue, the panels on the capsule erupted, sending them scattering throughout the street. James took a few steps back in surprise and took out his flashlight. Using the rays of light they could see the now-open pod more clearly, but it was still too dark to see inside.
Jim then noticed a black goo poring out of the holes in the pod. It was unlike any liquid he had ever seen; it seemed to be made of separate strands of liquid, with each strand moving independently. James said something, but it was indistinguishable through the thick glass windows of the diner. Instantly, a single strand of the liquid separated from the stream of goo that was spreading across the dark street. Moving like a snake made of black water, it crawled towards James who had begun to back up towards the diner. James was a few feet away from the door, when all of a sudden the black enigma lept through the air and onto James' face with so much force that he was knocked onto his back.
The cop's scream changed to a gurgling sound as the goo forced its way down his throat and into his nostrils. His body was writhing on the ground in pain, limbs flying in every direction. Slowly, James began to stand up, shaking profusely, until one final massive spasm twisted his head 180 degrees, and he fell to the ground, dead.
The sound of two gunshots in the distance broke the group out of their trance. The man in the apron, who Jim assumed must be the "Donovan" that owned the diner, quickly locked the front door and began drawing the shades over the windows. Oliver was still struggling against the business man, who had been holding the young police officer back from going outside to help his partner.
"You'll get yourself killed!" shouted the business man.
"James!" was Oliver's only reply.
"I'm going to call for help!" Jenny ran to the phone next to the counter. "... the phone lines must be out!"
"They must have been hit by one of those things falling from the sky." Jim checked his cell phone. "That's weird, I don't have any reception..."
Oliver finally calmed down enough for the business man to check his phone. "I'm out too."
Oliver tried his radio. "All I'm getting is static."
"Something must be blocking the signals," said Jim, having no idea what he was talking about.
The eatery's owner grabbed a rag and wiped his face with it. "Bugger it all. Now what do we do?"
"I vote we stay here until help arrives," said Jenny, matter-of-factly.
Kathy cleared her throat. "Uh, I don't mean to interrupt, but I think you should all see this." She had raised the shades on the windows to peek outside, and now she slowly stood aside. Just outside the window James stood staring at them and snarling. Jim could see the burning embers of primal fury in the man's eyes as he glared daggers at the group.
"B-but... y-you're dead!" stuttered Oliver, his face turning a sickly pale.
James opened his mouth wide and let out a feral shriek that made Jim's blood run cold. The inside of James' mouth was covered in the black liquid, and it poured out onto his front. Streaks of the stuff ran down his arms.
"Oh my god..." muttered Donovan.
The creature raised its fists, still making the horrible shrieking noise, and began beating the window with such force that it began to crack.