It was another cold crisp December night along a deserted road. Most people would be at home and no do doubt out of the cold. Usually Dave would be in his element on such evenings, deserted roads made his job as a lorry driver so much easier and on his rural route tonight this also meant beautiful views of the sky at night without the light pollution of the cities. That was usually Dave's idea of a good night out on the road.
Well that was usually the case, road works had hampered his progress today and after getting an earful from his boss about having to make his delivery the next day, long held doubts about his job were bobbing back up to the surface again.
Now in his mid 30s, Dave had been a lorry driver for virtually all of his working life so far. While he enjoyed the freedom of the road the lonely lifestyle that he once enjoyed was starting to get to him. Most of his friends had settled down and longer seemed to have time for him. A perk of the job was handling heavy cargo was good for his strength, spending most his time behind the wheel was starting to take it's toll, though he would classify himself as "beefy" he would think to himself with a chuckle. Certainly he could still turn one or two heads, both men and woman at the bar, no doubt helped with his trucker look of flannel shirt, jeans and rigger boots, but he could never muster the courage to overcome his introvertness to bite the bullet with someone.
But Dave had more pressing thoughts tonight, he was running late and glancing at his tachograph he was running out of time until he had to pull over for the night. He would normally spend the night in a truck park, safe in the knowledge that it a break in was less likely, but on this road in the middle of nowhere, a suitable lay by would have to suffice. knowing the route well, he pulled over into one of his preferred parking spots that typically offered good views of the night sky for a bit of idle stargazing before going down for the night in his cab.
One of the few things that had never demised his interest was stargazing, especially with some background noise of some idle talk show on the radio. having pulled over and checked the locks on the doors of his lorry, Dave returned to his cab to start his pre-bed routine. Turning on the radio, Dave couldn't tune into any station, there was just static over the airwaves. "Odd" Dave thought, he usually got good reception in this area. Shrugging his shoulders he got out his mobile, hoping to find something suitable online. However their was no signal, again odd as there was usually a reasonable signal in the area.
Sighing at disruption of his night time route, Dave decided to call it a night. Pulling off his rigger boots he had happened to look out his cab door at at the sky. Immediately he noticed a very bright light in the northern sky. Dave's first thought it was star, but it started to move. His next thought was it was a meteor or satellite, as he watched it move southwards across the sky. His curiosity turned to concern as the light seemed to stop in it's place and grew in size as it moved towards his position.
Dave was rooted on the spot in fear, looking in awe and disbelief as what now looked looked a glowing white sphere seems to be heading straight towards his cab. His eyes open in shock and disbelief, Dave was expecting it to be the end but at the last minute and mere meters from his cab, the orb swerved left, crashing into an adjacent field with an almighty thud that made the ground shake.
Looking out through the the other cab door into the field, Dave could see the orb half buried in the soil and was seemed to be smoking away and seemed to be pulsating. Any rational person would have immediately drove away. But looking at the orb, Dave was overcome with an almost hypnotic desire to walk over to it, to look closer at it and to touch it. It was like the orb's pulsating light was suppressing any fear and and shock over what had happened with every passing second. In his mind, it felt like all of the events of today had lead to this moment, and he had to see it to its conclusion.
Braking his gaze at the orb, Dave began to pull his rigger boots back on. Getting out of the cab. Running on a mixture of adrenaline, fear but still with an overwhelming desire to check the orb out, Dave began cautiously walking towards to orb.