The Blob

PROLOGUE

The NASA space program has shown us, with its video coverage, and its National Geographic-type photos, just how beautiful the Earth is when viewed from outer space.

The Object, however, was blind and could not perceive this beauty.

At a hundred miles up the gravity well of Earth is a powerful force, and it already had the Object in its grip.

But the Object, having no senses, did not perceive the rapid diminishing of its weightlessness. The Object had had a long voyage, but it had no idea of time, or even space, so even as the unseen physical force of gravity began relentlessly tugging it down toward the beginnings of the Earth’s atmosphere, there was no resistance.

As the Object touched the exosphere, a vast stretch of cerulean stitched with swathes of white—the Pacific Ocean with clouds—unfolded beneath it.

The Object noted neither the calm nor the beauty below. It simply did not care.

As the Object passed over a scatter of islands amid this vast sea, the air molecules it struck began to create friction. One side of its casing began to glow—first a soft pink, then a bright cherry, then a vibrant red as ablation commenced.

As it passed over the edge of a great dun-and-green-colored continent, the Object had no recognition that this was North America. Its descent from a wide trajectory had steepened rapidly, driving it at a great velocity beyond the deserts and mountains, the cities and smog, of California.

Into the stratosphere it blazed, its burning descent now giving not only light and heat, but sound as well. No one noticed this sound, however, least of all the Object.

By now the Object was a full-fledged meteor, screaming relentlessly out of space, shrieking through the darkening skies above the western United States. Great mountains reared up below; vast deserts swept out into the realm of twilight; the cities of man, large and small, sparkled to life with electricity as night descended.

As it entered the mesosphere, a blazing, brief new star in the firmament, the Object could have seen its destination—if it had had eyes. If it had had a mind to know such things, it would have known that it would land just on the outskirts of a relatively secluded town in Colorado among the Rocky Mountains, a town called, plainly enough, Morgan City.

As it dived down toward impact, the burning object trailed a long tail of light and heat.

The Object’s exterior was burning away, but it felt nothing.

Inside, however, something stirred.

And this something did feel a sensation as the Object hurtled from the sky toward the town of Morgan City just past twilight on this typical quiet night.

It felt a sensation very strong and insistent and demanding.

It felt hunger.