Encounter

The spaceship came plummeting out of the sky--a soundless, streaking, purple glow, moving faster and faster until it ripped at the trees, crashed through them and struck sickeningly against a hill. Momentarily it flared brightly, then went out. It was not long after that the murders began--strange, inexplicable deaths, all the victims found with their heads crushed as if their skulls had exploded outward. The trail of victims led from Arkansas to Tennessee, to Kentucky, Illinois and Michiga...