I awake from a dream about finding pirate treasure in space and warding off robot skeletons and instead find myself sprawled across a pile of toilet paper in a Wal-Mart in a tiny town somewhere in the Pacific Northwest around midnight. There is a bck bear wandering the aisles. It had been sleeping not too far from where I was and woke up not long before I did. I do my best to slink around and not disturb the bear on my way to the employee break room where I find my only night shift coworker. We decide we're not getting paid enough to deal with a bear and to just let it do its thing until morning.

  The lights suddenly cut out and we hear a feral shrieking sound that definitely did not come from a bear. We decide to lock the door and barricade ourselves in the break room.

  We reconsider our choice once we hear the sounds of shouting and gunfire. My coworker gets the bright idea to pull the grating off an air vent and climb through to safety. I observe the dust-choked hole in the wall and comment that these things really aren't as rge or suitable for climbing through as they are in the movies. No way either of us could possibly fit in there.

  With that pn out, we take a chance on leaving the break room and heading for the back exit as quietly and unobtrusively as possible. Along the way we catch scattered glimpses of men in tactical gear fighting against some kind of alien cd in a slick bck carapace.

  Finally outside, we make a mad dash for my coworker's rusty pickup truck, climb in, start the engine, pull out around the squad of government vehicles surrounding the store, and speed up the hill and across the bridge into the night.