Carter Roy

It's a dull, metallic gray, as tall as a water tower, and blindingly bright, with flames shooting out the bottom.

Vicki screams at Betty to stop the car.

They come to a halt about 100 feet away from the object, and everyone jumps out of the vehicle.

The first thing they notice is the heat.

It's excruciating.

It feels like they're burning up, and the air smells like a lighter fluid.

Colby is terrified, so Vicky tries to calm him down.

She's a God-fearing woman, so she explains the blinding light the only way she knows how.

She tells him not to be afraid.

If anything comes out of the light, surely it'll be Jesus.

For a while, it's as if time stands still, but Vicky will later estimate that Colby is outside for about a minute before he runs back and hides in the car.

Vicky follows suit about four minutes later,

Betty gets closest to the object and spends the most time outside, about 10 minutes total.

In that time, the women say the UFO looks like it's in distress, like it's having a hard time maintaining flight.

Every time it spews flames from the bottom, it shoots back into the air and emits a horrible noise, shrill, piercing beeps.

But it's not the only flying object in the sky that night.

At some point, a swarm of helicopters surrounds the craft, big ones with double rotor blades, the kind you'd expect to find in the military.

To the women, it looks like the choppers are there to help the object, like they're on a rescue mission.

Before they know it, the sky is empty again.

The light and the flames and the choppers drift back over the trees.