Imagine stepping into a serene Wyoming forest for a simple elk hunt, only to fire a shot that defies physics—your bullet crumpling mid-air in eerie silence. What invisible force stopped it? On October 25, 1974, oilfield worker Carl Higdon faced this nightmare, turning to confront a neckless humanoid in a black jumpsuit: "Ausso One," communicating telepathically with slanted eyes and horn-like protrusions. Was this an alien hunter, mirroring Carl's own pursuit?

Compelled by an unseen will, Higdon swallows a mysterious pill and enters a hovering transparent cube. Inside: his miniaturized elk herd, frozen; two identical beings at the controls. In a flash, he's hurled 163,000 light-years to a blinding planet teeming with Earth animals in enclosures—and wandering humans, including a familiar gray-haired man. Abducted captives? Collaborators? Escorted to a spiraling tower, Carl endures invasive scans by a dozen entities, only to be rejected: "Not what we need." Why? His vasectomy? Age? Or something more sinister about their mutations and cosmic "hunting" for biological specimens?

Awakening disoriented in the dark, Higdon finds his truck impossibly relocated in a muddy ravine—no tracks, as if airlifted. Hospital tests reveal miracles: vanished tuberculosis scars and kidney stones, plus agonizing light sensitivity. Hypnosis with UFO expert Dr. Leo Sprinkle uncovers vivid details, backed by polygraphs, a deformed bullet, wilted grass, and locals' sightings of flashing sky lights. Skeptics cry hallucination from hypoxia or sci-fi influence, but parallels to Travis Walton's case beg: Are extraterrestrials harvesting us?

Read MF Thomas' novels

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Seeing by Moonlight ...