from a few inches above the ground.
About fifteen minutes later Mike painfully began to open his eyes. As he blinked them clear, he could tell he wasn't dead and he could feel the ground beneath him, see the green grass that almost blocked his view of the area. He was obviously lying on his stomach, arms and legs spread out and bent, his head resting on its right side, as if he'd fallen asleep there, that way. He could move his head and his arms a little, but the rest of his body was still numb. Lifting his head so his eyes were above the level of the grass, Mike saw he was on the deserted shore of a lake, and surrounding him were several little alien beings resembling the ones he'd seen in his apartment. That particular alien was standing directly in front of him. They were all studying him with great curiosity. Lifting up his head, Mike gasped.
"Ohhhhhhh! Where am I? What happened?" He noticed the little space ship near his feet.
"We helped you reach Earth without injury," the one he knew explained, "with our holding beam, and put you in this isolated place until you are well. Are you well now?"
Mike stayed quiet a moment, assessing his physical feelings. In no way was he well, let alone the fact he couldn't even sit up, his stomach was doing flip flops and he was exhausted. He gulped, and told them,
"I need rest....and, lots of food; plenty of food, to be well enough to fly up and finish my job. I've GOT to go back up there as fast as I can! I know it doesn't mean much to you, but I've got to save my world from destruction!"
"We now understand," said the little man, "I wish to apologize. With what we have seen today, I now believe you ARE from this origin place. You need have no fear of us. We wish to be your friends. By helping you we have violated our own First Law of non-interference. So what can we do to help you?"
"Just bring me food....as much as you can. Please?"
"Will see what we can do!"
Mike put his head back down on the ground and immediately fell into a deep, restful sleep. The space ship took off with all crew members aboard. While they were gone, Mike awoke again quite a time later. Slowly, the feeling returned to his arms and legs and by the time the visitors returned he was sitting waiting for them.
Somehow, they had found enough food for twenty banquets! They carried it out to him....breads, meats, fruits, vegetables....the fresh vegetables they just rolled down their boarding ramp to him! They watched in awe the way he ate. When Mike was done with the food, he cried, "Water, I need water!" and the little man brought out some sort of hose and pumped the water out of the lake to him. No wonder he didn't drain it dry, his thirst was just so great!
By this time he was able to stand and walk around, feeling practically normal once again.