midnight
He raged suddenly , there in the darkness , because he saw the utter hopelessness of combatting the creatures who 'd taken over Boulder Lake . There was nothing to keep them from taking over the whole earth , no matter what sort of monsters or not-monsters they might be . It was nine o'clock at night when Lockley killed the porcupine , and ten by the time Jill had gone back to sleep huddled between the projecting roots of a giant tree . Shortly after midnight Lockley had been awakened when a skunk defeated a hungry predator within a hundred yards of their bivouac . But some time in between , there was another happening of much greater importance elsewhere . Something came out of Boulder Lake National Park . All humans had supposedly fled from it .