Yeah, and I don't think they were aliens. I just don't know what they were. We were driving through very rural Illinois at about 10 pm. I was just staring out

Yeah, and I don't think they were aliens. I just don't know what they were. We were driving through very rural Illinois at about 10 pm. I was just staring out of the window up at the sky. Suddenly, I noticed a rather bright orb (not perfectly circular or anything, I just don't know how else to describe it) hovering in the air. I would guess maybe a quarter mile laterally, and only a couple hundred of feet up. I didn't think much of it at first; I thought it was a plane to be honest. But then it faded out -- more like shimmered out. When it shimmered back in, there were now several of them, 3 or so. They moved in very quick, defined spurts -- thirty feet left then stop, ten feet up then stop. Then these faded out, and faded back in again, but now there were 6-8 of them. More weirdly precise movements, moving separately but staying close as a group. Then they all went absolutely tearing off, directly up, in unison. Lost sight of them almost immediately. I can't emphasize enough how close they seemed. These weren't far-off objects I had to squint to see. For those who have driven through rural farmland in USA, think about your typical interstate with a planted field off to your left. A big planted field, but still only field sized, with a line of trees marking the property boundary on the far edge. That's what these were by, and they were well within the boundaries of the field. I was in the car with my parents, both of whom saw them. (I was getting ready to enter college, so I was probably 18.) They seemed very freaked out and refused to discuss it; I was just captivated and curious. To this day they won't discuss it and sometimes even pretend they don't know what I"m talking about. Again, I'm not at all saying they were ETs, I firmly believe the properties of the Universe make it an infinitesimally small chance that a crossing-of-the-paths will ever occur for two intelligences, if multiple inhabited planets even exist. But I just don't know what these were. They were very close, very bright, very concrete (if that makes sense at all), and their movements were unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Very unnatural-seeming motions. I've never seen anything like it since, either. It's not like I've suddenly started seeing lights everywhere I look.