The
sound cleaved through the night so loudly it woke a suburban couple from
their sleep. Startled, both sat up, turned to each other in
the darkness and waited, but only a silvery, moonlit silence followed. Relieved, they lay back down and snuggled close to go back to sleep but another howl split the night.
"What the hell?" the husband swore.
They lay waiting, hoping no more would come but a few minutes later it came again.
"Shit," he exclaimed, "that’s horrendous."
He threw off the covers, went to the front door and opened it. He waited for a few moments and before going out onto the porch. Other lights came on in surrounding houses as his wife, Annie, joined him.
"Luke, I hope we're not going to have to rescue it, whatever it is," she said, feeling like a coward.
"Let's just try and figure out where it's coming from first," he said, peering into the darkness.
The howl sounded again and made them jump then a man's voice floated over from the house next door.
"Ever hear anything like that?"
"Where the hell's it coming from?" asked someone else from across the street.
"Go inside honey," Luke said to his wife, feeling a surge of masculine protection the city rarely afforded him. She was more than happy to as the men of the neighbourhood congregated in the middle of the road as if by pre-arranged signal, and then they waited.
When it came again and each of them shuddered.
"Can anyone figure out where it's coming from?" Luke asked but no one answered. Again they waited, determined that, between them, they could figure out its direction.
"They're about three minutes apart," said Luke's next-door neighbour.
Each time the sound came they all shivered and shook their heads in the glow of the streetlamps. The sound seemed to travel right through them.
"Damned if I can figure the direction," one said, and they all muttered agreement.
Luke suggested that they might be able do something about it if they knew where it was coming from.
Each time the howl reverberated, there was something in the pitch of it that made them feel as if the darkness might shatter into pieces.
"Jesus, let's ring the police or the council," said Luke's neighbour.
"How about the RSPCA?" said the guy from across the road.
"How about the army?" came another suggestion that made them all relax a little and some even to chuckle.
After discussing possible options, they agreed to return to their homes and take a multi-pronged attack. One would phone the police, another the council and another the RSPCA.
It fell to Luke to call the police.
When he was put through and explained that there was an incredibly loud howl that was upsetting everyone in his neighbourhood, the officer on the desk didn't immediately reply.
"You there?" Luke asked.
The officer responded. "Where did you say you lived, which suburb?"
Luke told him and, again, silence followed only interrupted by the persistent howl.
"That's odd," remarked the officer. "How loud did you say?"
"Very," Luke replied testily.
"You're at least eight kilometres from the station. We can hear it here too."
"I'm not surprised," said Luke, "it would carry a long way."
"No, I mean it's loud here, very loud."
"Oh, right, very funny. Look, I'm not yanking your chain."
"No, no sir. I know you're not. We're hearing it here too and we can't tell what direction it's coming from."
"It can't be an animal then," said Luke.
"Sir, would you do me a favour," asked the Officer.
"Sure."
"Can you take your phone outside?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, step outside and tell me if you hear any other dogs howling, apart from the one that's so loud."
"Hang on. There it goes again. I'm outside." He listened as the howl subsided.
"That is odd," he remarked, "there's no other barking or howling."
More silence on the other end of the line and then, "Yes, same here. Listen, thanks, we'll look into it. Try and get some sleep."
"Thanks, but if it goes on, I doubt it," he replied and hung up.
By this time the police officer had every
other line on hold and was calling for reinforcements.
"Yes, yes, we know about it. You're where?"
The calls were coming in from all over the city and the suburbs, to every police station and also to the authorities in every country town.
Everywhere, due to lack of sleep, computers were booted, and people jumped onto the Internet. Messages began to flood inboxes, Facebook and Twitter.
Very soon, thanks to instant global communication, it became clear that the howl was not local, regional or even national. It was global and had started everywhere at the same time.
It was ten a.m. in London when workers inside office buildings, outside and in the subway were startled to hear a piercingly loud howl. People inside buildings with double glazed windows heard it as if through thin glass.
Workers gradually left their positions and desks and travelers their modes of transport to go outside and listen. Office workers peered from balconies as the howls continued. At first many thought it was some kind of promotion, but it went on so long authorities began receiving complaint calls and were assured there was no promotion.
The howl itself was not just a simple baying sound like that of a wolf at the moon. It managed to convey distress, loneliness, abandonment and even pain in one single, long, emanation. Its effect was to make the skin prickle and hairs rise on the backs of the neck. The normal reaction to such a sound was to help, but no one could.
At bases in the Antarctic, scientists thought that something catastrophic was happening to the ice, which makes strange sounds as it moves and breaks. They expected a great fissure to open under their huts. Researchers decided that a great mass of air trapped within the solid ice had escaped, causing the dreadful noise. But it came again and again, and the ice remained intact.
After a while, when people began to turn their attention to the other things going on around them, they realized that no other animals were responding in any way to the sound. It was a howl, after all, so why wasn't there even an ear prick from a dog or a flurry of fear from birds. Only humans appeared to be affected.
Very soon, heads of state began calling one another, each having to stop as the wail made it difficult to hear. The sound was simultaneous all over the world which, in itself, made it strange. As the President of Russia spoke with his American counterpart, they became aware that each of them was hearing the howl at exactly the same time even though they were separated by thousands of kilometres. While the satellite connection caused a slight delay when the howl was heard at either end, it was still clear the two of them were experiencing the sound at the same time.
Other leaders did the same during their calls. It was deduced that the only way this could be possible was if the sound came from the centre of the earth. Over the next few days authorities around the globe enlisted experts of all kinds to trace the source of the sound, and scientists in various fields used their own initiative and began their own investigations.
Acoustic engineers, audio experts and every kind of technician set up equipment. Governments enlisted geologists, geophysicists, oceanographers, physicists, climatologists, seismologists and numerous other experts. NASA began its own inquiry. Astronomers even joined the effort, but it was well known sound could not travel through space.
People all over the world began to believe aliens were sending the signal as a kind of weapon to drive humans mad. Experts used the media to assure them of the following facts:
One:
if aliens exist, it is a ridiculous way to make contact and why would they want
to drive the population of the planet mad rather than just terminate them.
Two:
if aliens exist, they would be technologically clever enough to use a variety
of signals if they wished to communicate.
Three:
sound cannot travel through space, only as radio waves and a receiver is required to turn them into audible sound.
Some people decided the sun must be going to explode and the end was nigh.
Scientists using the media, who had never had such a field day on any news item ever before, stated categorically that the sun was always incredibly noisy, something akin to the sound of billions of megaton bombs going off at the same time, and we couldn't survive its sound if we were able to hear it, but that sound could not travel through space. No, the howl did not come from the sun which could give no auditory warning if it was going to explode. Sound could not travel through a vacuum they reiterated, over and over again.
In the meantime, tests on the sound continued. Every kind of acoustic, wavelength, frequency, resonance and even sonar measuring device was enlisted yet, after ten days of intensive investigation, no one was able to ascertain what made the sound or to discover its point of origin. It defied scientific inquiry even though it was in the range of human hearing and therefore, should have been in the range of canine hearing, but dogs stubbornly refused to react to it. Animals, fish, birds, insects, reptiles, whales, even fungi, all completely ignored it while the reaction of people throughout the world would become the subject of study for decades to follow.
Predictably many turned to religion as they decided the sound was a portent of the end of the world. Churches, temples and mosques filled to capacity. The bible's chapter 'Revelations' was scoured for references to signs of the apocalypse however, the only reference in it to sound was the blast of angels' trumpets. The howl was definitely not that although some argued that it could be.
Atheists and agnostics went to a church or chose spiritual groups so they might at least feel a sense of community in the time remaining to them.
Doctors and psychologists were deluged with patients and pharmacies ran out of sedatives and tranquillizers. Hospital beds filled to capacity and, after two and a half weeks of the interminable howling, so did morgues. Suicides reached forty times the normal rate and authorities in every country set up help lines, enlisted every welfare agency and the media to offer as much support as possible.
Unfortunately, the helpers were stressed beyond endurance and having difficulty coping themselves. Car accidents rose to extraordinary levels until authorities ordered everyone off the road unless driving was their job, they made essential deliveries or had an emergency they had to attend. Only public transport, ambulances, police vehicles, garbage trucks and sanitary vehicles were allowed on the road.
Workplace accidents rose, especially on building sites, in factories and refineries. States of Emergency were declared worldwide. Crime went through the roof and curfews were imposed. Aggressive behaviour caused bashings, muggings and road rage. The latter was another reason private transport, except for essential purposes, was banned.
Many went anywhere there was noise in the hope of blunting the effect of the howl as it intruded into everyday sounds. Some even held 'howl' parties but these wore thin very early on.
Walking along the pavements it could be seen that people had developed the hollow-eyed look of sleeplessness and despair. The stock market plummeted, and trade was halted indefinitely.
The howl had engendered a feeling of total helplessness. The human race had evolved as the only animal capable of initiating the means to solve problems but, for the first time in history, it had reached an impasse. Philosophers and thinkers noted the impact of this.
It was as if the universe had measured the progress of the human race and set it a test to take it to the next evolutionary level. This may have been nonsense but, at the same time, those who weren't driven insane, learned to tolerate the sound and accept it as a fact of life.
Humans were thrown back to the state they had known in primitive times when the sun, moon and stars were objects of mystery and veneration. Then the rhythms of nature and the planets were incomprehensible, as was how night followed day. It had taken millennia for mankind to understand these things but now, with all the instruments of science at its disposal, ones it had invented, it couldn't detect or explain the source of a simple, repetitive sound.
Theorists had no explanation. No one did. All that could be done was to endure it and try to consider it to be a new rhythm nature had placed into the mix. Those who could manage to do this would survive, the others would not. Those who could tolerate the sound fought to help maintain the sanity of their loved ones, who could not, and keep them on a suicide watch.
Many feared going to work and leaving loved ones alone. Absenteeism added to the loss of productivity and was one of the reasons the world's economy went into meltdown. After two and a half weeks, things were looking very grim.
Luke was one of many forced to work at home on his computer to keep watch over Annie who was heavily sedated and, he feared, suicidal. She was a ghost of her former self and sat in his work room, deep rings around her eyes, as he worked on-line. The scene was repeated worldwide although the genders of those who coped and those who didn't varied.
On a Thursday three weeks into 'the howling' as it had come to be known, Luke was in the middle
of composing a presentation when Annie suddenly spoke.
"Luke?"
"Mm, want a cup of tea darling?" he replied, distracted by his work.
"Luke," she said more sharply, forcing him to look at her.
He noticed that for the first time in two weeks her eyes had some life in them.
"What?" he asked.
"It's stopped."
For a moment he didn't know what she meant.
"What has?"
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
"It has, the howl."
He hadn't noticed but thought it was more likely that she had tuned it out as he had. But he listened for a while just to make her realise he was taking her seriously and that's when he heard it. Nothing.
He stood up, went to the front door and, still hearing nothing, went outside, repeating his actions of the first night although it was now daytime. Other neighbours began coming out of their homes. All over the world everyone stopped what they were doing and listened. It was probably the greatest few moments of peace the world had ever experienced. Machines stopped, traffic stopped, the world stopped and held its collective breath.
After fourteen minutes and three howls down no one dared to celebrate. Many were waiting for something to follow. If it had been a portent of disaster what was to come?
Nothing did. After the sun rose the next morning, after a good night's sleep was had all over the planet, relief began to seep into the consciousness. Luke and Annie, who was still shaking off the effects of sedation, went out into the fresh morning air. Luke stood behind her and put his arms around her. They breathed deeply.
"If it happens again, you must learn to cope with it," he whispered in her ear. "I couldn't bear to lose you."
"You were able to switch it off," she replied. "I just didn't seem to be able to. What do you think it was?"
He had wondered about that all the time since the howl began. He couldn't even manage to guess but he did have a thought.
"Perhaps it was the accumulated pain of mankind and all living creatures that had built up over millennia being vented," he said.
"What an amazing thought," she murmured. "It sounded like that didn't it? Like pain, distress and sorrow, all combined."
"Yes," he replied. "Perhaps the earth has a soul. Perhaps it finally needed to weep before it could continue to collect our combined horrors and sorrows. As if its heart was too full to go on without purging itself."
"I wonder if life will ever be the same?" said Annie.
The world's people had shared a common experience. Uncertainty would forever replace the confidence it had taken the human race centuries to develop, convinced of its ability to control its environment and its destiny. Now there existed a question mark, a problem without a solution.
It had left as quickly as it had arrived, but its mark would leave its imprint on the human race forever, a reminder that mankind wasn't god after all, and that there remained the inexplicable.
THE END.
This story is the sole
property of the author Kim Dessaix.
Requests for reprint
should be addressed to kdessaix52@gmail.com
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