Litter

Despite having disconnected from their group network for safety’s sake, each of the clones picked up Xavier’s distress. The power of his howl of despair battered their neural pathways and sent a shockwave of panic into their motherboards. He was alive, he was desperate and his appeal for help was impossible to resist. 

Almost.

They stood together, each aware of the horror the others were experiencing and each determined to withstand the pressure.

‘What? What's going on?’ said Kim, searching their faces for an answer.

Instead of a reply, the clones reached for each other and held hands, drawing the five into a tight circle, shoulders and hips touching, their heads bent forward. A low pitched sonorous hum began and grew steadily in volume until she could feel her eardrums begin to vibrate.

‘What are they doing?’ Joe clapped his hands over his ears to try to ease the pain of the sound battering inside his head. It quickly obliterated his ability to think straight. His heart rate sped up and his body began to tingle unpleasantly. Leaves and scraps of litter on the pavement bounced up from the surface and fell again, lifted and fell, lifted and fell, like drops of water bouncing on a taut drumskin.

Kim knew she was going to be sick. She bent double, hands still pressed against her ears, her mouth filling with saliva that she was powerless to control. The all-pervasive sound was unbearable.

And then suddenly it stopped.

TO BE CONTINUED ...