Cacophony [ONC 2023]

1

Henna dropped the backpack on the table before fixing the mattress back against the door. Duct tape screeched and ripped as she secured the gaps, but she couldn't hear it. Industrial ear defenders, with in-ear buds too, stopped her from hearing almost everything. Almost. No matter what she did, what anyone did, the screams continued to find ways to reach ears.

Once she had moved the second mattress into place, she felt happier about removing all the cumbersome gear. Not long after it had all started, Henna had trawled through the nearby homes, taking what she could. Carrying all these mattresses had taken her some time, but it was worth it to get even a little rest from the constant noise. The only part of the one room she had to herself not covered was the ceiling. Even the wonders of duct tape couldn't keep a mattress up there, but she had dropped more of them on the floor in the room above. It was as close to silent as anyone could get in these times.

She left the ear buds in, even though her other precautions dulled the screams to a muffled, distant whine, but put the ear defenders on a hook, along with the military-grade gas mask. She always wore the gas mask when heading out, even though no-one knew whether the sickness was airborne or not. No-one seemed to know anything.

The thick, padded, professional motorbike jacket was hers, but the gas mask was a leftover. Something an old girlfriend had left in the rush of a painful break-up, leaving Henna with a mortgage and a house too big for one person. It had taken a year for that to change and she had been happy. For a time. Until the Screaming Sickness came.

The pistol, in its holster on the heavy cop's belt, she never took off. Not even to sleep. The cop had no use for it anymore, no matter his screams. He didn't scream because she took his weapon, though. No-one screamed for any decent reason anymore. Why shout and scream when attacked, when the whole world seemed to have turned their heads to the skies and begun to scream. And never stopped.

They never, ever stopped.

At first, the authorities had tried to take the Screamers away, to hospitals, to staging areas, military bases. That soon became worthless. The number of Screamers began to overwhelm the system and, not so long after it started, they began to leave the sick standing right where they had stopped moving, mouths wide, screaming. They never took a breath, never needed to eat. They were still alive, wasting away, but they never died and they never stopped screaming.

Henna tipped her loot for the day onto the table, sifting through what she had found. She was lucky. Her former girlfriend had insisted on solar panels on the roof. Henna had electricity for lights and the radio and to recharge flashlights. Most everybody else had nothing. Infrastructure broke down pretty fast when half, or more, of the workforce did nothing but scream.

There it was. The find of the day. A tin of fruit pieces. Before too long, all the tinned goods would be gone. Henna wasn't the only scavenger now, though she had started earlier than most. As soon as it had all started, she knew this wasn't going to end well. There were only a few, at first, stopping during the normal course of their days, dropping anything they held, their heads slowly tilting upward. They never scream straight away, only when their heads tilt all the way back, mouths gaping, did they start and the sound had hammered into everyone's ears. This was not normal.

Henna dropped onto the mattress covered floor, opening the tin of fruit, taking a dirty fork and stabbing several pieces before stuffing them into her mouth. There was no point savouring the taste. Eating was far more important than pleasure anyway. She needed the vitamins more than anything. As she jammed the fork into more pieces of fruit, her head snapped upward.

Something was different. A different sound that wormed its way into her ears even through the mattress padding and her ear buds. Hesitant, Henna put the tin to the side, the juices slopping onto the mattress, and took the pistol from its holster. She didn't have many bullets left, but she'd become a good shot over the last few months. She reached up to her ear and paused.