The Hum (23 page)

CHAPTER 38

Hearing  his  father’s  weakened voice; Russell  tried again to break free. It could’ve been sheer adrenaline or the extra motivation from his father, but the reason didn’t really matter. What mattered was the fact that the tape tore, and he was finally free. As he made for the door, the wounds on his back and legs decided to make sure he was aware of their presence.

The doorknob to his bedroom felt warm to the touch, telling Russell that opening it could leave him with a face full of fire. Painfully, he bent onto his knees, and turning his head to the side, he quickly flung it open.  The fire whooshed in ripping the door the rest of the way from his hand. Slowly, he peeked around the corner and was thankful to see that the blaze had receded back down the other side of the hallway.

In much pain and barely able to breathe, Russell crawled through the narrow corridor on his hands and knees. He could still hear his dad calling for him, but his voice seemed to trail off as time lapsed. When he made it to the living room, Russell saw the aftermath and it tore him apart.  His wife and kids were sprawled at odd angles along the floor, blood was everywhere. On the sofa, he saw his mom. She was almost unrecognizable from the amount of buckshot on her face and body. Tears filled his eyes, and rage began to consume him. He forced it back, only because he had

to find his father and if possible, get him out of there.

Moving forward, Russell saw his dad lying next to the front door.  He imagined his old man fighting against the Sheriff and Mr. Black with everything in him, but in the end, they’d left him lying in his own blood like a rodent squished on the highway by an errant driver.

“Russ? Is…is that you?” George Jent managed to get out.

“I’m here, Dad. Just relax. I’m going to slide your body to the side, so I can open the door and get you outside.” It took Russell a few minutes to maneuver his dad’s body out the door and onto the front lawn, and it depleted what little energy he had left. Knowing he couldn’t allow the others to burn up inside the house, he left his dad lying, and went back in and retrieved the rest of his family. With each body, the flames grew worse. By the time he retrieved his mom’s body, the center beam from the living room collapsed down onto the sofa where she lay. Tugging on her unmoving form, he managed to free her from the burning wood. The smell of her charred flesh sickened him, even more so knowing this was the woman that had birthed him.

Seeing Gary’s journal lying open next to the coffee table, Russell grabbed it on his way out the door. Out in the hot sun, he looked around at the massacre and cried.  Curled into a ball, he wept uncontrollably for his family.  At some point, he blacked out.

*         *         *

“Sir, we’ve taken care of those loose ends. Sheriff Jent and the FBI won’t be bothering us again.”

“What about the rest of the FBI Task Force that

Agent Mason assembled prior to his death?”

“Three of our locals are en route to their homes as we speak. They will all be removed in the same manner  as  the  others.  What  about  the  Director, Sir?  Were you able to get him to write this one off?”

“It wasn’t easy, considering these were some of his best men, but he understands what we’re trying to do here. He won’t stand in the way. Besides, he’s just as expendable as the others.”

“Do you really think we’ll be able to pull it off, Sir? I mean what we’re attempting to do is almost impossible.”

“Are you doubting, Josiah?  Because if you are, you might not be the right person to run things for me there in Taos.”

“No, Sir.  It’s just that this thing is vast, world changing. If we’re successful here, then the entire globe will soon bow at our feet.”

“Not if, but when we’re successful, Josiah. Now do me a favor and make sure you keep up with Miss Billingsley.”

Josiah hesitated.

“What is it, Josiah?  Where is she?”

“Uh, we’re not too sure.  She checked in at the Sagebrush Inn two days ago, but she hasn’t been seen since.”

“What are you telling me, Josiah?  Are you saying you lost her?  Because if you are, I suggest you find her ASAP.”

“We’re looking everywhere, Sir. We’ll find her.”

“You should’ve killed her when you had the chance. If that incompetent boy of yours keeps messing things up, he might be the next one to take the plunge.”

“I’ll handle it, Sir. Please don’t take my boys.  I’ll make this right.”

“I’m beginning to have my doubts, Josiah.  You have one son that can’t follow simple orders and another one working against us.  Tell me again, how you’re planning to handle it?”

“Just give me two days, Sir.  I will reign in both of my boys, and get the girl back here, even if it’s in a body bag.”

“I’d prefer the body bag, Josiah.  You’ve got two days.  If I don’t see results, your entire lineage will be offered as recompense for your failures.”

“Thank you, Sir.  Thank you so much.”

Hanging up the phone, the aging leader settled back into the comfort of his plush recliner, letting it wrap itself around his weary bones.  He’d special ordered the chair from Italy a few years prior, in his search for something to help ease the tension in his neck and shoulders. It looked a little tacky to have a piece of furniture wrapped in 100% sheepskin, but all naysayers were silenced as soon as their backsides touched the material.

Smiling, Alexander thought about what his future would soon look like.  People would bow down before him, leaders all over the world would beg his audience, and he alone would shape the new church.  Of course, this new form of religion would be a reversion back to the old ways; sacrifice would be key. He knew it would take some time for people to warm up to the idea of such an age old concept, but in time, they’d all accept the new way.  After all, it was for the greater good.

Hearing a knock on his door, Alexander hit the button to remotely turn on his lights.  He loved the darkness, but the people around him didn’t. They will soon, he thought.

*         *         *

Amanda had overheard that a man named Sheriff Russell Jent was snooping around town from a few of the locals at the hotel she was residing in, shortly after her discharge from the hospital. From what she’d gathered, the townspeople weren’t too fond of him, and had made sure he knew it. This intrigued her, so she decided to do a little digging. It took all of five minutes to discover that he was the arresting officer of Kevin Black, after he’d killed the men in Wise, Virginia. She hadn’t told Kevin that she knew all about his complete arrest record, or that she believed he was in on the town’s madness with the others.

When Sheriff Jent left town only hours after Kevin did, Amanda was immediately suspicious. She hadn’t trusted Kevin from the start—the fact that he was a hearer of the hum and had murdered his own wife and kids only added to her suspicions. The problem was that his disposition reminded her of her sister, Jordan’s.  For a brief second, she wondered if Jordan ever hurt anyone. Did the hum also call on her to kill people?

Amanda arrived in Virginia three hours after Sheriff Jent, and was in the process of checking into her hotel, when she heard a loud scream.  The maid suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs with a look of terror on her face. She almost fell on her way down, but the manager was able to catch her just in time.

Listening intently, Amanda learned that the maid had discovered the dead body of a man in one of the rooms she was cleaning.
Death seems to follow Mr. Black
.  Standing just out of sight, she looked on as the local police came in and walked through the room of the murdered agent.  She watched as the frightened officer quickly ran back out of the room, and threw up in the hotel hallway.  After he composed himself, he made a phone call, and left a voicemail message.  “Sheriff, I need you here at the Holiday Inn Express near the airport immediately.  It’s...it’s your old friend from the FBI, Dean Mason.  Someone... someone killed him.  What’s going on here, Sheriff?”

Having heard what she needed to, Amanda jogged out to her car, making a call along the way.

“Where are you? Are you okay?” said the voice on the other end.

“I’m fine. Listen, I don’t have a lot of time. Can you find an address me for me?”

“That depends on what you’re planning to do, and where you’re planning to do it at?”

“I’m just looking into some things here. Are you going to help me or not?” Amanda said sternly.

“Just be careful, Amanda.  You haven’t exactly been good at making friends around town lately.”

“Well, don’t worry, because I’m not around town currently.  Look, I’m in Wise, Virginia and I need you to help me locate the address of Sheriff Russell Jent. I think he’s in trouble.”

“You’re where?  What are you doing in Virginia?

“I already told you that. I don’t have time for this.  Are you going to help me or not?”

After a short pause, the voice on the other end said, “Give me ten minutes.”

“Make it five.” Amanda said back.

Sitting in her car, Amanda began to feel the full brunt of what was going on around her. People were dying all over the country, and it all came back to Taos...
no, people were being murdered
.
What’s going on here?

The ringing cell phone caused Amanda to snap out of her thoughts. After she got the address and gave the required assurance that she’d avoid danger at all costs, she put the car in gear and headed to Sheriff Jent’s home. She reached inside her purse to feel the handle of her Ruger .38 Special. It felt cold to the touch, but it provided the comfort she needed to continue on. The wounds she’d sustained in the attack had healed much faster than even she’d anticipated, but they regularly leaked a nasty yellowish fluid. Every time she changed her bandages, anger consumed her. She didn’t like being the victim, and she vowed to never be one again.  Patting the .38, she smiled and said, “I’ve got something for you people. Come after me again, and I’ll get rid of that annoying humming sound all of you keep hearing, for good.”

By the time she got moving, darkness was beginning to settle into the area. It was obvious right away that navigating in the small town was nothing like the bigger cities Amanda was accustomed to, as evidenced by the fact that she’d already had to turn the car around four times due to missing a couple of the turns she was directed to take. Two of the right turns didn’t exist, and she’d missed the other two, due to the lack of lighting in the area. The voice on her GPS had her so frustrated that she wanted to throw it out the window, but she held her temper at bay.

Without any lights to illuminate the narrow, winding roadways, Amanda worried she’d fall off one of the eroded shoulders. Seeing all of the coal trucks out on the road, she wondered how they were able to navigate with such ease through the crazy road network, while she was having a hard time in the mid-size sedan she’d picked up at the airport.

As she crested the top of what appeared to be the final incline, Amanda looked over at the guard rail and saw that it was the only thing between her and a three hundred foot drop straight into a huge gulley. The first thought that came to mind was that the people in the hills of Wise, Virginia lived their lives in areas and places that normal society would’ve deemed fitting only in third world countries. Homes were strewn about mountainsides, vehicles thrown haphazardly over the same, and trash littered every visible landscape.

The more she looked, the more she noticed that the entire road system was smaller than the width of two average size vehicles.  Most two lanes roads were about twenty feet in width, but they appeared to be about sixteen feet wide here.
The Department of Transportation in the area must’ve run out of money in the budget to spring for the missing four feet of roadway.

Amanda decided to grip the steering wheel a little tighter as she navigated around the mountains, and she even eased off the gas pedal a bit in order to avoid ending up at the bottom of that gulley. She thought to herself,
what a beautiful, dangerous place to live
. As she was looking over into that same drink, a huge coal truck went flying by honking his horn. She’d evidently drifted a little into the oncoming traffic lane and the driver wasn’t too happy with her.

The roads around the area looked pretty beat up, most likely due to the amount of coal trucks she’d seen on her drive in. They were all over the place and their sheer weight was wreaking havoc on the blacktop of these small towns.

Spotting numerous huge blocks of black stuff lining the ditches all up and down the mountain, Amanda strained to figure out what it was. It took a few seconds, but she eventually recognized it: she was in coal mining country.  She thought, pretty quick Amanda; coal trucks plus chunks of black stuff, equals coal. A few feet further down the mountain, she even had to dodge a few huge chunks of the stuff in the center of the roadway.

The steepness of the curves throughout actually forced drivers into the oncoming traffic lanes. She just prayed she didn’t run into one of those huge blocks of coal as her car was forced into the other lane.  She could only imagine the damage it would do to her the rental.

Near the bottom of the winding mountain, she glimpsed  more  trash,  to include old washing  machines—the old wringer style—and dryers, in front of many of the older homes.  The structures that these people called homes reminded her of some of the pictures of the huts that the children used in the commercials to beg for money lived in. It surprised her to see people living in such squalor right in her own country.

Amanda had seen barns that were constructed better than most of the homes in this area
. These small town people are lucky to even have phones from the looks of the way they live. Maybe not; the President just gave everyone in the country free cell phones.
Wondering if  she had cell service, she pulled  out her phone and noticed there weren’t any bars present.  “Great!  Now I’m out in the middle of nowhere, and I can’t even call for help. So much for free cell phones!”

Completely removing the gun from her purse, she rested it in her lap. It didn’t provide much in the way of comfort this time, but having it there eased her fear of reaching for it and having it possibly fall into the floor.

She barely saw the address in time, thanks to the dim light hanging from the light pole at the end of a gravel road.  Amanda hit her brakes and whipped the car to the left. Slowly, she pressed the pedal and crossed the rickety old wooden bridge. It was missing a few of the rough cut 2X6’s near the center, and it appeared to give ever so slightly as she exited on the other side. Spotting what amounted to a huge plume of smoke up ahead, Amanda picked up pace.

The sight of the burning home, the crashed police cruiser, and numerous bodies strewn about on the  front  lawn  caused  Amanda’s  heart  to  stop  in her chest.  She quickly threw her gear in park and jumped out.  She ran over to the nearest body, with the intentions of feeling for a pulse.  When she saw that two little children were involved, all of her energy left her.  She felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach, the wind ripped from her. The two males had a pulse, but she didn’t think the older one would last long. His breathing was labored, most likely from the gunshot wounds he’d sustained. Most of his upper body was littered with holes and seeping blood.