Four Past Midnight - Stephen King [68]
Brian bent, checked the tablecloth with which Nick had bound Craig's hands, then walked across the waiting room to join the others, who were standing in a line at the floor-to-ceiling windows.
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He began to hear it before he was halfway across the waiting room, and by the time he had joined the others, it was impossible to believe it was an auditory hallucination.
That girl's hearing is really remarkable, Brian thought.
The sound was very faint - to him, at least - but it was there, and it did seem to be coming from the east. Dinah had said it sounded like Rice Krispies after you poured milk over it. To Brian it sounded more like radio static - the exceptionally rough static you got sometimes during periods of high sunspot activity. He agreed with Dinah about one thing, though; it sounded bad.
He could feel the hairs on the nape of his neck stiffening in response to that sound. He looked at the others and saw identical expressions of frightened dismay on every face. Nick was controlling himself the best ' and the young girl who had almost balked at using the slide - Bethany - looked the most deeply scared, but they all heard the same thing in the sound.
Bad.
Something bad on the way. Hurrying.
Nick turned toward him. 'What do you make of it, Brian? Any ideas?'
'No,' Brian said. 'Not even a little one. All I know is that it's the only sound in town.'
'It's not in town yet,' Don said, 'but it's going to be, I think. I only wish I knew how long it was going to take.'
They were quiet again, listening to the steady hissing crackle from the east. And Brian thought: I almost know the sound, I think. Not cereal in milk, not radio static, but ... what? If only it wasn't so faint ...
But he didn't want to know. He suddenly realized that, and very strongly. He didn't want to know at all. The sound filled him with a bone-deep loathing.
'We do have to get out of here!' Bethany said. Her voice was loud and wavery. Albert put an arm around her waist and she gripped his hand in both of hers. Gripped it with panicky tightness. 'We have to get out of here right now!'
'Yes,' Bob Jenkins said. 'She's right. That sound - I don't know what it is, but it's awful. We have to get out of here.'
They were all looking at Brian and he thought, It looks like I'm the captain again. But not for long. Because they didn't understand. Not even Jenkins understood, sharp as some of his other deductions might have been, that they weren't going anywhere.
Whatever was making that sound was on its way, and it didn't matter, because they would still be here when it arrived. There was no way out of that. He understood the reason why it was so, even if none of the others did ... and Brian Engle suddenly understood how an animal caught in a trap must feel as it hears the steady thud of the hunter's approaching boots.
CHAPTER 6
Stranded. Bethany's Matches. Two-Way Traffic
Ahead. Albert's Experiment. Nightfall.
The Dark and the Blade.
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Brian turned to look at the writer. 'You say we have to get out of here, right?'
'Yes. I think we must do that just as soon as we possibly -'
'And where do you suggest we go? Atlantic City? Miami Beach? Club Med?'
'You are suggesting, Captain Engle, that there's no place we can go. I think - I hope - that you're wrong about that. I have an idea.'
'Which is?'
'In a moment. First, answer one question for me. Can you refuel the airplane? Can you do that even if there's no power?'
'I think so, yes. Let's say that, with the help of a few able-bodied men, I could. Then what?'
'Then we take off again,' Bob said. Little beads of sweat stood out on his deeply lined face. They looked like droplets of clear oil. 'That sound - that crunchy sound - is coming from the east. The time-rip was several thousand miles west of here. If we retraced our original course ... could you do that?'
'Yes,' Brian said. He had left the auxiliary power units running, and that meant the INS computer's program was still intact. That program was