UnBooks:Silent Spring
Silent Spring, Florida, used to be a nice little resort town, but no longer. People had changed, terrible experiments with DDT had wrecked havoc on sleepy Silent Spring. 'Rachel' tried to warn the townsfolk, but they didn't listen. They had their fun, and put DDT in everything: house paint, make-up, soap, ice-cream, children's ice-cream. Rachel tried to leave before the bad things could happen, but already they had begun.
At first it was the birds. The birds. Found, bloody, lying on the ground. Some still twitching in their death throes. The residents of Silent Spring didn't care. They thought it was a fluke, a disease that was killing off the birds. It was a disease, and they had surrounded themselves in it. Breathing it, consuming it, every moment of their lives they were surrounded by the disease. But no one heeded the birds. No, no one left at all. They were comfortable, life was easy. So they lost some birds. Who cares? Less beaks to feed.
Then it was their dogs and cats. Then people began to notice. People started to worry and to ask themselves why, why were their pets dying off in droves. A few, laughed at, left Silent Spring now. But most stayed behind. They had their jobs to go to, homes to pay off. They weren't going to leave because of some disease. Even if it did mean they had to take their pets and burn them outside of town with the birds.
It was during this that people began to realize that the insects were gone. No flies, no wasps, no spiders, not even ants could be found inside the town any more. Now people began to wonder out loud what it was that could be happening. Many theories were suggested, but no one thought it could be DDT.
Except 'Rachel'. Rachel knew. She had tried to stop it, tried to warn the others. She had left soon after the birds. But she had returned. She was special, 'Rachel'. She had powers, oh, unimaginable powers compared to you and me, that allowed her to have premonitions. At first she thought they were flights of fancy. But soon she realized that they were coming true. Always true. And she knew what was going to happen to Silent Spring. She tried to warn them, but she knew. That's why she'd returned. She had to know - had to know! Would it happen as in her dreams?
So far it had. First the birds, then the insects, the animals. Not just dogs and cats anymore, no, no, now they were all dying. Raccoons, squirrels, all the animals were dead by the time Rachel got back. All the animals, that is, except the humans.
It was when she returned that she met Harry. Harry. He was a simple man, a writer, just looking for his daughter, who had run away to Silent Spring. She instantly felt a bond with Harry, that he had something she lacked. Together they looked for his daughter Cheryl. At times 'Rachel' could almost feel Cheryl's presence, but alas, she sensed that the search would end up forcing them to stay in the town longer than either had wanted.
The DDT was taking new turns.
It was first reported in a woman, a woman who 'Rachel' had known well, named Dahlia. One day Dahlia began feeling odd. Out of place, she said. Like there was something under her skin. Like something wanted out. Soon other's felt it too, the one's who'd stayed. The disease was affecting all of them, no one came to the town anymore. And that's how it all began.
DDTemons. DDTemons who had once been regular people began to stalk the streets. Perhaps they weren't demons, perhaps they were undead, or part-dead, or something else entirely. They showed no sign of cognition, no response, except basic instincts. They were as animal as a grub, only writhing or moving when they were poked by a stick. Only when something directly came in contact with them would they move against it. But 'Rachel' and Harry still needed to find Cheryl.
Soon the whole town was taken over. To think - the birds had died just over a month ago. But they'd not cared about the birds. The humans were infested, infected, they weren't given the easy escape the birds had had, the quick release of death. The humans lived on. Perhaps it was punishment for their deeds. Perhaps this was how God sent his message not to medle with the world he created, not to blindly assume we had some superiority over our world and it's ways. But for anyone who visited the town of Silent Spring now- and for 'Rachel' and Harry- it would not be fanciful to regard it instead as a horror from Hell.
They had spent a week searching, Harry and 'Rachel'. Only determination carried them on, all hope was gone. 'Rachel' still felt Cheryl's presence, sometimes. But now things were getting desperate. The residents had begun to turn on them. Already Harry had to defend them against the shadows of humans that stalked the city. It kept getting worse. Eventually both of them had to arm themselves every morning and sleep in shifts at night. The residents of Silent Spring were getting restless.
They found Cheryl, eventually. They had been in the town for just over two weeks. She was in a basement. Burns over all of her body. Burns that a child doesn't recover from. But she was alive. In agony, preserved alive. Harry and 'Rachel' needed to get her to a hospital, but when 'Rachel' picked the girl up to carry her outside a funny thing happened.
The girl's eyes opened. She stared into Rachel's eyes, into her very soul. And Rachel knew. This girl was hers. It was hers, because it was herself. They shared a spirit, shared a soul, Cheryl and Rachel. That's why Cheryl had come to Silent Spring. That's why Rachel had to come back.
The door broke down. Harry threw himself between the girls and the creature. He was about to shoot, when Rachel stayed his hand. It was Dahlia. She was deformed, it had taken Rachel time to recognize her. But as Dahlia came nearer and nearer Harry tried to explain that it wasn't the woman she had once known, the woman she'd once loved, the woman who'd raised her. It was evil, it was going to hurt them. Rachel wouldn't listen. When Dahlia came close she held out her arms to Rachel. And she knew what she wanted. And then Cheryl spoke.
"Mother!"
Rachel handed the child over. Handed it over to her mother, her mother, and ran. She never saw the town of Silent Spring again. She never saw Harry or Cheryl or Dahlia again.
She was, as a matter of fact, never heard of again.
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