Kill Tone

by Lance Winkless

  A light appears from behind Fiona as Lady Kai’s dressing room door opens and she waits for her to appear. A shadow crosses the light and then Lady Kai stands beside her, waiting for her moment to start the show.

  As suddenly as it started, the loud buzz cuts off and the crowd cheers and screams rise up to replace it. This is it, Fiona thinks, it’s showtime.

  Chapter 12

  “Oh wow, is this your office?” Veronica salivates as she leaves the cramped staircase and walks onto a boarded platform with stations and panels covered with lights and computer screens.

  “It is for the next few days, and this is my desk,” Bobby replies and sits down in a chair with buttons, knobs and lights, too many to count, in front of him.

  “Wow,” Veronica says again. “What do all of those controls do?”

  “This is where I control the sound of the concert and believe it or not, all of these controls have a very specific purpose.”

  “How do you know which one does what?” Veronica asks amazed.

  “Years of practice and experience,” Bobby replies.

  “And some guesswork!” somebody says from across the platform.

  “Very funny, Rory. Some of us do know what we are doing,” Bobby retorts.

  “Take it easy, mate, I’m only pulling your leg,” Rory laughs.

  “Rory is in charge of the main stage lighting, so try not to disturb his concentration, as he doesn’t have much of it anyway,” Bobby jokes.

  “Oh, wounded,” Rory laughs again. “Who are these lovely ladies you’ve snuck in then, Bobby?”

  “This is Veronica,” Bobby says. “And this is her friend Rose, they are massive Lady Kai fans.”

  “Not guilty,” Rose announces. “Veronica is the fan, I’m just tagging along.”

  “Rose!” Veronica protests in disappointment.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean it, Veronica. I love her too really,” Rose says.

  “Now you’re just teasing me,” Veronica says, feigning upset.

  “Now, now, ladies. I’m sure we are all going to enjoy the show and you will be in the best place to watch,” Bobby says as he gets up. “Come and see,” Bobby leads Veronica and Rose over to the front of the sound tower.

  “Oh my God!” Veronica says excitedly when she sees the view out over the crowd and to the main stage beyond. “What do you think now?” she asks Rose.

  “Wow, I am impressed,” Rose admits.

  “It’s the best view in the house, that’s why the TV cameras are on the level above,” Bobby tells them.

  “I didn’t realise it was going to be on TV; we can relive the show one of the nights, Rose.”

  “That’s something to look forward to,” Rose replies, playing it cool even though she is already looking forward to it.

  “The festival is beamed around the world,” Bobby informs them.

  “This is going to be amazing, Bobby. Thank you so much,” Veronica says.

  “No problem, I hope you enjoy, ladies. You need to stand over to this side please, so that you don’t interfere with the show, okay?”

  Veronica and Rose move to the position requested, chattering away to each other, their eyes wide as they look over the packed crowd below them.

  “Can I get you two a drink? I’m afraid I can only offer a soft drink or a beer?” Bobby asks.

  “A beer would be great, thanks,” Veronica answers and Rose nods in agreement. Bobby goes to a cool box at the back of the platform and gets two beers out.

  “Right, I’d better get to work,” Bobby says as he hands over the beers. “Enjoy the show and let me know if you need anything.” The two ladies thank him and watch as he goes and sits behind his sound desk.

  “You can’t tell me that you’re not excited now,” Veronica says to Rose.

  “I am. This will be amazing, even if it is Lady Kai.” Rose can’t help but tease her friend again.

  “Oh, stop it,” Veronica smiles. “There are so many people down there, I didn’t believe it could get so busy.”

  “I know, they are rammed in like sardines. I’m glad we are up here.” Rose agrees as she looks down over the crowd.

  “Look, that girl is waving up to us,” Veronica says as she waves back at the girl, who is right in the middle of the crowd, looking up at them in the sound tower. “This is great,” she says.

  “Here we go!” Bobby announces from behind them.

  The second after Bobby speaks, the lights shining onto the crowd and the lights on the main stage extinguish. A loud low buzz erupts, almost out of nowhere. The vibrations being spewed out from the speakers rattle the sound tower and penetrate into the stomachs of Veronica and Rose, vibrating their clothes. Veronica’s excitement spills over and she grabs hold of Rose, pulling her in tight to her and squealing. Veronica can’t believe that any second now, Lady Kai, her idol, will be on stage and performing right in front of her. Rose’s excitement peaks too and she puts her arm around her friend, letting her hand rest on Veronica’s rear, that she can’t help but squeeze.

  In the darkness, a bright red flash of light sparks in the midst of the crowd as one of the fans down there ignites a flare. The red glow illuminates a portion of the crowd around it and smoke billows from the fiery light. The flare, adding to Veronica’s excitement, causes her to squeal again, pulling on Rose. She points to the flare, held aloft by a woman who is sitting on someone shoulders as if Rose hadn’t already seen it.

  The low rumbling buzz continues and Veronica’s attention switches back from the flare and to the stage, in anticipation of Lady Kai appearing.

  “Oh, my God, what the hell!” Rose shouts and now it is her turn to point.

  Veronica looks to see what has disturbed her friend and her attention is sent back to the woman with the flare by Rose’s pointing finger.

  Somebody has obviously taken exception to the woman lighting the flare. The woman is being hit and pulled at by someone below her in the crowd. Other people start to join in the fracas and then the woman begins to topple off the shoulders holding her up. Falling backwards into the packed crowd around her, the woman disappears, taking the flare with her.

  Vicious fighting breaks out around where the woman fell, the flare still burning beneath them. The red glow turns the people fighting into shadowy wretches, the hellish scene sending shivers down both Veronica’s and Rose’s spines.

  “Stop it!” Veronica screams uselessly. Her scream is lost in the loud buzz that persists from the speaker system. She turns for a moment to look at Bobby, but his head is down at his controls, oblivious.

  Fighting spreads from the epicentre, like a ripple on a lake. The wave pulls more and more people into the fight until it is lost in the periphery of the darkness. Why are so many others getting involved? Veronica questions herself. Why aren’t any of them trying to stop it or break it up as people normally would?

  Abruptly, the incessant buzz cuts off and the stage lights come on, blazing, ready for the show to start. The blinding light illuminates the whole crowd in front of the stage, all the way back to the sound tower. For a moment, Veronica thinks the light will bring the people fighting to their senses, but the screams that rise up from below tell a different story. The fresh light only increases Veronica’s shock; the fighting has spread into a large section of the sea of fans below. Thankfully, some of the people around the edges of the mass brawl are starting to back away. But then Veronica sees that other sections of the crowd, including near to the front of the stage, are fighting too.

  “Bobby!” Veronica shouts. “They are rioting down there! Do something to stop it!”

  Bobby looks up from his controls and at a TV screen just to the side of him. “What the fuck?” he says urgently.

  “Kill the sound, Bobby,” Rory shouts, “this is serious!”

  Bobby was just about to fade the main volume in for the band, following the buzz effect he had just cut off. “It’s off,” Bobby says urgently, as he gets up from his chair to go and see for himself what is happen
ing down below.

  Just as Bobby arrives at the viewing platform at the front of the sound stage, Rory flicks the switch for all of the emergency lights in the Arena to come on. Rory leaves the main stage lights on too in the hopes that more light might calm people down, or at least help them get out of the way of the fighting and to safety.

  “Holy shit!” Bobby exclaims when he sees the mayhem for himself.

  “What’s going on, Bobby?” Veronica asks.

  “I have no idea, I’ve never seen anything like it at a concert, not on this scale, not even with the heavy metalheads.”

  “It started with a woman lighting a flare that seemed to piss some people off,” Rose points out.

  “There’s nothing unusual about a flare at a big concert like this,” Bobby reasons.

  “Security isn’t answering!” Rory exclaims as he arrives to look. “Fuck me, it’s out of control!”

  “Never mind security, phone the goddamn police!” Rose shouts at him, and Rory immediately uses his phone.

  Two other people also working on the platform stare down at the scene below, along with the others. The crowd is bathed in bright white light, which doesn’t seem to have had any effect whatsoever in calming them. In fact, the fighting is spreading and the violence is getting worse. Deathly screams rise, hitting the ears of the people in the sound tower, filling them with fear. None of them has any idea what to do, and their feelings of hopelessness worsen with each new scream.

  Veronica is close to tears and doesn’t know where to look. People are getting hurt down there, really hurt, but she can’t drag her eyes away from the deteriorating sight. Girls dressed up for the festival with flowers in their hair as she is, are caught up in the violence. Some escape, fleeing for their lives, moving as fast as they can past the sound tower where the crowds aren’t so heavy. Others try to defend themselves. They fail, however, and disappear onto the ground, lost in the crowds, some dragged down by their hair, screaming as they fall.

  In every direction, the anarchy spreads and it is getting closer to the sound tower, closer to Veronica. Her vision begins to focus as the violence approaches, her terror rising as she begins to see the graphic detail.

  Veronica’s attention is fixed, as if she is looking through a keyhole onto a small group of young women directly in front of the sound tower, huddled together like an island with chaos all around them. Their heads turn, looking for a way to escape the tide of violence that is slowly closing in. There is no safe harbour, however; all they can do is pack together tighter, into the centre. Fear is etched over their faces. The women are close enough for Veronica to see their terror.

  An ominous-looking woman with long dark hair and ripped jeans moves towards them from the approaching crowd. Her head is down and she takes a tentative swipe at the women with a weirdly straight arm. The woman in the group closest bats her arm away easily, screaming as she does. Veronica wills the horrible woman to give up and turn away, but she doesn’t. She steps forward, both of her arms coming up and she doesn’t stop. She walks straight into the woman, who pushes her back and then throws a fist. The punch lands into the side of her attacker’s face, whipping her head to the side. For a moment, Veronica thinks that the woman is hurt and will give up.

  From beneath her long dark hair, a twisted face appears, evil eyes fixed on the woman who punched her. She lurches without warning straight at the group of women whose defence is useless. She pushes straight into the group, splitting them and taking the woman who punched her along with her. The women scatter hopelessly into the crowd around them, having no choice but to try and fight. In the centre, the long-haired woman is on top of the other where they have fallen to the ground. Pinning the other woman down, long hair flies through the air as her head shoots down into the neck area of the woman on the ground.

  Veronica is paralysed in fear, blood spraying out from under the dark hair, splattering across the terror-filled face of the woman below. Her screams die in seconds as her flailing legs stop moving. The feeding head buried into her neck keeps jerking though, and it continues as Veronica’s sight is cut off by the crowd that closes in to envelop them.

  All at once, life returns to Veronica’s paralysed limbs and she staggers backwards, away from the railings. She manages to grab Rose’s arm as she goes, pulling her away with her. Rose, who is in shock too, doesn’t resist Veronica’s pull, and life returns to her shocked body.

  “You saw that?” Veronica manages to say to her friend.

  Rose doesn’t answer; she is in shock, her eyes wide open and her pupils darting around as she relives the horror. Veronica resists falling into the same dark pit, trying to concentrate on helping Rose.

  “Rose,” she says, placing her hands on Rose’s shoulders, but still she doesn’t answer. “Rose, snap out of it.” Veronica shakes Rose’s shoulders.

  “She was eating her neck,” Rose says, almost to herself.

  Veronica wants to tell her it’s over, but how can she when screams are continually rising from below?

  “Are you two okay?” Bobby asks, as he too turns away from the horror.

  “I think Rose is in shock. What the fucking hell is happening?” Veronica asks.

  “I honestly don’t know, it’s as if the crowd is possessed. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault. If you hadn’t invited us up here, we’d be out there with those poor souls. What are we going to do?”

  “I’m not going down there! It’s not right. That woman was eating the other. I mean, what the actual fuck, are they zombies?” Rose asks fearfully.

  “Whatever is going on, we hold tight here until it calms down and the police arrive,” Rory interjects.

  “What did the police say?” Veronica asks.

  “They’re on their way, they had already been alerted to the trouble by people watching on TV,” Rory tells her.

  There is a banging on the stairs and everyone turns towards the entrance to their level with trepidation. A middle-aged man who looks scared to death appears through the entry.

  “Does anyone know what is going on?” he asks breathlessly.

  “Who are you?” Rose demands.

  “I’m with the TV crew upstairs. What’s going on?”

  “We don’t know.” Bobby says, “the police are on their way.”

  “Yea, well, I hope there’s a lot of them.”

  “Bobby, is the door downstairs locked?” Veronica asks suddenly.

  “There isn’t a lock on it…shit!”

  “There is no way to secure it!” Rory says as he looks back at the stairs. “The walls are only waterproof fabric anyway.”

  “So they could be in here at any moment!” Rose says hysterically.

  Suddenly, a loud voice comes over the speaker system, “Please, everybody, calm down. The police are on their way.”

  “Where is that coming from?” Rory asks as Bobby looks over the railing again.

  “It must be coming from security, but wherever it’s coming from, it isn’t working. It’s mayhem down there.”

  None of the others cares to look and Bobby doesn’t linger; he soon turns his back on it.

  “How long will the police take to get here?” Veronica asks.

  “It shouldn’t be too long, we aren’t that far outside the city,” Bobby replies.

  “What are the police going to do?” Rory retorts. “A few police aren’t going to stop the chaos down there. It would take hundreds of them in riot gear, and that isn’t going to happen quickly.”

  They all look at Rory, not wanting to believe him, but knowing he is right. Suddenly, there is a loud crash against the sound tower, followed by close, fresh chilling screams. Everybody freezes for a moment, looking at each other nervously, waiting to see what happens next. Bobby is the first to break and turn to look back over the railing to see what has caused the crash.

  “The crowd has pushed the security barrier over and it’s hit the tower,” he says urgently. “There are people getting crushed down the
re!”

  Screams pierce through Bobby’s eardrums and rip into his brain. The crowd surges back again and more people fall through onto the toppled barrier, piling in to crush the people below who have already fallen. A man farther back faces the retreating crowd and screams at them, an inhuman scream that fills Bobby’s stomach with dread. Bobby looks closer at the man, trying to work out why he is screaming. He sees a face of evil, possessed with hatred, and then that hatred is looking up, looking at Bobby. Bobby freezes, staring back at the evil eyes piercing through him, fear paralysing him. The man’s eyes divert quickly to the people in front of him and then he bursts forward, running at the crowd and towards the tower. He swerves through the crowd and into the gap in the barrier, his feet pounding over the fallen people, until it jumps and flies up and onto the side of the sound tower. It grabs hold of a steel cross member and then starts to climb up the scaffolding that forms the corner support of the tower. Bobby jumps back from the railing in fright, thinking he is in a nightmare.

  “We’ve got to get out of here!” he tells the others.

  “To where, I’m not going out there!” Rose insists again.

  “A man has just jumped onto the side of the tower and is climbing up!” Bobby tells them.

  “You what?” Rory says and goes to look for himself.

  He sees the man climbing and the man sees him looking, its evil eyes now piercing into Rory. Rory doesn’t freeze, however; he goes into action, coolly picking up a fire extinguisher from the corner, pulling up the extinguisher’s hose, pulling out the pin and pointing it right over the railing, in the direction of the climbing man.

  Foam erupts from the hose, spraying through the air and Rory’s aim is good. The foam hits the climbing man in the face and it splatters everywhere, covering him in a thick froth. The man’s left hand comes up to his face and his right hand slips off the foam-covered steel. Rory watches the man fall back down the few meters to the ground. Thankfully, he doesn’t hit anyone but hits the hard, sun baked ground at the side of the tower on his back with a sickening thump.