There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination… it is an area which we call…
The Twilight Zone
Shift change was probably the busiest time for the Acresdale Police Department, which sat in the middle of a small city a few dozen miles east of Little Rock, Arkansas. It was one of the few times where a large amount of people came and went; the mixture of uniforms and street clothes briefly making the place look like one of those big city precincts that were seen in the movies. But then the commotion would be over, and Tommy Waters, Lieutenant of third shift, would be left faced with another boring night.
Nothing big ever happened in Acresdale; kids out causing trouble, drunk husbands yelling at their wives, that was usually the worst of it, not that Tommy was complaining. Of course, now that the sun was down, and the whole city pretty much shut down for the night, with the exception of the diner and a couple other places that stayed open for the night workers, the lack of excitement was going to make the next eight hours stretch out even longer.
"Evening, Davids." He said, signing in with the desk Sergeant. "Same old from second shift, tonight?"
"Nope, not this time, Lieutenant." Davids replied while almost laughing. "We had an explosion down at the east substation; power's out to half the city."
Well, that certainly was different… and it was sure to provide the power company with plenty of work and excitement to make their shift go faster. This left the Lieutenant resigned for more boredom… that is, until the desk Sergeant added the tiny detail about having the guy responsible down in the holding cells. For a moment he thought that Davids was playing a joke on him, but not after being passed the file containing the arrest report of a man named Richard Farthingale.
"Davids, is this for real?" Tommy asked, reading through the report that was a lot bigger than usual. "This guy really did all this, tonight?"
The desk Sergeant nodded, and then after taking a second look through the file, the Lieutenant knew that he would be conducting this interview personally. So he and Davids left the desk, calling for another officer to watch the desk while they went down the hall, and into the holding cells where a disheveled man, whose suit might have once been really nice, was sitting on the bench, looking around nervously.
"Good evening, Mr. Farthingale." The Lieutenant said, almost chuckling. "Looks like you've had a busy…
"Shush!" The prisoner whispered harshly, interrupting Tommy. "You've got to be quiet! Please, for the love of God, don't make any more noise than you absolutely have to!"
The year is 1960, the place is a small police precinct in the middle of a small city where nothing ever happens. But sitting in the holding cells, a place usually reserved for drunkards and the occasional teenage shoplifter, is one Richard Farthingale. However, this man is no ordinary criminal… and as the people of Acresdale are about to learn… his capture has locked them into a nightmare.
Quiet Please!
Written by Tobias Liquid
"I tell you, you must be quiet!" Richard continued whispering harshly. "Our very lives are at stake!"
The man was sweating profusely, causing stains on his shirt while he continued to look around as if expecting to find something horrible. Nothing was going to come after him inside of a police station, but there was no need to further agitate the man, when he was clearly disturbed, so Tommy agreed that he and Davids would try to keep the noise down. This seemed to settle the prisoner a bit, and now it was time to get to business.
"Okay, Mr. Farthingale." The Lieutenant began, keeping his voice low. "It says in this report that you set off an explosion at one of the city's power substations… and that you confessed to using that explosion to destroy about a dozen radios that you stole when you broke into an electronics store earlier this evening."
"Yes, it's all true." Richard quickly replied. "But I had to do it… I had no choice… and it's Dr. Farthingale… I'm a professor of electrical engineering at Michigan State University."
Well, that was unexpected… and if it was true, then this prisoner was indeed a long way from home. But how does a college professor go from grading tests in Michigan, to breaking into stores and blowing up substations in Arkansas? The man looked like he hadn't slept in days, nor had he gotten a change of clothes in just as long, but most of all the prisoner looked genuinely frightened of something.
"No choice, huh?" Davids asked with a scoff. "So you're telling us that you were forced to break into that store and steal all those radios, and then you were forced to blow them up with the substation?"
Visibly angered at what the prisoner was saying, the desk Sergeant was starting to get a little louder as he listed off the damage that Professor Farthingale had done to the city, as well as what they were going to charge him with. Breaking and Entering, Burglary, Disturbing the Peace, Willful Destruction of City Property, Willful Destruction of Private Property, Arson, Unlawful Use of Explosives; the list went on and on, but instead of worrying about going to prison, the prisoner seemed only concerned at Davids' rising volume.
"Please, please, be quiet, I beg you!" Richard begged in a panicked voice, now shaking and sweating even more as he looked around. "I know you don't understand, but I had to do those things, I had to! It follows the noise, and electricity is the only thing that slows it down!"
Before the Lieutenant could stop him and ask the prisoner what he was talking about, Richard began to tell them a story… an incredible story… about a student's project to create a device that filters out unwanted sounds in a room, leaving the user free to listen to their music or watch television without having to hear what the neighbors were doing. The student had shown him the plans, which they had worked on to improve together, and then had come the time to construct the prototype.
"We followed all laboratory procedures." Richard explained, wiping his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Every test came back positive, no defective circuits… but when we turned the thing on, it didn't just filter out the unwanted noise… it destroyed the source… every source… of all noise."
This was getting hard to swallow now, the Lieutenant thought as Richard continued, explaining how the student had been killed when he sneezed right after the device had destroyed their test radio, and the only reason that the prisoner himself hadn't met the same fate, was because of the device colliding with the fuse box. The unchecked electrical current visibly affected the device while slowing it down… but the effect was only temporary.
"I escaped by going out the window." Richard continued. "Once the program was complete, the device was supposed to shut down, but I'm afraid that… the device has registered me as an unwanted noise… along with any that it encounters while hunting me."
"This is a load of bunk, Lieutenant." Davids said, no longer keeping his voice down. "You want us to believe that this kid's science project's been chasing you all the way from Michigan to here, and you blacked-out half the city in some kind of attempt to destroy it? Just how stupid do you think we are?"
Again the prisoner insisted that the desk Sergeant keep his voice down, but in response Davids just shook his head and walked away, declaring quite loudly that he was done listening to such nonsense. He continued loudly declaring that there was no such thing as a device that destroyed sound, and making sure to slam the door on his way out. This behavior was a little out of line, but still the desk Sergeant had a point… the prisoner had committed several crimes, but the man was also clearly disturbed, as he had earlier thought.
"Don't worry, professor, you aren't going to prison." The Lieutenant reassured the ever-more nervous looking man. "First thing in the morning, I'm going to arrange a stay for you at the State Hospital… they can help you there."
"No, wait, please!" Richard argued, reaching through the bars and grabbing Tommy's arm when he started to leave. "You have to let me go, I've been here too long already! Don't you see, it's still after me, and as long as I'm here this whole station is at risk?!"
Tommy was just about to reassure him that he was safe in the police station, when his words were stopped by what sounded like the front door being thrown open, followed by some surprised voices. One of those voices became a startled scream that was cut off a second later, and then there was a single gunshot, followed by Davids' voice becoming a startled scream that was cut off… and then silence. No, not silence, there was a kind of mechanical humming sound, along with a squeak, like… something moving on treads?
The prisoner pulled on Tommy's arm when he tried to leave to investigate, shaking his head and putting a finger to his lips, but the Lieutenant pulled away, saying in a no longer hushed voice that he needed to go see what was happening out front. However, he was only about halfway down the hall, when the door was knocked open, and a… strange kind of machine rolled into the holding cells.
It was on treads, like it sounded, and the body of the device looked like a kind of triple size vacuum cleaner, but there were hoses and extensions sticking out of it, and several small radar dishes on the top and sides that seemed to be searching for something. Richard clamped his own hand over his mouth, shaking his head, and motioning for Tommy to get back, but instead the Lieutenant took the revolver out from under his jacket… getting off two shots before the machine was on him, causing Richard to look away as the scream was cut off.
Now the police department was silent, causing the device to stop moving, with only its radar dishes tracking the sound that it had come to find. The prisoner, meanwhile, remained still inside the jail cell, keeping his hand clamped tightly over his mouth, and barely daring to breathe while the infernal machine remained there searching for him… and searching… and searching… and searching…
The year is 1960, the place is a small police precinct in the middle of a small city where nothing ever happens. But tonight… something did happen… something that stemmed from untested science, and once again leaves Richard Farthingale the only survivor of a nightmare. This time, though, there is nowhere to run… trapped in a cage, and safe as long as silence can be maintained, one wonders how long he can last… in The Twilight Zone.