"Thomas E. Sniegoski - The Fallen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sniegoski Thomas E)

prologue
LEBANON,TENNESSEE, 1995

TheTennessee night was screaming.

Eric Powell ran clumsily through the tall grass behind his grandparentsтАЩ house. He stumbled down the
sloping embankment toward the thick patch of swampy woods beyond, hands pressed firmly against his
ears.

тАЬIтАЩm not listening,тАЭ he said through gritted teeth, on the verge of tears. тАЬStop it. Please!Shut up. тАЭ

The sounds were deafening, and he wanted nothing more than to escape them.But where? The voices
were coming from all around.

Eric ran deeper and deeper into the woods. He ran until his lungs felt as if they were on fire, and the
beating of his heart was almost loud enough to drown out the sinister warnings from the surrounding
darkness.

Almost.

Beneath a weeping willow that had once been a favorite place to escape the stress of teenage life, he
stopped to catch his breath. Warily he moved his hands away from his ears and was bombarded with the
cacophonous message of the night.

тАЬDanger,тАЭwarned a tiny, high-pitched squeak from the shadows by the small creek that snaked through
the dark wood.тАЬDanger. Danger. Danger.тАЭ

тАЬThey come,тАЭcroaked another.тАЬThey come.тАЭ

тАЬHide yourself,тАЭsomething squawked from within the drooping branches of the willow before taking flight
in fear.тАЬBefore it is too late,тАЭ it said as it flew away.

There were others out there in the night, thousands of others all speaking in tongues and cautioning him
of the same thing. Something was coming, something bad.

Eric fell back against the tree trying to focus, and his mind flashed back to when he first began to hear
the warnings. It had been June 25, of that he was certain. The memory was vividly fresh, for it had been
only two months ago and it was not easy to forget oneтАЩs eighteenth birthdayтАФor the day you begin to
lose your mind.

Before that, he heard the world just like any other. The croaking of frogs down by the pond, the angry
buzz of a trapped yellow jacket as it threw itself against the screens on the side porch. Common
everyday sounds of nature, taken for granted, frequently ignored.

But on his birthday that had changed.

Eric no longer heard them as the sounds of birds chirping or a tomcatтАЩs mournful wail in the night. He
heard them as voices, voices that exalted in the glory of a beautiful summerтАЩs day, voices that spoke of
joy as well as sadness, hunger, and fear. At first he tried to block them out, to hear them for what they
actually wereтАФjust the sounds of animals. But when they began to speak directly to him, Eric came to