THE TRIALS OF AN ANGEL Part 12: Noises in the Woods

Everybody turned out to see them off on their venture into the woodlands and beyond to scare away animals. Jess and Alan carried the guns. The young volunteers held devices Terry constructed out of the voice boxes of defunct Androids. The things could make really strange sounds varying from deep bass to high pitched screams. They could also reproduce the sound of gunfire.

Over the past year Terry spent a lot of time in the workshops at Tech Central. After getting all the dead ‘droids and bots gathered up and stored in the old TC maintenance room he and Jack pulled them to pieces and collected all the parts that looked useful. The vast warehousing also revealed unused units amongst a mountain of spares which included hundreds of chargeable batteries of all sizes. This bounty provided the batteries and casing for Jack’s noise maker idea. The first twenty were quickly put to use.

We watched Jess and Alan’s band until they disappeared in the undergrowth. Although out of sight we heard their cacophony growing fainter as they panned out through the bush. Their progress marked by clouds of panicking birds rising up above the trees – fluttering silhouettes against a bright sky.

They returned hours later tired and muddy full of anecdotes about chasing away terrified deer and pigs. There was a lot of praise for the noise makers except some said the higher frequencies gave them headaches or made their ears ring. Alan and Jess had already experienced ear problems during the shoots and stuffed cloth in them. They were sorry they hadn’t mentioned it to the volunteers and promised to make ear plugs for everybody next time they went out.

Almost no animals turned up for two days. On the third a few hungry deer and goats returned. Another outing was quickly planned, this time sweeping in a different direction. Jess and Alan led the group taking care to provide ear protection. A bunch of lads who went previously caused a laugh when they turned up wearing caps with puffy flaps sewn on to cover their ears. One of their girls who was a dab hand at needlework made them. By the third outing everybody had one.

The animals stayed away for a week except for a few coming at night.  Alan and Jess disagreed about when to do another sweep. Alan wanted to wait and Jess wanted to go every two or three days. If we go too often the animals would get used to it and come back Alan felt. Jess thought the opposite. During one of our update meetings I suggested a compromise. Stagger the outings. Go out at irregular intervals sometimes one or two days apart then have a break. After a week or so blitz for a couple of days and so on. . . . Keep ‘em guessing.

While building fences a couple of days later Jess sprained an ankle and couldn’t make the next sweep. Two guys who Jess trained to shoot offered to take his place. Although he only needed one Alan accepted their offer, no doubt to avoid disappointment and any reluctance to help in future.

The sweep Alan organised was bigger than the others. Since there was an extra gun he took extra volunteers and split them into three groups, one for each gun. Together with Jess they made a plan to cover more area and go further out from the estate.

Now a regular occurrence, few people turned out to see them off. The volunteers gathered around Alan and Jess accompanied by girlfriends or partners holding lunch packs for their loved ones. After the plan was explained they set off taking the familiar orchestra of sound with them. The girls dispersed leaving Jess to hobble home supported by Rachael whom I’d tasked to help him.

They returned well into the day much longer than ever before. They were heard coming before anyone saw them. Sounds of shouting and loud growling from the noise makers preceded them. Worried a little by the delay in their return I hung around the farm. Emerging from the trees they followed a track between the fields. Alan at the head came straight to me, his face red with effort and fury.

‘Have you seen Nick of Melbourne or anybody? We’ve lost three. Are they here?’

When I shook my head he shouted a curse.

‘Fucking Eric here shot a deer. Not content with that the idiot didn’t kill it outright and he chased it until it fell. In the confusion we lost Nick and two others. We wasted hours looking for them thanks to this imbecile.’

Alan pushed the sheepish looking young lad standing beside him in the back.

‘Gimme that gun. If I have my way you’ll never get one again. Now f—. Get out of my sight.’

As the rest of the group passed us every one of them asked me about Nick Danny and Roy. A lad I knew as Steve stopped in front of Alan and handed over his gun.

‘Sorry, Alan.’ He mumbled.’

‘ ‘S okay Steve, not your fault.’

‘’If y’want someone to help looking for ‘em let me know.’

‘Thanks mate, but you’d better get cleaned up and have a rest first.’

Alan turned to me, ‘Good lad that one.’

‘Where did you learn language like that?’

‘Old movies, Ma. Part of my education. Remember?

‘Yeah, but. . . . What happened to the deer?’

‘Left it there, Ma. More important to look for the missing boys. Roy’s only fourteen.’

‘Didn’t we agree not to aim at animals? Pity though. The meat might’ve been handy. Save us from using our stock.’

Alan having calmed down collected up the guns to return to the hunting lodge.

‘Better get these cleaned and oiled, then we’ll go out to look for the lads again.’

Alan, three of his brothers and a dozen of the oldest guys searched with lanterns and noise machines well into the night. They gave up around one o’clock. As soon as it was light they went out again.