We didn’t have to wait long to find out what would happen if someone susceptible was over-exposed to the Humming. Although studies on living subjects were unethical, little could be done for domestic animals before the Frequency Sentinels went up.

Domestic pets from dogs, cats, even down to ferrets went feral and fled at the first chance. Tracks lead out of the city and vanished into the woods leaving one question on everyone’s mind: why go toward the Humming?

As far as the effects on humans, I learned first-hand what the Humming could do.

It was our last summer in Squirrel Creek, right before we moved to the city, when my sister ran out to the woods to look for Benjamin Bones.

Some kids playing in the field nearby said they heard the scream. It had only been one. Like a gunshot, it rang out then died before anyone could even register from what direction it had come.

We scoured the field and found her sitting quietly, veiled in the high grass. We could have been looking for days and missed her. She was only sitting there. She had no injuries that we could find. So used to her unguarded ears, we didn’t realize immediately what had happened. When it finally hit us after a moment’s calculation, our hands all flew out at once to encase and shield her ears. She was twelve then, the same age I was when I started hearing it. But at that time, the Humming was only in its infancy.

Harley didn’t look up, but only stared ahead. I felt like a ghost as I waved my hands in front of her unblinking eyes. My mother said her name over and over but it was like Harley couldn’t hear us above the Humming, or that’s what we thought at the time. Only when grandpa shook her by the shoulder did her eyes seem to take focus.

We had to drive to the city for the better hospital. Harley’s wasn’t the only case like this. They seemed to have a whole floor for them, as if whatever they caught might spread.

“How long?” The nurse asked, pulling wide one of Harley’s dull eyes to shine a light in.

We didn’t have an exact number. It had felt like hours we were out there searching for her.

The nurse sent us home with some medication, new earplugs, and a strong recommendation that Harley rest and recover for a few days.

Some people recovered their hearing, though Harley never did. Still, we were lucky it had only been her hearing, they told us. Some never came out of that dazed state in which we’d found her, and remained there in that designated wing of the hospital, both there and not there, staring blankly and deadly, ears clogged up.

All around me, my friends began to vanish. Neighbors we’d had over for countless BBQ’s and birthdays picked up in the night and left without a word.

The ever-present Humming had made my home an oppressive place. The town where I was born, where I'd carved my youth, to whom I'd given all my firsts, had since become a claustrophobic cage where in every corner loomed only loss and regret. And mine wasn’t the only small town that had suddenly lost its charm. Far and wide, families who had first moved out to the country for the peace and quiet were soon flocking back to the cities for the noise.

My family had been one of the last hold-outs, but after Harley the choice was obvious. Only once did we return to that small town, after my grandfather’s death some years later. Although it was initially stubbornness that had kept the old man from leaving his home in the country, my grandfather had softened near the end of his life. For months, my mother had begged him to come join us, citing the dangers of exposure. Each time he declined, even as the Humming grew louder. When asked how he could bear it, he said only that the Humming didn’t bother him anymore.

Although there were other theories circulating as to why the effects of the Humming seemed to diminish in the most senior of the population, scientists chalked it up to hearing loss.