THE TREES...

No one would think to give JD a second glance.

He was just about as average in appearance as average could be, perhaps even a bit beyond average, depending of course on how one measures average.

But… JD did not have an average mind.

JD had a brilliant mind. He also had an evil and sadistic mind. His mind was so twisted that even he could not fathom the vile depths of wickedness and depravity to which he could descend.

He was the product of a broken home and had been shipped from foster family to foster family until the state finally gave up and committed him to a long term juvenile detention facility.

The state never realized nor cared for the fact that JD had been physically and mentally abused in ninety percent of those foster homes.

Early on JD learned that education was the vital key to success. By the time he was seventeen he had a Bachelors Degree in science and a Masters Degree in electronics. Now, at the ripe age of twenty-three, he was just a thesis away from a Doctorate in Analytical Physics, his second Doctorate.

All his life JD had been fascinated by sound. What made sound? How was it produced? What were the limitations? How could it be used?

Through his studies he learned that sound was the result of vibrations. That sound is a form of energy, just like electricity and light. He studied heavily in the field of Psychoacoustics, the study of subjective human perception of sounds.

Due to his phenomenal learning ability, JD was hired, actually kidnapped, by the government to work on weapons made with sound.

He learned about the Vortex ring gun, a weapon that fires an acoustic air vortex that knocks people down and about sonic bullets being planned to be used in anti-hijack packs in planes. He also learned about a powerful ultrasound beam which can liquefy living tissue and a powerful low frequency sound designed to get buildings or structures to resonate and cause them to collapse.

JD also learned that sound could have extra-aural (unrelated to hearing) bioeffects on various internal organs and the central nervous system included auditory shifts, vibrotactile sensitivity change, muscle contraction, cardiovascular function change, central nervous system effects, and many other bioeffects.

One of the hush-hush experiments in which JD was involved concerned a government test called ‘Project Pandora." This secret test included externally induced auditory input from pulsed microwave audiograms of words or oral sounds which created the effect of hearing voices that are not a part of the recipients own thought processes.

One of his most promising inventions to come from this study was a method of sound modulation that could control human thought and implant his own thoughts into an unwary subject. An invention he kept hidden from the government.

JD had tested it recently on one of the research assistants that crowded the halls of government. Seems like every scientist had to have one or two, and most of them were young post graduates eager to learn and in some cases please their mentors.

Using his device without her knowledge JD implanted urgent needs in her mind. Urgent needs to have crazy sex with him. He was so successful that she practically tore his clothes from him and seduced him in wild and imaginative ways. Afterwards, she could not fathom what had come over her and continued to apologize profusely.

However, sex to JD was just that, a bodily release, an occasional physical need that had to be satiated so it would not interfere with his thinking.

His second experiment was much more detailed and demanding. He was attempting to create a sound device that would allow him to read the minds of other people. This device, coupled with his other invention, would give him power beyond imagination.

His biggest drawback was how to control the feedback. JD didn’t want to be able to suddenly hear the asinine thoughts of everyone in the entire world. And, he knew that so much input would probably drive him insane. There had to be a way to direct and control the returning data.

Today was the final test of his incredible invention. To ensure that he had complete and utter quiet and absolutely no chance of being disturbed, JD decided to drive as far into the wilderness as his limited government pass would allow him to go.

Like the other prodigal scientists, he was severely restricted in his movements by government agents, or goons, and had to get permission to go anywhere. Even then, several goons were assigned to tail him to make sure he wasn’t passing on secrets or being shadowed by foreign agents.

JD chose a spot near a meandering stream in a heavily wooded forest. There was no one in the area except plants and wildlife, with the exception of a logging crew half a mile in the distance.

First he enjoyed a meal of peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches washed down with his own purified water, then he removed his experiment from a small box he had brought with him.

There were no wires or mega head sets or ungainly electronic equipment to contend with. No power boosters or relays or battery packs were needed. His experiment consisted of one small vile of rust colored liquid.

Within that liquid was his miracle of invention. Suspended throughout the water molecules were millions of electronic nano-bots that would amplify his ability to hear and project his thoughts through sound vibration. It had taken him months to produce enough of the microscopic robots needed for this one single experiment.

Without preamble JD lifted the vile up and quickly downed the contents. He knew it would take several minutes for the nano-bots to filter into his system. It would have been faster if the goons had let him use a hypodermic he had packed so he could inject the serum into his blood stream for faster distribution, but they had taken it from him with a wagging finger. Hypodermic needles were a no go without government approval and half a dozen witnesses. He was too valuable a commodity for the government to lose.

After five minutes JD was beginning to think the serum hadn’t worked. He felt no changes, no mental or physical effects at all. In the distance he could see the two government agents sitting in their black sedan laughing and joking about some mundane subject. They were probably pissed off about having to baby sit some egghead scientist who wanted to get poison ivy on his dink in the woods.

JD focused on the man on the driver’s side. He was suddenly rewarded with a loud and painful burst of thought. "Leg hurts… Freakin’ hot… Cold beer right now…," the man’s intermittent thoughts continued to flow.

JD knew he could not actually hear the sounds, therefore they were not really loud, but they were so direct they were painful.

He pulled his focus from the man and looked at a magnificent oak tree standing alone in a small meadow. The huge tree had overpowered all other plant life in the area and dominated the clearing.

A sudden overpowering pain shot though his mind. The thought was so agonizingly powerful he almost passed out.

"What do you want!" was the mental vibrations from the great oak.

"Dare you…thing to talk with…" the thoughts continued until JD jerked his face and mind and eyes away.

The tree was angry with him for trying to communicate with it.

"My God," JD whispered. "I can’t believe that trees have mental thoughts." This discovery was shocking but also fascinating at the same time. His mind felt unclean, dirty, as if it had trespassed into forbidden territory.

A horse fly landed on JD’s arm and started to suck his blood. The bite was painful but JD could not resist focusing on the insect.

"Good! Food… more…warm…like…" the bubbling thoughts from the fly came into his mind.

JD was once again shocked!

He was also in pain from the insect bite.

Bam! He smashed the insect against his skin.

His mind exploded!

When he had smashed the life from the horse fly, he felt all the pain that the fly had felt. It was agonizing! It was ugly! It jolted him!

But it quickly subsided leaving him breathing hard and partly stunned.

"Enough experimenting," JD thought, slowly getting to his feet. As he stood he was still slightly disoriented from the incredible rush of thought from the now dead fly.

JD slowly made his way back down the trail towards his waiting car. He quickly discovered that he could not look at anything for more than a second or two because the thoughts would flood into his mind. He was having trouble controlling the incoming data.

Each tree he saw would think at him with anger, a flower would laugh at his ungainliness, a reed screamed when he bent it with his hand, and the grass… the grass he was walking on was begging him to stop crushing it. Beneath it all he could feel the screams of the occasional ant or insect he crushed with the soles of his shoes. Too much data…

Too much data…

It was driving him crazy…!

Nearing his car his eyes glanced in the direction of the loggers. They met the trees being felled by the sharp blades of the chain saws.

Sudden agony shot through him!

Pain beyond belief.

He was being torn apart by the hungry metal blades!

The pain was so intense he passed out.

Months later.

"In this room we have a tragic case," the resident physician stated, talking to a group of psychiatric interns who were at the State Mental Institute for a tour. "The man was a brilliant scientist but his mind snapped. He screams every time someone enters the room and freaks out if an insect gets into his cell. He says he hears trees talking and dying. What a waste," he ended, guiding the students on down the corridor to the next cell.

JD did not see the man. He had learned to look away when the doctors tried to talk with him.

For you see, JD had purchased room and board in...the Twylight Zone!



Word count: 1,716