He was trying to figure out how the horrifying situation had come about.
There were several versions of how the whole thing had actually started and even less seemed to be known about how it would end. As far as anyone can tell, the first victim had the habit of coming out of her beach house and going for a brief paddle early each morning. This was something she always did before breakfast. Dressed only in jeans, cut off at the knees and her signature bright yellow top, she carried nothing and had bare feet. It was a short stroll through the palm trees and down to the beach. She took time out to do this special holiday every year at around the same time. After all, she felt that a television celebrity could do this, and she made sure she did. The island was secluded and her private shack, even more so. It was her time; her clothes, her food and drink, her choice of everything. Unfortunately, this changed radically on her third morning.
She was on her way to the beach when she heard something whistle passed her head, followed by a thud. The bullet struck the tree beside her. After several beats of shock, she looked around. The place was deserted. Naturally, with her nerves jangling, she returned to the house and reported the incident to the police. As requested, she drove into town and gave a statement. This seemed to be the start of it all.
She skipped her walk the following morning, but took off at sunrise the next day. On this occasion she heard something coming from a nearby sand dune before the muffled shot. This time she was slightly nicked on her lower arm. Painful, but not life threatening. The story goes that a second report was made and a statement given. Despite police advice to the contrary, she had several days left and continued with her well-earned break. Two days later she was discovered with a bullet entry in the centre of her forehead. The story goes on to say that as intriguing as the crime was, it would have stayed that way if it weren’t for the local small town journalist, now long dead himself, who wrote a piece for the paper that suggested that it was the neon yellow top that the woman wore that the killer had objected to. He went on to say that the first and second shots were intended to be warnings, and when these failed he finished her off.
It must have been the strange logic behind his theory that had people talking about it. Before long other major newspapers took up the story and were running lengthy articles about the case. It must have been at this point that the whole thing went worldwide. That’s when the killings started.
At first, newspaper reports were indicating that people who were wearing yellow, mainly those on holiday, were being shot. This started with just a trickle of reports, but it grew in numbers as the days went by. Gradually, the nature of these copycat killings moved away from holiday locations to include towns and cities, wherever people were wearing the colour. Worldwide sales of yellow clothing plummeted to a point where very few could be seen appearing in public wearing anything at all that was yellow. Around the world police authorities were overwhelmed with their caseloads. Only a small proportion of perpetrators were being brought to justice, while at the same time firearms sellers, dealers and manufacturers were kept busy.
It seems that around this time, those unhappy souls in the community that had been contemplating suicide saw the opportunity to be assisted in their quest without having to figure out a way of doing it themselves. Their simple aim was to provoke. This ugly phenomena had authorities even more conflicted regarding the nature of the crimes. In some cases the incidents were a matter of someone absentmindedly walking out with something yellow, even a tie, but the far greater number were cases of what was being called ‘unintended third-party-assisted suicides’.
In either case, whether the victim was just plain careless or playing the role of provocateur, in all those high-incident spots around the world, sound systems were being installed that could be used to sound a siren whenever there was a report of someone wearing yellow. These speaker systems blasted out a warning, and by international agreement, the tone of the siren was the same around the world. It became known, unsurprisingly, as the ‘yellow alert’.
However, a growing number of citizens around the world felt that the authorities weren’t doing enough. They all wanted their nation’s governments to come up with a way to put an end to the carnage. Through the internet’s messaging services, a common mantra was being developed where their aim was to end the madness and allow people to go safely in the streets again. To this end, a number of protest marches where held. Unfortunately, these events only increased the number of shootings with protesters being picked off, in some cases for displaying as little as a patterned cap with a hint of yellow on it.
Despite this loss of members, a greater resolve was being quietly generated to hold the largest international protest to be held in the capital cities of every country in the world, simultaneously. Planning for this event took several days, during which time, owing to the growing number of people being huddled over their phones and computers in order to keep up with the latest news about it, the number of killings dropped off. When the day came, huge crowds marched, triggering off yellow alerts around the planet.
In some strange way, the synchronised cacophony of these alert sirens set up global resonance that caused the whole planet to vibrate!
He had no way of knowing just how long it took for the accumulated sound of the sirens to morph its way to the sound of his alarm clock before his eyes snapped open.
Regardless, he was instantly aware that a jug of custard being left in the fridge too long, together with watching a lot of crime shows, can easily cause this sort of thing.
