It started with a distant howl.
"Owooooo!!!!"
Then a chorus of barking from every direction at once.
"Arf! Arf! Arf! Arf!"
Cats began yowling—not the lazy meows of house pets, but the feral shrieks of creatures who had lost their minds.
"Meowwww!"
Birds erupted from the nearby trees, their wings beating frantically, their cries filling the night sky.
"Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!"
From the zoo Nadia and Astrid visited came the roars of big cats, the trumpeting of elephants, the shrieking of monkeys. Crows cawed. Squirrels chittered. Even the insects seemed to buzz louder.
Every animal within a fifty-mile radius had gone absolutely berserk!
And all across Solaris City, people were thrown into confusion.
A young boy clung desperately to his dog's leash as the normally calm golden retriever barked and tried to bolt toward the warehouse district.
"Rambo! Rambo, STOP! What's gotten into you?!"
The dog didn't stop. It couldn't stop. Something was calling to it.
