"The eerie part of this town is that, rather than looking pale blue during the early morning hours, the sky was more of a dingy green. A soft droning sound coming from deep within the mill was ever present, carried on the wind like a far off train's whistle."
Poor Vikram has to go through the shifty part of town to get to school.
Feels like the town I live in, in Omsk, Siberia, during winter there is only 6 hours of daylight and this droning sound is what I always hear when I wake up when it's still dark...