DEAD IN BED By Bailey Simms: The Complete Second Book

PART 10, SECTION 18

A scream echoed through the ravine.

This was followed by a chorus of frantic shouting, none of it intelligible as the voices ricocheted off the cliff walls.

Something was wrong.

I let go of Lindsay's arm, and we both raced down the trail toward the dwellings.

A small crowd had spilled from the stone doorways, each refugee trying to keep their distance from what was approaching the central square.

It was a woman. She was filthy, and what little clothes she wore were ragged and torn. She seemed to have lost most of her hair. She was so thin that it was a wonder she was able to stand at all. One of her shoulders was exposed by a wide tear in her shirt. An emaciated scapula and a section of ribs undulated visibly as she propelled herself forward. One step after another, she jerked onward like a marionette doll.

I'd never seen a stage three with symptoms anywhere near this advanced.

Where had she come from?

That's when I realized there were two others, both men, each in a similarly horrific state of emaciation, hobbling through the dwellings' pathways and toward the central square.

Another scream cut through the chilly night air and reverberated through the ravine.

The librarian who'd tested positive that morning lit a kerosene lantern, blasting light through the complex and illuminating yet another stage three, a tall woman, who, I saw as she turned to descend a narrow flight of stone stairs, was missing most of her right hand.

A group of refugees, unsure what to do, had formed themselves into a loose human wall. They waved and shouted frantically, trying to do anything to keep the stage threes at bay.

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