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had skin covered with the boils and bruises beneath the red that streaked their faces. Their faces had sunken looks, like the dead that had been lifeless in their unmoving vehicles, only these people were moving.
    They were slow – every step looked as precarious as that of a tightrope walker - walking as though they were all crippled and their dying faces looked upon him with a singular menace that made him know he was in danger. They reminded him of Bill from the train tunnel, not a sign of humanity in their faces apart from old familiar countenances.
    He turned to run and discovered that two more of these sickly people were coming at him from another street to his right. The buildings, all largely over 10 stories high in this part of town, echo and bounce around so much noise that it’s difficult to tell where anything is coming from. But the sound that comes from their voice – it sounded the same no matter which being it came from – was unearthly, and they all seemed to release it once they locked eyes on him. He scrambled to get away but every time he turned around they were all watching and reaching; pleading almost, for him to come back. He saw one of the things fall halfway through a giant hole in the ground and it then scrambled to get back up to surface level, never once taking its eyes off Jess’s form.
    He backtracked through the cars with the intention of finding another route that would take him to the valley. His legs were starting to burn, begging for rest.
    One of the bridges would get him across, he thought. If there’s some kind of infection, I hope it’s contained in the downtown core.
    He was beginning to mumble to himself – kicking rocks in the road and generally not paying attention to what was ahead of him. He had Orson show a map of the route on his wristwatch but all this seemed to accomplish was that his progress was barely perceptible. He darted between cars. There was a streetcar stopped in the middle of the street. Jess curved around its back end in long strides – running, rather than racing. There was someone at the front that he didn’t see until the last moment and Jess ran straight into her, knocking her over and landing on top of her. A thick thud could be heard as her head hit the ground. She had a brown jacket up with a hood up over her head. Curly blonde hair covered her face that was now turned to the side from the impact of their collision.
    He reached out, worried that he killed her. He tried to turn her face to him. Her neck extended and her mouth snapped open for him, as though he were food. He pulled his hand back and she bit at the air. Jess rolled off her and started running again, turning for a moment to see her slowly staggering to her feet.
    And the moan. The very same moan, again.

Chapter 6
    There was a bite to the wind. Not turning from it was like letting someone slap you continuously – on your face, your thighs and his ears in particular were starting to feel dangerously numb.
    The walk up the lip of the valley was long and tiring. There was this strange stench in the air – like garbage or shit and it seemed to get stronger with every passing moment. Jess tried smelling himself – he smelled like sweat but nothing strong enough to repulse his nose the way the air around him was. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he ate. Most of the shops along the way were either locked with steel bars or their windows were smashed – already looted of everything but broken and stomped on containers mangled about the floor. A thin layer of grime covered everything. It fell from the sky looking so much like snow and floated down like something harmless, yet it smeared like dried oil against anything warm.
    He couldn’t fathom what might have caused this. Many years ago there was a massive blackout that caused the city to halt movement for a few days but that was nothing like this. It was like the entire city had evacuated in half a day and everyone else had