Page 26 (1/2)

I WONDER, NOW, if soht--someone who, in supraconsciousness, had traveled to this place--had nalish sanitarium Bedlam

A noisome pestilence, the phrase occurred as we reached the bottom of the crater

The air was rent by every horrible sound which s Shouted curses Laughter of every deinable groans of agony Shrill utterances of pain Savage roars and las and outcries The jangled tuement

Albert leaned in close and shouted in ement Like a child terrorized by every known and unknown dread in histo his ar our way a fitfully, so virtually like snakes, some as motionless as corpses

All of theh the feeble light we carried with us, cowed round, threatening to suffocate us until, once again--for what innumerable time--we adjusted our systems to survive it

Below the vapor were the figures Clothes in filthy rags which showed great gaps of gray and purple flesh Glowing eyes in lifeless faces, staring at us

And I heard a buzzing sound

People sat on boulders, heads together as though they were conspiring People copulated on the ground and on the rocks, screa People struck at each other, choked each other, battered each other with rocks, tortured each other All with shouts and snarls and curses A , clashing, convulsive creatures filled the crater’s basin

And I heard this buzzing

Now, as sight adjusted to the sether, talking to each other in guttural voices, uess--in search of soht co continued, an interminable drone from a source I couldn’t spot

Now I saw that, interspersed throughout the area we crossed, were pools of dark and filthy-looking liquid; I hesitate to call it water A loathsome stench beyond that which I had ever been exposed to rose from these pools And I was horrified to see h unfortunates had slipped beneath the surface and were unable to rise

And the buzzing continued, growing louder and louder, a haze of constant sound above the cacophony of huhts struck violently at hts, the idea ca visions and could only assuhts were so rabid in their focus that telepathy was not required to absorb their vibrations That such thoughts were actually tangible to the senses, more a wave of physical shock than a conflux of i that wave as it seared and sickenedabout ten yards frolow Sorins on their faces, others expressions of savage hatred It was a wave of their thoughts--

Suddenly, I cried out, stunned, the sound of it unheard beneath the lunatic din

The buzzing I heard was that of flies

Millions of the clumps of flies Faces moved with the blackly in and out of hastly vision filled my mind Kit with a barbed wire cut on her face, a solid pack of flies collected on it like a lu on her blood, their bellies red and swollen with it Even when I’d wavedout in revulsion, those flies hadn’t stirred

The sickened horror I’d felt at thatinto Albert’s arht

That orse

The instant an to flash acrossvaouts of dark blood froe and excre in hideous union Men and wohastly as they were, the sights around us were preferable to the ones I’d been cohts!" Albert shouted "Don’t let them weaken you!" I looked at him in wordless dread Had he known? I tried to resist Robert, how I tried Attehts and sounds those people constantly inflicted on me; the smells and tastes and feels of this place Ann couldn’t be here, I told myself

I wouldn’t allow h there were soht of Ann, the an to floodin my life had come even remotely close Because the physical brain is incapable of dealing with hts at one time whereas the spirit mind can take on mass impressions Even a mind as lowered as mine had beco at my mind Utter hopelessness and dolor vied for the very existence of my consciousness A melancholia so vast it yawned beneath ht beca out in shock, as awhat appeared to be the re from his body His limbs were so devoid of flesh as to be skeletal The hands he stretched out toward us were like talons on a bird of prey, the fingernails like black claws His face was scarcely recognizable as such, distorted andeyes were small and red, his open s

Much of his face was decayed, gray bone showing through the rotted flesh I cried out, horror-stricken, as he clutchedan intense nausea to billow up insidewith one of his clawlike hands

Involuntarily, I looked where he was pointing and saw aa wo in h nized her

"Ann!"