She
dropped, to twitch once and lie still.
Almost with her death, another figure leaped from one of the houses, his
face bare of the necessary aspirator. He took off at a violent run, but
he was falling from lack of air before the bullet ended his struggles.
The people suddenly began to move apart, as if trying to get away from
each other. For weeks they had faced the horror with courage; now it was
finally too much for them.
Tension mounted as no news came from the cities. Doc noticed that it
seemed to aggravate or speed up the disease. He saw three men shot in
the next half-hour.
He was trying to calm them with word of a possible cure for the plague,
but their reactions were as curiously dull as those of Jake had been. As
he spoke, they faced him with set expressions. At his mention of the
need for the blood of young children, they turned from him, sullenly
silent.
Jake came over, nodding unhappily. "It's what I was afraid might happen,
Doc. George Lynn! Tell Doc what's wrong."
Lynn was reluctant, but he finally stumbled out his explanation. "It
ain't like you, Doc. Comes from that Lobby woman you got. It's her dirty
idea. We've seen the Lobby doctors cutting open our kids, poisoning
their blood, and bleeding them dry. That ain't gonna happen again, Doc.
You tell her it ain't!"
Doc swore as he realized their ignorance.
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