Level 7

OCTOBER 9

This death is quick. We must be getting powerful doses of those rays or particles—whatever is killing us.

People are dying all round like flies. Yesterday some attempt was still being made to remove the corpses, but today nobody seems to be bothering, and the bodies lie where they fall. Perhaps there is no one from the medical department left to take them away, or nobody strong enough. Most people do not come out of their rooms even for meals. I only went out for lunch today, and the sight of half a dozen corpses in the dining-room very nearly stopped me eating. Quite two thirds of the meals on the moving band were left untouched.

Although I do not feel as bad as the others, I know it cannot last. Death is in me.

X-107m has just come into the room. He looks very pale, and has flopped down on his bed.

He has just told me that P died about half an hour ago. He was with her at the end, and he says she mentioned me. He is not sure whether she was conscious or delirious.

“She was a fine woman,” he says.