CHAPTER 24
The incessant rain had cast a pall of gloom over the already beleaguered village of Olney St. Mary. Most of the inhabitants took the decision to stay in their homes. The daily business of the village became suspended in time as fear gripped the hearts and minds of the people. Legions of dark, brooding clouds marched across the sky and the smoke from the chimneys of the houses and cottages rose through the falling droplets to meet them. Gradually a thick smog formed that enveloped the entire community. To the outside world, it was as if Olney St. Mary had been spirited away into a nether world, a place where sounds were muffled by the smog, and where the rain-sodden streets lay empty and deserted, a ghost village, inhabited by the dead and the dying.
Even those who had found it
