A bitter winter. People lost their toes and fingers on the road. The corpses of the ill and elderly began to litter the paths behind us, which kept those things at bay for a while. At the city walls we were refused refuge. They kept the gate locked. We established a camp and pleaded night and day with the steward of that place, to no avail. All the while, those things circled our camp in the night, growing hungrier as the days grew shorter.
Paddy Dobson
29th September 2023