Just before he climbed back inside, he glanced up and saw the buzzards. There must have been a hundred of them, sweeping in lazy spirals like grotesque black gliders.
"Turkey buzzards!"
Captain Bascom asked, "What did you say?"
"I said, turkey buzzards. They're thick up ahead."
"Oh," Bascom said. Then he added thoughtfully, "Maybe we'd better roll the windows up."
A half mile further on, a tree had fallen across the road, and the axes proved their worth. As soon as they had chopped the trunk free and dragged it out of the way, they went ahead.
Louisville had almost swallowed the little town of Okalona. A mile beyond the fallen tree, a large sign loomed up beside the highway.
WELCOME TO LOUISVILLE
THE GATEWAY TO THE SOUTH
POP. 1,567,000
The vultures, Matt noticed, were thicker than ever. They sat on the eaves of the houses peering down into the street or rose flapping into the air ahead of them.
A faint fetid odor tainted the atmosphere, and it grew stronger and stronger as they penetrated deeper into the city. It seeped through the closed windows, strangling them.