the plague

by Albert Camus

When leaving his surgery on the morning of April 16, Dr. Bernard Rieux felt something soft under his foot. It was a dead rat lying in the middle of the landing.

"Because there are thousands of people placed as you are in this town, and there can't be any question of allowing them to leave it." "Even supposing they haven't got plague?" "That's not a sufficient reason. Oh, I know it's an absurd situation, but we're all involved in it, and we've got to accept it as it is." "But I don't belong here." "Unfortunately, from now on you'll belong here, like everybody else." Rambert raised his voice a little.

attacks on those who lived, by choice or by necessity, in groups: soldiers, prisoners, monks, and nuns.