A Necessary End

Sarah Pinborough & F. Paul Wilson

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It spreads like a plague but it's not a disease. Medical science is helpless against the deadly autoimmune reaction caused by the bite of the swarming African flies. Billions are dead, more are dying. Across the world, governments are falling, civilization is crumbling, and everywhere those still alive fear the death carried in the skies. Some say the flies are a freak mutation, others say they're manmade, but as hope of beating them fades, most turn to the only comfort left and see the plague as God's will. But not everyone dies. A few seem immune. They call themselves mungus and preach acceptance of the plague, encouraging people to allow themselves to be bitten by the "flies of the Lord" so that they may join Him the afterlife. Nigel, an investigative reporter, searches the apocalyptic landscape of plague-ravaged England in search of Bandora, a kidnapped African boy. On a quest for personal redemption as well as the truth, his search takes him away from the troubles he can no longer face at home, and into world of the head mungu, a man who speaks truth in riddles and has no fear of the African flies.