Chapter 9 Summary

The halls, rooms, and grounds of the mental hospital become festooned with feces and other filth. The doctor's wife agonizes over her unique status. She first decides to tell the others that she can see and then decides she will not tell them.

Several days pass by and then one group of people forms a sort of gang and dominates the food. When the food arrives, these people, all men and twenty in number, use cudgels and violence to keep the others away from the food. In addition, the leader of the thugs has a handgun and threatens to murder anyone who opposes him. The thugs take all of the food back to their ward and hoard it. After a few hours, they announce that anyone wanting food must buy it. The thugs demand all valuables. After much serious contention and argument, the...