Inside the barracks, things had changed since the last visit.
Through the windows opened, he zoomed the perceptive glass and noticed that the men were sleeping differently.
Some had cloth wrapped around their faces, covering the nose and mouth. A few had fashioned something closer to a proper mask from whatever fabric was available.
Candles burned in several rooms, left on through the night, which meant the men inside had decided that darkness was part of the problem and were fighting it with light.
They thought it was the air.
Bad air, travelling through the dark, settling into the lungs of sleeping men and killing them without warning. It was the most logical conclusion available to people who had no other explanation, and it had produced a set of countermeasures that were thorough and completely useless.
The bats bit their legs.
