There are 10,000 citizens in the City Of The Dead each with a white marble slab indicating each residence. The gates of the City Of The Dead have long been closed to newcomers. It is a city whose population has remained unchanged for the last 10 years and the mayor of this city is Joshua Friday some call him caretaker of the old cemetery in the valley but anyone who knows Joshua Friday at all calls him Mayor. He is the only living person in the City Of The Dead that is unless you care to include Lammy Fink a slow-witted fellow who does kitchen police duty and a little garden duty during the day and retires beyond its precinct at night.

The City Of The Dead lies in a tiny valley 25 miles from the suburb of a great city. It is off the main highway and completely isolated from the world. But now it’s 9 o’clock on a moonlit windy night in October…