From chapter 28.

First
carefully select textual evidence that:
1) describes the weather;
2) describes what the defectors look like;
3) describes the actions of the defectors.

Then
For each quotation (piece of evidence):

explain what it conveys about

either
the weather or the defectors;

pick the best word from the

quotation
and further explain the connotations of
that word;

explain how it makes you as a

reader
feel about the defectors.

It was sleeting, a blustery, early-February morning; they

held their rags about them as they came, glancing over
their shoulders from time to time as though in fear of
pursuit. As they approached, I was struck by the thinness
of their features and their stick-like wrists and ankles. We
were none of us fat by this time, but these men looked like
walking skeletons. They stopped five yards from the barrier
and one of them spoke, eyeing my pistol as he did so.

Were from up there. He jerked his head in the direction of

the camp, invisible beyond the shoulder of the hill. Weve
broken out. We want to join you.

10

I looked at them. The one who had spoken was bad enough,
but the other guy was obviously dying. Most of his hair was
gone, he was bleeding from the gums and great, purple
blotches stained his skin. Id seen enough radiation-sickness
15
by this time to recognise a creeping dose, and I reckoned hed
be dead in a week. Sooner, if he was lucky.