MASSED    The large, black birds continued to come, flying in no less than half a dozen at a time. They lighted on trees, telephone poles, power lines, fences... there were even some on the ground. Finally, the last of them arrived and the whole air seemed to be filled with the sound of shuffling, rustling feathers as the birds shifted and squirmed, making room for the stragglers. They had MASSED on either side of the road into such a thick, black clusters that it appeared as if someone had flown a helicopter overhead and dumped gallons and gallons of oozing, black paint over the entire land...

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