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That’s a damn lie. “I mean , I ain’t about to purposely get myself all busted up
for it, but you know what I mean.”
    “Yeah,
I guess.”
    “I’m
just sayin ’, you know.”
    “Yeah.”
    They
leave the building and step into the bustling streets of Maddick. This little
town within Claxton is filled with all walks of life, from the outlaw to the
civil. Most everyone congregates outside during the day, hustling their goods
and what- nots at the market, buy-sell-trade, making a
living.
    At
one time The New Disease ran through this place, killing several, but since
Vincent put the squeeze on it those infected are now few and far between, and
if they don’t hide their infection well enough and they are discovered they are
then killed and their body’s burned. There is absolutely zero tolerance
concerning The New Disease.
     
One of the last cases, and most memorable, was a gruesome massacre. A man who
had gotten into an altercation with another man, which ultimately led to his murder, had contracted the disease from a prostitute a
day prior to his murder. The man had been married with two children and since
he never knew he’d been infected he unknowingly passed the disease off onto his
wife. Three days later he was killed. The grieving widow began to feel ill. She
thought it only to be due to her grief. Until it got worse. She then figured it to be something like a common cold, and like the common
cold and similar viruses, The New Disease, in its early stages, has similar
symptoms. Many had been killed and burned when all they had was a cold or the
flu. With that in mind she kept herself secluded in her home with her children
and two close friends to care for her, thinking that she could ride it out
until she got better.
    But
she never did get better, she only got worse. She lost her appetite and
acquired a cough that came in violent fits, often hacking up blood. She lost
weight rapidly and her strength abated. Her body ached in ways she never knew
possible, her muscles cramped, her guts twisted. Finally she came to terms with
what it was. Arrangements were made for her children to live with and be raised
by two close friends after what was to be her own quiet death under her own
terms in her own home. But neighbors can be nosey and the secret was leaked
out. Vincent’s police squad busted through the door and rounded everyone up.
    They
were taken to the town square where she and all those present in the home were
publicly condemned to death. Although she was the only one showing symptoms of
The New Disease the others could have also contracted it somehow, but even if
they had not they were all still guilty for harboring a known infection,
therefore sealing their own fate along with her.
    The
woman begged with such intensity to have mercy on her children and friends that
she hacked and coughed uncontrollably. Vincent’s men were wary of touching the
infected woman but their orders were to immediately take her and the others to
the fire pit, the men seized her by the arms and dragged her roughly onward. In
a fit of hysteria she bent backwards in a muted yell, her eyeballs bulged from
their sockets, large white globes seeming as if they could roll out of her
head. A noise came from deep within her throat, her stomach heaved, she retched,
and as she bent forward blood shot from her mouth like a busted fire hydrant.
Her small framed body thrashed out, tugging her arms against the hold the two
men had on her while shaking her head side to side in an uncontrollable rage as
blood showered red death on the two men flanking her and anyone else within
spitting distance. On-looking citizens gasped and cried out in horror. Several
men marched into the square and under Vincent’s orders drew their weapons and
commenced to slaughter the woman, her two friends, and their own men who were
covered in the woman’s blood, slaying them with swords, piercing their belly’s
with spears, chopping off heads and limbs with axes. But