Chapter 24: A Stern Lecture
Jack, Gotz, and Mayor Thomas stood over the two dead bodies in front of them, unsure of what to do. They were shocked out of reason and were just staring. Jack was the first one snap out of it, "Shouldn't we do something with them? I mean like, well, I don't know..."
Gotz shook is head, "Yes, yes of course. I'll need to go build a coffin for their burial..." His voice changed to a teary whisper, "Why me? It seems like I hardly get one in the ground before I have to help prepare the next one. I just want to go back to building woodwork for the living. When will all this dying stop?" He finally broke down crying.
Thomas stepped back at seeing the mighty Gotz crying. The world really was falling apart. One by one everyone was dying, and he was powerless to stop it. He was the mayor, he was supposed to protect the people of the town... Won, Harris, Manna, Popuri, Kai, and now Lillia and Rick, they all had died directly or indirectly from the actions of that murderous Zack.
Thomas looked down at himself. He could do absolutely nothing to stop it. After the first two days, it had seemed like the murders had stopped, but then, in a few short hours, those who had died had more than doubled. He was unable to stop it. He was as helpless as Carter... poor Carter, the most giving, selfless, innocent person in the town, frozen in comatose.
Thomas, head in hands, slowly sank to his knees from the agonizing pain of his failure. He had failed miserably, nothing would change that. One by one, everyone would die, all because he couldn't stop a single madman. He had failed everybody.
Jack stood over the scene. He knelt down and wrenched the scythe out of Rick's cold dead hands. Indignantly, Jack wiped the blood off the blade on the grass. He glared at the two men in front of him, wallowing in their self pity and snorted in digust, "You two need to grow up. This is serious stuff, and you need to act like men about it. Do you see me crying like a little baby? No, I'm just even more determined to extract my revenge upon Zack. So stand up Thomas, and take charge, like you are supposed to."
With an angry turn, Jack refocused his assault, "And you, Gotz, stand up and do your duty to the four people who have just died. How can you justify leaving their bodies to rot? They need your talents so that they may be able to rest in death and find peace. If you don't do your job, you are no better than the murderer himself."
Jack started to storm off, but turned back to say one last thing, "I know one thing for certain. I'm going to do my duty to the town. I'm going to do everything in my power to bring justice to this town. I will destroy evil. I will do whatever it takes to do what is right. And I hope that you two will grow up and do the same. For some unknown reason, the people of the town look up to you. You need to make sure their faith in you is justified." With that, Jack turned around to leave...