In the north side of the city, Blake, wearing a hazmat suit, stood in front of the quarantine zone with a furrowed brow. In front of him, dressed similarly, were three doctors. “How is it?”

“Lord, it resembles the black death….” The leader doctor replied. “In my time in university, I had done a lot of research on the black death. And from what I can tell, all the symptoms are close to this but much worse.”

“How much worse?” Blake’s expression turned even worse upon hearing this.

“Once one starts to get a high fever, they likely only have three hours left to live. From what we know so far is that it starts off with muscle aches. Those aches then turn into severe pain throughout the body. Puss pockets will then form on the skin, and if broken up and scratched, it will spread across the skin and form more. It’s there that things get worse. You will form a severe cough, and with your throat swelling to the point that it makes it hard to breathe, it is basically forcing you to destroy your own throat just by coughing alone. Then the fever hits. After that….” The doctors did not know what else to say. He was stumped on how it was spreading as none of those who came into first contact with the bodies of the dead had shown any signs of being infected.

“Has anyone else besides those in the north side of the city showed any signs of sickness?” Blake wondered if this was an isolated event or not.

“As far as we can tell, the hospitals in the center of the city, in the west part of the city, in the south part of the city as well as the east part of the city have no cases or influx of patients. Surprisingly everyone is staying very calm and not overreacting. If this was the old days, people would be flooding to the stores trying to buy things.” The doctor replied.

“Okay. Work on trying to find a method of treating this and find out how it spreads. These are the two main goals at this time. Also, make sure you make a log of all the dead. No one is to be left out. All dead should have a proper burial after all.” Blake turned and looked at Bret at his side and asked: “How about you? Any symptoms?”

“None at all,” Bret replied. It was then that a thought came to mind. “Hey doc, all the people who have gotten sick were all of them refugees?”

“Right now, yes.” The doctor replied. The north side of the city was the newest development. All the refugees were taking up residence here.

“Hmmm… If that is the case, then I would take some blood from some of the others and compare it. See if there is much change. Even your own blood would suffice in this. If you can find any differences, we might be able to figure this out quicker than we think.” Bret was actually thinking smart for once. He knew these docs probably already doing this, but he figured he would suggest it anyways.

“Yes, the labs are already analyzing many different sets of blood samples. We will know more in the next few hours. I need to go back in to keep observing.” The doctor’s expression did not look well. He looked quite pale, but this was to be expected of a man who was forced to watch innocent people die painfully with no way of really helping them. It was not like he could just put them out of their misery. If even one of them somehow pulled through and survived, it would be a breakthrough they could not miss.

“I will be back in a few hours then,” Blake said his goodbyes to the doctors before turning to Bret. “We will visit the main quarantine zone and then the other hospitals.”

“Lord! Let us out!” A man yelled out as he and many other people walked up to Blake.

“Let you out!?” Blake’s eyes narrowed. “We have a disease running rampant in this section of the city. We do not even know how it is spreading. But you want me to let the people of this side of the city out so they can spread it more?”

“We are not sick! Why should we have to be in lockdown when others are not!? What if we end up sick because we were forced to stay? I hear people are dying from this sickness!” The man was scared. He did not wish to die so soon. He had come to Destiny City in order to not end up dead but now….

“You were all given hazmat suits. Every single one of you. But look at you all! A hundred of you are all in street clothes! But you want me to let you out? You can not even take the most basic precaution. Do you think we gave you those suits because it is some kind of new fashion trend!? It was to keep you safe while you were in lockdown.

“Look, I am not trying to take away your basic freedoms. But you must understand one thing. If you leave now and somehow infect the city, the contract that you all have on you will activate, and you will all still die. All because you decided to go out and infect others, in turn harming the citizens of Destiny City. There is a difference between unknowingly and knowingly doing something which the contract is made to understand. But here you are, no hazmat suit complaining to me about how you want to leave the quarantine zone. Give me a fucking break!

“If you are worried about getting sick, then go put the fucking hazmat suits on and wait this shit out! We are delivering food and water to all of you and trying to meet all your needs. I have made sure that you are not being mistreated, but you still come to complain. Give me a fucking break already, and use your heads. Bret, let’s go!”