Do Unto Others

Below the rope stood a gallows, and around the gallows, enjoying the shade of the tree and the rare tickle of grass, the messenger finally met all the people who lived in the town, and they, in turn, met him, eyes numerous as the stars.

The messenger wanders into town from out of the wastes carrying a message he's suffered at great lengths to deliver. The people of Scanlon, the last surviving town in that part of the world, are very eager to hear what the man has to say about the people back east, who they'd given up for dead a long time ago. 

But when the Messenger isn't sure if these are the people for whom his message was meant, the good people of Scanlon don't take very kindly to his reluctance.