Dread and the Fugitive Mind
The World Needs a Hero
2001
Duration: 4:25
Track number: 9
Writers
Lyrics by: Dave Mustaine
Music by: Dave Mustaine
Theme
A classic Megadeth theme centered on **paranoia, guilt, and the fear of judgment**. The narrator is a self-proclaimed 'social disease' and fugitive who acknowledges their actions but lives in constant **dread** of consequences, questioning the nature of moral judgment and the afterlife.
Lyrics
Let me introduce myself I'm a **social disease**
I've come for your wealth leave you on your knees
No time for feeling sorry, I got here on my own
I won't ask for mercy, I choose to walk alone
What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine too
If you shake my hand, better count your fingers
What if I do get caught? What if there is no judgment?
If I'm right I lose nothing, if you're right I lose it all
I ought to get caught because I'm doing something **wicked**
I'm guilty haunted by my fear and the only consequences
Are dread and the fugitive mind
You built walls to protect you so no one will infect you
Pursued by those out there that vanish in thin air
Come a long way to find what you really left behind
You don't know when the end is but it's coming fast
What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine too
If you shake my hand better count your fingers
What if I do get caught? What if there is no judgment?
If I'm right I lose nothing, if you're right I lose it all
I ought to get caught because I'm doing something **wicked**
I'm guilty haunted by my fear and the only consequences
Are dread and the fugitive mind
