Back to the Scene

It's around 3pm when Ollie rolls up to the building from which the gunmen had fired upon them the other day. He circles the building on his skate, searching for a fire escape, or ladder, or something.

~~Narration~~

A fire escape in ill repair looks as if it's accessible. It's a bit of a jump to get to from the industrial dumpster.

Ollie tucks his skate away behind a stand of trashcans. He climbs on top of the dumpster. He bends his knees a couple of times, eyes on the fire escape. He leaps!

Spoiler:

Ollie pulls himself and looks up at the six stories worth of stairs and balconies. He can see that it will eventually give him access to the roof.

Ollie mounts the series of stairs and landings carefully. He uses focus and balance perfected after years of skating to move lightly, and hopefully not jar the structure to much with his movements. He's ever aware of the rickety status of the fire escape, and even though he's never had a problem with heights or risky maneuvers, he still doesn't want to think of the thing he's standing on collapsing to the ground. He slowly and surely heads up to the roof.

~~Narration~~

As Ollie climbs onto the roof, he sees a bizarre scene.

At the edge, lays a body. A rifle with a high powered scope lays near it, scuffed and scraped. The body is contorted in odd angles, as well as having a deathly pallor. This isn't that odd, considering there's blood everywhere.

The blackened blood, baked by the sun is awash in flies, and the only thing making the assault on Ollie's nose bearable is the wind at this height. The source of all the blood is quite clear: the mystery sniper is missing both hands.

Ollie takes in the scene, in shock, hand pressed to his face and nose, eyes scrunched against the grim sight and the mid-afternoon sun. After a few moments he tears his vision away from it, shutting his eyes tightly, and fighting off a wave of nausea as a lull in the breeze allows the smell to him like a truck full of sun-bloated corpses. He steadies himself, and looks back at the scene. Steeling himself for work.

He centers himself, and begins chanting in High Speech. It was his first time using it practically, and at first he speaks the words slowly and deliberately. The pace and tempo of his chant increases as he casts his spell. He exerts himself fully, he has to know what went on.

Spoiler:

His clumsy attempt will only give him a glimpse, but he focuses that glimpse to thirty seconds after the gunmen took his shot that day.

Ollie sees a large figure, clothed in rags and second hand clothing, sneaking up on the sniper. It's carrying a cinder block with unusual ease -- with one hand. The other hand holds a wicked looking ghurka, stained nearly black the entire length of the blade. The sniper is intent on looking through his scope.

The vision ends, and Ollie decides that he'd seen enough. The murdering, eye eating, hand harvesting, freaky monster had killed the guy who was shooting at them that day. But the question was why? Was the gunmen just in the wrong place at the wrong time? If that wasn't the case then what connection did the monster have to them?

He takes a seat, facing away from the corpse, trying to think this out. This didn't get him anywhere at all. Really, it just muddled things even more. After a few moments thought he slowly, and quite reluctantly, comes to the realization of the next thing he should do next.

Ollie stands up and turns to face the corpse. He looks at it, steeling himself for the task at hand. He takes a few deep breaths, and after a final deep inhale he holds his breath and approaches the body, going through the pockets for a wallet, or anything else that might help the body be identified.

He holds his breath as long as he can, but it's arduous and sticky work, and he's forced to take a new breath. His eyes watered, and he could taste the atrocious odor on his tongue and feel it tainting his throat. He steadied himself against fainting and went about searching the body.

All Ollie finds is a small notepad, with pages missing. The next page has a single name on it, and a location.

Ryan North - Sac U

If Ollie had to guess, this sniper was the well-prepared type that would make sure nothing could identify him.

Sac U. A student I guess?

He wipes his hands as thoroughly as he can on the dry gravel on the top of the roof, until he feels he's scoured enough dead body off them. Taking one last look around he decides that he's had enough of this scene and begins to make his way back down the fire escape. He would go to the University, see if he could find out who Ryan North was.