Ricky’s Annex neighbors are corralled before Hank the Hangman,

a warlord who demands they join his Outsider horde. Ricky’s pamphlet spares him while the others are massacred.

 
 
 

Extras

 
 

TREATMENT

An Outsider warlord addresses the gathered slummers. He declares that a vision compels him and his horde to uncover a relic hidden within the Black Pyramid by destroying Boomtown and all who impede that future. He tells the slummers that so long as they are aware of this and do not join him in his mission, they share culpability with the Institution and will suffer this fate.

Sid shoves Ricky before the warlord. Ricky, who has missed most of the speech and is under the impression that the Outsiders are here mainly to frighten and intimidate, tries to make his deal with the warlord he assumes is Abarth: take his money as a payment on the debt Marcus holds, and leave his neighbors alone. The warlord clarifies he is not the tribal leader Abarth, but another Outsider Ricky has heard of - Hank “the Hangman”. Hank asserts that Ricky’s offer of Boomtown currency supports his notion that the slummers are merely a facet of the Institutional construct. Ricky reveals he still has in his satchel a single copy of his pamphlet which he spared from the furnace at Holman’s Press. Hank orders Tim, one of Ricky’s neighbors who is apparently a member of this cult, to take Ricky’s bag. Ricky summarizes the pamphlet’s contents for Hank, truthfully but misleadingly explaining it was printed within the city today, proving that some elements of the citizenry also oppose the Institution.

Hank invites the rest of the slummers to join Ricky in opposition of the Black Pyramid, but they refuse to accept Hank’s leadership over that of their more familiar governors. Hank orders his cult to spare Ricky, but to kill the rest for their explicit opposition to his aims. The slummers are massacred.

Hank tells Ricky he has “lightened the Burden,” thanks him for the names he gave (Marcus and Abarth), and the Horde drives away, leaving Ricky alone among the corpses of his neighbors and friends.

Comment