2020-09-30 - The Madman's Legacy (Epilogue)

It's been a few days now since the Cuneiform Killer was apprehended with the help of local citizens. Questioning Connor Demsey has not been fruitful. The man talks in gibberish and metaphor, and unlike the citizens of Gray Harbor, the police didn't have the time or resources (or enough people attuned to the Veil) to piece together enough of his mythology to make sense of it all.

But there were clues found in the man's apartment, and in the ramblings. The police confirmed that Demsey likely abducted Haruto Nakamura. Not only that, the police have been unable to find the heads of the victims.

All of this has led to a grid-by-grid sweep of the corner of the Firefly closest to the beach. Teams are made up of a park ranger or police officer, and community members. Community members are warned ahead of time that they may see disturbing things, but time is of the essence. Nakamura, after all, may still be alive.

It's been about an hour of the team's slog through the woods. Ranger Niall Tokoronga is the lead for this particular motly crew. They've actually been given a less likely grid to search while there's more police on the more likely paths. They're deep in the woods, fairly far off the main paths, but along the rocky coastline and beach access that only appears at low tide. It is a bad area as those with Glimmer would know. It's getting dangerously close to the abandoned sawmill.

"We'll go another thirty minutes and then had back," says Niall to the others. "We need to make sure we get back before dark."

August has come along as, well, help? Something of a guide? It's hard to say, but he's in what would be hunting gear, if he was actually hunting: bright vest, olive green Henley, denim jeans, heaving hiking boots. He's brought his knife, but none of his guns, because shooting people isn't really in his purview, and he has better ways to deal with monsters.

Renata walks along the rough trails at a steady, careful pace. She's clearly not familiar with her surroundings and seems unaccustomed to traversing so deeply into the forest on top of that. But she showed up to volunteer in the search for Nakamura anyway. Her attire is semi-appropriate for a trek into the woods, a light jacket worn over a white button-up, and jeans with a pair of sturdy ankle boots. The killer may have been arrested but she's wary enough of his lair to bring a little insurance in the form of a pistol under her jacket. She nods at Niall and glances over at August along with the others gathered with them. "Alright. Is there anything specific we should be looking for? Were there any markings like the writing on the beach found out here?"

Niall has a shotgun strapped to his back, ostensibly for wildlife. But all of them know that there are potentially more dangerous things in the woods than that. Or rather, they could get pulled easily into something more dangerous. He's otherwise dressed in his ranger gear with a loaded pack with emergency supplies. There were four of them, but a junior officer turned his ankle not soon after they started and had to go back.

"Nope," says Niall to Renata. "The cop-heavy teams've taken the more likely spot. We've been given parts of the grid we should cover just to be thorough."

August looks askance at Renata, nods at Niall. "Maybe just keep an eye out for anything...unusual. You know--evidence someone's been here. Like..." His voice fades, and he moves to a bit of scrub that's been trampled. "Like this," he says, kneeling down to look at it. No animal did this; it's the mark of a person who's walked through here. Maybe more than once. "We might be on some sort of ad hoc trail." He gives Niall a warning glance, stands up and looks around. There's trees here and there; not many, but his eyes land on one in particular. "Niall. That redcedar right there. How old you think that is?"

He doesn't wait for an answer, just gets up and moves towards it. It's big and old; no match for the Lake Quinalt spruce, of course, but probably a good three hundred years, at least. They're close to the saw mill, so if it's still standing...

Ah yes, there it is; bright orange marker tape. August walks up to the tree and sets a hand on it.

"That makes sense. This place is certainly bigger than I thought, I can see why they asked for volunteers." Renata glances around at the dense forest with a small frown as she speaks. She turns her attention to August, nodding in understanding as he advises her to watch for something that doesn't belong. The motel owner examines her immediate area as she moves ahead, looking for anything out of place. "Hm?," She stops short before her foot scuffs a visible footprint in the dirt. "You're right about someone being through there, there's a print and it hasn't been brushed away yet."

Niall scans the area as well, noting broken branches and a bit of a footpath. "That in and of itself doesn't mean anything. Kids tend to make their own paths, but usually not this deep into the woods. They're usually looking for a place to drink or smoke up." And a thirty minute hike through thick brush is not exactly good for those purposes.

As they move further in though, it becomes more and more obvious that there's something here. The park ranger stops and holds out a hand towards them.

Just in the shadow of the tree is a tent. It's a hunter's tent, meant to hide in the undergrowth. But it's meant to fool animals, not people. It isn't spottable from a distance, but up close it's more obvious what it is. And there's movement as well. Niall swings his rifle down

August nods in agreement with Renata. He shifts his shirt so he'll be able to get his knife out easily, should he need it. He follows Niall's gesture, eyes widening when he sees the tent. His expression becomes distracted for a second, eyes narrowed. A second later he looks from Renata to Niall, holds up his index finger. One person. ...he thinks. Hopes.

Renata slows to a stop in response to Niall's gesture, noticing that tent in the distance. She gets into a more defensive stance, moving her hand toward where her pistol rests at the small of her back. Her hand closes around the grip in response to the sudden movement, holding back on drawing as August informs them of how many are there. She's uncertain of how he knows but she nods in understanding and edges to the side to get a slightly better angle on whoever emerges.

Cecil has been a quiet presence, trailing up behind everyone else and pausing to take pictures. He's in jeans, hiking boots, and he has finally given in to flannel. Just a light flannel, a shirt over his t-shirt with long sleeves to keep the bramble at bay. He still doesn't look outdoorsy, but damn it, he's trying.

Niall murmurs to August, "This could just be a squatter. We get 'em sometimes." Niall looks back to Cecil and Renata. "You two, stay here," he murmurs. "August..." he points to the left, around the back of the big tree. "And I'll..." he points the other way. And then he's moving at a crouch.

The area just ahead is a small clearing by a stream. As they get closer, it becomes obvious that this camp has been here for awhile. There's a water purifier hanging from the tree that also functions as a gravity shower, a fire pit, and a folding camp table. Around the edges of the camp are a series of spikes. The smell hits them before they see the heads, arranged in a semicircle. There is one empty spike. They're in various states of decay.

Suddenly, there's movement from the campsite, and a figure starts to run in Cecil and Renata's direction.

August nods at Niall, slowly pulls out his knife and moves around the other side. He's quiet, or at least, quiet enough for hunting animals, which isn't what one would call 'super secret assassin' quiet, but he doesn't step on dry twigs and leaves.

He stops dead at the smell, grimaces and looks away from the sight. Well...they're all dead, so he can't feel anything. He tells himself he doesn't want to double-check for Hank. The motion towards Renata and Cecil has him turning around and finding the first tree with exposed roots he can. It's a Nootka cypress that's not quite old enough to warrant marking, but no spring chicken; a huge chunk of its roots rip up from the ground and wrap around the fleeing form's legs and feet.

The sight of someone suddenly rushing toward them through the brush certainly forces Renata to act on instinct. She quickly draws the gun from her waistband, gripping it with a steady hand as she levels it at the figure. The killer may be behind bars but there's still no telling what they'll run into out here. It almost looks like she might shoot first and ask questions later but she manages to restrain herself. "Don't come any closer!" She steps a little ahead of Cecil since he only seems to be armed with a camera at the moment. Her eyes go a little wide and her arms lower slightly when tree roots seem to rip themselves from the ground to wrap around their possible assailant's legs, however.

Cecil lowers the camera, and he's about to whip out some Mental mojo on the person running toward them, but then the guy gets his feet yanked out from under him by roots. Cecil cries out in alarm, because tree-hugs aren't something he sees every day, but then he settles. "Are you all right?" he calls toward Niall and August. The armed woman, she seems fine.

The figure running through the woods gets snagged by the root and faceplants on the forest floor. He (and it is a he) attempts to get up, only to find himself staring down the barrel of the gun. It's Haruto Nakamura, though he looks worse for wear. He looks scruffy and worn, wearing ill-fitting clothes with ligature marks around his wrists from restraints, though they look a bit faded. His eyes are wild and terrified. One hand is bandaged. He's breathing heavily. But he does put his hands up. There are cuts of cuneiform symbols on one arm, and the three symbols on the other arm - the pike, the moon phase, and the tree.

Meanwhile, they can get a better look at the camp itself. Other than the macabre circle, there's a generator and a chainsaw, but also a bandsaw. "Fine," Niall calls out to Cecil. He steps carefully through the camp, trying hard not to look at the decaying heads. He swings around towards Haruto's position, levelling the shotgun.

The cypress shudders like it wants to heave up out of the ground, though it doesn't. The roots keep a firm grip on Haruto, preventing him from getting up. August calls back, "We're fine," and leaves the assessment of the camp to Niall (and, he suspects, Cecil) because ugh, rotting heads.

He comes around next to Renata, looks Haruto over. "You okay, Mr. Nakamura?" he asks. He doesn't have Alexander's gift of truth-telling, but getting an initial read on state of mind might not be totally useless. Who knows if this guy was working with the killer willingly, or brainwashed, or...what.

"... Mr. Nakamura?" Renata lowers her gun slightly as she recognizes the vaguely familiar face and August confirms it. While it's still pointing in his general direction, she's not aiming at him anymore at least. She glances at the winding roots around his legs, distracted by them momentarily before returning her attention to the man they've been searching for. "Are you only one here?" It's a good thing she didn't go with August and Niall.

Cecil steps closer to Nakamura, his hands held up in a placating gesture. See? He's unarmed (except for the camera). "It's all right, Mr. Nakamura. You're safe. We're here to help you." As an afterthought, he pockets the camera. There, now he's empty-handed, and he takes another step closer, giving the man a once-over to see what kind of condition he's in.

"Nin-Ridu. Where is he?" asks Haruto as he stares at the people who surround him. "Has he finished his work? He said he would come back for me. That ours would be the blood that would stop the world. He told me..." he draws in a breath, a choked sob. "...that if he did not come back, to offer my blood. The moon is tonight. But I don't know if I can." He sounds ashamed of this. He looks to August, down to his hunting knife. "But you can do it. You can feed the gods and stop the carnage." The smile is wild and disturbing. He looks to Cecil, but he doesn't seem to be fully comprehending his surroundings. He nods at Renata's question. "Nin-Ridu went to gather more followers."

"Cecil, we've got bodies here," calls Niall from his spot in the camp. Well. Body parts. "You all right over there?" He tugs the radio off his belt and puts the call in. It'll take the authorities a little while to reach their position though, given the thick bushes.

Well. That answers that. August sheaths the knife and sinks to his knees. "Sorry, Mr. Nakamura. I don't think any of us are up for that." He looks him over. "What carnage are the gods visiting on us that needs appeasing?" He glances up; the moon's not out yet, of course, but it's a mark of him considering the rest of what Haruto's said.

"F-Followers...?" Renata looks stricken for some reason as Nakamura starts raving about the Cuneiform Killer. Her body language makes it obvious that she's acutely unsettled by his expression of devotion. August's question to him brings her attention back to the situation at hand. She grips the gun at her side a bit more tightly.

Cecil clucks his tongue and murmurs, "Oh, dear. You're a nutter." He nods to Niall and makes his way toward the camp. Dead body parts? That's his cue! He takes a small pot of Blistex from his pocket, rubs a little under his nose, then pockets it again. He then takes the camera from his pocket again and says, "All right, I'm on it." Blistex smells better than dead bodies. He trudges off to photograph decapitated heads, because that's totally his thing.

"All those who Shine will be food for the gods if the innocents are not sacrificed." Haruto sounds like he believes it. But he was kidnapped by a madman and held captive in the woods, so going along with it probably started as a survival technique. "All of you, all of us will be food. The Quencher was trying to save us."

Niall lowers his weapon now that Haruto is kept in check by August's tree root and Renata also has a gun. So instead, he'll cautiously check the camp for signs of anyone else. It does look like two people were staying at the camp. There's items belonging to the victims strewn about, and blood stains on the ground. "I, em, I'm going to step out of the camp area. I feel like I'm contaminating the scene," he says to Cecil. "I'm going to radio in the details from...over here." Upwind of the heads on pikes and through the thick trees that blocks his view of them.

August looks up at Renata. "Sounds like everyone...'agreed' to this. In some way or another." He's willing to bet that, like Haruto, they were...bullied into it, or tricked. Numerous methods come to mind, many of them involving the Art. But the killer was powerful with movement, not the mind.

He sighs, folds his hands on his knees. "Hate to tell you this, Mr. Nakamura, but we're already Their food. They farm us, like corn or cattle. Some of us get to stick around, from harvest to harvest," his mouth flattens, "some don't. Sacrificing people? That won't stop Them. It's just a bonus. They're not going to fuck off just because anyone gave Them a treat."

He stands. This isn't really his forte. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry no one found you sooner. You didn't deserve to have this guy fucking you up like this." And, hopefully, he won't wind up locked in the Asylum.

Renata's expression darkens as Nakamura continues speaking the Cuneiform Killer's message of 'salvation'. The rational part of her knows that it's not his fault, not really. He needed some way to cope under such extreme duress. But something about his words is getting to her on a deeper level. She's about to harshly rebuke him before August speaks up and reminds her of the fact that Haruto is still a victim. One of many, unfortunately. "Don't cling to his words, Mr. Nakamura." She nods in agreement with August's reply. "We shouldn't be content to be treated like food or sacrifices. No matter how noble it all sounds, he was only justifying his actions for his own sake. Certainly not ours or yours..." She keeps her voice low, though she's not fully capable of hiding the emotion in it.

"All right," Cecil says to Niall with a small smile. "I'll start taking this down." He's careful as he moves about the scene, photographing the blood, the heads, the tent. He leaves Nakamura to August and Renata. It turns out he is a lot better with severed heads than talking to people he doesn't know, particularly brainwashed ones.

Whether it's the logic of the words, or just sheer exhaustion and emotional strain, but Haruto stops engaging. He looks away, then drops to the forest floor, murmuring something that sounds like another language.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the cavalary have made it there in the meantime. There's a chopper overhead, the sound of shouting and cracking underbrush.

"Over here!" calls Niall. "Careful, we've got a crime scene. And we've found Nakamura." And from there, the team who found the killer's den are ushered out of the woods, to be taken care of and debriefed, and reminded of counselling services available. But they're hailed as heroes for finding Nakamura alive. Certainly no one expected that. The families of the victims too, will get closure as the last of their loves ones' remains will be able to be laid to rest. It's a small thing, but it will mean the world to the families of Henry Fitzgerald, Ricky MacIver and Gary Treadway.

And maybe one day, Haruto Nakamura will thank them, too.