After burying his dead, Ricky follows leads around the adjacent Annex neighborhoods
where he learns Tim, his neighbor who was involved with the Hangman's Horde, has been arranging illegal entry into the city.
TREATMENT
Barnes, one of Ricky’s neighbors who was in the city on business during the slaughter, returns to find his home burned down and Ricky burying the dead. After a memorial, Ricky catches up with him and asks what he knows about Tim, who was seen talking with Barnes the morning of the massacre. Barnes reveals that Tim came from a rougher area of the Annex and was known to run with the Outsiders, though he would not have expected Tim to help plan the massacre. Ricky unloads his frustration with the status quo - that they in the Annex are at the mercy of the Institution, the slumlords, and the Outsiders, all of whom wrestle each other for power at the expense of and causing collateral damage for the slummers caught in the middle.
Barnes directs Ricky to Tim’s neighborhood, where Ricky follows leads and learns a few things - Tim is the son of a respected member of the community and was working to obtain citizenry inside the walls of Boomtown, albeit illegally. Ricky gets the name of a Boomtown ex-pat who is known to be involved in these dealings and tries to track him down, but when he asks too many questions of a bartender at the local haunt for such types, the bartender tips off a couple of Marcus’ thugs.
The thugs follow Ricky out of the bar and accost him. Still amped up from the massacre and his articulation of the injustices of the current societal structure, Ricky takes a swing at one of the thugs, who easily dodges and knocks Ricky unconscious. The thugs load Ricky into an automobile and leave the area. This has all been witnessed from a nearby alley by the Gruff Man, who it seems has been shadowing Ricky.