It is only a matter of time before the boys get angsty, telling Reggie to go check on his little brother. They didn't care at first when Ian didn't return, they just played two more rounds without Ian there. But now it's been 26 minutes, and so they nominate Reggie to check what the deal is.
Reggie hates returning to the forest, especially alone, and he figures that Ian might be lost in the dark, and if that's the case then Reggie may get lost too. But he isn't afraid of that, he brings one of the flashlights from the game, and also he thinks he has a good understanding of the forest.
When he finds Ian, his back is turned and he's standing in front of something, and when he grabs Ian's shoulder he turns and faces him through tears.
That's when Reggie notices the body.
It's Noah, Dimitri's little brother, and he rushes to the corpse and yells, "What did yo—", before Ian uses a beer bottle to slice at his neck.
But he doesn't stop there, Ian pulls it back out and continues to stab him there a perfect 10 times, before Reggie collapses like a bag of bones.
When the other boys arrive, it's as a collective unit, they all want to learn what happened to Ian and Reggie. They aren't prepared when they see the bodies, and Dimitri almost cries when he sees his brother, yet, he was raised never to cry in public.
Ian is long gone at this point, smiling and wiping his face with his beanie. They won't find him, not the boys or the police, because he'll evade their pursuits.
When the Winstons' made him, he was nothing but an assemble of dead human parts, brought to life with the miracles of modern science. That's why he doesn't feel pain, that's why he doesn't feel fear, that's why it takes him longer than usual to comprehend social cues.
He isn't human.
For the longest time he couldn't wrap his head around the concept of fear or pain—even sadness took him a while to portray, at first—but now he believes he can see the emotions in a pure light. His mouth is refreshed from this evening's meal—he hasn't ate anything but animals since three months ago (when he ate his creators)—and he smiles at the thought of the taste.
He knows he has a long way to go. He'll have to cut his hair and get a change of clothes, but he's also excited for the change of pace. But, for now that's it for this little town.
So, this is Project XVII, signing off.