Static. A beep, and we see a pretty nice view of a wall. A small red dot, followed by <strong>the</strong> letters 'REC',adorn <strong>the</strong> upper-right hand corner of <strong>the</strong> screen."Awright!" says <strong>the</strong> teenage cameraman-cum-narrator, <strong>the</strong> young Keanu-spawn named Jesse Walker.<strong>Not</strong> that h<strong>is</strong> identity matters, because we won't be seeing much of him apart from what gets in <strong>the</strong> wayof <strong>the</strong> camera."Welcome to <strong>the</strong> fourth floor of Kenselton Hotel. It starts out over <strong>the</strong>re, see -"The camera swings to show us one end of <strong>the</strong> corridor."-<strong>the</strong> stairs are that way, and <strong>the</strong>re are more stairs that way." The camera swings around in a nauseainducingmanner. "If you go up <strong>the</strong> stairs to <strong>the</strong> eighth floor, you can find some really great rum."The camera settles somewhat, and moves along <strong>the</strong> corridor with <strong>the</strong> cameraman. Left turn. A handappears and pushes open <strong>the</strong> first door on that side of <strong>the</strong> corridor. We enter <strong>the</strong> room."That's Bob." The camera focuses on Bob Arctor, sitting on <strong>the</strong> bed and staring blankly off into space."He doesn't say anything much. So we put him in here. Everyone else complains about <strong>the</strong> no<strong>is</strong>e from<strong>the</strong> stairwell."We leave <strong>the</strong> room. The door closes, and <strong>the</strong> camera turns to <strong>the</strong> one next to it."And that's Julian in <strong>the</strong>re. He's our resident doctor, but most of <strong>the</strong> time he's asleep. He's probably justpretending 'cause he's sick of people pestering him for first aid. Sometimes <strong>the</strong> rum raids get nasty,see. And..."A door opens, and out come Neo, Ted and Alex, <strong>the</strong> latter two still munching on popcorn."Hey, popcorn! Can I have s..."The camera pans down slightly and <strong>the</strong>n goes blank. When <strong>the</strong> picture comes back on a second later,<strong>the</strong> amount of popcorn in <strong>the</strong> bowl <strong>is</strong> significantly less than before."Okay, where was I..."John Constantine stalks past carrying <strong>the</strong> deactivated lightsaber in h<strong>is</strong> left hand and looking generallymad at <strong>the</strong> world. He gives <strong>the</strong> camera <strong>the</strong> finger as he passes, not turning h<strong>is</strong> head.The camera points towards ano<strong>the</strong>r door."That's where we lock up <strong>the</strong> crazy ones: Barksdale, Griffin, Don John... There was a lot of no<strong>is</strong>e in<strong>the</strong>re th<strong>is</strong> morning; sounded like gunshots, but it's awfully quiet in <strong>the</strong>re now. Let's go take a look..."A hand appears and unlocks <strong>the</strong> door. It pushes <strong>the</strong> door open.For a moment we see an empty room... <strong>the</strong>n suddenly loud no<strong>is</strong>es erupt, <strong>the</strong> camera gets knockedaround, yells and screams are heard, AND THE SCREEN GOES BLANK.The door opened. A teenager fell out. The door slammed shut. Seconds later, it opened again,d<strong>is</strong>gorged a damaged camera, and shut again.Jesse Walker picked up h<strong>is</strong> totalled camera and got unsteadily to h<strong>is</strong> feet, left hand clamped over what**
he was pretty sure was a broken nose. He used h<strong>is</strong> right forearm to wipe blood and tears somewhatunsuccessfully off h<strong>is</strong> face. Down <strong>the</strong> corridor, Alex smeared popcorn grease off on h<strong>is</strong> jeans andrushed over."Hey, you okay?"Jesse thought of saying, "Do I look okay?" but didn't, because if he opened h<strong>is</strong> mouth blood would go in,and he was nei<strong>the</strong>r hungry nor a vampire."You shouldn't have gone in <strong>the</strong>re," Alex said a little too late, indicating <strong>the</strong> closed door. "We keep 'embolted in <strong>the</strong>re for a reason... Ted?""Yeah?""Get a piece of paper, write 'No Entry' on it, and stick it on th<strong>is</strong> door. I'm taking him up to <strong>the</strong> hospital.""Sure, dude," Ted said. "Why don't you ask Dr. Mercer for help?""I think he's asleep."Ted ambled out of <strong>the</strong> supply room minutes later with a piece of paper with 'No Entry' written on it. Helooked around, trying to figure out which door it was that he was supposed to stick <strong>the</strong> sign on. There'sonly one way to find out, he decided with a shrug, unbolting <strong>the</strong> nearest door and peeking in.Neo's reflexes kicked in just in time to yank Ted away to safety and slam <strong>the</strong> door shut. Grimacing, hestruggled with <strong>the</strong> wiggling door handle and shot <strong>the</strong> bolt back home. Someone on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r side kicked<strong>the</strong> door. Neo heard swearing and mutterings of, "so much for lunch.""Give me <strong>the</strong> sign."Ted passed it over along with <strong>the</strong> scotchtape, and Neo taped it firmly to <strong>the</strong> door. No entry."What happened in <strong>the</strong>re?" Alex asked as <strong>the</strong>y entered <strong>the</strong> stairwell.Hand still clamped over what he hoped was still sufficiently h<strong>is</strong> nose, Jesse Walker made severalincoherent no<strong>is</strong>es and gave up trying to talk.He remembered hands grabbing hold of him and yanking him into <strong>the</strong> room <strong>the</strong> moment he'd opened<strong>the</strong> door; camera dropping from h<strong>is</strong> hands and hitting <strong>the</strong> ground, someone slamming <strong>the</strong> door shutagain, and a sharp box to h<strong>is</strong> face as he'd tried to struggle out of h<strong>is</strong> captor's grip..."Don't kill him, Donnie. <strong>Not</strong> yet."The voice had come from <strong>the</strong> upper bunk bed in <strong>the</strong> room, where David Allen Griffin lay smiling at <strong>the</strong>ceiling."Let me go!"**Griffin laughed. "What did you expect would happen when you opened that door? Mr. Jack Traven andh<strong>is</strong> friends keep us locked in here for a reason.""You killed <strong>the</strong>m!" Jesse yelled. "Jonathan, and Eddie...""Yeah," Griffin admitted. "I was bored. What did <strong>the</strong>y do with <strong>the</strong> bodies, anyway? I never got <strong>the</strong>chance to ask."Jesse vaguely remembered a group named Soylent Green assuring <strong>the</strong>m that <strong>the</strong>y would take care ofeverything."What do you want with me?" Jesse asked instead.Griffin rolled over on <strong>the</strong> bunk to face <strong>the</strong> teen down below. "<strong>Not</strong>hing. You're <strong>the</strong> one who came inhere, after all. Of course, it would be great if you could ask your friend Jack to let us out of here. It'sgetting a little... claustrophobic."
- Page 5: "Your behaviour these past few mont
- Page 9 and 10: Neo sank down on the sofa.He looked
- Page 11: "By a friend of one of the others w
- Page 14 and 15: Next morning62nd Floor. Arrival Lob
- Page 16 and 17: It is in fact at the cafeteria that
- Page 18 and 19: 'There is no exit here', read the h
- Page 20 and 21: Back from his breakfast, Griffin sa
- Page 22 and 23: Griffin glanced back at the three p
- Page 24 and 25: Alex looked up."...That's Paul, tha
- Page 26 and 27: The floor hackers stared at their l
- Page 28 and 29: "Okay," Conor continued. "Situation
- Page 30 and 31: "We want to get out as much as you
- Page 32 and 33: Yawning, Paul pushed open the door
- Page 35 and 36: Jack lunged at his neck. Both of th
- Page 37 and 38: Then they fell silent again as Neo
- Page 39 and 40: "I did you a favour, Jack," Griffin
- Page 41 and 42: "That's one," Neo said helpfully, p
- Page 43 and 44: New guy gave a start. "Uh," he said
- Page 45 and 46: His mom made better waffles than th
- Page 47 and 48: Tommy reluctantly handed over the b
- Page 49 and 50: It is after a day or two living at
- Page 51: There had existed for a time an Ame
- Page 55 and 56: Night. A shortage of actual beds me
- Page 57 and 58: Neo yanked his finger away to safet
- Page 59 and 60: Neo sat by himself in the cafeteria
- Page 61 and 62: Splash.The sudden rush of cold shoc
- Page 63 and 64: The stairwell door opened and the b
- Page 65 and 66: "Get everyone in here in fifteen mi
- Page 67 and 68: Human beings have a strange tendenc
- Page 69 and 70: Jack shrugged. "Suit yourself." He
- Page 71 and 72: "-but we won't know for sure either
- Page 73 and 74: **"We were just trying to get home!
- Page 75 and 76: "It's John, assholes."John Constant
- Page 77 and 78: The mob surged through both doors o
- Page 79 and 80: "What?"A sudden telepathic message
- Page 81 and 82: At the rear, not-Tim turned to face
- Page 83 and 84: The lift dinged and opened its door
- Page 85 and 86: Group B: Shane, Perry, Jjaks, Chris
- Page 87 and 88: "Nah," Jesse said. "Might n-... - h
- Page 89 and 90: The teen shrugged. "I don't know."
- Page 91 and 92: "NO!" Shane yelled, running towards
- Page 93 and 94: He smiled and vanished; leaving not
- Page 95 and 96: "That wasn't really nice of y-" Dem
- Page 97 and 98: "What? Hey, I just woke up.""...Dav
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- Page 101 and 102: "D'you have any food to spare? We'r
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Group C: Griffin, Kevin, Scott, Jul
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"...Er," said Dem. He put the most
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Group D: Neo, EddieStanding about d
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The cornflakes guy looked at him.Je
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"At least it meant we had heat," Ha
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Group B: Shane, Perry, Tommy, Chris
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"I can't bring them back to life,"
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Someone running after him from behi
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Then a ripple in the air; and sudde
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Nelson smirked and walked on to the
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"Yes sir," Ludlow hissed into his e
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Alex got slowly to his feet. He dim
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The face that looked up at him held
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First Combined MeetingThomas Ludlow
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- Reeves clears throat.- Utah shuts
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Griffin isn't the only one in the r
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He realised that he was not standin
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Ludlow smirked. "Thank you. Now I k
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Seventeen suspicious-looking, mostl
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Scott emerged from the alley he had
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Julian finished the stitches, close
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Stuck in House: Chris Townsend, Mat
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Loose in Kenselton Holding Facility
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Paul and the kids stared back at hi
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"Arctor, Robert," Dem said. "Get on
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With measured reluctance he tries t
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0704270/006/GRA"There are two kinds