Chapter Summaries

Nick took Dana into the woods, where they discovered Kurt and Jules embracing, while a hidden control room manipulated the group with pheromones. Nick used a cigarette to clear Dana’s mind, then attacked a zombie, leaving Kurt and Jules surrounded by more monsters.

• Nick urged Martin to keep making his calming herbal cigarettes, then took Dana out of the cabin while Kurt and Jules left to be alone.
• Nick led Dana away from the lake and found Kurt and Jules kissing in the woods as Hadley and Sturson watched them from an underground control room.
• Sturson raised the temperature and released more pheromone mist while the control room staff monitored Nick, Dana, and Martin.
• Nick gave Dana a cigarette that cleared her mind, then threw a transforming spear at a zombie approaching Kurt and Jules.
• Jules and Kurt saw the spear-pinned zombie, then spotted a figure with a hay rake and a towering attacker swinging an animal trap on an iron chain.

Nick fought off the monsters attacking Kurt, Jules, and Dana, then helped the group expose and disrupt the people controlling events from underground. The group learned that the control agents had failed and that surveillance devices were hidden in the cabin, while Nick kept his identity unexplained.

• Nick killed and dismembered several monsters, then ordered Kurt to take Jules and Dana to the cabin.
• Kurt brought Jules and Dana inside, where Nick arrived covered in blood and noted that the family group now had five people.
• In the underground control room, Hadley and Sturson learned that Nick and the scholar were immune to the control agent, but their attempt to release more agent failed and the monitors went to static.
• Kurt smashed open the cabin's electrical box, and Martin severed the exposed wires to disable the cabin's hidden mechanisms and surveillance.
• After Martin uncovered cameras and microphones, Nick told Kurt that they all wanted to survive while unseen people manipulated events.

Nick helped Kurt, Jules, and Dana recover from the strange behavior controlling them, then led them underground after the tunnel out was sealed. The group found Martin working at a hidden passage that might be their only way out, though it could also lead to the monsters’ lair.

• Nick pointed out how unlike themselves Kurt, Jules, and Dana had acted, and the three began to recover their senses.
• Nick told Kurt and Dana to keep Jules inside the cabin and block its openings while he and Martin investigated.
• Nick returned with a crowbar and learned that the group’s makeshift weapons contained hidden stun devices.
• Nick rejected Kurt’s plan to escape across the canyon, showing the others that even birds could not enter or leave the area.
• Nick led the group through a cemetery and down a hidden entrance beneath a coffin, where they found Martin working beside an automatic rifle.
• Martin explained that they had followed the monsters’ tracks toward a possible exit, and Nick argued that staying above ground was no safer than going below.

Nick led Dana, Kurt, Jules, and Martin into the underground facility, where Sturson ordered the Emergency Response Team to search for them after learning the surveillance system had been sabotaged. As their elevator moved through strange displays, Dana accidentally shot Martin and Jules was frightened by a ghostly face.

• Nick concealed his weapons and told the group they would catch their enemies off guard, then Martin opened a hidden elevator beneath the floor.
• Sturson learned that the plan in Japan had failed and ordered at least half the Emergency Response Team to search the upper levels.
• Nick armed his companions and put on Predator Armor as the elevator descended, then it began moving sideways.
• A Wolf Wesen appeared in a neighboring glass cube, startling Dana into shooting Martin in the arm.
• Jules saw a ghostly face form in the mist across the elevator and clung to Kurt, while Nick took back the handguns.

Nick and the others found themselves trapped in an elevator among cells holding famous horror monsters, while Sturson and Hadley tracked them down from the control room. Their cube was moved through a vast, rearranging structure packed with monsters, leaving Nick to wonder whether to unleash them.

• Nick played the music box, revealing a girl with a lamprey-like mouth and a bloodied, saw-bladed man holding the real metal puzzle.
• Nick put on the Predator helmet and turned invisible, telling the others to stay calm while they waited for help.
• Sturson and Hadley found the group on damaged surveillance footage and ordered cube 3606 brought down, while insisting the Virgin must be killed last.
• The elevator moved cube 3606 away from the other cells and exposed a vast structure filled with cubes holding monsters, including Pennywise and a facehugger.
• Nick and the others stared at the monster-filled complex, and Nick hesitated over whether to release its inhabitants.

Nick and his companions escaped the elevator into a facility where armed guards tried to capture them, and Nick killed the guards before the group fled into a control room. With soldiers firing uselessly through the room’s reinforced glass, the four companions released monsters from their containment cubes, leaving the group ready to face the chaos.

• Nick opened the elevator doors, then used his invisibility and Combistick to kill the guards waiting outside.
• A woman speaking over the loudspeaker explained that the facility appeased the Ancient Gods by sacrificing people, while soldiers approached the group.
• Nick led Kurt, Martin, Dana, and Jules into the control room and gave Dana a manual of codes for releasing the monsters.
• Dana and Jules entered eight codes as Special Forces soldiers fired at the reinforced glass, which stopped their bullets.
• Kurt, Martin, Dana, and Jules pressed the red switch together and shouted, “Welcome to the party!”

Nick and the four survivors continued their escape through the monster-overrun facility as the power failed and the control center came under attack. They broke into a maintenance passage and fled deeper into the base, with more monsters closing in.

• Nick used the evacuation map to convince Dana, Jules, Kurt, and Martin to keep causing chaos and seek North Door 22.
• Hadley and Sturson learned that several sectors had fallen and their defenses were offline before the facility lost power and something began battering the control-room door.
• Martin’s group chose to search for maintenance passages, and Jules explained that they could break through a partition wall to reach the pipes.
• Dana knocked Kuchisake-onna aside with a crowbar, and Martin shot her while a pterodactyl fought a demon-possessed person in the corridor.
• Nick found a hollow section of wall, and Kurt tackled through the partition to open a passage.
• Nick threw a bladed metal disc that decapitated three faceless nurses as they approached.

Nick and the others escaped the monster-infested base through a maintenance passage and found an ancient altar beneath it. There, an elderly Ripley explained that the five of them had been chosen as sacrificial subjects and began identifying Jules as the first victim.

• Nick led the group through maintenance passages as monsters overran the base and the five lost their bearings.
• Dana found a sign pointing to Zone Zero, and Nick and Kurt opened a hole in the floor to reach an ancient stone passage.
• The group followed the passage to a circular hall with five carved steles surrounding a pentagram over a misty abyss.
• Dana suspected the carvings depicted the five of them as part of a planned sacrificial ritual, and Kurt recognized the idea of human sacrifice.
• An elderly Ripley appeared and explained that sacrifices required at least five healthy young people, then pointed to Jules as the first to die.

Nick joined the group at the altar, rejected Ripley’s warning that their deaths were necessary to prevent the apocalypse, and killed her before leading everyone out. The supposed Old God emerged at dawn but was defeated by human weapons, and the survivors escaped as Nick entered suspended animation to recover.

• Ripley told Kurt, Martin, Jules, and Dana that their deaths were required to stop an ancient demon god from destroying the world, while Dana could choose whether to sacrifice herself.
• Nick arrived at the altar, challenged Ripley’s account of the ritual’s history, and killed her after the female researcher confirmed she knew an exit.
• Nick and the others escaped the underground base, but soldiers blocked their way until dawn, when a golden titan emerged from the earth.
• Nick used his cloaking armor amid the battle as artillery and missiles defeated the Old God, allowing the group to steal a Humvee and flee.
• After Nick was wounded during their escape, he entered suspended animation, while Kurt and Martin were also injured getting the group clear of a mudslide.

Nick woke after being badly wounded and learned that the group had escaped the underground base and was nearing Hood River. He had them stop to rest and treat Martin, but a military communications jeep passed without stopping as they reached town.

• Nick woke beside the female researcher and checked that his injuries had not cost him any limbs.
• Kurt told Nick that the group had escaped the base and was heading toward Portland, and Nick decided they should stop in Hood River to rest and treat Martin's leg.
• Nick and the researcher changed and dirtied their clothes to make the group look like students who had survived a camping disaster.
• Kurt spotted an approaching military jeep, but Nick told everyone to act normally, and the jeep passed them by.
• The group saw the Welcome to Hood River sign.

Nick and the others reached a Hood River supermarket after surviving a mudslide, where they gathered supplies and learned the town’s power and communications were down. An air raid siren suddenly sounded, leaving the crowd frozen.

• Nick and the others spotted a busy, dark supermarket and saw a military policeman arrive as the nearby base began mobilizing.
• Martin insisted on staying with the group despite his painful injury, and Nick led everyone into the supermarket for food and first aid.
• A manager offered help, but the power outage had disabled the card reader, so Lila Lee paid for the group’s supplies with cash.
• Lila Lee introduced herself to Nick and went to find clothes while Martin teased him about her apparent interest.
• A loud air raid siren sounded outside, stopping Nick, his companions, and the supermarket crowd in their tracks.

Nick and the others took shelter in a supermarket as a deadly mist engulfed the parking lot, and Nick recognized the situation as a fusion of The Mist and Cabin in the Woods. The chapter left them inside during a sudden earthquake, with Lila clinging to Nick as the building shook.

• A bloodied Dan rushed into the supermarket, warning that something in the mist had dragged John Lee away.
• A redneck ignored the warnings and ran to his truck, but the mist swallowed him and an agonized scream came from outside.
• Nick recognized the mist and several people in the supermarket from The Mist, then told Kurt that the group should stay inside and rest.
• Kurt reported that Martin's injured leg had been treated and asked whether they could leave, while Nick suspected monsters might still be nearby.
• An earthquake shook the supermarket, sending goods and ceiling fixtures crashing down as Kurt crouched for cover and Lila threw her arms around Nick.

A U.S. military crew continued conventional attacks on the strange fog after command rejected a request for nuclear weapons. In a Hood River supermarket, Carol tried to leave to reach her children, and Kurt volunteered to escort her home.

• Deep Hammer 11 reported that a GBU-57 strike had damaged the structure beneath the fog, and Lieutenant General Bruno ordered continued suppression while MOABs and BLU-82s were sent to the area.
• The bomber crew discussed the military response and the use of nuclear weapons elsewhere.
• After the supermarket stopped shaking, people argued about the cause and the danger outside.
• Carol said her eight-year-old daughter Wanda was caring for her six-month-old son Victor at home and asked someone to escort her.
• Kurt ignored Jules's attempts to stop him and offered to walk Carol home.

Nick escorted Carol through the dense fog to her home, with Lila accompanying them. Carol reunited with her daughter, and Nick asked Lila to talk with him afterward.

• Nick stopped Kurt from escorting Carol and agreed to take her home instead.
• Lila insisted on joining Nick, and Nick accepted after she hinted she could help.
• Nick, Lila, and Carol made their way through the fog, passing a damaged police car and signs of violence.
• Nick encouraged Carol to keep going, and she led them to her house after nearly twenty minutes.
• Carol reunited with her young daughter, and Nick asked Lila to speak with him.

Nick and Lila left the basement shelter and crossed the fog-filled streets toward their Humvee while Lila explained what she knew about the fog and the monsters from the Abyss. They reached the parking lot, where Lila identified several creatures, and continued toward the vehicle as monsters pursued them.

• Nick left food and clean water with Carol and warned her to keep the baby quiet and stay in the basement until the fog cleared or rescue arrived.
• Lila told Nick that the giant they had killed was likely a fear-born monster, and explained that the fog’s effects could be amplified by other monsters while high temperatures could counteract it.
• A giant insect emerged from the fog, and Nick cut it down with his Combistick before carrying Lila away as more creatures approached.
• Lila identified the insect as a No. 0001 Venom Bee Wesen and explained that the early monsters included primitive arthropods, insects, and mollusks.
• Nick killed a pterodactyl-like No. 0018 creature feeding on a police officer’s remains, and Lila identified it as a natural predator of the Venom Bee Wesen.
• Nick and Lila reached the parking lot and ran toward the Humvee.

Nick and his companions sheltered in a supermarket after returning from the fog, then rested in the staff lounge while he recovered from his wounds. When Nick woke and went to check on the others, he heard two men arguing about proof of a monster outside.

• Nick returned the assault rifles to his Pocket Dimension, then went back to the supermarket with Lila and warned the group that the fog and the body outside made it dangerous to leave.
• Bud let Nick, Lila, Kurt, Jules, Martin, and Dana rest in the staff lounge, where Nick quietly explained what he had seen.
• The six companions fell asleep after sharing Martin’s spiked cigarettes, which could counteract the effects of the fog.
• Nick woke after four hours, checked Martin’s wound, and told him to take his medicine while Nick went to see what was happening outside.
• Nick heard one man angrily deny being a fool and another offer to show him blood and a tentacle in the storeroom, then joined the crowd gathering around them.

David Drayton told the people in the supermarket that a creature in the mist had dragged Norman away, while Brent Norton resisted believing him. The crowd gathered to hear the warning, and David offered to show them the severed tentacle in the storeroom.

• Nick learned that David Drayton and Brent Norton had argued over David’s warning about danger outside the loading passage.
• David explained that tentacles had attacked Norman when the group opened the roll-up door, dragging him into the mist.
• Ollie defied Bud and urged the gathered customers to listen to David.
• Dan confirmed that John Lee was dead, and Nick said he had seen a mutilated body.
• David told the crowd that a creature had taken Norman and offered to show them a severed piece of its tentacle.

Nick and the others investigated the supermarket storeroom, where David showed them the blood and severed tentacle left by the creature that had dragged Norman away. Nick proposed burning the tentacle and warned that the cracked display windows left the supermarket vulnerable to the creatures outside.

• Nick feared that the locals might connect his group's unusual abilities and weapons to the disaster, but he knew the story's events might eventually lead them to safety.
• David led Bud, Nick, and others into Hannaford's storeroom and showed them the pools of blood and a severed, tooth-covered tentacle.
• The biker prodded the tentacle with a stick, and it flopped on the floor, frightening the group.
• Nick suggested burning the tentacle, and the group used fuel from a can beside the generator to set it alight.
• Bud apologized to David and Ollie, but Nick pointed out that cracked panes in the supermarket's front windows might not keep the creatures out.

Nick and the others helped the stranded supermarket crowd fortify the windows and gathered a group to plan weapons for defending themselves. The group discovered that Ollie was an accomplished marksman, and Nick revealed two handguns he had brought along.

• Bud organized employees and customers to seal the windows and stack heavy supplies against them while Nick and his group joined in.
• Nick watched Brent Norton and a local doomsday preacher disrupt the effort, then spoke with Sally and learned that the three army officers were nearby.
• Nick gathered volunteers to discuss weapons, and Dan suggested torches and knives before asking Bud whether the store had any guns.
• Amanda Dunfrey produced an unloaded revolver and two speedloaders, and Ollie revealed that he had been a state champion in stationary-target shooting.
• Nick took two Glocks from his Pocket Dimension and handed one to Kurt, claiming they had brought the guns for self-defense in the mountains.

Brent Norton led a group out of the supermarket to seek help, rejecting Nick and Lila’s warnings that monsters were outside. The chapter ended with Mrs. Carmody predicting that the departing group would die as the first offering.

• Brent Norton argued with David and insisted that the disaster had no supernatural cause and that people should seek help outside.
• Lila warned Brent’s followers that monsters were eating people, and Nick stopped Brent from shoving her.
• David offered the departing group a thousand-foot rope to mark their route back, but Brent refused to take it.
• Lila persuaded the father carrying a young girl to stay, leaving six people to follow Brent outside.
• Mrs. Carmody told the departing group they would die and called them the first offering.