Alan Wake Episode 4: The Truth Pages

[Page 1: Thomas Zane's Writing and Assistant]
Zane could feel the poems, taking form, shaping things. As he experimented, he imagined he could almost feel the power surging through the keys of the typewriter.

It exhilarated him, but there was fear, too. If not for his young assistant, Emil, he would have given it up.

But Emil convinced him otherwise. He, too, had a way with words.

[Page 2: Barry in the Lodge]
Hartman kept talking, giving Barry the grand tour, clearly proud of the place. He went on and on about his hunting trophies, and Barry was impressed, but he was here on business. He raised his voice, cut through the monologue.

"Hey, Hartman? Where's Al?"

Hartman stopped in the mid-sentence, annoyed at the interruption. He nodded at the hulking orderly standing nearby. The man smiled and clapped a practiced hand on Barry's shoulder.

[Page 3: Hartman Watches Wake Fall]
Hartman followed the fall of Alan Wake with his binoculars. When the writer hit the water, he ordered Jack to take the boat to him.

The spot was easy to see in the dark even with all the extra lights in the boat. The flare floated and kept burning even in the water.

Jack turned the radio louder as the engine sputtered. The music was rough and clanking, something the Anderson brothers would no doubt have enjoyed, but Hartman chose to ignore it. Wake was finally within his reach.

[Page 4: Hartman's Mission]
Hartman knew he was no creator. He had no ambitions on that front, and he certainly didn't want to end up like every artist he had worked with here: damaged in ways that were hard to describe, or worse.

It was enough for Hartman to maintain creative control and provide direction. To be a "producer." That was what most of these people were in need of, anyway.

Of course, suitable subjects were few and far in between.

[Page 5: Wake Sees the Old Gods Stage]
I stared at the Viking paraphernalia that littered the area, surrounding an unlikely centerpiece: a full-sized stage, complete with an impressive sound system with all the trimmings, including a dragon. It took a special kind of crazy to build something like this in a remote field.

When the sky split open with a deafening boom and the music started blasting, it felt strangely appropriate.

"Al, be careful! I can see them moving around! They're coming for you!"

[Page 6: Barry Attacked by a Taken]
For the moment, Barry was just glad he had survived the fall. He had been separated from Al, and there was no easy way to climb back up.

He told himself he'd be okay, okay in the gloomy forest at night. He would just have to wait for a while for Al to find his way down. Barry turned when he heard the heavy footsteps and saw the movement: the man-shaped shadow lunged at him from the bushes, an axe held high.

Barry screamed and threw up his hand. The world exploded.

[Page 7: Mott in Charge]
Mott knew that Wake was smarter than him; Wake had more money, a beautiful wife, everything. And Hartman said Wake was important. That made him better than Mott. But Mott was calling the shots now. He'd expected Wake to whimper and grovel, but instead, he seemed willing to fight. Mott knew he'd gotten under Wake's skin.

If only Mott actually had his wife. The thought made him shiver.

[Page 8: Mott Fails Hartman]
Hartman wasn't happy. Mott could see it in his eyes. He quickly lowered his own: he'd made a mess of it, and he knew it.

The shame of failure was hard to bear. He hadn't expected Wake to say he needed more time, and he'd blurted out "two days," less than Wake had asked for, to show him who was in charge.

But that wasn't part of Hartman's plan.

[Page 9: Hartman and the Power Failure]
Hartman hurried down the corridor. He had disliked leaving Wake when he was surely at his most susceptible to therapy, but this was not an ordinary storm. Wake had been writing, and he had woken something up in the depths of the lake. Now it was coming for him.

Hartman had naturally prepared for a situation like this. The idiot brothers would keep Wake distracted while Hartman double-checked everything, just to be sure.

[Page 10: Hartman Sedates Wake]
Hartman watched as Wake's features slackened. The man was bull-headed, no doubt; even lying on the bed, he'd almost broken Hartman's nose the second time. But with a little time, he could break Wake down, give him proper direction. Wake was easily the most promising subject he'd had...well, since Tom, really.

"Sleep well, Alan," Hartman whispered with a smile. "Let me take care of you."

He sniffed hard to clear his throbbing nose; swallowed blood and barely tasted it.

[Page 11: Nightingale Arrests Wake]
Agent Nightingale stared at the passed-out writer. The man was sleeping off one hell of a night. Nightingale felt a stab of envy at Wake's oblivion. But he had a job to do.

He put the gun to Wake's head, and almost became a murderer.

His hand shook and his throat felt tight and dry. Biting his teeth, he tried again to pull the trigger. He lost the nerve.

Wake stirred. Nightingale would have to settle for an arrest.

[Page 12: The Patients Escape the Lodge]
The storm raged on as the Anderson brothers walked unsteadily away from the clinic with the other patients in tow, knowing that this time they wouldn't return. The darkness around them seethed with horrors, but Tor and Odin were unafraid.

Their eyes glinted with guile. They knew every secret path, and there was blood on their hands.

They had fought these shades before.

[Page 13: The Dark Presence at Large]
The Dark Presence followed the choreography laid out to it in the manuscript, growing stronger and stronger, moving like a storm from one scene of destruction to the next.

But it was still bound to follow the story and chained to the dark place it came from.

When the story reached the end it longer for, it would finally be free.

[Page 14: The Anderson Brothers in the 70s]
It's 1976. Madness reigns at the Anderson farm. Contrary to all logic, the headiest ingredient of their moonshine is unfiltered water from Cauldron Lake.

The Andersons felt like gods.

Odin can't stop laughing. He contemplates cutting his eye out.

Tor runs across the field, naked, shrieking, hammer in his hand, trying to catch lightning.

Their songs have power, something ancient is stirring in the depths, coming back.

[Page 15: The Mystery of the Missing Week]
Again, Alice's screams rang in the stillness of the night. I saw myself run toward the cabin, flashlight in my hand.

I followed my past self. I was an out-of-body observer, a time traveler in a crazy, drunken dream. This was the beginning, the night Alice had disappeared.

The mystery of what had happened during the missing week was about to reveal itself.

[Page 16: Walter at the Anderson Farm]
When he stopped the car at the Anderson farm, Walter felt relieved; oblivion was close at hand. The brothers wouldn't miss a jar of moonshine, or two, in the booby hatch.

But then he saw the man on the porch, and he knew who it was.

Driving for his life and knowing it was useless, he didn't realize he was crying until he couldn't see the road for the tears.

[Page 17: Hartman During the Missing Week]
Hartman had never felt as anxious as during the week after Mott had managed to lose the Wakes. Their car stood by the path that had once led to Diver's Isle. Hartman thought about Thomas Zane's cabin in the depths.

It was only a matter of time before Wake started writing. They had to be found, and fast.

The moment he heard on the police radio that Sheriff Breaker had picked up Wake, he was already in his car, driving toward town.

[Page 18: Hartman Considers Mott and Wake]
For a moment, Hartman considered strangling the idiot. Mott was mean-spirited, but easily manipulated; an emotional infant who lived for his approval.

Wake, by contrast, was a far more difficult subject. Mott had given him too much leash. In two days, who knew what could happen? Hartman would have to find a way to rein him in, and quickly.

[Page 19: Mulligan Questions Nightingale's Orders]
Deputy Mulligan tuned Thornton's chatter out. He didn't think writers were particularly useful people, and a huge manhunt for one stuck him as idiotic, certainly not worth the missed opportunity for coffee and pie. It wasn't even clear what the man had done, except run from them at the trailer park.

Mulligan knew he wasn't alone: the sheriff's patience with the Fed was running out.

Location: after holding off the Taken on the stage, go down the stairs to your right and around the corner. The page is pinned up on a power board.

[Page 20: Nightingale Finds the Manuscript]
As the deputies hauled Wake and Wheeler away, Agent Nightingale eagerly examined the stack of papers Wake had been carrying. It was incomplete, a collection of random pages.

But there was enough: he saw his own name in there, among others. His hands shook with emotion.

Finally, it was proof. He had been right all along.