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Wake: Alice? Aahh.
Wake (V.O.): Waking up in the crashed car felt like I had woken from one nightmare and entered another. I couldn’t remember how I got there. All I knew was that something terrible had happened to Alice. The phone was dead. I’d have to find help on foot.
Wake (V.O.): Among Alice’s things was a book, “The Creator’s Dilemma”, by a Dr. Emil Hartman. Seeing the book brought back my fight with Alice. I didn’t like it, and I didn’t like the guy’s smug face on the cover either.
Wake (V.O.): The gas station was my best bet. They’d have a phone I could use. It looked like a long hike through the forest to get there.
Wake: Damn! Hello? Hello? Is someone there?
Wake (V.O.): The loose sheets of paper were pages from a manuscript entitled “Departure.” That was the name I’d planned to use for the next novel I’d never gotten started. I was named the author. I hadn’t written it. I couldn’t remember writing it. In the scene on the page, the hero was attacked by an axe murderer in the woods at night.
Wake: Anybody there? Please, I’ve been in an accident!
Wake (V.O.): The lights up ahead were a good sign. Maybe I wouldn’t have to hike all the way down to the gas station to find a phone.
Wake: Anybody there? Please, I’ve been in an accident! Hey! Hey, you!
Stucky: Fail to arrive, you lose the deposit!
Wake: There’s been an accident. I need help. I need… to…
Stucky: Premium cabins for rent in Bright Falls!
Wake: Oh, hell.
Stucky: Carl Stucky. Pleased to meet you. Non-refundable reservation deposit required. Fair and square.
Wake: Shit!
Wake (V.O.): I had to figure a way out of this. Any second now and Stucky would be knocking on the door with his axe like Nicholson in The Shining.
Stucky: During your stay, I recommend trying Nordic Walking. It’s the latest thing. Incontestably proven health benefits let you kill two birds with one stone: you can see the sights and keep those cholesterol levels down at the same time!
Wake: Yes!
Sheriff’s Station: Bright Falls Sheriff’s Station, how may I—
Wake: Hello? Hello! Oh, this is bad.
Wake (V.O.): There were more of them. My head pounded with the concussion. I’d never fired a gun outside a shooting range. And now I’d just killed someone, or something. There were no bodies—they’d just disappeared. If I was dreaming, it felt real enough to make me sick. Eerie hand-painted graffiti was revealed by my flashlight. Someone had hidden a chest of supplies near it.
Wake (V.O.): The dark forest was the last place I wanted to go, but I had no choice. I had to get to the gas station.
Stucky: It’s rabbit season!
Wake: What the hell was that?
Wake (V.O.): When I saw the river below, something uncoiled itself inside my head. I realized that I’d have to find a way across. I didn’t even want to look at the water.
Stucky: Sparkling River Estates, that’s where I go when I want something special to eat.
Wake (V.O.): Stucky was still out there, in the dark, stalking me.
Stucky: Logging is a hazardous occupation!
Wake: Taken. They’re Taken.
Wake (V.O.): The staircase was broken. I had to make my way up some other way. There was no power. There was bound to be a generator somewhere at the logging site. With all this forestry equipment around, there had to be something I could use to reach the top.
Wake (V.O.): The gas station was closer now, its light welcoming in the darkness.
Stucky: Paul makes the best dogs in the state! Belly Burster is the best with no contest. Monster Dog is second best. The Famous Dog is third best. I never touch salad though, a man like me needs a hefty meal to get through the day. We enjoy the magnificent woods.
Stucky: Changing a spark plug to your vehicle is not as simple and safe as you might think. It can be dangerous and requires patience!
Wake: Oh no.
Stucky: Even with the hood open, the engine block takes hours to cool. Dropping tools in the engine with moving belts is an easy and fatal mistake to make! Count your tools before and after! A misplaced tool, forgotten inside the engine, has destroyed more than one car. You should always leave the job to a professional.
Wake (V.O.): Stucky’s body vanished, leaving behind only a lifetime of nightmares to come. Assuming I’d reach the lights of the gas station alive.
Wake (V.O.): I recognized the parade float I had seen in Bright Falls when I first arrived with Alice. After the insanity I had just experienced in the darkness, the lights of the gas station felt comforting. At least for a moment, the sane world reasserted itself. The Deerfest had been two weeks away when we arrived. If the day count on the banner was right, I was missing a whole week between the night we got here and now. I had to get inside the gas station to find a phone to call for help. The garage was a mess. It looked like someone had trashed the place, or that there’d been some kind of fight.
Wake (T.V.): I’ll write. I’ll keep writing. Outside there’s only darkness, outside the cabin, outside the story, there’s only darkness. I can feel her presence in the dark. Just now, I could smell her perfume in the room. I’ll reach her. I’ll fix it. I’ll bring her back. The story will come true. If I stop, she’s lost.
Wake: I don’t believe this.
Wake (V.O.): It’d been me on the TV, talking crazy. Was I losing my mind?
Sheriff’s Station: Bright Falls Sheriff’s Station.
Wake: Oh, thank God, Sheriff.
Sarah: Sheriff Sarah Breaker. You are…?
Wake: I’m Alan Wake, but listen, I was in a car crash. My wife, Alice, she’s missing.
Sarah: Calm down, Mr. Wake.
Wake: We were staying in a cabin on the island, on Cauldron Lake.
Sarah: There’s no island on Cauldron Lake, not since the big eruption in the seventies.
Wake: Please, I can take you there, okay?
Sarah: You look like you’ve taken a pretty bad knock to the head. Are you okay?
Wake: Listen—
Sarah: We’ll figure this out. Please get in the car. We’ll swing by the lake, and then we’ll go to the station. Okay? Mr. Wake, have you seen Stucky? The guy who owns this place?
Wake (V.O.): I realized I couldn’t tell her what had happened in the forest. She wouldn’t have believed me, and then she wouldn’t have helped me with Alice.