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Wake: How the hell did she get her hands on the manuscript, anyway?
Barry: I don’t know. She’s resourceful! I told you, you were too hard on her. Listen, I found out all sorts of interesting stuff while I was digging around…
Wake: Yeah?
Sarah: Mr. Wake? It’s Sheriff Breaker. We have an FBI agent here, Agent Nightingale.
Wake: FBI?
Sarah: He’s… anxious to see you. You’d better come to the station.
Wake: Okay. I’ll be right over, Sheriff. Let’s make this quick, huh?
Randolph: Help you folks? Name’s Randolph. I’m the manager.
Wake: We’re looking for Rose, works as a waitress down at the diner?
Randolph: Rose. Sure. Nice girl. Who wants to know?
Wake: I’m Alan Wake.
Randolph: The writer, huh? I heard on the radio you were visiting. Well, I’ll show you her trailer. That Rose, she’s a nice girl. Always pays her rent on time.
Barry: As I was saying, Al, I found all sorts of weird stuff from the local newspaper’s archives. This place is crazy! Disappearances, mysterious deaths, urban legends come true… and, get this, most of this stuff takes place around Cauldron Lake.
Randolph: Well, you ain’t wrong, mister. The Indians thought the lake was a doorway to the underworld. I’m the God-fearing type myself. I don’t hold with that sort of thing.
Barry: Yeah, okay… anyway, there was an island there, owned by a guy called Thomas Zane. Now, some of the articles I found about him make him out to be a famous writer. But I ran a bunch of searches, couldn’t find a single thing he wrote. Zane was heavily into diving, so much so that the place came to be called Diver’s Isle. But the volcano under the lake erupted in 1970, and Zane went down with the island. It gets better: a local girl, Barbara Jagger, drowned in Cauldron Lake just a week earlier. They were lovers.
Randolph: Sure, Jagger’s a local spook story: “The Scratching Hag!” Comes for you in the dark. Childish stuff like that.
Barry: Anyway, Al, I’m just getting to the best part: all of the articles about this stuff were written by Cynthia Weaver. I asked around, and she’s that crazy bag lady you met—
Randolph: What, the Lamp Lady? She can be a little loopy, but she’s not homeless or anything.
Barry: Yeah, anyway, she knew both Jagger and Zane before they both died and she had some kind of a breakdown.
Randolph: Well, mister, this here’s Rose’s trailer. You mind me asking what you want with her?
Barry: We’re just here to talk to her, pal.
Rose: Welcome to—to… oh dear, Mr. Wake, I’m—I’m so glad you’re here.
Wake: Rose. You have my manuscript?
Rose: Oh. Oh, yes! Yes? Please, come in.
Barry: Hey, this is really good!
Wake: Rose.
Rose: Yes.
Wake: My manuscript? I really need it.
Rose: I understand. I know what you need. A muse to inspire you.
Wake: Oh, for… Barry, she doesn’t have anything!
Barry: Yeah, uh. Hey, Al? Al, what’s… Whoa…
Wake: Barry! What…
Diver: It’s coming for you, hiding in my Barbara’s skin. I’m too weak to stop it. You must turn the lights on.
Jagger: I promised I’d come visit you and your lovely wife. You must finish what you started. I insist.
Diver: You must turn the lights on.
Wake: Turn the light on.
Jagger: Back to work, boy.
Wake: Haagh!
Wake (V.O.): I felt nauseous, hung over. Only anger kept me going.
Wake (T.V.): I can’t tell reality from dream anymore. But it seems I have an imaginary editor to help me. She’s an old woman in a funeral dress. I call her Barbara Jagger. She’s very strict. I’m writing faster and faster. My manuscript is being heavily revised. The edits are getting very aggressive and each day there’s less of me and more of her. I hate it, but I know she’s right. She promises me I can save Alice this way. She knows more of this than I do. About the complex incantation I’m attempting, about this place. She has worked with another writer under similar circumstances: Thomas Zane. The genre of the story seems to be shifting. It’s turning into a horror story. I’m getting close. I can feel it.
Wake (V.O.): Rose took a day from me. I had less than twelve hours left to meet the kidnapper. All I could do was get Barry into the car, work something out once I got on the road. Barry was out of it. He was way too heavy to carry.
Barry: You’re right, I deserve more money. I’m so handsome.
Rose: Welcome to the Oh Deer Diner. What can I get you today? Coffee?
Wake: I couldn’t work up much hate for Rose. Something had used her to get to me and left its mark.
Rose: First refill is free. Milk and sugar on the counter there. Would you like to hear today’s specials? Thank you. Have a nice day. Come back soon.
Wake (V.O.): My gun and flashlight were gone. I’d have to find a way to get Barry into the car as quickly as possible. There was no time to waste.
Randolph: Oh, you’re gonna get it now! God knows what you’ve done to that poor girl.
Nightingale: This is Agent Nightingale, FBI! Get ‘em up, Hemingway! You’re under arrest. You move a muscle, I’ll unload right in your goddamn face. Stay right where you are, Spillane!
Wake: Uhh!
Randolph: What are you—I’m standing right here, you goddamn maniac!
Wake (V.O.): I hated to leave Barry behind. But there was no way I’d miss my appointment with the kidnapper.
Thornton: Give it up, Mr. Wake! C’mon, make it easy on us!
Nightingale: Get after him! Don’t let him get away!
Nightingale: Move it, move it, move it! I’ll have your jobs if you let him get away!
Deputy A: Move out!
Deputy B: Search the area!
Deputy A: There he is!
Deputy B: Freeze!
Spotlight Deputy: Okay, men! Keep your eyes peeled, he’s gonna try to make it through here!
Deputy A: Can you see him?
Deputy B: This way!
Deputy A: He’s gone! C’mon, guys, we need to head him off.
Sarah: Come in, Agent Nightingale, this is Sheriff Breaker, over.
Nightingale: Nightingale. Over.
Sarah: What on Earth is going on? My deputies tell me you fired at Wake, and he didn’t have a gun. You almost hit a civilian instead, over.
Nightingale: Sheriff, Wake’s running, I’m giving chase. I don’t have time for this.
Sarah: Well, make the time! You can’t just go shooting at people in my town, over!
Nightingale: I’m a federal agent pursuing a fugitive. You want to discuss my methods, Sheriff, make an appointment. Over.
Sarah: You stay right where you are, Agent Nightingale, I’m on my way. Out.
Janes: The suspect was last sighted running along the gorge that leads westward from the trailer park. All units are advised that the suspect may be armed. Approach with caution. Janes out.
Deputy A: Move out! Search the area! Stay sharp!
Deputy B: This way! Over here! Hey! Who’s there? What is that? Oh no!
Deputy A: Shoot it! Shoot!
Deputy B: Aaah! It’s not stopping!
Deputy A: Run!
Deputy B: Oh, God, help me! Help me!
Deputy A: Hang on! Hang on! Andy, it’s—ANDY!
Deputy B: Run! Run! Aaaah!
Deputy A: Get away! Aaah! ? Noo-aaah!
Wake (V.O.): This horror was everywhere I went, circling me. The cops didn’t stand a chance; they were after a writer, not a monster.
Nightingale: Sheriff Breaker, this is Agent Nightingale. I’ve lost contact with most of the men you assigned to me. It’s Wake’s doing!
Sarah: Wait, are you seriously telling me that geek writer just took out my deputies? Are you kidding? I mean, have you seen this guy? He wears a tweed jacket! Over.
Nightingale: He’s the guy we’re chasing! If it’s not him, who then? Bigfoot? Over.
Sarah: I don’t know yet, but I’m not in the habit of jumping to conclusions. That tends to come back and bite you in the ass. Out.
Helicopter Pilot: You on the ground, hold it right there! There’s nowhere to run! Freeze!
Janes: Ah, this is Janes—Mulligan,Thornton, come in, over.
Thornton: Thornton here. Janes, we’ve got both Wheeler and Rose in custody. Heh. They didn’t put up a fight or anything… Hey! Mulligan, what’re you do—c’mon, I was—
Mulligan: Sit down and gimme that! Janes, Mulligan here, over.
Janes: Ah, go ahead, Mulligan, over.
Mulligan: We got Wheeler and Rose here. Wheeler’s drunk or hopped up on something. Speaking of which, that Fed had a pretty distinctive whiff of Eau de Scotch about him, if you know what I mean. Over.
Janes: Ahh… I don’t have anything on that, Deputy Mulligan, over.
Mulligan: Well, whatever. Anyway, Rose is just being plain weird here. You better get Doc in to take a look at both of them, over.
Janes: Got you. You’d better get them here quickly. The, uh, the Fed is going to want to interview Wheeler, over.
Mulligan: Hah! Oh, yeah, I bet he does! Looks like they have a lot in common. Mulligan out.
Wake (V.O.): I could see the lights of the radio station in the distance. I imagined that the broadcast tower in the distance was part of the local radio station. Maine seemed like a decent guy. Perhaps he could give me directions to the coal mine.
Wake (V.O.): Unnatural shadows clung to the gate. The darkness that was after me was trying to stop me. I wouldn’t get through without a light. There was no power to the searchlight. The old generator conked out. I’d have to see if I could fix it and try again.
Wake (V.O.): It took me a moment to recognize the flashbang grenades. They were an ideal weapon for my situation.
Sarah: Team one, come in, over. Team one, this is Sheriff Breaker, report, over. Team two, come in. I need a report, over. C’mon, guys, talk to me. Come in, please. Over.
Wake (V.O.): I hoped Maine could lend me a car to get to the coal mine.
Maine: And we have another caller. You’re on the air.
Lorna: Pat, it’s Lorna Miles.
Maine: Why, hello, Lorna. What do you have for us?
Lorna: Well, I just don’t see why the cops bother with the trailer park.
Maine: What do you mean?
Lorna: It’s a trailer park. Of course you’re going to have trouble in a place like that. I mean, what do you expect? The Sheriff should be helping us normal citizens instead of wasting resources on those people.
Maine: Well—
Lorna: Let the trash sort themselves out. I’m sorry, but my granddaddy settled in Bright Falls in nineteen eleven.
Maine: Well, thank you very much for that compassionate viewpoint, Lorna.
Maine: Oh, here’s a little surprise! The famous writer Alan Wake just walked in. Folks, I’m going to see if I can talk him into an interview. C’mon in, Mr. Wake.
Maine: Ahh, I’m so glad you could find the time to do this, Mr. Wake.
Nightingale: Nowhere to run now, Dan Brown! You back away from Maine. Don’t hurt him.
Maine: Whoa, whoa, whoa, everyone calm down! Put the gun down, we’re all friends here… right?
Sarah: Cool your jets, Nightingale. We got him.
Maine: Judas Priest!
Sarah: What the hell’s the matter with you? There’s a civilian in there!
Wake: Uhh!
Nightingale: I’ll get you yet, even if it kills me! You hear me? You hear me, H.P. Lovecraft!
Wake (V.O.): I had fallen off so many cliffs it was ridiculous. That’s what you get for naming a book “The Sudden Stop.” It was probably good I hadn’t had the chance to tell Maine where I was going. I’d have to lose the cops and find my own way to the mine.
Wake (V.O.): There was no sensible reason for the power company work lights to be here. It was almost as if they’d been left for someone like me to use.
Wake: Hello?
Alice: The most stubborn man I’ve ever met…
Wake: Alice? Alice!
Alice: Alan. Alan. I’m so afraid… keeps me in the dark. Please help me… I look at you, Alan, and it’s not you… something else, looking out from behind your eyes…
Wake: Alice! I’m here!
Alice: I’m so alone here… it’s all going to go to hell. You need to be careful… and cooperate.
Wake (V.O.): The connection had been terrible, but that wasn’t the only thing that hadn’t been right with the call. She’d sounded wrong, somehow. But she had called me.
Wake (V.O.): I could see a railway bridge up ahead, and a warehouse of some sort on the opposite shore. I hoped I could find a car from there. The darkness that was pursuing me was growing stronger. And it was taking over everything in its path.
Wake: What the hell?
Wake (V.O.): As a teenager, just starting to get interested in writing, Stephen King had been a source of inspiration to me. I thought about all the inanimate objects that had come to life in his books. No one is safe in a good horror story, certainly not the protagonist. That’s what makes them fun. This was anything but. The darkness could possess anything, and it was getting closer.
Wake (V.O.): I had never been this glad to see the sunrise. I had a couple of hours to get to the coal mine.