Chapter 7

Suspicion

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"...Park gripped the edges of the entrance even as the other men forced him back inch by inch, the struggle agonizingly brief even as the officer held on for dear life.

Grace could see, in the briefest of gaps between the chaos, the desperation in his eyes flicker into… realization. Even as his fingertips were ripped from their places and Cyril rammed into his chest one final time, his eyes never left the vindictive crowd.

No, wait, he wasn't looking at them at all, he was looking at-

The door slammed closed with an ominous toll of finality."

Author's Comment

And so the scary security officer was the killer, what a twist. This chapter is a bit short despite being one of the ones first planned out, consisting of just one conversation (well, TED talk). As the last chapter to be written it also faced the least edits due to time constraints, though the idea for how the events would unfold changed quite a lot as characters developed differently than initial designs.

Some fun notes:

In some early plot outlines, Park's incarceration happens before Dr. Young's ambush, with Dr. Young playing a much more prominent role in Part I as Blake's rival. In a way, the Young vs. Blake conflict was replaced with current Park vs. Carter one, but traces of the former can still be found.
While the airlocks are now closed, oxygen levels outside of the trapped rooms haven't risen high enough to be comfortable. And after the flushing, no one wants to be in the hallways.
Orwell is now the new elephant in the room.

Change Notes

In a surprising turn of events, Blake who was originally the one to snap at Park is the reasonable one is later drafts, and in one iteration actually gets accused first.
In the same vein, the ending scene is currently narrated by Greene instead of Cyril, providing a bit of a more nuanced perspective.
Most of the scenes featuring Park's perspectives were moved to Part II.