Corinne Rawson, a red caretaker known to the kids as Corinne the Slapper, chatted with fellow caretakers Jake "the Snake" Howland and Phil "the Pill" Chaffitz outside the screening room after movie night. Corinne reflected on the mental toll of the Back Half’s telepathic hum on staff, including the deteriorating doctors Everett Hallas and Richard James, and the rotation that allowed some relief. As they spoke, the background hum abruptly surged, not only from Ward A (Gorky Park) but also from the lounge where higher-functioning kids had gathered.

Alarmed, Corinne and Jake ran toward the lounge while Phil stayed back, overwhelmed by the intensifying psychic pressure. In the lounge, nearly a dozen children stood in a circle holding hands, including Iris Stanhope, who was nearly due for Gorky Park. Corinne identified the new boy as the likely driver of the surge and reached for her zap-stick, but the children’s psychic command overrode her will. Prompted by Kalisha Benson and reinforced by the circle, Corinne began slapping herself harder and harder as the hum became a deafening internal roar.

Jake Howland tried to intervene, but he was psychically compelled to tase himself. He shocked himself between the eyes, then jammed the zap-stick into his mouth, electrocuting himself fatally as blue light flared from his nostrils. Kalisha then led the linked group into the corridor like a school line. They passed Phil Chaffitz, who panicked and declared he would not resist; the screening room doors slammed shut on him, severing three fingers.

Farther down the hall, Dr. Everett Hallas froze at the sight and fled as pounding began on the locked Ward A doors. Two more red caretakers rushed in with zap-sticks but, under the children’s influence, turned their weapons on each other until collapsing. Other caretakers, sensing the danger, retreated toward the staff lounge or down the crematorium stairs.

Avery Dixon urged Kalisha to escape, but Kalisha insisted they first free the Ward A children. With Phil howling over his severed fingers and incapacitated caretakers on the floor, the united group advanced toward Ward A, into the heart of the hum, intent on opening Gorky Park.