https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/categories/alien-hunger----chapter-1-first-nights/Recent content in Alien Hunger -- Chapter 1: First Nights on Chicago ChroniclesHugoen-usThu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/posts/the-basement/Sat, 23 Feb 1991 00:40:00 +0000https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/posts/the-basement/<p><em><a href="https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/locations/prestors-townhouse/">Prestor&rsquo;s Townhouse</a> basement / Capitol Hill storm sewers / Grant Street / Five Points apartment</em> <em>Denver, Colorado</em></p> <hr> <p>The concrete was cold against the back of his skull. That was the first thing. Not a thought &ndash; a temperature. February at five thousand feet, slab floor, and Flash&rsquo;s body reporting facts before his brain had signed back on.</p> <p>He opened his eyes. Brick ceiling. Lab light on a chain, the filament doing that slow amber throb that means the power is about to go. Smoke in the room, thick enough to taste &ndash; chemical, not wood. Something electrical had burned first, and the building was catching up.</p>