Torque is being escorted by CO Ernesto Alvarez onto death row in Abbott State Penitentiary on Carnate Island, off the coast of Maryland, an island with a long and troubled history.[19] Torque has been sentenced to death for murdering his ex-wife and their two children, although he claims to have blacked out during the incident, and can remember nothing.[20] Shortly after entering his cell, an earthquake rocks the prison, and moments later, all of the inmates on death row except Torque are killed by Malefactors, a grotesque race of supernatural creatures manifested from various forms of deaths that took place on Carnate Island and are bent on purging any life they run into.