Cold Asylum is the twentieth book in the series of Deathlands. It was written by Laurence James under the house name James Axler. Plot synopsis Ryan Cawdor, his son Dean, Krysty Wroth, J.B. Dix, Dr. Theophilus Tanner, Mildred Wyeth, and Michael Brother begin a MAT-TRANS jump in a decaying redoubt, only for the jump to go awry part-way through. When they awake they each find themselves alone in a distinctly separate redoubt, with the exception of Dean and Krysty who were in close contact when the jump occurred. Individually they explore the outer control rooms of their respective redoubts, only to all decide (for varying reasons) to jump again; all decide to jump within the 30 minute "return window", which under normal circumstances will return them to the last facility they jumped from. Instead they are all sent to a different facility, presumably because their initial jump point has ceased to function. Though the companions are all sent to the same facility, their arrival is staggered in 20 minute increments. Ryan arrives first and proceeds through the facility, followed (unknowingly) by J.B. who in turn is followed (also unknowingly) by Mildred. Ryan discovers the top floor of the redoubt houses a massive wartime mortuary which has recently been invaded by hostile "cannies". Though of little relative threat, Ryan is nonetheless forced to open fire on an attacking group of cannies. J.B. immediately recognizes the sound of Ryan's blaster and rushes to his aid, with Mildred meeting up with the two soon after the firefight concludes. Meanwhile, Krysty and Dean have arrived at the redoubt and waited long enough to greet Michael as he jumps in. They proceed to the top floor and reunite with the rest of the group, unaware that Doc Tanner has arrived some time after them. Doc's mental stability has been temporarily impaired owing to the stress of his initial destination combined with back-to-back jumps, and in this state he mistakenly comes face-to-face with a large group of cannies. The ensuing battle draws his nearby friends to him, who help kill the remaining cannies and save Doc from certain death. Reunited, the companions explore the redoubt, finding several warehouse-sized rooms filled with innumerable refrigerated corpses, slowly being raided and used for food by the cannies. Doc refuses to let the corpses be used for food, locates the environmental control room, and increases the ambient temperature as far