[House curls in on himself as much as he physically can in Al's arms, shivering. Screw the cold. Screw wherever this is... whatever this is, and especially screw the admin. He never thought he'd be this desperate to get back to the hospital, but the 'charm' of this place had taken all of a couple of days to wear off.]

So it's a combination. [He favors Occam's Razor, but he's not in the mood for critically thinking over the most elegant solution at the moment. Maybe when he is concerned about catching frostbite... or getting killed by incorporeal shadow things.] Half real town, a bit of virtual reality and puppetry, kick in drugs when they need to induce some hysteria, and you've got Snowhell, population everyone who doesn't want to be here.

Sounds to me like we're just lab rats.