Tag name:Dedcot

Life on Mars Bars

First published 22nd January 2018 (Last Modified 9th January 2021)

Thursday Lunchtime

Robbie and Ash skipped the morning lessons (with Tank successfully updating the registers to indicate that they were actually present!) to head back to check the den. Apparently there was no sign of Andy and it looks like the D&D game ended normally. The pair then tracked our route back from the den to the Ladygrove Underpass. There it would seem that our bike tracks go in the buddleia bush and stop. The bollard there shows signs of a cream coloured paint and there's a strange swirly pattern on the ground and, knowing us, we stopped to investigate a strange vehicle. The tracks indicate that the vehicle reversed back into Dedcot itself.

After some thought we conclude that the tracks must have been from a Magnatreen lifter such as those used on military and/or emergency service vehicles. One big problem with those (and why they've gone out of fashion) is the massive disruption caused by them to electronics.

Thursday evening

We decided to skip the afternoon lessons (and the coppers who had turned up at the school to investigate Andy's disappearance- we have no plans to explain what/where we were during and after the D&D game - during would reveal the den and after is a bit problematic given we've no idea!). Checking the traffic lights shows that the patterns of some of them have been disrupted and we recalled that there's a security camera overlooking the underpass. We track the cables from the camera back to an office at the station and, after some sneaking, get the tape for last night and take a look. The video signal looks boringly normal until 21:15. The tape shows an old ambulance arriving at the underpass, a burst of static, the video whiteouts for five minutes, and then the ambulance heads back out and turns east. There's no other sign of interference on the tape.

A quick check on our bikes shows a magnetic field has been induced in them. Reexamining the underpass shows a heavy boot tread.

We head to the local cottage hospital where (a) the ambulances are all new(ish), (b) Robbie is recognised and collected some medicine and (c) we remember there's that Zulu Farm place for those from Harwell who aren't mad enough for the Looney BinLittlemore Hospital, but mad enough to stop working

Big Sis, Alison, chooses to cash in her favour for not ratting out Peter this morning by getting Peter to confirm she went to the Gym instead of Reading.

While I headed off for running practice and then home, the rest rounded off the day at Tank's Farm where the coppers caught up with them and had an conversation:

What do you know about Andy's disappearance?
I dunno - we was playing D&D and then we headed home.
What about Cackhambly's camp?
I dunno - where's that
What about an 'Uncle Chuck', or 'Charlie' or 'Chaz'?
Who?
Where did you look for Andy
Err, Hmm, here, there...

Friday morning

Last night, we all had bad dreams of running away, hiding or similar. Lots of parents dropping their kids off at the school today and there's reporters all around the school. Ash briefly though that one of those drag-a-long cases was a box with many legs. All of us apart from Robbie (and Andy of course) attend School today. School assembly is about Andy's disappearance and to let the teachers/police know if there's any information to share (at which point an invisible ring opens up around us.

Friday first break

The first lesson was English and we had to do a composition. Teacher was a little freaked out that we all ended up with same story - a big old house with a new family. The kid explores the house, encounters a ghost and gets exchanged with the ghost. All except Tank that is, who wrote some kind of romantic story. Tommy swears that the teacher on playground duty was dragging copper chains behind her - but it's just some shoelaces.

There are a couple of coppers outside the school corralling the reporters.

Friday afternoon

During afternoon sports, Kin is checking out the light conditions for his photography, when a small kid runs over to collect one of their tennis balls. Very briefly it flashes blue and the kid says Errand.

Friday Evening

Robbit reported that she had scouted the farm shop at Zulu Farm - and had seen a rabbit stealing a carrot, which she woldn't have been that worrying except it was wearing a blue waistcoat!

After Robbie and Tommy check out the Ladygrove underpass again (it's now sealed off with police tape) they get a memory of the sound of an increasing whine, a bright flash and a smell of ozone.

We head out to Zulu Farm (Tommy fell in the surrouding ditch as we tried to sneak across - luckily no one came to investigate, though Tommy was covered in mud). Round the back was an old ambulance which matched that in the security video. In the centre of the courtlight is an old victorian gas lamp.

Robbie tries, but fails to look through the windows of the old stable block on the north side of the courtyard which have been converted into single room cottages, and then I fail to get onto the roof. Despairing of us both Kin breaks into the adjoining workshop and passes a set of bolt cutters to Tommy so that we can actually get into the courtyard and then into the workshop. There a lot of mechanical junk in the old hayloft above the workshop. The hayloft also has a door into the first of the stable block cottages. Robbie sneaks a peak into the cottage setting off an alarm in the process. In that cottage is a pile of electronic looking junk and two dentist-style chairs. One had an old lady in it, the other had Andy. Both had contraptions on their head connected to a football sized weird globe. A janitor man enters the room to investigate the room.

We swiftly make a plan and I jump in the room and start chasing the janitor. He looks very weird and mean and he seems to be threatening Andy, so I get scared and run away from him a lot and Robbie calmly sprays him with some Old Spice she'd nicked from her brother earlier in the day. As the janitor tries to deal with me and Robbie, Kin and Tommy jump down into the cottage and manage to disconnect Andy and nearly do the same for the old lady too by overloading it. The janitor turns to another device, flicks a switch, and we run for it, with Andy over my shoulder. Tommy trips up as we leave, but Robbie grabs him and we're off and away.

Kin makes an anonymous call to the coppers from Dedcot town as the rest of us head over to his house so that Andy can call home. Tank's Dad comes to collect Andy and we all head home for, hopefully, a good night's sleep.

Strange things in Dedcot

First published 12th December 2017 (Last Modified 9th January 2021)

Our den (with the tarpaulin down)

Thursday - First break

Andy has a lot to answer for! There we were enjoying our Sunday game of D&D, when it went all strange! Nothing to do with me or my character (Will was miles away from the box) but the next thing we know we're all a long way from the den in some old military nuclear shelter. How Andy managed that trick is definitely on the (long) list of questions for him! And couldn't he have picked somewhere better for us to end up! And not at 6am in the morning. Having to run several miles home back to Dedcot isn't a problem but explaining to my coach why I missed the early morning training session is definitely going to be a problem (at least I did, in a sense, do a training run - but convincing coach of that could be a problem. At least getting up the drainpipe back into my bedroom was straight-forward, though I need to remember to oil the window hinges - those creaks sounded awfully loud.

How I got though Thursdday without falling asleep I'll never know (though how I passed the surprise maths test in the first period is another mystery). The nuclear shelter looked like it's been abandoned since the fifties and thoroughly looted - only the stuff nailed to the floor (or too heavy to move) was still there, so why Andy sent us there is yet another question!

My character didn't even manage to snag some decent loot in the dungeon - that magic user insisted on using detect magic (though at least I guessed that would happen 🙂 ). I did get a goblin henchman though by sparing his life (I worry though about the paladin trying to kill him just because he comes up as evil (I wonder there's a way to block that?) Was the nuclear shelter part of the dungeon? If so, how and why? (For that matter, if not, how and why?!?

Interior view of the den (tarpaulin up and looking unusually tidy!)

Images from wsr.org.uk. The exterior is by John Wood and the interior by Mike Dunse by used under terms of CC BY-NC 3.0, so this post is also licensed as CC BY-NC 3.0.


Last updated: January 9, 2021 at 10:34 am
22nd January 2018
Minor updates (including changing the day of week)