31/03/2019 Episode One
Friday, 14 April 2017
Gerald Zimmermann tells the others about the Winthorpe Institute for Dream Research, which is looking for volunteers to do sleepovers. It is in Cambridgeshire, north of London. The Institute will pay expenses and feed them, and all they are required to do is let them monitor their dreams.
Gerald is going there as part of his job and he is happy to take others there in his car. After a lot of talk, Amy, John, Damien and even Sebastian decide to go with for a few days and see how it goes.
Gerald agrees to give everyone a lift to the Institute, which is in North Cambridge. He owns a big 4x4 Mercedes G Class that can carry them all.
Car Accident
During the journey, they are delayed by road closures and end up in some rural roads in Cambridgeshire.
While they are driving along such a road, they see ahead a car driving erratically. It swerves into their lane and despite Gerald’s efforts to avoid it, crashes into them, scraping down the side of the car and causing the 4x4 to drop into a ditch.
The erratic car hits another car that is behind them, before coming to a halt further down the road. The other car that was hit goes past their car then pulls up.
Amy has been injured, suffering a significant blow to the head. Sebastian is in pain but nothing serious, everyone else is fine.
Damien gives Amy first aid while Sebastian gets out of the car. Gerald tries to move the car out of the ditch, but the angle is too bad and his efforts only result in the car getting more stuck.
Strange Noises
John and Sebastian try to call 999, but John has no signal and Sebastian’s call does not connect. Instead he hears a strange rhythmic hissing noise.
Sebastian goes to the car in front of them and speaks to a woman in her 30s who is shocked and annoyed by the antics of the crazy driver.
Damien goes to check the crazy driver’s car. When he gets there, he sees the car is in a terrible state, smashed and one of the wheels buckled. However, the driver is not in the cabin.
Damien is disturbed to hear that the radio is playing white noise, but with an odd rhythmic pattern.
Crazy Man
There is a guttural growling noise and a wild-eyed, injured man raises up from behind the car, wielding a broken bender. He is wearing some sort of uniform. The man swings wildly at Damien, who is able to dodge the blows, though he is surprised by the man’s apparent strength.
A car approaches and the crazed man tries to stand in front of it. The car slows down, horn blaring and then swerves around him. The car pulls up and the driver shouts profanities at the crazed man.
The crazed man then runs for the car and jumps on the back of it. The car pulls away and the crazy man is thrown off, still clutching the broken back window wiper.
John meanwhile notices that there is something tall with lights on it, not that far away in a field. Possibly a radio mast?
As suddenly as he became aggressive, the crazed man calms down, humming a random rhythmic tune to himself and standing in the road. Damien gives him a wide birth and looks out for other cars.
A car comes from the other direction. The crazed man is still standing in the road and the driver slows down, blowing his horn and flashing his lights. Damien shouts a warning to turn off the lights, but the crazed man growls and leaps onto the car bonnet, punching the window screen.
Damien now steps in and grapples the crazed man. He is wild and strong but not unnaturally strong and Damien is able to pull him off the car. He gets Gerald and Sebastian to help subdue and tie his hands, using kit from Damien’s bag.
Call the Police!
Damien speaks to the driver of the car that has stopped. He is furious and annoyed about the cracked window screen. Damien persuades him to drive away from this area until he can get a signal, then call the emergency services.
The crazed man has gone passive again, panting from exhaustion and humming to himself in an odd rhythmic tune that Sebastian recognises from his phone and Damien recalls from the car radio.
Radio Telescopes
Meanwhile, John has been trying to get his phone to work and he suddenly notices there is a message from the dark website. It is some sort of big long jumble of characters, but there is an odd oscillating pattern to it.
He looks up and sees that the light in the field nearby is from a Radio Telescope dish that has moved slightly and is more visible.
Checking the uniform the crazed man is wearing, Damien sees that is says “Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory - Security”. When John mentions the Radio Telescope, Damien says that is where the man comes from.
Damien then sees some sort of weird, auric colours coming from the sky, hitting the Radio Telescope and spreading out over a wide area.