Play@YSDC

Dunwich Beach - Dunwich, England
3:45 PM - Thursday, September 5, 1985

Valerie Soames drove away from the fight on the beach, the sounds of gunshots fading behind her and the fishy police left in the dust. Soon they reached a portion of the beach where tourists were present, and not long after that the place where the roads met was visible on the left. The Ship Inn was there, across the road, with the Model T still in the car park where she had left it. St. James's Street, the main street of town, stretched away to the west. Monastery Hill ran southwest, towards Virgil Soames's cottage and then the Lake Estate. Another, short road ran up to the northeast, where it ended in a car park outside a restaurant.

When the Land Rover stopped, Dr. Valerie Kirby climbed into the shotgun seat and belted herself in, glancing nervously back at the unconscious Sea Devil tied up in the rear. She leaned back and sighed. "I'll be all right," she said, relaxing a little. "Once we get out of here, that is."

I look at her and make sure she is alright. "Alright dearie, which is the best way out of here? I cannot remember the way we came in."

Dr. Kirby was uninjured, just badly shaken, though she seemed to be recovering now. "The road to the left is Monastery Hill," she said. "That leads back towards the Lake Estate, where you and your partner rescued me. I don't think we ought to head back there. If we go straight ahead on St. James's Street, that will take us through Dunwich and out the other side, past the church. That's the way I came into town originally. I remember crossing a bridge shortly before arriving."

"OK then, straight ahead it is then, let me know if you don't recognise anything, we don't want any mishaps now that we are so close to getting away." I say in a cheery voice smiling a wide smile at Dr Kirby as we head off straight ahead. I peer ahead looking for any sign of the bridge.

Valerie drove down St. James's Street, past the museum, then more cottages and a public phone booth. Past this point, the right side of the street was a marsh and more buildings were on the left. Finally they reached a church with a graveyard on the left side of the road just before a T-intersection. The street ended here, and the new road went left and right.

OOC,[b]Valerie[/b], please roll Spot Hidden.

OOC:   I'm 110% certain that I posted this earlier but hey-ho!

Having arrived at the junction, Valerie turns to Dr Kirby smiling broadly. "Well Dr Kirby, you don't mind if I call you Valerie do you, I so dislike being formal where there is no need for it, such as when we are alone? Which way do we go now, left or right?" As she says this her eyes follow left and right and as they do something catches her eye. (13/70%)

"I don't mind a bit," said Valerie Kirby with a smile, "and I'll call you Valerie as well, unless you think that would be too confusing." She looked around at the intersection. "We've been here before, on our way back into town after we escaped from the manor. That's Westleton Road. The left branch is the one we came from."

Valerie Soames could see her surroundings in excellent detail. To the right, the road curved around to the left somewhat, and after a while it crossed a bridge, beyond which was a building. The left road looked very familiar and was indeed the way they had come after giving the Rolls Royce the slip.

I nod appreciatively. "Thanks Valerie, if you call me Val, though I am not usually one for diminutives, it should stop any confusion." I laugh out loud, for the first time in what seems like months. "To the right it is then." I add cheerfully as I turn the wheel in that direction.

"Not to bring the mood down but how long do you think our 'friend' in the back will be unconscious? If needed I'd rather get petrol when he's ... quieter shall we say." I ask as I look at the petrol gauge and see if there is enough fuel to get back to HQ or not.

Dr. Kirby glanced uneasily into the backseat. "I'm not really sure, Val," she said. "A human should be in a coma with that kind of wound, but I'm not familiar with these creatures. I could go back there and examine it if you like."

The tank was nearly full, having been topped off in Halesworth, a short distance from Dunwich. There was more than enough fuel to reach London, where UNIT had its UK headquarters.

Valerie drove down the road, across the bridge, and past a building with a sign that said "Bridge House." That was the last sign of civilization for a while, as the road went into thick woods as it curved around, distorting her sense of direction. Before long, she reached an intersection where the road she was on crossed paths with another perpendicular road.

OOC,[b]Valerie[/b], please roll Navigate.

Slowing down at the crossroads I try and cast my mind back to when we came in. "Umm Valerie, three directions here, I have no memory of this place." (Navigate 96/10%)

OOC:   I typed Listen in instead of navigate for some reason

Dr. Valerie Kirby looked out the window. "I think I've been this way before," she said, "but I'm all turned around. Your guess is as good as mine."

"Well I don't recall any turns around ths point ... but then again I wasn't really paying too much attention in all fairness. I was concentrating more on getting to Dunwich to get to you Valerie. I recokon straight ahead as I can't remember any turns," so I head off slowly at first, gathering speed.

"Sounds good to me," said Dr. Kirby.

Valerie drove onwards. Dirt roads branched off on either side, but they stuck to the road they were on. Eventually, the road emerged from the forest and intersected with the B1125, which a sign identified as "Dunwich Road." It went north and south.

"I think we can find our way from here," said Dr. Kirby. "If we go north from here a short distance we'll reach Blythburg and can take the A22 southwest to Ipswich, and from there we can get to London easily enough. There will be signs to guide us from now on, and it should only take us a few hours to get there."

"Right-e-oh then Valerie, here we go, Blythburg it is, then the A22 and HQ here we come." I turn the car North and drive.

Dr. Kirby leaned back, exhaling with relief. "It feels so good to be away from there, Val," she said. "You have no idea...Shall I examine our Sea Devil friend during the ride? I won't be able to tell us much as I could in a lab, of course, but I may be able to learn a few things."

"Hmmm ..."I muse aloud. "Better to leave him unless he comes round of course." I put my foot down a bit - not enough to draw attention but enough to eat the miles up, fast.

"All right," said Valerie Kirby. "I'll just keep an eye on him, then."

After a few minutes, the Land Rover reached Blythburg, and Valerie Soames was able to get onto the A22.

OOC,I'll need to wait until the other threads progress to find out who else makes it out of Dunwich before I can have you arrive at UNIT HQ, but feel free to interact with [b]Dr. Kirby[/b] during the journey in the meantime.

OOC:   Alright - A22 it is then.

The A22 is not too busy which allows me to talk to Dr Kirby without having to concentrate too much on the road

"Well Valerie, what exactly was it that took you to that particular remote village anyway - in laywoman's term that is? I'm afraid I was never too good at all that science stuff when I was at school, though between you and me I do know a small amount about the medicinal values of certain plants. Some would call it a lost art, and back in the middle ages I guess I'd have been burned at the stake for a witch." I chuckle at the thought.

OOC:   Just trying to come up with a justification for such a high Pharmacy roll as much as anything else.

"They didn't brief you?" said Dr. Kirby. "About a week ago, a London man named Simon Armistead was found dead in his home of an apparently self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. Normally the police would handle this, but they found there were certain abnormalities about the corpse. You've seen the same sort of look on the locals here in Dunwich, so I take it you know what I mean. They called in UNIT, and Salem Shields and I conducted an autopsy. We confirmed that the manner of death was suicide caused by a shotgun wound, but what alarmed me were the abnormalities that had to be genetic. I decided to look into his family history to try to trace them back to their origins. His mother, Beth Armistead, was an historian who had died of breast cancer a few months back. His father, Miles Armistead, was still living in London. I interviewed him and collected some samples for analysis. He told me that Simon had taken a trip to Dunwich a couple of weeks after his mother's death, and he also remembered that Beth had gone there to do research on a book she was writing back in 1954, the year before Simon was born. He recalled that she seemed different after that, more aloof and sad, but she had never explained why to him, and she had never been the same after that. I convinced him to give me permission to exhume his late wife's body so I could run tests on her too.

"Neither Miles nor Beth had any trace of the anomalies I found in Simon, and that Beth did in fact die of cancer. However, I also found out that Miles could not have been Simon's biological father. I was able to tell that from blood types alone. Otherwise the testing would have taken weeks. I concluded that Simon was most likely conceived in Dunwich when Beth was there, so I headed to Dunwich to try to find out who his real father was...and I discovered the horrible truth."

I slow a little, as I fall in behind a combined harvester, I crane my neck to the right to check I am clear to overtake and move smoothly past the slow moving farm vehicle. After I pass it I say to Dr Kirby; "Yes we were briefed, but sometimes the briefings leave out little bits of information that could be relevant. By the 'horrible truth,' I assume you mean the changes the people of the village have gone through, if indeed that's what they still are?"

"Yes," said Dr. Kirby. "The Sea Devils...they can interbreed with humans. Their offspring start out looking like normal human children, but after they reach adulthood they start to change, taking on more of the characteristics of Sea Devils: bulging eyes, gills, webbed fingers and toes, that sort of thing. Eventually they'll turn into full Sea Devils. Bertie Lake is nearly there."

"Oh my goodness!" I exclaim. "I had not even thought of that ... I mean who would ... surely ... they must take any woman they have "interbred with" as you say, by force ... I ... I cannot imagine anything more revolting. Surely any sane woman would fight off these monsters." I shudder as I think of the slimy hand of the cook and the stench of the manor-house.

Valerie Kirby lowered her eyes, which were brimming with tears. "She'd certainly try, but Sea Devils are quite strong. That's what happened to poor Beth Armistead. I spoke to one of the old local fishermen, Zeke Baker. When he was younger, back in 1954, he found her washed up on the beach, naked and covered with bruises and minor injuries from claws and teeth. He managed to revive her. She had been diving, exploring the ruins of old Dunwich, but she couldn't remember what had happened to her, which is something of a mercy. It must have been so traumatic that her mind blocked it out. Zeke took her to Dr. Strong, who treated her. I spoke to him next. It took some convincing to get him to breach confidentiality, but the fact that his patient was dead and that I am also a doctor helped. In the end I had to reveal my purpose in Dunwich to get him to open up, and he confirmed that Beth had been...assaulted. One of those creatures is Simon Armistead's father.

Now Dr. Kirby did start to cry. "It almost happened to me too. It would have if you and Elliot hadn't rescued me. Bertie Lake...has a thing for me. He and his followers abducted me, probably because I was digging too deep. He told me that the Sea Devils would want to sacrifice me, but that he could convince them to let me live...if I married him. I had to pretend to agree. I needed to make sure I survived to report what I had learned one day, no matter what happened to me. The wedding was scheduled for the day after tomorrow. If you hadn't come...

She wiped her tears on the sleeve of her nightgown. "That sort of thing probably isn't the norm, though. Bertie Lake's father Josiah was fully human, but his mother was a female Sea Devil. In fact, the entire first generation of half-breeds in Dunwich were most likely the products of men mating with female Sea Devils. I find it hard to believe that any man would want to do that either, but they were promised wealth and power, and there may very well have been a degree of coercion involved. Those children would have been indoctrinated from birth into the Sea Devils' bizarre religion. By the time they grew up, many of them probably would have been willing to marry Sea Devils, and those that weren't could always marry each other."

I pull in the first lay by we come across and I take hold of the weeping Dr Kirby and hold her tight shushing her until her crying subsides. "Well it's just as well we decided to get away when we did isn't it. I only wish we had got there earlier, not just for you but for Miss Armistead as well before you. Are you alright now? I feel that we should get back to HQ sooner rather than later, but want to make sure you are alright Valerie ... I truly mean that you know." I stroke her cheek, smiling ruefully,

'So much pain for one so young.'

I purse my lips with steely determination and breathe deeply whilst looking down. "You alright now young lady?"

Dr. Kirby hugged Valerie Soames as she comforted the younger woman. "Thank you, Val," she said, smiling faintly. "You're a true friend, and I'm ever so grateful. Yes, I'm okay. I just needed a good sob. You're right, we need to get back to UNIT HQ fast. The sooner we report in, the sooner UNIT can put an end to the horrors of Dunwich."

OOC,[b]Valerie[/b], you are moving to the thread linked below.

Debriefing