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[Website] Dales Journal

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Sandra
Decorated

Joined: 06 Apr 2003
Posts: 252

http://www.thewishcomic.com/journal/081606.html

Quote:

August 16, 2006: It's funny how life can change in 48 hours. Yes, I know how cliched that sentence is, and for someone who fancies himself a writer, cliches are almost always a bad choice. But cliche or not, it's also never been more true.

Sunday night, right around 10:30, I found out that my daughter, Meaghan, was missing. I'm not going to go into detail about how she ended up missing, you can read my last last post for that. But I do want to tell you about what happened after that, how we ended finding her in the Pine Barrens surrounding Aglaura, and how it wouldn't have been possible without the help of a group of amazing people.

I spent most of the rest of Sunday night alternating between calling people, panicking, driving the streets of the town, panicking, sending out emails . . . You get the idea. We had no idea at that point that Meaghan had gone off by herself into the woods, so we were checking with all of her friends to see if she was with them, and also driving to any place we thought she might go to be alone for a while. We of course got the Aglaura Police involved quickly, once we were sure she wasn't any of the places we imagined she might be, but it was already Monday morning by then and it was beginning to look like we weren't going to get anywhere at least until the sun came up.

By Monday morning, the whole town knew that Meaghan was missing and was asking how they could help. And so were all of my online friends. Despite the emotional Hell I was going through, it was a great feeling to know so many people were out there willing to help. It wasn't until Bruce managed to figure out that Meg had taken some of his papers, particularly some maps and drawings of the Pine Barrens, that we realized where she was.

Mobilizing an organized search of an area like the Pine Barrens isn't an easy or quick task and it was several hours before we were anywhere near ready. The wait was terrible, and I kept seeing Meaghan, scared, alone, and possibly hurt, out there somewhere in those woods. It was too much for Diana to take, and she ended up taking off and going out looking for Meaghan by herself, with just a cell phone. It was a stupid and impulsive thing to do, but it ended up being the key to finding and saving our daughter.

Late in the afternoon, as dozens of people were gathering at the municipal building, Diana actually called us and said she had somehow, unbelievably found Meaghan, but they were still lost in the woods. After that the call was dropped, a result of the very spotty coverage in the Barrens. Looking back, it was a miracle her phone even worked long enough to get that call through to us. That call inspired Sam Greene, my clever and amazing friend, to come up with a plan that used other cell phones to repeatedly call Diana's cell, in an effort to measure the signal strength, and then triangulate her position. It actually sounded like magic or hi-tech voodoo when she tried to explain it to me, but damn if it didn't work just like she said it would. I'm working on some pictures to show you just how beautiful it was, and once I get them ready I'll upload them here along with the rest of this tale.

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 2:52 am

Sylvia
I Have No Life

Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 2062

http://www.thewishcomic.com/journal/081706.html

Quote:

August 17, 2006: It was after dinner before Sam had everything ready to go, and both Bruce and I were so anxious to get going by then that we started picking fights with each other over personal stuff. We were both just taking out our frustrations on each other, and as it began to look more and more like we were almost ready to go, we managed to re-focus on the matter at hand - Meaghan.

For about ten minutes, right before we all headed off into the Pine Barrens, Bruce and I did have a heart-to-heart about Meaghan and what's been going on with her. If it wasn't such a serious situation it would have almost been funny; we both honestly felt as if we were primarily to blame, although both of us had to stammer through an admission of the same. Bruce blamed himself for the stress that his relationship and cohabitation (his word, not mine) with Diana had caused Meg, and I continue to blame myself for the failed relationship and divorce in the first place. Not to mention how downright strange and pre-occupied I've been acting lately. It's no wonder she's been acting weird herself.

Thank God we had flashlights, as it was getting dark when we started spreading out into the woods. Sam had created ten teams and made sure each one was equipped with one of her specially rigged phones, and Bruce and I basically made up an eleventh search team. We entered the Barrens at the south end of town, with the intent of working westward from there. We figured that area was the most likely place for Meaghan and Diana to be, especially if Meg originally ran off chasing after whatever she thinks is out there hidden in the woods.

The other ten search teams were spread out through the Barrens, basically all along Aglaura's eastern, southern, and western borders. It wasn't too long before Sam's crazy-sounding plan to begin to pay off, as one of the teams somewhere on the western edge of town, out just beyond the industrial park, actually got a call through to Diana's phone, with a signal strength of about 10%.

This image shows the approximate area where the first signal could have possibly come from, based on the 10% strength. Still quite a huge area admittedly, but at least we had already begun to narrow down the huge task ahead of us.

Bruce and I immediately began moving more to the west when one of my online friends sent me a message with news of the reading. They really were invaluable in helping guide Bruce and I (and everyone else) in the correct direction, right from the start.

Two more images, the first showing the second successful reading we got and the next showing the overlapping area of the two readings.

Despite the excitement of trying to find our way through the Pine Barrens in the dark, even with flashlights, and receiving word about all the other search teams getting signals, it was still a very strange and surreal experience running through the woods, especially with Bruce Abbott at my side. It reminded me of a time, years ago, when Bruce and I were running full speed through the woods outside of State College, PA, after tipping over one of the neighboring farmers' cows. Yes, I know, I know. That's a terrible thing to do, but in my defense, it was college, I may have been drunk, and I was certainly incredibly immature. And I blame Bruce for the whole thing, anyway.

The following series of images tells the story as well as I could, so check them out.

http://www.thewishcomic.com/journal/081706_part2.html

Quote:

August 17, 2006 Part 2: Below are some more images that show the series of events leading up to us finally locating Meaghan and Diana in the Pine Barrens just southwest of town.

The image to the left shows the 3rd reading, the first time we got simultaneous readings from more than one team. The right image shows the 4th set of readings, again two at once.

The image on the left shows all of the readings up to this point overlapping, with the lightest area showing the most likely spot for Diana and Meaghan to be found.

The last image shows just the narrowed down search area, based on the results of Sam's wonderful triangulation idea, and just how close it brought Bruce and I to Meg and Diana before my phone finally managed to register a successful call, at a 90% signal strength.

Once we had received that signal, Bruce began running all over the area, calling out there names over and over again. I heard him trip and fall over branches and other stuff several times and he dashed about like a madman. We continued to move a little west until my phone finally picked up Diana's signal again, this time at a full 100%. There was still no sign of them though, nor any sound of them, once I managed to get Bruce to be quiet long enough to listen for a minute.

Finally, I got a text message from an online helper suggesting that I should look for caves or mines in the area, and right afterward got a call from Sam saying Iris was now shouting the same thing over and over again. It was right after that I saw a large dark area on the ground ahead of us. It's good I did see it, because we easy could have stumbled unknowingly into it in the dark. While Bruce was looking for something to lower us down, I decided to just take a chance and lowered myself over the edge. Not knowing how far down it was, I let go - and dropped I'd guess about ten feet or so before I hit the bottom.

I smelled Brad's body almost immediately. I've been told I shouldn't have been able to. He'd been out there long enough that the traditional dead body odor should have been gone, so maybe it was the cave or something. In any case it made me gag and I knew it was the scent of death before I even put my flashlight on the corpse. I knew it wasn't Meg or Diana when I saw it, and yelled up to Bruce that I had found a body. Before he could answer I heard a soft cry beyond the light of my flashlight, and I knew then I had found them. They had both fallen asleep from exhaustion, and it was Meg's crying in her sleep that caught my attention.

The rest is a blur of tears and overwhelming joy. Christ, I think I even hugged Diana for about five minutes before I let go. I owe so many people I don't even know where to begin, so I'm just going to say one big and all-encompassing "Thank you." You've given me something that's priceless - a second chance at making a difference, and doing what I am supposed to do. I won't let you down.

sr1_2_both.jpg
Description	Part 1
Filesize	20.88KB
Viewed	728 Time(s)

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:59 pm
Last edited by Sylvia on Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:13 pm; edited 2 times in total

Sylvia
I Have No Life

Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 2062

For some reason I can't get the images to post in order so I put part 2 here.

sr3_4_both.jpg
Description	Part 2
Filesize	28.38KB
Viewed	730 Time(s)

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 6:44 pm
Last edited by Sylvia on Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:13 pm; edited 1 time in total

Sylvia
I Have No Life

Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 2062

Update http://www.thewishcomic.com/journal/081806.html

Quote:

August 18, 2006: You know, even though we successfully found Meaghan and Diana, I can't help feeling that we left something undone or unresolved out there in the woods on Monday night. Something that I was supposed to do or something that was supposed to happen but didn't, for whatever reason. I know I'm being vague, even for me, but that's how this feeling is - vague, unfocused, undefined.

Thinking back on what happened, it's a miracle we ever found them in that cave, since there must be hundreds if not thousands of caves out there like that in, or should I say below, the Pine Barrens. And that was the second miracle of the day. Diana finding Meaghan in the first place, after only being out in the woods looking for her by herself for a couple of hours was almost too lucky to believe, too. When I asked Diana about it all she would say was, "Mother's intuition." I guess I shouldn't dismiss that, after all the crazy stuff I've been through lately, but it still feels incomplete to me. I haven't really had a chance to talk in detail to Meg about it, because Diana didn't want anyone even bringing it up around Meaghan in the first few days after the incident. But she's coming here for the weekend, so it's time we had a long talk about everything.

So yes, even though we found the cave that Meg and Diana had fallen into, we didn't find the cave that Keith's video showed, the one with the strange machines. And I think that's what's bothering me. That, and Brad Wheeler's body. It's obvious someone killed him, probably out in the woods much like Keith has described to me, but if they are capable of that, why leave the body out there where someone might find it like we did? Or, maybe, just maybe, it wasn't left there at all. Maybe it was placed there.

Think about it, it's the perfect wrap up to all of our ongoing Pine Barrens mysteries, isn't it? At least, the official ones. Meaghan's no longer missing, neither is Brad (even though he's dead), and right at the time when the guy who supposedly took the masks is coming back to town, so there's no longer any reason to go out and poke around the woods. And the whole thing backs up Marzent's explanation of the fenced-in areas out there too, since Meg and Diana fell in just such a hole and we're lucky it wasn't deeper or they would have broken their necks. Woah. It just hit me. I'll bet that's the official explanation for Brad's condition too. It's all so, so - perfect.

The Pine Barrens. That's where the answer lies. It's what ties everything together, somehow. I've been out there a couple times looking for answers without any success, I know. But those times I was by myself, and ill prepared. Now I have friends and a better understanding of what I am up against.

I wonder if I can use Sam's cell phone hack to get to the bottom of this.

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 4:21 am

Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

Update:

Quote:

August 20, 2006: Meaghan and I had a great weekend together, even if it did keep me from going out to the Pine Barrens as I wanted to. And not just me, either. As soon as I mentioned the idea to Bruce he just about jumped out of his chair to say, "I'm in." Even Sam, little Miss I hate the Outdoors, wants to go along, but we can't figure out how her cell phone thing would work without her being at her post to take care of it for us. Nevertheless, I think that's a battle yet to be fought when we actually set down and get ready to go into the woods. Which hopefully will be tomorrow or the next day, depending on when Bruce can manage it now.

Like I said though, I wouldn't have traded my time with Meaghan this weekend for anything. We talked like we haven't in years, about anything and everything either of us could think about. I panicked when she started asking me about boys and, well, you know. I am so not ready for that. Did I ask my parents those kinds of questions when I was 11? And why me? Why not her Mom? I got through it, although for a while when she was insisting I tell her more, I thought honestly I was going to have to resort to drawing some stick figures or something.

She's changed somewhat since the "lost in the woods" thing; she doesn't seem nearly so depressed, even though she still has my natural tendency not to open up without really being prodded first. When we finally got around to the topic of her taking off and getting lost, she actually said she did it all to help me. Somehow, between all of my crazy writings in my comic and on this website, and Keith's 307 talk thrown on top, she became convinced that something was out there in the woods that would make everything better. When I asked her, "What? What could be out there that could help, that would be safe enough for you to go to on your own?", she said simply, "An old friend."

That's when she started in about the boy stuff, so I couldn't press her on it anymore. I meant to get back around to it, but we spent a couple of hours curled up together on the couch watching a movie, and I didn't want to disturb that.

She just left a little while ago. I think I am going to cruise down to the municipal building and see if Sam's around. I'd bet anything she's there working on the thing I mentioned at the start of this.

_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 1:52 am

Sylvia
I Have No Life

Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 2062

Quote:

she said simply, "An old friend."

Wonder who that could be? Digitalis ???

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:09 am

fonograph
Boot

Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 55
Location: the future!

Sylvia wrote:

Quote:

she said simply, "An old friend."

Wonder who that could be? Digitalis ???

Wes.

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:13 am

RedHatty
Unfictologist

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1428
Location: x��Jy��VJvk

What about Brad? - I know he was killed, but if there is a reality shift/multiple dimenson portal in the barrens.....?

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:15 am

Sylvia
I Have No Life

Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 2062

fonograph, I forgot about Wes. I bet that's who it is.

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:27 am

Sandra
Decorated

Joined: 06 Apr 2003
Posts: 252

It could be Keith - since it seems the 307 stuff may have been part of what she found.

Keith has a role to play in all of this and I don't think it's just a guy who got interested in some abandoned buildings.

Also, remember how Meaghan "took" to Keith so quickly - almost as if there were a connection.

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:35 am

Sylvia
I Have No Life

Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 2062

Update Private Entry http://www.thewishcomic.com/journal/082106.html

Quote:

August 21, 2006: We did it. And as it turned out, it took all of us, each playing our special role, working together. But we did it. It feels good to finally be on a little roll of successes here, what with finding Meaghan and now this.

Success wasn't without a price though. We decided it was better to do it at night again. With Sam's cell phone tracking technology and the maps I had been working on, we were fairly confident that we wouldn't get lost or anything. Unfortunately it meant we didn't get finished and back until fairly late, and I guess Diana freaked out when Bruce came trotting in. She threw his ass out for good this time, and he's here, on my couch now. Talk about a strange turn of events. And some uncomfortable accommodations. I'm praying it's temporary.

I'm sure she's pissed at me too, so there's no way I'm returning the phone message she left for me. It said something about some clothes she thinks Meaghan left here, but from the tone of her voice I think it might have been while she was looking for and getting pissed about Bruce not being home. So I'll pass, for now. I'm too tired to deal with that, and it's way too late anyway. Yes, I know you want details about what we found out there but it'll have to wait until tomorrow, I'm exhausted from trekking about those woods, and climbing down into a couple different holes in the ground.

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 1:49 am

Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

Well, ain't that just a kick in the [insert sensitive body part here]?

_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 2:25 am

pagrashtak
Veteran

Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Posts: 78

It looks like everyone's lining up, with Diana and Marzent on one side and (most) everybody else on the other.

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:21 am

drizjr
Unfictologist

Joined: 28 Nov 2003
Posts: 1700

[UPDATE] Dale's Journal Aug 24th

Private entry update at http://www.thewishcomic.com/journal/082406.html

Quote:

August 24, 2006: With everything else going on, I hadn't checked my various email accounts thoroughly until today. It seems someone tried to grab Keith and he's taken off for who knows where. Well, actually some people do know, I guess, and they're doing their best to help him out. He thinks the guys who came after him were the same ones he saw in the woods, the people who killed Brad Wheeler, but Bruce thinks they might have been Marzent employees, for some reason. I can't do much to help him from here, except by getting to the bottom of all this as quickly as possible. That hopefully will put an end to any danger he, or anyone else, is in over this.

And I think we just night have the evidence we need, at least to figure out how Marzent ties into everything. Like I said the other day, we found the cave that Keith filmed with all of the strange machines in it. Or one of them, anyway. You see, both Bruce and I are convinced that this is only one of many such caves out there in the woods, ringing the town, all filled with this weird electronic and mechanical equipment designed to do - well, that's just it, we don't know what it's purpose is. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We found the cave due to a combination of Sam's cell phone tracking ability and the newly scaled maps I had come up with. Using the 307 symbol as a guide, and the known location of the first mark on the inner ring, where Keith found the first mask, we were able to move in a straight line away from town until we found the right cave. We knew we were getting close when we came across a chain link fence with a sign bearing the Marzent logo, and it wasn't too hard getting over that initial obstacle. Inside though, we found what we thought was the same cave Keith had been in and filmed, but it now had a steel grate over the top, locked with a thick, brand new padlock. Seems someone had tried to upgrade their security a little, based on all the attention the area had received lately. They probably didn't count on a Marzent employee being there who just so happened to have a master set of keys that opened the standard batch of company locks. Good old Bruce saved the day. See what I mean by we were all needed to play our parts?

I've probably said too much already here in this Journal though, and since we are not quite sure what we are dealing with yet, I'm going to follow up with a more private means of communication, I think.

Stay safe, I think we are getting close.

Incidentally, the source code tag on this is 
The previous entry http://www.thewishcomic.com/journal/082106.html is also 
So, except for the missed entry posted about here, the entry codes in source have been in numeric order up to now.
edit: to add that the source for this update now reads  Wink

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:39 am
Last edited by drizjr on Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:23 am; edited 1 time in total

Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

Hmmm. I sent Dale an email saying I didn't trust the AIN for the content I was sharing and told him all about our spec on the possible use for the equipment.
He never replied.

_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:56 am

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