“I think I was counting down to the comet even more fervently than the followers were."
Detective Gray Cooper investigates the case of a missing young woman, whose mother fears has joined a cult.
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00;00;05;01 - 00;00;33;15
Det. Gray Cooper
I'm Gray Cooper, private detective. According to the Department of Homeland Security, my business doesn't exist. But according to the blockchain, a government address pays my bills. The following are the recordings of my caseload. For insurance purposes, you understand? See, I deal in the strange. The place where monsters and conspiracies dance. The kind of strange you're not quite sure is real or unreal.
00;00;34;12 - 00;00;46;18
Det. Gray Cooper
Officially, the following case did not happen. I told you nothing. Welcome to The Strange Chronicles.
00;00;52;01 - 00;00;52;17
Det. Gray Cooper
Oh.
00;00;55;00 - 00;01;14;25
Det. Gray Cooper
Case Law 939 April 3rd Year 2053. I've been summoned to a small town called Celeste. It houses about 200 people in upstate New York. Doreen Smith has requested my help in retrieving her missing 20 year old daughter, Jane. From what she calls a cult.
00;01;18;23 - 00;01;39;03
Det. Gray Cooper
It was a pleasant drive up. The long spells on the highway gave me time to think and unwind. Just me and my 62 Nova. I converted her to electric a few years ago. I call her a hero when I get to the home of Jane Smith. I'm greeted by a few armed men in overalls. Doreen comes out to escort me inside, telling them I'm verified.
00;01;39;16 - 00;02;04;28
Det. Gray Cooper
Whatever that means, they seem content with checking out Hero. I shoot back over my shoulder if I come out and there's a scratch on her. Jane won't be the only missing person around here. I tell Doreen straight away that because Jane is an adult, I cannot do anything but confirm her whereabouts. Doreen understands, but insists that if an outsider tells Jane that she's involved in a cult, that she'll listen.
00;02;05;13 - 00;02;35;14
Det. Gray Cooper
She's a very bright girl, but susceptible to outside influence. She handed me a photo of her very symmetrical girl with wide eyes and long, dark hair. Doreen serves us water and tells me about the cult. It's all based on gadgets. Comet. You know the comet discovered in photography from the web for telescope in 2041. Dr. Abel Schmidt's A.I. cat named Gadget spotted it first, hence the name, while Doreen tells me that the town of Celeste is small.
00;02;35;21 - 00;02;56;21
Det. Gray Cooper
Very small. All but three families the Smiths, the Joneses and the Adamses have avoided joining the cult. The rest of the 260 people in town have gone crazy. They claim the comet is actually an alien ship on its way here to return them to their home planet. They promise that upon return to their planet they will live lives of abundance and peace.
00;02;57;07 - 00;03;24;13
Det. Gray Cooper
Not sure why they would have left in the first place if life was so ideal, but that doesn't sound too bad. But Doreen is afraid that they might harm themselves when the comet passes as some sort of transcendence ritual. I suppose this is the point where Doreen points me in their direction. She tells me that their leader is called the Prime and that he should know where Jane is.
00;03;28;24 - 00;03;52;21
Det. Gray Cooper
I park Heathrow and look across the expanse of field of swaying grass. There's no one around and the sky is all I could see. So I started walking. Eventually, I saw a head pop up and another a further back. They looked like Whac-A-Mole from a Carnival VR. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by barefoot men, women and children, all wearing the color red.
00;03;53;02 - 00;04;12;03
Det. Gray Cooper
I said, Hello, but they all stared. We stood there in a silent staring contest that I was determined not to lose. Not wanting to tip them off for the reason for my visit right away. I asked them if they knew the energy source propelling the comet. I didn't recognize any of them from the photo Doreen had shown me.
00;04;13;03 - 00;04;41;27
Det. Gray Cooper
A little girl took my hand and began to lead me from the circle. I was unsettled, but not afraid. We walked further than I had expected, and I had to hide how winded I was when we arrived at their camp, tents and gear surrounded a bare dirt circle marked on the ground. There was flute music playing in the air, was busy.
00;04;42;12 - 00;04;52;18
Det. Gray Cooper
The little girl stopped in front of a gray tent. There was a little gang outside where she picked up a wooden mallet lying on the ground in front of it and hit it twice.
00;04;55;28 - 00;05;19;19
Det. Gray Cooper
The tent unzipped from the inside and a slight man in his toes came outside. He wore an untucked button down shirt unbuttoned to the chest, revealing a leather necklace with a moon pendant that hung with his breezy expression. I expected someone old, someone commanding the prime was neither. He smiled at me and asked my name and what I've come for.
00;05;19;26 - 00;05;38;00
Det. Gray Cooper
I told him I came for the comet and he laughed too long and too hard. And then they all laughed with him. Acting lessons must not be one of the seminars they offer. He said, if I wanted to join them, I had to contribute, make an offering to the comet. To be sure, I had a seat on the ship when it came.
00;05;38;16 - 00;05;57;21
Det. Gray Cooper
I agreed, and a woman with silver dreadlocks took me to the circle where they were basket weaving. I don't have a crafty bone in my body, so even though they were kind enough to show me the basics, I held the dry grass and just sort of petted it as I looked around, hoping to spot Jean.
00;05;59;29 - 00;06;25;10
Det. Gray Cooper
From that vantage, I couldn't find her. So I got up and took a walk around to the different stations. Some who are making cornmeal. There was beadwork. And some were washing dishes. That's when I spotted checking her hands. French bread, making red splatters with whatever was in front of her. I held tight the small club in my pocket.
00;06;29;08 - 00;06;49;28
Det. Gray Cooper
When I got closer, I could see that she was hunched over a pile of cherries. She was using a hitting tool. I sighed in relief. It's bad for business to injure your missing persons subject. Even if you do find out there are murderers. Zombie. I said hello and asked her to tell me what drew her to the group.
00;06;50;09 - 00;07;11;25
Det. Gray Cooper
She said that stories about being a descendant from aliens had long been told in town, even in families who hadn't joined the Prime and his followers. I asked what she thought about others calling it a cult. She shot me a look that said, Shut up, gray, and then put down her work. She calmly hurried off behind a tent at the far end of the group.
00;07;12;03 - 00;07;31;16
Det. Gray Cooper
I followed her, giving her some distance, and just when I thought I'd lost her, an arm grabbed me from behind and a hand covered my mouth, pulling me into a tent. It was Jane. She asked me what I was doing there, and I told her that her parents had sent me, that they feared the Prime would lead her to her death.
00;07;32;03 - 00;07;50;24
Det. Gray Cooper
Jane began to cry and said that she was torn and that she felt something deep in her heart, telling her that Gadget's Comet truly was the way home for her and her people. She asked if I would stay until the next night when the comet was meant to pass. If she was still there. I could take her back to her mother.
00;07;51;00 - 00;08;09;23
Det. Gray Cooper
I reluctantly agreed. I helped Jane pick more cherries, and then we slept on the floor of a tent with no sleeping bags, no blankets, just a thin layer of nylon beneath us. I think I was counting down to the comet even more fervently than the followers were.
00;08;12;14 - 00;08;43;10
Det. Gray Cooper
We ate some cornbread and cherries for breakfast and spent the day braiding pieces of grass for the basket weavers. I never did get the hang of it. By evening, I was ready to leave the kind but sweaty followers of gadgets Comet. We were about an hour away from departure when Jane was summoned by the Prime. I waited outside his tent while she went in nearly 20 minutes later, Jane rushed outside in tears, and she said she was leaving.
00;08;43;21 - 00;09;05;00
Det. Gray Cooper
The comet was passing in less than an hour, but she was determined and said goodbye to no one. We made our way across the field and she wouldn't say what had changed her mind after meeting with the Prime. Finally, the shine of my Nova was in view.
00;09;09;02 - 00;09;24;02
Det. Gray Cooper
Jane and I drove back to town as the darkness set in just before we got there. We hit a roadblock. Armed men stood in front of cars. We slowed for a town of 200. They sure had their share of munitions.
00;09;27;19 - 00;09;48;10
Det. Gray Cooper
I stopped the car and we approached on foot. A man wearing a pin that read Adams lowered his weapon when he saw Jane. Doreen came running from behind the vehicle and Jane rushed to reunite with her. Doreen thanked me and said the roadblock was for the followers in case they tried to do anything to the town. They were grateful that I returned, Jane.
00;09;48;17 - 00;10;01;28
Det. Gray Cooper
And honestly, I felt like, besides sleeping in a very uncomfortable tent, that I hadn't done much at all. I got back in my car and decided to pay a little visit to the Prime and see exactly what had transpired with Jane.
00;10;06;05 - 00;10;35;25
Det. Gray Cooper
I looked at my rearview and could still see Jane and Doreen walking away from the barricade. Doreen her arm dangled around Jane in a protective way that only a mother does when suddenly the entire sky lit up. I hit the brakes and covered my head and dove into the passenger seat. When the sky was black again, I sat up, looked in the rearview, and everyone was gone.
00;10;36;06 - 00;10;57;04
Det. Gray Cooper
I pulled a U-turn and went back to where I'd left Jane and Doreen. When I got out of the car, all I saw were piles of clothes where people once were. The guns were on the ground. Jane and Doreen gone. I found Jane's Red Sundress lying next to Doreen's jeans and sweater. A silver cherry. Pitre glistened next to them.
00;10;57;24 - 00;11;03;04
Det. Gray Cooper
I jumped back into Hero and headed for the Prime and his followers.
00;11;05;06 - 00;11;28;09
Det. Gray Cooper
When I got to the field, I jogged all the way to their camp. This time no one finds me. I was not prepared for what I found. All of them were lying in the circle, dead. I checked the pulse of the woman with the silver hair who made the baskets. Nothing. They all look sunburned. Radiation poisoning. I had to get out of there.
00;11;28;17 - 00;11;57;03
Det. Gray Cooper
I ran back to the car, popped an iodine pill from the glove box and called Joe. Later, we found the comet had produced some sort of gamma particle blast over Celeste. I was the lone survivor. Apparently, I was saved by the old fashioned materials. Hero is made out of lead, fiberglass and steel. That's the second time she's saved my life.
00;11;58;22 - 00;12;26;01
Det. Gray Cooper
I met Joe at the airport an hour away, and he drove back to Massachusetts with me. I was too distraught to drive alone. We drove in silence the whole way home. He's a good egg, Joe. We don't know exactly what happened the night of Gadget's Comet in the town of Celeste, New York. All that's left now is the story of people who claimed alien lineage left roasted in a field and those who didn't.
00;12;26;08 - 00;12;56;04
Det. Gray Cooper
Blowing in the wind. We do know that there was a strange cult, all of whom died from radiation poisoning and several families who turned up missing. Maybe they did return home after all. Maybe it was the Adamses, the Smiths and the Joneses who were the cult all along, and the Prime and his groupies. All gullible marks. Whatever the true explanation, I hope that Jane and Doreen are happy and that they truly get to live out their existence in peace with all the abundance they'll ever need.
00;12;56;18 - 00;13;46;18
Det. Gray Cooper
It gives me hope that maybe here on Earth we could find the same stop. This has been an episode of the Strange Chronicles of Fiction podcast. You can follow us on Instagram at the Strange Chronicles podcast or email us at info at the Strange Chronicles dot com. This has been a kings of content production. Thank you for listening and.