Runaway: A Road Adventure

{4} CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FOURTH KIND :-

[192] Brian and Gina arrive in Hopi territory. Gina has an accident and Wupuchim materializes. He is a Hopi chief and gives advice to Brian who continues alone, arriving at a deserted town called Douglasville.

Exhaust all dialog options with Sushi Douglas and learn about the history of Douglasville.

[193] Enter the sheriff’s office and look around.

[194] There’s a cell with a 100 year old dead man inside it. There’s nothing you can do about him since the cell is locked.

[195] Take the pile of wood stacked alongside the cell … 5 nice logs.

[196] Enter the wrecked bank and look around.

[197] Behind the cash register are shelves broken and open. Take the metallic object from the bottom shelf. It’s an old fashioned stapler with only 3 staples (like old rivets used by cobblers).

[198] Look at what was probably J.T Douglas’ desk (roughly center screen) and get something from it. It’s a bank-stamp … with the letters “BD”, Bank of Douglasville, embossed on it.

[199] A huge blunt instrument has made a large hole to the basement (at the bottom middle of the screen). Brian doesn’t see why he should try to go down there!

[200] Return and talk to Sushi again. Find out all about the dead man in the cell and the safe in the basement of the bank.

[201] Go back to the bank and try to go down to the basement using the large hole. That doesn’t work … there’s too much dirt and rubble.

[202] Enter the saloon (the building at the bottom right corner of the screen).

[203] Just below the foot of the stairs is a flower pot … take it.

[204] Immediately to the right of the foot of the stairs is an opening to a small room … it’s a gardening shed. Go in and have a look around for something useful. You come out with a pair of pruning shears.

[205] Go upstairs and talk to the guy who’s sculpting there. His name is Kevin, but everybody calls him Saturn. Exhaust all dialog options with him and get more info.

[206] Look at the statues and other items up there. Around the middle of the room is a wood and metal device. On it stands a 10 pound bucket of red paint.

[207] Pull the lever on the device … maybe it’s some kind of brake?

[208] GEEZ! It’s a catapult and the bucket of paint is launched sky high landing in the ruins of the bank. Saturn is NOT amused!

[209] Go to the bank and look at the results of Brian’s not minding his own business, i.e. the wasted red paint.

[210] Between the hotel and the sheriff’s office is a passageway. Look at the supply wagon there and the strapping attached to it.

[211] Use your pruning shears to cut off 6 to 8 yards of strapping.

[212] Leave town (bottom left hand corner of your monitor screen) and you’re on another map … see [127].

[213] Go to the “?” fairly near to the bottom right hand corner of the map … Mama Dorita’s house.

Exhaust all dialogs with Oscar, the huge but placid guy who is guarding the entrance to the house. You can’t get past him to see Mama Dorita. Oscar is constantly chewing “menthol chewin’ tobacky” … it helps him pass the time.

[214] To the left of Oscar is a ladder leaning up against a wall. Look at and pick up the clay vessel that’s on the ground next to the ladder.

[215] Move back towards a skull and shrunken head. On the ground beside the well (to the right of the skull) is an unusually artistic weird looking stone, with a hole in the middle like a doughnut! Pick it up.

[216] Return to the map and go to the “?” location near to the top right of the map. It’s a Crater and when Brian descends he meets Joshua, a strange man wearing a telepathic helmet for communicating with “Trantor” and other extra terrestrials.

[217] Exhaust all dialogs with Joshua. He has a very large ‘communication machine’ which is supposed to open a door and facilitate contact with these beings. Trouble is, the machine’s rotor is not receiving any power and hence won’t work!

[218] Brian has the bright idea of hitching the rear wheel of Joshua’s motorcycle to the communication machine and gives him the long strap.

[219] But first the strap has to be made into a large loop. In inventory use the ancient stapler to join the ends of the strap.

[220] Leave Joshua for 5 minutes. He hasn’t done it. Brian should have threaded the strap through the rear axle first but forgot. The only solution is to remove the rear wheel of the motor cycle. But Joshua needs a number-10 wrench to do this … and he hasn’t got one.

[221] Return to Douglasville. Enter the saloon. Go upstairs to Saturn and talk to him … ‘You see, “mon ami”, there’s something I wanted to ask you…’. Then ask him for a number-10 wrench. He tells you to take it from the set of tools hanging on the wall.

[222] Go to the tool board. Look at it and take a number-10 wench. DARN! All the wrenches are there except the particular one you need.

[223] Talk to Saturn again. He forgot, he just used it and it’s in his pocket. He carelessly flips it over. But Brian fails to catch it, and the wrench flies through the open door across the balcony, and down into the street.

[224] Go down to the street. The wrench doesn’t seem to be there. Hold on … it’s submerged in a literally stinking trough. Brian is NOT going to stick his hand into that mess!

[225] Go back into the saloon, upstairs and out onto the balcony.

[226] About half way along the balcony and next to the middle fold-back door (and fairly easily overlooked) is an object on the floor. Pick it up. It is a sanding block.

[227] Drop the flower pot onto the street.

[228] Go downstairs and out. The trough has been overturned. Get the wrench.

[229] Return to the crater. Give the wrench to Joshua. He says it will take him 5 minutes. So leave and immediately return.

[230] Trouble again! Joshua tells Brian that his motorcycle has run out of gasoline.

[231] Back once more to Douglasville and talk with Saturn. Again talk to him … ‘You see, “mon ami”, there’s something I wanted to ask you…’. Then ask him for some gasoline. Problem … consumables!! He can only barter these with you … he wants something artistic and inspirational made by Brian in exchange for his can of gasoline.

[232] Give Saturn your strange stone. No! — too crude and rough … unfinished!

[233] Polish up the stone with your sanding block and try again. It’s still not inspirational &/or artistic enough for him … incomplete!

[234] In inventory, place your amber stone into the hole in the strange stone. Hooray … this makes a ‘stone of light’ and is now sufficiently arty crafty for Saturn. He tells Brian to stand it in the doorway in the sun. FINE! Brian can help himself to the can of gasoline … it’s a deal!

{{{ NOTE:- Coming up are 2 very old chestnuts in novel disguises. They stretch back over a quarter of a century on computers. The puzzles themselves (one in the form of a game) were around a long time before personal computers came on the scene. }}}

[235] Saturn:- “Oh — by the way; just one problem” ………. The gasoline in the tank is concentrated. To get the correct dilution you must mix 1 liter of water with 40 CCs of the concentrated gasoline. And incidentally, there is no 40 CC measuring tube … just one of 50 CC and one of 30 CC.

[236] In inventory you now have a can of concentrated gasoline, a 1 liter empty bottle, and two empty measuring tubes one of 50 CC and the other of 30 CC.

[237] Just to the left of the middle door to the balcony is a green colored 50 gallon water machine. From it, fill your 1 liter bottle with water.

[238] There is more than one way of solving the rest of this puzzle. The simplest method is described below :-

[A] Fill the 50 CC tube with concentrated gas from the container.

[B] Fill the 30 CC tube from the 50 CC tube (leaving 20 CC in the 50 CC tube).

[C] Pour the whole contents of the 30 CC tube back into the gas can so that the 30 CC tube is now empty.

[D] Pour the remaining 20 CC of concentrated gas from the 50CC tube into the 30 CC tube, leaving the 50 CC tube empty.

[E] Fill the 50 CC tube again from the concentrated gas can.

[F] Remembering that the 30 CC tube has 20 CC of concentrated gas in it already, fill it from the full 50 CC tube. Only 10 CC can be transferred from the 50 CC tube to the 30 CC tube, and so 40 CC of concentrated gas are left in the 50 CC tube.

[239] Pour your 40 CC of concentrated gasoline from the 50 CC tube into the 1 liter bottle of water, making your correct usable mixture (just a little over a liter actually).

[240] Return to Joshua in the crater. Pour the bottle of diluted gasoline into the motorbike’s tank.

[241] Go to Joshua who explains how to find the combination to open the dimensional door. {{{ NOTE:- This is the old old game/puzzle which once used to be called ‘Bulls and Cows’! }}}

There are 7 buttons. You have to press the correct 5 and also press them in the correct order … you can’t use any button more than once. Each button has a musical note associated with it (which appears in the dialog/instruction taskbar below the game. The notes run from “A” thro’ “F”, together with the instructions “Note already pressed” and “Leave the panel”.). Also, each button/note has an associated colored panel. Joshua will tell you how many you pressed were correct ones, and how many were both correct AND in the correct position.

It is a nice game/puzzle and not too difficult since you are allowed as many attempts as you like/need. But you really need to list your tries and their results, and work logically. You will quite likely have to make quite a number of attempts. If however you are REALLY stuck, the order of the notes is “C”; “G”; “E”; “B”; “A” (and the colors are … orange; yellow; mauve; pink; violet).

[242] When you succeed in getting the exact correct combination, there is a strange noise and an intense beam of light from the sky down into the center of the crater. You see Joshua getting beamed up to join his Trantorians … or whatever/wherever. Brian walks down into the center of the crater to have a look around.

[243] Brian:- “Oh Well … I don’t think we’ll be seeing Joshua again”! The only thing he has left behind is a black mark in the center of the crater and his blue telepathic helmet. Pick up the helmet.

[244] Walk up from the crater to Joshua’s camping tent (which you couldn’t enter previously). From the tent take a flashlight you can attach to your head, and a climbing rope.

[245] Return to the map and go to the abandoned mine. Look at the enormous boulder which blocks the mine entrance. Move it (there’s a small crack in the entrance) … impossible it’s much too heavy.

[246] Peer into the hole that Gina fell into … the ladders broken so nothing can be done there.

[247] Below a huge rock and a wheelbarrow (middle left edge of the screen) is an empty oil can. Pick it up.

[248] Return to Douglasville and go to Saturn. Again talk to him … ‘You see, “mon ami”, there’s something I wanted to ask you…’. Then ask him how he moves the enormous heavy rocks he uses for his sculptures … a crane? No! Apparently Oscar moves them for him and he repays Oscar with menthol chewing tobacco.

[249] Saturn needs inspiration and brilliant ideas. Give Saturn Joshua’s telepathic helmet. He puts it on his head and it seems to be the answer to his crisis. He leaves his workshop to look for suitable stones.

[250] Whilst he’s out of the way, pick up his blow torch.

[251] Fill up your oil can with water from the green colored 50 gallon water machine.

[252] Go downstairs and into the gardening shed again. Now you find some tobacco leaves.

[253] Go out and walk to the end of the street, past the bank, and to the right of it. Examine the ancient locomotive lying on its side.

[254] Pour the water from your oilcan into the locomotive’s water tank.

[255] Return to the water machine in the upper floor of the saloon and again fill up your oil can with water from the water machine.

[256] You have to repeat [254] and [255] another 4 times until the locomotive’s water tank is full (i.e. FIVE times altogether. If you do it less, you won’t progress … if you try it a sixth time, it will tell you that the tank’s full!).

[257] To the left of the locomotive is the reddish colored driver’s cab. Jump up and into the cab. Look around at the levers and gauges, etc., there.

[258] Look at the empty boiler. Pop your 5 logs of wood in.

[259] Light up the boiler using your blow torch.

[260] There is a wheel with a handle in the cab — turn it once only … enough pressure!

[261] There are a couple of levers. Pull the one just above the 4 gauges on the right … releases steam!

[262] This causes the smokestack to eject a blast of steam under pressure. Together with the steam emerges a key (not too easy to see on the ground!).

[263] Pick up the key from the ground in front of the smokestack and very close to the yellowish colored plant.

[264] Go back to the Sheriff’s office and use the key to open the cell (ignoring the nauseating smell!).

[265] Open the dead man’s briefcase on the floor and take the liniment.

[266] Exit the cell and the sheriff’s office. Go to Mama Dorita’s and ask Oscar to help you i.e. to move the rock at the entrance to the abandoned mine. But he won’t!

[267] In inventory make a mortar and pestle using your clay vessel and bank stamp, and fill with liniment and tobacco leaves (you need to ‘play around with’ ALL 4 of these items. .

[268] Manufacture some ersatz menthol chewing tobacco.

[269] Give the ‘tobacco’ to Oscar to entice him to help you.

[270] Ask Oscar again for help. He accompanies Brian and easily moves the huge rock from the entrance to the abandoned mine.

[271] Go to the bank and look at the can of paint which you launched earlier with the catapult.

[272] Yet again return to the upper floor of the saloon. Now that Saturn’s out of the way, press the red buttons which control the crane. This causes the heavy statue to be moved onto the catapult.

[273] Use the catapult lever and the heavy statue goes flying into the bank on top of the red paint.

[274] Go to the bank. There is now a huge hole there leading to the basement … go there.

[275] Look at the safe and try to open it. You should try, but you can’t without the combination!

[276] {{{ NOTE:- This step is helpful, but not essential! }}} Return to Sushi and talk to her. When you ask her, she will give you some minor hints as to the safe’s combination. Unfortunately, this in itself is insufficient.

[277] Again return to the sheriff’s office and enter the cell. Look in the briefcase again. This time you find a stethoscope {N.B. You may have obtained this earlier!}.

[278] Again, back to the bank. Place the stethoscope onto the safe.

[279] Turn the knob SLOWLY, first to the right and then to the left and then to the right again. Listen to the tumbler clicks and you get the combination. You can’t go wrong here … the dial stops automatically and the combination number revealed for each correct position (it’s NOT a puzzle!).

[280] The combination is ….… right, 85; left, 29; right, 54.

[281] This opens the safe. Get the map of the abandoned mine.

[282] You are now at last able to enter the mine … providing that (a) the rock no longer blocks the entrance; (b) you have the head-flashlight and the rope; and (c) you have obtained the mine-map!

[283] Go in, and you are in a cutscene which takes you to chapter-5.

{5} GIFTS FROM THE CRYPT :-

[284] Brian goes spelunking through the mine shaft and, despite the ghastly bats, emerges into the sunlight. He teeters on the edge of a cliff with the Hopi village down below. It’s impossible to just climb down … the cliff is much too steep.

[285] On the ground and close to the entrance (and exit) of the mine is a long piece of wood … Take it.

[286] Beneath that piece of wood is a metal object. It is the head of a miner’s tool … without a handle.

[287] There’s a miner’s skeleton at the entrance to the cave. Grab a bone … Grave robbing? It’s a human femur!

[288] In inventory combine the femur with the head of the mining tool and get a hammer with nail remover.

[289] In the wooden left hand cross-strut of the cave entrance is a somewhat rickety nail/

[290] Remove the nail with your makeshift hammer.

[291] Insert the nail into the hard ground (using your hammer) at the cliff’s edge … where you first stopped after exiting the cave..

[292] Tie your climbing rope onto this nail and climb down to the level of the Hopi village.

[293] Surprise, surprise! A happy reunion with Gina … alive and well except for a broken leg. They exchange some past experiences.

[294] They decide that Brian should first see what can be done in the Hopi village by himself, and then return and see to Gina

[295] He sets off to the left (edge of the screen) and almost immediately turns left again into the unexplored area. He treks towards a cliff, over a rickety suspension bridge, until he reaches the entrance to the crypt … which is what he’s been looking for. {{{ NOTE:- The moving figure of Brian is very tiny on this broad panoramic scenery. }}}

[296] He confronts a monolith in the shape of a Hopi deity which looks rather like it’s guarding the opening. It’s mouth looks like a keyhole.

[297] Place your crucifix/key into the mouth of the monolith Ha! No, it all seemed too easy … the mouth is full of desert sand and the key won’t fit in.

[298] Look at the plant to the left of the monolith. The stem has pods growing on it like green beans.

[299] Break off a branch of this unknown plant.

[300] Use the branch to clean out the mouth of the monolith.

[301] Insert the crucifix/key again.

[302] This time it works fine! The monolith moves aside revealing the entrance to a cave.

[303] Enter the cave and watch the cut scene in which Wupuchim gives Brian more advice and a closed bottle. The bottle is filled with formaldehyde in which floats a human finger …. Ugh !

[304] Brian exits the cave and returns to the path leading back.

[305] Make for the Hopi village (near to the top left corner of your screen).

[306] You will reach the village facing towards Gina. Return to her and continue (almost) in the same direction, to the huge ominous statue which seems to be guarding a cave.

[307] Enter the cave (you can’t go far) and face the front of the statue. To the right of the statue is a Hopi symbol in the shape of a cross. In front of that is a stone against which is leaning an object (not too easy to discern!).

[308] Pick up the object. It is a special Indian tomahawk which can be used as an axe or a (peace?) pipe.

[309] Return to Gina and continue as far as you can in a straight line (don’t turn left as you did previously). On Brian’s right is a ground level door … get him to turn towards it.

[310] Enter the door and Brian (rather small) emerges from a door a floor above.

[311] Get Brian to turn to his left, walk past a ladder and enter the adjacent door. This brings him out of a door high up in the building. {{{ NOTE:- The figure of Brian is extremely small and unclear! }}}

[312] Make Brian turn to his right, pass a door and then a ladder and enter the door after that (the last one in that row).

[313] He pops out again from a door high up in the building to the right of the one he entered. He is standing next to a ladder, and a little to the right of that is another door … enter it.

[314] Brian walks along to the right and stops immediately behind the mauve colored climbing rope.

[315] Use your tomahawk to cut the rope as high off the ground as you can. Grab the cut-off length of rope.

[316] Return to Gina. You need to make splints for her broken leg.

[317] In inventory, use your tomahawk again to split your long piece of wood into two to make a pair of splints for Gina’s broken leg.

[318] Put either the rope or the pair of small pieces of wood onto Gina. You need them both to apply the splints and tie them in place.

[319] There is now a cutscene where Brian and Gina make their way through the mine tunnel and back to Douglasville. They finish up consulting Mama Dorita (back on the map and near to Douglasville).

{6} THE INDIAN, THE NUN AND THE FINGER :-

{{{ NOTE:- Quite a large part of this last chapter is taken up with cutscenes, some of them quite lengthy. I shall try to avoid anything except vital info so as not to spoil the twists and turns of the surprising narrative!! }}}

[320] Brian says to Mama Dorita “I need to speak with a dead person”. Exhaust all the dialogs on this subject.

[321] It seems a medium has to be found. Brian volunteers but apparently he would “need to lower his level of consciousness”!

[322] Ask to speak to Gina. Go through all dialogs with her.

[323] Leave and return to Douglasville. Enter the Hotel. For the first time, Sushi asks you to join her upstairs. Brian tells her the whole story to date.

[324] Sushi is surrounded by tons of extremely sophisticated hi-tech apparatus. It turns out that she is one of the many top class female hackers (not the insidious virus spreading breed!). She can do almost anything with computers. Talk with her and go through all topics of conversation. {{{ NOTE:- For the first time you can now browse around inside the hotel, both downstairs and upstairs. }}}

[325] Leave the hotel and enter the saloon. Meet Rutger at last, playing on his bongo drums! Talk to him about everything possible. In particular quiz him on the existence of a plant or something like that to put Brian into a trance (or as Rutger expresses it, “… to trip out”).

[326] Give him (barter again) your fine Hopi axe-pipe, and he prepares a puff of his (presumably narcotic) concoction. This automatically takes Brian to Mama Dorita. His level of consciousness has been lowered by this, but not sufficiently!

[327] Return to Rutger … “That stuff you put in the pipe didn’t work … I need something stronger”. Brian shakes the branch he found at the Hopi village and 3 pods are obtained in inventory. These must be pods of the ‘yawaskel’ that Rutger said the Indian medicine men and Shaman talked about.

[328] Try to open the pods in order to get the famous little lumpy red balls which are needed. You can’t … the shells are too hard to open manually.

[329] Exit and go into the cell in the sheriff’s office. Open the corpse’s briefcase yet again (for the THIRD successful time!) and, lo and behold, you get a scalpel!!

[330] In inventory use the scalpel to open the pods and obtain the little ‘yawaskel’ balls. No luck! … the pods are too hard and the scalpel too dull.

[331] Exit the cell and the sheriff’s and enter Sushi’s … ground floor.

[332] Heat the scalpel in the fireplace (the fire is lit) and be careful you don’t get burnt.

[333] The scalpel is red-hot and so now cuts the pods open (no matter how hard they are).

[334] Next to the fireplace is a (rather sooty) poker … take it with you.

[335] Return to Rutger in the saloon and give him the ‘yawaskel’ balls.

[336] This sparks off a very long cutscene involving a séance which unveils REALLY sensational revelations.

[337] Return to Douglasville. You automatically enter the hotel and talk with Sushi and tell her the full true story! She recommends asking Rutger or Saturn if they’ve seen a trailer around.

[338] Go to the saloon. Rurger doesn’t remember seeing a trailer.

[339] Go upstairs and ask Saturn about a trailer. He saw an old abandoned one several months back and gives some general directions.

[340] Go to the map. A new location has appeared (top left hand corner of the map) … Path to Johnny’s trailer.

[341] Go onto this path and continue until you see the trailer.

[342] Open the door. No luck … it’s locked up tight.

[343] Lever the door open with your poker.

[344] Have a good look around inside. How weird … a nun’s habit ???

[345] Immediately after leaving the trailer, look at the tray on the inside of the open door.

[346] The tray is full of papers. Rummage through them and find an advertisement for the Mojave Bank!!

[347] Return to Sushi in Douglasville. Talk to her about the trailer, and give her the bank brochure.

Ask her if she can hack out any info on the bank on her computers … Sure thing; in a short while!

[348] Exit the hotel, go onto the map, and immediately return to Sushi. She has a LOAD of vital information for Brian.

[349] Exit the hotel and return to Johnny’s trailer. Nab the nun’s habit.

[350] Exit the trailer. Brian hears a car in the distance and hides. The two dumb goons, Gustav and Feodor, enter the trailer and wait for Gina &/or Brian to turn up there. Brian quietly returns to Douglasville.

[351] Enter the hotel and talk to Sushi again. It’s essential to think up a good plan … to save EVERYBODY!

[352] Leave the hotel again and enter the derailed locomotive’s drivers cab.

[353] Repeat [261] thro’ [263], except that this time a golden colored solid object is ejected in the same place.

[354] Pick up the golden colored object. It’s a sheriff’s badge.

[355] Go outside Mama Dorita’s and present the badge to Oscar and swear him in as Sheriff.

Give Oscar his first assignment to bring Law & Order to Douglasville. A fairly long cutscene follows this.

[356] After talking to Sushi and sheriff-Oscar, go to the cell in the sheriff’s office and gloat over the prisoners there.

[357] Look on the table at the jail bag of stuff belonging to the 2 hoods, and take it.

[358] Leave the sheriff’s. Return to the hotel and give the jail bag to Sushi … maybe she can somehow apply them for use on the Internet.

[359] Exit the hotel, go onto the map, and immediately return to Sushi and talk to her. But she hasn’t found anything of interest, except that Gustav is a movie fan.

[360] Brian and Sushi both love movies and start discussing best Directors and their best films. You can have some fun here and also waste some time until you hit on their mutual favorites … Woody Allen; and “Manhattan Murder Mystery”. This gives Sushi an idea. After explaining all about it she gets Brian to take the crook’s MP3 recorder.

[361] Leave the hotel and go to the cell again. Record the 2 hoods voices.

[362] Leave the sheriff’s. Go to Mama Dorita’s again and rehearse Gina in reciting a very short ‘speech’. After she’s got it reasonably well, record her.

[363] Return for the last time to Sushi and let her work on her voice emulation etc. programs.

Return after an hour ………. And …………………………..

[364] T H E E N D of the interactive game.

There is an extremely long series of endgame cutscenes. Don’t turn off your computer when you get to the Credits or even the black screen with only music. There’s an IMPORTANT postscript to the story … and the promise of a sequel to the game (which at the time of writing is apparently already in production!).

And so we say goodbye to Brian, Gina, the Sandretti’s, and everybody else …… for the time being anyhow!