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There's a new game in town - FlashQuiz 003 ! A couple of weeks ago @steemcurator01 started the FlashQuizzes. The first quizzes were one-offs involving finding geolocations, or book titles or solving an acronym. But by FlashQuiz 003 they had grown into something much bigger. Sc01 seems to be developing the quiz into a Breaking Bad like epic. The storyline is evolving across a number of stages, on multiple posts, with a myriad of comments. Joining the party rather late it has been tricky to follow the whole plot. Having now read through all the posts and all the comments I thought it might be useful to summarise the story so far . --- ---

Main Characters

**Steemcurator01** Steemcurator01 is the main character of the story along with her best friend Carolina. Sc01 also acts as the narrator of the story. We haven't learnt her name yet but we do now know that she is around 30 years old, lives in Austin, Texas and works for Steemit. Sc01 hasn't given away too many details about herself other than the fact that her favourite actor is Clint Eastwood and she seems to like burritos ! _It would be a whole lot easier if we knew her name 😀_ --- **Carolina** Carolina is also around 30 and lives in Austin. She speaks Spanish as well as English. She used to work for Steemit Inc but left suddenly - we don't know why. After Steemit Carolina got a job as a Guest Relations Associate at Austin Zoo. Carolina has just split up with her boyfriend Mikhail and seems to have taken something from him that he wants back. --- **Craig** Craig was Carolina's landlord. Sc01 and Carolina had been referring to him as 'Creepy Craig' but have more recently changed their view of him as he helped them get their motorhome, and warned Carolina that Mikhail is coming after her. Craig also slipped a Glock hand gun into Carolina's things when he dropped them off at the zoo so she didn't have to go back to her apartment in case Mikhail was there. He also has a Shih Tzu dog called Timmy. --- **Mikhail** Mikhail was Carolina's former boyfriend. He is a truck driver but never has any money. We haven't met him directly yet but he seems like a nasty piece of work as it looked like he beat up Craig and threatened to hurt his dog. He is now coming after Carolina to get back something she has of his. Mikhail seems to have been connected with Carolina leaving Steemit but we don't know any details yet. --- ---

Episode 1 : Pizza and Pecan

The story opened with Sc01 picking up supplies for a trip from Costco in Austin. It is not known why Sc01 has to make the journey and what the destination is but there seems to be some urgency to get there by the beginning of July. It was suggested that it might be to do with work permits but there hasn't been any confirmation on that. Sc01 works for Steemit at an office in Brazos Steet in Austin. She has been sleeping in the office as she doesn't want to go back to her apartment - but we don't know why. Sc01 seems to like pizza and pecan pie. It was an early start for Sc01 before anyone else came into the office. She went for breakfast with her best friend Carolina. They went to a place called Caroline just a few blocks from Brazos Street. Sc01's car is not working and has been taken to a garage. --- Follow the whole of Episode One (Stage 1) here... * https://steemit.com/hive-188972/@travelingsteem/weekly-report-for-booming-support-n-24 --- ---

Episode 2 : Plan B

Episode 2 begins with the bad news that Sc01's car won't be fixed in time for the planned journey. The car is old and the garage can't get hold of a replacement part for at least two weeks. Sc01 needs a Plan B. It is then revealed that Carolina is coming on the trip with Sc01, but has just split with her boyfriend Mikhail and he has taken her car. It seems they didn't break up on good terms, but Carolina hasn't revealed any details. She is very worried about something. The Road Trip will hopefully take Carolina's mind off her problems. She is keen to set off as soon as possible. Carolina's landlord, Craig, knows someone with a motorhome for sale. Sc01 and Carolina decide to buy the motorhome together. Craig's friend Sonic agrees to knock the price down to $11,500 for cash. Carolina has $6000 in cash from somewhere, and Sc01 gets a good price for her car from Classic Automotive, the place that has been fixing it for the past month. The motorhome is a 2008 Coachman Freedom Express... * https://austin.craigslist.org/rvs/d/austin-rv-with-solar-panels-and/7757892658.html It has Starlink and solar panels already installed so Sc01 can keep doing her curation work while she is on the road. They plan to leave Austin on Saturday after Carolina finishes work at the zoo. Sc01 goes all in on the Road Trip and decides to give up her apartment the day before the they are due to leave. She sells some of her stuff and puts the rest in storage in the Steemit office. Carolina invites Sc01 to a birthday party at the zoo. Thinking the party is for one of Carolina's colleagues, Sc01 buys a secondhand book of William Blake's poetry as a birthday gift. The party however turns out to be the 5th birthday of Zulema the white tiger... * https://www.facebook.com/events/3633860920162148/ --- Follow the whole of Episode Two (Stage 2) here... * https://steemit.com/contestalerts/@disconnect/contest-alerts-active-contest-list-on-18th-june-2024 --- ---

Episode 3 : The Long and Winding Road

Sc01 and Carolina are enjoying the party at the zoo, when Carolina gets a call. Carolina doesn't reveal who called but just says they have to leave straightaway. They drive for two hours in silence until Carolina suddenly demands they stop. She needs to buy some stuff. They are in a small town north-west of Austin called Brady. Carolina buys 3 boxes of 9mm ammunition and 3 cans of paint. After the shopping trip they park up in an RV park on the edge of town. Carolina spends the evening painting the van pink, orange and grey. The next morning Carolina's phone rings while she is in the shower. Sc01 picks up the call. It is Craig. He has been visited by Mikhail. Mikhail found the ad for the motorhome on Craig's phone and forced him to tell where we were heading. Craig was clearly beaten up and only gave up the information after Mikhail threatened to kill his dog. Police were out of the question according to Craig - he said Carolina wouldn't want them to be involved. Craig told them to get off the main roads and to take an alternative route. Mikhail is coming after them. They set off on the back roads taking a long and winding route through El Dorado, Knickerbocker, Sherwood, Iraan, Royalty, and Hermosa until they reached a place in the middle of nowhere called Toyah. Carolina had not said much for the whole journey until they park up for the night. Then she breaks down crying, saying she had been stupid. She had let Mikhail use her, and if she had ignored what he asked her to do, she would still be working at Steemit, and none of this would be happening. Sc01 is distraught that she doesn't know how to help her best friend. She wants to get some beer and pizza to calm the situation but it was Sunday evening and everywhere was closed in Toyah. --- Follow the whole of Episode Three (Stage 3) here... * https://steemit.com/contestalerts/@disconnect/contest-alerts-active-contest-list-on-22nd-june-2024 --- --- That brings the story up to the end of Episode 3. Episode 4 is now underway with Sc01 and Carolina stuck in Toyah with a broken down motorhome... * https://steemit.com/contestalerts/@disconnect/contest-alerts-active-contest-list-on-24th-june-2024 More on this when the episode finishes. --- --- I hope this summarisation is useful for anyone wanting to join in FlashQuiz 003. Now that I am up to speed on the story so far I plan to jump in and help solve the puzzles posed by Sc01. Although most of the clues so far have been real head scratchers... --- --- _**It has been difficult to follow all the clues and responses through the many hundreds of comments.**_ _**If any one spots any key elements of the story that I have missed out or got wrong please let me know.**_ Thank you Pennsif