Flotsam
The D-Shifts had just arrived around the time of the ozone hole but many of them were appearing over water except for the pigeon incident and there was a big one in Rome was well (an Escher type I think). It was the early days of the D-Shifts and government boys hadn't even begun to categorised them. The Road itself runs due south although when it was still open to the public it was a two lane highway so I suppose you could travel north too but back when it was used it had already acquired a bad name and most people drove around it. However it was on the local school bus route and gas prices back then were still quite steep so the local high school home of the 'Thunder Rams' I might add, spent a little cash on UV shielding to avoid the larger spend of going the long way round.
Whoever came up with the name Thunder Rams must have had considerable foresight. If it hadn't been for the somewhat cheap nature of the high school it is possible that the D-Shifts that appeared around the Road would never have been reported.
First came the 'Sweeper' due east of the Road, it appeared two hundred yards away from the crash barriers roughly in the center, it must have been an amazing sight for the school kids as they drove past it. According the then driver of the bus one William Paker, Billy to his Mum although most of his friends called him 'Only-if' one moment there was nothing and the next a blue shimmering tornado spinning eastwards away from the Road. Billy stopped the bus, he said he wasn't sure whether it would be safe or not. When he and some of the older kids got out they discovered there was no wind whatsoever. This tornado was also acting very weird according Billy, it was pretty much stationary apart from the fact it was spinning clockwise, was about eighteen to twenty feet across and there were blue sparks appearing all through it. Billy could see that there was debris within it but upon closer inspection by the science team it was discovered that most of the debris was very small indeed. A leaf is probably the largest object a 'Sweeper' will allow inside. Billy waited about half an hour before he decided it was safe to drive past but he did as fast as he could.
The Road was closed temporarily whilst government boys investigated this new phenomenon when the Road was reopened the locals found the 'Sweeper' still there except with heavy duty razor wire round it with signs stating that the phenomenon was not dangerous had been categorised as a 'Sweeper' D-Shift but is under government jurisdiction and is a federal crime to attempt entry without permission. A D.S. Agent will visit the site on a monthly basis to confirm that all is in order.
I met that same agent several years later when I first came to this neck of the woods but I'll tell you about that later. There are quite a few 'Sweeper' D-Shifts around the world nowadays quite excellent for storing dead leaves although there has a been few lazy gardeners out there that have died when a 'Sweeper' departs for sunnier climes. The field of energy that spins a 'Sweeper' doesn't slowly dissipates over time it just vanishes all at once leaving the debris it has collected explode outwards normally taking several innocent people in its wake. When the first 'Sweeper' dropped its load so to speak the razor wire around the Road's 'Sweeper' was upgraded to heavy metal fencing and several outer fences to stop even the most determined tourist to get too close.
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