Well, I suppose I am going to post one of my nightmares now. Please remember that this was a dream, so there is some strange, weird shit in it that I cannot explain (concrete frogs? huh?), and the formatting and flow of it really suck because I literally wrote this right after I woke up, so I wouldn’t forget the dream…strange as this dream may seem, it is fairly low level intensity. Most of my dreams are a lot more intense.
Also, for your reference, Moira is my wife, Jared my little boy, and Bill is a friend of mine I’ve known for about ten years. All the names have been changed to protect the innocent! Any other names (except for those of my in-laws, also changed) were actually from the dream and of people I don’t know…
The dream started with Moira and I parking in front of a small, mini-mall like parking center. Upon reflection, the center seemed very similar to the pawn shop we parked in front of the other day when we went out shopping, but it was in a different location, over somewhere by our house, about where the K-Mart on powers currently sits. The sky was a strange, almost eerie blue color, very bright, while everything else around seemed very drab. We left the car, and proceeded to look around the shops.
At this point, I did not know where Jared was, but I was aware of him not being with us but knew he was somewhere in the dream world. After looking at shops (strangely, I can’t remember what was in them all except for one, which had a strange assortment of dried things – chilies, spices, plants, and what looked like a cat), we decided for some reason to walk to the next shopping center, which was a few miles up the road and located where this old warehouse was at. We followed some other shoppers to the outer fringe of the parking lot . The whole way there, one lady was coughing violently, and the other two did not seem well. We finally reached the edge of the parking lot, which sat on top of a small hill. The hill was covered in scraggly, dead grass and weeds, with papers and trash scattered here and there.
We began to walk down the hill when we saw a whole pile of frog statues, some made of plastic, some made of ceramic, some metal. For some reason, we felt compelled to pick up the frog statues, and began to arrange them on the ground to form sort of an arrow pointing in the direction we were going. We then finished climbing down the hill, and at the bottom of the hill just before we got to the street, there was a large wooden plank that was about a foot in width and as long as the street was wide. We picked up one end of the plank, and somehow swung it over the street so that it was suspended about a foot and a half over the street’s surface.
We were going to cross on the plank when we heard the squealing of tires. A red Minivan/SUV type vehicle was skidding to a stop, when it jumped in the air to clear the plank. Its front tires went over fine, but the back ones got stuck on the plank. I walked out to the middle of the street, and tapped on the window of the vehicle. There was an elderly woman driving, and she apologized profusely for almost running the red light and for nearly destroying the “crosswalk”. I asked if she could use some help getting her vehicle off the plank, and she shook her head yes, so I went behind the vehicle and gave it a push, and it fell off the surprisingly resilient plank to the ground.
I climbed back up on the plank and Moira began crossing to meet me, and when she did we finished crossing to the other side of the road. On our way there, a very dark skinned black man walked up to the older lady’s car and leaned in through the passenger window, then turned back to me and gave me a very hateful look. I didn’t understand why, but decided to mind my own business and continued walking.
As we walked to the next center through a field of dead weeds and grasses (it was like nothing was alive), I remember thinking that it was odd how quiet it was outside. There were no birds singing, no dogs barking, no car motors revving or wheels moving across asphalt. I didn’t really think anything of it though, and continued on my walk. We finally got to the next shopping center, and Moira turned to me and said she was going to go get Jared from her mom’s store. I shrugged and said I wanted to meet Bill at work and would catch up to her in a little bit.
I walked into the shopping center (which was an open air mall for the most part, with only a roof and no walls or doors.), and me and Moira went different directions. I walked past a video store that had a bunch of old, very used tapes stacked all over the place, and on a huge TV outside of the store, there was a movie playing staring Sly Stallone as a hero named Noname (but pronounced like “No Nam E” or “Konami). He was dressed in some weird S&M looking gear, leather thong, belts and straps on his torso, and a gas mask. His body was disgustingly misproportioned, overly muscular even for Sly, and it kind of reminded me of some of those drug-addled MAD magazine drawings that are meant to be grotesque. I remember feeling very disturbed by the image, especially when, in the video, Sly removed his mask and his whole face was twisted, like someone had punched into a rotten pumpkin and the skin, too weak to bounce back, stayed withered and wrinkled, gravitating towards the center.
A little freaked out, I continued walking, and I turned the corner and entered a door that I knew led to Bill’s store. It turned out to be some weird store, half costume shop and half sex shop. Bill was behind the counter watching some fucked up anime, and there was a really freaky guy named Sergio that I think was Bill’s boss. He looked almost like the Sly Stallone character I had just seen at the video store, but even more disgusting and frightening looking.
Suddenly I felt very weak, very insecure and powerless in his presence. He kept pushing me towards this little door in the back of the store, and fear overwhelmed me. I looked back to Bill for help, but he was just as afraid, as if he had been taken to the room and knew what horrors where there. It was like I was being dragged to the room even though Sergio wasn’t even touching me, just looking at me with some twisted mad grin, cause I remember trying to run, scrambling on the floor and clawing at it, trying to keep from going in the room.
Just as I reached the door, my scrambling hands found a screwdriver on the floor, and screaming in terror and rage, I raised it above my head and slammed it into Sergio’s chest. The dragging suddenly stopped, and the feeling of oppression lifted, as a black, oily looking blood spurted slowly out of the wound, which, like the Sly movie, looked like it had been pierced into the skin of a rotten vegetable. I looked in horror at the body laying on the floor, but Bill was completely calm. He walked over, grabbed one of the body’s arms and looked at me to grab the other. Overcoming my revulsion, I grabbed it, and we dragged Sergio over to the little door, which Bill opened up. It was completely black in there, there was no way to tell what was in the room, but we didn’t care. We just pushed Sergio’s body in and locked the door, and Bill went to get a mop to clean up the mess.
Then I turned off Bill’s anime and turned on the news to see if anything had been reported, or if anything had been reported about Sergio’s murder (even though it had only just happened). The strange thing was that the news channel showed the desks of the anchors, but there was no one at the anchor station. There were papers blowing around the set, and the same, black oily blood was smeared here and there, and splattered on the walls. In the background I could hear a moaning, a terrible, rotten, gargling sound, coming from the speakers on the screen.
I turned to Bill, and we were both really freaking out. I got this terrible feeling in my stomach, like someone had reached inside me and was squeezing my innards. I knew that something was terribly wrong, and that I had to get to Moira and Jared, so I jumped over the counter and ran for the door. Everything was moving in slow motion, it seemed, because my feet were really heavy and it felt like I was running through water. In the corner of my eye, I saw something moving, towards the little door, I turned my head, again, everything in slow motion, in time to see the door suddenly burst open, breaking at the hinges as the dead body of Sergio burst forward, leaping towards me.
It looked like he had been rotting for weeks, his body was already in an advanced state of decomposition. His muscles were hanging loosely on his bones and he was oozing pus and oil-blood from every pore. I raised my hands to block his tackle, and tried to turn my head away, but my eyes were frozen on his terrifying appearance. I knew that if he got me, I’d be dead.
Then, just as Sergio was in mid leap and about to grab me, I saw Bill leap over the counter towards him. Like something out of a comic book, Bill screamed in a slow, muffled roar (still in slow motion) and swung a huge hammer over his head and crashed down into Sergio’s skull. Everything switched back to full motion again as I slipped and crashed to the floor, and Bill’s battle cry echoed off the walls. I scrambled to my feet and looked at Bill and the no longer animated zombie laying on the floor. Bill looked up at me, his face splattered with the zombie’s blood, and pointed to the door, screaming “GO!”
Not hesitating a second longer, I rushed out the door and into the corridors of the shopping center. Then, a feeling of helplessness hit me, as I realized that the shopping center seemed bigger, maze like, and that I didn’t know where to go to find my mother-in-law’s shop. Still, desperation hit me, and I began to run through the center, checking every shop. All of them were vacant; not closed, but devoid of life. The image of rot, of everything being corrupted, was everywhere. Finally, I burst into the right Shop, and was suddenly very sick to my stomach.
Laying on the ground of my mother in laws shops were three corpses, all of which had had their heads smashed in. Terrified at who they may be, I reach over to the first corpse, my hands shaking terribly and my heart racing. As my hand touched the shoulder, I could feel the numbness of my teeth, the strange, vertigo like feeling of shear and overwhelming fear. Barely able to breathe, I somehow find the strength to turn the corpse over, afraid that it will be Moira. Instead I saw the mangled face of one of the women whom we had followed initially when we had left the first shopping center.
Feeling both relieved and repulsed, I hurried to the back of the shop, searching for any sign of where Moira and Jared might be, but they are no were in sight. I rush back outside, and for the first time notice that my mother-in-law’s car is missing. Elated that Moira and Jared must have escaped, I realize that I still need to find them. Running, I hurry to the field that we had crossed to reach the center, and then freeze. Crossing the field in droves are what seems like thousands of zombies, all moaning with the same rotten, gurgling moan that we had heard on the TV.
Too stunned to notice anything, I am completely unaware of my surroundings, until a sudden, deafening crack brings me back to my senses. Spinning around, I see a corpse laying only a few feet away from me, its head splattered against the wall to my side. Bill is standing just a few yards away, a smoking barreled pistol in his hand. “Come on!” he yelled, so I followed him back to another shop that appeared to be some sort of reloading shop. We got in and barred the door, and a few moments later, the sound of the moaning grew more and more intense, and the zombies began beating on the door.
We sat there in silence for what seemed like hours, just listening to the sickly howls of the dead outside. While we waited, we cleaned some guns and prepared some ammunition, wanting to fight but knowing it would be pointless to do so. Still there was nothing better to do, and we had to distract ourselves from the maddening din that rose outside. Every once in a while, we would hear a faint scratching sound, but we couldn’t figure out what it was or where it was coming from. When we tired of preparing our weapons, we began to explore the shop.
We found a little hatchway that lead to the roof, that we could access from a small service ladder. I climbed up, leaving Bill in the shop, to see what we faced. Directly in front of the door to the shop was a horde of zombies, all pounding at the door, all waiting for us to exit. It was as if we were a magnet that drew the zombies from all around, because the rest of the parking lot and the field were now devoid of the living dead. When they saw me on top of the roof, they began to howl in unison, an eerie, hellish cacophony of voices strained through rotting vocal cords.
Suddenly, I heard a scream come from the shop, and I quickly jumped down the ladder. Bill was laying on the floor by an air vent, a gun drawn and still smoking and pointing at the vent. His eyes were wide and he was breathing heavily, the adrenalin obviously pumping through him. His leg was bleeding from a huge bite wound, the teeth of the zombie whose head he just blew off still sunk into his flesh.
“The scratching…” he said, “The scratching…it was in the fucking vent…” Now completely numbed to the sight of the dead, I walked over to him and pulled him away from the vent, gently removing the jaws of the monster from his leg, and I pulled him up so that his back was against the wall. We sat there for a while, just listening to see if there were any sign of the zombies leaving us, but there was no change to the droning sound of moans. Bill’s breath grew more and more ragged, and we both knew that he was dieing.
Finally he turned to me and began to speak, slowly, carefully, obviously filled with pain, as he reached out and put some keys in my hands. “Leave through the roof, but stay down, don’t let them see you. Get to the far side of the complex. You’ll find my truck there. I’ll distract them, draw them here. Leave when you hear the gunshot.” I started to argue, but he cursed me, then pointed his gun at my head. The look in his eyes told me that he was serious, so I reluctantly obeyed, grabbing a shotgun and a backpack full of shells for it.
I did as he said, creeping my way over the shopping center’s roof until I reached the far parking lot. Dropping to the ground, I quickly looked around, but the place was deserted. In a half run, half crouch, I made my way over to Bill’s truck, and climbing in, I carefully closed the door without making noise. Then I sat and listened. An eternity later, I heard a raise in the level of noise, then the ringing cry of a single gunshot. Saddened, I started the truck, and left the parking lot. I didn’t know where to go, but I knew I had to find Moira and Jared.
Doing the only thing I found logical, I proceeded to my in-laws house. All along the way, I saw zombies, in the road, in yards, in the fields and plains. When I drove past them, they would try to run towards the noise of the truck, but there was no way they could catch me. I got to the point where I was ignoring them, oblivious to the world around me and only focused on where I was heading.
When I got about a block away from their house, I stopped the truck, and using a piece of rope and a brick I found in the back of the truck, I tied the steering wheel down and placed the brick on the accelerator, all the while holding down the clutch. I could hear the zombies coming towards the sound of the truck, so I popped the clutch and rolled into the bushes as the truck sped off down the road.
A little while later, I heard the sound of a crash, and saw all the zombies heading off in its direction. Stealthily, I headed towards the house. After sneaking through the bushes and hiding myself to the best of my ability, I finally reached the door. I saw my mother-in-law’s car in the street, but there was no sign of her, or my wife and baby. Stepping gingerly inside, I closed the door softly behind me, and brought my shotgun up to point. I walked through each room, searching for signs of life.
I found Eric, my brother-in-law, first. In his hand was a sword, and the bodies of several zombies were scattered around him. His head was underneath a heavy cabinet, and I didn’t bother to check for a pulse. I found Jenny, my sister-in-law, in another room. I only recognized her by the color of her red hair.
Filled with despair, I slowly trudged down the spiral staircase of the house into the basement. I was turning the corner when I heard the sharp CH-CHK of a shotgun being racked, and felt the cold steel of a barrel pressed to the back of my neck.
“Hold it right there, mother fucker…” an unfamiliar voice grumbled. I froze. “Drop your gun, and put your hands on your mother fuckin’ head,” the voice commanded. I obeyed, and felt a sudden force as a foot kicked me into the ground. The cold barrel was on me again before I even had a chance to react. “Turn over!” Again, I obeyed, and looked straight up into the barrel of a 12 Gauge shotgun.
To be continued…
