The Zombie Dream - October 23rd, 2016

[FOREWORD - I'm sad about this entry because there was so much more to it than I've written down. It was just so complex that I couldn't process it properly and could only write what you see here]. 

We start with flashbacks of a zombie outbreak. People left and right are dying, being mauled and eaten alive. The dream then focuses on where I am: I'm living in a pub with my parents, my grandmother(Carol), the pub locals from Wivenhoe, some people from uni and a variety of others. We all have roles: mine is kid-minder. I watch and take care of the children there and boost morale.

The day starts as my everyday routine. I get up, make breakfast for my parents, join the kids by the fire and we talk about stuff. One little girl named Alice is showing off her ballet routine when her brother chimes in, saying he wants to learn ballet as well. I ask him to show me but his dad walks over (he's a big, burly Londoner type with tattoos and a shaved head: he kind of looks like Ray Stevenson from The Three Musketeers remake) and says "no son of mine is doing ballet, he'll look like a ponce". This discourages the kid but I try and get him to open up. It doesn't work, because his dad is standing behind me the whole time, judging him. This infuriates me so I walk over to a woman named Hilda who is playing a song on the piano. I look up to see it's night time, so I decide to start singing to cheer people up. Carol walks over and joins in, so we start a cute little duet which gets everyone singing and dancing too. I felt calm and happy for the first time since the apocalypse started.

Jayne walks over towards the end of the song. She's young: she's skinnier and still has her natural brown hair. She's complaining that my dad went out to talk to "Melissa" and he isn't back yet. I ask who that is. 

Jayne is complaining so much and I start to zone out. Dad then turns up in his work uniform and my parents begin to have a domestic over this "other woman". Behind them, Carol is indicating to me to try and start up the jukebox: she wants another sing-a-long. I fiddle with the coin slot at the top and suddenly a bunch of pennies fly out all over the floor. Whilst Carol is scrabbling around, sifting through the coins, I notice the song names on the jukebox: there's only 4 and they're called Mr. Vogo, Ratrice, E.E. Vice and Sofno. I have no idea what they are. I have never heard of them. When Mr. Vogo plays, it's an actual song, but one I've never heard before.

Carol is absent-mindedly singing along while I suddenly have a flashback. This song once played in a Morrisons in Ipswich. I was there shopping with Jayne. I start dancing and singing to the song to cheer her up, making the cashier and other customers laugh and join in. Jayne finally smiled for the first time in years and I felt better.

Cut back to the pub. I glance outside and notice movement. I rush over to the piano and tell Hilda to stop playing. Unfortunately, it's too late. Zombies break into the front door, eating Alice's brother and the burly dad. I start crying and try and drag Carol to the next door (the bathroom). She says she's lived long enough and wants to go out fighting, so she smashed a beer bottle and runs at the zombies full throttle. I can't bear to watch, so I flee to the bathroom.

The bathroom reminds me of other people's bathrooms that I've been in, namely Carol's and Ellie's (my housemate). It's very white, very posh. I decide to have a shower, thinking the zombie pandemic was just a dream. I strip down and start showering when I hear growls behind the door. I freeze. I wonder if I'm making this all up, whether there really are zombies out there. Suddenly there's a huge explosion. I close my eyes and cower on the floor. It sounded like an atomic blast, so I was convinced I was dead, but I opened my eyes to the following.

Two sides of the bathroom are still in tact. They're still white: one has a shelf of products, one has the shower head attached and the shower curtain, which I'm still standing under. The other two walls are now different: the room is bigger and it looks like a conference room. The walls are beige/tan, there's a board meeting being held around a long, rounded table, and on the opposing wall to me, there are two windows, one slightly ajar.

I look at the people around the table. They look at me. I hear voices downstairs. At this point, I'm still naked, and I don't say a word. The man at the head of the table stands and walks over to explain that they are refugees and they're all hiding out in the pub from the zombies. Apparently the voices downstairs are more survivors.

I start crying and ask where my family is. He shakes his head and tells me they've all died. I weep loudly, covering my face and crouching in a fetal position. I can feel his hand on my shoulder telling me it's okay and that I can stay as long as I want. I wipe my tears and thank him but I want to go outside, see if I can rescue anyone else. That's when things go sour.

His expression changes and he tells me "no". I tell him he's not the boss of me and he shoves me back against the wall. He says no one enters and no one leaves: they've built the perfect society here. He explains that they've been here for 5 years and that they survive by inbreeding and cannibalism. I quietly ask how it could be 5 years: I'd only just gotten there. He points at a blue gem wrapped around my wrist and explains it's a time travelling device: I suddenly remember that in my panic, I'd tried to hit it and go back to before Carol ran at the zombies, so I could save her. I guess I'd hit it the wrong way and traveled forwards instead of backwards.

I quickly grab a towel and run for the window, planning to dive out and land on the grass. However, I forget I'm chubby, so I have to try and wriggle through. I get halfway and realise I'm two stories up, and if I fall, I'm going to break my bones. Suddenly I feel two hands grabbing my ankles, trying to pull me back in. They're shouting that they love me and they want me to be part of their society. I take a deep breath and pull: I end up falling out of the window and smacking into the ground, breaking my neck instantly.

My lifeless body lays there for a moment until a zombie walks over to eat me. It accidentally steps on my wrist, activating the time travel gem. Suddenly everything is blue and I'm flying backwards up towards the window again. I go back to the point where I'm struggling through the window and this time, I grab a line of wire (usually used to hang laundry) that was conveniently in the desk by the window. I somehow manage to lower myself speedily down the side of the window and escape. I run towards the trees and bushes and disappear.

I walk for a while until I notice a path below the hill I'm standing on. For a moment, I think I can spot Carol, but then I realise it's actually my other grandmother, Rosemary. She's standing with a bunch of other women and their bicycles. In my head, I know she's not alive anymore, but I want to speak to her anyway. Suddenly her and her friends are ambushed by some Mad Max type bastards and they attack and kill the group of women. I slap my wrist and travel back to the point where they walk past. I launch myself down the hill and land between the women and the incoming bandits. Rosemary is young, kind of like Jayne. She's in her 50s in the dream. She smiles at me but it's clear she doesn't know who I am. This makes me sad but I'm still glad she's alive.

The bandit leader comes at me and I stab him in the gut. I look down and wonder where the hunting knife came from. He runs at me again, so I keep swiping the knife at him. His number 2 in command was just behind him, trying to attack me too. Once I killed the leader, I ran at him, plunging the knife in his face and scraping his eyeball out. The weird part was he didn't scream: he just smiled and stood there, letting me pull it out. I go to check that Rosemary is safe. She thanks me and they leave with their bicycles in tow.

I run up the hill and find myself in Julie's house. I gasp a sigh of relief: finally, a familiar face. I break in and run to the kitchen. It's all the same, there's no zombies, and there's food in the fridge. I open it and start to eat some cheese puffs that Julie has made (it's Rosemary's recipe).

She suddenly storms through, yelling that she's going to beat up whoever broke in. She notices it's me and just smiles. 

"Oh, it's you!" 

She doesn't hug me like she normally does: she just stands there and smiles. I'm unnerved by it and stop eating.

"You found the puffs then?"

I nod and settle them down. She indicates towards a round table in her kitchen and asks me to sit down. I comply. She pours me a glass of milk and asks me about my sister. I give her a weird look. I don't have a sister, at least not to my knowledge. Thinking she might be drunk or something, I make up a sister called Alice and claims she's fine.

"I thought her name was Charlie."

Flabbergasted, I pretend that Charlie is my other sister. I'm now very concerned about my aunt: why does she think I have sisters?

"So not May?"

"Who is May?"

"You told me that's your sister."

I look around the table. There are now 3 other Kirsten's all wearing my Star Trek t-shirt and jeans. I look down. I'm wearing the same thing. I look up at Julie and she stands, looking angry.

"You're always fucking lying, Kirsten. You don't have sisters. You don't have anyone."

I just sit there, staring at her. Is she insane? Or have I gone insane? I look round and Alice, Charlie and May have disappeared. I wonder if they were even real to begin with.

Julie nods at the door. 

"Wes is here."

Now Wes (my other housemate) has arrived, with Sophie (my ex) in tow. I ask him what he's doing here. He tells me that I'm late to take Sophie to the train station and that she needs the 15:10 to Wickham. I follow them out and suddenly we're in a London underground tunnel. We're walking along and Sophie is holding my hand. I look at her and become confused. She's so happy: she keeps kissing my cheek and telling me she loves me. I ignore her affection because I'm focused on getting her on that train.

We walk up some stairs to an open platform. The Wickham train is a navy and white colour and it's leaving. Hand in hand, Sophie and I run off (leaving Wes behind) in an attempt to catch the train. Sophie begs me to come with her but I tell her I can't, I'm needed here in Colchester. I launch her forward and she gets on the train; she cries and holds out her hand as the train disappears out of view.