sanity is relative

The first dream was rather long and I barely remember any of it, but it involved zombies who passed on their disease by biting. They could also make zombies out of animals, and although the animal bites didn't make the disease contagious to a person, they were vicious and obviously getting any sort of injury doesn't help one's cause in staying un-zombified. For part of the dream I was indoors and I think underground, which was bad because zombies did better in the dark. The end of it had me and a guy who would be like the main or almost-main character in a movie (if I were the main) outside in the sunlight, with some kind of supposedly-protective circle of branches around us.

The circle was probably a good thirty or forty feet wide, so there was a good amount of room to move, and I think there was only one zombie beyond the circle at the moment but there were a lot more animals. I remember specifically a squirrel or two, and one of them managed to get into the circle and bite me on the back of my right hand (OW yes it definitely very much hurt). There was a third guy with us I think, and I was yelling at him that this circle thing wasn't keeping the bad crap out like it was supposed to and realized right around then that he'd been zombified just now. The whole thing was going to hell and I'm not really sure how it ended, but I woke up really scared and realized it had been the first nightmare of that type I'd had in quite a while (the typical scary-nightmare or horror-movie inspired thing). I was disappointed I'd gone through the whole thing without realizing it was a dream, because if I had, I could have woken myself up.

Well, I went back to sleep because I was way too tired to get up. I went almost immediately back to dreaming. I was in my (randomly dream-created) house, with my (randomly dream-created) boyfriend and family, and it was night time. I was afraid the zombies would attack, as if part of the old dream had carried on to this new dream. Suddenly my boyfriend revealed that he was one, and I ran out of the house. I remember very little of this dream and I wish I could because I'm pretty sure it was epic-scale. I eventually met up with a slightly overweight middle-age lady with a kindly face and medium-length, kinda-curly brown hair. She knew who I was, and told me that I was very important to stopping the evil.

I think I was telling her about what had happened so far, and as I was going over the beginning, the dream sort of flowed into my narrative and thus ended and started to repeat. This time I was back in my house at night where I'd started (though the house had changed) and my boyfriend was there again with my family. I think I was telling them about the first dream, as if I'd just had it or something, and I told them we needed to lock the doors and windows to make sure the zombies didn't get in because I didn't think it was just a dream. Then one of the zombies I recognized came to the front door, I could see him, and as I was freaking out I began to realize my family and boyfriend were all zombies and they were saying something like "she's not ready yet."

I'm not sure what happened to the zombie outside (I think they let him in) but he wasn't out there anymore and I ran outside to get away from them all. I ran left along the sidewalk and I remember thinking it was important I stay under the stars. I looked up and saw what looked like a yellow glow-in-the-dark sword-shaped mouse pointer in the sky pointing to a specific star, so I ran that direction (which was sort of the way I was already going, to my right a little but for the moment I was staying on the sidewalk instead of crossing the street).

An expensive black luxury sedan that I think was a BMW suddenly seemed to be swerving at me or chasing me, so I had to change directions. I silently begged the sky for more help and saw the sword was now on a star further to my left now and right on the horizon, leading me onto grass to my left that dipped down a hill and into some forest and stuff. I was still near the top of the hill as the car stopped and two black people got out, a guy and a girl, dressed nicely and I remember the guy had very short hair.

They asked me what the heck my problem was, and I forget what reason they were actually there but I begged them for a ride. They asked me where I wanted to go and I forget where I said (San Paulo?) and they were cool with that. So I got in the back seat of the car which was now for some reason a convertible, and I had a pillow in my arms when we drove right back past my house so I hugged it and looked away from the house hoping they wouldn't recognize me but at this point I knew I had red hair and I had a bad feeling they would... but we weren't chased immediately. There didn't seem to be anybody at all outside the house as I peeked back at it when we'd gone past.

The couple said they had to make a stop, which was uncomfortably only a few blocks from my house up a side street, but I had barely started telling them about the zombies and I don't think they believed me. The lady they met was going to give them some food they'd ordered, I think they'd found her through some kind of internet service. It was the lady who I had met in the first dream, the one who said I was important, but all I knew now was that she was somehow important, I just couldn't remember why. We were all out of the car as she gave the people their food, and then asked me, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

I answered something about not being sure, and she asked me what my name was. I said, "Shane..." and then it was like it was really hard to remember my last name, it was like I knew the one I had was wrong, and that there was another name I was supposed to be known by. So finally I got it out, "...Dawson" (ahahaha my brain must be taking inspiration from YouTube, even if I have wanted the name Shane for years before running across Shane Dawson). She was sort of looking at me a little funny, like she might be figuring something out, but the other people were saying we had to go now so I left with them.

A few blocks later we suddenly got rammed from behind by another car (and now our car was back to being a sedan). The guy driving finally believed about the zombies, and was wondering how they'd found us so fast. There was some dream illogic behind my response ("They're editing the video!" as if there had been video footage of us going by, and access to fully processed video feed for editing meant they... somehow had all the information they needed) and now it was a car chase.

As if this were a bad Ed Wood movie, we found ourselves in heavy city traffic in broad daylight a few moments later. The zombie car was still too close behind and now they had a large, odd tractor thing on their side as well. I kept telling the driver he needed a wide open road, this kind of car should be able to go really fast and this was totally the wrong area to try and escape in. The girlfriend of the guy agreed with me, and even suggested it might be better if I took a cab instead as those guys could drive fast.

I think we heard on the radio or something that there was an actual ghostbusting service being advertised. I asked the people if they knew about that, they didn't really but the girl drug out a phone book and handed it to me, it was supposed to be the White Pages or something, and she apologized saying it might be harder to find in there. She also gave me her cell phone to borrow, and I dialed 911 while I was looking through the book trying to figure out what the heck section ghostbusting would be under. The operator wasn't honestly sure she believed what I was trying to tell her about the zombies and all, and was fairly sure she couldn't help me. The last thing I asked her was if she had any guesses as to where the ghostbusting number would be, and she said to try the services section. Conveniently, there was such a section, and it wasn't huge.

In that section of the phone book (which was difficult to read because reading is often difficult in dreams), I finally found a page with spiritual services, a lot of occult-related stuff though too much of it seemed like it was places that just sold stuff and had fun-houses and maybe palm readings or fortune tellers if lucky. Still, that had potential and an ad I saw for a place was one I wanted to go to but wasn't sure how to get there, and was about to mention it. The girl suddenly tried handing me a very slim "phone book" that she said was the Yellow Pages with a warm, triumphant smile like it was way more what I needed... but I still wanted to go to the place where the ad was and was about to ask again.

I noticed the shops in the area we were in were a lot like the section of the phone book I'd been looking in. Then the guy said something like, "What about this place?" and suddenly he was pulled over right by that one shop I'd seen the ad for, and in the window there was a sign for "Horror House" though the windows hadn't been cleaned in a while and the whole neighborhood looked really dumpy.

Well, it was the place I wanted to go and we were sitting ducks with the zombies still too close though it seems like we'd temporarily lost them. I said sure I'd go in and begged them to please stay and wait for me in case I had to run out fast again. I grabbed Teddy (my actual teddy bear) who for some reason was in the car as if he'd been with me the whole time, but I left my purse with them as if it was somehow safer to do so (??) and also left the door open even with the zombie threat because I was that worried I'd have to run right back into the car. Also, right around this time there was another person in the back seat of the car, an Asian young lady who the dream plot just sort of threw in like she'd always been there was well.

When outside the store before this conversation, I'd seen some of the employees through the window. Now as I went into the store, the layout changed (baaad dream logic, bad) and also I no longer remember having Teddy (baaad dream edit? lol). I sort of recognized the employees (a guy and a girl in toned-down punky haircuts and stuff) and well it was the same kind of store so I just went with it. I walked past the main customers and those two employees, feeling that the help I wanted wasn't in that area, and I would know the right kind of person when I saw them... if they were there at all.

I saw a lady behind a different counter, she was older and I think she had longish light-colored hair. I could see in her eyes that she held wisdom and knowledge of the sort I was looking for, or something very close to it, so I walked up to her and said I needed help. I forget exactly how I phrased it, possibly being under attack from darkness I was afraid to talk about in public, but at the end I said, "and I'm not looking for help from 'god'" and I even used air quotes.

She nodded, seeming to understand, and then I realized she had totally vanished while I'd... stood there staring for a moment? The Asian girl from the car was now with me (she'd come to check on me I think) and I said, "Wow, she's good." I knew the older lady was going to either talk to someone before talking to me again, or was fetching someone else... possibly because she'd told me. I forget.

It was only a moment or two later that a short, elderly Asian woman walked out from a back room and guided me to go sit nearby with her on a sort of round booth-like seat without a table. I sat down with her and the other girl who was with me, and started telling her about the zombies. I really don't remember what all I said, but this all seemed to make sense to her and she was saying something back to me, I'm not sure what, but as she did so her eyes started looking past me. I looked behind me, back the way I had come, and the area there was totally obscured by almost living darkness.

The old lady got up yelling some kind of curse or something at it (I forget, words of banishment probably) and stretched out her hand. From it came a yellow-white stream of magic with a thick orange-red cord through the middle of it, and it made a long line as it struck into the darkness. A male voice said something from inside the darkness, I don't remember what it was but probably something about the futility of her standing against him. Then I could see a man in the darkness there, and I knew it was one of the zombies, but now it was like I also knew they were actually vampires. Could be that was part of the dialogue, I wish I could remember it better.

The man countered the magic with his own power (which I don't remember what it looked like), and the lady shriveled up and fell backwards, dead. The other girl by me tried to get in his way as well and I think she also either died or got zapped into unconsciousness. Then I was on the floor as well, passing out because he'd hit me with some of that power next, and as everything went dark I heard the voice of Vampire Hunter D asking a very short question. Sadly, I can't remember the question now, though I do believe it had to do with asking where I had vanished to. I realized that perhaps I had disappeared off the floor completely, perhaps with my female friend too, and maybe the lady who I had seen in the previous dream had done it? Perhaps all hope was not yet lost?

But I wouldn't find out, because then I woke up.

I changed perspective a lot during this dream, between Riddick and Shane (a character I created for the Riddick universe, she's his daughter and this is quite possibly the first dream I've ever had of her and she was an adult or late teenager in this).

The dream took place in a futuristic storage facility with a lot of boxes and crates and various doorways and large rooms. I was Shane at first, following Riddick as we ran from the enemy, a whole bunch of clones who looked like Sebastian from Babylon 5 except they were wearing dark FBI / Men In Black suits (if you don't know the character, the actor would make a good Sherlock Holmes based on his looks). I had to stop to thin out the ranks. and started sniping them from as far off as I could with a gun that seemed like a mix of assault rifle and sniper rifle. This worked okay until the clones started multiplying here and there. (Sort of like Agent Smith from the Matrix sequels but without actually needing another body around to take over.)

I told Riddick to run on ahead while I covered him so he could see if there was a way out on our current path. I switched between Riddick and Shane's POV a bit as he headed through a door and along a suspended walkway over a large open area that led to darkening sky on the left and more of the complex ahead and to the right. The walkway made a T intersection ahead. Meanwhile Shane saw one of the clones throw a very bright flare past her, and hoped Riddick had his goggles on at that moment. Riddick had just slipped them back on, in fact. (I think dream logic kinda cheated.) The flare lit the area up very brightly and as Shane I decided to bail and catch up to Riddick.

I did, and I'm not sure what all happened next except that we split up again en route to an excape elevator (apparently this place was partly underground or wherever the exit was, it was up). As Shane I ran across an ally of some sort who tagged along, and as Riddick I took out an important woman character belonging to the enemy; she'd been guarding the elevator. I killed her and hid the body in shadow as Shane appeared with the other person.

Then I woke up.

(Shane is my original character created for a bad-fanfiction-waiting-to-happen based on the universe of the movie The Chronicles of Riddick. Shane is Richard B. Riddick's daughter and looks about 12 years old.)

I started this dream as Riddick, let loose in a large prison environment containing some sort of haphazard structure in the center of a gargantuan "room" that had a dirt floor and extremely sparse plants scattered around, almost like an enclosed biosphere, except square and surrounded by walls and a ceiling. I was closest to the central structure so I climbed to the top, killing everyone on the way, and becoming "king of the hill." More prisoners were drawn to the fracas and were going to attempt to take me out.

Then the powers that be released zombies into the grounds. As Riddick found his own way to escape, I became Shane who was busy running from zombie death. Toombs was right behind her, apparently the bounty hunter had managed to land himself a prison sentence. I ran to the nearest edge of the building (it felt like the east side) and saw a hose in the corner (south-east side). I turned it on and was quite happy to see it actually worked at all. It worked well, and I was able to fend off some zombies with the jet of water as they didn't like it for some reason.

There was a line of windows above me, and I could see that the closest one was open but not normally reachable by one person (great prison security, eh?). Toombs was asking how anything I was doing was helping either of us get out as I wrapped the end of the hose around my waist. I told him to watch me and do what I did after I got up to the window. I turned the water on real hard, and the force of the water in the hose lifted me up. I was able to guide the direction in which the hose lifted me and was soon up on the window ledge. Toombs turned the water down enough that I could throw him the hose, and then had some trouble getting the hose concept to work for himself until he realized he was heavier than I was, and needed to turn the water up higher.

Meanwhile I jumped out of the window, a little afraid I might hurt myself on the way down but at this point it was better than being eaten by zombies, or staying in prison at all. I made it okay and started running away from the prison into the semi-darkness before morning. I looked back to see Toombs reach the window's edge; he was too large to fit through the gap I'd just left through, so he just kicked the whole window out and dropped to the ground to follow me.

There was a problem with the landscape now: further east was a sheer cliff going upwards that joined with a mountain range to the northeast, to the south was an impassable ravine, and to the north and west the country was flat red clay and dust with no cover for quite some distance. It would take much too long to run anywhere and surely the prison guards would recapture us out there. But to the northeast was a cave that went into the cliffside, so I headed for that even though I wasn't happy with the lack of choices. I had a feeling this was the way Riddick had gone, but I couldn't see him anywhere and put that thought aside as there were more pressing matters to attend to.

At the entrance to the cave was a skeleton sitting in front of a campfire that was currently in full-flamey-swing. The formerly-living looked as if it had starved to death or something, and in its bony fingers it held a tea candle in a candle holder. The candle was lit (yet its owner was long dead, go figure) and now I became Toombs as Shane took the candle and ventured into the cave ahead of me. It was a poor light source but better than nothing, as I had a feeling we'd need it (I somehow knew there might be light-fearing aliens on this planet like the ones in the movie Pitch Black).

The spaces we crawled through were rather cramped, and in a larger area the ceiling was still so low that Shane had to duck. She stopped for a moment, and I warned her just in time before she moved again; I grabbed her shoulder, there was a flock of those nasty tiny creatures right over her head. She ducked further to avoid them, as somehow they hadn't noticed us (yay alien sleep?) and we entered another room barely larger than the last.

Here there were two dog-like creatures, each about the size of a large housecat. We both knew they were vicious, insane creatures who would eat anything that wasn't one of them. I became Shane again (which put me closer to the dogs), and at this point we couldn't turn back so I pressed forward, slowly, trying to exude the feeling that I belonged here, that I was actually one of the crazy doggies and everything was cool. The problem was, they'd acquired a large chunk of meat that was some poor hapless thing's former body. It was in the way, considering the two dogs were on either side of it. And on the far side was the exit from the cave, I could see daylight beyond.

One of the dogs was snoozing while the other munched half-asleep on the body. All I could really do was move into the corpse, and unfortunately the end that moved was the end the awake-dog was eating. The dog whined in sleepy annoyance and I tried to make generic "I belong here too, hello doggy family" noises. Amazingly, this worked, and I was able to get past the dogs with Toombs following right behind.

It was a massive relief to get out of the caves finally, and we found ourselves in a small, meandering canyon of the red clay stuff prevalent to the area.

Then the dream logic bailed on me and I'm not gonna get into the rest.