11th of July 17 - Las Vegas Cavern

I am at work, though I believe the actual place I’m in is a combination of the top floor of a hospital, and my grandmothers house. There are lots of people coming and going, presumably working. A lot of people I don’t know.

I try to get my work done but I am incapable of doing so with this much distraction surrounding me. I decide the best thing to do is freeze. I start getting questioned by various people who work here, but I decide not to answer at all and play dumb. This eventually garners some sympathy and probably a bit of pity, apparently I am fine with this. Eventually most people start leaving, I begin to act like freezing was was my plan all along.

As people have mostly left, I start playing a console video game. Two people I apparently know come in out of nowhere to join me. One is a current real-life co-worker. The game involves chasing/poking another player for points. I watch the two guys play, one is playing as a shifting green blob with yellow eyes, the other a pink floating cloud with an angry expression, both climbing/slithering/floating up walls to escape the other. I tell them a fact about how one character is a localised addition outside of wherever the game is made because of religious reasons. (He floats, which is apparently a big no-no wherever this game was produced).

We pack up, all ready to leave for home. We become aware of the presence of a man in the back garden though (the location I’m in fully becomes my grandmothers house at this point). He is clearly some kind of junkie; shirtless, one working eye, mullet, brown teeth. He asks if he can come in for a moment. We open the door slightly and tell him that he can’t come in. He starts getting angry. We continue to tell him he can’t come in and that we’re sorry but those are the rules and it ain’t happening. I realise at this point he is a zombie.

I attempt leave via the front of the house, though the road has a few zombies loitering around. I get on my bicycle and attempt to ride off down the street, but zombies close in on both sides. There’s a small cul-de-sac off the road I’m on, I ride down into it and avoid the zombies by riding up a set of stairs that lead back to the actual road. It’s worth mentioning here that a different real-life co-worker of mine distracted the zombies at the top of the hill/road whilst I went into the cul-de-sac.

I ride on to reach a main road that has a lot of traffic. The road and traffic lead in the direction of Las Vegas (apparently). There are no pedestrians, just cars and vans. Apparently the road to Las Vegas enters some kind of mountain and becomes an incredibly long tunnel. It then turns out that Las Vegas is the name of a supposedly massive enclosed city. I walk there, sometimes on top of the cars, sometimes alongside them. As I pass some of the deadlocked cars, one forlorn person tells me that he remembers being at the end of the line; there are thousands that now follow him.

I (and a couple of people I am apparently walking with) eventually reach a large cavern filled with sand and illuminated with a yellow glow from somewhere. There are clay tubes that lead down from the road into the base of the cavern, shaped like the letter U. Kids are holding on to devices that let them be swept along into the cavern by downward momentum. (Think a disc that fits into the U with handles on either side.)

One of the companions I’m with wonders out loud how the clay lasts due to weather and the constant use by the sliding children. I laugh along with some others; “You just slap new clay on top!”

We continue walking and at some point reach the centre of the cavern. I begin to form some rudimentary form of government along with a small group of people. It’s a very solemn affair. There’s a man (Glen from TWD) and a woman with white hair. We begin by bowing our heads for her in memory of her husband who I believe died to zombies. (I note that I thought this to be stupid as I was sure lots of people had died already by this point, though I actually hadn’t encountered any death thus far).

I start to look around, apart from the U-tubes, the cavern seems empty; no sings of habitation at all as far as I can tell. This is meant to be some sort of mega-city? I notice cars attempting to drive into the tunnel from both ends though and realise it definitely seems to be considered the only safe place for some distance. I don’t have a clue where the cars are parking though.

I look up, and realise that the giant cave we’re in has houses built into the rock ceiling, so high up that they look miniscule from the cavern floor. They look like small red bulges with tiny black holes along the wall. Suspended from the walls just as high up are giant steel cables that support platforms and more buildings. Any new weight added would have to be accounted for, and I realised then that surviving and carving out a new home would not be easy.

9th of July 17 - The Train Station

I’m trying to get to Edinburgh via train, but I don’t want to pay for a full price ticket it seems. I don’t know where I’m going from, though the location doesn’t feel unfamiliar.

I’m with someone, a woman, short hair and a white tee. We get to the station, buy a ticket at the ‘reception area’, then make our way to a ticket barrier. This place feels like a futuristic station designed a decade ago, lots of greys and whites. We slip past the barrier into a corridor we are not meant to go down. There is a lot of machinery, moving platforms and boxes.

We decide this route is far too much a risk and leave, hoping that the desk clerk hasn’t noticed us.

We leave the station, into the centre of whatever town this is. It’s dark, early night time, and completely empty. Small cobbled streets and cramped buildings guide us to a pub at the bottom of a hill, in a small town square. We discuss our plan of action, and when we believe we know what we’re doing, we leave.

We make it past the front desk again but immediately something is wrong. The receptionist/cashier is far too smug, and as we make it to the corridor we know we’re caught out. We do our best to get out as quickly as possible, not before the female companion I’m with is knocked down though.

At some point she is scanned or biopsied, and it is determined she has an obstruction of either her uterus or her kidneys. A dead baby is pulled out (of somewhere?) and we realise she must have miscarried. I can recall her face; mouth open in shock, grey clammy skin, eyes glazed over.

I end up back in the cosy pub, this time with my SO, we are waiting for a friend of mine to arrive. He does, we talk about how we’re actually paying for the train this time, and make our way to the station.

We pay full price, and calmly move into a corridor where we are actually allowed to be. We pass a barrier with a guard there, he stops me and asks if I’m allergic to peanuts. I say I am, so he offers me some of his milkshake. I believe it’s made from cabbage.

The tunnel/passage we enter is several hundred meters long, packed full of people. It feels like a great bazaar, a market full... of home-wares. My SO is entranced and wants to spend a lot of time hunting for purchases. We have a train to catch though.

7th of July 17 - The Lightning

I am at a pub in a town I once lived in. I believe I knew the people that owned the place. I didn't come for a drink, I am more lounging about. I don't think I necessarily had any aim in being here, but I do recall chatting to someone I once knew.

At some point, I left the pub. I started flitting across this quiet end of town, heading to places I'd not been in years. My old bedroom was one of them. It was apparently still in the condition I'd last left it, I don't know how long it had been left this way though, it felt like it should have been years. I have a look through some old CD and game cases (Heroes of Might and Magic 3), in the hopes of finding something. I’m not exactly sure what I was looking for, but found nothing.

My dad appeared here at this point, asking what I was looking for. I responded that I was looking for nothing in particular, but I recall feeling guilty, as if I was looking for something shady, drugs perhaps? He mentions my mother, and I reply that I know of her current situation. She is currently working, something important, something secret, and something potentially dangerous. I realise that I need to be there, and start to head in the direction I believe her to be.

My dad and I head together into the centre of what feels like a rather extravagant city. It is fast approaching night, but there are thousands of people heading to and fro, having a fancy time in their multicoloured clothes. There must be some sort of celebration or holiday that I’m not aware of going on. The clothes people are wearing seem like a mash-up of Victorian and the colour choices of the 70's.

There are a lot of blue ribbons being twirled by various revellers holing onto sticks, and there are barrels and boxes full of spares. I take hold of one in each hand, and start using them to catapult myself around, twirling them behind me, giving me a temporary jumping boost.

On our way through the city I pass into a game shop and glance over the shelves. Yet again, I’m unsure of what I’m searching for, and I leave empty handed.

We move on, passing through a large square with lots of people talking, shouting, dancing, singing. The square is full of classical architecture, converted on the ground floors into modern shops, all of which are shut or shutting for the night. One street leading out of the square heads in the direction of an industrial end of town. We move on, surrounded no more; there is nothing here for people at this time.

The industrial area is comprised of factories, surrounded by canals and large flat bridges. Numerous chain fences surround the factories, lining the roads, large grey-green pipes cross over constantly, presumably feeding electricity and gas between the factories. In the distance I see flashes of lightning, plumes of fire reaching up to the sky in response. I know that this is where my mother is located.

We hurry forwards, knowing that my mother is in danger, that something had gone wrong. My dad tells me to get away, that there was nothing I can do here; the person my mother was meeting had powers, the ability to shock people and temporarily stun them if they were within a certain radius of the blast.

I don’t know what my thought process is, but I get close. I have to lure him away somehow. He immediately sees me though, and I become the focus of his attention.

We meet gazes, and something about our eye contact changes me. I feel like I have stolen something from him, without fully understanding what. Was this the reason I felt I had to get close to him? To gain some of his power? As I come to this realisation, I realise that he is coming for me. I have to get away.

I run back towards the city, my only worry is towards myself. Lightning crashes down close behind. I am outside of his attack radius, though I feel that he is faster than me. Lightning strikes some of the pipes covering the road and flames lash out in response again.

I run on, reaching the street leading into the city square. I can tell that I’m close to being caught, and in fact, as I run down the street a blast catches me close and knocks me off my feet. Desperately I clamber up and half-stumble half-run into the square. As I do so I snatch some of the long blue ribbons from a passer-by.

I propel myself over the crowd, they’re still as raunchy as they previously were. Ballgowns and cloaks of many colours. As far as the crowd is concerned, nothing out of the ordinary seems to be happening.

I hope that my chaser has not seen me yet, so I quickly throw myself out of the square using the ribbons, up a small side street still bustling with people. It curves upwards, and I dive right into the middle of a colourful crowd. I keep up my pace, reaching the top of the road where I decide a building is the safest place; I can hide. I propel myself up once more, immediately seeing an open window, somebodies bedroom, and dart inside.

I land and immediately shut the blinds. Breathing heavily, I look around and press myself against the wall. Am I safe?

6th of July 17 - The Glitch Law

I’m in an office, though I believe I’m also in a forested islandy area. I’m trying to sort masses of clutter from the floors and desks. I am completely alone, and yet at times it feels like there are people with me. It feels like I live here, migrating from island to island. There is a lot of office type clutter.

I’m aware that there is some form of game being played that I am a part of. I believe it involves magic, and I know I need power of some sorts.

A co-worker meanwhile sets up a ritual, a darkened parchment covered in symbols arranged in a circle surrounding a single character, which begins to glow red. I am aware of this happening, though I am not physically present. I know that this is the beginnings of magic, and that I must leave to attain it.

I head forward, out of the forest, onto a small grassy area leading up to a road. This is a populated area, there are cars, houses, though nobody is around. I turn a corner, heading uphill. It seems like I’m heading towards a more central location in this town/city.

I continue up, heading to a group of older buildings, possibly over a hundred years old, but clearly modern inside, (you can tell by the blinds through the windows, they seem like offices mostly). One of them has it’s windows clear, and is lit up. It is getting dark outside.

Inside this building I have spotted are a few popular anime characters, adorning the walls in poster form (I recognise One Piece). I get inside and realise it’s a tattoo parlour, though I don’t know how as the front seems to be a music shop.

I head to the counter, and wait to be served. It's very busy, and none of the servers are free. Eventually I am spotted by an extremely laid back guy, though at first he seems very reluctant to see me. I am here to get a tattoo, and I know this guy can help me, though I want to ensure I go through the process properly.

I flounder a bit, I’m not sure how to go about asking for what I need, so I offer him some of the hot food I've apparently brought with me. It appears to be some sort of pastry covering chicken (chicken lattice?). He asks me if I know ‘The Glitch Law’. I respond that I don’t, and so he tells me. “The Aboriginals of Australia say that each time they have a child, it is less and less a representation of them.”

I’m not really sure what to say to that, nor why he told me, so we dig into the chicken. As I’m eating it though, I check a piece and there are purple splodges all over the chicken. I tell the tattoo artist he can't eat it (for obvious reasons). He still does though and says it tastes great.