A Very Bad Dream, Part I

...the terror I felt... resonates within me until now.

I just had a very bad dream. I am still distressed over it, and the terror that I felt felt so real that it still resonates within me until now. It wasn't even a nightmare in which I couldn't move my body; it was just that-- a very bad dream.


I was in a concert hall with Adam and some other people who I don't recognize. The concert hall was huge, and yet it was filled to capacity. I don't even remember the exact event, but I believe it was a concert of sorts. In any case, on top of the stage was a very striking bald man sporting a suave tuxedo. His face looked pleasant enough. It seems that he was the host of the event.

The bald man spoke to the crowd, announcing that the next act (or the start of the concert, I'm not sure) would start in 90 seconds. I looked around the concert hall, and saw, for the first time, that the doors of the place were pulled down, save for a few, which were only partly pulled down. (These doors looked like the ones in malls, the metal sheets that you had to slide down to lock the store behind them.) At the vicinity of each partly closed door was a guard (normal-looking ones, like security guards). They looked stern. I didn't pay close attention to these details at first, because it was a concert anyway, but I felt a tingle right there and then, at the start of those freaking 90 seconds. By the time it came down to only 30 seconds left, I looked at the guards again and felt more uneasy. I suddenly felt-- no, knew-- that something bad was going to happen, and that it would involve the guards. Terror filled me, and it was cold. I whispered to Adam, "Adam, we should go. Now." However, for some reason, we didn't act on my instinct. So the 90 seconds elapsed with us still in the concert hall.

The host stepped up again and announced: "The concert that you are waiting for will not be happening. Tonight, you will be fighting. You will be fighting for your survival." The pleasant-looking host suddenly shifted to something more menacing. His face was taut, and his eyes looked vacant. It was then that pandemonium arose. Everyone was scrambling to get out of the doors. I told Adam: "We must crawl towards the exit." We started crawling. Amazingly, we didn't get hit by a rampaging stampede. It was apparent that everyone thought it would be wise to crawl, as well.

The gunfire started. The guards were idly firing at the people who were crawling on the ground. I say "idle" because it felt like they were not hitting at anyone in particular, nor did they care that they actually shot someone. They fired, then paused for a while, then fired. How long each pause took was random. Yet people were dying by the second.

Adam and I got separated because he crawled closer to where the open door was, whereas I (and this other girl I don't recognize) decided to take a long cut to the door, far from where the bullets could reach us. Miraculously, we emerged safe. It appeared that the guards don't shoot at the people who have escaped the concert hall. They just concentrated all their efforts to those still in the hall.

Outside the hall, we were met by a row of chairs that have been arranged into a semi-circle. Adam wasn't there yet, so I sat down and waited for him. After several minutes of waiting, Adam hasn't emerged from the door yet. I began to felt scared.

Fortunately, after a few more minutes, he came out, coughing and bent over like he had inhaled a can of smoke. But that wasn't the end of it. There was a level 2 to this game of terror.

[To be continued in next entry.]