Mzzkc's Mind Games

SPECIAL EDITION

Most of you probably didn't notice the removal of one of my five star entries recently. I took it down because I was using it as a base for a school project. Today, I present the result of that project in Dream Journal Format. Enjoy.

10.08.2010

The Way The World Ends: Special Edition (Non-lucid)

★★★★★

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Thoughts, silently drifting atop an ocean of blackness, play in my mind. Flashing images, darting under supple waves of nothing, form together to create new and exciting visions. Drifting slowly toward sleep, the onset of a dream is upon me. The shift into the dream-state is sudden, yet subtle. . . .

Everyone gets a test. Crap, I whisper inwardly. The answers were just on the board, but my recall is hazy, murky. I struggle, fighting through my memories like one would against a powerful current, but—realization strikes me abruptly. With great haste, I record my revelation.

“Soul: The agent that binds humanity together.”
“Biology: The genetic force that drives humans apart. Often incites violent conflicts.”

I ponder, deeply, the implications of these definitions, likening soul to an archaic ideal and biology—difference, technology—to humankind’s present outlook. In today’s world, with its holographic displays and galaxy-wide communication, hardly anyone believes in the existence of a soul. Clearly, technology has ascended to fill our need to connect with one another, making souls obsolete. And yet, something is missing, something one can’t get from behind a dim glowing screen. Without this crucial piece, our physiological differences rise to the surface, and we begin to look upon those unlike ourselves with disdain and contempt. Even the best of us fall prey to this reality.

The proof is here in this classroom full of geniuses. Each of us, raised in a world of cold circuitry and wire, place ourselves above this guest-lecturer who had the nerve to test us. More than that, none of us, save myself, are afraid to show it. One student in particular vocalizes the intellectual disparity between the professor and her students using several colorful metaphors, and I can’t help agreeing with him.

Without warning, the dream changes. Our test is over, and my class is headed back to Earth, yet no one celebrates our return. A sea of nuclear warheads is descending upon us, dropping through the same atmosphere we are. This is it: the end of everything. My peers look at me; their dark, motionless eyes stare blankly. All hope has left them.

I extend a shield of energy around those close to me as the nukes hit ground. Fallout descends upon us, drowning the air in a blood-red hue, buffeting my shield, heating it beyond the realms of human survival. The world outside my bubble is dead, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I think I failed the test.