December 22, 2008: The Infection

[ty4TheAdventure]

The Infection Original Dream Journal Entry It was a cloudy day, with some humidity. My roommate and I were outside walking together. We were about to cross the middle of a street and as usual, we saw hundreds of other students walking around. The location we were in barely had any buildings. Just a few scattered around that side of campus. I was able to see very far into the distance. While calm, there was an atmosphere that I could not quite decipher. It was like a thunderstorm was approaching and while I was somewhat relaxed, something felt off. That day was feeling a bit too real and I was feeling a bit too attentive at everything I was seeing. I was certainly not on autopilot following my daily routine. That was when the first signs of it appeared on our side of campus. Other students were turning there heads looking towards the same general direction. There were yells and clear signs of a struggle somewhere in the distance to my left. I turned around to see what was going on. One student had randomly decided to tackle another student onto the floor. I thought there were a few words exchanged, emotions riled up and finally a fight broke out. But what I saw next terrified me to the core. The tackler was pinning the other student down and I saw him literally chewed flesh off of the other student. After witnessing this attack, I noticed that the students around me were generally confused. Some ran because they themselves were frightened or they wanted to get help. Others stayed to watch and make sense of what we were all seeing. As I looked around to see how others were reacting, I noticed something else that not only shattered my emotional reality, but made me realize what I had to do. More students were attacking, tackling and biting whoever they could get a hold of. I saw students running, other students were getting bit, and even more students biting others. The chaos and panic escalated and I was witnessing this escalation in action. From one attacker to tens to hundreds. My world was I perceived it was forever shattered. I had to get to a safe place so I could give myself time to process this, and make sense of everything. While this was happening, the friend I was walking with decides to talk to some girl he is into. He believed the attacks were interesting enough for discussion, but did not warrant any fear from him! I decided to leave my friend behind because I was in incredible terror to just stay there with him. We were in the middle of the street. There were no buildings that I could get into for quick and temporary safety. The attackers were all around us and I had no clue what was going on! The best thing I could think of, was to get to the closest building possible and see if I could take a safe route through that building and back to my dorm. I saw a route that only a few others were taking. I ran through this "path" of empty people that ultimately lead up to the library. The library was the closest building nearby, it turned out. I ran past several bushes hoping attackers wouldn't pop out. Since nobody was in this path, I was pretty comfortable taking that route. That is until I saw the actual library. When I got to the library, I saw hundreds of people running away from the library at once. But I wasn't worried about why they were running. I was worried about how I would pass through all of these people without getting attacked. I decided to just go for it and walk past everyone I saw. I just pushed my way through. I saw tons of people- people I knew, relatives and childhood friends from when I was very young. I passed them all, pushing forward. As I did this, I saw one of my old high school friends pushing forward with me. He talked to me and explained to me why he was also pushing forward. The reason he gave me was odd and I thought of him as weird for it. But I can't remember why. We pushed forward and managed to get into the library. I forget what happens, but I ended up using the library as a shortcut to get to back to my dorm or somewhere near my dorm. Instead of walking out in the open streets where people were getting attacked, I just cut through the library and left through the exit in the direction I wanted to head in. I eventually made it to my dorm. Despite all my navigation, I ended up getting stuck on campus. We were all supposed to go home for winter break, but my roommate, his parents, my brother and I were stuck in a shelter somewhere on campus, isolated from the attackers. By this point, I had pretty much figured it all out. The attackers weren't aware of what they were doing, because they were not alive. They were dead. They were infecting others. They were zombies. The shades were drawn to prevent the infected from being capable of seeing us. We were essentially hiding in a small shelter outside in the middle of an open field. Going to a large building complex would have been too dangerous. If just one person from the building got infected, the whole building had the potential to become a dangerous spot with no escape. So instead, we found a small house in the middle of nowhere and quickly took refuge there. It wasn't long before I spotted a car outside with people who were going to make an attempt to leave. We decided to see if we could go with them. After some discussion, we were told that they were going to go to the airport. There were rumors that planes were taking off with people who had managed to escape locations ravaged with the infected. That they were going to safe zones were the infection has not yet spread. Zones that were going to be isolated and kept safe for everyone in them. The risk was that we would be exposing ourselves to any group of infected people out there. Once we left the shelter, anything could have happen and thus, we were taking a risk in traveling. We could have gotten attacked on our way to the airport. However, we were also taking a risk staying in our shelter. Who was to say the world would heal. Wouldn't it have been better to live in a semi-working society? Before we left, I remembered that I was really scared about opening the shades. The shades in the room where my brother, my roommate and I were hiding would sometimes open on there own. I would freak out if they were open for too long for fear that some infected might see us in the distance. I almost decided to call my parents in order to have them come over to the campus themselves and pick us up. Then it hit me- if infected were overrunning the city, they could attack the car in droves. My parents would then have no chance of survival. This realization made me regret even considering having them drive over. I was focusing on this while we hid in our room. I did not want my parents to risk anything to save us. I did not want to worry them and I certainly hoped they did not hear about what was happening on campus. So we left with the others who were already there in the car. There were about 3 adult men and 1 woman. As we walked to the car, I looked around. It was as if we were in the countryside. It was very sunny, and there were no clouds. Just pure blue sky all around. The day was nice and warm, beautiful in fact. All around us was yellowing grass. The grass was tall and a gentle wind constantly blew, giving us a refreshed feeling. The stark contrast of this beautiful weather to the terrifying events was obvious and clear. Any other day, and we would have taken advantage of the weather to just relax. I saw kids playing near a road which was located near a bridge somewhere up ahead. The bridge was small and it was not made for cars. It was for people to cross over. I could not see what was beyond the bridge. I wondered why the kids weren't in hiding. How could they be so calm with everything that was happening? I then heard from the car, that special police were assigned to take care of this horrible situation. They patrolled the streets and automatically took care of any infected they saw. This was to prevent the growth of the population of the infected. It was also to keep the many survivors alive and safe. It was the best measure they could take in a situation like this. This calmed me and I felt safer as we walked toward the car. We all squeezed into the car and drove through the road. Eventually we made it to the city and traveled through the streets. We managed to get through most of the city, but we were then stopped by a man. He was actually my old high school friend. He told us that we couldn't go to the airport because there were many reports of people who tried to get to the airport and then got attacked. It would be better if we turned back. We thanked him for the warning and sort of do turn back. But instead of heading anywhere else, we looked for alternate transportation. An alternate route to get out of the danger zones and into the rumored safe zone. If the zombies were being distracted by the many people going to the airport, we may as well have used that to our advantage and looked for alternate transportation. So that was exactly what we did. We went around looking for a train station or subway system. We managed to get into some Italian restaurant. The owners were really happy to see us. They said something about not wanting to be alone. Yet they were actually worried about how their business would survive after everything that was happening. I wondered in utter shock how they could even care about their business at a time like this. We ignored them and continued moving forward. It was apparent that they intended to stay at their store. Unfortunately, I somehow lost track of most of the people who were with me, except for my brother. I think they chose to go on a different route that I completely disagreed with, and thus we split up. I walked down a set of stairs that I found nearby and into a tunnel. All the while I was watchful, with the idea in my mind that the infected could appear out of nowhere. Anytime, anywhere. I had to be watchful and not make sudden movements. There were a few people in that tunnel. One guy was walking in the opposite direction that I was headed, towards me. When he got near me, he told me he could get a train to come for me if I gave him some money or something. I gave him money and that was when I realized that there were no train tracks in this tunnel. How could a train possibly arrive if there were no tracks for it? And yet somehow it did! It materialized from nothing and made a stop right in the middle of this trackless tunnel. I asked the conductor if the train was headed toward some specific place- Chabrin, I called it, or something. I pointed to the location on a map that I pulled out of my pocket. He said no, unfortunately it was not. Because of this, I didn't board the train. Apparently, this "Chabrin" place was where the group of people who were originally with me were going to meet up. All of us. I think it's where the airport was supposed to be. I was not about to abandon our original plans and my group of friends simply because the train was not headed in that direction. I just had to find another route. There were pathways that led even further down some stairs within the tunnel, so I made my way through them. There were train tracks and some of my old middle school and high school friends were there as I headed down the steps. I waited down there with them hoping we would get out of there soon. I could feel the danger surrounding us and getting worse as time past. The infection was still spreading. Poor survivors were trying their best to avoid getting bitten, however this sort of thing has spread incredibly fast. If we stayed in anyone place in the danger zones too long, we would get spotted by one, possibly more of them. We had to hurry and get into the safe zone. As we waited, I saw an old elementary school friend there as well. It was comforting being with people I knew and trusted. During our wait, we would jump down and walk on the actual tracks and wait for a train while we were on these tracks. I tripped on the tracks, but tried my best to avoid touching them for fear of getting electrocuted. Whenever a train was headed our way, we would just jump off the tracks and back onto the platform. Eventually, we got on a train that stopped and actually started heading somewhere. Not long after, the train stopped at another station. We got off and waited again for another train. Again, we decided to get on the tracks. While we were on the tracks, I saw a group of people walking towards us from one of the train tunnels. Fear welled up inside me. I got scared because I saw these people as an enemy. Had the infected not existed, these people would have certainly attempted to attack us. I was capable of feeling it. Instead, because of our mutual situation, they ignored us and passed us. This part then became really fuzzy. Somehow, I miraculously ended up at the airport. I don't know how or why. But my brother, my roommate and the others were there with me. I am incredibly happy and relieved. From going to a situation where any corner and any turn could very well mean death, to one where I am with my family and friends and we're all relatively safe provided me with an incredible amount of comfort. We were close to getting out of this. The toughest decisions were behind us and we all managed to get here safely. They were fine and we might actually have been able to get out of there. We sat in a restaurant booth somewhere in the airport and ordered some food, despite the fact that I was not very hungry. My stomach was hurting- it was the kind of pain you get when you are severely nervous or extremely frightened. A thought came to my mind. We were all concentrated in this one location. Tons of people surrounded by danger because we are in here isolated from the infected out there. If even one infected person got in, it could prove to be one of the worst situations you could ever be in- a completely isolated building crowded with hundreds of people who are being infected and then spreading it to the others inside. There would be nowhere to run that would allow you to avoid everyone. Plunging into a crowd of moving people and running past them would be a gamble when it came to whether or not they were infected. I recalled a time where I saw a show and someone got pizza from a certain restaurant. It was a cartoon, but they got pizza with many different colors. When I saw that show, I remembered thinking that I wanted to have fun like that with my friends. To be completely carefree and simply sharing a wonderful moment with everyone I cared about. No negativity, no stress. Simply peace and love and appreciation from everyone of us. I saw that pizza there, laying before me. It had various flavors and various cheeses. Each slice was a different color. But the environment in which I shared the food with friends and family was obviously far from appealing. I had no desire to eat. Other people and other groups were in other booths sitting together. Everyone spoke quietly. I figured that if an attack were to occur, someone would yell and many would concentrate there efforts on isolating the attacker and victim, killing the attacker and seeing if the victim could be saved. If not, they would have to be taken out as well. I looked around and wondered why there were people working the restaurants. I could not understand why they were still there. Weren't they scared? I feared that they had given up and wanted to go out while living there lives as if it had been any other day. It was truly disturbing. But that was as far as I thought about that. Maybe they were just stuck in the airport and thought that they may as well help in terms of food and supplies while waiting for the planes. Maybe they just wanted to keep order and help as many as they possibly could. Somehow, I don't remember what exactly happened, but I managed to get back to my true home in Philadelphia. Back home, in Philadelphia, it was supposed to be safe. It was very far away from campus and thus the infection could not have possibly spread to Philadelphia. My family had thrown a party much like the ones where a ballroom hall is reserved and there is a lot of dancing, food, etc. This is where I found myself. In this ballroom hall. Beyond the madness that had started taking place, we managed to bring out our love and happiness in the fact that we were all together and that we were all safe. That is how we were capable of throwing a somewhat extravagant celebration for our family. This hall was smaller than usual, but it had two floors. The structure of the hall was rectangular. There was a stairwell on the right side covering one of the long ends of the hall. The top floor was unimpressive. There was not much up there. Only a bit of space and that's it. Thus, it appeared as if it was meant mostly for storage. There was not much room to walk around or do much of anything in up there. The room was made up of wood finishes that looked very nice. It looked fancy and kind of "old-styled." There were 3 entrances, one located on the top floor. We were having a reunion in this hall and everything was going smoothly. We were all happy and having lots of fun. We felt totally safe. Before we knew it, night arrived. It was starting to get late and the party was ending, so we planned to leave soon. Right before we started saying bye to everyone, the lights go out. This was completely spontaneous and unexpected. However, we were not left in total darkness. Ambient sources of light allowed us to see where we were. We were all severely terrified. Something dreadful was starting to happen. Everyone was completely quiet as we waited for someone to say something about what was going on. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. But then we heard the noises. They were getting louder and louder. Something was happening right outside of our hall. There was some sort of struggle out there. Then, screams were heard from outside our very hall. There was a panic outside and then I heard them- sounds of loud growls. Instantly, we knew the infected had managed to get here and were right outside. Outside the very room we were in. They still did not know we were here, because we were quiet and in the dark. But it wouldn't be long before they opened one of the three doors. Any attempt to run outside of the hall would have probably resulted in us getting bitten. There were growls and yells from beyond ALL of the exits. I noticed this as I ran back and forth through the hall as well as up and down the stairs in total panic, hoping there was a safe way to get out. The amount of people in the hall made our decision to stay pretty easy. We did not want to leave anyone behind and we'd rather wait there together. If it came to the point that we had to fight the infected off ourselves, we would do just that. Even if our survival was unlikely. I quickly ran upstairs to the doors and locked them. As soon as I did that, one of the infected noticed and tried to open those doors. But could not, as I had locked it. The infected hit the door many times, constantly growling and roaring. I was really terrified fearing the worst. Eventually, it gave up as it moved along. I ran downstairs and made sure that the other doors were locked. Then, I saw my cousin opening the doors to one exit downstairs, which was located at the bottom of the stairwell. She was checking to see if it was safe to leave. If we could all somehow make a run to our cars, we could probably get out of there. Through the dark, I sensed that we would fail in any attempt to make a run for it. She closed the door and locked it. We all sat in the darkness and waited, hoping that by the time morning arrived, many others would have killed the hordes of infected. That the infected would dwindle in number and not overrun the city. Morning came. There was complete silence. No screams, no growls and no panic outside. My uncle opened the downstairs doors and quietly walked out. He was going to check if things were okay. He went outside and the doors closed behind him. He did not return. My cousin went to check for him. At first, we thought that our uncle had been attacked. It turned out he just walked all the way to the car to make sure the path was safe. When we saw him, he was already walking back towards us. I think we all managed to get out of the hall because I remember we made it back to our actual house in Philadelphia. Despite managing to make it back to our house, the infection had managed to devastate Philadelphia. In fact, the infection had spread throughout the entire state of Pennsylvania. After all of our trouble and after all of the traveling we had been through, we were finally home, and we were STILL not safe. It was night. Everyone, including me, was upstairs in my parents' bedroom. Everyone was totally quiet. I walked downstairs with the intent to make sure that any infected outside were not trying to break in. Then I decided that I should make it appear as if no one was in the house. That way no infected would even consider trying to break in. I made sure all the lights were shut off and that the window blinds were down (unfortunately they are up). There were two very exposed windows that face the street, so these were the most important. As I drew the blinds on the first window, I looked outside. I saw people running for their lives. I saw infected running rampantly across the streets. I saw everyone navigating their way through various alleyways in order to escape or to chase. Some people ran through the street itself, despite it being out in the open. The infected were everywhere. I quickly started to draw the blinds. As I did this, I noticed a dark silhouette figure quickly run past me, beyond the window on my porch. I was terrified. I hurried and tried to quickly draw the blinds. Right then, an infected walked up to the window and made eye contact with me. I stood frozen. It had a drill in his hand and began to instinctively put it through the window. The window was not made of glass, so it would not break. The drill would just make a hole through it. Frightened at the thought of infected being capable of using tools and weapons, I waited for the drill to pierce through the window. Once it did, I grabbed the nail it was drilling with and the infected could no longer drill effectively. It left. All I could do was hope that the infected would give up and not attempt to come back. At this point, my brother came downstairs and I had him draw the blinds for the other window. I stood in that living room darkness listening to the sounds of sheer terror outside, feeling that fear within myself, realizing that my entire family in this house was in total danger. I simply stood, wondering in total terror about how such a thing could happen to us. I could see no way out. We were surrounded by infected in this small house of ours. That was it. There was no way out. Then, I woke up.

[Grizzley92]

dude thats like so creepy i dont know what i wold do if i was in that situation lol be scary... i havnt had a dream like that in years i only have like inspirational dreams and wierd ones... all are wierd but odd ocasion get some inspirational ones... check out my dream journal for one of them. but yeah that would be a cool dream at the same time the one you had its sick. i like how you wrte it, very detailed and good writing skills keep it up lol

[Tara]

December 22nd is my birthday.

[Grizzley92]

lol mine is december 3rd

[dacher2]

MOST DETAILED THREAD ABOUT ONE DREAM I HAVE EVER READ!

[tommo]

I LOVE infection dreams lol At the time it's scary but it's so cool once you wake up. Very good story you've got here.

[ty4TheAdventure]

Thanks for the comments! This dream was pretty vivid and it kind of stuck with me the day after. It was one of those long nightmares that, when I woke up, I was filled with complete relief. I've had other zombie-type dreams and I've written them down in my Dream Journal, but this one was one of the most intense dreams I have ever had that didn't involve lucidity.