I can't exactly remember how we get to this point but I'm at Marie and Otis's house. I know the infected are coming. The house is weird. The foyer reminds me of the terminal at the Fiumicino Airport in Rome (I guess my brain created a nightmare from our experience there). The stairs leading up from the terminal go to the second floor of Marie and Otis's house which looks normal. I'm alone for some reason.
I run into my bedroom which is substantially larger than normal. The door is different. The door is light blue and the lock is complex. I can't seem to get it to work! Every time I attempt to lock the door, it swings back open. I see some chair piled up by my closet and think that will hold the infected off for now. I know I have tumbling and dance practice in less than an hour so I need to find a way to make a run for it (priorities clearly not straight here). I think to myself that I could wait it out for a bit and then climb out the window once I lure them in. The screen of the window might be able to hold them off so I can safely climb down. I start hearing them running up the stairs and banging on the door! I climb out the window and shut it just as they break through my makeshift fortress. Their bloody hands and faces are pressing against the window glass.
I jump down from the roof onto the porch and make a run for my bicycle. It looks identical to the one I had as a kid: a teal Schwinn with a pink hibiscus design. I start peddling for my life! My hometown is much bigger and is a pretty decent sized city. The place looks abandoned but there are no infected in sight thankfully. I make it to a large, tan, concrete building. I understand this to be June Conn (the first dance studio I attended as a child). I see a high school friend HP and Michelle. They're joining me in my classes. We have a contemporary class today. Our instructor hypes it up as being the most challenging. We enter the building and it is very institutional. The waiting area reminds me of a hospital waiting room. The other rooms are extravagant! The entrances to the dance rooms and stairwells have marble flooring and intricate gold-foil walls.
I decide I better use the bathroom before class. I go towards a beautiful marble staircase in the hallway by an elevator. A woman in a navy pencil skirt and matching blazer takes me to the bathrooms downstairs. She looks somewhat like a stereotypical flight stewardess. We go down almost 7 flights of stairs. I'm nervous because there are so many people here and I'm not sure if any of them are infected or not. The bottom floor has a large, teal, metal door at the entrance. She opens the doors and takes me into what looks like a high school. The floor is made of alternating teal and peach tile. There are teal lockers to match the teal color palette. Students are hustling through the halls. I think they must have just gotten out of class. She takes me to the bathroom which is single occupancy with a black door. She announces to everyone not to go into the bathroom because I will be in there. It's swipe access show she lets me in. I can hear her continue to announce to everyone that I'm peeing and to not disturb me. I'm mortified.
I see a small door by the floor leading to a crawl space. To avoid my embarrassment, I decide to go out through there. It leads to an abandoned locker room. The lockers are rusty and some are coming off the hinges. I hear a groan in the distance and know the infected are here. It's coming from the showers in the corner. I sneak out of the locker room and come to an auditorium. The groans are deafening. This place has to be filled with zombies! There are normal people sitting in the auditorium seats. Music begins to play. I sit down in a nearby seat to observe. A male dancer comes out with a zombie in a tutu. They begin to dance. More and more zombies and humans come out to dance together. I now realize this is what we are training for at the dance studio!
