top of page
Sleep Cinema

Michelle: Scarry Land

<I had this dream the night after receiving my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, so I think this dream was definitely the result of a feverish, restless night!>


 

The world has ended as I know it. There are no zombies (thank goodness!) but the government has been overthrown and it's chaos outside- every man for himself. I know this is a dangerous world, and people have already begun to rob and kill each other. I'm with a small group of people working together to find shelter. One man heard of a cave just across the Ohio River, but we'd need to cross a bridge to get to it. The bridge we have to cross is narrow, about the width of a balance beam, and is high above the water. There are no railings on the side, so it would be easy to fall into the river below. I'm carrying a backpack filled with supplies, so trying to cross this thin bridge scares me. Most of us cross by scooting across the bridge on our butts. Luckily, we all make it across and see a cave opening.


Inside is a main chamber with a ledge on the back wall. We decide this would be a good place to make camp. I suggest that we dig up shrubs that I saw growing in front of the cave to act as beds. The shrubs look like the white azaleas found in Animal Crossing. I'm the last one to walk back into the cave after digging up the shrubs, and I realize that everyone has already made a bed and fallen asleep. Unfortunately for me, there is no more room on the ledge for me. Annoyed, I walk deeper into the cave and find a spot to sleep by myself. I feel disconnected from the group.

The dream cuts to daytime, and the group has already gone out to scavenge for supplies. I'm annoyed that no one woke me up, but I decide to try to find some supplies myself. I cross the bridge. As soon as I get to the other side, I notice a white pickup truck filled with men. Instant panic! I actually run across the bridge this time and leap into a higher level of the cave to hide. I see the men run after me into the cave. I leap down from my hiding spot and run back across the bridge to get away from them.



Somehow I end up in a building scavenging for supplies. A small group of women loudly walk into the building. I understood them to be a bachelorette party before things went downhill in the world. I try to quietly exit the building before being seen, but a woman in a sash points to me and says, "It's a drag queen! I want a drag queen at my party!" (ouch!) I dart out of the building and hide behind a rusty car, but the ladies immediately find and grab me. I yell at them, "I'm not a gay man! I'm a straight woman!" They tell me to prove it, so I grab a man walking nearby and start kissing him (I'm not sure how this proves my point, as a straight woman and gay man would both kiss a guy, and these ladies think I'm a man, but oh well!). I see that the man is acting weird and is super not into the kiss. I stop, look him in the eyes, and realize he's gay. I say nothing so that the women don't go after him. I grab his hand and we run away. The woman in the sash follows suit. The man and I cross a bridge. The bridge is very bizarre, as it has rolling hills (like what you might see in a surrealist painting) and is as wide as a six-lane highway. It also seems to be hundreds of feet above the water. I ask the man if we would die if we jumped (I think I should know the answer to this!). He tells me to keep running.



When we make it across the bridge, we end up at an amusement park. It is Richard Scarry themed, with a massive water ride that has apple cars to ride in, shops that resemble Busy Town, and statues of all the characters in his books, like the worm, cats, and pigs. I am in awe and wish I could've gone to this place in normal times. The man grabs my hand and pulls us into the water. We hide under an apple car while we watch the woman searching for us overhead. I suddenly realize this place is full of people and seems to be operating like normal despite apocalyptic conditions. The man and I climb into an apple car to let the ride carry us farther away from the woman. We go through a tunnel and jump out of the ride early. I feel hopeful that we might actually escape! We walk into an "employees only" section. I notice a door that says "unapples" and has a symbol of an apple inside of a circle with a diagonal slash (the 🚫 symbol). I took this to mean this place is an evil operation that does something sinister to the patrons of the park. I tell the man we need to keep running. We dart into what looks like a locker room and bump into a custodian mopping the floor. The custodian turns around and it's the woman! She smiles and says "there you are!" then I woke up!






9 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page