As our story starts, I'm heading into work. However, not to my actual current job as an IT professional. Dream Ray has bigger aspirations than that, he wants to work at a mega mart like Walmart or Giant. The store I was approaching, on a bike, so you know I'm at the top of the food chain, is huge. About 2 stories high and certainly your normal "mega-mart" size.
The parking lot is empty. It's dawn. There's a slight chill to the air, but enough that even as a fly on my Huffy I'm only wearing a short sleeve shirt and khaki pants. As I get closer, I see a few people straggling in the parking lot. I zoom towards the large garage door, that is the front door to this establishment, they start to run towards me, fast. It's then I realize these aren't old people who've been up since 4 am, hopped up on Ensure and Viagra, looking to score prune juice. These are zombies, looking to score brains, and I have to move quick.
The 4 or 5 zombies that were in the parking lot instantly converge on me, like a magnet to the first living organism they see. This clustering of the Undead gives me the ability to zig left, zag right, and hurtle towards the door. I open the door swiftly and run in. There are more zombies waiting inside. Here, my dream get's "dreamy" and I'm transported to my destination, a large second floor office over looking the entire warehouse-like structure of the building. Waiting here is another poor soul, suckered into continuing to open a mega-mart in a zombie apocalypse. I guess survivors have to eat and purchase linens, right?
She's young, brunette, female, about my age, and I have no idea who she is, but my reaction to her is a warm one. I believe she is a peer and not my superior. We both give each other looks, that have apparently transcended the zombie apocalypse. A look as if to say "Another day stuck here workin' for the man, eh? Don't worry we'll goof around a bit and get through to 5 o'clock". Just going to show you, even though the death of almost all mankind, you still can't shake a "Monday" feeling.
The room is set up like your usual over-hanging office. Large floor to ceiling windows face the store, with two doors to our left and right. The right door leads to cat-walk that spans the store, allowing you to look down upon it, the left door leads to what looks like a series of hallways, however it's blocked by a large vending machine, which is good, because there are 3 zombies clawing lazily at it. as if to say "Another day just clawin' at the man, eh? Don't worry. Uuggh Arrggg Aaaaaaffff UUuuuuuhhh Brainssssss". The right door is a swinging set of double doors, and if left unguarded. As quick as this zombies are, they apparently have no vertical game and have the balance skills of a toddler. Through this door enters DYHP's own Justin, another hapless soul, like Mystery girl and I, looking to make a few bucks in this rough and tumble dead world, and a woman who actually is our manager. She's blonde, has glasses and a clipboard, with a white polo shirt that screams "I'm a Manager!"
Blondie states that when we lock up, we have to get a head count of the zombies, because they want to keep track of how many are around and in the store per day. I don't think this request is odd, nor that I'm still opening a store during a zombie apocalypse, and literally jump at the chance to do work to break up my already too zombie filled, thankfully still brain filled day. I jump on top of a makeshift looking panic room. The foreshadowing of this "last-stand" looking structure does not escape dream Ray, and I think: "I have a bad feeling about this thing".
The little panic closet is anchored by a decorative glass wall, about 10 feet wide, flanked by two stone pillars. Attached to the stone pillars are two large "riot gear" looking movable walls, that fit snuggly from floor to ceiling but only go about 4 feet across. They're light enough to move with one arm, yet Dream Ray feels secure they will keep out a zombie horde, if need be. I note these also make for an excellent shield, as they have grips on the inside to help you move them and I hop up on the structure, through the roof, which has a removable roof made of the riot-gear, zombie keeper out material.
On the roof, I see a some supplies in a cubby hole, full of your basic end of the world fare: cans of food, water and the like. I also find a gun, from my days playing Counter-Strike and watching detective shows, it looks like a Glock. Seeing this gun, reminds me I have another in my pocket that looks like a Desert Eagle. Subsequently, this also reminds me, I have no idea how to fire these things "in real life" of the dream world. I inspect both guns, wonder if they're even loaded and how to turn off the safety, and if I'll need to use them. I place them aside and peek over the soda can barricade we've made for ourselves. I start to count the horde, as Justin adjusts the counter measures near the machine.
1... 2... Stop shifting you jerks... 3... 4... 5.. CRASH!
The barricade shifts and Justin is grabbed by the zombies. I jump down, and conveniently enough, I find a crowbar on the control panel and proceed to go Gordon Freeman/Black Mesa on the undead bastards. I bash them in the head and Justin is pulled back to safety, unscathed. However, in the mayhem, the barricade is now compromised and the few zombies that were originally there have called for back up. We freak and the horde piles in.
Justin, Mystery girl, and I scramble for the fall back room, but the zombie mob surges forward, before we can secure the right hand riot wall, they knock it down and we're forced to climb to the roof. Knowing these undead, they have no jump game, we feel relatively safe, however, the angle at which they knocked the wall down, gives them a slow climb up to our position. We have to defend ourselves.
Not being able to find the guns, I grab the first food item within reach. Butter. I throw the bars of butter at the zombies and to my surprise it violently explodes into a pool of delicious buttery defense. The zombies start SLIPPPING in the butter and pilling at the bottom of the steep wall ramp. I decide this is our only break. I grab a handful of butter and jump down to face the undead scourge. When I do, I throw another delicious bomb at the zombies and they start to fall, but one zombie is unaffected and still stands. He stares me down and I freeze. His eyes are missing that dead stare. There seems to still be life left in them, however small. I cannot look away.
Even with the bend of his hunched stature he was still the tallest of them all and I peg him for thier leader. His skin is a light tinge of green and grey, and he's dressed in a tattered white shirt, and a somewhat presentable black cloth vest and frayed black slacks. Before I can make more assessments the zombie speaks... in english.
"You'll all be eaten, and you'll never get out alive. You will join us."
I grit my teeth, lower my shoulder and charge the last zombie in our path to freedom, in acceptance of his challenge.
Seconds before we collide everything is black. I think I've failed... I must be one of them...
I wake in my bed with no signs of undead about me. The dream is over... or did it just begin?
