Knock

There was a knock at our door. It was a foreign worker, in a light pink dress shirt and a black backpack slung over one shoulder. He was lost and needed help getting to his workplace. We gave him directions and sent him on his way.

There was a knock at our door. Who could it be this time? I was busy getting ready for work so my mother opened the door. I looked over her shoulder. It was a foreign worker, in a light pink dress shirt and a black backpack slung over one shoulder. He asked for our help, he needed to get to the company but didn’t know how. 

He also didn’t know he was dead.

His head had been cleanly removed from his neck, leaving behind a smooth circle of flesh and bone peering out from his collared shirt.

I ran into the room. I told my dad he probably shouldn’t leave it. I heard my mother and sister outside, trying to figure out what to do. We thought he must’ve gotten into an accident on the way there earlier, and having died, was at a loss as to what to do. I heard them tell the worker he should inform the company about it, but through a voice-only message so they wouldn’t be shocked.

I dreamt I had the chance to ride in a special submarine owned by the Indonesian Navy that had a large moon pool at the front of the sub. The moon pool had no doors and was somehow able to maintain pressure even when the sub was moving. At one point they stopped the sub and told me to jump into the moon pool, as a ‘rite of passage’. When I jumped in, the water felt and tasted… dusty.

(why Indonesian? idk. and this was what I thought the Halibut's Bat Cave looked like when I first read about it.)

I was now in a different sub, and we were playing D&D. The captain's young son was the DM. I had to scramble to find my character sheet because I didn't even know we were playing, and apparently I was playing as a pair of twin elf rangers. Suddenly water started rushing in from several leaks - everyone panicked as we felt the sub start to sink.

I was working as a cashier, but the POS program wasn’t even open on the screen. As the queue grew longer, I had to troubleshoot it, before I could then scan items and take payment. The problem was - after a few customers I realised I had missed taking some payment, and then the POS program closed by itself. All the programs on the desktop had no names and similar icons. I could feel the stress build as the customer stood at the counter with his items in hand, waiting for me to get on with it.

I met up with some Rosythians (I recall seeing Liz and Brandon, at least). We decided to play a multiplayer FPS game like Rainbow Six Siege and split up into teams. I was on a team with Liz. I sat down on the floor with my laptop and plugged in a mouse. As the game loaded, my POV changed into that of the game, though I could 'sense' the controls via gamepad. 

I rotated through my weapons and realised which character I was playing as - Doc! As soon as the game started other players came straight for me, so I began shooting. I thought we were playing a team match, but as the game went on I didn’t see any team indicators over anyone else's head. I ended up shooting at anyone who approached (on retrospect, remembering how the teams are split between attackers and defenders, I’m pretty sure I shot a teammate… sorry, Rook.)

Throughout the map I encountered characters like Monty, Grim, Nomad, and Jackal. I quickly ran out of ammo for my primary weapon, and obviously I couldn't use the Stim Pistol for offense. Somehow I managed to stumble into a resupply zone where I recovered both my ammo and my health. I ran blindly around the map, down a narrow staircase covered in rubble (where I ran into Rook stuck in the rubble... and instinctively shot at him... and stepped over him... again, sorry Rook), and burst out a back door, where I felt the game change. 

It turned into a scenario where I was tasked to stop a doomsday cult from trying to take over the world with strange alien creatures. The women were to give birth to their young, while the men were zombified and turned into thralls. The alien creatures, which had large, purple ovoid bodies, were protected by robot sentries as well as cult members. The creatures also sometimes defended themselves by immobilizing their enemies in a yellow slime that quickly solidified.

As I was running around outside trying to avoid the aliens, their robot sentries, and their crazed cultists, I saw the shimmering outline of a cloaked figure heading straight for me. I shot at the outline and the cloaking effect broke, revealing another attacker - Ash. 

I got rid of her and ran into a residential tower. While exploring the tower, a sparkle caught my eye - important intel I had to collect! As I moved towards the sparkle, a thrall crawled out from behind me. He looked like a musculoskeletal specimen from a medical textbook. He was still clinging to his original consciousness, begging me to take the intel and kill him. I shot him in the head.

Dreamt I was at a mixed schools event. The corridor was full of students. A shaven headed boy gave us his school patch which said Jiyugaoka High School. My friend asked about his wife. I was astonished, how could he be married at 15? 

I had to hurry, everyone was already in their groups. I had to blend in and find my assigned group before the head teacher noticed. According to the seating chart, my group number was something like G4A135. As part of the introductions in my assigned group, I had to hop on one foot to the front of the room and continue hopping while the group assessed me and asked me questions. As soon as I got to the front I found the entire situation so absurd that I started laughing hysterically.

Lasers in a toy shop. I was in a drone attempting to outrun machine gun fire. 

------

I looked out the porthole and saw a KTM train platform overgrown with moss and vegetation. An officer was on the platform. The platform descended out of sight, replaced by a garden with a giant stone water wheel, covered in a fine layer moss as to appear like jade. 

Suddenly the wheel shuddered and slowly rolled out of its seat. It kept going until it crashed into the nearby HDB. The block seemed to have withstood the shock, except for a few missing balconies. The building then began to collapse and caused a chain reaction of other HDBs collapsing.

Sam and I watched in horror. I couldn’t believe this was happening. 

The HDB we stood on began to crack and crumble. I yelled we have to move! We jumped from the roof to lower parts. At one point the roof we were on collapsed under our feet. Miraculously we remained standing atop the rubble and were able to slide down to the ground. 

As far as the eye could see, I just saw the rubble of fully and partially collapsed buildings. Other survivors were making their way through safe paths marked out by the SCDF, but all had their phones out and were taking photos and selfies. What the hell were they doing?! 

I didn’t want to remain out in the open. The next thing I knew, I was underground. The aftermath of the disaster. Everything was dark and bleak. People walked around silently with heavy eyes. Jackie came to talk to me and asked if I was returning to Apple. I said no, it would feel like going nowhere.

I was being sent to replace a pair of hurricane hunters who had crashed into the Atlantic (map looked like the Indian Ocean tho). Ran into Sarah A who was complaining about being punished at school for scheduling issues which weren’t her fault. While listening to her complaints, I read a newspaper that reported on the death of a celeb who far outlived her prognosis, Japanese companies opening up from Covid by organising nightlife parties but receiving backlash from public, and the first meteorologist to join a Navy patrol. The newspaper also reported on the plane crash with a picture of one of the crew being pulled to shore by a pearl diver. I remarked, ah perhaps this was why I had difficulty sleeping! It was an omen of sorts.

Horse wing uniform rifle 

I swap weapons, I’m fighting by rapier 

I run back to find his brother fighting him 

He’s been betrayed, I try to escape 

They chase me 

Chased by mall police 

We were circling the shops on the lower floor when we inadvertently sped up, made it look like we were trying to escape 

Then they started to chase us for real 

We realised they were only trapping us in here 

Skaters machida whose wife supports him quietly by the side 

We escape only when we both put our skates on 

I run jump to outrun the police 

I make it to the MRT 

It keeps looping 

I have to make sure they don’t know each time it loops 

We attend some sort of sporting event 

I feel like it’s at the Science Centre 

I take the train and leave