The half-forgotten
Other half of my short life
In short story form

 
The Shaft
10-22-2000

For a long time now I've been chasing an evil-doer through a complex not unlike others I've explored in other 3D-shooter-type dreams. Lots of twisting passages, windows to a beautiful outdoors waterfall, and lots of ledges and stairs to jump around on. I fire some explosives at a fountain or something in the floor, revealing a hidden passage. I know that's where my victim went. I jump down, hearing my fiance's voice in my head as I descend. She's talking about a girl she dislikes. I hit the bottom of a mine shaft and jump onto a ledge to get to the entrance of another one. Bats fly out at me. I have a bow and arrow, so I use my three arrows to kill them all. They each go up in a flash of light. I turn around to see more bats after me. I take out a long knife and cut them as they close in, but more appear. I realize there's too many of them and turn into the shaft, only to find more opposing me. I have no choice, so I charge in, cutting my way through. Then very large bugs block my footsteps. So large I can only jump over a dozen or so at a time. Too many to kill. I continue, noticing larger and scarier bugs crawling at me now, and more bats. I sense I'm only halfway to my destination, so I use a special power of mine...I send a powerful energy surge in a radius around my body, disintegrating everything in my immediate surroundings. I move on, but even more bugs and bats close in on me. The shaft opens up into a massive hall. There are other humanoids on some uplifted ground, like a stage. The man I'm looking for is there, surrounded by a legion of protective bugs. I leap at him. From a 3rd person view, I see myself literally leap into his body, disappearing somewhere inside. Somehow I've captured him. Somehow I end up myself again, looking at him. He's still frozen in place, holding a large sword. I plant a device on him. I'm going to take him in (wherever that is), but I notice my surroundings change. Lights in the walls blur into windows. Walls become more smooth and change color. Everything looks more futuristic, and I'm no longer looking at a man, but a blond-haired child, still holding a large sword. By force of will, I cause us to end up back in the shaft, him a man again, and to prvent him from pulling that trick again, I grab his two front fingers and crack them. It happens again anyway, though, and I grab the sword from the child. This frees him from my control and he vanishes. Someone else asks me, "You went through all that trouble. How do you expect to catch him again?" I reply with confidence, "I can find him again, especially now that I have the sword." It's suddenly daytime, and I'm on top of a very tall hill. There's nothing for miles around, and hardly any grass. There's an old building nearby, possibly my home, and a long road, lined with small white rocks, winds up around the hill, passing by a short distance below. An old man, a farmer perhaps, comes up beside me. I express utter contempt as a small school bus winds its way up. It's only got a short distance to go when it tips over, almost falling over the edge. I grunt in disgust as the driver climbs out, glad I wasn't in the death twinkie myself. He's a young man. I yell at him, insulting him in numerous ways and using lots of profanity, with a focus on his incompetence as a bus driver. The old man by me comments that he's only got two weeks of experience, but I don't let up. I get so fed up by the time he limps up to us and I turn and walk over to a pond, staring out over it, holding my hand out to a tree. I hear the two talking. One of them gets out a football. I turn around, but I'm staring at the ground. The football hits me in the head. I'm not even phazed. I barely notice as it drops to the ground near me. They say, "Weren't you paying attention? Can you even catch a football?" Trying to pin something on me after I insulted his intelligence and skill. "Why should I want to throw around a fucking football? What kind of useless skill is that?" is my retort. "Pick it up yourself, you simpleton!" So one of them does, and they throw it around some more. Then they kick a soccer ball around. It eventually hits my feet, and the resulting exchange is about the same. My fiance arrives to back me up, basically giving her own, as of yet unheard (and unremembered now) point of view on why these people were idiots.


posted by Phlegm at 11/26/2003