Very unclear, very sketchy continuity. Before I go into this, it’s worth mentioning that I seem to connect both the preview for the remake of Romero’s “The Crazies” and the game preview of Bio-Shock 2 to the mood and grotesque visuals I experienced.
As I’ve said before, fear in my dreams doesn’t amount to panic or fear of death. My fears, even in a warlike scenario with monstrous creatures, are all low-level operational stresses. Instead of broad-based existential fears like “Oh, sweet Jesus, how did I get here?” and “Where the hell did this disgusting monster come from?“, my fears are more momentary and functional: “can I make this jump?“, “is this weapon powerful enough?“, “is ‘x’ person an ally?”
The setting was enclosed. Brass, steel, iron, brick and stone are the best terms to describe the environment. A large building, somewhat resembling my head’s best guesses of what a combination of H.H. Holmes’ death castle and a derelict factory would look like.
It seemed like there were a group of us–men brandishing various weapons, most of us carrying some kind of gun (I had an iron bar and something small resembling a Kahr MK9 with its trigger guard missing). We all rushed through the building as if we had a particular waypoint to reach, and at certain moments I recall running over the same ground twice, maybe after falling through a floor or taking a wrong turn.
In many places, especially reconvergences with what I considered to be a “main path” through the building, I encountered others that neither threatening nor interested in cooperation. I saw some men apparently wounded or killed by humanoid creatures with anomalous or grotesque anatomy, but in any case I didn’t stick around to bear witness to their demises.
As I said, little continuity. Very blurry. Toward the end of the dream, I was on a top floor (as evidenced by a partially crumbled roof above me, showing a dimly-lit colorless sky beyond) with another man who was fighting off a creature.
I remember this creature vividly. Humanoid, but with no hair, elongated limbs, neither eyes nor sockets to hold them, indeterminate facial features otherwise, and the most memorable aspect of all–a viciously toothed mouth at the solar-plexus with a long prehensile tongue.
The man fighting it hadn’t succumbed, but he hadn’t harmed it either. Both were across a gap in the floor leading to darkness below, and I was determined not to fall through the gap (which I assumed would cause me to navigate the entire structure again as I had before–however unaware).
By the time I’d taken my successful leap, the monster had noticed my presence, hissing from it’s top mouth while opening its “solar plexus” mouth wide–long teeth and a tongue with which to grasp and pull prey. Not pretty.
The tiny gun being my only option, I missed my first shot while the second connected at the creature’s neck. It slumped to the ground quickly, but not wanting to take any chances, I fired 3 more shots into its head.
The dream ended with me firing my weapon at another creature, a snarling humanoid about 1/3 of my height that seemed to have technological or mechanical modifications in its body. My remaining shots seemed to do nothing but stick into the surface of this creature’s skin, and I woke up before either of us were able to directly engage the other.
Not quite zombies. There was no “infection” fear as involved in my standard zombie dreams, and there was no “protection” objective as I’ve had in my action dreams in the past.
No discussion, little interaction with others. Only brutality and survival.