Out of the dream

Sunny blue skies, spotted with white puffy clouds. What a beautiful day to be on a boat. Well…. A naval boat, but a boat none the less. I shrug to myself. I don’t know how I ended up on this craft, but I am here and will have to make do with this situation. Warm but dry winds blow with moderate intensity. I stand there awkwardly, under a small protruding roof by a steel door, clueless of what I must do next. I am not in the military, yet I have been ordered to come aboard this boat as the team chiropractor. Don’t ask. As I take glances of the deck, shielding my eyes from the sun under the shaded overpass; I huff out a big sigh and freeze. My throat and chest tighten. My heart feels like it fell a few centimeters in my rib cage and I have a deep, seeding pit of doom forming in my abdomen. WHAT. THE. FUCK.

It has been 3 years since I have seen him. My ex. That abusive son of a bitch. I quickly glance away in hopes that he did not notice my spotting him. I take deep breathes to calm the tornado in my body as fear starts raking over me. What am I scared of? I literally became the healthiest and happiest person since I left him. Yet, there has always been a fear of running into him. The city of Tampa is not that small, but I’ve never seen him once since I broke it off with him. What a night that was ……

Anyways, as I try to tamp down the rising panic attack, I notice an enormous shade come over the deck quietly. I would have brushed it off as one of the thick clouds hovering by the sun until what seemed like a black saucer became noticeable in my periphery. I whip my head up to observe what the hell it was. Fully entranced at myself gazing at a literal -what seems to be- a space craft. Definitely NOT made on earth. I barely noticed the increased yelling and screaming around me as mayhem ensues. The pit of doom transforms into surprise and horror. I notice more shouting and running on the deck as everyone takes cover. Alas, like a deer in headlights, all I could muster was hiding myself under the protruding overpass, stepping backward and pressing my back against the steel door; my failed attempt at camouflage. Men are scattering, jumping off the boat into the water and sprinting off the boat ramp. With my eyes stuck on the hovering spacecraft, I didn’t notice my ex, also hiding along with me. So lost in my bewildered thoughts of what I need to do next, I almost did not see or hear the screeching of mechanical tentacles shooting out from the craft, grabbing at men. Some were being taking into the craft while others were being torn apart. The horrific cries curdled my insides. Legs and arms were banging on the deck, blood splattering across the rails as men are holding on for dear life as their bodies are being ripped in half, by these tentacles that are snatching them away, like those claw machines at the arcade, but with better accuracy.

If that wasn’t enough, the entire spacecraft begins to…… come apart? Like moving Lego pieces. The entire craft starts to dissemble into smaller cylindrical flying machines. The ingenuity was both mind blowing and petrifying as I could no longer find solace in my hiding place.

This is when I notice my ex was three feet away from me, but he darts out from under the partial overpass, dodging the tentacles and disappearing to I don’t know where. Surprise washes over me but I think quickly and open the steel door and shove myself inside. A loud bang rattles the door; I might have missed those grabbing tentacle by a hair.

It is uncomfortably quiet in whatever room I am in, besides the hum of hot computer like machines, the entire room is this dark gun metal gray with a stair well to my right and a beautiful dining hall to my left. What the hell? It’s as if a cruise ship and a military ship were fused together. Then my thoughts are interrupted by an intense shrieking cry like nails on a chalk board amplified by a megaphone. I feel intensely dizzy at the sound and afterwards, everything goes black.

I wake up facing brown mahogany wood inches from my face. As I come to, I look around and notice myself lying flat on what seems like a shelf, near the ceiling. Huh? I notice a couple of other women with me, drinking cocktails quietly. I am so confused. I look over the edge of the shelving and notice a bar below me, but no one is manning it. I glance to the rest of the room which is empty, decorated with medium brown and dark red décor. My attention is back on the other women on the shelving with me. No words were exchanged. Just looks of indifference and maybe bewilderment? I am so fucking confused. Memories of what has happened earlier flood my mind.

A surge of panic floods my body again, attempting to speak to ask what is going on, I realize I cannot physically open my mouth. I look to the other women with a curious expression. They thin their lips in response. Weird. I feel a tap on my shoulder and a muscular brunette is handing me a brown liquid in a short glass. The scent of cognac invades my nostrils almost immediately. I shrug and then chug. For whatever reason, they are calm which allows me to settle into some sense of calm as I try to rack my brain at what the hell is happening. It appears we are under attack. Kind of gives the vibe that the world is ending. Although the thought of the world ending does not bother me in the slightest, I will say.. I am slightly on edge. I glance around this dining room/bar area. To my left, about 20 feet, I see a row of clear windows that give a view of the deck I was on earlier. Everything looks….. normal. As if we were not under attack earlier. Confusion boils up in my chest. I am on top of a shelf with just two other women. I cannot speak and I am unsure how I even got here at all.

I am ripped back to reality minutes later, with a loud bang from my left, seemingly coming from the outside; then a couple minutes later the ship begins to lean toward the right. Did something ram the boat? Then the room goes black. I come to again, in the midst of me and the other two women running. I hear sound again. I am at a loss on what the hell is going on, but I keep on running. We run on red carpet with lions etched on them in gold. The sounds of our feed thudding the balcony floor alarms the men playing poker around a circular table below us in the center of the vast dining room. Glass cups with brown liquor litter the table. Cigarettes fall from their mouths as their attention looks to the windows viewing the deck. I yell “RUN!”

Chairs flip and men are jumping over railings and stumbling across the dining room floor of the ship to the south side of the boat. The cylindrical machines are back and they notice us. Their smaller clawed tentacles are banging against the glass windows, which is to my surprise, extremely durable. But I know it won’t last long. We all continue running, not letting up any speed. Jumping over overturned furniture and more dead men. Their bodies are littered all over the floor. But there is no blood. Why are only the men dead? Where are the rest of the women?

A piercing shriek interrupts my thoughts, simultaneously shattering all the glass of the windows and in the room. The shrieking slows me down as I become dangerously dizzy. The room spins. I trip over a dead man and face plant the carpet. Soon after the 2 other women follow and fall right on top of me. The smaller machines tentacle grabs one of the woman’s legs. I shift my attention turning my head right to the scene. She grabs my legs and I instinctively grab the poles of the rails of the balcony hallway to my left. As she is being tugged by the machine, the muscular brunette takes a leg from a broken chair and starts battering the tentacle to let the other woman go. I never really got a good look at the woman grabbing my legs, so I don’t even know what she looks like.

Her screaming increases my dizziness along with the constant shrieking the machines have been letting out. I focus on the poles of the rails, tightening my grip as she death grips my ankles with both arms. I see sparks fly, thinking the brunette is causing major damage to the armed tentacle. But that relief turns into dread as the tentacled arm transforms, studding its entire length with spikes. It retreats a couple feet then rushes her, penetrating her torso like toothpicks to a grape. She doesn’t scream. Probably died on impact. The shock of the scene causes the other woman’s grip on my legs to loosen slightly as she gargles a scream. It seems like the machine noticed because it snatched her away immediately.

I watch as it retreated out the window dragging the spiked, brunette woman’s limp body first vertically. Her body slams into the window opening unable to fit. The tentacle forcefully pulls her body through the window, snapping her in half, cracking like a number 2 pencil. The trail of her intestine follows some hooked on the shards of glass that did not break. The other woman continues to scream, grappling at anything she can hold on to as it drags her away. As she is halfway through the window she flails once more, her head extends back attempting to avoid the shards of glass at the bottom of the windowsill, unaware of a large shard above her. She extends her head back aggressively like a baby throwing a tantrum and I shut my eyes. Her screaming stops abruptly. I peek seeing her head hit the glass shard above her, piercing through her neck from the back. Her mouth is agape as if in mid scream, blood drains from her neck and mouth and her body progressively goes limp. The machine pulls her body from the window, but due to the glass shard lodged in her neck, she gets decapitated, once fully dragged out the window. Her head drops to the carpeted ground in a clunk and rolls to my feet. I shut my eyes in horror and turn my face to the ground, to stop myself from puking.

I keep myself completely still. I am still dizzy from the shrieking that would never end, but luckily it does not seem like the machines are coming after me. I wait for what seems like an eternity but was probably an hour and a half. I open my eyes while still facing the ground, using my periphery to see what me is around. The ships dining room is quiet minus the mechanical shrieking, a few groans and yelling from the outside. The only light is the sunlight bathing the room. I wonder if the soldiers are fighting back? I have not heard the sounds of shooting since this all started. This whole situation is uncanny.

Without hesitating, I jump up and continue sprinting on my toes in silence. I refuse to be entangled with those things, or anyone else that would bring their attention. I see sight of stairs ahead of me and a steel door leading outside to the right of it wondering should I continue to the lower decks of the ship or take my chances and try to get off this boat. Either way, I know I could meet my end at any moment. I think I would rather die seeing the blue skies one last time. Once I reach the stair way, I see him. My ex… Jonathan. I was hoping the fucker would be dead, but I then I feel a tinge of guilt with that passing thought. You empathetic bitch.

We make eye contact and I notice a hint of surprise in his expression. Whatever. I say nothing to him. However, the reunion is over when one of the machines rips open the steel door to my right, two feet in front of the stairway. I shift myself in defense to where my back faces Jonathan. Not even a second later, I feel two hands shove me in front of the machine. My face plants into the machine and my body ricochets down the stairs in a front flip, and I roll down like a tire ending with a slam unto my upper back on the last step with legs splayed on the wall in front of me. I hear faint footsteps running into the direction I came from, to the north of the boat. The fucker pushed me. Lancing pain starts to take over my back and head. I have a throbbing headache. Luckily, the shrieking from the machines has stopped but my dizziness has not. I keep my eyes shut. Then it dawned on me; the shrieking stopped. I notice my surroundings and hear silence. It was deafening and terrifying. I feel something over me. It feels like heat emanating with a menacing presence.

My heart slams into my rib cage, but I attempt with all I could muster, to keep myself still. I feel cold claw like clamps circling my neck. I decide to play dead in that second, making my body limp as it dragged me up the stairs without impeding my ability to breath. Strange. Maybe it will let me go if it thinks I am already dead? I am dragged until I feel my body suspended in air and feel my back get slammed against cold steel. It knocks air out of me, and I begin to struggle as my airway starts to get restricted slowly. Startled, my eyes shoot open and I lose all sense of my plan of “playing dead”. A barely concocted plan at that. Red orbs for eyes stare right into mine. The shrieking starts again and soon after dizziness slams into me. I’m still held hostage by my neck. The constriction of my airways starts to blacken the corners of my vision. I then see another figure, resembling a man behind the machine. Just standing there watching my struggle as this machine squeezes life out of me. My vision clears for a couple seconds. It’s him again. Jonathan. I thought he ran away? Why is he here? After that, I black out.

“..a’am…. excuse me ma’am?” a jovial white man gathers my attention as I wait in line to go through the metal detector. I shake myself into attention wondering how long I was daydreaming for. As I bring my attention to the man in front of me, I catch a glimpse of a dark figure behind him. My body stiffens, as if I can feel daggers shooting into my skin. “Your purse may too be big to bring in here… I can ask…..” I’m barely listening to what the white-haired man is telling me. As he bends over rambling about my purse being too big to bring inside USF college graduation. I see him. In my periphery. I know his build and the demonic energy he exudes. After 3 years of no contact. My abuser is staring daggers at me, as I make my way into the graduation to watch my husband walk across the stage.

I shake my head again, pretending that I didn’t notice him. I bring my attention to the stout but jovial man again, “Could you let me pass? As you can see, I don’t have any weapons or noise makers. It’s practically empty!” I chuckle with a big smile. He lets me through and I beeline toward to ladies’ room. Passing Jonathan without a glance, pretending I don’t notice him. With my heart slamming against my chest, I shut myself into a stall with an exhaled grunt. I feel dizzy. WHAT. THE. FUCK.