The Dream

A few days later, Tori decided to see if she could remember what tunnels she followed and where the crack was that she saw in the wall from her dream. She was packing everything she could carry when her mother walked in. “Where are you going?” she asked. Tori sat with her mother and told her about her dream. Her mother told her she did not think it was a good idea to be going trapesing around the tunnels herself. Tori said she does it all the time and said she would be fine. Her mother reluctantly let her go but told her to be back before lights out.

Tori left the bunker after kissing her mother and telling her she loved her. She just knew this was her destiny. She had to find out if her dream was true or not. She started down the long tunnel from the bunker with her little cart full of food, water and tools. When she got to the first turn, her memory was not as clear as she hoped. She was pretty sure she turned right, but are things backwards in your dreams, like in a mirror. Did she actually turn left here?

She stood there for a few minutes looking each way to see if something jogged her memory. Then she saw it. There was a spot on the wall she remembered. It looked like a heart. She looked at the locket around her neck and thought of her dad. She then started down the tunnel towards what she hoped was the crack she saw in her dream. She had been walking for hours so she stopped to rest and eat.

She started walking again and after a few minutes she looked at the wall and thought she had just passed that spot. She watched closer as she kept walking. There it is again, she thought. She started walking faster and faster. There, there it is again. She dropped everything and began running. There it is, and again, and again. She ran so hard she hyperventilated. She was breathing so hard she passed out. When she woke up, she was sitting right where she was when she stopped to eat. Was this another dream? Why is this happening?

She got up and looked around and found the spot she saw on the wall. It was a heart shape, like the one at the start of this tunnel. It seemed to be about the same size as her locket. She pulled her locket out and placed it in the spot. The rock seemed to open up. When she opened the door it revealed a keypad. But what is the code? Then she remembered, there were numbers inside the locket.

One by one she punched in the numbers. Nothing! What is this? Why would he put numbers in the locket if they don’t work? Wait; was there one behind the other heart on the wall? Why would there be two of them in the same tunnel? She walks back to the start of the tunnel and placed the locket in the wall. A door opened just like the other one. She punched in the numbers one by one. There was some loud clanging and then silence.

Tori made her way back to the other keypad but it was no longer there. She wandered what had changed that the keypad was no longer there. Then she noticed all her things were gone. What happened to them? How will she survive without the food and water she brought along? She looked all around to try to find the keypad or the spot to place the locket, nothing. She decided to continue on down the tunnel and hopefully find her things back. Wait, something is different. The tunnel turned to the left before. Now it turns to the right. She advanced slowly around the corner, a little afraid of what she might find. There, that’s the spot.

She found the spot to place the locket again. She placed the locket in and something different happened. This time a large door opened in the rock wall. She pushed it open and peaked around the door. Her pack and her cart were there. She wandered how they got behind the wall. No matter, she had them back. Hours had passed, and Tori was tired and hungry again. She sat down and opened her pack to eat. When she looked inside, there was something there that was not there before, a sack that she did not pack. She carefully removed it and she opened it slowly to see what was in it. It was a tomato.

She read about tomatoes in the bunker but she had never tasted one. She pulled out a knife and cut into the tomato. As soon as the skin broke, the juices ran out and down her hand. It frightened her so that she threw the tomato on the ground. Just then she heard what she thought were footsteps. She looked but could not see anyone around. She quickly gathered her things looked each way down this new tunnel and began to walk. The footsteps seemed to be getting closer. She rounded a corner and found a spot just big enough to hide in. The footsteps are closer and louder. Then they were gone. Who was that? Where was it coming from?

She sat quietly for a while to make sure whoever, or whatever it was, was gone. She picked up her things and continued on her way. When she rounded the corner, there was what looked like where she was hiding. She stopped to check it. BANG! What was that? Her eyes opened and she was sitting on the floor with a tomato in her hand. Did she just have another dream? Why? How? She took the tomato and placed it back in the sack. She grabbed a piece of dried meat form her pack and headed down the tunnel. She walked for what seemed to be hours again. She was very tired and decided to stop and try to sleep. She could not help but to wonder if there was someone in the tunnel with her. Was that in her dream or was it real?