Life in a Dead World

Welcome and hello again. Thank you all for those who read my first chapter. I'm still trying to develop my writing style, and I promise I'll do better going forward. 

This next one is a dream I had during basic training a long time ago. I was in Fort Leonard Wood for it, and let me tell you, the best dreams, stories, and military food are all from there, so let's hop in. 

***

I wake in a field of grass. The wind is unwelcomingly cold, and the grass needles into my clothing. The air is dry and thin; it's hard to breathe, and I'm almost suffocating. I get up from the uncomfortable bed of foliage I lay on and see the world around me dead. The mountains are grey, the trees are grey, the grass is grey, and the sky is grey. When the wind doesn't blow, I can only hear the white noise.

Grass crushes and crumbles as I tread across this land, looking for anything. I gaze upon what the world that I now inhabit once is, a valley with a glade tucked within. I can imagine for a moment what this place could look like with a dash of color in the trees or maybe a paint stroke in the sky. Over and over again, as I would take myself to a dream of my own, I would wake to a small inconvenience. I stop for a moment, trying to do just that. However, the wind would knock me out of my own senses. 

Not only am I alone, I feel lonely. A hollowing experience that I face almost daily. The good people will come to me is what my parents and friends used to say. Maybe this is my inner world, filled so much with what could be but ultimately nothing. There's an old house I can see in the distance. Like everything, it looks decrepit. Perhaps that's the representation of my will, something broken.

A flickering light caught my eye inside the home. It still seemed to match the unsaturated tone of the land, so I figured it was still more interesting than the forest and the creeks that sprout from the still rivers. My paces quicken, and the earth beneath me crumbles like a dry saltine cracker. The wind gets chillier as I approach, trying to deter me from my destination by blowing me away. Grass soon disappears, and sand takes its place. I am not welcome. I do not care.

My struggle against a relentless onslaught of hurdles the realm has thrown my way ends at the porch of this broken home. I peer inside and see the kitchen, spying rusty knives and moldy pots. The counters are broken, and the cabinets are splintered. Walking into the house could be a hazard to my health. Despite knowing that this world is a dream, I hesitate to open the front door. 

Eventually, my curiosity, or stupidity, gets the better of my sense of danger. The first thing I notice is how torn up the walls are, clawing, tearing, and water damage on all surfaces. Looking left, the dining room is no better; shattered glass decorates the rotten floor. Hell, even the chandelier collapsed on the now-broken table. I can't even climb the stairs, so that only leads me forward.

Down this hall awaited the living room, family room, as I remembered it being called. Though in the real world I have been gone for just a few weeks, it already feels like a lifetime. It looked nothing like what I've seen before, relics and trophies, and paintings all in somewhat ok condition. Still had no color, but it was better than anything else here. 

However, in this living room, there is an old, almost dead woman. Her gaze is both dull and lifeless, but she has my attention. She makes three motions with her arms, pointing at me, a watering pail, and the rear door. She lays her hand on the armrest of her chair and dies. I check her pulse to confirm it. 

Nevertheless, she wanted me to water something. So I picked up the pail and exited the rear door, only to see a garden resembling that of my grandmother's. I barely felt anything in the bucket but I began to water as fewer things were making sense. All the flowers were dead, so I didn't see much point in it. Heh, kinda like my hopes for getting out of this dream. 

For what felt like an eternity, I watered everything thrice. I was about to go through it all a fourth time when I noticed that the pail I was using had run out of its endless supply of water. Darkness overtook my vision, and I closed my eyes.

A blinding light wakes me to fresher air and a gently warming sun, grass tickling my cheek, and pollen landing on my nose. I shoot up with life. It's the same world as before, back where I started. I can hear the rivers and see the clouds move and shift in the wind. I want to see my handiwork over at the dead lady's home.

This time, the wind is at my back, and I can't help but run. The breeze is cool instead of dead cold. I arrived at the house sooner than I'd anticipated. I have no doubts about entering, seeing the fresh yellow paint on the wooden sidings and beautiful white window sills. 

Inside, the royal green wallpaper, along with the spruce floors, gives the house a cozier feel. I slow down and walk gentler down the hall to the living room to meet the old lady. To my shock, she wasn't there, but the fireplace was lit. I turn around as I feel a tap on my shoulder to meet a significantly younger lady.

She didn't say a word, instead gracefully walking out of the home from the backyard to expose me to the flowers. I didn't take notice before of the colors red, pink, blue, and violet. All of her favorite flowers…

Still, we did not exchange words. Rather, she handed me a stone and pointed to a mountain with a convenient path leading upwards. She gave me a serene smile that caused a warm feeling to wash over me. I have no idea why a simple smile would do that.

Regardless, I took the stone to the end of the trail after a long walk through the ascending pines. The loose rocks gave me a bit of trouble here and there, but the walk was mostly pleasant. It took what felt like an hour to accomplish the climb. I was exhausted from all of my energy and almost fell asleep next to the obelisk. 

Once again, just like in a fantasy, the key and keyhole began to glow as I inserted the former. A flash of blue light shot upward, and the ground began to shake. I looked across the gorge between the mountain and me as rocks shifted toward each other to form a bridge. Finally, the mountain opened itself like a grand entrance. 

Naturally, I feel like this is the end of my long journey as I take a step into the unknown, away from all I've accomplished. As soon as I take a step into the darkness, I begin to fall. Books and shelves fly past me. I see a large tree, and it's all too fast to make sense of it all before I…

Wake up.

***

So, it turns out that the people I care for don't love me mutually. That's ok. I've learned in the service that people are not all they're cracked up to be. I know that the right answer is to continue pursuing relationships, but I just can't muster the strength. I still love this one lass, but she hurt me so badly that I have a hard time forgiving myself cause clearly I did something wrong. Enough of my rants. God bless you all, and thank you for reading another chapter. I'm sorry if it feels rushed and I sincerely appreciate you.