I had this weird but wicked cool dream and I thought I might try to turn it into a coherent credible story. It went like this (you're probably gonna laugh when you read it, as will I when I write it)... Zombies attacked my hometown (lol zombies). Panic everywhere. We saw a lot of acquaintances get killed during the invasion, however some were dragged away instead. Me and two of my friends resisted the onslaught (yeah, I always play awesome roles in my own dreams) and managed to kill a few of the living dead. They looked a lot like House of the Dead zombies. In fact the whole "scenario" looked like a House of the Dead game. Either way we vowed to find the source of these zombie attacks (lol heroes) and we got a tip that the culprit was going to attend an upcoming elite garden party at a certain family's mansion. My dream never explained how we got to know this. So we decided to infiltrate said garden party. None of us look as if they'd belong there in the slightest but we got in. How is another thing my dream didn't bother to explain. We met the host family, which was really just a collection of every "rich family" cliché in the book. There was the greedy cutthroat businessman, his haughty wife that measured one's worth by their appearance and financial status, the friendly but ditzy bimbo daughter that has never had a care in her life and the arrogant ill-tempered son who neglects his studies and chooses to live like a king on his parents' expenses instead. We talked to each of them separately (I only vaguely remember details from these conversations) and to the other guests, and we overheard a conversation between the family members and their closest friends. They talked and everyone was in relatively good spirits until at one point the zombie attacks were mentioned. A huge argument broke out and, as expected, the disputing members started accusing each other, openly pointing the blame at one another. Things got even worse when the zombies themselves showed up, attacking the garden party. We figured it'd be easy to find the culprit now: we just spot the one person that doesn't panic and we'd have found him (we're not the most intelligent superhero team around as you would have expected). That tactic worked though, as we saw one person seemingly issuing commands to the zombies. The villain wasn't who we had expected: we expected the father but it turned out to be the daughter (she had a fancy name due to her richness, Lynn-Marie or Lisa-Marie or something. I'll just call her LM for now.). Either way, she got away and so did we, unlike many other invitees. Next scene: we raid the plant and get this mess taken care of. No explanation as to how we know where the plant even is. The place was of course heavily guarded by zombies but we split up regardless: P would kill the zombies in the plant itself, L would try to shut down whatever created or transformed the zombies and I would go to the control room (one should always go to the control room in situations like this). As I entered the control room I found LM coordinating things. Instead of shooting her (I had a gun at that time) we had the typical protagonist-antagonist conversation first. She asked me (in Dutch of course) what she was doing wrong and I replied with "You mean...Besides all this?". She insisted that she was not doing anything wrong though, that she was doing the right thing for everyone and that we were the bad guys. She explained her reasoning. This world is unbalanced, with unemployment rates high and yet many unpopular professions or functions that are short on people. She believes that, in order to solve this problem, sacrifices (i.e. free will) will have to be made. She also believed that there was more harm done by forcing people to do something against their will for several decades than by robbing them of their free will altogether (the "short pain"). She said that this was her project, her contribution to humanity's welfare. When I asked her why she even bothered to "help" humanity she said that hr father constantly reminded them of what he had achieved and that he expressed the fear and disappointment that hiis children are good-for-nothings day after day and that she wanted to prove him wrong. This was her way of being helpful. It was obvious that she really did have the best intentions. I decided on another approach. I asked her how she'd feel if it was her that was being dragged away, or even her children should she have any. I asked her if that wouldn't feel awful. Somehow that did seem to have an effect on her, openly expressing doubts along the line of "I can't be wrong, can I?" and finally bursting out into tears. She immediately shut down the plant and hit the self-destruct button. Then she fell in chair, her hands covering her face and sobbing again. So the plant/factory was going to blow itself up so we all had to make a run for our money but LM didn't seem like she'd budge anytime soon. I wondered whether I should leave her behind, shoot her or drag her along with me. I remember feeling a strange mix of pity and anger. In the end I had a brilliant idea: I'd ask her. I approached her and gave her an awkward "there-there hug". I leaned closely to her ear and whispered "Should I kill you?". She hesitated but answered yes eventually. Strangely instead of shooting her I took a knife (I also had a knife) and stabbed it up her throat and she backed off gagging and bleeding. A painful sight it was so I shot her. The end This "story" has some obvious issues: 1. Why did some zombies kill and others kidnap people? The kidnapping is obvious. The killing is not. Maybe they had to kill everyone who opposed LM? 2. As I said before, the zombies looked like they came straight from House Of The Dead. Why, however, are they so mutilated? My dream only spoke of robbing free will. Pretty much got this covered. I'll just describe the zombies differently. 3. How did we know the culprit would be at the garden party? I think I can do this, but suggestions are welcome. 4. How did we get into the garden party? Don't think it'll be too hard to figure this one out. Again; suggestions are welcome. 5. The conversations with the invitees This is gonna be hard. They have to be just right and reveal information little by little. 6. How did we know where the plant was? Hmm...Someone might mention it during the garden party conversations. Does that sound okay? 7. Why didn't I just shoot LM? And when I had the chance, why did I stab her first? I pretty much got this covered though. 8. The ending Did we make it out on time? And if so, what will change now? 9. The title Pretty much got this covered. 10. Character development Since I know the dream protagonists in real life, it's no wonder they never got properly introduced. I should do this if I were to make a story though. Questions remaning: how and when? 11. Why bother? There are a few reasons that I want to go through with this: - There are zombies. - I think it's interesting how I'll try to change the leading role from "me" to a fictional character. - It has an interesting antagonist in my opinion. - Having a dream that coherent was an achievement on itself to my standards. I don't want it to "go to waste" by doing nothing with it. - It'd be something completely different from what I usually write. So what I need are any general or specific hints and tips you can give me and (very important) your opinion on the concept itself. Think it might work or do you have little faith in it? Somewhere I'm hoping to spark Bushido's bashing skills. XD
