The posting of this dream is not something I had meant to put off, but life got in the way. Now it seems I will be unable to fall asleep until I tell the tale of one of the most frightening zombie dreams I have ever had.

This dream began with me walking into my old college dorm at Eastern Illinois University. Apparently it was move-in day, and my room was massive! There were at least four actual rooms in my room; all connected by doors. Oddly enough, the previous occupants had not moved anything out of the room. As I searched through the desks, dressers, and cabinets, I found a collection of zombie-related pornography. I was more than slightly disgusted, but what really bothered me was that these movies were on VHS. As I looked around the room, everything appeared to be from the 1980's or the early 1990's.

Right away I knew what had happened to me: I was trapped in an alternate universe. Whenever knowledge of this sort come to me in a dream, I know that nothing will prepare me for what is inevitably just around the corner. As I was pondering where I was and how I'd ended up there, a woman came into my room and sat down as though she owned the place. This woman had a pallid complexion, and the flesh on her face appeared to be too small to cover the area fully, as it was taught and leathery. I shrugged it off, and continued to search for clues as to why the previous occupants had left everything in the room when they left. She began laughing and speaking in riddles I did not understand...which creeped me out. She asked me how I liked being dead and what I thought of sharing the room with others like me. I had no answers for her, so I smiled nd nodded.

I left the woman, and headed for the cafeteria (which was honestly the cafeteria from my middle school...the exact one!). When I arrived, the stench of the room caused me to retch (even in a dream)...the stench of death was everywhere. The room was filled with people I recognized, but they did not look the same. Their faces were torn, bitten, chewed...their clothes were bloody and ragged...they were zombies. Every single person in the cafeteria was a zombie. A few of them appeared to have died quite recently, as they showed no signs of advanced decomposition. All intact eyes were on me as I entered the cafeteria.

The realization that I was the last living man on Earth set in quite slowly. Everywhere I looked, the dead walked, talked, and apparently ate what was left of the living (or so it seemed from the looks of the "meat" on the cafeteria trays). I never wondered why I was alive, rather I was focused on how I could stay that way.

Somehow I made it out of the cafeteria without incident, but then a zombie (who looked like a fiend I have in real life), told me we were going for a ride as he motioned to his truck. I got in, and we started driving through town. The dead were everywhere; going about their daily business just like the living normally would...except that these creatures were decidedly NOT living.

My "friend" and I talked about how great death was, about dead chicks he wanted to bang, and I was pulling off this whole, "being dead thing" until I sighed. His head snapped towards me, and he said, "You do know dead people don't breathe, right?"

I was paralyzed with fear, but I just nodded and said, "Yep," playing off my sigh as if it was no big deal. My friend wasn't buying it, so he offered me a human foot. "Eat up," he said. Apparently if I was going to survive, I would have to eat a human foot. I took a huge bite of the heel, and chewed; choking the flesh down and fighting the rise of the bile from my gut. He watched as I took a few more bites, chewed the flesh, and swallowed. How I kept from throwing up is a mystery to me.

At the end of the ride, we ended up in a burned out school. Zombies were milling around, and I met some more of my "friends," who all asked me how I kept my decomposition so well hidden. I told them I died of a heart attack, which bought me a little time...but the questions about moisturizing and such just kept pouring in on me. I felt my temperature rise, and I knew that soon I'd be sweating. I took three of the zombies who were dead versions of my best friends in real life aside and I explained to them that I was not actually dead. Their eyes widened, and they asked me how it was that their dead friend was actually the last living person on Earth. It soon became apparent that somehow I was trapped in an alternate universe, while the dead alternate-universe version of me wrecked havoc in my original universe.

Although my zombified friends tried to hide me, one of the other zombies realized I was alive (he noticed sweat on my brow), and within moments every zombie within earshot was after me. As the mob threw my friends aside, I felt their cold, shredded hands grasping me; saw their cold, cloudy eyes staring me down; and felt their dull, stained teeth tearing at my flesh...

I awoke covered in sweat, choking on a scream, and flailing as though I were drowning, completely wrapped up in my bedsheets.



Through this dream, I witnessed the true power of my unconscious fears and desires via their nocturnal manifestations. I fully admit there is truly a dark side to humanity; a place where all taboo actions are possible, even encouraged. Sometimes at night I tap into this darkness. Here, in my dreams, repressed feelings becomes a gaping maw; threatening to devour me. The unholy trifecta of guilt, anxiety and morality form a beast, which haunts my slumber, stalking from dream to dream, hoping to catch me unaware. On nights when this beast catches me off guard, I pay for every nervous thought that has ever crossed my mind...