Adapted Dream
What follows is a rough adaptation of a dream. It has not been reviewed, edited, proofread, etc. All details are as they were in the dream as much as possible. As for what happens next, I have no idea.
Pedro was going to get Maria home. That was the only thought in his head. Sent by her mother to pick her up and drive her home, he was halfway through his mission. Not that Maria seemed to care. “Your mother told you to be home by 5 and you’re cutting it awfully close. We’ve only got half an hour to get through this mess.”
Ahead of them was solid gridlock.
“It’s fine. Mama worries too much,” Maria dismissed his concern while staring out the window into the ordinary yet fascinating daily routines unfolding around them. “She won’t mind if I’m a little late.”
“That’s easy for you to say, you won’t get the angry lecture. ‘Pedro, you’re too irresponsible.’ ‘Pedro, you can’t follow even simple instructions.’ ‘Pedro, you’ll never be good enough for my daughter.'”
Something about that last part brought Maria’s attention back from the city’s vibrant action to the stale interior of the motionless car. “What was tha-“
Pedro grabbed the wheel and steeled himself. “Not this time! Hold on, I know a shortcut.”
The car jerked to the right, down a service alley not meant for regular traffic at a speed that was probably not advisable. A delivery truck forced another abrupt right turn, along with a collision with a pile of boxes.
“It’s okay, we’re good. You good?” Maria didn’t answer, letting the scene play out as the next obstacle drew near. The right front tire dropped into a pothole as the car spun to the right once again to avoid a cart blocking the path ahead.
And then they exited the alley back into the very traffic they were trying to escape. Only now further back than they had started.
Maria remained silent as Pedro prepared to receive his scolding. But instead of that, the ground shook.
In an instant, the road ahead had disintegrated. Cars now sat on an undulating bed of dirt and gravel. A building to the left now sat tilted 45 degrees away from the road, or what used to be a road. Pedro’s car remained on solid asphalt, but only barely. A few more feet…
“Well, it looks like my shortcut-” Pedro’s self-congratulatory statement was cut off by the sound of the passenger door opening and Maria running off to survey the scene. Abandoning his car without even thinking, Pedro chased after her.
“Do you have any idea what your mother will do to me if I let you get hurt?” Pedro’s words fell on deaf ears as Maria stared off the edge of the cliff that now stood where a city hillside had been just moments before. Pedro silently reached his hand out toward the girl as she leapt over the edge into the abyss.
Maria was oblivious to the boy’s presence as she landed on a piece of improbably floating debris slowly circling just below the edge of the cliff. Her added weight caused it to gently glide to the ground far below. Perfectly flat ground below the now vanished hillside.
“She’ll throw me off a cliff if I don’t go after her daughter, this way looks more fun at least.” Pedro scanned the air below for another piece of debris, finding one a bit further down. “GeronimoOOOOOOOOOOO!”
The piece of debris Pedro landed on was closer than it appeared. It was just smaller. Pedro’s weight was too much for it and the two hurtled toward the strange ground below. Pedro had no regrets.
And no injuries as he stepped off the strange piece of metal that came to a gentle stop at the bottom of what he guessed was a 200 ft. cliff. Everything that had been there – the ground, the buildings, the people? – all of it was gone in an instant. But he couldn’t let that distract him now, he had to find Maria. Who he saw now standing directly below the leaning building, which looked like it could fall over at any moment.
“What are you doing? We have to get out of here!” he shouted as he ran to her side. His presence barely registered as she stared up at the building frozen directly overhead. “Relax, it’s perfectly safe.”
A large piece of debris crashing down nearby, its impact kicking up a large cloud of dust, seemingly contradicted Maria’s assessment. Pedro’s vindication did little to improve his mood. “You call that perfectly safe? That whatever-it-was almost flattened us to match this hillside.”
Maria paused and looked over at the manic Pedro, her confidence visibly shaken. “Its, um, within acceptable tolerances,” she stammered, not willing to yield on the point even with the evidence to the contrary still settling in the air.
As the reality of their situation began to sink in, the pair saw two military transports headed toward them across the unnatural plain. They came to a stop, a door opened in the lead vehicle, and a man emerged, cloaked in shadow from the setting sun.
“Papa!” Maria exclaimed as she ran toward the dark figure. “Maria? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. At least you aren’t here alone.” The man’s acknowledgement of Pedro’s value still left him feeling excluded from this reunion.
A voice rang out from the transport, bringing Pedro’s focus back to the situation at hand. “Sir, we need to keep moving, it isn’t safe here.” Maria’s father acknowledged the message from inside and turned his attention back to the complicating factors outside.
Pedro rediscovered his resolve and strode forward with purpose. “You don’t have to worry, I’ll keep Maria safe.” But Maria’s response caught him off guard.
“I don’t need your protection, I can take care of myself!” And with that, Pedro’s resolve faded away once more.
A small figure then darted out of an unseen hiding place inside the transport and landed in the middle of the trio. “Surprise!”
“Sammie?” father and daughter exclaimed in unison. Maria’s little brother had somehow stowed away with their father, further complicating matters.
“Enough.” Maria’s father quickly took control of the situation before if could deteriorate further. “It’s dangerous where we’re going, but I can’t leave you here and we don’t have time to turn back. Maria, you’ll assist the containment team, head to the second transport.”
Pedro was cut off before he could volunteer his services. “Pedro, you’ll look after Sammie and the two of you will stay with me and the research team. Now let’s go, we’ve already been here too long.”
Now seated in the transport as it made its way across the suddenly barren terrain, Pedro had his first chance to take stock of the situation. Where to even begin? Nothing about this was normal, but Maria’s father’s presence offered a few clues. He worked as an artificial intelligence researcher for the military, or at least that’s what he told everyone. Could an AI do this? Or was it something else entirely? Whatever that man knew, he wasn’t telling Pedro.
“Here, put this on,” he instructed the boy, handing him some sort of vest. “It should nullify the effects.”
“Effects? What-” As the transports began to ascend the terrain rising out of the wasteland, Pedro saw debris came into view outside the window. And bodies, contorted unnaturally and floating in defiance of gravity or the very laws of physics themselves. As the transports passed, the bodies began to fall. “Are they…”
“Eyes front.” Pedro complied, preferring not to contemplate this latest development.
The room was completely empty. No furniture, just a door set in a wall opposite the windows. It was night. Artificial light streamed in from a distant source. There were no coverings on the windows, Pedro was completely exposed. The vest! He wasn’t wearing it. He dropped to the floor for some protection against whatever was outside. From the floor, he heard footsteps in the hallway drawing nearer.