#I HAD TO PAUSE THE SHOW PERMANENTLY WHEN THE MOM SCREAMS IN EPISODE 8

[notascreepyasyouthink]

anyways i'm on s1e8 of house and um. what the fuck

[dreamemento-blog]

#8: The Grocery Store

Not sure why but zombie-themed dreams always end up being romantically tragic for me???

So this guy crushes on this girl (is it me? or am I just the spectator? Hard to tell in Dreamland) back in high school. They have the same friend group and they get along really well, have a great connection, but nothing ever comes from it because he’s too nervous and thinks she’s way out of his league. Maybe she’s also in a relationship during this time, I can’t remember that part of the “movie”. So they drift apart and just move on with their lives. 

She gets married young and has two small children. She and her husband move to greener pastures. He’s out, probably well-educated, living his life in some successful career. But life hits them with some curveballs and they both come back home in different stages of their lives. 

Now she’s divorced and a single mother. The ex husband’s probably shit given that he’s not present in the dream. I’m thinking she comes back to her hometown after the divorce, and lives with her dad. They spend some time mending their dysfunctional relationship (hence marrying young amirite). So she’s been back for a couple years rebuilding herself. She’s in a good spot, working at some humble job finally feeling herself after years of being “the wife and mom”. Her dad and her are doing great and she finally feels self-sufficient and stable.

Crushboy also returns home after finding himself unfulfilled in the big city. But now this boy is back as a man, just trying to find himself too. He spent so long grinding, trying to feel some sort of success since he felt his life back home was such a failure. Coming back home was hard, but his mom told him to not let his past haunt him, and not be afraid to look back. So he’s back, and after a few months home, he’s slowly getting that contentment he needed. 

And suddenly, they see each other at the grocery store, shocked that anyone from their high school is still around. You know that moment when you see an old classmate in the wild. It’s always at the damn grocery store. He sees her kids in the cart, which causes some pause. She is a little embarrassed but looks defiantly, dukes up, waiting for his reaction. Despite her worry, he instantly connects with them. They’re cute, sweet, friendly, all that jazz. After a brief chat he tells her he’d like to catch up more. She’s surprised because she feels like she’s “damaged goods”. But he insists. That old spark is rekindled and he’s not holding back this time. 

So cue the romance budding, he finally confesses his feelings. She digs deep and realizes maybe she felt the same but was too up her own ass to act on it, and too complacent in waiting on him to do something about it. But here it is - their second chance. They both came home to start fresh, and now they can share this new chapter together. They date, they make love, they sing songs from high school in his car. She’s screaming her head off in the passenger’s seat and he’s smiling ear to ear, overcome with joy of what he’s always wanted.

It’s your classic romantic movie, it’s a beautiful story, everything’s great....aaaand then GENRE CHANGE.

In the background of all this are subtle hints of an “outbreak”. Symptoms are severe - the new rabies? People are showing signs of leprosy and onset psychotic episodes. Their red blood count levels are dangerously low, draining the blood supply. Vaccines are aggressively being dished out, but the virus mutates at an alarming rate and soon the symptoms are beyond severe. The psychotic episodes turn into violent attacks of cannibalism. Basically....yeah, zombies.

So soon this hometown gets infected. Let’s say it’s remote and takes a while to rear its ugly head. Soon the town is overtaken. Now it turns into a survival movie. We went from “Notebook”-status to full on “The Road” as far as tone change. A fucking wallop to the side of the spectator’s head. Some people hole up in the grocery store, including the guy, girl and her two kids. They’re managing, but like any zombie film, the numbers are overwhelming. People start dying off here and there. Panic sets in and the grocery store is ripped apart, mainly by human chaos. 

We get to the point where they need to get out. Guy still has his keys to the car for the last resort escape if the grocery store falls through. They’re almost out, then suddenly a zombie pops out of no where (foreshadowing of his presence is probably sprinkled through the last act). He gets at the guy and bites a chunk out his neck. Girl is mortified and stabs the fucker in the head with a weapon. She screams, the kids are screaming. She approaches him to help and he quickly shouts at her to get the kids to the car while he wraps his neck with bandages he had already packed. 

She obeys and gets the kids in the car, instructing the older daughter to honk if they need help, but they’re hidden and relatively safe. She goes back in the store to retrieve the guy so they can get the hell out of there. 

But there he is, slumped in an aisle near the door. He presses on his gushing neck in vain, as the bandages are fully soaked. She sees, her eyes widen and her face drops. He’s not gonna make it. She throws that thought out and drops to her knees, desperately trying to lift his limp body. 

“C’mon, we gotta go. Get up. Please. I can’t do this. You’ll be okay, let’s go. Please!”

“I don’t think I’m gonna...you’re gonna have to keep moving.”

“No, no! You can do this, we can do this, just please....”

She sobs as the realization creeps in, that he’s right. 

“I can’t do this,” she whimpers, “How THE FUCK this fair?!” she screams.

“It’s...pretty fucked up,” he sputters slightly chucking. “But listen, I need you to listen to me,” he instructs caressing her shoulder as she looks up from her hysteria. 

“After we graduated...I felt like I wasn’t alive. I just felt like I was just existing, like something was missing. And I felt like I did all this shit with work to be something. To have done something. And still I just felt so dead.”

“Then I came back, and I saw you. And it was like...I was revived. And these last few months,” he sputters, and takes a deep breath, “I feel like I’ve already lived an entire life just getting to be with you. Like this. I finally know what it’s like to have lived...to know what it was all for. It was for you, and those kids. I get it now...I’ve never felt so at peace. I feel it now...”

His eyes fade...his deep eye contact turns as he looks on, with peaceful eyes. His pupils glass over, in permanent contentment. 

She stifles a scream, and begins to heave, taking in the shock and grief. She cries into his chest, and whispers that she loves him. She hears the car horn beep in the distance. She looks up, eyes filled with drive and rage. 

She emerges out of the store, his blood on her jacket. She screams, “Close your eyes and hide for Mommy!” As she sees the children duck under the seats, she grabs a scavenging zombie off the car and throws its decaying emaciated body to the pavement. She strikes its head, over and over. It’s long dead, but she strikes. Blood spattering, saturating her face chest but all she can do is pant and scream. 

Cut to final scene. She’s driving his car, with the kids quietly playing in the background. Driving on a desolate freeway with cars crashed here and there on the side. Headed somewhere, and nowhere. Her face is numb. Cut to black. 

--

And that was my fucking dream the other goddamned day.