There was this enormous building in the middle of nowhere and somehow I ended up there all alone. I knew it belonged to a relative of mine, but I didn’t know anything else. It was like it was on a track or something, and there was another track running alongside it. The far side of it was all windows and there was a big rock pool on the side you entered. At the far end, there were these huge steel doors that were set ajar. I was afraid but I went through them, hoping to find out where I was or at least find some other people. I was in a rock cavern and at the end of it there was another huge door, closed, partially painted orange. I heard voices and I turned and ran back out. There was another room at the end of the building, and it had a bed and a bathroom and a kitchen just like a tiny house. When I came out a while later, there was a dark haired girl there. I asked her a lot of questions but she didn’t really answer me, she just brought me over to a bunch of kids my own age. They were all talking and laughing, and there was my uncle and another woman, trying to address them. The girl explained it was a debriefing of sorts, they were hunters of something. None of the thought very much of me at first, they knew I was related to my uncle, so I could operate the machines that were left there, and supposedly people who had a certain gene wouldn’t die when the creatures touched them. Someone told me that I would still die if they touched me. Later, they all gathered around the steel door. A woman came out of the door holding the hand of a child, about four. Everyone knew what it was and I could guess. They all pushed it calmly from person to person with their blades, not speaking and staying as still as they possibly could. I didn’t know what to do, all of a sudden I couldn’t remember what I’d been told and I ran, hoping to shut myself in the other room away from it. It chased me and I couldn’t run fast enough, and it spoke to me in this horrible ancient voice. I tried to wake myself up, but the others caught it. I didn’t see them kill it.
Later, we all gathered together for more training. It seemed like we were preparing for something. I wouldn’t make the same mistake next time they brought one into the building. I noticed that everyone was carrying flat gray blades that looked like they were made of some sort of stone. I demanded that they give me one as well, I would not be unarmed. My uncle and the other adults were going to lead an expedition into the cavern to kill more of the creatures, they only took volunteers. Many of the people there were very excited about it. I wondered how this could be possible; they killed you with a touch and they were extremely strong.
The time shifted to after they had already returned, the adults were gone and it was just us having a party. We went to sleep or something, and when we woke up, half of the building was blocked off, all of our supplies were gone, and the side of the building we were in was mostly destroyed. Some of the boys immediately tried to take the barrier down but I stopped them, because somehow I knew what had happened. The creatures had managed to escape the door; the other side of the building was probably filled with them. Some of the other kids said not to worry; we would just wait for the adults, our trainers, to come back. I was suspicious though. Another train came, on the track alongside ours. Many others ran to the window thinking it was the trainers come back to help us but I yelled at them to get down. I looked out the window and I saw that the train was full of little children, and somehow I could hear them talking. The sound of their old, grating voices was horrifying. There was one riding on the top of the train, it locked eyes with me and it grinned. I knew then that my uncle and the others had done this on purpose, as some sort of test or game. They were even sending more to us. We speculated, could it be to find the best fighters? But no, it was unlikely that any of us would survive, it was a trick, a sick sort of game. We ran through our options. We could run out the side door, try to escape into the wilderness, but it had snowed. It would make us too slow, and they would hunt us down and kill us before the elements did. There were no other trains, so our only option was to wait and fight. We made sure everyone was armed with the flat gray blades and then we sat down to wait. When they finally did break through, it was complete chaos. I didn’t want to see these people die, I tried desperately to wake myself up again, but to no avail. We fought very hard but they killed us one by one. Somehow, I managed to escape with one other boy. We ran to the front of the building and then had an idea. The building was full of explosives, so somehow we managed to set them off. We jumped into the giant train engine, sending it full speed ahead in an attempt to escape. In the distance, I saw a fireball rise into the air as we raced away. Hopefully, the explosion would collapse the entrance to the creatures’ home and kill any that were in the building. We continued down the track at breakneck speed, we were both still very afraid. We traveled for hours or days (I don’t know which) through miles and miles of beautiful countryside before coming to the shores of a lake (it was more like an inland sea) it was so beautiful it looked like something from a fairytale. There was a little cottage on the shore. When we entered it, we realized that it was much larger on the inside than on the outside. The boy was completely relaxed, but I was still worried about the possibility that the creatures could come after us. I remember thinking “we will live the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders” but then I began to forget my fear the longer I was there. It was lovely inside, made of warm wood paneling and sunlight coming through high windows. It was like being inside a tree. There was a train station and a little restaurant, and it was full of ordinary people talking and laughing, coming and going from different places. The lady at the desk said arrivals? And we talked to her a while. She pointed the boy and I to a smallish oval door carved into the wood next to her desk. It was very shiny and nicely ornamented with simple swirls carved into the wood, it had a gold doorknob. I remember standing there in the sunlight, smiling with relief as we stood together, chatting with other travelers. Soon enough, I reached for the knob and began to open the door
Then I woke up