《The Dream Weaver》


 Escapism

    A blanket of smog covered the city, as the cars below were bescumbering exhaust that clouded the streets. It was 3:00 PM and the lugubrious pollution masked the sunlight turning every day to night. The only source of light was from neon billboards illuminating the crowded streets. Drops of rain started pelting the roof of the yellow taxi, gradually increasing in tempo until the rain was carpet bombing the streets. The rain peeled the yellow paint off the taxi smearing it down the side of the window. Sitting in the back seat of the taxi was a man in his early 30¡¯s staring out the stained window. The crowd on the sidewalk quickly dispersed running to cover from the onslaught of rain.


    The taxi pulled away from traffic and stopped at the side of the road. Without saying a word the man in the back departed from the taxi and quickly ran inside of a tall skinny concrete apartment building. The man walked up to the front desk flashing his apartment access card. The old lady positioned at the front desk glanced away from her phone to glare at the card.


    ¡°Elijah Ridge?¡± asked the old lady in a monotone.


    ¡°That''s correct,¡± Elijah replied, sliding the card back into his wallet.


    ¡°You''re free to go,¡± she said, slapping a button on the desk, Elijah yanked on the adjacent door but it would not budge. The old lady sighed and this time slammed on the button, the door clicked open and Elijah stepped into the hallway closing the door behind him. The apartment hallway had a thick musty atmosphere festering a migraine for who ever traversed through it. Elijah speed walked to the stairs, making his way to the fourth story of the apartment building. His pace slowed as he approached Apartment 4328. Elijah knocked on the door, shortly after a man in his early twenties stepped out. He looked and smelled like a 70s hippy sporting an unkempt beard that connected to his greasy hair and a blue bandana wrapped around his forehead. He wore a white button up with food stains on his jeans.


    ¡°Got anything new?¡± Elijah asked


    ¡°I wish,¡± The man scoffed. ¡°Cartridges are now being installed with new anti-piracy software. I now have to manually lobotomize the code then re-render it. Gonna be awhile before I got anything on the market.¡± he said.


    ¡°I will buy anything¡± Elijah asserted, the man paused he glanced behind him than turned back to ElijahDid you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    ¡°I got some stuff from an indie Dream Weaver: Nomadness, ever heard of him?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Not familiar with his work no,¡± Elijah responded


    ¡°He is an artist type, weaving together abstract experiences that you won¡¯t find in your average Dream Weave.¡±


    ¡°I will take it,¡± Elijah said. The man stepped away from the doorway, and returned with a plastic square cartridge with a lip of copper. Written in sharpie on the flat part of the plastic said ¡®Created By Nomadness.¡¯ Elijah pulled a 20 dollar bill and traded it for the cartridge. ¡°What''s it about?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t know, never tried it, let me know what you think of it when you do.¡±


    ¡°Yeah I''ll let you know,¡± said Elijah, stuffing the cartridge into his pocket walking away from the door.


    Elijah arrived at his apartment unlocking the door with his magnetic key, he slid inside shutting the door behind him. The neon lights poured through the slits of the window. Elijah quickly removed his work clothes and flopped onto his mattress. A 13 inch by 13 inch by 4 inch console lay on the nightstand. It had 2 wires poking out of it, one that plugged into the surge protector and the other that attached to a cloth beanie with an attached eye mask. Elijah ejected the cartridge currently inside of the device replacing it with the new one, he placed the old cartridge on a book shelf at the foot of the bed. The bookstand was filled with cartridges similar to the one he just bought. The only difference is that they had an official plastic sticker on the flat part of the cartridge that had the title of the Dream Weave, and credit to the Dream Weaver. The different shelfs were organized by type. The top two shelves were for adventure Dream Weaves, like cowboy adventure, space bounty hunter, Samurai Ninja, and espionage. The middle shelf was for life-like Dream Weaves that are supplements for reality, the second to last shelf was movies transformed into Dream Weaves, and the bottom shelf contained Weaves of pure decadence. Elijah was a glutton for the Dream Weave, he has experienced every single Weave he could get his hands on. However, he has never done an indie street weave before, normally all weaves go through extensive testing so they don¡¯t damage the brain; indie weaves can take you places no regulated weave can but aren¡¯t guaranteed to be safe.


    Elijah placed the cartridge in the console, then positioned himself in a comfortable position before placing the cloth beanie and eye mask over his head and eyes. Elijah lived for the Dream Weave, it was his only escape. As the explosion of technological enhancement made the sound of life so loud, no one wanted to have a moment of quiet. Elijah laid in his bed drifting away his eye movement began ceasing then his muscles started to contract. His mind slipped from consciousness entering into a deep sleep.

 Trapped in Avoidance

    Elijah eyes peel open to the same old view of his grey concrete ceiling with the texture of a drained pool. ¡°Must be a dud cartridge,¡± He thought to himself. Sitting up, he reaches to pull the cloth beanie but hesitates. The beanie is gone Elijah jolts his head towards the nightstand, the Dream Weave is gone too. Elijah jumps out of bed and scurries to the window, he lifts the blinds revealing a foreign world. No longer standing on the elevated floor of his apartment, now standing on ground level in a house overlooking the ocean. The blue sky is not obstructed, and the air is clean. Elijah has only seen the unobstructed sky in Dream Weaves.  Each Dream Weave is created by a Dream Weaver and each Dream Weaver depicts the sky in their own unique way. Nomadness painted the sky in a simple light blue without a cloud in the sky. Outside the house the sidewalk was no longer paved in concrete but cobble stone path. The once mighty skyscrapers were replaced with small one to two story homes decorated in vines and grafiti. The bystanders that roamed the street had a wide variety of fashions, faces, and hair. They perused the streets at a slow pace, but never clumping into groups. The road was occupied by bicycles of all different kinds. Unicycles with one giant wide wheel, bikes with 8 thin wheels forming a spider-like contraption that two passengers rode in, and a tangerine bike with 10 open seats. Extinct birds like the seagull, dove, and owl sat singing from their perches. Elijah wandered the streets taking in these new surroundings. Graffiti decorated the buildings adding color to the neighborhood. One piece that caught the eye of Elijah was a beaver in a tie building a dam blocking all the water except for a couple of  drops to filter into the cup positioned below him.


    Elijah''s journey brought him to the beach where he dipped his toes into the ocean. The ocean was clean and full of life instead of a plastic marsh of death that awaits Elijah onces he wakes up. While comparing and contrasting the Weave versus reality he wondered how long he had been asleep. He glanced down at his wrist, the Dream Weave allows you access to the system console giving the ability to exit the Dream Weave manually or to check the time and make sure you didn¡¯t sleep past your alarm clock. To Elijah''s surprise the Dream Weave Console clock did not show, He shook his right hand violently trying to open the console commands but nothing happened, his focus was abruptly interrupted by a loud trumpet noise. Elijah jumped, twisted  around to face a large goose standing behind him holding a trumpet in the grasp of his wings.


    The bird made eye contact with Elijah before waddling off down the beach. Elijah was both confused and amused by the goose. The goose¡¯s footprints never washed away from the waves. Elijah was curious and felt compelled to follow after it. He followed the goose as the sun started casting the landscape in a beautiful pink glow. The goose''s footprint trail abruptly stopped with no sign of the goose. Elijah searched the area, spotting a beach house resting on the edge of the beach.  It was made of wood, with a net surrounding the porch. Elijah entered the home. The interior of the beach house was spatially impossible, inside was a large multi-story library with a stone fireplace. Sitting on a cushion next to the fire the goose sat holding a saxophone now in his wings. Elijah sat in an antique chair near the fire. Suddenly the books all opened violently as shadows emerged from the walls slowly flowing down the surfaces into a chair adjacent to where Elijah sat. The shadows started to take on colors forming multiple different translucent people of all races and genders into an empty chair across from Elijah. The collection of ghostly aberrations of people all sat in the same position and made the same gestures with a slight delay. Thousands of people formed one singular being without any distinct features, just the simple shape of a human being. The Shape sat in the chair patiently. Elijah spoke


    ¡°Uh? Hello! Who¡­.what are you?¡± He asked.


    ¡°37 hours 13 minutes, and 11 seconds¡± The Shape said in a robotic voice.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡±


    ¡°It took you 37 hours 13 minutes and 11 seconds for you to want to exit the weave¡±


    ¡°No, that can¡¯t be I should have woken up by now!¡± Elijah said his heart dropping into his chest.


    ¡°The Dream Weave speeds up the perception of time quite drastically besides, why did you want to exit this perfect substitute for reality?¡± The Shape said gesturing around with its multiple hands.


    ¡°Well, I have work in the morning¡± Elijah paused, ¡°I should have woken up naturally, there is no way I have been in here 37 hours.¡±


    ¡°Should be careful with street weaves, they aren¡¯t filtered¡±


    ¡°No, that can¡¯t be¡±


    ¡°This entire weave is designed to keep you trapped in the weave.¡±


    ¡°For how long?¡± Elijah asked as in a shrill shaky voice


    ¡°As long as it takes¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked Elijah desperately, The Shaped leaned forward in his chair


    ¡°How about I show you,¡± The Shape rose from its chair, standing in the middle of the library and then stomped its foot down. Quickly the dim library was enveloped in a wave of color. Elijah was now sitting in a lawn chair outside of a cluster of mobile homes. The peaceful seaside town was replaced with a bustling metropolis.


    ¡°This was where it started¡± The Shape said ¡°This was a small community who did not support the rapid development of cities. They wanted to be self-sufficient, but the city was like a fungus constantly expanding until every bit of open land was swallowed by the cityscape.¡± The sun and moon quickly started to fly over the land, and around them the city rapidly got taller and wider. The community started relocating around Elijah finding different empty spots of land until it was sandwiched between two urban expanses. Trapped in a valley of concrete, that was slowly converging together.


    ¡°Excuse me, what does this have to do with me¡± Elijah questioned?


    ¡°I¡¯m getting there.¡± said The Shape as it walked away from Elijah towards one of the cities. His voice never changed in volume no matter what direction he was facing or distance. Elijah then heard a large knock echo throughout the weave. The shape calmly said ¡°Ignore that, they can¡¯t help you.¡± Elijah quickly darted after The Shape down an alleyway filled with graffiti identical to what Elijah saw earlier. The Shape stopped walking and leaned against a wall. Stalking through the alleyways of the endless urban expanse, a figure cloaked in all black sulked in the shadows past Elijaha and The Shape. The figure slipped around the blotches of light spilling out of the open windows of the nearby buildings, stopping at the foot of a large billboard. Elijah and The Shape watched as the figure ascended the ladder on the side of the support beam, until they were at eye level with an advertisement. The advertisement was for the Prometheus Corporation products. A faceless company with the artificial face of a nuclear family plastered onto the wall. The figure cloaked in black removed multiple cans of spray paint from his bag and placed it at his feet.. The figure was creating the Graffiti of the Beaver in the suit building a dam preventing water from getting to the cup.


    ¡°Is this the Dream Weaver?¡± Elijah asked


    ¡°Yes, before the Dream Weave sweeped the market he was just a simple rebel¡±Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    ¡°What is the Dream Weaver now?¡±


    ¡°A complicated rebel¡± The Shape replied calmly


    ¡°What does that eve¡­¡±


    ¡°SHHH, you''re going to miss the good part¡± The Shape said pointing to the cloaked figure who was now admiring the art they just created. The cloaked figure tossed their spray paint into the trash and descended the ladder maneuvering his way into the crowded streets. The Shape started to walk after the cloaked figure and Elijah followed. The cloaked figure stopped in the middle of the crowd to look at a digital advertisement broadcasted on a window. On screen were doctors and engineers gathered around a table where a middle aged man in a medical chair wearing a weird fiber beanie with a bunch of steel medical pins sewn into the fabric. One of the doctors stepped away from the foreground and in the direction of the viewer, she was an older woman in her 50s with dark red hair started speaking directly towards the camera.


    ¡°Here at the Nyarla Medtech Labs we have made a breakthrough in the realms of the brain. Dreams as an overall body function have never been fully understood, we have the intentions of getting to the root of dreams.¡± The doctor walks to the left  of the screen gesturing her hand to a large machine with wires plugged into the aforementioned fiber beanie. ¡°Thanks to our talented engineers we have developed the Dreamweave Mark 1 that allows us to artificially craft dreams. By sending electronic signals to different parts of the brain we can create scenarios that the patient can interact with.¡± The doctor steps towards the patient ¡°Medical use for the Dream Weave includes therapeutic use for victims of mental illness like PTSD. The brain is just an infinitely powerful computer and with the Dream Weave technology we are able to plug the brain into a computer console and research the brain in a quantitative way, as well as put quantitative information into qualitative visuals and feelings.¡±


    ¡°Interesting¡± The cloaked figures muttered to themselves before disappearing into the crowd.


    ¡°What''s the point of this¡± Elijah asked


    ¡°I am showing you how the sausage got made, so to speak.¡±


    ¡°But why is this so important,¡±


    ¡°I want to tell you the truth I do, however I need you to know the what, where, and how before I share the why¡± The Shape then moved his hands into circular movements, the buildings, the crowds, and cars all melted like claymation matching motion with The Shapes hands. The environment reshaped into a new violent scene of a battleground. Bullets whizzed over their heads, and the percussive drums of explosives threw earth and dirt all of the place leaving craters in their wake.


    ¡°This was the first Dream Weave Nomadness made¡± The Shape said ¡°The city was preparing to start a war with the neighboring city for the last chunk of empty land. Everyone wanted to go to war, everyone wanted to go on a fun action filled adventure. No one questions how much hate was being shoveled into their gaping maws. They get indoctrinated by miss information and lie to the point where they will kill someone just because someone told them too. Nomadness, wanted¡­ NO! He needed everyone to know how toxic war is. The lust for death takes hold of your mind as you kill some random 18 year old who just graduated high school. It''s a child¡¯s crusade not some noble event in history, a factory that efficiently pumps out death. Those who take part of it can¡¯t question their actions because if they question what they have done they have to face the evil they commited. So they repressed their thoughts and strike out at anyone who questions it because they can¡¯t admit they were wrong.¡± The Shape''s robot voice said in anger and frustration. The robotic voice took a short pause, returning to its calm tone ¡°The Dream Weaver wanted to weave a nightmare to accurately show people what war is really like. It did have a minor effect on people who participated in the Weave; they never went to enlisted but the war still occurred.¡± The Shape voice trailed off in sadness. The screams of agony and bullets went mute as the landscape flushed down a drain as new color filled the spaces of Elijah¡¯s vision.


    ¡°Are we just going to keep going through every Dream Weave, Nomadness created?¡± asked Elijah


    ¡°Just the major ones that lead to the choices he made, don¡¯t worry I will speed through the main milestones to get to my point¡± The Shape started changing and rotating the scenery to different weaves with different messages: A Dream Weave where you are a tree getting cut down and turned into a useless product, another where you are a fish or a bird and you slowly die as your stomach fills with plastic. Each weave had the purpose of showing the world the consequences of their actions in a sped up manner because outside the Dream Weave, consequences occur in a time frame longer than your average person''s attention span. After multiple different showcases of the Nomadness Dream Weaves the setting returned back to the library with the jazz playing goose sitting by the fire.


    ¡°All those Dream Weaves of fighting the power leads down the road to you¡± said The Shape


    ¡°How does all of that relate to why I can¡¯t wake up?¡± asked Elijah, before The Shape could answer Elijah he could hear the old lady who sits at the front desk of the apartment building speak.


    ¡°Ah jeez, another dead one¡± she said in a slightly annoyed tone.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry I am going to explain that right now,¡± The Shape said.


    ¡°Why can I hear people?¡±


    ¡°Let me finish the what before I get to the why¡± he affirmed


    ¡°No, tell me right now!¡±


    ¡°The Weave you plugged into your Dream Weave has put you in a coma, if they turn off the console you will be trapped in a vegetable state.¡± The Shape said, Elijah sunk into his chair, his heart pounding in his chest


    ¡°Why?¡± Elijah''s said on the verge of a breaking down. Ruckus could be heard from the outside, probably from people gawking at the scene of Elijah comatose in his bed.


    ¡°You see the Dream Weaver wanted to utilize the Dream Weave to change the world for the better, but that didn¡¯t happen. The people who participated in the Weave didn¡¯t have the power to change anything, and the people who had the power couldn¡¯t be swayed to change anything.¡± The Shape leaned forward in his chair. ¡°The Dream Weaver took his activism to the next level, the people with the power plug their ears to the cries of change but Nomadness was going to yank their fingers out of their ears and make them listen.¡± The Shape''s voice turned more sinister. ¡°He designed a Dream Weave that would put the person participating in the Weave into a coma. The only way to exit the Dream Weave is by the hands of the Dream Weaver. He made an announcement to the public that he would release the hostages once the government gives in to Nomadness demands.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re telling me the Dream Weaver has devolved his activism into a form of terrorism?!?¡± Elijah asked, his fear turning to anger.


    ¡°One man''s terrorist is another man¡¯s freedom fighter¡±


    ¡°So I am just a pawn in this game of political chess¡± Elijah proclaimed.


    ¡°Yes, you and many others. A couple of the others haven¡¯t even got to this part.¡±


    ¡°This part?¡±


    ¡°Yes the Dream Weave is designed that once the participants start thinking about waking up, the goose will show up and lead them to me.¡± The Shape said, Elijah''s mind was racing. ¡°The Dream Weaver designed me to help you understand and to manipulate the Dream Weave to be whatever you want it to be. Nomadness believes that you should be comfortable while you are here.¡±


    ¡°How long will I be here,¡± Elijah inquired desperately.


    ¡°As long as it takes for change to occur. Think of the bright side: you will have better quality of life here than out there.¡± The Shape said in a more uplifting tone.


    ¡°So I could be trapped here for the rest of my life?¡±


    ¡°Possibly, but hey I am here to make sure you have a happy life in here¡±


    ¡°I need some time to think..alone¡± Elijah said in a melancholy tone. The shape gestured for the door, Elijah stood from his chair and exited the library. Stepping directly onto the beach near the seaside town.


    ¡°If you ever need me just ask¡± The Shape said, as Elijah shut the door. Elijah crumbled to his knees and watched the reflection in the water of the sun rise over the city behind him. Unsure if he should feel happy to spend his days in a beautiful location or distraught at the thought of being trapped here knowing he could never see the real world. His thoughts were interrupted by sounds of footsteps coming from the outside world as paramedics were in the process of loading him into an ambulance and taking him and his Dream Weave to the hospital to be put on life support. Elijah took a deep breath in and walked over to the local market thinking to himself


    ¡°It won¡¯t be long for change to occur¡­ right?¡±