Shopping, Motels, and Broken Minecraft Worlds

I was shopping at my local corner store. It was bigger than the real one. They sold machines that would prepare beverages. I wanted to buy one, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was supposed to do. The box was busted on one side. It came with a nice mug. I ended up putting the machine back since I couldn’t figure it out.

I went to the checkout with my few little food items. They were trying to close the store. It was night. A young woman was at the register. She tried to strike up a conversation with me, being all nice. She mentioned that she was 18 years old.

I had my bicycle in the store for some reason. I recall moving it backwards through the exit, trying not to let my handlebars hit a man who was standing there. Once I was outside, another man approached me and inquired about my bike. He was impressed by the build and I explained a few things about the different components to him. My front tire was a little low on air. Some other guys came out of the store, also apparently riding bikes and they left for home.

I headed for a motel for some reason. I remember going inside and setting my stuff up on the bed. The television was mounted up on the wall behind the bed for some reason. It was also rotated upside down. I turned it on and rotated it right-side up again. The display was kinda broken, as many electronics in dreams are. It was tuned into a golf game.

One feature that stood out to me was the presence of an older desktop computer mid-tower case and a set of Boston Acoustics computer speakers on the shelf, just below the TV.

Then I set about looking at what I had purchased from the store. Apparently, I had grabbed some used CDs. One of them was Thief II - The Metal Age, but sadly the jewel case and the CD itself were broken. I made sure to find my receipt so I could return it next time I was at the store.

My entire vision shifted to some sort of Youtube video, talking about retro computers. There was a man and a woman talking about different aspects they enjoy of Windows 98. I recall a shot where they were browsing around an old MSN version of Google Earth, where they could see live radar updates about the weather. Then the woman ended the video by playing a computer game set in France. You played as a little soldier, moving around in a way-pulled back 3rd person perspective - almost like a platformer, but it was 3D.

Then I roughly recall the game turning into something else. A giant kid was going around and smacking the buildings. There were some smaller, normal-sized kids watching and laughing as this giant went around smacking the tops of these buildings. The structures would rearrange themselves into different styles of architecture when hit.

The last thing I remember is walking with those smaller kids down the street. Then I heard some sort of narration that warned about going down this foreboding futuristic-looking alleyway. That was when I saw a man purposefully go down that alley. Another man followed him.

My perspective pulled out to a distant 3rd person again. The world seemed broken beyond the alley - like a griefed Minecraft build that had been abandoned long ago. Both of the men were knocked off once they made it to a shallow pool of water - literally killed - by some sort of invisible force.

“That’s how it ends?” I remember asking incredulously, apparently to another guy who was watching all this unfold with me.

“Yep, that’s how it ends.” He chuckled in reply.

I woke up hearing the song “What I Am” by Edie Brickell.

All this recall happened at 3 AM, which is a good sign that I’m remembering more, in spite of the early hour. When I first woke up, I nearly lost it all, but I forced myself to put my head on the pillow and pull the memories back. I latched onto one and the whole thing came flooding back.