<<< back Dream Journal

Jan. 1, 2024: Exploring an abandoned waterpark slash zoo complex. The crumbling concrete building has dark hallways with doors all along the left side, each once an animal cell. I open each as I go, finding mostly debris, skeletons, and the odd crocodile. Then, I open one to find two small furry animals of different but indeterminate species, still living. They would be cute, if one didn't bare its teeth and immediately attack me. After an action sequence, in which I try unsuccessfully to run in circles away from it, I am forced to kill the animal. Next, I explore the basement, which can be accessed by a wide linoleum staircase from either end of the building. There is a kind of viewing gallery, with windows that overlook a cavernous black room. The end attached to the gallery is lined with red and blue plastic seats, like in an arena. About 100m down I see a series of rectangular swimming pools, a couple of which have waterslides that empty into them. In a sort-of flashback, I see the facility as it was still in-use, with hundreds of people, women wearing 1950s-style lacy bathing caps and men like characters from a 50s swimsuit catalog, splashing around and enjoying themselves. The cavernous space is lit by a series of huge chandeliers and the water-droplets in the air create a rainbow-effect. Back in the present, I go to explore the upper floor. Apart a stuffed raven trophy on the windowsill by the stairs (a trinket from the building's time as a zoo), and some rooms for parties and conferences, there isn't much to find here. This is about the point where I became aware of the dream, so the rest of the fragments that I could remember were only tangentially related. For that reason, I'll stop here.