We had converted our home into a library and today was the first time it was opened to the public. Guests were still touring the place well into the night. I stepped out onto the patio and saw fireworks being set off in the distance.

We had abandoned our first safehouse because it had been overrun by the undead. Now that we were restocked again, we decided to come back to reclaim our base. We made a brief stop to rest at some nearby houses. We were joined by many other survivors and my dad got a grill out to cook for all of them.

I was at a fancy restaurant with my parents. It wasn’t our first time here but the menu had completely changed since we were last here. The portions seemed to have gotten smaller as well and the waiter warned us that what we had ordered might not be enough for all of us.

I was meeting with alumni from my highschool and they were asking what I thought about my career. I didn’t know how to answer them as I felt embarrassed about not really feeling anything for my work. They hinted at how it was a shame that I never did anything with my expertise or college credentials. I turned towards and looked at my coworker who sat beside me.

We were preparing for an upcoming test in math class. Our teacher was administering the class through a video call as he was simultaneously teaching multiple other classes. Someone asked what we needed to know for the test. “Everything”, he said. He added that the students on where he was only needed 1 hour 30 minutes for their test and expected the same from us. I hadn’t reviewed for the test at all up until this point and was frantically flipping through the textbook.

I was playtesting a new RPG that was set in a small medieval fantasy town surrounded by wilderness. The layout of the town and the woods around it was procedurally generated. There was a map overlay that revealed spots of interest in the town which revealed some interesting areas like a pigsty that was in a basement instead of being outdoors. Other players were looking for the most efficient way to grind experience from the wolves that respawned in nearby areas.

There was a flap of flesh in front of my left front tooth which was starting to peel off. I felt around my teeth with my tongue and noticed that they were chipped underneath. I tasted blood leaking out from my gums. I told my mother about my teeth deteriorating.

We were on the 12th floor and the dogs were barking because they wanted to jump across to the neighbor’s balcony. My parents were talking about the next generation and how my cousin’s daughter was showing an interest in photography. I watched her with a camera in her hands, trying to take a shot of our dogs from the balcony railing. I had only looked away for a brief moment before she had suddenly disappeared. A pair of green shoes lay where she had once stood.

The description of the blog said that she was “falling for an old lover”. There were a bunch of new posts that had been tagged with my name. I couldn’t stop scrolling to read more until I came across one that read: “Things that were sent with warmth now send a chill reminder of the life we could have had together”.

I had somehow ended up in a room of our house that I had never been in before. I looked around at the bare concrete walls, some of which were painted a light pink. The room seemed to be a suite with its own bathroom connected to a small corridor between two open spaces. I kept wondering how I could’ve missed this rather expansive room all this time.