The Chase

Run, says a strange female voice in my ear. Run, and whatever you do, don’t stop.

I continue to obey the Voice. I don’t know who she is or where I am, but I hear thousands of feet pounding behind me, and somehow I know that I’m not involved in a huge game of tag.

I am running down a normal street that seems like it could be Main Street anywhere, except all the storefronts are dark and dilapidated and the street is deserted in front of me. The sky is an odd shade of grayish green.

Faster, says the Voice. They’re catching up.

I look behind me and see that she is telling the truth. A mass of men and women in identical gray T-shirts, black pants, and combat boots runs toward me, getting closer by the second.

I push myself to go faster. I don’t know why they’re chasing me, but I’m not going to let them get close enough for me to find out.

Faster. Faster, the Voice repeats in an annoyingly calm and robotic tone, Faster.

I look behind me. My pursuers are catching up to me quickly. My heart begins to beat faster. I glance around me and notice something. I am not moving. I look down at my feet with a sickening feeling as my suspicion is confirmed.

The street is a treadmill. A big conveyor belt moving backward at the same rate that I’m moving forward so that I am not traveling. Distracted by this new discovery, I trip over nothing and land sprawled on the ground, shredding the skin on the palms of my hands and knees. I scramble to get up, but I am already surrounded.

Faster. Faster. Faster . . .

My hands and knees are bleeding. I don’t know why these people want to catch me, but they have succeeded. The last thing I see is a huge, evil face, projected into the sky. From his sinister smile, I know that he’s the one who’d behind all this.

I wake up suddenly, breathing hard. My knees and hands sting.